Contact:
Move the Nuclear Weapons Money
www.nuclearweaponsmoney.org
info@nuclearweaponsmoney.org
Other Related Projects and Groups:
Divest from the War Machine:
www.divestfromwarmachine.org
Divest/Invest
www.divestinvest.org
CalSTRS: Divest from General Dynamics
https://www.codepink.org/calstrs
Don’t Bank on the Bomb
https://www.dontbankonthebomb.com/take-action-for-divestment/public/
National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee
https://nwtrcc.org/programs-events/action-ideas/divest-war-invest-people/
Mission:
One trillion dollars is being spent to modernize the nuclear arsenals of nine countries over the next 10 years. This money could instead be used to help end poverty, protect the climate, build global peace and achieve the sustainable development goals.
Help us move the nuclear weapons money to better purposes! Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign is promoting cuts in nuclear weapons budgets, divestment from the nuclear weapons industry, and reallocation of these budgets and investments to support peace, climate and the sustainable development goals. Partner organizations hold similar campaigns on divestment from fossil fuels and conventional weapons industries.
The anti-nuclear weapons campaign has been boosted by the UN Global Compact adding nuclear weapons to its list of excluded investments, and the UN Human Rights Committee adopting General Comment 36, which affirms that the threat or use of nuclear weapons violates the Right to Life. Activists are also referring to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (‘Ban Treaty’) and the International Court of Justice 1996 nuclear weapons case to convince their cities, universities, governments, pension funds and banks to end their investments in nuclear weapons.
Move the Nuclear Weapons Money is also organising public actions such as Count the Nuclear Weapons Money. While governments met at the United Nations for United Nations Disarmament Week and the UN General Assembly, Oct 24-30, 2019, we counted the money by hand— $100 million per minute in $1 million dollar notes, in front of the United Nations and at other publicly visible places in New York City. Counting took seven days and nights. Teams included people of all ages, nations, backgrounds; celebrities, activists, politicians, UN officials, diplomats, artists, religious leaders, sportspeople, refugees and others. Contact us for future activities.
Here are some people counting billions of dollars.
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NY City’s Pension Fund Divests
In January 2018, New York City decided to divest the city’s $189bn pension funds from fossil fuel companies within the next five years. Now the city looks set to also divest from the nuclear weapons industry.
Last Tuesday (January 28, 2020), the Council held public hearings on draft Resolution 0976 which calls on New York City to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and divest from the nuclear weapons industry, and on Initiative 1621 to reaffirm New York City as a nuclear weapons-free zone and establish an advisory committee to implement this status.
The draft measures were introduced to the council in June 2019 by Council members Daniel Dromm, Helen Rosenthal and Ben Kallos. Since then, New York peace, climate and disarmament activists have been campaigning to build endorsement from enough council members for the adoption of these two measures.
The campaign has included directed research, lobbying of councillors, public events & actions, and open letters in support such as the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money Open letter to New York City Council sent to every city councillor in November 2019.
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‘City of New York pension funds should not be used to support any aspect of nuclear weapons production, plain and simple,’ Councillor Helen Rosenthal told a support action organised by the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign in front of City Hall in October 2019.
‘Helping to fund nuclear proliferation (whether directly via investments in weapons manufacturers, or indirectly via Citibank and other financial institutions with ties to weapons makers) runs contrary to what this city and our 300,000+ municipal workers stand for. Our teachers, fire fighters, social workers, and so many other public sector workers have devoted their careers to making life better for their fellow New Yorkers. We cannot in good conscience assist in underwriting the catastrophic loss of life and environmental ruin that would result from a nuclear conflict.’
Impact of NYC nuclear weapons divestment:
New York City pensions have approximately $480 million invested in the nuclear weapons industry. The divestment of this amount would probably not make any financial impact on the weapons manufacturers.
However, it would serve as a positive example of an action that can be taken by cities and other investors to align their investments with their ethical values. And it would give support to federal initiatives to cut nuclear weapons budgets, such as the SANE Act introduced into the U.S. Senate by PNND Co-President Ed Markey and the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act, introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by PNND Member Eleanor Holmes-Norton.
The Hearings:
The public hearings on Thursday were run jointly by Council member Daniel Dromm and Council member Fernando Cabrera, chair of the NYC Committee on Governmental Operations. They included testimony from a wide range of New Yorkers and civil society organisations, including from labour, education, academia, finance, health, religious and law sectors and from communities impacted by the production, testing and use of nuclear weapons. Witnesses stretched in age from 19-90. Click here for a video of the testimonies.
As the public hearings opened on Thursday, the two measures were one-vote short of a veto-proof majority. By the end of the hearings, Council Member Fernando Cabrera had affirmed his support thus ensuring the required votes for adoption. As such, it looks fairly certain that the measures will be adopted.
New York Administration resistance addressed by Move the Nuclear Weapons Money
One unresolved issue from the hearings is which city department would oversee the implementation of the two measures. Another issue is what resources, including budget, would be required for implementation and from where these would come.
The New York City administration was represented by Ms Penny Abeywardena, New York City’s Commissioner for International Affairs, who argued that her department (the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs) had neither the resources nor the mandate to implement the measures if they were adopted. She argued that her department was responsible for building good working relations between NY City and the United Nations, educating youth about the United Nations, and reporting to the UN on NYC’s implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, but not to engage in national security policy or international disarmament which was the mandate for the Federal government – not the city.
Mr Jonathan Granoff, representing Move the Nuclear Weapons Money, responded in his oral testimony that the remit from these resolutions was not that the City engage in advocacy at the United Nations, but rather to implement obligations arising from the UN that are applicable to cities as well as to federal governments. This is exactly what her department is doing with respect to SDGs, and is what they have a mandate to do for nuclear disarmament.
‘The very first resolution of the United Nations, which was adopted by consensus, affirmed a universal commitment to abolish atomic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and this is further affirmed as an obligation in the Non-Proliferation Treaty ,’ said Mr Granoff, who is also President of Global Security Institute and an internationally respected lawyer.
‘Ms Abeywardena, in outlining her department’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, seems to be unaware that SDG 16 includes the obligation to implement such international law at all levels of government, including at city level. As such, the Commission on International Affairs does indeed have the mandate to implement these measures if and when they are adopted.’
With regard to the human resources required to implement the measures, Mr Granoff agreed with Ms Abeywardena that her commission and the City Council did not have much expertise on nuclear weapons. ‘This is exactly why an advisory committee is required – to provide that expertise, and that expertise is here in this room, and you can have our expertise for free. The only resource standing in the way of getting rid of nuclear weapons is emotional, spiritual and political will.’
New York City and Mayors for Peace:
The written testimony of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money included a proposal that a key action New York City should take in implementing the resolutions once adopted would be for them to join Mayors for Peace.
Jackie Cabassso, North America Representative for Mayors for Peace, in her oral testimony outlined some of the actions of Mayors for Peace – including introduction of nuclear disarmament resolutions that were adopted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Ms Cabasso reminded the City Council of the invitation from Mayors for Peace to New York to join, and urged she that they do so.
We have a blog too
Welcome to this action page. We welcome your actions to cut nuclear weapons budgets and end investments in the nuclear weapons industry. Check out our blog for updates and exciting actions. http://www.nuclearweaponsmoney.org/news/
Two Campaigns Could Work Together
I have read that every year the fossil fuel industries receive $5 trillion in subsidies. What I wonder is whether the two campaigns could work together in a money-counting project that shows where the money could be spent better and what can be done with that money.
Combining with the Fossil Fuels Opposition?
Dear Tom, Thank you for the suggestion. It was good to see that Greta Thunberg raised the issue of fossil fuel subsidies when she was in New York, and this has helped get some momentum behind the campaign to end the subsidies. When we counted out the nuclear weapons money over 7 days and nights in NY, we focused on re-allocation of this money to supporting the climate. BUt we did not address the issue of the fossil fuel subsidies. I can raise your idea with leaders in the climate movement to see if we might be able to do something along those lines… It could be very effective…
Alyn
How much influence does the Global Compact have?
Interesting that the Global Compact now bans investments in nuclear weapons. Now we need to know how much influence the Global Compact has. For example, what percentage of the world’s corporations have adopted it. And isn’t it a voluntary thing? What if they say they follow the Global Compact but don’t actually do so? What happens?
“Controversial Weapons?”
Dear Mavis,
Unfortunately the nuclear weapons lobby (and the pro nuclear governments) have already hit back and told the UN Global Compact that they should have not gone so far as to add the nuclear weapons industry to the exclusion list for investments. As such, it appears as though the Compact has partially withdrawn, as they have replaced the Sep 2017 guidelines with updated guidelines that only mention ‘controversial weapons’.
In any case, you are correct that the guidelines are indeed guidelines. They are not compulsory for the 12,000 financial institutions that are members.
Alyn
So what’s next?
That’s a great start. Now please tell us what follow-up activities are planned.
Dear Nirmala,
We invite you (and others) to join the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money social media campaign. Send us a quote and your photo and we will turn this into a meme for social media promotion. Send to info@nuclearweaponsmoney.org. Memes are posted on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pg/CTNWM/photos/?ref=page_internal
Alyn
Counting Out the Money
From October 24-30 (UN Disarmament Week), a team of volunteers in New York City counted out $542 billion – the approximate global nuclear weapons budget for the next five years – and symbolically reallocated this to climate protection, poverty alleviation and the Sustainable Development Goals. The money was counted in 542,000 mock notes each of value $1million.
The event was part of a global campaign to cut nuclear weapons budgets, end investments in the nuclear weapons industry and re-direct these budgets and investments to peace, disarmament, climate protection and sustainable development.
‘Most people have no idea how much is $1 billion, let alone $500 billion, says Holger Gūssefeld, World Future Council adviser and conceiver of the money counting project. ‘By counting this note-by-note we come to realise the absolute insanity of investing so much money in devices designed to bring unimaginable misery into the world instead of using these precious resources to solve the global social, humanitarian and environmental problems.’
‘We had hoped to count 1 million notes to make up $1 trillion, the nuclear weapons budget for the next ten years’ said Susanna Choe, Co-founder of Peace Accelerators and one of the main money counters. ‘But this amount of money is so vast, that even counting with notes of $1million and with many volunteers counting, it was too much.’
We filled basket after basket with billions of dollars,’ said Bill Kidd, Member of the Scottish Parliament and another of the main money counters. ‘This money could protect the climate, end poverty, ensure universal health care, support peace and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals if it were not wasted on nuclear weapons.’
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Money counting from the United Nations to the City
The money counting started at the United Nations and then continued at various locations around the city including:
With Students Strike 4 Climate (Fridays for Future) in front of the United Nations;
Outside Jacobs Engineering, a nuclear weapons contractor, during which a letter was delivered to the company informing them of the divestment campaign against them;
In front of New York City Hall, to support initiatives for the City Council to end investments by NYC pension funds in nuclear weapons companies, and to establish a public committee to advance NYC’s role as a nuclear-weapon-free zone;
At Strawberry Fields in Central Park (a location honoring John Lennon), Washington Square Park (wth New York University students) and at the Gandhi statue in Union Square;
The Hub in the Chelsea neighourhood of New York City, where most of the money was counted and re-allocated to baskets representing the 17 SDGs.
The money counting action was part of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money, a global campaign to cut nuclear weapons, end investments in the nuclear weapons industry and re-direct these budgets and investments to peace and sustainable development. (See New anti-nuclear campaign to stop funding of nuclear weapons, Associated Press).
“The nuclear weapons industry is powerful and wealthy, and has a stranglehold on the political process in most of the nuclear armed states,” said Alyn Ware, Co-founder of the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign. “But we can take back this power by supporting legislative efforts to cut nuclear weapons budgets, and by ending investments by our cities, universities, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and banks in the nuclear weapons industry.”
U.S. Senator Markey, an endorser of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money, used the opportunity of the money counting week to introduce an updated version of the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditure (SANE) Act. The Act, which was introduced also into the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Blumenauer, aims to improve national security and budgetary sanity by cutting redundant and destabilizing nuclear weapons programs.
‘The United States should fund education, not annihilation; that is our future,’ said Senator Markey. ‘We need sanity when crafting America’s budget priorities, and more and improved nuclear weapons defies common sense. The SANE Act cuts nuclear weapons and delivery systems that we don’t need so we can invest in the people and programs that will make America safe and prosperous in the future.’
We encourage U.S. citizens to call on your congress members to endorse the SANE Act.
Senator Ed Markey, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament and lead sponsor of the SANE Act. Markey is also co-author with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Green New Deal.
Money countings in other cities/countries
There were also countings of smaller amounts of nuclear weapons money in London, New Mexico, Philadelphia and New Zealand.
In London, a counting of £5.2 billion in 10,400 notes of £500,000 each was organised by Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War and held on Saturday 26 October outside the Ministry of Defence. See Photos of the London event, London Count the nuclear weapons money action flyer or visit the London event facebook page.
In New Mexico there were counting events at Taos Plaza (Taos), State Capital Roundhouse (Santa Fe), Socorro Plaza Gazebo (Socorro) and outside the Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos). The events were organised by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety in cooperation with Youth United for Climate Crisis Action and Taosenos for Peaceful and Sustainable Futures. See Activists Count ‘Nuclear Weapons Money’ In Los Alamos (Los Alamos Reporter), Photos of the New Mexico countings and the blog $13 billion of public money to be counted for peace at New Mexico nuclear weapons facilities.
In Philadelphia, a counting of $4.5 billion was held on October 24 at City Hall Philadelphia Courtyard organised by the Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia. The event include songs led by the Grannies such as ‘We are a gaggle of Grannies’. See Photos of the Philadelphia counting and some videos of the counting action.
In New Zealand, a counting event was organised in the New Zealand Parliament co-hosted by PNND Member Louisa Wall MP and the United Nations Association of NZ. New Zealand banned nuclear weapons by legislation adopted in parliament in 1987, and has followed up by ending nuclear weapons investments by government managed funds.
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With Pink Floyd
Counting the Nuclear Weapons Money!
Here’s Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) giving a mock million dollar note to Alyn Ware, Director of the Basel Peace Office and Co-founder of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money. Rgoer says that it should be used to support children, peace and the environment – not nuclear weapons. (Image by Basel Peace Office)