Western Massachusetts Mayors for Peace Campaign

Nuclear Weapon Abolition- Talking Points:

1. Nuclear Weapons are designed for use against civilian population centers and their use should remain unthinkable. The danger of nuclear war has increased with the development of new forms nuclear weapons and the proliferation of nuclear weapons throughout the world.

2. Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), signed by 189 nations, including the United States, mandates that the nuclear weapon states eliminate their nuclear weapon stockpiles; in return, non-nuclear states would refrain from developing nuclear arsenals. The NPT is up for review in May 2005 at the United Nations. This review gives us an opportunity to raise the urgent need for nuclear weapon disarmament.

3. The United States has embarked on programs to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, missile “defense” systems, and space based weapons. The greatest impediment to preventing proliferation is in fact the double standard of the nuclear weapon states insisting that other states not acquire nuclear weapons while they themselves refuse to work toward meaningful nuclear weapon disarmament and develop new forms of nuclear weapons.

4. An international campaign- Mayors for Peace Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons- has been initiated and is being led by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In June or 2004, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution calling for nuclear weapon abolition. A Mayors for Peace campaign has been initiated in Western Massachusetts that will reach out to every Mayor and many public officials in the area, requesting that they endorse the U.S. Mayors resolution and International Mayors Campaign against nuclear weapons.

5. The current situation in Iraq, including the U.S. administration’s spread of misinformation about weapons of mass destruction, has brought to the forefront the urgent need for this timely campaign to abolish nuclear weapons.