No Alternative for Nuclear Disarmament

Despite the triumph over the East-West conflict, the danger of a new deployment of nuclear weapons is greater now than ever before. DIE LINKE is sticking to the idea that a world free of nuclear weapons is not only possible, but also a necessity.

DIE LINKE also looks on the increased militarization in foreign policies, especially in Europe, with concern. The arms race is continually speeding up in many parts of the world and the Non-Proliferation Treaty is wearing away.

The quest for domination in international state relationships, the pursuit of national economic interests, and the securing of these policies by military means have become main points from President Bush’s years in office. DIE LINKE supports the forces in the United States that have voted against these courses of action. Together with the European Left, DIE LINKE stands with the majority of the Czech and Polish population in opposition to the so-called plan for the American anti-missile defense and disapproves the military-influenced pressure on the politics in Iran.

In connection to the victims from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the resulting need to overcome the nuclear threat for the adolescent and future generations, DIE LINKE asks all parties concerned to perceive nuclear disarmament as an immediate and urgent political mission. On this note, DIE LINKE embraces Senator Obama’s tentative statement in his Berlin speech calling for a world without nuclear weapons. In addition, DIE LINKE proposes these steps to achieve a world without nuclear weapons by 2020:

• The strengthening of the Non-Proliferation Treaty through a UN conference and an agreement on disarmament goals;

• Compliance to and strengthening of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (CTBT);

• The strengthening of a collective security system such as the OSZE and the triumph over military alliances;

• The withdrawal of foreign political doctrines that promote preventive and pre-emptive military action as wells as first nuclear strike