The Burlington City Council agenda last night included a discussion on the global nuclear threat as councilors considered continuing the city’s membership in Mayors for Peace.
More than 8,500 cities across the world are members of Mayors for Peace, an organization that promotes a world without nuclear weapons and resilient cities. In North America 346 cities are members, including Albany and Lake George, New York, Holyoke, Massachusetts, and Montpelier and Burlington, Vermont
In July the organization noted that “the risk of a new nuclear arms race is increasing more now than ever before,” citing the annual report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which also cited the concern that “the global stockpile of nuclear warheads has risen to an estimated 12,241.
A resolution asking that Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak join the global group was sponsored by Burlington Ward 2 Progressive Gene Bergman:
“The war in Ukraine, the bombing of facilities in Iran, the deployment of two nuclear submarines by Trump over the last few days are just some of the many indications that the fate of the Earth, as Jonathan Schell termed it in 1982, is still at risk of nuclear annihilation,” Bergman asserted.
Bergman invited journalist and filmmaker Jim Carrier to talk about his research on the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombing that occurred 80 years ago this month.
"It’s more than jarring to stand in Nagasaki’s Peace Park surrounded by children and know that back home here in the United States we are fueling a new nuclear arms race with a $2 trillion program for new bombs and warheads and the machines to deliver them,” Carrier said.
Burlington has been a member of Mayors for Peace since Bernie Sanders joined in May of 1986. Bergman said it is critical that the city reaffirm its membership.
The resolution was questioned by some councilors. South District Democrat Buddy Singh said even though he agreed with the concept, the nuclear arms race is outside the city’s control.
“It’s not that I don’t believe this is a very worthy cause. And I apologize that this is the one that I’m going to have to say no to, and any further types of resolutions like this going forward, because I really think we need to be focusing on the city’s problems. And that’s a commitment I made when I ran,” Singh noted. ”And I know this is an important issue to a lot of people. I wish we could have a discourse outside of this room and at this table talk more focused on the problems facing our city.”
The resolution was presented late to the councilors, according to Ward 7 Democrat Evan Litwin.
Not having had any time to review this in more depth I’m left actually with questions that don’t get to get answered tonight,” Litwin said. “What does this mean for the city of Burlington? Is there a financial implication? There are obligations that the city would have to meet and should have been meeting actually for close to 40 years. So I cannot support this really just because there’s been no process.”
But, Ward 1 Progressive Carter Neubieser argued that actions at the federal level, including a potential arms race, are affecting local communities.
“The idea that those in power both in our country and many countries across the world want to focus on spending money on bombing each other versus just providing for some basic needs. Like, we are the wealthiest country in the world and I have to worry about affording child care. Meanwhile we are going to spend a trillion dollars on weapons and war in this country at the federal level,” Neubieser said. “It’s absurd and we should take every opportunity as a community to highlight that absurdity. And I think that’s what we can do by supporting this item.”
The resolution passed 8 to 3, with one councilor absent.
