As the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) moved towards its second anniversary of ‘coming into force’, 18 US peace activists were arrested for blockading all three entrances to the US mission to the United Nations in New York City – for two hours.
The 30 November action took place as 90 countries who had signed the TPNW were gathering in New York for the second ‘meeting of states parties’ to the treaty. This conference of countries that have signed the treaty is known as ‘2MSP’.
The Nuclear Resister reported that activists from the Atlantic Life Community, Catholic Workers, New York City War Resisters League and Nukewatch also put a 10-foot-long sticker on the windows of the US mission building. It read: ‘US sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.’
When the third anniversary of the nuclear ban treaty coming into force finally arrived on 22 January, dozens of groups across the US marked the ‘Baniversary’.
At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, peace activists held eight-foot banners protesting against the development of new nuclear warheads in the lab.
According to Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), these include a new warhead for a new intercontinental ballistic missile, a new warhead for a new air-launched cruise missile, and a sea-launched version of that, for small attack submarines that do not currently carry nuclear warheads.