Thought for the Week: The common good
Ian Kirk-Smith reflects on the recent anti-cuts marches and the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis
On Saturday in central London thousands gathered to protest against present and proposed government cuts. There was a contingent walking behind the banner: ‘Cut Trident, not jobs, health or education’.
Tube stations along the route of the London march carried posters that echoed those striking, single message peace posters produced over the past century by Quakers. One read: ‘A nurse’s starting salary is £21,300. The UK spends that on nuclear weapons every six minutes’. Another urged the government to ‘Scrap Trident and its replacement and save £100 billion’.
£100 billion is a huge sum of money. Even supporters of Trident are beginning to wonder about this expenditure at a time when conventional defence forces are being cut to pay for it. The government’s own National Security Strategy has downgraded Trident’s significance and some senior military figures now believe it is redundant.
In this week’s issue Frank Boulton writes about the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis when, in late October 1962, ‘cold war watchers were horrified by the imminent prospect of global annihilation’. It was a critical point in history. He recalls the exploits of a small group of people, some of them Friends, on board Everyman III, a diesel-powered ketch augmented by sail, who made it to Leningrad with 100,000 leaflets with peace messages for the Russian people. One leaflet advocated the banning of nuclear weapons tests.
Sadly, as Frank writes, we still have nuclear weapons. Today, the makings of nuclear crises exist worldwide. Nine countries hold some 20,000 nuclear weapons – enough to destroy the planet hundreds of times over. In many of these places – the Middle East, Northeast Asia and South Asia – bitter regional rivalries post clear and present nuclear threats. Today, the United States and Russia still keep thousands of nuclear weapons ready for imminent launch.
John F Kennedy’s position in 1962 was ‘Never negotiate from fear and never fear to negotiate’. He proved that it was not weakness to offer your opponent the minimum respect of listening. This does not mean that you accept their position. It opens up an opportunity to reveal the facts and challenge views. One of the great lessons of the Cuban missile crisis was that negotiation works.
David Welch, the co-author of The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Concise History, describes it as ‘the most dangerous event in human history’. He discerns two other key lessons from the crisis for the leaders of today. They seem rather Quakerly.
First, do not provoke animosity. He writes: ‘Be careful what you do because other people will sometimes read what you do differently from the way you intend it.’
Second, cultivate empathy. He argues: ‘If you don’t cultivate empathy, which is an understanding of how someone else sees the world… you won’t be able to understand what they are doing, why they’re doing it, and you won’t be able to anticipate what they’ll do. And so you’ll find yourself just being wrong’.
The marchers in London on Saturday, among them Quakers passionately committed to a fairer and more just society, would have little problem suggesting how £100 billion might be spent on the common good.
Trident must be opposed. All countries must do more to create a safer world. Nuclear stockpiles must be reduced, nuclear materials must be kept secure and regional conflicts must be addressed. All states must do more and be encouraged, supported and lobbied to do more.
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