New Communist Party of Britain | The threat to world peace

British and United States imperialism poses the greatest danger to world peace. The National Missile Defence (NMD) system has triggered another global arms race. The tearing up of the Anti‑Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty has undermined every other international agreement on nuclear weapons.

Even so the imperialists are trying to use part of the non‑proliferation agreement as an instrument to bully and threaten any country attempting to develop an independent nuclear industry. But because the non‑proliferation treaty has still to be implemented by the imperialist camp, every sovereign state has the legitimate right to develop its nuclear industry.

This imperialist hostility is currently focused on Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The DPRK has had no choice but to develop its nuclear energy programme and its own independent nuclear deterrent. The DPRK threatens no one. Its enemies are close by. United States nuclear‑armed warships are stationed off the Korean coast and thousands of US troops are in the south of Korea as well as in Japan.

The US wants to perpetuate the division of Korea and ultimately to extinguish socialism in the Korean peninsular. Our Party stands by the DPRK and condemns the imperialist aims and threats.

The Big Five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council all possess nuclear weapons, along with India, Pakistan and the DPR Korea. The US has an immense arsenal, as does Britain. France also possesses substantial stocks of nuclear weapons and so does Russia, which inherited the systems of the former Soviet Union while Israel refuses to confirm or deny possessing atomic weapons and refuses to allow international inspection of its nuclear plant in Dimona.

The US is the only country to use nuclear weapons on a civilian population and since World War II they have threatened to use nuclear weapons against other countries including those that don't possess nuclear weapons.

Britain is a major arms supplier and its troops are deployed in a growing number of war zones and areas made unstable as a result of imperialist intervention and aggression.

People’s China is the fifth permanent member of the Security Council and is the only one actively supporting proposals for multilateral nuclear disarmament.

China stands for the complete prohibition and total destruction of all nuclear weapons.

China, backed by many other countries, has challenged the West to implement the entire non‑proliferation treaty, which was signed in 1968 to halt nuclear proliferation but also committed the signatories to work towards universal nuclear disarmament.

In the meantime China calls on all the major nuclear‑weapon states to abandon their policy of nuclear deterrence.

States with huge nuclear arsenals should continue to reduce their nuclear stockpiles. At present the United States is in violation of the non‑proliferation treaty.

China calls on all nuclear powers to pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons at any time or under any circumstance; to commit themselves unconditionally not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non‑nuclear weapons states or nuclear‑weapon‑free zones, and to conclude, at an early date, international legal agreements to such effect.

China calls on all states with nuclear weapons deployed outside their frontiers to withdraw these weapons to their home territory. All nuclear powers should pledge their support for the establishment of nuclear‑weapon‑free zones, respect their status as such and undertake corresponding obligations.

China calls for the banning of the development and deployment of space weapons systems or missile defence systems and calls for an international convention on the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons, concluded through negotiations with the participation of all countries.

These long‑standing demands must be projected throughout the peace movement in Britain. The NCP supports the efforts of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and other peace movements for unilateral British nuclear disarmament. We must campaign against any British participation in Nuclear Missile Defence and for Britain’s adherence to the non‑proliferation treaty.

One immediate focus must be the demand to scrap the present Trident nuclear missile programme and to fight against the Conservative government’s plan to spend further billions on upgrading and replacing the Trident system.

Trident is not an independent British nuclear‑weapon‑system, but a component of the United States’ global nuclear strategy. Its power is awesome, with the capability of bringing total destruction to humanity anywhere and everywhere in the world.

This relic of imperialism’s Cold War strategy has to go and the money spent on socially useful projects such as health care, education, affordable housing and decent state retirement pensions.

The British Government has for long willingly complied with the wishes of the United States in strategic military planning. Throughout the Cold War years the British ruling class embraced US‑led NATO and remains willing to waste British lives and money in support of US political, economic and military agendas.

This was clearly the case when Britain joined in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, even though it meant the Blair leadership having to lie about the true purposes of the war — which were to control the flow and price of oil in the interests of Anglo‑American imperialism.

British lives and money were also being squandered in the US‑led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. And of course in both cases millions of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and injured, including those who suffered the effects of economic sanctions, in the countries under attack.

We call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all British overseas military bases, the end to overseas military “training” schemes and an end to the occupation of all countries by the imperialist powers.

In the recent past the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have been bombed and shelled by Israeli armed forces. The slaughter brought condemnation of Israel from around the world.

Successive US administrations, with which other western governments have complied, have postured as peace‑brokers in the region. Yet it is the US which props up the state of Israel and is itself the major obstacle to peace.

We call for peace and for the acceptance of the Palestinian Right of Return, for justice and an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people by the US‑backed Zionist leadership of Israel — a cat’s‑paw of the US in the Middle East.

After the counter revolution in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. NATO, which always pretended to be a defensive organisation, continued.

It not only remained but it expanded. In 1999 Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic became full members of NATO. In 2004 the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania together with Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania joined the alliance too. In addition there are now US and NATO bases in the Balkans, the Middle East and central Asia.

The US is building up its war preparations towards Russia. Full scale war manoeuvres are taking place, with build‑up of permanent military hardware and talk of siting battlefield nuclear weapons along Russia's borders. The US was instrumental in giving political, economic and military weight to the 2014 fascist coup in Ukraine and is using the anti‑facist war in Ukraine as a pretext to extend US economic and military influence in the area.

This has brought NATO to the borders of Russia and that country is becoming encircled. The US regards Russia as a large, nuclear power that it cannot rely upon to dance to America’s tune, and which has a socialist past that many regret losing.

NATO no longer pretends to be a “defensive organisation”. It intervened to bring down the Libyan government and it is openly supporting the reactionary forces in Syria trying to bring down the Assad government. Its mission statement openly speaks of out‑of‑area activities across the whole of Europe and it has a nuclear first‑strike policy.

We condemn the use of drones by the US and Britain, who are using the pretext of “combating terrorism” in their use. US and Britain are able to violate sovereign borders with these unmanned bombers, to target individual “terrorists” in the process of which hundreds of civilians have been killed and wounded and brushed off as “collateral damage” while the US continues to maintain their accuracy.

We broadly support the efforts of the Stop the War movement and the other peace and anti‑imperialist movements working in the broad movement.