Support the Oregon Legislative Resolution on Nuclear Weapons

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Senate Joint Memorial 5 supporters gather at the Capitol after testifying at the Senate Rules Committee in April

With the increasing war rhetoric coming out of the White House, now is the time to stand up to prevent nuclear war. On Monday, May 20th, Oregon’s State Senate passed Senate Joint Memorial 5, which will put our state on record supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear War and urging congress to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war. On Wednesday, June 12th, the bill passed out of the House Rules committee and is headed to the house floor soon. More than 30 organizations across the state are supporting this bill that would make us the second state in the US (after California) to join the growing global movement for nuclear disarmament.

Senate Joint Memorial 5 acknowledges that Oregon taxpayers are spending around $188 million annually on nuclear weapons, money that could be better spent on education, health care, infrastructure and the environment. It calls out the racial injustice and harms to human health that nuclear weapons have already caused from the mining of uranium on Native land to the testing of weapons on on the Marshall Islands to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It asserts that treaties and international agreements that are now being abandoned by the US administration such as the INF treaty and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (Iran Nuclear Deal) actually keep Oregonians safe. The bill supports federal legislation that would stop the President’s sole unchecked power to launch nuclear weapons, end nuclear first-strike, take nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert, stop wasteful spending on a new nuclear arms race, and lead negotiations with other nuclear armed states to eliminate nuclear weapons. The memorial also calls on the US government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which is supported by the majority of the world’s nations.

Read the Senate Joint Memorial on Nuclear Weapons on the Oregon State Legislature's website.

Organizations supporting SJM 5:

APANO

Augustana Lutheran Church (Portland)

Beyond Toxics

Beyond War Northwest

Church Women United of Lane County

CODEPINK

COFA Alliance National Network (CANN)

Columbia Riverkeeper

Community Alliance of Lane County

First Unitarian Peace Action Group (Portland)