Opening Plenary, August 4
2024 World Conference against A and H Bombs
Kate Hudson, General Secretary
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
U.K.
Dear Friends,
I am proud to join you here today, on this 79th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those war crimes, perpetrated by the United States, will never be forgotten; we honour the memory of all the lives tragically cut short, and we pay tribute to the Hibakusha and their work for a nuclear weapons-free world. They are our inspiration and in their name we recommit to achieving the global abolition of nuclear weapons.
And never has this work been more important. As we meet, there are two major conflicts ongoing which raise the risk of nuclear war or nuclear use: in Ukraine, where the possibility of a conflict between Russia and NATO increases almost daily; and in Gaza, where a nuclear-armed state, Israel, with its nuclear weapons outside of all international regulation and control, commits genocide on the Palestinian people, flouting international law. In the peace movement in Britain, we are deeply concerned to stop these wars, and the further spread of war, yet western governments pursue policies which make nuclear war more, not less, likely.
The recent NATO summit in Washington, made this very clear, bringing a third world war closer. It had many negative outcomes, but I will touch on just a few.
Two are particularly provocative with regard to the conflict in Ukraine:
Firstly, long-range US missiles will be sent to Germany for the first time since the Cold War, and Germany, France, Italy and Poland have agreed to develop European long-range missiles. A new arms race is upon us, and the militarisation of Europe is intensifying.
Secondly, the summit reinforced Stoltenberg’s assertion that Ukraine’s right to self-defence includes striking targets in Russia and weapons are going to Ukraine to enable that to happen. This opens the door further to a Russia/NATO war.
In terms of the wider issues, there is a significant hostile focus on China, describing it as the enabler of Russia’s war, for which we see no evidence. Beyond the conflict with Russia, the primary concern of the US, and hence NATO, is to keep China down, in order to maintain its own global dominance, using increasingly confrontational initiatives to do so — the AUKUS agreement for example.
NATO also commits to modernising its nuclear capabilities; this is already taking place across Europe with the imminent introduction of the upgraded US B61-12 bombs.
And in June Stoltenberg said that NATO was increasing its operationally available nuclear warheads.
We are also seeing a massive increase in military spending as a result of these policies. Two thirds of NATO members now spend at least 2% of GDP on the military. Spending by Canada and European members is up by 18% in 2024 alone. So public finances are being drained for weapons and war, and there is a surge towards strengthening so-called defence industries.
Here in Britain, our new government is strongly committed to NATO, to nuclear weapons, to war, and to increasing military spending. It has recently announced the launch of a new Strategic Defence Review, which is likely to follow the NATO lines. The government buys into the ‘new axis’ narrative and follows the previous government’s approach that we are in a ‘pre-war not post-war’ world.
There are many challenges facing us all, but we take heart here from our enormous popular mobilisations — largely young people — in support of the people of Gaza; their courage, decency, and humanity is a powerful part of the peace movement here. The smears against our movement, the increasingly repressive policing of protest, do not deter us. In fact, we have recently held a new peace camp at the Lakenheath airbase, where the US plans to reintroduce its nuclear weapons to Britain. We received significant public support and increasing media coverage of our protest.
We will continue to work at every level of political and civil society to end war and the scourge of nuclear weapons, and we look forward to working with you to that end, in the year ahead.