Whatever the exact outcome of negotiations on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), working people can be sure they will not make the world any safer from the prospect of nuclear war.

Washington is blatantly using the talks to codify the right to maintain its deadly nuclear arsenal. That's what it means to indefinitely extend the treaty without even a promise that the nuclear weapons states will dismantle their arms. And Secretary of State Warren Christopher's "assurance" to non- nuclear states has loopholes big enough to drive a tank through.

The U.S. government is not only responsible for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only time nuclear arms were ever used against human beings. It has also contemplated using them in almost every major military conflict since

- against the people of Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, and undoubtedly other countries that have not come to light. It was in response to Washington's attempts to turn its military machine against the workers and farmers of the Soviet Union and China following World War II that the regimes in those countries decided they too must have the atomic bomb, in the interest of self-preservation.

While maintaining as inalienable its own right to build more atomic bombs, Washington hypocritically uses agreements like the NPT to wage campaigns against governments that do not bow to its wishes, such as those in North Korea, Iraq, or Iran.

The fact is that Washington and the other states holding nuclear weapons - from London and Paris to Tel Aviv and New Delhi - have no intention of giving them up. As the fight for markets sharpens among the various capitalist powers and tensions increase, the likelihood of military conflicts breaking out in which nuclear weapons could be used grows. All the treaties and assurances in the world will not stop this manifestation of capitalism in decay.

Working people should welcome the fight by the governments of South Africa and Cuba to rid the world of nuclear weapons. South African foreign minister Alfred Nzo spoke for toilers around the globe when he called for steps to "accelerate the pace of nuclear disarmament" by all governments that have the arms. Cuba's foreign minister, Roberto Robaina, did the same when he noted that disarmament must be carried out in the countries where there are nuclear weapons, "as the only way to guarantee long-lasting peace and safety to everyone."

The positions of these governments are a result of revolutionary struggles. It was under the pressure of the rising democratic revolution in South Africa, with millions mobilized to bring down the apartheid system, that the now- defunct white regime in Pretoria became the only government to ever dismantle its nuclear weapons.

In Cuba, workers and farmers made a socialist revolution, took power into their own hands, and began using it to defend the interests of working people. The working class internationally needs to follow this lead in taking power away from the warmakers, not just to end capitalist exploitation but also to end for all time the threat of nuclear war.  
 
 
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