Uniting Around the ICAN Cities Appeal for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
NC Peace Action, with others in the Piedmont, has joined the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons [ICAN] to get local councils worldwide to urge their country to sign onto the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons [TPNW].
That strategy is working worldwide because the treaty now has the support of a near majority of countries with 92 signatories and 68 state parties. The problem is that none of the nuclear armed countries have signed on. We are working to get the U.S. to agree to take this step for mutual disarmament.
Here’s the basic statement we are asking councils to support:
“Our city is deeply concerned about the grave threat that nuclear weapons pose to communities throughout the world. We firmly believe that our residents have the right to live in a world free from this threat. Any use of nuclear weapons, whether deliberate or accidental, would have catastrophic, far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for people and the environment. Therefore, we support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and call on our governments to sign and ratify it.”
The following councils have already signed on…thanks to the work of individuals, churches and organizations in the Piedmont, NC Peace Action, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – Triangle Chapter, Veterans for Peace – Eisenhower Chapter 157, and Church of Reconciliation.
Green Level Town Council
Carrboro City Council
Durham City Council
Chapel Hill City Council
Chatham County Commissioners
Asheville City Council
Efforts are on-going in Burlington, Elon, Gibsonville, Greensboro, Hillsborough, Mebane, Pittsboro, Pittsboro, Raleigh as of Fall 2023.
Rationale: Most persuasive, perhaps, for cash strapped councils struggling to meet housing, health care, education and more needs is the amount of federal taxpayer dollars leaving their town for spending on nuclear weapons and associated costs alone available from National Priorities.
Read the full Resolution we sent to Greensboro below.
Resolution of Support for the ICAN Cities Appeal for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons:
Whereas the existence and threatened use of nuclear weapons menace all humankind and the earth’s environment; and
Whereas as China, Russian, the United States, Britain and France affirmed this January, “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought” ; and
Whereas millions of children and families live in poverty, the money squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance, and sale of nuclear weapons is immoral; and
Whereas North Carolina taxpayers are paying an estimated $692 million federal tax dollars [$22.8 million for Greensboro] just for nuclear weapons and associated costs [FY 2023] and that money is needed here; and
Whereas the new generation of nuclear weapons that has been proposed will raise these costs significantly and burden us with weapons that are more destabilizing and riskier; and
Whereas the threat of accidental or deliberate explosion of nuclear weapons is real and increasing. Broken arrow or nuclear accidents include two dropped near Eureka, North Carolina ; and
Whereas cutting nuclear weapons is possible and bipartisan. Since Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev, we reduced stockpiles worldwide from the 70,000’s to the 14,000’s we are threatened by today;
Therefore, we affirm the following Resolution:
“Our city [Greensboro] is deeply concerned about the grave threat that nuclear weapons pose to communities throughout the world. We firmly believe that our residents have the right to live in a world free from this threat. Any use of nuclear weapons, whether deliberate or accidental, would have catastrophic, far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for people and the environment. Therefore, we support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and call on our governments to sign and ratify it.”