United Nations sponsored negotiations chaired by Ambassador Jaap
Ramaker of the Netherlands are under way in Geneva aimed at
reaching a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) on nuclear weapons.
The talks, which include 61 countries, have been underway for three
years and are scheduled to bring an agreement for ratification to
the U.N. General Assembly in September if a consensus agreement can
be reached by the participants.
The most vocal advocates of the CTBT are the United States,
Russia and a handful of smaller countries. The most concerned
opponents are reported to include India, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt and
Cuba. The countries that now possess huge quantities of nuclear
weapons and the capability to produce them are the United States,
Russia, China, France and Britain. Those countries that deny
possessing nuclear weapons but are widely believed to have the
weapon and the capability to quickly assemble them are India,
Pakistan, Israel and South Africa.
News reports say that "India, which exploded a nuclear device
in 1974, has said it is opposed to the proposed treaty because it
would be compelled to ratify the agreement before it comes into
force. China wants changes to treaty provisions which would allow
international inspections at nuclear sites." Many smaller countries
object to the fact that the text proposed by the U.S. imperialists
does not call for the destruction of all existing weapons of mass
destruction but rather a freeze on testing and new production of
nuclear weapons, and a prohibition of any additional countries
acquiring the weapon.
The imperialists are using the legitimate concern of the people
about weapons of mass destruction to jockey for power amongst
themselves and preserve the monopoly of nuclear weapons in their
hands. They have no intention of relinquishing any military
advantage they may have. The imperialists are only concerned with
their own military strength vis-a-vis one another and their ability
to capture and hold on to areas of strategic and economic
importance.
The working class throughout the world should firmly grasp
what theory and history teaches us - the people will not gain any
security through weapons of mass destruction. The only security for
the people during this era of imperialism is to be found in their
own unity and willingness to fight imperialism on all fronts.
Nuclear weapons are not going to save the workers of India or
Pakistan or any other country from the horrors of inter-imperialist
war. Only the workers themselves with arms in hand, leading the
masses of people in revolutionary struggle against the imperialists
can guarantee peace and security.
In the final analysis it is the people themselves, and not
weapons of mass destruction, who are decisive in defending
themselves against imperialist attack. The entire history of the
twentieth century proves this scientific truth, especially the
heroic people's war waged by the Soviet people to defeat the German
nazi invasion of 1941.
The workers of the world should harbor no illusions on this
score and not be taken in by the scare-mongering tactics of their
own bourgeoisie that only through the possession of nuclear weapons
can the country be saved from U.S. imperialist attack or from some
other imperialist power. Neither should workers beleive the fairy
tale that signing the CTBT will preserve peace while those states
that do not sign it are "rogue states" interested in nuclear
blackmail and terror.
All countries, large and small, should stand for the complete
destruction and prohibition of all weapons of mass destruction such
as nuclear weapons, poison gas and chemical weapons. All the
countries attending the CTBT meetings in Geneva and in the United
Nations General Assembly should be forcefully told by the working
class to stand on principle and demand the unconditional
destruction of all weapons of mass destruction and not allow this
issue to be used by the imperialist to manoeuvre for increased
power and cause confusion amongst the people.
In the final analysis the people must realize that no
agreement with imperialism will guarantee peace and security, only
the overthrow of imperialism will forestall another round of
inter-imperialist war; a war, if it is allowed to take place, that
will be many times more destructive than the two World Wars of the
twentieth century.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
