MIM Notes 193 
September 1, 1999

Dispel the spectre of nuclear war:
Struggle against militarism and imperialism! 
Struggle for internationalism and socialism!

by MIM

6 August 1999

The risk of nuclear war has existed ever since the united snakes 
dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It persists even 
today, despite claims that it ended with the cold war.

The recent conflicts between the U.$. and Russia over Kosovo 
threatened to turn into a war between nuclear powers. At one point 
during the U.$./NATO bombing of Kosovo, Russian President Boris 
Yeltsin said to the Amerikans, "Don't push us to military. 
Otherwise, there will be a European war for sure and possibly a 
world war." The chief of the Russian General Staff was more 
explicit. "If the question is to be or not to be for Russia," he 
said, "we must use everything we have in the armed forces, 
including nuclear weapons."

These statements cannot be dismissed as bluster or posturing, 
since they were backed up by actions. As soon as the Amerikans and 
their cronies started bombing Yugoslavia, Russia pulled out of a 
program for a joint communications center with the U.$, which 
would have eased the risk of accidental nuclear war due to 
misinformation. Then in April, Yeltsin approved a program to 
modernize Russia's tactical nuclear weapons, which had been taken 
out of service several years earlier. So the conflict in Kosovo -- 
one of those persistent small wars caused by imperialist powers 
and local capitalists -- brought the humyn species one small step 
closer to extinction via nuclear catastrophe.

Furthermore, the threat of accidental nuclear war may even be 
greater than the threat of conscious war. The August issue of The 
Progressive details five instances over the last 30 years when 
nuclear missiles were almost launched as a result of mechanical 
failure or humyn error -- the most recent near-miss being in 1995. 
In one case, an apparent attack by thousands of Russian missiles 
turned out to be a training tape playing for a senator on an 
inspection tour.

If there is only a one-percent chance of nuclear annihilation each 
year, then after 50 years the probability of surviving is 60.5%. 
(To put it another way, you can probably run across a busy freeway 
once and not get hit, but if you keep doing it, you're bound to be 
maimed or killed by a speeding car.) By the standards of the 
Iroquois people who do not do anything that would have negative 
implications for people seven generations from now, a one percent 
chance of nuclear war would mean only a 17.2% chance of humyn 
survival 175 years from now.

We must popularize the fact that nuclear war is inevitable under 
the current imperialist economic and social system to mobilize the 
people inside U.$. borders against that system. Imperialism forces 
powers like the U.$. to conquer -- by force of arms, if necessary 
-- new markets. It is also characterized by a preponderance of 
investment in parasitic, non-productive, but immensely profitable 
sectors like the weapons industry. (Of note, even some Pentagon 
types seem to think that Amerika's nuclear arsenal serves no good 
purpose, but lobbying by the technicians and companies who make 
their living off of nuclear research and kooky schemes like SDI 
ensures the preservation of the arsenal.)

While exposing militarism and imperialism as the fundamental 
problems behind the threat of nuclear war, we must also combat 
other dangerous snake-oil remedies to the problem. For example, 
while pointing out that conflicts between the U.$. and nuclear 
powers like Russia and capitalist China may lead to nuclear 
annihilation, we must also carry out anti-chauvinist and anti-
jingoist propaganda. The threat of nuclear war will not be averted 
by ensuring that only the U.$. has nuclear weapons, as some 
reactionaries argue. In fact, the U.$. is the only power to date 
to use nukes, at a time when no other country had them. In terms 
of the size of its arsenal and its historic willingness to use the 
bomb as a threat (it did so in both Korea and Vietnam), the U.$. 
has always been the main danger when it comes to nuclear war. 

The fact that it is legal to sell arms for profit means that there 
are very rich people with an incentive to instigate war. They act 
through their lobbyists in legislatures and executive branches but 
also behind-the-scenes stoking up war hatreds. For this reason 
alone, we must be rid of capitalism, and replace it with 
socialism, which outlaws production for profit. If socialism could 
reduce the causes of war just one percent each year, it could 
prove to buy us the time we need as a species to learn to 
cooperate.

edited by MC44