Campaigners urge countries to sign Nuclear Weapons Treaty

Bruce Kent and Valerie Flessati at Downing Street - image ICN

Peace campaigners Bruce Kent and Valerie Flessati have taken messages to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the ambassadors of all nuclear nations in London this week - urging them to sign up to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. On Wednesday they visited the Russian, French, Israeli and Pakistani embassies. Yesterday they called on the Indian High Commission, Number 10 Downing Street and the Chinese Embassy. They also posted letters to the US and Korean Embassies.

Outside each embassy Bruce Kent gave a short address. Speaking outside No 10 Downing Street Bruce Kent said:

"We're here today to try and get the British government to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which came into force in January this year. These are the commitments that each party undertakes: never to develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess, stockpile, transfer, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons.. assist, encourage or induce in any way anyone to participate in any activity prohibited by this treaty....

""This is a very important step the world is taking - but the nine nuclear countries have refused. We are here to try and persuade Boris Johnson to change his mind which is very appropriate - because actually we don't have any independent nuclear weapons . We entirely depend on the United States to supply us with the missiles on which to put our warheads .. so its like having a family car and you have to borrow the wheels from a distant neighbour . Thats whats going on. And we are so simple … that we just pay up vast sums of money for weapons which are not independent. Let's hope we can persuade Boris to change his mind."

The Embassy Walk was part of the week long #Pilgrimage4Peace - which started on 15 May - spreading a message of peace, building community and raising funds for Pax Christi's work.

Matt Jeziorski, Executive Committee member, went on a 50 mile cycle ride on 15 May, International Conscientious Objector Day. Setting off from home in Warrington Matt he ended his ride in Barrowford, Lancashire where two Catholic brothers, Tom and Peter Allen, are buried. Both were conscientious objectors in the First World War.

Others taking to their bikes were Sean Finlay from Wisbech, East Anglia, cycling a loop that takes in Walsingham and RAF Sculthorpe, carrying with him a poster of Pope Francis with a dove. Rachel Sweetman, staff member, cycled 75 miles on one day, commemorating 75 years of Pax Christi's work. Tim Devereux, from Leeds went on a five day route covering 250 miles. It was especially poignant as it partly replicated a ride taken with his brother on the Camino some years ago. His brother died of Covid).

Pax Christi chair Ann Farr and Exec member Joan Sharples have been knitting4peace, making beanie hats and scarves which will be sent to refugees via Care4Calais - getting sponsored while they knit. Pax Christi Administrator, Fausta Valentine, called on dancer friends to help teach basic routines during a ZOOM dance-a-thon on 15 May.

A week was not long enough for Bellerive FCJ college in Liverpool, they are holding a 'Month for Peace'! Exploring the lives of women peacemakers, including the founder of the order Marie Madeline, holding assemblies and making pledges for peace form part of this month. Their fundraising has an ecological element to it, as the students plant sunflower seeds in lockers that would have been thrown away. Archbishop Malcolm McMahon, Pax Christi' s President, will visit the school today.

An eight mile walk through London on 18 May, led by Pat Gaffney, former Coordinator, took in monuments and sites that highlight women and peace, starting with the the moving suffragette scroll in Christchurch Gardens, the 20 Century Martyrs at Westminster Abbey finishing at the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park. Rev G Nagase, a Japanese Buddhist monk who helped to build the Pagoda in 1985, joined the walk.

While the whole project begins on 15 May it will continue into 2022 as former Pax Christi chair, Holly Ball, plans to visit every Catholic Cathedral in England during the year ahead.

More pictures and films will be posted soon on ICN's Facebook and Youtube pages.

LINKS

Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Treaty: https://undocs.org/A/CONF.229/2017/8

Read more about Pax Christi England and Wales here: https://paxchristi.org.uk/

You can support Pax Christi fundraising efforts here: https://tinyurl.com/PaxDonate