On August 6, the 76th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, UFPJ member groups including Western States Legal Foundation and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CAREs) held a “hybrid” live/virtual rally at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory in California, “Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change: Shine a Light, Stop the Hate, Lower the Heat”.
Nagasaki A-bomb survivor (hibakusha) Rev. Nobuaki Hanaoka; Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs; and Dr. John Burroughs, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy were live-streamed and recorded at the gate to the Lab. They were followed by pre-recorded presentations by keynote speaker Daniel Ellsberg; Marcina Langrine and Benetick Kabua Maddison, Marshallese Education Initiative; Tsukuru Fors, Pacific Asian Nuclear-Free Peace Alliance; Nell Myhand, Quad-Chair of the California Poor People’s Campaign; and Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, who issued the call to action. Music was provided by Betsey Rose, Benjamin Mertz, and Francis Wong. View a recording of the entire event combining live and pre-recorded portions here. For more details, read the media advisory. For texts of speakers’ presentations, click here.
Today, an estimated 13,125 nuclear weapons, most an order of magnitude more powerful than the U.S. atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki—91% of them held by the United States (5,550) and Russia (6,370), continue to pose an intolerable threat to humanity, and the dangers of wars among nuclear-armed states are growing. The detonation of even a small number of these weapons could have catastrophic human and environmental consequences that could affect everyone on the planet.
The Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab is central to the escalating the nuclear dangers we face. Livermore is one of two labs that has designed and continues to design and develop all U.S. nuclear warheads. More than eighty-five percent of the Lab’s funding from the Dept. of Energy in the coming year is slated for nuclear weapons activities.
What we need instead is unprecedented worldwide cooperation to eradicate the Coronavirus and prepare for future pandemics, and to address a cascade of converging crises including climate change, poverty, racism, and rising authoritarian nationalisms. The August 6 Rally speakers illuminated these connections to help the public understand why action is needed now to change the course of national policy – and history, and to demand anew the global abolition of nuclear weapons and the redirection of resources to meet human needs and protect the environment.
