Published in French on 27 March 2023

PHOTO French President Macron and Russian President Putin in Moscow on 7 February 2022 — Thibault Camus/AP/SIPA

Nuclear Dictatorships

There are many differences between them, yet they share one key feature: they think they are all-powerful. In truth they can at any moment annihilate millions of people. With no authorisation. And once the crime has been committed, they would not have to answer to anyone. They flout international law, the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and they place themselves above all laws : Thou shalt not kill” is not for them; for them it’s “Thou canst kill everyone, so do as thou wishest.”

Given that power, why would they refrain from imposing on us their obsessions, their dreams, their whims. When you have power of life and death over your fellows, you can easily impose three years of extra work! Or force them to inject unverified products. Or deprive them of jobs and pay if they refuse, and trample on the labour code. Or half-blind them with LBD weapons. Send them to prison. And why not send them to death, to war…For there are many degrees of hubris, of excess, but dictatorial escalation is not just a matter of circumstance, its end goal is to wipe out the other.

The principle of the atom bomb is just that: if you stumble, I kill you. Do you resist? I squash you. The atom bomb is the 49-3 against life, to the point of universal destruction. As far as violence goes, it is the ultimate. The atom bomb is an instrument of terror, the mother of all violence, the exact opposite of France’s three republican values: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. It grants heads of state an exorbitant status that makes them supermen, naturally tempted by the intoxication of power, going if necessary as far as losing their rationality.

Is there a way of neutralising them before they destroy us? A way of reducing their arrogance, making them more reasonable, more equal, more human? Of bringing them back to size? Yes, there is: we can deprive them, all of them, of their weapons of domination, of their atomic Phallus. Legally. Methodically. Diplomatically.

Two Referendums to restore democracy in France and peace in the world.

70% of French citizens reject Macron’s pension reform. They are fighting it. 70% also condemn the atom bomb and would like to rid the planet of it. But they choose their head of state without every being able to contest his right to commit massacres – a right that nevertheless makes him a potentate outside all norms and laws.

The French need to understand that the atom bomb is everywhere, in France and elsewhere, a poison for democracy, one that rots it in the head. The bomb works on the Big Chief’s brain. He holds the thunderbolt, so no wonder he thinks he is Jupiter. Now every citizen should refuse to vote for candidates who don’t commit expressly to negotiate the complete and controlled elimination of nuclear weapons, including France’s own. Our democracy is at stake, and also our survival on this planet.

In the short run, to exit from the crisis without violence, in all legality, all parliamentarians concerned to let the people express themselves have a means, a gold-plated tool: they can launch two Shared-Initiative Referendums, one on the pension reform and one on France’s participation in the abolition of nuclear weapons, as is required by Article VI of the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty).

The two ought to go together. For each, what is needed is 185 signatures of parliamentarians. Without the President’s approval. And then 10% of registered voters need to approve within nine months. That is perfectly possible, since 70% say they are ready and willing.

France’s people need to decide for themselves these major issues concerning them: their retirement and their lives – social justice and world peace.

For now, the ball is in the court of the senators and MPs.

Mesdames, Messieurs, catch it and pass it on. The people will thank you for doing so!

Jean-Marie Matagne
Président of ACDN