The Politics of Nuclear Disarmament

Raymond Williams

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… the socialist contribution to the politics of nuclear disarmament must be more than simply collaborative, and must include solidarity with Third World struggles against an imperialist economic system which globally reproduces hunger and exploitation. This is no matter of riding the peace campaign for some partisan objectives. …

This can appear only to add to our burdens, for which our present strength is still insufficient. But this must be the final point of the present argument. It is, fortunately, still possible to generate movements for peace and for disarmament on the most general human grounds. That these are again growing is a significant gain against the culture and politics of violence. Yet alike for their intellectual adequacy and for extension of their support it is necessary to reach beyond the moving and honourable refusals on which many of them still characteristically depend. To build peace, now more than ever, it is necessary to build more than peace. To refuse nuclear weapons, we have to refuse much more than nuclear weapons. Unless the refusals can be connected with such building, unless protest can be connected with and surpassed by significant practical construction, our strength will remain insufficient. It is then in making hope practical, rather than despair convincing, that we must resume and change and extend our campaigns.

[This short excerpt is from the late Raymond Williams’ article in “Exterminism and Cold War”, Verso Editions, 1982, pp. 65 – 85. The text above is from pp. 64 – 65. The ISBN # of the book is: 0-86091-746-0. I am not a socialist, nor have I ever been one. Still, I wholeheartedly agree that “To build peace, now more than ever, it is necessary to build more than peace. To refuse nuclear weapons, we have to refuse much more than nuclear weapons”.

For more info on Raymond Williams (31 August 1921 - 26 January 1988), you may visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Williams]