NUCLEAR FREEZE

The American Federation of Teachers supports the national movement to control nuclear weapons and prevent their use, including the national nuclear weapons freeze campaign, as a clear expression of the strong desire of the American people to halt and reverse the nuclear arms race. We believe that the United States should pursue, on an urgent basis, serious strategic arms control negotiations consistent with the maintenance of overall parity with the Soviet Union, including to the fullest extent possible:

• A mutual and verifiable freeze on the testing, production and deployment of nuclear warheads, missiles and other delivery systems;

• Major, mutual, balanced and verifiable reductions of nuclear forces to lower equivalent levels with special attention to destabilizing weapons that are vulnerable to or capable of preemptive attack;

• Strict adherence by both sides to all arms control agreements negotiated to date;

• Measures to prevent the use of nuclear weapons by each superpower, such as expanding political and tech­nical mechanisms to reduce the risk of war by accident or miscalculation, including hot lines among nuclear weapons states and joint United States/Soviet stations to enhance the command and control of nuclear weapons systems;

• Systematic multilateral efforts both political and technical to restrain the reckless commerce in sensitive nuclear materials and technology and to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and explosive capabilities to third parties, including terrorists;

• Conclusion of a verifiable Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty;

• Serious negotiated efforts to increase stability and lessen the risk of war in Europe by reducing the conven­tional and nuclear force imbalance in Europe and by initiatives such as mutual confidence-building measures to provide greater warning time;

• Expansion of the participation of all nuclear weapons states in arms control negotiations;

• That people and disarmament organizations pressure both sides in the arms race to reduce the production and deployment of nuclear weapons. We also urge peace activists in the West to assist peace activists in the East by establishing communications networks and by creating joint demonstrations, petitions and exchanges. Popular will must be openly expressed on both sides and directed at both sides if negotiations are to be fair and equitable.

Furthermore, the AFT opposes reckless talk by the Reagan Administration, which abandons the idea that the purpose of weapons must be to deter their use, and instead suggests that the United States considers preparing for limited and protracted nuclear war. Equally irresponsible are administration statements that the Soviet Union is superior and could win a nuclear war against the United States.

While the Reagan administration's activities are to be condemned, the Soviet Union's must be as well. The Soviet Union has engaged in the most massive military build-up in modern times. It has suppressed all nascent disarmament movements in the Eastern bloc. It has increased international instability with its invasion of Afghanistan and the suppression of free trade unionism in Poland. (1982 resolution reaffirmed by 1983 and 1984 conventions)