By Miranda Pelletier
A recent meeting shone light on the Midwest’s role at the center of the arms race , and specifically Kansas City’s role as the backbone of nuclear weapons production here at the KC National Security Campus (KCNSC). The Nov. 15 meeting at the Lucille H. Bluford Library in KC MO was cosponsored by PeaceWorks KC and local chapters of the Party for Socialism & Liberation (PSL), Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and Veterans for Peace.
As the Trump administration announces plans to potentially resume nuclear testing, it is important to recognize the drastic impact that will have on communities still dealing with the consequences of previous tests in the Cold War era and beyond.
Representing PeaceWorks, Bree Crawford explained the history of US nuclear tests and their impacts on health and the environment, and how those harms have always disproportionately affected marginalized populations. From the beginning of US atomic bomb research with the Trinity Test and its fallout, to the Cold War where the US government continued to conduct various nuclear experiments on civilian populations without their knowledge or consent, people are still feeling the generational effects of radiation exposure to this day. “You wanna restart testing, you’re gonna be repeating a whole cycle of contamination and health risks,” warned Crawford.
The US is not the only country to develop and test nuclear weapons, but it is the only country to actually use one. Representing PSL, Mitch Schiller challenged the audience to think of these other countries’ nuclear pursuits “not as an arms race, but an arms chase” and a direct consequence of US imperialism — it’s not an equal competition but rather other nations scrambling to catch up with the dominant military power of the US and develop the one thing they can guarantee will safeguard their sovereignty and defend themselves from our country’s aggression. “The best thing we can do to ensure there’s a nuclear-free world,” Schiller said, “is to disarm this country.”
Kimmy Igla took the stand next on behalf of PSR to explain just how much Kansas City contributes to this country’s nuclear weapons program, with the KCNSC plant operated by Honeywell producing 80% of non-explosive parts for nuclear weapons. But nukes aren’t the only thing we help produce; we are a key player in conventional weapons production as well. Chris Overfelt from Vets for Peace went into detail about the specific types of weapons the United States produces here in the Midwest and their role in genocides around the world, especially in Gaza. See his report: https://peaceworkskc.org/midwest-weapons-report-nov-2025/.
So what can we do about the massive drive for weapons production? Kamran Choudhry from PSL emphasized the need for a people’s arms embargo — the idea of the people enforcing a ban on weapons being transferred, even if a government won’t take action. He pointed to the success of the Palestinian Youth Movement’s “Mask Off Maersk” campaign as an example. Public pressure has forced the logicstics company Maersk to halt weapons shipments in Spanish ports after their complicity in transferring military cargo to the Zionist occupation was exposed. “This only took two months of sustained pressure,” Choudhry said optimistically, motivating the audience to think about what we might achieve here with more organized direct action around the KCNSC or local transport sites.
After the presentations, the room broke off into discussion groups to further reflect on the topics mentioned and ways that we can take both individual and collective action.
“A better world is possible,” Igla declared, with organizations like PSR and PeaceWorks and other watchdog groups working for nuclear accountability. With more people continuing to attend events like this, it reminds us of the importance of revolutionary optimism in our fight for a nuclear-free future.
–Miranda Pelletier is a volunteer writer and photographer for PeaceWorks KC. © Miranda Pelletier, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International License.