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November 20, 2024 Bulletin 352: Please help support the Study Group! Permalink for this bulletin (please forward!). Previously: Bulletin 351 (Oct. 11, 2024): TOMORROW: Community briefing, volunteer training: U.S.-Russian relations & the Ukraine War, the criminality of nuclear weapons Dear friends and colleagues -- With the election finally in the rear-view mirror -- let's pause here for a breath or two, because it really is over -- new challenges, and new opportunities for peace and for nuclear disarmament lie before us. Nuclear disarmament lies in the hazy distance, on the other side of peace in Ukraine and beyond the end of the U.S. "rules based international order." There aren't any shortcuts, and the going will be tough but rewarding. Russophobia rages along with actual war with Russia, which is happening as we speak. The threat of war looms over U.S. relations with Iran and China. U.S. support for Israeli genocide continues -- it is heartbreaking and it merits our full outrage. The reality that security must be shared in order to exist at all has to be squarely faced and accepted here in the U.S. -- accepted, for starters, among those of us who are working for peace. But whether we accept it or not, the "rules based order" tide -- colonialism 2.0 -- has peaked and is ebbing fast. In fact that (dis-)order is dying now in the fields and towns of the Donbass, in the very positive atmosphere and growth of BRICs, and in the minds and hearts of citizens across the Western world who are weary of war, bloodshed, and mistaken priorities. Despite this sea-change, our dementia-addled President has given permission for U.S. soldiers and airmen to strike historic Russia with long-range U.S. weapons, in order to prolong the war and prevent peace. He has also begun sending antipersonnel mines, banned by most of the world, to Ukraine. Russia's first response has been to revise its nuclear doctrine, loosening the conditions under which nuclear weapons can be used. Great -- thanks, Joe. And as is reported today, British Storm Shadow cruise missiles have now been used in attacks against historic Russia. This requires direct involvement by British and U.S. assets to program-in the targets and flight paths. The immediate and long-term consequences of these impeachable, mad actions are unknowable, but they aren't good. We urge you to talk to your friends about the urgent need to wind down this war. Send them to our Ukraine page, where they will find an up-to-date selection of pertinent news and analysis, or to the other good resources listed there. We have an opportunity to build the anti-war movement. Let's seize it. No matter what our other priorities may be, we have to. Yes, there's a lot to wring our hands about in the coming U.S. administration as well as in the old. There are also new opportunities. For many reasons, we are sanguine about what we can now do, in the changing historical situation in which we find ourselves. We invite you to join with us, in whatever ways you can. Please help support the Study Group! We seldom ask for financial support, but now is the time of year in which we must do so. We do need your help. Our work is currently supported by about seventy-five individual donors. To those of you in this group, we and all those who depend on us cannot thank you enough. To others on this list who find our work valuable and who want to help support it, please do! There is no time like the present, as they say. There are many ways to contribute. Choose one or more that are right for you. The Study Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All donations to our work are fully tax-deductible, for those who itemize deductions. Candid (formerly Guidestar) has given us its highest "Platinum" rating for nonprofit transparency. We do a lot with a little. How?
We could do a lot more, however, with more resources. We're serious people here who want and get results. That's why we are asking for your help. Working in the real world takes real money. We see a lot of opportunities and we know how to harvest them. Please help us do that. Why support the Study Group, in somewhat more detail? First, we have a long history of successes in defeating, delaying, and legally constraining nuclear weapons projects including plutonium pit production, running back to the early 1990s. Some of our history is summarized here; more can be seen in this archive. We are the only organization in the U.S. that has actually defeated a nuclear weapons project since 2008. Defeat of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF, a pit factory or if you prefer, a factory annex) was very consequential. It changed U.S. nuclear weapons ambitions (as LANL documents we have obtained say). The CMRR-NF was the highest priority infrastructure project at NNSA and indeed for the U.S. nuclear weapons overall, in its time. The delay of pit production that has resulted, together with our earlier victories in the same vein, have delayed production of new warheads. We do not want to count any unhatched chickens, but it is possible or even likely that a genuine nuclear arms race is now out of reach for the United States. How did this happen? Not because of how great we are, because we aren't, but because we saw what was true and we aligned ourselves wholeheartedly with it. Many of you helped us; some -- and you know who you are -- helped tremendously, giving generously of your precious time, or with money. (Some of our government colleagues will read the above and not like it. I am sorry we have to disagree about whether setbacks to the U.S. nuclear weapons program are good or bad, but at the Study Group we do not want a nuclear arms race and we do not want the "unwarranted influence" (Eisenhower) that goes with it. We hope you will consider our dissent healthy, principled, and worthy of respect even if you disagree strongly with us. I (Greg) like Carl Schurz's famous 1871 Senate rebuttal to a jingoistic Senator: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”) (There's a good discussion of the use and misuse of that quotation at the link.) To the rest of our audience: if you want a U.S. empire, and a nuclear arms race, and the "rules based international order," and the "forever wars" and the internal repression that go with all that, don't support us. But if these things aren't your cup of tea, do think about it. Our New Mexico location is a powerful advantage, as well as a handicap. We have helped create, and we continue to educate and sustain, a growing, organic opposition to nuclear weapons activities. The full power of that opposition has yet to be seen. We aim to make that happen in 2025. We have an expansible program with low overhead. As funds are available, elements can be added. We know how to litigate and we are doing that now. We have just won two legal actions over information (more on that later); we have filed an amicus declaration in the South Carolina environment case; we may do more there. We know how to advertise efficiently and we yearn to do more. We know how to run a social media campaign, aimed for example at nuclear workers. We know how to lobby and write policy papers. We want to do more of these things. Beyond the sketch above, it would be folly to lay out in greater detail a program which is not funded. I can say that, in addition to those things already mentioned, we will be hosting civil society dialogues in Los Alamos on topics bearing on U.S.-Russian relations. We also expect to reach out to LANL employees in a number of ways, on as large a scale as we can muster. We also have a number of articles and publications in mind for national audiences. If you have any questions at all about our work, call us. While this Bulletin is oriented toward necessary financial support, we are also looking for volunteer help. Some of the most fun things we do are not at all technical and can be pretty rewarding. We intend to make them very much so. Call or write us. Thank you for your support, and best wishes, Greg Mello, for the Los Alamos Study Group. |
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