A letter to religious leaders

With the help of Bruce Kent and Christian CND, we have written a letter calling religious leaders to participate in the London Nuclear Ban Communities initiative. We hope it will help you collect pledge signatures from religious individuals in your locality.

We’ve added it to the Toolkit among other letters to London Borough Councils, Majority Groups, Councillors, local organisations and local Labour Parties. You can find the Toolkit below:

The letter

Dear [NAME ]

[I / We] write to seek your support for the London Nuclear Ban Communities initiative, which encourages London to join the growing ranks of cities pledging their support for a global ban on nuclear weapons internationally.

The London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is part of a peace campaign taking place across Britain to persuade the UK government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which passed into international law on 22 January 2021.

Nuclear weapons are capable of murdering millions of innocent people by the press of a button. There is no faith on earth which would support such a position, and the leaders and members of all the major faiths have opposed nuclear weapons since their invention. People of faith have hope for a better world where we can be rid of this threat.

[I / We] enclose:

·        an appeal for support from Emma Dent-Coad, who is leading the campaign in London,

·        The London Nuclear Ban Communities Pledge, which can also be signed directly on our website: https://www.londoncnd.org/sign-the-pledge
   

[I /We] would be pleased to discuss this initiative further with you and/or let you have more information about the Treaty and the campaign. Please get in touch [contact details]

Yours in peace,

Links

-        For Christian leaders, link Christian CND’s page on the Biblical case against nuclear weapons https://christiancnd.org.uk/the-biblical-case-against-nuclear-weapons/

-        For leaders of other faiths, link Religions for Peace (https://www.rfp.org/)

No to a new nuclear arms race

The UK government has announced it will increase the number of nuclear warheads in its arsenal for the first time since the Cold War. It will also stop publishing figures on the size of its nuclear stockpile.

Increasing our nuclear stockpile does nothing to protect Britain from the real threats we confront, and flies in the face of growing public support for nuclear disarmament. London CND believes this change of direction will make this country and the world less safe by triggering a new nuclear arms race.

We will be bringing you more in the months ahead, meanwhile CND already has a number of activities planned. Check them out here.

Feel free to dowload and share the placards below on social media.

London CND priorities for 2021

The London CND Annual General Meeting took place on Monday 22 March 2021. These two motions were adopted on this occasion, setting the priorities for London CND this year:

London CND priorities for 2021

1. London Regional CND’s 2021 Annual General Meeting acknowledges the difficulties of campaigning within the constraints imposed by the pandemic and recognises that some restrictions are likely to continue in the year ahead.

2. We welcome the steps taken by London CND to adjust to this new environment, improve our use of digital platforms, and develop new campaigning tools and methods.

3. Within this context, our campaigning priorities for 2021 shall be:

   a. Using all opportunities to call for the scrapping of Trident,

   b. Developing the London Nuclear Ban initiative to help generate pressure for the UK government to sign and ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and

   c. Continuing to oppose UK participation in foreign military adventures.

4. We will maximise our campaigning resources, including by:

   d. Holding public events and activities on zoom,

   e. Continuing to develop effective and professional social media,

   f. Joining forces with others to get our message across, and

   g. Working with Y&S CND to encourage a new generation of activists.

Emergency Motion: Integrated Review

1. London Regional CND Annual General Meeting is outraged at the government’s announcement of a 40% increase in the stockpile of UK nuclear warheads, announced as part of the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy published on 16 March 2021.

2. We are mindful that:

   a. Britain already has an arsenal of around 200 nuclear warheads, each of which is eight times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb;

   b. the increase in the stockpile runs counter to the UK’s international legal obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which requires Britain to takes steps to disarm our nuclear arsenal, and

   c. comes at the same time that the United States and Russian Federation have renewed their commitment to bilateral nuclear reductions with the Treaty for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, known as the New START Treaty.

3. This AGM believes:

   d. this increase in the UK’s nuclear stockpile will do nothing to protect Britain from the actual threats we face,

   e. flies in the face of growing public support for the global abolition of nuclear weapons, and

   f. is likely to make this country and the world less safe by triggering a new nuclear arms race.

4. We therefore instruct London CND Committee to do all in its power to draw attention to the many consequences of an increase in the UK’s nuclear stockpile and take all opportunities available to campaign against it.