On April 4, 1967, one year to
the day before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. challenged
the nation, and particularly the leadership of the Civil Rights
movement, to condemn the United States' war in Indochina and intensify
the struggle against the evils of racial oppression, poverty, and
militarism. Dr. King's public assessment of the interrelationship
between militarism and racial/class oppression was made in the historical
context of both the US war against "Communism" in Asia and the Cold
War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union.
But decades after the end of the war in Vietnam
and more that six years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union,
that same war system is alive and well. Its underlying values,
and its permanent existence, are legitimized by both major national
political parties and the dominant institutions of civil society.
It consumes vast resources, both domestically and abroad. It is
the source of enormous quantities of weapons that kill and maim
innocent civilians in the majority of the thirty civil conflicts
and wars that have killed, and continue to kill, hundreds of thousands
of combatants and civilians throughout the world. It provides,
through a false sense of patriotism and duty, the rationale for
armed domination over other nations of the world. It promotes
attitudes that result in horrendous levels of violence against
women.
And it is evidenced by these facts:
Despite the end of the Cold War, appropriations
for military spending in Fiscal Year 1999 have exceeded $280 billion—nearly
equaling the record levels of military spending during the Reagan/Bush
administrations. In addition to this, Congress has appropriated
an additional $8.6 billion in military spending that the Pentagon
did not even request.
Fifty-four years after the destruction of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, and despite the end of the Cold War, the United
States maintains a nuclear arsenal of some 8,420 operational weapons,
with another 2,300 nuclear weapons on reserve. And between 1940-1996,
the US government spent a staggering $ 5.48 trillion dollars on
building, testing, and deploying nuclear weapons, which, according
to President Clinton, remain a "cornerstone" of US defense policy.
Although President Clinton signed the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty in September 1996, the treaty has not yet been
ratified by the United States Senate. And the US Department of
Energy continues to maintain the nuclear arsenal through the Stockpile
Stewardship and Management Program, which will cost taxpayers
in excess of $40 billion over the next ten years. So-called "subcritical"
nuclear tests, as well as computer-simulated testing, continues
at the Nevada Test Site and at nuclear weapons laboratories in
Los Alamos, New Mexico; Livermore, California; and other locations.
Between 1993-96, the United States accounted
for $75.6 billion in military assistance and arms exports to foreign
nations—more than any other nation in the world.
The United States government, obligated by
the Panama Canal Treaty both to fully disclose chemical weapons
storage areas in Panama and to provide clean-up of toxic waste
and munitions testing locations, has refused to provide critical
information to the Panamanian government, in clear violation of
these treaty obligations.
The United States, virtually alone among the
nations of the world, has refused to ratify the Optional Protocol
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which would ban
the military recruitment of all children in the world under the
age of eighteen. In addition, the military training and indoctrination
of youth continue in more than 2,500 secondary schools in the
US, in the form of the Junior ROTC program. Even elementary school
children are now subject to pro-military programs and propaganda.
The incidence of domestic violence and spousal
abuse directed against women has now reached epidemic levels,
and the military culture of violence has deeply affected those
who are most intimately connected with it. According to some estimates,
wives and female partners of men in the armed forces are five
times more likely to be victims of violence than their civilian
female counterparts.
Despite sustained protests from thousands of
activists and morally concerned citizens, the United States Army
continues to operate the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning,
Georgia. Since 1946, this "school of assassins" has trained thousands
of military officers from Latin American and Caribbean nations,
including many who have been clearly involved in tortures, mass
killings, and other egregious human rights violations committed
against the peoples of this hemisphere.
The United States continues its war against
the people of Iraq by bombings and missile attacks against non-military
targets and population centers, and by the enforcement of a devastating
economic embargo that has resulted in an annual increase of approximately
90,000 civilian deaths in Iraq.
The FOR is initiating a bold People's
Campaign for Nonviolence that will be a synthesis of the
work of FOR and allied organizations seeking to usher in a new
millennium of peace and social justice. We seek to create a world
free of weapons, and to abolish all institutions that conduct,
support, and profit from warmaking. And we envision a time when
nuclear weapons (and all weapons of mass destruction) are abolished
from the earth, landmines are outlawed, and armies no longer march.
Further, we will work for both national and global economic transformation
that brings an end to the corrupt and wasteful epoch of destructive
military spending, and replaces it with earth-friendly and sustainable
economic interrelationships based upon the principles of economic
justice and the satisfaction of human needs before the pursuit
of profit.
This work will not be easy, and the struggle
will be a long one. But we are animated by the spirit of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., and his vision of a beloved, nonviolent community
transcending cultural and national boundaries.
With this vision in mind, the Peace and Disarmament
component of the People's Campaign for Nonviolence will broadly
seek to:
- give active support to, and participate
in, the Decade for a Culture of Peace
and Nonviolence and its national and international programs
and initiatives
- educate members of diverse faith communities
about the real magnitude of militarism in our society
- expose the linkages between militarism
and all other forms of interpersonal and societal violence
- expose the true economic cost, and
economic waste, of military spending, and it's relationship
to poverty and economic injustice
- bring relief and support to communities
and peoples who suffer from the effects of US military violence
- build common cause and mutuality with all
movements for social justice and transformation, both within
this society and throughout the world
Specifically, we will call for:
- An immediate reversal of the trend
for increased military spending, and no less than a fifty percent
reduction in military spending in the first decade of the new
millennium. Our goal is the total elimination of military spending
and the eventual dismantling of all military institutions.
- The global abolition of nuclear weapons,
first through the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty by the US Senate, and then through US leadership and
support for a Nuclear Weapons Convention to conclude an international
treaty for total nuclear disarmament.
- The eradication of the global arms
trade, and broad economic conversion to a peace-centered national
and global economy
- Full United States compliance with
all the provisions of the Panama Canal Treaty, including both
complete military withdrawal from Panama by December 31, 1999,
and compliance with the responsibility to clean up hazardous
waste and dangerous ordnance. Further, the United States government
must disclose to the government of Panama all pertinent information
pertaining to chemical weapons storage and testing on Panamanian
territory.
- Ratification of the Optional Protocol
on the Rights of the Child, with an end to the military recruitment
of children under the age of eighteen, and the dismantling of
all school-based military training programs.
- Strong measures to stop violence against
women in the military.
- Closing the School of the Americas
- An immediate end to economic sanctions and
military strikes against the Iraqi people, and the pursuit of
nonviolent and diplomatic solutions to the unresolved issues
between the Iraqi and United States governments.
We believe in the unity of the vision of Dr.
King in our opposition not only to military violence, but to racial
and economic injustice as well. Further, we believe that peace
and justice, and ultimately the Beloved Community of humankind,
will ultimately be realized only when the institution of war is
totally abolished. It is not just a human right to refuse war
and work for peace: it is a human imperative.
This People's
Campaign for Nonviolence, and our work for disarmament, is
a call to re-energize this vision, to amplify it, and to rededicate
it to the ultimate goal of total disarmament as a necessary cornerstone
in the building of the Kingdom of God.
Truly, the God of Peace calls us, in the prophetic
spirit of Isaiah, to beat our swords into plowshares, and study
war no more.
For more information about the FOR
Peace and Disarmament Program, contact the program's
coordinator Ibrahim Ramey at the FOR National Office, e-mail disarm@forusa.org.
