Stop Testing--stop The Arms Race
Between Friday April 7, and Sunday April 16, approximately 4,000 people traveled to the Nevada Nuclear Test Site in the Shoshone desert of southern Nevada. Eleven Ann Arborites, including myself, were among those who participated in Reclaim the Test Site II. We went to protest U. S. nuclear testing policy and the continuance and development of the arms race. In the course of 10 days, over 1,500 arrests were made for acts of civil resistance.
The week of protest at the nuclear test site was organized by American Peace Test (APT). APT has focused on the Nevada Nuclear Test Site for the past three years with an ongoing peace camp sometimes inhabited by as few as one or two people. Last year APT organized the first Reclaim the Test Site. The idea of reclamation refers to the fact that the test site land belongs to the Western Shoshone Indians. Nuclear testing is against the wishes of the Shoshone. The protesters, however, were on the land with Shoshone permission and support. By "trespassing" on Test Site land, we were reclaiming it.
Testing: The Cutting Edge of the Arms Race
With enough weapons to destroy the planet several times over, the arms race is not a numbers race but a technology race. The development of new technologies is part of an attempt to develop anew strategy of military dominance. Since 1960, the U.S. has been tied to the strategy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). MAD is crazy but the strategies of the National Security Council and Joint Chiefs of Staff are even more insane. Michio Kaku and Dan Axelrod's book, 'To Win a Nuclear War," reviews many recently declassified Pentagon documents showing that the highest levels of the military have been working on plans to develop the capacity to knock out Soviet weapons systems in a first strike. This strategy is based on the development of several first-strike technologies that fit together in an integrated system.
A part of this system, for example, is the X-ray laser which is a key element of Star Wars. While Star Wars is ineffective against a first strike, Kaku and Axelrod describe its role as a defense against a weakened second strike after U.S. weapons have destroyed most Soviet weapons on the ground. The X-ray laser works by exploding a "small" nuclear weapon in outer space. This explosion is used to power 50 laser rods which fire laser beams capable of knocking out ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles). To test and develop the X-ray laser, the U.S. must detonate nuclear explosions.
Development of technologies like the X-ray laser explains the reluctance of the U.S. government to enter into a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. As long as the U.S. is pursuing a first strike strategy, the testing of technology is the cutting edge of the arms race.
For the peace movement, weapons testing sites such as the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada are of strategic importance. If we can stop testing we can stop the development of first-strike capacity. If winning a nuclear war is not seen as an option in the eyes of the war planners, then 2,000 warheads or 200 warheads won't make a big difference. Their own theory implies that either number could do irreparable damage. Thus, neither side will want to use them.
From the lessons of Reclaiming the Test Sites I and II, a proposal has developed for a campaign of full-time nonviolent resistance: a continuous non-violent direct action force which would find ways to effectively block the ment of fïrst strike weapons systems. This force, conceived at the Reclaim the Test Site action in 1988, is being called the Nonviolent Peace Army. The Nonviolent Peace Army is endorsed by APT. This spring the first national meeting of the Nonviolent Peace Army was held in Nevada to coincide with the actions at the test site.
For more information about direct action for disarmament, contact Gaia Kile, 994-4937, 1402 Hili, Ann Arbor MI 48104.