RESOLUTION ON DISARMAMENT

The American Ethical Union, viewing with horror the continuing Cold War and escalation of the arms race, which increases prospects for destruction of civilization, reaffirms its 1981 resolutions calling for a mutual nuclear arms freeze, and for re-ordering budget priorities to reduce military spending and preserve essential social programs.

In addition, we call on the United States Government to pledge "no first use of nuclear weapons", as the Soviet Union has already done.

We call for negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union for staged reductions and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles. Further we call for the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries also to negotiate reductions in conventional arms and the size of their armed forces.

We also urge multilateral agreement to control and eventually eliminate arms sales to other countries.

We call for strengthening United Nations peacekeeping capacity and development and use of mechanisms for non-violent conflict resolution.

In order to reduce the chance of war, we urge that the United States seek a more cooperative rather than adversarial relationship with the Soviet Union.

We call on other nations to participate actively in all these efforts.

Adopted by the American Ethical Union Assembly in Greenvale, New York, 1982

Source: AEU 74th Annual Assembly Memo [job15scan]

Copyright © 2001 American Ethical Union.
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