13 June 2008

Dear Reaching Critical Will friends and advisors:

As the Conference on Disarmament (CD) continues to flounder, diplomats and other government officials are becoming increasingly frustrated. On 3 June, the Netherlands' representative vowed not to speak again during the 2008 session unless the CD adopts a programme of work. On 10 June, the Under-Secretary for Multilateral Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Integration of Ecuador argued that the "inability to act on disarmament agendas and items and to fulfill them violates the efforts of the international community ... Lack of political will and craven avoidance of international commitment to peace, security, and international development have a fundamental impact on countries like Ecuador, [which are] striving with such sacrifice to overcome social inequality, poverty, and the abusive imbalances imposed by the unjust trade which only favours interests of the most powerful."

Outside of the CD, citizens and governments continue organizing to overcome the interests of the powerful in favour of equality, justice, and peace - read below to find out how you can get involved.

In peace,
Ray Acheson, Project Associate

1) Protests against "missile defense" in Europe continue
Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space reported that Jan Tamáš, one of the original hunger strikers against US plans to install a "missile defense" radar in the Czech Republic, has been meeting with a number of Members of European Parliament and is going to participate in a meeting of these members on 9 July in Strassbourg. The US and Czech governments, however, announced last night that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is headed to Prague on 10 July to sign the agreement allowing the US to station is radar system in the Czech Republic. According to other sources, this agreement or treaty is "presidential," which means it must first be signed by the government, then ratified by the two houses of parliament and eventually signed by the president.

Tamáš has called for more signatures on the online petition against the radar, which currently has 119,000 signatures. He would like this number to reach 200,000 by the time of his meeting with Members of European Parliament on 9 July - please spread the word and sign the petition at http://www.nonviolence.cz/.

In addition, 22 June will mark a "World Day of Fasting" in solidarity with the hunger strike in the Czech Republic and around the world in protest of the US anti-missile shield. Contact Bruce Gagnon by emailing [email protected] if you want to add your name to the list of hunger strikers or to learn more about the global day of protest.

2) Scottish parliament vs. nuclear weapons
In its latest edition of Nuclear Non-Proliferation News, the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy reports:

Opposition in Scotland, where Trident is based, continues to grow as the Scottish Government (led by the Scottish Nationalist Party, which opposes Trident), has established a working group chaired by Scottish Minister Bruce Crawford MSP "which includes religious leaders, academics, activists, a lawyer and a trade unionist - has been given the task of finding legal, planning, regulatory and diplomatic ways to block the plan to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system on the Clyde."

The establishment of the working group has been vociferously opposed by some Labour MSPs close to the Westminster government. The Scotsman quotes Jackie Baillie (Labour MSP for Dumbarton, which includes the Faslane base) as saying that: "A quarter of the full-time workforce in West Dunbartonshire depends on Faslane for employment. The consequences of the loss of Faslane to towns like Helensburgh don't bear thinking about."

Disputing that jobs would be lost if Trident were cancelled, BBC News Online quotes Scottish TUC official Stephen Boyd: "The funds currently earmarked to replace Trident represent a huge opportunity for investment in the productive economy. With the necessary political will and a little imagination these resources could provide a massive boost to manufacturing industry in Scotland, help to secure energy supplies and assist in the fight against climate change."

3) Think Outside the Bomb National Youth Conference on Nuclear Abolition
Boston, MA | 14-17 August 2008
Join the Think Outside the Bomb network for four days of learning, sharing, and activism, 14-17 August at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, MA. The conference will provide a backdrop for nuclear abolitionists, peace activists, ecologists, and other advocates of social justice and a livable planet to learn in-depth about the threat of nuclear weapons, the destruction caused by the nuclear fuel chain, and current political opportunities to move toward nuclear disarmament.

Think Outside the Bomb is unique: it is the only conference of it's kind that is fully organized and led by youth (roughly defined as under-29), and does more than educate students and young people on the issues surrounding nuclear weapons, waste, and power - it places us in the forefront of the movement, making change happen. Like previous national conferences, food and transportation to and from the conference will be provided

The 2008 National Conference in Boston, MA, will explore such interconnected themes as localized resistance to militarism and empire, supporting indigenous resistance to nuclear colonialism, and turning back the resurgence of "poisoned power" (nuclear energy). It will include workshops, panels, dialogues, and skills trainings to strengthen our analyses of the role of nuclear weapons in the global political order, empower ourselves with new tools for effective community organizing, and deepen our commitment to building a better world.

Conference Schedule:

Thursday, 14 August
Where do I fit into it? Personal connections to the nuclear weapons complex

Friday, 15 August
Connecting communities: Environmental Racism and Indigenous Impacts

Saturday, 16 August
Organizing and resisting: Strategies, lessons, and opportunities

Sunday, 17 August
A Personal Disarmament: Living Lives of Change

Speakers from previous conferences have included Arjun Makhijani of IEER, Zia Mian from Princeton University, Myrna Pagan from Vieques, Puerto Rico, Hiroshima survivor Shigeko Sasamori, and, of course, youth activists representing various nuclear abolition organizations and communities from around the country. A full speakers list for the 2008 National Conference will be available soon.

For applications, and more information as it becomes available, visit http://thinkoutsidethebomb.org regularly.

4) Posturing on Iran at the IAEA Board of Governors meeting
At the opening of the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna on 2 June, Director General ElBaradei said, "it is regrettable that we have not made the progress we had hoped for with respect to the one remaining major issue, namely clarification of the cluster of allegations and Secretariat questions relevant to possible military dimensions to Iran´s nuclear programme. The so-called alleged [weaponization] studies remain a matter of serious concern." He then stated that over the last half-decade of verification activities, substantial progress has been made, but also called on Iran to "demonstrate the necessary transparency and provide full disclosure" to allow the IAEA to reach a conclusion on the nature of the Iranian programme as soon as possible.

The Board of Governors is unlikely to take any action on the Iran situation - it hasn't passed a resolution on the subject since it was transferred to the UN Security Council. Thus, the political posturing demonstrated in government statements is largely for media consumption.

Media reports on the current IAEA Board of Govenors meeting in Vienna primarily highlighted criticisms of Iran by western countries "for failing to answer allegations that it had been trying to build a nuclear bomb until a few years ago." According to Reuters, "The United States, European and other Western nations bemoaned what they saw as Iranian evasions and lined up behind IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei's call for "full disclosure" to resolve what aides have called consistent intelligence reports." Gregory L. Schulte, the chief US delegate to the IAEA, demanded Iran "abandon forever the pursuit of nuclear weapons," arguing,"The questions that remain unanswered strongly suggest that Iran has undertaken a significant state-sponsored effort to develop nuclear weapons, an effort that agency inspectors are not in a position to verify has halted."

Schulte's comments do not address the subject under consideration at the board meeting, which is the IAEA Director General's most recent report, which covers Iran's past activities not any potential future endeavours. Nor are they consistent with the report of US intelligence agencies released December 2007, which proclaimed that Iran is not currently seeking nuclear weapons, nor will it be capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon until at least 2010. The report "concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb." (For more information about this report, see the entry for 4 December 2007.)

The European Union told the board that Iran's rejection of evidence it tried to make such arms as faked "is neither credible nor acceptable, given the quality of and quantity of the documents presented by the agency to Iran" - without mentioning as the IAEA Director General's most recent report does that Iran has not be shown many of these documents.

Most media coverage insists that the 35-member Board of Govenors is more unified than ever before on the Iran issue, demonstrating a "rare sign of convergence." Yet the Russian delegation insisted that "objective and verified information" should be used in IAEA investigations of Iran and argued that Iran must have the chance to "carefully analyze the information" accusing it of a weaponization programme.

On behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, Cuban representative Norma Goicochea-Estenoz said, "In dealing with issues related to the 'alleged studies' (nuclear weaponization), there could be concerns that this is not a core competency of the agency.... But NAM believes that in clarifying the 'alleged studies', including issues such as high-explosive testing and a missile re-entry vehicle, the agency would act in accordance with its statute."

On 5 June, South Africa's ambassador to the IAEA, Abdul Samad Minty, said, "As a country, that remains committed to elimination of all weapons of mass destruction, South Africa does not wish to see a nuclear weaponised Iran. At the same time, we don't want to see denial of the right of any State party to the NPT to exploit nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." He added that a refusal to allow any signatory to the NPT to develop atomic energy for civilian use would mean a negation of the pact's fundamental principle. ''The call on Iran to suspend its enrichment activities is related to the issue of building confidence, and may therefore under no circumstances become a goal in itself. If we allow this to happen, we will unravel the very basis of the fundamental bargain of the NPT."

5) Australia establishes a new disarmament and non-proliferation commission
On 9 June, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the establishment of the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission, which he hopes will coordinate international talks ahead of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in 2010. He has appointed former foreign affairs minister Gareth Evans to be head of the commission. A Japanese official will reportedly co-chair the body.