Common Council Will Vote On Preventing Nuclear War

Back from the Brink group. Photo courtesy of Bill Christofferson.

The City of Milwaukee appears poised to call on the federal government to support some common sense policies aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear war.

The measure, part of a grassroots, community-based campaign called Back from the Brink, has won the unanimous support of a Common Council committee and will come before the full Council on April 2.

The local effort was organized by a coalition of 18 peace, justice, environmental, religious and community organizations which have worked since last summer to lay the groundwork for passage of the resolution. Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic is the main sponsor.

Skeptics will say that nuclear weapons and foreign policy are beyond the scope of local governments, which should focus on filling potholes. But there is a long history of social and political change starting at the local level — like at Woolworth’s lunch counter — and spreading and growing from there.

None of the city’s business?  Preventing nuclear war is everyone’s business.

The national website puts it this way: “Back from the Brink gives everyone a simple way to speak out, be involved, and make a difference. Individuals, organizations, municipalities. Activists, elected officials, scientists, doctors, faith leaders, veterans, students, artists, working folks. You, me, all of us. Together we are making “nuclear weapons a local issue” and connecting them with the real-life security and safety concerns that people and communities face every day.”

More than 80 state and local governments, including the Milwaukee County Board and the Madison City Council, have joined the movement, along with long lists of organizations, elected officials, civic leaders and experts numbering in the hundreds.

With 12,000 nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, it is not a Chicken Little situation.  The term “existential threat” is thrown around loosely these days.  But a nuclear war could mean the end of civilization, if not the planet.  The Union of Concerned Scientists’ Doomsday Clock, which measures the risk of nuclear war, is set at 89 seconds to midnight – the closest it has ever been.

Currently, the United States maintains the option to use nuclear weapons first, starting a nuclear war. Our president, acting alone, can decide to launch nuclear weapons. Hundreds of U.S. nuclear weapons are kept on hair-trigger alert. The Pentagon plans to spend $1.7 trillion to create an entire new set of enhanced nuclear weapons.

And while a United Nations treaty outlawing nuclear weapons took effect in 2017 and has been signed by 94 nations, the United States and other nuclear-armed countries have not signed. The United States has actively opposed it and consistently voted against an annual UN General Assembly resolution that calls upon all states to sign or ratify it.

So, what are the proposed solutions?

• Actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eventually eliminate their nuclear arsenals.
• Renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first.
• Ending the sole, unchecked authority of any U.S. President to launch a nuclear attack.
• Taking U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.
• Cancelling the plan to replace the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons.

Milwaukee has a long history of speaking out for peace.  The city is a member of Mayors For Peace, which has endorsed the UN treaty.  It voted overwhelmingly in 1982 for passage of a referendum calling for a freeze on the production of nuclear weapons.

Although it may seem  largely symbolic, the campaign is also designed to increase public awareness and discussion of the threat posed by nuclear weapons.

Many of the members of the coalition supporting the Common Council resolution work for peace on a daily basis.  They are: Peace Action-Wisconsin, Milwaukee Veterans for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility-Wisconsin,  United Nations Association of Greater Milwaukee, 350MKE, Marquette University Center for Peacemaking, Sierra Club-Great Waters Group, Milwaukee Friends Meeting, Greater Milwaukee Green Party, Zao MKE Church (United Methodist), Milwaukee Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition,  Catholics for Peace & Justice, Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, WI Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Milwaukee, Interfaith Peace Working Group, Building Unity and Our Wisconsin Revolution.

Bill Christofferson is a member of Milwaukee Veterans For Peace.