https://vimeo.com/414166067

 

Trump is pushing the world towards a nuclear war and climate catastrophe says Noam Chomsky on theAnalysis.news Podcast with Paul Jay

 

 

Transcript

Paul JayWelcome to the analysis podcast. I'm Paul Jay. Thirty-eight years ago, a massive rally against nuclear weapons took place in Manhattan, two New York Times reported on June 13th, 1982, that hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrators opposed to nuclear arms overwhelmed Central Park in midtown Manhattan yesterday, killing the streets and grew with echoing songs and hopeful slogans. The demonstration was far larger than any during the anti-war movement of the late 1960s and early 70s, and was possibly the largest ever in the city.

The organizers said it was the biggest disarmament gathering in the nation's history. Late in the afternoon, a police department spokesman said there might be as many as 600 or 700 thousand people around the park. Many of the dozens of speakers during the day urged the participants to continue the movement when they returned to their homes. “We shall not suffer silently the threat of nuclear holocaust,”said City Council President, Carol Bellamy, who addressed the crowd near the United Nations.

That was a report from The New York Times from June 13th, 1982. Other reports said there might have been a million people at the march.

Why highlight this march now during a pandemic that is killing tens of thousands of people around the world because the anti-scientific pandemic denial that exacerbated the current situation, the anti-scientific climate change denial that threatens human civilization is also at work with the denial of the threat of nuclear war that will likely end most life on Earth.

The 1982 march is an example of the kind of popular movement that is required now, but more so. We need a conscious movement that, on a broad national scale, demands urgent action in defense of the unemployed and for economic and racial justice, for immediate and profound action on climate change and concrete moves towards the reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. We may not be able to march for a while, but online and later in the streets and at the ballot box, such a popular movement will decide if we humans survive. Now, joining me to analyze this most existential moment, is Noam Chomsky.

His latest book is,”Internationalism or Extinction.”

Noam ChomskyDelighted to be with you.

Paul JaySo in the early 80s, there is a massive movement focused on the issue of threat, threat of nuclear war. That's your dog in the background, I guess, is it?

Yeah, that’s OK. He can join the conversation.

Threat of nuclear war, which, you know, in a sense in the short term is the biggest threat. It's not even being talked about. How do you explain how we go from massive protests in the 80s on this, to not even be not even being part of the discourse?

Noam ChomskyWe should, first of all, remember that those huge demonstrations had an effect, a significant effect. One effect was that their part, an important part of the background for the 1987 Reagan-Gorbachev agreement to establish the INF treaty, which sharply reduced the number of, the threat of war in Europe. The short term missiles, which were short range, were banned, which were extremely dangerous. That gave us a kind of a respite from very likely terminal nuclear war. And, of course, as you know, this was just dismantled by President Trump in last August who thumbed his nose at the world and still more spectacular way by immediately launching missiles,