Saturday 11th April would be the day that we usually leaflet in Princes Street. Instead we are urging our supporters to support the SCND ‘ windows for peace’ initiative. http://www.banthebomb.org/…/2076-windows-for-peace-placard-…
The Edinburgh CND April meeting will be held on-line with the aid of ZOOM. Further details on our Facebook page or by emailing edinburghCND@yahoo.com
COVID-19: A message from Scottish CND and Edinburgh CND
We are facing an outbreak of the Covid-19 virus across the world and here in Scotland which is particularly threatening to those in our communities who are older and/or have underlying health conditions. We encourage our members and supporters to follow the official NHS Scotland advice found here.
The Scottish CND office will be closed to visitors for the foreseeable future and staff will mostly be working from home so if you have a non-urgent query please get in touch via scnd@banthebomb.org or leave a voicemail for us on 0141 357 1529. Membership, online shop orders and payments will be processed as usual, maybe with a small delay. With the help of the internet, other campaigning can continue even in lockdown – researching, letter writing and lobbying from home. Our website has various current suggestions – protesting radioactive discharges into the Gare Loch, calling for the closure of Hunterston nuclear power station and checking your local authority shows support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by signing the ‘Cities Appeal’. All of these issues concern both nuclear weapons and the environment. If you feel you want the information you cannot find then please get in touch.
The CND office in London is also shut: They explain that these are frightening times for millions of people around the world. But this global pandemic was predicted in successive government security assessments. So why are we so unprepared?
Twisted priorities have seen billions of pounds wasted on nuclear weapons rather than preparing for the situation we now find ourselves in.
This is why we’re urging our supporters to write to their MP to tell them it’s time for the government to wash its hands of Trident so we can begin to address the real security threats we face. Hundreds have already taken part, and we ask you to spread the message further. Click here for the lobby tool.It’s also a crucial time to make the case for NHS not Trident.
Internationally: Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament are also monitoring parliamentary action and policy analysis of the coronavirus pandemic situation and the connections to security policy.
See for example the article National security is too crude to protect us from pandemics: It’s time to shift to human security’ by PNND Council MemberJonathan Granoff and published in Newsweek. Also of interest could be To address the corona virus: Shift resources from nukes and the military to public health and the economypublished by Move the Nuclear Weapons Money, and the blog PNND and the Coronavirus.
“We are at war with the coronavirus. We need a massive wartime manufacturing mobilization for coronavirus testing kits and personal protective equipment for medical personnel. We need to activate our capable and talented domestic industry and bring the full power of the federal government to bear in responding to this viral enemy.”
PNND Co-President Senator Ed Markey. Letter to President Trump, March 15, 2020. See PNND and the Coronavirus.
Move the Nuclear Weapons Money published a blog, To address the corona virus: Shift resources from nukes and the military to public health and the economy, which explores these issues and the budget decisions which governments must make to address both the health and economic impacts of the corona virus pandemic.