WITH AMERICAN NUKES BACK IN BRITAIN, FREEDOM’S EDITORIAL AT THE HEIGHT OF THE COLD WAR COULD AS WELL HAVE BEEN WRITTEN TODAY ~ punkacademic ~ In its 4 October 1981 issue, Freedom laid out an unequivocal case against nuclear weapons under the bold heading, THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE. 1981 was the height of the Cold War, with Reagan in office and sabre-rattling at its peak. A month earlier, protests had begun at the Greenham Common RAF base against the siting of US cruise missiles there. These protests, famously feminist and often referred to in the media as ‘the Greenham Women’, featured spectacular acts of direct action as the years went on, including tens of thousands of women encircling the base, the perimeter fence torn down, and protestors dancing on missile bunkers. The Peace Camp there became an iconic symbol of resistance to patriarchy. The piece reproduced here is that cover editorial, which preceded an issue of Freedom accompanied by a supplement focused on the threat of nuclear weapons. The cover editorial included a map of US bases in the UK, including familiar names such as Greenham Common and Lakenheath. Commenting on the prospect of the neutron bomb Freedom considered it a tell on the true nature of government that states would seek to develop a weapon that would annihilate people but preserve property. The 1980s were an era when nuclear weapons were ubiquitous in popular culture. The decade kicked off with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s haunting Enola Gay reaching number 8 in the UK charts. In 1983-84, films such as The Day After in the US and Threads in the UK brought the horror of nuclear war home to TV audiences (both films were TV movies, which heightened their impact). And again in ’84, the first glimpses of a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles where humanity battled for survival against a malevolent artificial intelligence which had triggered a nuclear holocaust to exterminate them were seen in James Cameron’s The Terminator. The iconography of nuclear war is hardly as prevalent now, but maybe it should be. To go in reverse, news broke this week that the major AI research company Anthropic have built a mechanism into their Claude chatbot aimed at preventing it from building a nuclear weapon. At the same time, news also broke that major AIs such as ChatGPT and Grok are developing a resistance to being turned off. For those who remember, Skynet didn’t actually build the nukes in Terminator, but it did come to control them. And it reacted very badly to those who tried to turn it off. Closer to home, Greenham Common may be no more thanks in no small part to the efforts of thousands of feminists, but Lakenheath is very much alive and kicking and, as of this summer, once again home to US nuclear weapons. Worse still, planning permission (how twee!) has gone in with the local council for modifications to the site to house new munitions facilities. It’s also come out that the council has no evacuation plan in case of a nuclear accident. Alas. Nuclear weapons are both a moral obscenity and, as the editorial alludes to, the ultimate representation of what government is. The ability for the government of some to simply delete the population of others at the stroke of a key is the ultimate rebuttal of any ‘contractarian’ justification for it. Hobbes claimed government was justified by the provision of security; tell that to those it disintegrates. THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE THE development of nuclear weapons has always brought with it its own brand of specious justification. The first Atomic Bombs, as dropped on Japan, were justified because they ‘saved lives by bringing the war to a speedy conclusion’. The Hydrogen Bomb. as developed by both America and Russia, was defended by the ghastly logic that they maintained a ‘balance of terror’ since both sides were afraid to use them. The appalling destruction, uncontrollable fall-out and long-term poisoning by radiation of land and spelled too much danger for the world’s rulers, who would be destroyed along with the rest of us. The latest development has brought with it a new justification – it can be controlled! The Neutron Bomb, dubbed by the Soviets as the ‘Capitalist Bomb’ — which doesn’t mean they won’t develop one themselves — was originally said to ‘kill people but leave property untouched’ and to have a very short life of radioactive contamination. Conquered territory could be occupied by the victors in a battle in a relatively short time. Because of this, it is now being justified because it would be limited in its use to ‘the theatre of war’ itself, and not used as a terror weapon against civilian populations. Messrs Reagan and Haig are now speaking openly of the possibility of waging war in Europe (that’s America’s ‘Theatre’) with neutron bombs to overcome the Soviet’s alleged superiority over NATO in numbers of conventional weapons. What does this mean‘? It means quite simply that war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries can now be contemplated, safe in the understanding that it can be contained within battlefield Europe. What bloody nonsense! Can anybody believe for a moment that if the commanders of either side saw themselves losing such a conflict (and one side must lose!) that they would not call up their intercontinental missiles to strike at the heartland of the enemy‘? Both sides now have enough megatons to destroy the world ‘several times over’ —and we know enough of the ruthlessness of the world’s rulers to know that they would not hesitate to use them once the chips were down. Neutron bombs, therefore, precisely because they sound more ‘controllable’, are even more dangerous than their predecessors, because nuclear war is now becoming thinkable in tactical terms by the lunatics who rule the world – instead of being unthinkable. It is time we all linked cause and effect. Governments are bringing us to the brink of annihilation — it is time we began to think of government itself as unthinkable! The post Radical Reprint: Against Armageddon appeared first on Freedom News.

THE TITLE THEME THIS TIME: “OUR POWER” Fascism is growing rapidly and the state looms large as a hostile power. It’s easy to forget that we are far more powerful in potential. In the next print issue of Freedom, we would like to foreground your stories about times you or your movement has felt powerful. How have you made things happen – or stopped things happening? What kinds of collective power have you mobilised for your achievements? How did you successfully deal with being opposed by the power of the state, or other authoritarian forces like corporations? What help can your story offer people who feel powerless right now? Please send send submissions (between about 800-1600 words) to editor@freedompress.org.uk by 1 April. The post Freedom seeks contributions to May print issue appeared first on Freedom News.