Follow us on Twitter
Let's be friendsCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament: 50 years old and feeling its age?
Media and Communications volunteer Emily Freeman celebrates fifty years of CND. For more information on the fiftieth anniversary demo at Aldermaston on March 24 go to www.cnduk.org
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. It was founded during the Cold War when fear of nuclear weapons was at its height. Its founders believed that they would only need to campaign for a few years before they succeeded. Sadly, it was going to take quite a lot longer than that.
One might ask whether reaching fifty is cause for celebration or a disappointment. Is lasting this long without ‘succeeding’ in achieving total nuclear disarmament proof that the campaign itself is a false hope, or is it evidence of an understanding of the size of the task in hand and the campaigners’ dedication and the strength of the need to carry on the struggle? The answer, as ever, depends on where you stand on the issue itself.
CND itself has had quite an influence on politics and society. The campaign has had many successes. Without it, the British people would have been kept in the dark about the British nuclear weapons system for many years more. CND has had links to many successful campaigns, including the Anti-Apartheid campaign in the 80s, and the women’s movement with Greenham Common Women’s Peace camp, permanently based at a Berkshire US nuclear Cruise Missile base, and lasted, despite continuous evictions, for nearly twenty years.
CND was founded in 1958, twelve years after the US bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. This had been the first time that such bombs had been used and was done in part to demonstrate the destructive capability of such horrific weapons of mass destruction. Not only did the bombs kill tens of thousands of people on impact, but many thousands died later from the effects of the radioactivity left by the bombing. The effects of such nuclear radiation still affect victims, and their children and grandchildren today. The Cold War followed as the USA, Russia then Britain and France built up ridiculous stockpiles of nuclear weapons. The USA and Russia got involved in an arms race, each trying to out-do the other with ever more powerful nuclear weapons and ‘sophisticated’ delivery systems, until there were enough weapons in each country to wipe out the population of the earth many times over. The concept of MAD: mutually assured destruction, or ‘deterrence’, the states argued, kept the world safe — they believed that no one would actually use their weapons for fear of the other side using them back.
In trying to justify the continued existence of nuclear weapons in the world, people point to the Non Proliferation Treaty signed by nuclear states which promises a slow but sure disarming, and the prevention of new nuclear weapons developing in other states. This creates five nuclear states, which are officially “allowed” the weapons. These are the US, Russia, China, France and the UK. These countries are also the permanent members of the UN Security Council, which means any decisions of the UN can automatically be thrown out if one of these states wants it to be. Many say this is a great contribution to the continued power of these five states and the fact that they still have nuclear weapons despite their international obligations.
The British decision to develop nuclear weapons was not taken democratically but was an executive decision of the government at the time. Public opposition to nuclear weapons grew after a government announcement that it had decided to manufacture and test a hydrogen bomb. Many people disagreed with the decision and CND was launched at a public meeting attended by 5,000 concerned people in London on 17 February 1958. It drew people from all walks of life. On Easter Monday 1958 CND organised a march from London to the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston — where the British nuclear weapons were then, as now being researched and built.
‘The Bomb Stops Here!’ on Easter Monday this year (24 March) is a fiftieth anniversary commemoration demonstration at Aldermaston to commemorate the first march, and also a recommitment to getting rid of nuclear weapons.
However, despite a promised large turnout, and intelligent and confident leadership, CND seems concerned about its future. A recent fiftieth anniversary conference in London showed why: the membership is large and has many ‘experts’, but it is not getting any younger. The average age of conference attendees must have been over forty-five, and only a few were under thirty. Questions were continuously asked: where are the young people? From these meetings, it seems they may be anywhere but campaigning for nuclear disarmament.
Japan is the only country to have been the direct target of a nuclear weapon attack, and many fear that soon the “Hibakusha” or nuclear bomb survivors will all have died, leaving no one who directly remembers the horrors of the attacks. No one will be able to pass on the urgent message that this must not happen again.
In Britain there is a similar fear that those who remember the shock of hearing the news about the use of nuclear weapons on civilians, and who can remember the time before nuclear weapons existed will become few and far between. If they are aware of nuclear weapons at all, young people today generally accept the horrific nuclear arsenal as a fact of life — as they might accept any other military property or government spending.
CND is worried about the lack of young campaigners in the anti-nuclear field, but should this be a genuine worry? It may be true that CND membership is low among the ‘younger generation’, but recent activity shows that youth opposition to Nuclear weapons in Britain is certainly not dormant. In 2006 and 2007 a campaign called Faslane 365 was held at Faslane nuclear base, where the British navy keeps its nuclear weapons. Faslane 365 aimed to protest and carry out Non Violent Direct Action — to block the gateways to the base and physically stop the normal functioning of the base by sitting in the road — every day for a year. Thousands of young people from across Britain and abroad came and protested, sat in the road and were arrested for the cause. For one week alone in 2007, over a thousand young people and students stayed at the base carrying out all kinds of actions and protest against the nuclear bombs. An international movement is strong with many growing groups and networks springing up across Europe and the world. This year’s meeting of the Non Proliferation Treaty preparatory committee which will take place this April and May, will be lobbied by many international youth, who will be invited to speak and will question and denounce the continued existence of nuclear weapons in the world, and the threat this poses to their safe future.
So, in reality, CND itself may be fifty years old, but the campaign for nuclear disarmament is staying fresh and young, and will do so while the weapons remain and people still oppose them.
There are buses going to Aldermaston from all across the country for March 24. For more information go to www.cnduk.org For more information on the Youth Action at the NPT conference and to contribute to the youth speech go to www.bang-europe.org
