[NukeNet] URGENT sign-on letter to support UC student hunger strikers

[Marylia Kelley]

PLEASE READ THE LETTER, BELOW, ON THE UC STUDENTS' HUNGER STRIKE -- AND IF
YOU OR YOUR ORGANIZATION CAN SIGN ON, SEND YOUR SIGN ON INFO ASAP TO:

"Nick Roth" <nroth at napf.org>


HERE ARE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS, LETTER FOLLOWS:
The following is a sign-on letter to the Office of the Secretary of the
Board of Regents of the University of California. Currently, over 40 hunger
strikers are protesting the University of California's involvement with the
US nuclear weapons complex and the US development of new nuclear weapons.
This act has already received a great deal of press including articles in
the LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle. We ask that NGOs sign on to this
letter to show support for the protesters and opposition to the development
and production of new nuclear bombs. All signatures need to be submitted by
7:00am Pacific Standard Time (10am Eastern Standard) Thursday. However,
Wednesday is better if you can do this right away! Please send sign-ons to
Nroth at napf.org.



To: OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE REGENTS


For: DISTRIBUTION TO THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA


On behalf of the undersigned organizations that work toward the elimination
of nuclear weapons, we urge you, as a member of the University of
California Board of Regents, to go on record at your May 17, 2007 meeting
in San Francisco, opposing the development of new nuclear weapons,
including the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program. We also
ask that you publicly oppose the ongoing preparations to design new nuclear
weapons and conduct pit manufacturing to support the RRW program.


As you likely already know, more than 40 UC students and alumni are
currently on a long-term fast to call attention to this timely issue. As
you also no doubt know, the hunger fasters are asking Regents to introduce
a resolution at the May 17th meeting calling for full and immediate
severance >from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), on the grounds that the Reliable
Replacement Warhead program, including LLNL's development of RRW-1, and
LANL's preparations to conduct plutonium pit manufacturing both violate
Article VI of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).


Some of the fasters have pledged to go without solid food until you meet
their demand for either an end to nuclear weapons development at LLNL and
LANL or severance of the management ties between UC and the weapons labs.


Our organizations support them in their efforts, which are inspiring and,
unfortunately, necessary given the United States  continued  maintenance
and augmentation of nuclear weapons, the attendant weakening of the
international Non-Proliferation Treaty, the global nuclear proliferation
risks and the continued acquiescence of UC system giving academic
respectability to the weapons labs' bomb-making enterprise.


Far from supporting  "national security" through its management of LANL and
LLNL, the UC is helping to foster dangerous programs that threaten not only
the security of people living in the United States, but that of all other
life on earth.


By designing the new RRW-1, LLNL is involved in sending a clear message to
the international community that the United States intends to maintain a
vast nuclear weapons arsenal for the indefinite future, despite its legal
obligation to disarm and the global threat these weapons pose.  By
preparing to manufacture plutonium pits, LANL is responsible for the most
pivotal step in the process of manufacturing new nuclear warheads, one
which also stands to pollute the natural environment of New Mexico.


There has never been a more critical time for the UC Regents to take a
principled stand against new nuclear weapons. You are in a very powerful
position to do so: You can cast the UC's enormous political and
intellectual weight on the side of international law and morality, and make
a clear statement of opposition to these dangerous programs. You can refuse
to continue managing the weapons labs unless and until genuine mission
change to civilian science is put "on the table."


We, the undersigned organizations call on you to uphold UC's motto: "Let
There Be Light." We call on you to let the light of reason, openness, and
true academic accountability shine through your actions on May 17th and
beyond.


Join us in supporting the hunger strikers and their aspirations for a
nuclear weapons free world.


Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.  Again, I strongly urge
you to voice your opposition to new nuclear weapons -- and UC's continuing
role in designing and developing them at your upcoming meeting.

###

Marylia Kelley,
Executive Director

Tri-Valley CAREs
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA  94551

Ph: (925) 443-7148
Fx: (925) 443-0177
Web: www.trivalleycares.org
Email: marylia at trivalleycares.org or marylia at earthlink.net