How can we ensure that the people of Europe are informed of the silent threat to which we are subjected?

Will Spanish politicians talk about this issue in the election campaign? Will they commit to signing the TPNW and work for the elimination of nuclear weapons? Let’s demand it!

While in Europe there is only talk of Brexit and riots in Catalonia, distracting us from the real problems we citizens have, governments bow their heads and kneel once again before the imposition of the US, participating in a game of how to respond to a possible nuclear war on European soil, a game which Russia has joined in with.

The world in general and the people of Europe, in particular, live on a stage, on which we are held prisoner and anesthetized, and where madmen play Russian roulette with nuclear ‘bullets’.

Until when will this be ignored? Until when the silence? When will we wake up to understand the danger in which we are living? What answer will we give?

In the above, we are not denying the right to self-determination or the deep feeling of a good part of the Catalan or British population. Far from it.  But a percentage of British voters who said yes to Brexit and of Catalans who want independence expressed this position as a rejection of issues that are of a different kind and that affect more than the state in which they live.

We are talking about forms of government that are in question (monarchy vs. republic), about the lack of real democracy, about the urgent need for constitutions that prioritise people, about the accumulation of wealth that is passing from the many to the few in an unbridled manner – as rulers become treasurers of the public sector at the service of the private sector, of the permanent threat from Brussels if the government deficit rises because it endangers the huge profits of the corporations for which they legislate, of the soaring prices of housing, the corruption that spans governments, parties, institutions, etc., These and many others are the reasons that, in our opinion, are partly fuelling independence.

By the way, these are the same causes behind the mobilizations that are taking place in every continent simultaneously for other supposed reasons.

But let’s get back to the nuclear danger we live in and don’t know about.

As we have reported, manoeuvres are taking place in response to a possible nuclear war and are being carried out in central Europe while other manoeuvres have been carried out in the south to prove that Spain can be NATO’s spearhead in the face of possible ‘maritime risks’ for the Alliance. Why don’t we even know that Spain did not even participate in negotiations on the UN approved the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)? Why did Pedro Sánchez finally fail to fulfil the promise made to Pablo Iglesias -in the investiture agreement- that Spain would sign the Treaty… if there are is no impediment to doing so? These are questions with no official answer.

But we’ll keep insisting. We aren’t content to be mere observers of danger, barbarism and foolishness.

Faced with the threat in which we live, as citizens, we can do different things to make it visible: from moving our savings or pension plans to banks and institutions that do not invest in nuclear or conventional weapons (ethical banking), to demanding that our politicians sign the TPNW and work actively for nuclear disarmament, among many other measures.

In the specific case of Spain, we can take advantage of the fact that we are entering a new election campaign which culminates on the 10th of November. In order to do so, we propose to our readers that they ask all the political forces the following questions:

  • What is your position on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?
  • Do you support its signature and ratification?
  • If so, are you willing to defend it publicly in this election campaign so that people know the danger in which they live and can demand that the new government sign the TPNW?

The answer -at least in Spain- we will know publicly in a few days when they start asking us for our votes. Then, we will check whether the politicians who claim to represent us care about human life and the planet -as they say they do- or are moved only by electoral calculations.

On our side as humanists, from Pressenza and as part of ICAN, we will continue to insist. We are encouraged by the need to work for the survival of human consciousness and the environment – the planet – of which it is a part and with which it constitutes a single body.