JOINT DECLARATION BETWEEN THE ASSEMBLIES OF MOSCOW AND NEW YORK
APPROVED BY OWS ANTIWAR WORKING GROUP
We the people of the Moscow and New York Assemblies acknowledge that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members. We are at a critical moment in history.
There is a rising tide of military aggression and wars supported by increasingly lethal technologies. There are deaths and maimings of civilians across the globe.
Rampant military spending, over 1.5 trillion dollars a year, continues despite the global economic crisis and increasing poverty. In the global trade in arms, manufacturers make hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and Russia and the United States supply more than half of major weapons.
We are aware of the history of our two countries. The nuclear arms race was led by the United States, a country that used nuclear weapons on civilian populations on two occasions (Hiroshima and Nagasaki). The Cold War arms race between the United States and Russia deprived our peoples of our wealth.
It has been more than 20 years since the end of the Cold War yet our countries, Russia and the United States, still possess 95% of the more than 20,000 nuclear weapons on the planet. Nearly 2,000 of the Russian/US warheads are deployed ready for immediate launch.
Thousands of nuclear warheads and millions of guns do not defend ordinary people from poverty and do not help them feed themselves.
Nuclear power continues to pose a threat to life and earth and is the essential technology driving the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Every nuclear reactor is a potential bomb factory that burns and produces materials which with further processing can be used to make nuclear warheads. Nuclear accidents have led to nuclear catastrophes. Chernobyl and now Fukushima have given us the resolve to say “No to nuclear!”.
The threat of war is not an acceptable or workable response to the feared or actual spread of nuclear weapons which can emerge from nuclear power technology. To avoid nuclear proliferation and end the risk of devastating nuclear war, the current nuclear-armed states must eliminate their arsenals and initiate a universal phase-out of nuclear power. The United States and Russia, with the world’s largest stockpiles of nuclear arms, must lead the way for global nuclear abolition.
We envision a world without nuclear weapons, an end to the arms race and an end to war. We will not stop our public assemblies, we will not go home, we will not rest until the world and the power is restored to the people.
We put forth the following list of concrete measures to achieve nuclear abolition and disarmament:
• Standing down of US and Russian nuclear weapons now ready to fire within minutes and unilateral actions by both countries to eliminate their arsenals.
• Global negotiations for elimination of all existing nuclear arsenals and a world permanently and equitably free of nuclear weapons.
• Closure of all nuclear test sites, including Nevada and Novaya Zemlya.
• An end to development of missiles and space weapons and negotiation of a missile/space ban.
• An end to the spread of nuclear technology around the planet and shutdown of existing nuclear power plants.
• Transparent reduction of conventional weapons.
• An end to all drone programs and any development of new lethal technologies.
• Reallocation of military spending and capabilities of scientists to building a safer, sustainable world.
• Dismantlement of NATO and other bloc military alliances.*
We don’t need missiles, we need housing.
We don’t need bombs, we need hospitals.
We don’t need guns, we need schools and books.
We don’t need bullets, we need food.
We need to live in peace and security. We need a world in which ordinary people are not victims of political games. We need a world where we can love one another, love our children, and be friends with our neighbors, without having to fear for our lives and our planet.
http://www.nycga.net/groups/antiwar/docs/draft-joint-declaration-of-occupy-moscow-and-ows-approved-by-antiwar-working-group
*This list is non-inclusive.
