Photo: U.S. government

As the UN Secretary General warned on the September 26 International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, “nuclear testing threats are returning, while nuclear saber rattling is louder than in past decades.” Indeed, threatening to return to full scale explosive nuclear testing is a potent form of nuclear saber rattling.

With chaos and uncertainty arising from Donald Trump’s October 29 factually challenged social media post, “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately,” the U.S. government’s first ever No vote, two days later, on the annual General Assembly resolution in support of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) raises further troubling questions about U.S. intentions.

Trump did not specify whether he meant full-scale explosive nuclear testing, missile tests, or something else. Russia and China are not conducting explosive nuclear tests, so the U.S. has no basis to respond in kind. They are conducting missile tests, but so is the United States. In fact, the U.S. conducted a “routine” test of an unarmed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile on November 5. The Department of Defense (Department of War) is responsible for missile tests, but it is the Department of Energy that is responsible for preparation for explosive nuclear testing.

On November 2, Energy Secretary Chris Wright sought to explain Trump’s post when he told Fox News “I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions.”

The waters were further muddied by Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations in an interview with 60 Minutes (recorded October 31 but aired November 2) that Russia and China have been secretly conducting explosive nuclear tests deep underground.

Since 1945, there have been 2,056 nuclear weapons tests by at least eight countries. Most of these tests have been conducted on the lands of indigenous and colonized people. The United States conducted 1,030 of those tests in the atmosphere, underwater, and underground, while the USSR carried out 715 nuclear test detonations. Not only did these nuclear test explosions fuel the development and spread of nuclear weapons, but hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions more have suffered—and continue to suffer—from illnesses directly related to the radioactive fallout from nuclear detonations in the United States, islands in the Pacific, in Australia, China, Algeria, across Russia, in Kazakhstan, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and elsewhere.

While a nearly universal moratorium on nuclear testing has held since 1992, followed by negotiation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, the treaty has not yet entered-into-force due to the recalcitrance of seven nuclear armed states which have not signed or ratified the treaty. The United States, China, Israel, and the Russian Federation have signed but not ratified the CTBT. North Korea, India, and  Pakistan have neither signed nor ratified it.

In recent years, as a new nuclear arms race has gotten underway, there are signs that some of these countries may be considering resuming nuclear testing. In 2020, the DPRK announced it “will no longer observe its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear testing.” To date, it has not yet resumed nuclear testing but has announced plans to increase the size and diversity of its nuclear arsenal. In 2023, the Russian Federation withdrew its ratification of the CTBT to maintain parity with the United States.

The new head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, Brandon Williams, during his confirmation hearings said he would advise against resuming explosive nuclear tests. However, Project 2025, proposes that a second Trump administration prioritize nuclear weapons programs over other security programs, accelerate the development and production of all nuclear weapons programs, increase funding for the development and production of new and modernized nuclear warheads, and prepare to test new nuclear weapons. Separately, Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security advisor during his first term, wrote in Foreign Affairs, that in order to counter China and Russia’s continued investments in their nuclear arsenals, the U.S. should resume nuclear testing. And keep in mind that Russell Vought, one of the architects and co-authors of Project 2025, is now the Director of the powerful Office of Management and Budget.

If the U.S. were to resume explosive underground nuclear testing, it is almost certain that Russia would reciprocate, followed by North Korea, and possibly China and India, setting off a new 21^st century multilateral nuclear arms race.

Trump’s nuclear testing “announcement” would seem to contradict his apparently off-the-cuff remark to the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, that “We want to have a cessation of the development of nuclear weapons.” Trump’s FY26 funding request for the Department of Energy, including its National Nuclear Security Administration, at $34 Billion, sustains or provides increased funding for six new nuclear bombs and warheads.

As we continue to advocate for nuclear risk reduction and the global elimination of nuclear weapons, we must remain vigilant that the option of nuclear weapons testing remains off the table.

Read US Stands Alone Defying UN Vote on Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Watch Fallout from decades of nuclear testing in Southern Nevada (6 minutes). See also Trump’s Nuclear Testing Threat: Playing with More Than Dynamite.

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The United States is now planning to establish an infrastructure capable of producing at least 80 plutonium pits for nuclear weapons per year. The project is well described and criticized in a comprehensive report released in May by the Union of Concerned Scientists. In the current approach, facilities would be located at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico, and the Savannah River Site, in South Carolina. In a settlement of a lawsuit brought by activist groups (see video), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) agreed to conduct programmatic environment review of this major project. This summer the NNSA accepted public comments on the scope of the review.

Many NGOs submitted comments, including the groups that brought the lawsuit resulting in the review: Savannah River Site Watch of Columbia, SC; Nuclear Watch New Mexico of Santa Fe, NM; Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CAREs), based in Livermore, CA; and the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition of coastal Georgia. Other submissions included one from Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and Western States Legal Foundation. Their comment focused on the nuclear disarmament obligation under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and argued that the NNSA must consider a true no-action alternative of no pit production.

According to the comment: “If the United States and other nuclear-armed states, in particular China and Russia, in accordance with Article VI take a negotiated path to the global elimination of nuclear weapons in the foreseeable future, there will be no need, perceived or real, for plutonium pit production. While the current international landscape is not conducive to that enterprise, it should not be assumed that pit production will take place over the next several decades. The negotiation of the abolition of nuclear arms is a legal obligation of extraordinary practical and moral importance. The [Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS)] should not assume non-compliance with the obligation.”

The comment also observed: “Additionally, a sometimes overlooked element of Article VI is cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date. Production of pits for new-design warheads on a new delivery system, the Sentinel ICBM, and on submarine-based ballistic missiles, has aspects of nuclear arms racing, both in reality and, importantly, as it is perceived by rival nuclear-armed states. If the W87-1 serves to enable MIRVing [placement of multiple warheads] of the Sentinel ICBM, it would contribute to quantitative arms racing; MIRVing also would be destabilizing. Moreover, according to the Department of Defense, the Sentinel ICBM will have enhanced capabilities and thus its development and deployment amounts to qualitative arms racing. It also appears that the W93 warhead for submarine-based missiles will add some military capability ….”

It concluded: “The PEIS should not rule out the possibility that nuclear arms racing will cease and nuclear disarmament will be implemented in accordance with NPT Article VI …. Failing to consider a true no-action alternative would have that effect.”

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photo: the Nagasaki Peace Statue

 August 6th and 9th marked the 80th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To commemorate this historic milestone, solemn official commemorations with thousands of governmental and nongovernmental representatives from around the world in attendance were held in each of the two cities, presided over by their respective mayors. There were also large international conferences that took place in multiple venues organized by Gensuikyo (the World Conference Against A and H Bombs), Mayors for Peace, and others.

While it would be nearly impossible to summarize the many talks, meetings, and events that took place, a number of common themes emerged. First and foremost, there was an emphasis on recognizing the hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors), whose average age is now over 86 years, by listening to and preserving their personal testimonies for future generations. In particular, the hibakusha were appreciated for their contribution to preventing another nuclear weapon use by painfully sharing their horrific experiences of the bombings, so that “no one else should ever again suffer as we have.” For  their efforts, Nihon Hidankyo, the association of Japanese a-bomb survivors, received the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

There was a palpable level of concern about rising tensions among nuclear-armed states, renewed arms racing, and the growing dangers of a nuclear confrontation, with particular reference to threats by the Russian government, and the U.S. and Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities. There were strong denunciations of the Israeli government’s genocidal war on Gaza, and it was particularly poignant to hear some of the hibakusha compare photos of bombed-out Gaza bombings with their own recollections of the aftermath of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Many presentations underscored the urgent need for new thinking, in an increasingly unstable world, to end states’ increasing reliance on the doctrine of “nuclear deterrence” as the basis for national security. As stated in the World Conference Against A and H Bombs International Declaration: “‛Nuclear deterrence’ is a policy based on the premise of a catastrophic outcome from a nuclear attack, far greater than the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and is absolutely unacceptable from a humanitarian and moral standpoint.”

It was noted that this year also marks the 80^th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations, “to end the scourge of war,” and calls were made to “uphold the UN Charter, oppose aggression, war, and military buildups, and work in solidarity with various movements seeking peace and disarmament to develop a global movement toward a ‘nuclear weapon-free, peaceful and just world’.”

Finally, since Japan is the only country that has (so far) experienced a nuclear weapons attack, the Japanese government was called upon to reaffirm the three non-nuclear principles in its Constitution –  not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons in the nation.

The Japanese government was also called upon to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) or at least to send an observer to the TPNW’s first Review Conference next year.

Being in Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the annual August commemorations of the U.S. atomic bombings is an emotional experience. For those attending for the first time, imagining and trying to come to grips with the reality of those bombings can be overwhelming. Nick Rabb, a board member of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament, and Common Security, writes about his experience at Testimony of the Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: No More Nuclear Weapons – They have been telling their stories for nearly 80 years. It’s about time more of us listen.

 Read the World Conference Against A and H Bombs Declaration of the 2025 International Meeting here.

Read about the Mayors for Peace 2025 General Conference in Nagasaki here.

Read the 2025 Hiroshima Peace Declaration, delivered by Mayor Kazumi Matsui on August 6 here.

Read the 2025 Nagasaki Peace Declaration, delivered by Mayor Shinro Suzuki on August 9 here.

As Mayor Suzuki concluded: “I hereby declare that in order to make Nagasaki the last atomic bombing site now and forever, we will go hand-in-hand with global citizens and devote our utmost efforts towards the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of everlasting world peace.”

Quoting the late Senji Yamaguchi, the first hibakusha to describe the horrific scene of the bombing to the United Nations General Assembly in 1982, Mayor Suzuki demanded, “No more Hiroshimas. No more Nagasakis. No more war. No more hibakusha.”

The post “No more Hiroshimas. No more Nagasakis. No more war. No more hibakusha” appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

As recognized in the 1945 Constitution of UNESCO, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” In 1955, Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russel declared, “We appeal, as human beings, to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.” It is incumbent on each of us to contribute in some way to the construction of the defenses of peace. Here are some opportunities for engagement and education in the coming weeks. 

Organizational sign-on opportunity through August 1: Sign your group onto the “HumanRaceNotArmsRace” statement from Civil Society organizations here. “We must demand disarmament, prevent further proliferation, and ensure today’s conflicts do not become tomorrow’s nuclear catastrophe.”

Find an event near you: Physicians for Social Responsibility compiles an annual list of Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemorations. Click here to find your community and attend an event to commemorate 80 years since these immoral nuclear weapons were used in war. Click here to submit a local event to be included in the calendar and map.

Fold a paper crane for peace: Fold a paper crane and join in the annual #CranesforOurFuture campaign between August 6 – 9. #CranesForOurFuture is a joint project of the Hiroshima Prefecture, Nagasaki Prefecture, Nuclear Threat Initiative, and Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace.

Back from the Brink is mobilizing around two flagship congressional resolutions this August as we mark the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago:

H.Res.317 – Urging the United States to lead the world back from the brink of nuclear war and halt and reverse the nuclear arms race

S.Res.323 – Urging the United States to lead a global effort to halt and reverse the nuclear arms race

These congressional resolutions are the current focus of Back From the Brink’s national campaign along with continuing efforts to secure adoption of local resolutions — and they will be at the heart of commemorations organized by Back from the Brink hubs across the country.

Here are one-click tools to make it easy to act and share:

Support H.Res. 317

Support S.Res. 323

Educational Materials to Read, Watch, and Share

Nobel Laureate Assembly Declaration for the Prevention of Nuclear War – July 16, 2025; 100 Nobel Laureate signatories to date. “We ask that [global leaders] each be guided by the words of Nobel Laureates Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein: “We appeal as human beings to human beings: remember your humanity, and forget the rest.” Our survival and the survival of future generations are at stake.”

A new nuclear arms race, by Lawrence Wittner, posted on July 13, 2025, by beyondnuclearinternational

U.S. Mayors Renew Their Call for the U.S. to Lead the World Back From the Nuclear Brink, by Jacqueline Cabasso, published July 1, 2025, by Inter Press New Service Agency

Video: Why Should You Care? Nagasaki Mr. Taniguchi, by Shizumi Manale, 2017. Powerful personal testimony of Nagasaki A-bomb survivor, Sumiteru Taniguchi, recorded the year he died. According to the filmmaker, “This documentary captures the devastating reality of war—scenes so painful, they may make you want to look away. Some moments may be difficult to watch, leaving a lasting impression on both your eyes and your heart. And yet—We believe that true peace can only begin with knowing. That is why we created this film.”

 Social media: For those who want to participate in the shared hashtag campaign #HumanRaceNotArmsRace please use that hashtag in public/ social media promotions.

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In the years after the Trinity Test, people living in nearby counties began to report health issues. Diseases such as heart disease, leukemia, and other cancers appeared in families who had no prior history. People who reported these incidents became known as “Downwinders” because they lived near or downwind from the test site.

A group of New Mexicans known as the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium states that they were unknowingly exposed to radiation from fallout, resulting in illness, emotional and financial distress, and death. This group is pursuing recognition under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) of 1990.

On July 16, a permanent sign that recognizes the sacrifice and suffering of the Downwinders of New Mexico will take place at the Stallion Gate Entrance to the Trinity Site. The dedication of the sign will be followed by a mass and dinner reception and a candlelight vigil, which will be livestreamed. Check here for updates. Read more.

The post First They Bombed New Mexico appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

From April 28 – May 9, 2025, states parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) met at United Nations headquarters in New York City for the third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting for the 2026 NPT Review Conference. The NPT represents the only binding commitment to the goal of disarmament by the five original nuclear-armed States – the U.S., UK, USSR/Russia, France, and China. In Article VI, all States pledged “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.” All NPT members aside from the five acknowledged nuclear-armed states are obligated not to acquire nuclear weapons. The NPT entered into force in 1970. In 1995, it was extended indefinitely, with a Review Conference to be held every five years, and PrepComs to be held in between. Every country in the world is a party to the NPT with five exceptions: India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea (all nuclear-armed), and South Sudan.

While the nuclear-armed states continued to give lip-service to the “ultimate” goal of elimination, their failure to demonstrate good faith progress on implementation of the disarmament obligation, and the Russian Federation’s repeated nuclear threats in its war on Ukraine hung over the conference like a dark cloud.

As Ambassador Alexander Kmentt of Austria, a global leader on nuclear disarmament,  declared in his opening statement: “We meet at a profoundly concerning juncture for the international community and for international peace and security. Beyond the many well-known and growing challenges in the nuclear field and to the NPT, the very principle of multilateralism is increasingly at stake. International law and the UN Charter face unprecedented strain. The most egregious breach is Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, marked by countless violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and unacceptable nuclear threats. Elsewhere, international law, IHL and human rights are also disregarded, while some actors appear to question and challenge the UN system as a whole…..

We are approaching this Preparatory Committee and next year’s Review Conference very much with this in mind. First, we must safeguard the multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation regime and the NPT in particular. Nuclear weapons remain as one of the most pressing global and truly existential threats facing the entire international community and only multilateral cooperation grounded in international law can address them. Secondly, a business as usual approach to the NPT is insufficient. Nuclear risks are too high and so are the risks for the NPT regime. We must spare no effort to address these challenges, push for the full implementation of the Treaty and preserve its integrity. Geopolitical tensions cannot be an excuse for inaction, they make progress all the more imperative…..

All nuclear weapon states bear a particular duty and responsibility toward the entire international community to reduce and eliminate nuclear risks and to avoid any actions that exacerbate nuclear risks. The obvious gold standard of nuclear risk reduction is the elimination of nuclear weapons.”

For the most part, government representatives restated their well-trodden positions –  the non-nuclear states decrying the lack of progress on disarmament and the nuclear-armed states claiming that “conditions” are not ripe for disarmament. Other frequently stated concerns were the treaty’s lack of universality, and fears of proliferation of nuclear weapons to additional countries. But the one thing almost all countries agreed on – even while recognizing the dangers of nuclear power plants being weaponized for the first time by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, and the realities of nuclear disasters like Fukushima – was the over-the-top promotion of “peaceful” nuclear technology as the solution to most of humanity’s problems. Article IV of the NPT guarantees the “inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination.” Elevating and enhancing this provision is particularly dangerous at a time when a nuclear “renaissance’ is being disingenuously promoted as a solution to climate change.

While the tone of the proceedings was mostly civil, it was marked by occasional outbursts and disruptions, such as when the representative of the Russian Federation called Ukrainian President Zelensky a Nazi and the representatives from the European Union countries walked out. The Trump administration didn’t seem to be paying much attention to this PrepCom; the head of its delegation, a previously unknown State Department lifer, basically restated the positions put forth by his predecessors during the Biden Administration.

In the end, for reasons obscured by a closed door session, the NPT PrepCom was unable to reach agreement on substantive Recommendations for the NPT Review Conference or procedural recommendations for Strengthening the Review Process, agreeing only to the date and venue for next year’s Review Conference (April 27 – May 22, 2026 in New York) and nominating its President (Vietnam).

In contrast, there was a robust civil society presence on the margins of the PrepCom, with many educational side events, and a session of the PrepCom itself dedicated to presentations from civil society organizations. This year there were 21 such presentations, including by Nihon Hidankyo, the association of Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bomb survivors and recipient of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize; the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the Fiji Nuclear Victims and Families Association; the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War; Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament; Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea; Western States Legal Foundation; and Youth Fusion, the youth network of Abolition 2000.

For a detailed account of the 2025 NPT PrepCom, read Reaching Critical Will’s NPT News in Review.

About Abolition 2000

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a brief period of optimism about the possibility of nuclear disarmament. The Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons was established at the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference with the launch of an appeal to the NPT States Parties (Abolition 2000 Founding Statement) calling on them to “Initiate immediately and conclude negotiations on a nuclear weapons abolition convention that requires the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons within a timebound framework, with provisions for effective verification and enforcement,” and to undertake a number of other practical measures to end the nuclear arms race, prevent nuclear war, and support the global elimination of nuclear weapons. It also recognizes “the inextricable link between the ‘peaceful’ and warlike uses of nuclear technologies and the threat to future generations inherent in creation and use of long-lived radioactive materials.”

At its 1997 meeting in Te Ao Maohi (French Occupied Polynesia), Abolition 2000 adopted a supplement to its Founding Statement. The Moorea Declaration recognizes that “Colonised and indigenous peoples have, in the large part, borne the brunt of this nuclear devastation – from the mining of uranium and the testing of nuclear weapons on indigenous peoples land, to the dumping, storage and transport of plutonium and nuclear wastes, and the theft of land for nuclear infrastructure.”

Some of the calls in the Abolition 2000 Founding Statement have been achieved, such as the 1996 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion affirming the illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, the establishment of additional nuclear-weapon-free zones, and the establishment of an international energy agency to promote and support the development of sustainable and environmentally safe energy source (IRENA). Others have yet to be realized.

A lot has changed since 1995, but Abolition 2000 is still here and celebrated its 30^th anniversary during the 2025 NPT PrepCom.

 Abolition 2000 at the 2025 NPT PrepCom: Lighting the Way to Peace!

Abolition 2000 celebrated its 30^th anniversary during the NPT PrepCom, with several events. On April 30, Abolition 2000 live-streamed an interview from the UN, with co-founders, Jackie Cabasso and Alyn Ware, who were interviewed remotely by members of Youth Fusion, Camilla Braito and Ayleen Roy. Watch the recording of Abolition 2000 Live From the UN here.

On May 6, Abolition 2000  held an interactive side event, On our 30^th Anniversary, Past Lessons; New Realities, inviting civil society observers to the NPT PrepCom to reflect on the large shifts in global politics, including

the abrupt and long-term changes brought on by the Trump administration and their effects on nuclear weapons policies; Russia’s nuclear sharing with Belarus; recent open discussion of an independent European nuclear force backed by French and UK nuclear weapons; and the potential for new nuclear states in Northeast Asia.

To celebrate its 30^th birthday, Abolition 2000 held a 30th Anniversary Celebration: Lighting the Way to Peace! on the evening of May 7 – coinciding with the 201^st anniversary of Beethoven’s “Ode to Peace” (from his Ninth Symphony). The event took place in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, across the street from the UN. It was a joyful, intergenerational celebration honoring the longevity of our movement and engaging local allies and musicians. The centerpiece of the party was an impressive display of 2000 tea candles arranged in the shape of a giant international peace symbol. The Raging Grannies led community singing and birthday cake was shared. The in-person event was accompanied by a social media campaign, 2000 Candles for Abolition, organized by Youth Fusion. Sally Jones of Peace Action New York State shared a wonderful photo album from the event, which you can view here.

The Abolition 2000 network is open to individuals and organizations to join. By the year 2000, over 2000 organizations had joined.

Join Youth Fusion here. Sign up for Youth Fusion’s newsletter here.

The post Abolition 2000 at the NPT PrepCom – Lighting the Way to Peace! appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

There is a robust civil society presence on the margins of the NPT meetings. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a brief period of optimism about the possibility of nuclear disarmament. The Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons was founded during the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, with the launch of an appeal to the NPT States Parties calling on them to commence negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention (treaty) and to undertake a number of other measures to end the nuclear arms race, prevent nuclear war, and support the global elimination of nuclear weapons.

The Abolition 2000 Network is open to individuals and organizations to join. By the year 2000, over 2000 organizations had joined.

A lot has changed since 1995, but Abolition 2000 is still here and will be celebrating its 30th anniversary during the 2025 NPT PrepCom.

Abolition 2000 Live from the NPT Prep Com (virtual). On Wednesday, April 30, from 1:30 – 2:15 pm EDT, Abolition 2000 presenters, speaking from the United Nations, will give a short update on the deliberations – the good, the bad and the ugly – plus the main civil society proposals that are gaining traction at the PrepCom. As this will be on Zoom, the audience will be able to ask questions through the question box and chat box. Register here.

On Tuesday, May 6, Abolition 2000 be holding an interactive side event, Abolition 2000: On our 30th Anniversary, Past Lessons; New Realities, from 3:30 – 5:30 pm in Conference Room A of the UN. If you’re attending the PrepCom, please join us and share your reflections.

Abolition 2000 30th Anniversary Celebration: Lighting the Way to Peace! To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Abolition 2000 is planning a joyful, intergenerational anniversary celebration in New York on May 7 – coinciding with the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s “Ode to Peace.” Plans are in motion for a musical performance and community gathering at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, across the street from the UN. This event will honor the longevity of our movement and engage local allies, musicians, and friends. It will feature 2000 LED tea candles (flameless) arranged in the shape of the international peace symbol. Please join us if you’re in NYC!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! If you can help with set up, we’ll be meeting at 4:00 pm to lay out the tea candles. Contact Jackie Cabasso at wslf(at)earthlink.net

If you can’t join in person, look for #2000Candles and #4NuclearFreeFuture in your social media.

2000 Candles for Abolition Social Media Campaign. With renewed leadership and growing momentum, Youth Fusion, the youth network of Abolition 2000, is launching a global social media campaign: 2000 Candles for Abolition, a call to remembrance and resistance for Abolition 2000’s 30th anniversary. Please join!

“Every flame we light is a step toward a world where no generation must fear the horror of nuclear weapons.”

How to Participate

Take a selfie holding a candle

1. Post on social media
2. Use the hashtag #youthFusionForNoNukes
3. Share your reflections: what concerns you most about nuclear weapons? What in the world do you love enough to protect from destruction?

Join: youth-fusion.org/join

Subscribe: youth-fusion.org/newsletter

Hashtag: #YouthFusionForNoNukes

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be an affiliated network with Abolition 2000.

The post Abolition 2000 – Live From the NPT PrepCom appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

L – R: Takehiro Kagawa, Secretary General, Mayors for Peace; Mayor Belit Onay, Hannover, Germany; Mayor Malik Evans, Rochester, New York; Alderwoman Maria Hadden, Chicago City Council, Illinois

Mayors for Peace was pleased to co-sponsor a side event and reception on March 4 during the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. “The Role of Cities in the Promotion of Nuclear Disarmament,” was sponsored by the Austrian Permanent Mission to the United Nations. Other co-sponsors were the Back from the Brink campaign, Northwestern University, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and Physicians for Social Responsibility.

The events were convened by Professor Hirokazu Miyazaki of Northwestern University, who is conducting research on municipal efforts for nuclear disarmament and nuclear justice. A roundtable discussion featured George-Wilhelm Gallhofer, Austrian Foreign Ministry; Takehiro Kagawa, Secretary General, Mayors for Peace; Mayor Belit Onay, Hannover, Germany; Mayor Malik Evans, Rochester, New York; Mayor Nicole LaChappelle, Easthampton, Massachusetts; Alderwoman Maria Hadden, Chicago City Council, Illinois; and Francesco Vignarca, Campaigns Coordinator, the Italian Peace and Disarmament Network. Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki participated via video.

The reception which followed featured speakers from the roundtable as well as U.S. nuclear disarmament campaigners. Baltimore, Maryland Comptroller Bill Henry, and California Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry participated via video.

Both events drew capacity audiences and provided an opportunity to learn from local elected officials about how and why they decided to get involved in promoting nuclear disarmament, and to examine the key role of local grassroots organizing during this time of rising global tensions and uncertainty.

Click here for Back from the Brink’s report with photos, quotes, and videos from the side event and reception.

Click here for Professor Miyazaki’s Mapping Nuclear Legacies project.

The post The Role of Cities in the Promotion of Nuclear Disarmament appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

February 18, 2025, late at night, a group of seven peace activists gathered at the front gate of Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara county California. They were there both to protest against the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) armed with a dummy nuclear warhead and also to celebrate the lives of Daniel Ellsberg, David Krieger and Fr. Louie Vitale. Dan, David and Louie were all arrested 13 years ago in February of 2012 protesting an ICBM test launch, along with 12 other people. That witness was so powerful that since that date the base has NOT published the ICBM test launch dates, giving only a three-day advance notice.

The men and women in the glare of the lights at the front gate celebrated life and peace. As the missile of death blasted across the ocean we celebrated life. Friends of Dan, David and Louie gathered online in the middle of the night to remember them and to support the protesters who were at the front gate at midnight. We read poetry and told stories and created a field of love and peace to counteract the death machine, until the horrible missile blasted off at 1 am. The protesters included Elizabeth Murray of the Pacific Life Community, Leah Yananton, an artist from Los Angeles, and five others.

Test launches damage human communities and ecosystems. The Marshall Islands, already forced to bear the overwhelming environmental costs of U.S. nuclear weapons testing, are still used as a target area for the ICBM tests.

ICBMs have been sold to Congress and the public as a guarantor of security. In reality, they are an imminent threat to public safety. In the words of the late Daniel Ellsberg, author of The Doomsday Machine, these weapons make “any conflict enormously more dangerous than it has to be” by increasing “the danger that any armed conflict between major nuclear states can escalate to all-out war.” ICBMs are on hair-trigger alert and, once launched, cannot be recalled, virtually guaranteeing a retaliatory strike on the country that launches them. As long as ICBMs exist, we live with the constant risk that misinterpreted intelligence, human error, or a single rash decision could end civilization as we know it within an hour.

Maintaining these weapons is a huge waste of resources. The U.S. has committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars to “modernize” its ICBM force, which in practice means replacing the entire system. The ICBM program is now an astonishing 81% over budget. We must stop this madness.

Tensions among nuclear-armed states are high. The U.S. military paused a test when Russia invaded Ukraine and once again when Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. These provocative tests should be stopped in the interest of peace.

The Defuse Nuclear War coalition condemns these launches in the strongest possible terms as a wasteful, dangerous step backward for peace. The continued existence of ICBMs is a profound threat to the life and security of every single person in the United States and around the world. Click here to tell Congress to put an end to such tests and such weapons.
If you want to be notified of the next launch and protest please sign up at the Defuse Nuclear War ICBM alert list.

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Kansas City Missouri is literally at the center of the 2lst century new nuclear arms race.

Kansas City MO is home to one of the 8 major sites that make U.S. nuclear weapons.  It has an innocuous name, the Kansas City National Security Campus (NSC), located at 14520 Botts Road, where it produces or procures over 80% of the non-nuclear components of U.S. nuclear bombs and warheads.  Honeywell runs the NSC facility.  Very few people living in and around Kansas City know it exists let alone know what it produces. Activists against nuclear weapons more accurately refer to it as the Kansas City Nuclear Bomb Parts Plant.  This plant is a vital link in the production of nuclear weapons.  And for this reason, the plant could be a target in an enemy attack.

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to spend close to $2 trillion dollars over the next 30 years to maintain and modernize its nuclear weapons and their delivery systems – aircraft, ICBMs and submarines.

Spending trillions of dollars on nuclear weapons, weapons that destroy all life, is a choice. The U.S. government and its elected officials have chosen to enrich wildly profitable military contractors by spending outrageous sums of money on weapons that can never be used if we expect to continue to live on this planet.  The military bonanza hurts all U.S. citizens.  Americans deserve better.  Americans deserve affordable housing, affordable medical care, a livable wage, good schools, roads, bridges, allowing no one to go hungry in the richest country in the world.

The KC nuclear bomb parts plant will double in size over the next few years to handle this increased production.  Adding insult to injury, state legislators, with bipartisan support, are set to pass legislation that will provide a state sales tax exemption on the cost of all materials needed to double the size of the current nuclear bomb plant.  This huge windfall to Honeywell/NSC is a cost all Missourians will absorb!

Instead of wasting the intelligence, skills and talents of those employed by Honeywell at the NSC, those employees’ talents could be used to address the climate crisis, the other existential threat facing the world.

We all live on this planet together.  We are not each other’s enemies.   It is in deciding to come together that we can address the nuclear and climate threats so life continues on this planet.

With all that said, the Kansas City National Security Campus is one crazy notion of national security.

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