1984 Democratic Presidential Primary

JESSE JACKSON ON ISSUES OF WAR, PEACE, AND NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

JESSE JACKSON is the only candidate who is building a RAINBOW COALITION, a movement that can force the government to take the issue of nuclear disarmament seriously, a movement that can actually win the Nuclear Freeze. Just as in the 1960s and 1970s, when civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) spoke out against the war in Vietnam and helped bring that war to an end, it will take a broadening of the Peace Movement to include the movements of minorities, working people, the dispossessed and disenfranchised to WIN the Nuclear Freeze, and reverse the arms race. JESSE JACKSON's candidacy, and the Rainbow Coalition, presents a critical historical opportunity for the Peace Movement in this country that peace activists must weigh with great seriousness. The Peace Movement has provided an invaluable service to humanity by exposing, educating, agitating and consciousness raising on just how imminent nuclear war is becoming—especially under the Reagan Adminis­tration. The Peace Movement must apply the same intellectual rigor and analytical urgency to Movement­-Building Strategy. That is why JESSE JACKSON's candidacy should be endorsed and whole-heartedly supported by the vast majority of peace activists.

JESSE JACKSON has the strongest, most comprehensive, and most politically sophisticated understanding of the causes of war—and the boldest program to oppose nuclear war.

JESSE JACKSON is best able to cut through the media cover-up of Ronald Reagan's danger to the entire human race. JESSE JACKSON can best communicate the issues, and provide the clearest political and moral challenge to Ronald Reagan.

LET'S LOOK AT JESSE JACKSON'S POSITIONS

• JESSE JACKSON HAS BEEN GIVEN THE HIGHEST RATING BY THE NETWORK, A Catholic Social Service Lobbying Group, and the Jobs With Peace Campaign in Boston. Let's look at some of his main stands.

• JESSE JACKSON WHOLEHEARTEDLY ENDORSES THE NEW, TWO-PHASE STRATEGY OF THE BILATERAL NUCLEAR FREEZE MOVEMENT—"FIRST STOP—THEN NEGOTIATE." That is, as Presi­dent he would immediately stop the testing and deployment of nuclear warheads and missiles, which can be monitored with confidence by the U.S. and Soviet Union. He would immediately call on the Soviets to begin negotiating a comprehensive Bilateral Freeze. He would use both his personal commitment to diplomacy, and his ability to mobilize world public opinion to pressure both the U.S. government and the Soviet government to actually implement the Freeze.
  

• JESSE JACKSON SUPPORTS THE FREEZE LEGISLATIVE STRATEGY TO MAKE THE FREEZE "PRESIDENT-PROOF." That is, he agrees that we cannot wait until a defeat of Ronald Reagan to take action now on the arms race. He, too, urges all members of Congress to exercise the power of the purse and withold all funding for the testing and deployment of missiles and nuclear warheads.
  

• JESSE JACKSON OPPOSES THE STAR WARS STRATEGY OF PLACING MISSILES IN OUTER SPACE. "I oppose the Soviet effort, President Reagan's effort, and the efforts of previous administrations to carry on the arms race in outer space. I would end the development of anti-satellite technology and all ballistic missiles defense systems. It's a hackneyed argument, but no less true, that the creation of the illusion of invulnerability increases our vulnerability."
  

• JESSE JACKSON REALIZES BETTER THAN ANY OTHER CANDIDATE, THAT WHILE NUCLEAR WAR MAY BE STARTED THROUGH ACCIDENT AL OR TECHNICAL FAILURE, IT MAY VERY WELL STEM FROM CONVENTIONAL BATTLES BETWEEN THE SUPERPOWERS-ESPECIALLY IN 3RD WORLD NATIONS. JESSE JACKSON's strong opposition to U.S. intervention against popular movements in the 3rd world, such as South Africa, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Grenada, begins with his strong support for each nation's right to self determination. But he is the only candidate who seems to understand; the relationship between U.S. "conventional" intervention in the 3rd world, and the threat of nuclear war. He understands that you cannot oppose nuclear war without opposing the many unjust, "conventional" wars and interventions that may trigger it.
  

• JESSE JACKSON RECOGNIZES THAT WHILE FREEZING NUCLEAR WARHEADS AT PRESENT LEVELS OF 25,000 IS NOT NEARLY ENOUGH, THAT THE BI-LATERAL NUCLEAR FREEZE IS A CRITICAL FIRST STEP. Many of those who oppose the Freeze on the grounds that it doesn't go far enough-like President Reagan-are using that as a smokescreen to oppose any arms control, and are bringing our families closer to nuclear death. The Freeze supporters point out that over 75% of all Americans support the Freeze. We must demand that the Senate pass the Freeze! Then, we can go on to further reduction. If a car is going 80 miles an hour hell-bent for the edge of a cliff, before you can go into reverse, you have to stop the car. Any efforts to belittle the significance of the Bi-Lateral Nuclear Weapons Freeze actually stand in the way of the urgent goal of the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons.

• JESSE JACKSON OPPOSES THE DISASTROUS BUILD-DOWN THEORY, which claims to reduce the total number of nuclear weapons by destroying 2 weapons for every new one built. In fact, "Build Down" is actually a dramatic "Build Up". It is a boondoggle for the military-industrial complex, funding a drastic escalation of modernized, more lethal, less detectable weapons, in return for "destroying" outmoded weapons the Pentagon doesn't want anyway.

• JESSE JACKSON SUPPORTS AN IMMEDIATE REDUCTION OF THE MILITARY BUDGET BY 20% 
  "Arms reduction in my administration would contribute to security, not because arms reductions work miracles by themselves, but because the reductions would result from agreements that reduce tensions and demonstrate the will of the U.S. to reverse the arms race, rather than gain or maintain technological and political advantages."
  Obscene levels of military spending are:
  1)    Fueling a long-term fiscal crisis of deficit spending.
  2)    Taking urgently needed funds away from urban infrastructure and basic social services. When Ronald Reagan promised to never cut the basic "safety net" of social services, he never explained that he planned to burn it to ashes instead. JESSE JACKSON favors positive government services to improve the lives of poor and disabled people at home, not negative military intervention to further the suffering of the poor and create more disabled abroad. 

BY CONTRAST:

WALTER MONDALE has taken a good stand on the specific issue of the Nuclear Freeze, and has raised some strong criticisms of Ronald Reagan.
BUT:
• He supports development of Trident II, Midgetman and Stealth Bomber.
• He supports continued aid to the right-wing dictatorship in El Salvador, only calling for "human rights" assurances, and also supports aid to the right-wing "contras" in Honduras who are plotting the overthrow of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
• He has refused to demand the withdrawal of all U.S. corporations from South Africa-as a means of winning political freedom for the Black majority.
• In short, his failure to oppose U.S. corporate intervention in the 3rd world and the placing of U.S. missiles in Europe despite the demonstrations of millions of Europeans indicates a very weak and superficial grasp of the causes of world war, as does his call for a 4.3% increase in the military budget.

GARY HART has made some recent statements about the urgency of a nuclear arms freeze that are steps in a positive direction. His disagreements with Walter Mondale about U.S. troops in Central America are consistent with positions that Jessie Jackson has held for years-positions we applaud.
BUT:
•  Like Mondale, he has refused to make substantial cuts in the military budget a major demand of his campaign. In fact, he supports a 4.5% increase in the military budget.
•  He took 10 months to endorse the Nuclear Freeze resolution.
•  Like Mondale, Hart has supported the placing of U.S. missiles in Europe.
•  Hart originally endorsed the disastrous "Build Down" theory-a plan that claims to "reduce" the arms build up by destroying 2 weapons for each weapon built.
•  In short, Gary Hart's inconsistencies on the issues of nuclear war, his hesitancies and reversals, indicate he is a supporter of the Peace Movement on some issues-but not the LEADER we so urgently need.

JESSE JACKSON HAS THE MOST INTEGRATED UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD SITUATION, AND AN ACTUAL STRATEGY FOR THE PEACE MOVEMENT AT HOME, AND FOR PEACE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

He has opposed U.S. intervention in the 3rd world, and is the candidate with the most positive vision of an advanced Superpower's relationships with the nations of the 3rd world. While many people admire his ability to free Lieutenant Goodman, few recognize it is JESSE JACKSON's whole approach to the 3rd world leaders, one of mutual respect and dialogue, that made JACKSON the only person able to make the Syrian mission a success.JESSE JACKSON is the only candidate who understands the dangerous continuum between increasingly lethal "conventional" weapons, so-called "tactical" nuclear weapons, and "full-scale" nuclear weapons. Only JESSE JACKSON is calling for relationships of equality, mutual respect, non-intervention in each other's internal affairs, and public pressure on the U.S. and Soviet governments for a Freeze and then disarmament.

ONLY JESSE JACKSON IS CALLING FOR THE FORMATION OF A RAINBOW COALITION IN THE UNITED STATES FOR PEACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE. THAT IS HIS BOLD, COMMON SENSE PLAN: TO FREEZE, THEN REDUCE, THEN END THE NUCLEAR ARMS RACE.

YES, I WANT TO GET INVOLVED IN THE JESSE JACKSON FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN.

NAME____

ADDRESS AND ZIP____

TELEPHONE____      PEACE ORGANIZATION____

Send to: JESSE JACKSON FOR PRESIDENT,
4015 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90010 (213) 382-0312

Eric Mann, Julie Korenstein

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