ILPS & IWA Statement on the 72nd Anniversary of the Hiroshima & Nagasaki Nuclear Holocaust
Commemorate the 72nd Anniversary of the Hiroshima & Nagasaki Nuclear Holocaust
Hold US Imperialism Accountable for Crimes Against Humanity!
August 6, 2017
Today marks the 72nd Anniversary of the horrific bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulting in more than 200,000 people – men, women and children murdered by the imperialist United States of America. We condemn the mass genocide and destruction that stopped time and changed the world forever. The United States remains the world’s nuclear superpower, developing, producing, testing and stockpiling nuclear weapons. It continues down the path of world destruction and domination, and is intensifying the potential for nuclear war with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain as the only occasions in history when nuclear bombs have been used against human beings. US imperialism under the Harry Truman government committed the most horrendous massacre of hundreds of thousands of civilians and caused injury to thousands of the survivors’ descendants. The government of Canada under Prime Minister Mackenzie King played a role in facilitating this genocide. Under the auspices of the Quebec Agreement between the US and the United Kingdom, the Canadian government took part in deciding to use nuclear weapons against the Japanese people. Emerging as victors of World War II, the US, UK and Canada have gone unpunished for their crimes against humanity.
The US and Russia collectively possess close to 93% of the world’s arsenal of nuclear weapons, 2,000 of these are on ‘hair-trigger alert’ ready to be launched against an equally unsuspecting population at a moment’s notice. But the US under the Donald Trump government vowed to remain on “top of the pack” of nuclear powers in the world. The US corporate media is spreading propaganda that Russia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran and China are threats to the US and the world in order to justify US plans to spend US$1 trillion over next 30 years to develop and upgrade its nuclear arsenal and deploy tactical nuclear weapons.
The truth is that the US is the biggest threat to peace in the world spending more than $639 billion dollars on the military industrial complex and waging wars of aggression, military intervention and regime change against states that do not align with US imperialist interests.
People all over the world continue to condemn and demand justice for the horrific crimes unleashed by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we condemn the renewed escalation of the nuclear threat against the human population, and know who our real enemy is, US imperialism. We take the opportunity during this international conference in Toronto, “Building Resistance to US-led War, Militarism and Neofascism” to not only commemorate this atrocity in world history, but to commit ourselves to continue the struggle against the nuclear arms race and the threats of nuclear war.
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle and International Women’s Alliance call on their member organizations and allies around the world to resist all forms of military and fascist aggression, nuclear bullying and blackmail by imperialists led by the US. We call on the peoples of the world to further intensify our struggles for peace, democracy and national sovereignty, and to tirelessly work towards ensuring that the genocides of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will never happen again.
Never Again to Nuclear War
Stop the US War Machine NOW!
Long Live International Solidarity!
Rise Up! Resist US Wars of Aggression!
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
International Women’s Alliance
