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May 19
2008
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For a week now, two young Czech activists have been on hunger strike in Prague, protesting against plans to site a US missile defence radar near the city. Jan Tamas and Jan Bednar are demanding that the Czech government listens to the overwhelming majority of the Czech population. They oppose the system, which will put the Czech Republic on the front line in future US wars.
A hunger strike is a drastic measure, but in their view, what is taking place in their country calls for drastic measures. I first met Jan Tamas just a year ago, when he helped bring together an international conference against the US missile defence system. It was a joy to meet Jan and his colleagues. The driving force behind the conference was young people, mostly new to activism. Ne Zakladnam, the No to Bases campaign, is the first great civil society movement in the Czech Republic since 1989.
Czech campaigners see the issue as a matter of national sovereignty. They do not want foreign troops on their soil. They do not want to be embroiled in a new Cold War not of their choosing.
But the Czech government has refused to hold a referendum on the issue, in spite of widespread demands. Clearly, they know they would lose it. Yet again one is reminded how governments systematically avoid the awkward reality of non-compliant public opinion. After all, our own government has done this over the war on Iraq, Trident replacement and Britain's own participation in the US missile defence system, at Fylingdales and Menwith Hill bases in Yorkshire.
The situation is on a knife edge in the Czech Republic. Treaties to introduce the radar will be put to the Czech parliament in a matter of weeks. The parliament is more or less evenly divided over the issue. Please, spare ten minutes to write to the Czech Embassy here in London, expressing your opposition to the MD system. For ultimately, it will facilitate war.
written by W. Hall, May 29, 2008
It is a proposal for autonomous and constitutionally underwritten denuclearization of Europe. Through this appeal the European anti-nuclear movement links up once more with the great anti-nuclear mobilizations of the 80s, which were essentially wound down, for no really good reason, after the signing of the INF Treaty on medium-range theatre nuclear missiles by Reagan and Gorbachev in December 1987.
The two great popular uprisings of the later twentieth century: May 1968 and the revolts against the regimes of the Eastern bloc, for some reason left out of account the nuclear question.
It is time for this oversight to be rectified.
Enouranois website, Greece. http://www.enouranois.gr
Saintes Appeal
APPEAL for a Nuclear-free Europe
Neither weapons, nor nuclear power plants
http://acdn.france.free.fr/spip/article.php3?id_article=407&lang=en
Publication date : 20 May 2008
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The Saintes Appeal
APPEAL FOR A NUCLEAR-FREE EUROPE
(see original for full text)
1. From the Atlantic to the Urals, no nuclear weapon must be stationed or installed in Europe any longer.
2. Nuclear weapons must not threaten Europe or any other part of the world.
3. Europe must initiate, pursue in good faith, and bring to a successful conclusion the process of abolishing nuclear weapons everywhere, as required by Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
4. The Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament must achieve this result by whatever means are required.
5. The Vienna-based IAEA must cease its promotion of nuclear energy and devote itself exclusively to monitoring civilian and military nuclear installations, preventing the diverting of fissile materials towards the building of new weapons, and aiding in the dismantling of existing weapons and nuclear plants.
6. The Vienna-based Organisation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty must become operational.
7. All possible light must be shed on the real causes and consequences of nuclear catastrophes such as Cheliabynsk and Chernobyl.
8. The 1959 agreement between the IAEA and the WHO, which forces the WHO to spread disinformation and lies about nuclear matters, must be abrogated.
9. The EURATOM Treaty must be abrogated and no new nuclear plant must be built.
10. Europe must become a totally nuclear-free zone, so as to contribute to total denuclearisation of the planet without waiting for similar action by other states or continents.
We call on Europe’s citizens, NGOs, states and people to unite and take action to achieve these objectives in the shortest possible time.
Saintes, France, 11 May 2008
First signatories
Jean-Marie Matagne, Action des Citoyens pour le Désarmement Nucléaire (ACDN, France)
Wayne Hall, Enouranois Network (Grèce)
Mikaël Böök, Network Institute for Global Democratization (Finlande)
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