- The Guardian
- Issue #2121
NATO has begun nuclear war drills over western Europe. Exercise Steadfast Noon tests the nuclear capability of non-nuclear weapons states under the US’s “nuclear umbrella,” with Dutch F-35A jets declared “ready to perform nuclear roles” for the first time.
NATO’s aggressive posturing is sparking a new arms race. The US is spending US$1.5 trillion on upgrading its nuclear arsenal. Britain too is increasing its stockpile of nuclear weapons.
But it is above all the US which has dismantled barriers to nuclear conflict. It was the US which tore up the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, a landmark achievement which saw US and Soviet missiles removed from Europe. Now the missiles are coming back. The US is redeploying them across Europe, including in Germany and Britain.
Europe is already the battlefield for a proxy war between NATO and Russia: these deployments will make it the battleground should that war escalate to direct conflict between nuclear powers.
Nuclear war is also brought closer by the development of “lower-yield tactical” nuclear weapons, again led by the US, which equipped its submarine fleet with the weapons under Donald Trump.
The consequence of their use would be to end the taboo on using nuclear weapons that has held since their only ever use in war – by the United States against Japan in 1945.
We need to relearn the fear of nuclear conflict that inspired a mass peace movement during the original cold war.
PARASITE OF THE WEEK: is the Albanese government in its support of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. In January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judged the case against Israel for crimes under the Genocide Convention to be plausible. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants for senior Israeli leaders – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In July, the ICJ further ruled that Israel’s decades-long occupation of Gaza, and the West Bank including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and found Israel guilty of violating the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. Most recently, in September, the United Nations general assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for the implementation of the July ruling of the ICJ, including through sanctions against Israel.
Palestinian trade unionists are at the forefront of their people’s struggle for freedom and justice. Workers in key sectors – notably health workers and journalists – have frequently borne the brunt of Israel’s genocidal violence. A damning UN investigation found Israel guilty of committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination through its relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities in Gaza.
Since October 2023, at least 128 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel. Trade unions in Palestine have called upon their counterparts and all people of conscience around the world to take action to demand a ceasefire and to put pressure on governments and institutions to stop arming Israel.
