Nuns, priests and former Naval Commanders all agree: Move the nuclear money to peace and public health

Basel Peace Office

BASEL, Switzerland (April 4, 2020) — The coronavirus pandemic has stimulated people around the world to question governments’ priorities, and to call for a shift in budgets and investments from nuclear weapons and military security to public health and human security.

On March 17, Newsweek published an article by Basel Peace Office Board Member Jonathan Granoff entitled National security is too crude to protect us from pandemics: It’s time to shift to human security.

On April 1, three former UK Royal Navy Commanders sent a letter to all UK parliamentarians questioning the policy of maintaining a continuous at sea nuclear deterrent, and calling for cuts to the nuclear weapons budget to help address the corona-virus pandemic.

In the USA, Senator Ed Markey, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, has been leading the calls for the US administration to cut the bloated nuclear weapons budget, and activate the 1950 Defense Production Act for Massive Wartime Manufacturing Mobilization to vastly upscale the development of coronavirus tests and medical equipment (See Senator Markey letter to President Trump, March 15, 2020).

These issues, and what we can do about it, will be discused in the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money webinar on April 21, to which you are invited. (Details below).

Also below is information about The Nuns, The Priests and The Bombs, a documentary, which you can now watch online, of octogenrian nuns and priests challenging the nuclear weapons establishment by breaking into nuclear facilities and undertaking ‘disarmament’ actions.

Move the Nuclear Weapons Money Global Webinar, April 21
This webinar will highlight public campaigns and legislative efforts to cut nuclear weapons budgets, along with examples of nuclear weapons and fossil fuel divestment by cities, universities, governments, religious organisations, pension funds, banks and private investors.

The webinar will examine how divestment (and impact investment) can assist initiatives to cut nuclear weapons budgets and support public health, climate protection and sustainable development.

The webinar will include the preview of a Handbook on Nuclear Weapons Divestmentwhich is being developed by the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign and will be published later this year.
Organised by Abolition 2000, World Future Council and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. Click here to register.

The Nuns, The Priests, and The Bombs

Peace activists, including octogenarian Catholic nuns and priests, challenge the security and legality of America’s nuclear weapons when they break into two top secret facilities. The film follows the federal criminal cases against the activists who are driven by their conviction that nuclear weapons are immoral and an imminent threat to humanity.
As the world copes with the coronavirus, the activists in this film are raising the alarm about a far more serious danger. (Watch on Google Play, Amazon, Apple i-Tunes, You-Tube or Blu-Ray. For more information contact Helen Young.)

“It is completely unacceptable that the UK continues to spend billions of pounds on deploying and modernising the Trident Nuclear Weapon System when faced with the threats to health, climate change and world economies that Coronavirus poses.’ — Commander Robert Forsyth RN (Ret’d), former nuclear submariner (2nd in command). Co-author of the letter to UK parliamentarians on nuclear weapons and coronavirus pandemic.

‘It is very encouraging that three senior British Naval Officers agree that spending billions of pounds of another nuclear weapon system, which is not even independent, is a foolish waste of public money. At this time of a grave public health crisis it is the NHS that needs our support and increased finance. CND members will continue to promote the ’NHS not Trident’ message” — Bruce Kent, Vice President of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament UK

‘Covid-19 is showing us that humanity’s worst threats- pandemics and climate change are shared globally. We should not waste resources on renewing nuclear weapons as we should be using all resources we can in tackling these all too real issues.’
— Baroness Sue Miller, PNND Co-President and member of the UK House of Lords

Copyright © 2020 Basel Peace Office, All rights reserved. Basel Peace Office, Seminar fur Soziologie, Petersgraben 27, Basel 4051, Switzerland

Move the Nuclear Weapons (and Fossil Fuel) Money

Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament

Engaging legislators worldwide in steps towards nuclear disarmament 

Move the Nuclear Weapons (and fossil fuel) Money: Cutting nuclear weapons budgets. Ending investments in nuclear weapons & fossil fuels. Reallocating these to public health, climate protection and sustainable development.

 International webinar, Tuesday April 21, 2020
Held in conjunction with the Global Days of Action on Military Spending, April 10 – May 5, 2020

Tuesday, April 21, 2020 |

Outline:

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for governments and the international community to focus more on human security issuesand to shift resources from military spending, especially the nuclear weapons budgets, to accomplish this. However, the nuclear weapons and fossil fuel industries have vested financial interests in maintaining the nuclear arms race and a fossil fuel economy. They are potent political forces preventing change.

Governments, cities, religious communities, universities, banks and private investors can shift these financial incentives by divesting from the nuclear weapons and fossil fuel industries and re-allocating these investments according to the UN Global Compact and ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) principals. Such actions provide political support for legislative efforts to cut nuclear weapons budgets, especially in the USA and UK.

This webinar will highlight public campaigns and legislative efforts to cut nuclear weapons budgets, along with examples of nuclear weapons and fossil fuel divestment and examine how these can assist initiatives to cut nuclear weapons budgets and support public health, climate protection and sustainable development. The webinar will include the preview of a Handbook on Nuclear Weapons Divestment which is being developed by the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign and will be published later this year.

Speakers include: 

• Susanna Choe (USA), Executive Director of the Regeneration Fund and the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money program, Investment Community Visibility Group.
• Thies Kaetow (Germany), PNND Germany Coordinator. Divestment Researcher for the World Future Council.
• Jordi Calvo (Spain), Vice-President of International Peace Bureau and Coordinator of the Global Days of Action on Military Spending
• Jennifer Blemur (USA), Director, Women Legislators’ Lobby (WiLL), a program of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND)
• Marzhan Nurzhan (Kazakhstan/Switzerland), Coordinator of the Abolition 2000 Youth Network. Deputy Director of the Basel Peace Office.
• Jeff Perkins (USA), Executive Director, Friends Fiduciary Corporation
• Vanda Proskova (Czech Republic), Social Media Director for the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign.
• Kehkashan Basu (United Arab Emirates/Canada), Youth Ambassador, World Future Council. Winner, 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize.
  (other speakers to be finalised).

Program:  

Session 1: Divestment and ethical/impact investment. 11:00 – 12:30 (New York Time)

Coffee/refreshment break

Session 2: Legislative action and public promotion. 13:00 – 14:30 (New York Time)

Registration

Click here to register. For more information contact info@nuclearweaponsmoney.org