Nuclear Abolition Working Group

Contact: vfp.nonukes@gmail.com

The Nuclear Abolition Working Group meets the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month, at 6 pm Eastern, 5 pm Central, 3 pm Pacific

For more information, contact vfp.nonukes@gmail.com.  
 

Statement of Purpose

This statement of purpose should be understood as an extension of the third action item in the Veterans For Peace Statement of Purpose, to wit: To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons.  It is based on the five point “Back from the Brink” policy agenda articulated by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Physicians for Social Responsibility, adding an explicit call for the nuclear weapons states to sign, ratify, and implement the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

The working group does hereby commit to work with others both within and beyond Veterans For Peace to use our veteran’s voice and influence the United States Government to

  1. Adopt and announce a policy of “No First Use” of nuclear weapons and make that policy credible by publicly decommissioning U.S. ICBMs that can only be used in a first strike;

  2. Reduce the probability of an accidental, unauthorized, or unintentional nuclear exchange by taking U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert and storing warheads separately from delivery systems;

  3. Cancel plans to replace the entire US arsenal with enhanced weapons at a cost of more than $1 trillion over the next 30 years;

  4. Redirect the money thus saved into environmentally and socially sound programs, including the accelerated cleanup of highly toxic and radioactive waste left during eight decades of the nuclear cycle;

  5. End the sole, unchecked authority of any president (or his or her delegates and their delegates) to launch a nuclear attack and require Congressional approval of any use of nuclear weapons;

  6. Comply with our obligations under the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) by actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals; 

  7. Sign and ratify the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;

  8. Phase out nuclear energy, stop producing depleted uranium weapons, and stop uranium mining, processing and enrichment;  

  9. Clean up radioactive sites from the nuclear cycle and develop an environmentally and socially sound nuclear waste disposal program; and

  10. Fund health care and compensation for victims of radiation.

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