On Wednesday 1st December 2021, CND, Trident Ploughshares and London CND delivered a letter to the German Ambassador in London. Marc Morgan, who called and organised the hand-out, reports:
The idea for this initiative came initially from Pastor Matthias-W Engelke, of the German branch of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. He and fellow-activists had been holding vigils and protests in Germany to call for accession to the TPNW to be part of the coalition negotiation between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. Matthias encouraged us to hold parallel vigils with the same message in the UK.
In the event it did not prove possible to stage an event before the conclusion of the coalition negotiations, instead we focused our action and our protest on the outcome of those negotiations. We don’t presume an upfront protest by us would have changed that outcome, but given that the large concessions and retrograde steps taken by the negotiating parties in the final agreement, it was very important to register our disapproval.
The Greens had made unambiguous, and the SDP ambiguous, commitments to work towards removing nukes from German soil, and negotiating with TPNW member states with a long-term view to accession. These promises enjoy the overwhelming support of the German people. All that was left of this by the end of the negotiations was a commitment to participate in the March TPNW member state meeting with observer status, wrapped up in hollow phrases of support for the long-term goal of a nuclear-free Europe and world. We have written a polite but strongly worded letter to the German Ambassador in the UK, deploring this state of affairs.
The London CND worker Julie Saumagne and I were greeted at the Embassy by Tim Rauschan, of the Embassy’s foreign policy staff. Tim was friendly and pleasant-mannered – as might be expected from a diplomat- and indicated that the Embassy were always pleased to hear from civil society in the UK, particularly when its members showed an interest in German politics. He politely rebutted our suggestion that the coalition agreement was a travesty of democracy, since it flouted the wishes of a very large majority of German citizens; he insisted democracy was representative, so it was the role of elected parties to “interpret” and if necessary go against popular feeling. Needless to say we hotly disputed this. To the question whether he believed that Germany would be consulted in the event of America considering using its nukes in a conflict with Russia (or others), Tim diplomatically stated it would “depend on the circumstances”.
We left the embassy after half an hour, with a promise our letter would be delivered to the Ambassador, and that he would give it his full consideration. Let’s see how he responds…
Outside the embassy we rejoined David Polden, who had been unable to attend the meeting with us owing to COVID-related restrictions. Instead David had given out about 20 of the flyers we had prepared, explaining our message to German citizens coming to use Embassy services.
This small action was a drop in the ocean of course, but it is an example of much needed international cooperation on these issues. Matthias Engelke, and Marion Kuepker of the “Buchel is everywhere, Atomfrei Jetzt” campaign have taken heart from our initiative and given it their wholehearted support. Details of it have also been relayed to correspondents in France.
You can read the letter below:
