Apart from a bright spark of hope in the victory of the Gaza motion, this year’s conference lacked vision and purpose — we need to urgently reconnect Labour with its roots rather than weakly aping the flag-waving right, argues KIM JOHNSON MP

WHILE the media has presented Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repeated nuclear threats during the Ukraine war as uniquely reckless, Joseph Gerson highlights how the US has prepared or threatened nuclear war at least 30 times since the end of the second world war.
Ian Sinclair: What is the function of the US nuclear arsenal?
Joseph Gerson: In addition to providing massive profits to the US military-industrial complex, the US nuclear arsenal has two primary purposes: reinforcing the US global imperium and deterring nuclear blackmail or attacks by rival nuclear powers.
The origins of the US nuclear arsenal and the first-use doctrine are instructive. The Manhattan Project was initiated amidst fears that Nazi Germany would create nuclear weapons to be used against the United States and its wartime allies. The idea was to have a US nuclear weapon to deter Nazi use of the apocalyptic weapon.

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IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a lucid critique of a technology that reproduces and enables oppression, power, and environmental devastation

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