Support for the appeal of the UN Secretary-General

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PEACE, DISARMAMENT, COOPERATION,
KEYS TO A HUMAN FUTURE ON THE PLANET

We are going through difficult times on this Earth, our common home. Adding to natural disasters and ills caused by human error, we face today an existential crisis due to the new infectious respiratory disease called Covid-19. The effort that is requested of the actual powers of this world is, in the first place, to take measures that respond, in each country, in an urgent and effective manner, to the need to defend health and life of those who have delegated their powers to them. They will also have to recognize that such an effort will not succeed without an agreement at the international level on the need and means to reduce inequalities in the world and eradicate the growing poverty by fairly redistributing the wealth produced by human labour.

The mobilization of enormous human and financial resources will be necessary to carry out these tasks. Beyond health infrastructures, it will be necessary to invest massively in the education of the young, especially of young women, as well as in sanitation, water and energy supply without the illusion that those are problems exclusive of the so-called third world countries. The necessary resources exist which are diverted for ends harmful to humanity, particularly wars  waged all over the world, the manufacture and stockpiling of ever more lethal and highly performant weapons, the concentration of wealth in a tiny minority of the Earth’s inhabitants.

Scientists, who around the world have mobilized often spontaneously to contribute with their work and their specialized knowledge to help in the fight against the pandemic that afflicts us, will be essential to build a sustainable future for mankind on the planet. They will play an indispensable role in a disarmed and cooperative world of peace.

The World Federation of Scientific Workers has fought since its foundation in the aftermath of the Second World War, in 1946, for the ideals of Peace, Disarmament and Cooperation among all peoples of the world. She can therefore only welcome the lucid position taken by the Secretary General of the United Nations on March 23 in favour of these same ideals. In his address, António Guterres, underlines the fact that as “the whole world faces today a common enemy: COVID-19, (…), armed conflicts continue to rage in the world”. By calling for “an immediate cease-fire, everywhere in the world” he urged those responsible to lay down arms, silence the guns, put an end to air strikes.

“Let’s put an end to the scourge of war and fight against the disease that is ravaging our world,” said the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The WFSW welcomes and supports António Guterres’ message and calls on its affiliated organizations to make it public, each in its sphere of influence.

The International Secretariat of the World Federation of Scientific Workers