RESOLUTION AGAINST A RENEWED NUCLEAR ARMS RACE
WHEREAS, The United States government has announced a trillion dollar, 30-year program to upgrade and expand our nuclear armaments; and
WHEREAS, We already have nearly 1,000 nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert; and
WHEREAS, Eight other nations have nuclear weapons, most of which are hundreds of times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and
WHEREAS, The extraction of raw materials for nuclear weapons threatens the land, livelihood, and well being of people all over the world, posing particular threat to indigenous populations; and
WHEREAS, The U.S. President has the power and authority to launch our nuclear weapons without consulting anyone else; and
WHEREAS, Expansion of our nuclear arsenal would almost certainly provoke a new and more dangerous arms race because other nuclear-weapons states would feel a need to keep up; and
WHEREAS, The United States is a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires our country and other nuclear-weapons states to pursue good faith negotiations to end the nuclear arms race and work toward nuclear disarmament; and
WHEREAS, The United Nations, over the opposition of the United States and most other NATO nations, issued in July 2017 a proposed “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” that would (a) prohibit signatory nations from developing, testing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, or using nuclear weapons, and from assisting others in doing so, and (b) impose, upon signatory nations that currently possess nuclear weapons, a timetable for negotiations leading to the verified and irreversible elimination of those weapons; and
WHEREAS, That Treaty provides that it is not to go into effect until it has been signed and ratified by at least 50 nations;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The 21st Legislative District Democrats urge our government to immediately (1) cease any and all efforts to upgrade and expand our nuclear armament, and (2) impose additional checks and restrictions before nuclear weapons can be launched; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT: We call on our government to join, without further delay, the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT: We encourage the families, women, men, taxpayers and electorate of Washington State, general members and Precinct Committee Officers of the 21st Legislative District Democrats, to call, write, or email their state and federal representatives to make their stance against a renewed nuclear arms race clear; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED THAT: This resolution be distributed to all our state, local, and federal representatives with the request that they call on the federal executive to implement the above provisions.
Previously adopted by the Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle and the 32nd Legislative District Democrats
Edited and submitted by Scott Marshall, LD 21
Adopted – 02/28/2018