At its AGM in Saintes on June 12, ACDN decided to continue with its activities, despite the enormous disparity between the huge task it set itself at its foundation in 1996 and the very limited human and financial resourses at its disposal nationally.
We want another world, a just and livable world.
Together we can bring it about!
We intend to take up the challenge thrown down by President Sarkozy when he said on 10 June 2010 that: "Deterrence remains an absolute imperative for France. Nuclear deterrence is the life-insurance policy for the French nation."
We refuse this exorbitant, insane "life-insurance", based on the promise of widespread massacres. We want to place notably two questions at the centre of the 2012 election debates. One is the abolition of weapons of mass destruction, be they nuclear, radioactive, biological, chemical or other kinds. The other is the organised phasing-out of nuclear power-plants, as quickly as possible. This technology provides 17% of France’s energy needs, compared with 3% globally, but it also produces unmanageable stocks of radioactive waste, and explosive materials, and thousands of anonymous cancers.
A world without nuclear weapons or power-plants is possible, and it is urgently needed.
No Hiroshimas and no Chernobyls!
Citizens, let us without delay ask the President of the Republic to organise the referendum in which the French people can say whether or not we want France to take part in the international process for abolishing nuclear weapons. Several MPs of the Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine regions have already signed this letter, also signed by many representatives of foreign NGOs.
But that is not all. Things are getting worse, in the world, Europe, and France. There are multiple evils that chiefly originate, on the global, European and national levels, in the power of a limited number of power-brokers - financial, economic, political, media, administrative, military and religious - decision-makers who are constantly striving to extend their profits and power over other humans and over nature, which is our common inheritance. Nuclear weaponry is the cornerstone of the nihilist system of exploitation and oppression.
For these reasons, we wish to link our struggle with that of other NGOs tackling the vital questions - food, health, the environment, water, energy, peace, social justiceŠ - the questions that French society must urgently address to ensure everyone’s survival and a decent life for every human being.
"Estates-General for a Livable World"
To the associations and movements of Civil Society whose aims we share and who share our aims as already defined, we propose to hold an "Estates-General for a Livable World" [The French term "Etats généraux" means a grand assembly, and alludes particularly to the one held in 1789]. We propose to hold this gathering in the spring of 2011 in Saintes (Charente-Maritime) with the aim of fine-tuning these objectives together and seeing how to make them prevail in the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2012.
We invite all citizens ready to take action in these causes to contact us.
Saintes, 24 June 2010