U.S. Mayors Support Cambridge Nuclear Divestment

Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons announced the city’s $1 billion divestment
from nuclear weapons at the MIT nuclear conference in April.

On June 28th, the United States Conference of Mayors unanimously adopted a resolution that calls on the next U.S. President to “pursue diplomacy with other nuclear-armed states,” to “participate in negotiations for the elimination of nuclear weapons,” and to “cut nuclear weapons spending and redirect funds to meet the needs of cities.” In the resolution, they officially commended “Mayor Denise Simmons and the Cambridge City Council for demonstrating bold leadership at the municipal level by unanimously deciding on April 2, 2016 to divest their one-billion-dollar city pension fund from all companies involved in production of nuclear weapons systems and in entities investing in such companies.”

In response to this news, Mayor Simmons told FLI, “I am honored to receive such commendation from the USCM, and I hope this is a sign that nuclear divestment is just getting started in the United States. Divestment is an important tool that politicians and citizens alike can use to send a powerful message that we want a world safe from nuclear weapons.“

Read more about the USCM resolution.

Watch as Mayor Simmons receives a standing ovation to her divestment announcement at that April 2 meeting.

Some of the greatest minds in science and policy also spoke at the conference.

Their videos can all be seen on the FLI YouTube channel, including:

William Perry’s Nuclear Nightmare

Former Secretary of Defense William Perry presents his nuclear nightmare and discusses why he believes the risk of nuclear catastrophe is greater now than it was at any time during the Cold War.

Joe Cirincione: Current Nuclear Policy

Joe Cirincione talks about how and why Obama’s nuclear policy failed and what we need to do to move forward more successfully in the future.

Max Tegmark: Accidental Nuclear War

Max Tegmark highlights visual data to show how many nuclear weapons we have today, how damaging they can be, and how close we are to launching an accidental nuclear war.

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