By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog.

During the weekend of April 29-May 2, nearly 1000 participants from around the world attended a conference on the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons at the far left Riverside Church in New York.

Hoping to influence the UN Review Conference on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons held the following week, the workshop tracks were “abolition, peace, economic justice/human needs and environmental sustainability.” “Experts in all fields” participated, including locals from the Communist Party USA controlled Greater New Haven Peace Council — Henry Lowendorf and Al Marder. Lowendorf, along with leaders of the the old Soviet front World Peace Council and the communist led Canadian Peace Councils, spoke about “struggles against global imperialism.” Al Marder, with veteran of the ultra radical Institute for Policy Studies, Cora Weiss, president of the Hague Appeal for Peace, and former Ambassador Sylvester Rowe of Sierra Leone, discussed the Luarca Declaration that “peace is a human right.”

Three plenaries were held that included such speakers as Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General; Terumi Tanaka, head of the organization of bomb survivors; Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima; Princeton professor Zia Mian; “noted author on nukes” Joseph Gerson; and president of the World Peace Council, Brazilian communist and parliamentarian Maria do Socorro Gomes.

The conference hoped to greatly expand the momentum started by Obama’s Prague speech and the negotiations between him and Medvedev for the new START Treaty.

Highlights of the conference “were Ban Ki-moon’s affirmation that he has proposed a nuclear weapons convention toward nuclear abolition and supports the Japanese timetable of 2020 for total abolition – commitments that should have an energizing effect on abolition proponents.”

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog.

Ever loyal to the their old Soviet/Russian masters, the Communist Party USA is urging supporters to pressure US Senators into ratifying the New START disarmament treaty.

Senate hearings on the New START treaty to cut U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear weapons arsenals have resumed, with a vote possible in coming weeks. Ratification requires a two-thirds majority of Senators.

The Treaty, if signed, will achieve a long desired Soviet/Russian objective – the erosion of U.S. nuclear superiority over Russia and her Chinese allies. Almost certainly, the U.S. will comply with any Treaty, while the Russians will shamelessly cheat, as they have done in all past agreements.

That, coupled with the almost inevitable reduction of U.S. ground forces due to extreme budget constraints and anti military sentiment in the ruling Democratic Party, will put U.S. national security at extreme risk.

Here is the Communist Party USA’s take on the issue:

Support for the agreement, signed in April by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, ranges from longstanding advocates of complete nuclear disarmament to such “top national security leaders” as former Secretary of Defense William Perry and former Secretary of State George Shultz. But, like all positive Obama administration initiatives, it is also subject to a barrage of far-right attacks. Republicans known for their efforts to block other important legislation, such as Senators Jon Kyl, James Inhofe and Jim DeMint, contend the agreement would weaken U.S. security.

They claim New START would hinder U.S. development of missile defenses (something that’s not succeeding now and would be incredibly destabilizing if it ever did). Compliance supposedly can’t be verified (though the treaty includes extensive verification procedures). The pact allegedly restrains the U.S. more than the Russians (though both countries must cut their deployed strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 and delivery vehicles to 700). And so on.

At the same time, the right wing is also holding the pact hostage to demands for greater U.S. spending on nuclear weapons. Those demands appear to be bearing fruit, with the administration projecting nuclear weapons spending rising from the present $6.4 billion to some $9 billion in 2018, and plans afoot to “modernize” both the weapons and the weapons complex.

At their root, views of the treaty hinge on views of national security. If one believes, as we do, that complete, worldwide nuclear disarmament is ultimately essential for our national security, New START is a small but vital step on the road toward that goal – a goal President Obama has endorsed.

We also believe spending on U.S. nukes and the facilities to maintain them must be drastically reduced, both to make those resources available for human needs and to make sure nuclear weapons are truly on their way out.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors got it right last month when it unanimously called for the ratification of New START and the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty “without conditions and without delay” and urged Congress to end funding to modernize nuclear weapons systems and the nuclear weapons complex, drastically cut funds for all nuclear weapons programs, and “redirect funds to meet the urgent needs of cities.”

We urge readers to contact their senators and tell them to ratify New Start.

Nothing has essentially changed since the Cold War. Moscow is still trying to master the United States and their “5th column” allies in the Communist Party USA are still busily betraying their country of birth.