COMMENTARY
Disarmament movement has urgent message
By TED JOHNSON
The threat of nuclear war affects us all.
Many people have been slow to admit fully
the reality of this threat but a mass-movement
has developed which is forcing every
one to recognize the significance of the
arms race and nuclear war.
All over the world in the last year people
have called for a reversal of the arms race.
Hundreds of thousands have held mass pro-.
tests in Japan. In Western Europe there have
been similar activities and millions are ex
pected to demonstrate in the cities President
Reagan visits during his upcoming tour of
the NATO countries.
Arms freeze resolutions have been passed
by the states of Connecticut Massachusetts,
and Oregon and in hundreds of towns and
cities across the country. Millions of Ameri
cans have signed petitions calling for a
freeze and reversal of the arms race and re
cently 20,000 marched in support of this
cause during a late winter blizzard in Chica-.
go-
This outpouring of world public opinion is
having an effect. Global leaders have been
pressured to convene at the United Nations
for a special session to consider the prob
. lems of militarism and disarmament
A similar Special Session was held in 1978.
However, very little was accomplished be
cause of a lack of sincerity on the part of
many world leaders. People throughout the
world have since realized that disarmament
is too important an issue to be left to polit'h
cians and diplomats.
Disarmament activists have thus called
for a massive march and rally so that the
people can become actively involved in flS
issue. On june 12, five days after the open
ing of the U.N. Special Session, a crowd of
several hundred thousand to one million will
converge on Central Park in New York City.
Mainstream America and radical groups
on the left will come together to make up
one of the largest demonstrations in world
history. The scope and power of the move
ment will be further demonstrated by the ex
pected 25,000 demonstrators from Central
America, South America and Europe, and
the 1,500, including survivors of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, who will travel from Japan.
This mass of people from all over the
world will be united in a "call for a freeze
and reduction of all nuclear weapons and a
transfer of military budgets to human
needs." The march and rally will also focus
on challenging Reagan to begin representing
the interests of the people and the U.S. to ini
tiate disarmament and to stop its policy of
third world intervention.
The crowd will hear speeches by Coretta
Scott King, Alan Alda, the Rev. Jesse Jack
son, Dave Del linger, William Winpisinger,
and many others, and will be entertained by
musicians including James Taylor, Linda
Ronstadt Jackson Browne, Pete Seeger, Hol
ly Near and Third World.
Many seeking even more active participa
tion in the movement will stay in New York
to participate in massive civil disobedience
on Monday, June 14. The "War Resisters
League" and other groups are sponsoring sit
ins at the missions (similar to embassies) of
the five nuclear powers (the U.S., the USSR,
China, Great Britain, and France). Partici
pants plan to block access peacefully to the
missions and to demand adoption of propo
sals in support of disarmament and noninter
vention in the Third World on the part of the
nuclear powers.
Actions and marches in support of disar
mament and the funding of human needs
will not be confined to New York. The local
promoter of the June 12 demonstration in
New York, the Coalition for Disarmament is
sponsoring a march and rally in Carrboro
and Chapel Hill this Saturday.
The march will begin at the Carrboro
Town Hall at 11 a.m. and end in the grassy
area on campus across from the Post Office.
There will be a number of speakers repre
senting various constituencies and music
will be provided by Brother Yusef and others.
The Coalition is seeking to build commu
nity interaction and solidarity for future
movements and to buildup for the New York
demonstrations behind four slogans.
CUT THE MILITARY BUDGET TO
FUND HUMAN NEEDS-President Reagan
has not made an attempt to balance the
budget as hie promised while campaigning.
Rather, he has shifted funds away from the
people and into the military thus actually in
creased the deficit unemployment and in
terest rates. We call for the shifting of funds
away from the military and to the people
and object to attempts by certain politicians
to co-opt the movement by bargaining cuts
in social spending for cuts in the military
budget
U.S. INITIATIVE TO FREEZE AND RE
VERSE THE ARMS RACE -It is time for one
of the nuclear powers to initiate arms reduc
tions. The U.S. is the first and only country to
use nuclear weapons and can be the first to
begin disarmament. Insincere proposals
such as Reagan's START "initiative" merely
lead to a permanent state-of competition
and insecurity. We also object to any at
tempts by politicians to co-opt the move
ment by calling for cuts in nuclear weapons
spending to fund conventional warfare
spending.
HALT U.S. POLICY OF INTERVENTION
IN THE THIRD WORLD-Intervention runs
counter to the democratic right of people to
determine their own political system and
merely exacerbates the potential for nuclear
war.
ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS-The
people of the world will not be safe until all
nuclear weapons are destroyed.
Ted Johnson is a senior urban studies ma
jor from Chapel Hill and is a member of The
Coalition for Disarmament
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
By KEN SIMAN
As hopes for a peaceful settlement
dimmed, ground fighting in the Falkland
Islands became more intense this week.
British commandos captured Mount Kent
and another key ridge overlooking Stanley,
the Falklands capital, on Tuesday and are on
the verge of what probably will be the deci
sive battle for the Falkland Islands, British
press reports said.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
was hardly conciliatory. "We have now gone
into the islands to do what the islanders wish
to repossess them and restore British ad
ministration." Even a papal visit did little to
quell Thatcher's hard line stance.
John Paul II, who arrived in Britain last Fri
day on a six day visit to England the first
ever by a pope, appealed to both Argentina
and England to "put aside the weapons of
death" and urged "all people of good will to
join me in praying for a just and peaceful
settlement" The Pope was received by
crowds that while enthusiastic, were smaller
than had been anticipated. He will visit Ar
gentina on June 11 and 12 on the second leg
of his quest for peace in the Falklands.
In the United States, debate over the Falk
lands was the cause of internal bickering
within the Reagan administration, News
week magazine reported. Newsweek quoted
one government official as saying Secretary
of State Alexander Haig described United
Nations Ambassador' Jeanne Kirkpatrick as
"mentally and emotionally incapable of
thinking clearly on this (Falklands) issue be
cause of her close links with Latins." Haig is
reportedly attempting to force Kirkpatrick to
resign, but apparently she is not intimidated.
She said Haig's affinity for Britain made it
difficult for him to appreciate United States
interests in Latin affairs, and called Haig and
his associates "amateurs. .. .totally insensi
tive to Latin cultures.
"Why not just disband the State Depart
ment and have the British Foreign Office
make our foreign policy," Newsweek quoted
her as saying.
Skepticism over the consequences of
strong United States support for Britain was
not limited to Kirkpatrick. -
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., a member of the
Senate Armed Services Committee, said Sun
day that a British victory in the Falklands,
coupled with a long term commitment by
Britain to maintain rule over the Falklands,
would work to the detriment of NATO by
draining Britain's resources. "A diplomatic
victory would be in both Britain's and the
United States' long term interest" Nunn
said. "I think we are suffering in Latin Amer
ica and Central America and I think that
damage is becoming somewhat permanent
in nature," he added.
Indeed, America's strong support for Brit
ain has strained relations with Latin Amer
ica. The Organization of. American States
voted unanimously (with five countries, in
cluding the United States, abstaining) to ask.
the United States to cease aid to Britain and
lift sanctions against Argentina.
...The Honeymoon is Over
After his impressive congressional victo
ries on the se of AWACS planes to Saudi
Arabia and' last year's budget it seemed
President Reagan was invincible in his deal
ings with Congress. He was heralded as
being as persuasive a president as Lyndon
Johnson was in his heyday. Recently, how
ever, Reagan's clout with Congress has
ebbed., This week. Congress handed him two
major defeats.
Last Wednesday the Senate Foreign Rela
tions Committee, in what The Washington
Post termed the Reagan administration's
"biggest foreign aid defeat" unanimously
voted to reduce Reagan's 1983 aid request
for El Salvador by $100 million.
The reduction in aid was attributed in
large part to the Senate's disenchantment
with the right-wing dominated government's .
lack of commitment to initiating a compre
hensive land reform policy.
Reagan was also dealt another blow by
Congress when the Michel-Latta budget res
olution he endorsed was rejected by Con-
mi
. ITt
l ' J "
mwmmr i -i mm
gress Friday, as were all other budget alter
natives. ...Reagan in Versailles
, . -
Congressional failure to approve a budget
may haunt Reagan in this week's seven na
tion economic conference in Versailles,
France. It will be the eighth year that leaders
of the United States, Japan, West Germany,
Britain, France, Italy and Canada have met
to discuss economic issues.
Reagan has nothing tangible to demon
strate United States resolve to limit the large
deficits that many of the nations attending
the summit view as threatening to their own
economic security.
Reagan hopes to gain a formal endorse
ment of a less expansive trade policy with
the Soviet Union and its satellites, but as
one administration official said, "It would
have been very helpful to this country if the
President could go to the summit with a
budget compromise in hand... How do we
have the strength to ask the Japanese for
. more open markets or to ask the Europeans
to reduce credits to the Soviets unless we
can show we're doing something?" Reagan
flew to Paris on Wednesday and will arrive
in Versailles on Friday.
...Arms Talks Set
In a Memorial Day speech, Reagan said
the United States and the Soviet Union will
begin strategic arms reduction talks in Gene
va, Switzerland on June 29. Reagan added
that the United States will "refrain from ac
tions which undercut existing strategic arms
if the Soviet Union does the same."
rc Ken Siman, a junior political sciencehis
tory rriajdr from Charlotte, is the associate ed
itor of The Tar Heel.
Thursday, June 3, 1982 The Tar Heel 15