We now have an international treaty – the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – which prohibits everything to do with nuclear weapons. 122 countries voted for it and many more will eventually sign it. If every country signed, ratified and implemented this treaty, that would be the end of nuclear weapons, forever. The big stumbling block to actual elimination of these weapons is getting the United States and the other 8 nuclear weapons on board.

Campaign at the US Federal level

We recognize that the present political climate in the US is not conducive to signing this treaty, and that there will be enormous opposition to this from vested interests within the military-industrial complex, who have enormous power and influence over the federal government. We also accept that there will be strong resistance in many quarters to the thought of the US giving up its nuclear weapons ‘unilaterally,’ without a commitment from the other 8 nuclear weapon states to do likewise.

Therefore, as a first step toward signing the treaty, we are asking the US President to commit to signing the treaty. This would be a demonstration of political will in favor of signing the treaty, prior to actually signing it. It opens to door to signing, but is also an invitation to the other 8 nuclear weapon states to do the same.

Steps towards compliance with the treaty

By calling for the US President to commit to the Nuclear Ban Treaty, we are also asking the US government to start a process that will be need to be gone through, at some point, in order to comply with the treaty. As the US goes through the steps of this process, it would be sending out very strong signals to the other 8 nuclear weapon states and giving them time to respond to each step.

These steps would include setting up a Presidential Commission to look into the details of what will be required to comply with the treaty (and to seriously address climate change), including the re-deployment of military assets and personnel, the re-tooling of nuclear weapons-related industries, the re-skilling of nuclear weapons workers, and the re-development of affected communities.

The Presidential Commission would need to prepare the Declaration of Non-Compliance that must be submitted to the UN Secretary-General on signing the Treaty. It would need to develop the time-bound, verifiable Compliance Action Plan for the irreversible elimination of all US nuclear weapons. This must be submitted to the other States Parties to the treaty once the US has signed it.

Signing the treaty would by this point be a relatively simple step. Ratification by the Senate, however, would require the passing of a Legally Binding Instrument that commits the United States to the full implementation of the Compliance Action Plan within an agreed period of time. This is the most important requirement in the treaty.

The final step to treaty compliance would be the verification, by the other countries who have signed the Treaty and through the procedures of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that the United States is indeed in compliance with the treaty.

Bringing along the other nuclear weapon states

Whether or how the other 8 nuclear weapon states conclude their own processes of signing and implementing the treaty is not under our control as citizens of the United States. However, it is absolutely crystal clear from the history of disarmament negotiations over the last 50 years, that if the United States were to take the initiative on this, others would follow. There would certainly be ample time to pressure those other countries into doing so before the US actually signed, ratified or implemented the treaty.

The treaty itself provides a clear pathway for the US and the other nuclear weapons states to be able to sign the treaty and then eliminate their nuclear arsenals. The technicalities of actually getting rid of the weapons have already been worked out. Once there is the political will to sign the Treaty, the process for doing so in conjunction with the other nuclear states can be easily created. It is our job as US citizens to ensure that there is sufficient political pressure on our own politicians that they eventually agree to sign it.

Building political pressure

There is no one way to build the political pressure necessary to achieve this goal. We must work on many fronts and with as many different allies as we can. However, we must not let up on the pressure by agreeing to half-measures and partial victories that stop short of signing the Treaty and eliminating all nuclear weapons. We have been here before. However successful the Nuclear Freeze movement was at raising public awareness about the nuclear issue in the 1980s, the fact is that it failed ultimately to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The strategy of NuclearBan.US is based more on the Nuclear-Free Zone movement of the 1980s than on the Nuclear Freeze. Both were important, but the NFZ movement managed to challenge the nuclear industry in ways that the Freeze could not. By passing local laws and ordinances, NFZs were able to restrict the freedom of the nuclear industry to do as it pleased. By severing contracts and divesting from nuclear weapons-related companies, NFZs were able to actually inflict financial punishment on those companies. And by stigmatizing the nuclear industry and everything to do with nuclear weapons, NFZs began to undermine the national consensus that props up the nuclear weapons business and the idea that these weapons are somehow ‘okay’.

We can do much more today with the Treaty as our focal point.

  • We can be getting people to write and talk to their Members of Congress about urging the President to commit to signing the Treaty.
  • We can be asking Members of Congress themselves to commit to the Treaty by signing ICAN’s international parliamentary ‘pledge’.
  • We can be working to get cities and states to become ‘treaty aligned’ even if the current President does not sign the Treaty.
  • And we can be building momentum for these larger goals by getting individuals, faith communities, schools, businesses and other associations and institutions to sign on to the idea of being ‘treaty aligned,’ to the extent they are able.

State level organizing

One strategy for putting pressure on the federal government is to get individual states to commit themselves to the Treaty. Fifteen states have already committed to meeting the targets of the Paris Climate Accords, despite whatever the federal government may do. The Nuclear Ban Treaty is a similar example of the federal government going against the global consensus on how to deal with an existential threat to humanity. We can work on states to make a similar commitment to adhere to the Nuclear Ban Treaty as best they can – despite the federal government’s refusal to sign it.

In states where there is a good level of support for the Treaty in the state legislature and/or in the Governor’s office, it may be possible to move swiftly to Treaty Alignment, starting with a public commitment and the formation of a Treaty Compliance Commission at the state level. Some states may require a letter-writing campaign and other lobbying with state representatives and key officials to get this moving, while in other states it may require a citizen’s campaign to collect signatures and get a ballot initiative onto the state ballot in 2020.

Before attempting to get states on board with Treaty Alignment, the first step in most states will be to get cities, towns and counties on board. This will build momentum, especially if part of the local level campaign is about calling on the state to also become Treaty Aligned.

City, Town and County level

One way to get states to proclaim their intention to work towards compliance with the Treaty is to target cities, towns and counties in that state. Our first targets here are the 220 Nuclear Free Zones (NFZ) in the US that existed in the 1980s. Many of these passed strict ordinances prohibiting everything to do with nuclear weapons within their jurisdiction and are already Treaty Aligned. The NFZs of Berkeley, CA, Takoma Park, MD, and others are already working on resolutions to tie their NFZ status to the Nuclear Ban Treaty.

We will also target the 211 Mayors for Peace (MfP) cities and towns in the US, who have already signed a ‘covenant’ committing them to work as a city towards the total elimination of all nuclear weapons. This reads, in part:

“…Our goal is to maintain environments that enable citizens to lead safe, cultural lives, and to contribute to the attainment of lasting world peace. To this end, we pledge to make every effort to create an inter-city solidarity transcending national boundaries and ideological differences in order to achieve the total abolition of nuclear weapons and avert the recurrence of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedies…”

In both the NFZ and MfP cities we need to make contact with people attached to local government as Mayors, City Councilors, NFZ Committee Members, etc., who are already committed to this as an ideal and with whom we can work to strengthen that commitment. The MfP city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has already taken a lead nationally in divesting its municipal pension fund of nuclear weapons-related investments.

Organizational Level

Local and state authorities have legal status. They can pass laws and ordinances, impose penalties for violating those laws and ordinances, and enlist police, courts and the prison system to enforce those penalties.

There are many private institutions, however, which also have legal authority within their own limited jurisdiction. The boards of private schools, colleges and universities can make decisions about investments, as well as about which research contracts to accept or not to accept. Such decisions are binding for those institutions, and therefore relevant to Treaty Alignment. Banks and other financial institutions can also determine which companies they choose to invest in or not to invest in, loan to or not loan to. The boards of many other private institutions – faith communities, social clubs, unions, businesses, community projects, hospitals and other organizations – all have legal jurisdiction over their own funds and how they are spent.

Individual Level

When it comes to individuals, we also have control over our own spending and investments (if not exactly over our own taxes). We can choose which companies to invest in and which suppliers to buy from. At this level, Treaty Alignment is about putting consumer pressure on the nuclear weapons companies to get out of the nuclear weapons business – and ideally into the business of addressing climate change.

The campaign for Treaty Alignment is most of all about getting local and state authorities to take their Treaty responsibility seriously as a precursor to the federal government signing the Treaty. But as a campaign, it is vital to involve people where they are and to have things that they can do in their everyday spheres to contribute to the global elimination of nuclear weapons.