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.

BETWEEN LABOUR’S BAREFACED MILITARISM AND A DOMESTICATED PEACE MOVEMENT, IT FALLS TO ANARCHISTS TO STEP UP RESISTANCE TO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ~ Ned Skinn’ ~ The patriotic flag-waving and bunting to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day has for now kept our attention away from another upcoming anniversary—that of the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The images of destruction and human suffering that followed showed a horrific reality, reflected in ‘what it could be like’ films like Threads. Humanity took a deep breath in and decided no-one wanted that again. It was the fear of ‘mutually assured destruction’ that has, arguably, kept the nuclear peace since then. But now, for the first time in almost 20 years, it has just been announced that American nuclear weapons are to be based on British soil. The British Prime Minister tells us that we must prepare for war. There is talk of conscription and a ‘Dad’s Army’-style volunteer defence corps. The right-wing press tries to sell us the lie that we could survive a nuclear exchange. Businesses are being offered courses on remaining operational during war. Even ‘enemies within’ like Palestine Action are being created and police powers increased to quell potential civil unrest. Against all this, the anarchist movement in this country has a long history of involvement in anti-militarism and resisting nuclear weapons, much of which may have been forgotten. It may be useful to reflect on that past. Shortly after Britain started testing its own nuclear weapons, in 1952, came the first generation of anti-nuclear protestors with the formation of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the more radical Committee of 100. They had massive support from the public and it wasn’t long before the Labour Party realised the potential to gain votes from that support. Public concern, particularly after the global tension created by the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, meant that many believed Labour when they promised, “Vote for us and we’ll ban the bomb!”. As anti-militarists, anarchists had been involved in earlier movements against war, and warned that the Labour Party could not be trusted. Sure enough, in 1964, the ‘ban-the-bomb’ Labour Party returned to government and wasted no time deciding to further develop Britain’s nuclear arsenal. Those lies and that betrayal should have been a lesson to remember forever. Unfortunately, like many movements with radical beginnings, the CND and other peace movement organisations had come to be led by middle-class liberals, Christian pacifists, and entryist state-socialists. Since then, generations of people wanting to ‘do something’ have been drawn into the same dead end of writing to politicians, going on marches, and being encouraged to “vote Labour without illusions” again and again. This attitude carried on into the 1980s’ intensification of the Cold War. Despite mass demonstrations and the camp at Greenham Common, the mainstream leadership of the peace movement continued to channel it all into innocuous protest and and electoral politics. The 1980s also saw a resurgence of the anarchist movement. Interest in what was later to become the Class War Federation started after their presence at CND demos. The anarcho-punk scene and anarchists’ involvement in the animal rights and environmental movements boosted interest in our ideas. Direct action, in all its forms, became popular. Tory attacks on the working class provoked major strikes like the miners, printers and ambulance staff, encouraging class-struggle anarchist politics and leading to the creation of specifically working-class organisations like Anarchist Communist Federation. So, what next? We can only wait and see what effect that recent events have on the wider population, particularly the working-class. I believe things might have to get worse before they get better. With the increasing authoritarianism and militarism of our society and intensified attempts to suppress dissent, the Labour government is showing its true colours. How much will the population take before they rouse from their sleep and do something? We must remain anti-militarist and point out the clear fact that the Labour Party is not the solution but the cause. This will put the left in a quandary, so while we may be small in numbers we must speak and act with integrity. We need to take care but we also need to stand up, shout and get organised. It is anarchism that could provide the kindling that ignites the fire of change. We just need to light that match. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top image: Anti-nuclear blockade at Faslane, 15 April 2013. Ric Lander on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 The post Nuclear weapons on British soil appeared first on Freedom News.