ACDN on April 5, the day its bilingual website received its millionth visit, is launching a last-ditch campaign to obtain the referendum that will enable the French people to open the path to the abolition of nuclear and radioactive weapons. Parliamentarians and citizens, foreign supporters, please wake up while there is still time! ****
Two major risks threaten the panet: climate change and nuclear technology. The first is not being combatted enough, but it is now universally recognised. The second is neither combatted nor recognised. On the contrary it is promoted, in the form of nuclear weapons and power-plants, by all the heads of the nuclear-armed countries, starting with France: "No nuclear power without nuclear arms, no nuclear arms without nuclear power" said President Macron, in Le Creusot (8.12.2020). So we must prepare for the catastrophe…
From 2019 to 2025, France is increasing by 4 to 6 billion per year the budget for modernising her nuclear weapons (cost: 14.5 million euros per day for 7 years). And that doesn’t include maintenance and service. The UK is increasing the number of its nuclear warheads from 180 to 260 (+ 45 %). Russia, China and the USA are doing it too. As a result, the military and climatic tensions are placing us at 100 seconds from Doomsday, according to the Atomic Scientists. Since 1945 we have never been so close. But in France nobody speaks about this, and nobody will speak of it in the 2022 elections. That is a democratic scandal and a crime against humanity. A CRIME AGAINST US.
France refuses categorically to sign the Nuclear Ban Treaty and has encouraged the other nuclear-armed states to do likewise. But it is possible to oblige France to honour Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which she signed n 1992 and which requires the nuclear states to negotiate the total and controlled elimination of their arsenals. We have now only one means of imposing that requirement: the "shared-initiative referendum".
According to an IFOP poll, 85 % dof French citizens would answer YES to this question:
« Are you in favour of France taking part in the abolition of nuclear and radioactive weapons and engaging with the other states concerned in negotiations aiming to draw up, ratify and implement a treaty to ban and completely eliminate nuclear and radioactive weapons, under mutual and international control that is strict and effective?"
A Parliamentary Bill (PPL in French) exists intending to organise a referendum on that very question, and has already been signed by 50 MPs and senators belonging to 14 different parliamentary groups. It needs 185 parliamentary signatures, plus 10% of citizens consulted by internet or in town halls within 9 months.
We have until 28 February 2022 to obtain the 135 signatures still needed. The French people can yet open the path to another world. Support this campaign now by writing to:
contact@acdn.net
ACDN, 31 Rue du Cormier, 17100 Saintes FRANCE
www.acdn.net
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I the undersigned
SURNAME :
First name :
Occupation :
NGO or institution :
Address :
Zipcode :
Town :
E-mail :
[_] Agree with the PPL aimed at organising a referendum on France’s participation in the abolition of nuclear and radioactive weapons.
[_] am contacting the following MPs and/or senators to ask them to sign the PPL
[_] support the campaign with a donation to ACDN
[_] wish to receive documentation from ACDN - [_] by Internet [_] by mail
[_] would agree to support, as from 15 May 2021, a revolving national fast
[_] envisage taking part on the Festival « Disarm to live! » (concerts, conferences, debates, films, theatre, exhibitions...) organised by ACDN and other NGOs in Saintes from 6 to 9 August 2021.
Date
Place
Signature (or repetition of the email address, for confirmation) :