Volunteers from Count the Nuclear Weapons Money, Peace Accelerators and Code Pink organized a money counting action yesterday outside the New York office of nuclear weapons contractor Jacobs Engineering.
According to research by the Norwegian Council on Ethics, re-affirmed by Don’t Bank on the Bomb, Jacobs Engineering is involved in the joint venture AWE-ML (Atomic Weapons Establishment – Management Limited) which is responsible for warhead maintenance for the UK’s Trident II-nuclear arsenal. They are developing a new warhead, the Mark 4A or Mk4A. Jacobs Engineering is also part of the consortium responsible for the US nuclear weapons test site – Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) – near Las Vegas.
The volunteers took money from a mock nuclear missile and re-allocated it to a basket representing Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, Disarmament, Justice and Strong Institutions.
Christopher Salata from Peace Accelerators counting nuclear weapons money outside the New York office of Jacobs Engineering.
They then delivered a letter to Jacobs Engineering, attention Steven J. Demetriou Chief Executive Officer, commending the company for it’s excellent record on worker health and a safe workplace (they received the 2018 Gold Award in the Mind Workplace Wellbeing) and urging them to extend this to the health, wellbeing and safety of humanity by ceasing to produce nuclear weapons.
The letter cites the recent decision of the UN Global Compact on Investment to exclude nuclear, chemical and biological weapons industries, from its list of acceptable investment sectors. And the letter cited international law proscribing nuclear weapons including the International Court of Justice affirmation that the threat or use of nuclear weapons violates international humanitarian law, the UN Human Rights Committee determination that nuclear weapons violate the Right to Life, and the adoption of a UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
As yet, there has been no reply from Mr Demetriou.
Rose Asaf from Code Pink counting nuclear weapons money outside the NY office of Jacobs Engineering.