Dear Secrerary of State,
Our government – invested in saving lives, or destroying them
At WILPF UK – the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – we believe that disarmament and arms control must always be approached through the lens of international humanitarian law and as an imperative for human rights and human security. We believe that the debate must begin to shift away from weapons as tools for so-called “state security” and instead focus on the necessity of human beings to be protected against the impacts of such weapons.
We seek a world free from weapons, violence and war, and have been doing so for over 110 years.
Militarism is a destructive and oppressive system that diverts society’s resources towards weapons and war, a mindset and culture that weaponises security and gender relations, a facilitator of armed conflict and violence worldwide and a contributor to the climate emergency.
We read in the press this week about the £240 billion destined for the UK nuclear arms programme to replace Trident – research reported by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Yet escalation in this industry contravenes the UK’s nuclear disarmament obligations. Far from making us safer, excessive military expenditure, unregulated arms trade and the possession of nuclear weapons are some of the primary impediments to real security. We also oppose nuclear weapons because they offer us neither deterrence nor security, but the very opposite, making us a target simply for their possession.
Not only do we deplore the UK’s ongoing and escalating investment in nuclear weapons on moral, ethical, humanitarian, democratic and environmental grounds, we feel it is tragic that huge expenditure on such weapons that can never actually keep us “safe” – and can never be used – is diverting money from desperately needed public funds. It is impossible to imagine a moment when the decision would be made to use one of these bombs and kill hundreds of thousands of civilians in one go. It is impossible to imagine a scenario that could prompt such a choice. It is impossible to imagine what debate would take place to say “now is the moment to destroy our world.”
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has revealed the total amount of savings the government could make if it funded public services instead of investing in the war machine, services that would transform our society for the better. For example, £240 billion would pay for:
• 220,000 extra nurses
• 3.7 million affordable homes
• tuition fees for eight million students
• installing solar panels on every home
We welcome your comments, and reassurance that we have a government invested in saving lives, not destroying them.
Yours in peace