Dear Friend --

Everyone is talking about nuclear weapons. It started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was reinforced by Oppenheimer’s big sweep, and last Saturday there was another massive surge in searching about nuclear weapons (and who possesses them), following Iran’s drone attack on Israel in retaliation for Israel’s attack on Iran’s embassy.

We’re also seeing more about nuclear weapons and their risks in pop culture, like Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A scenario (which might be made into a movie by Dune director Denis Villeneuve), and the new TV-series adaptation of the game Fallout. People everywhere are talking about nuclear weapons, what their use would do to humanity, and the increasing risks that they will be used.

ICAN has another part of the story to tell- and that’s how we can and we will end nuclear weapons. We’re doing this by talking to top UN and government officials, mobilising cities, calling out the nuclear industry and working across the world to remind people that we have a plan to end this threat forever.

And the plan is pretty straightforward- together with our campaigners around the world, we know that support for nuclear weapons is irrational and unrealistic, so we're making sure everyone knows. We know what nuclear weapons are designed to do, we work with those they have already harmed, and we’re making sure that decision makers see that there is an alternative to luck as a strategy. Because we know, luck might work in the movies, but it’s a lousy way to protect the people.

In the last weeks our incredible campaign coalition has gotten major cities to call on their governments to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, with capital cities like Rome and Tirana, and the Hague, home of the International Court of Justice joining the ICAN Cities Appeal. Our campaign is bringing the issue of nuclear weapons to new audiences at events like the NukeExpo in Brussels and Oslo, co-organised with the Red Cross, which exposes incontrovertible evidence of how catastrophic nuclear weapons are, or the Future Action Festival in Japan’s National Stadium which brought together over 60,000 young people calling for immediate action on the abolition of nuclear weapons and the climate crisis. We’ve also been talking with the World Health Organisation and others to make sure that we’re all working towards a nuclear weapons free world together.

We know it’s easy to worry about the state of the world right now, but hope and collective action are the best antidotes for nuclear anxiety. So if you would like to get involved in our efforts to end nuclear weapons, from wherever you are, the next best opportunity is our “No Money for Nuclear Weapons” Week of Action, from June 17-23! We’re already hearing from partners in the USA, Scotland and Italy about their ideas for the big week, and we’ve got plenty of tips and tools for everyone to get involved. So will you join us?

Thank you,

Susi Snyder
Programme Coordinator
ICAN