NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AFTER THE COLD WAR:

Part 1: Archives of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 1989-1994

Part 2: Archives of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 1994-2000

Extracts from the Archives - Part 2

REEL TEN

CND National Council, Minutes of January 1994 Council.
Campaigns Team - What have we been up to?

… On the CTBT front, it has been signed by over a hundred countries but of the listed 44, three are still holding out (India, Pakistan and North Korea (*$!!@%@**). UN First Committee on Disarmament has started work and we’ve been monitoring progress. First NPT PrepCom was held and we sent out a letter explaining our views to all UN Ambassadors in New York.. First CTBT PrepCom is to be held between 20-22 November. We will monitor and respond accordingly.

… Vigilant has been commissioned and we’ve been busy planning a little something for when it leaves.

The Lakenheath ‘have the bombs gone/have they not’ saga took up quite a bit of our time. Sent out clarification note to the regions. Yes, the nuclear weapons store is deserted, and the nukes aren’t there. But it looks like they have moved them into special lockers inside the aircraft hangers …

Several schools have been or are to be visited. In conjunction with Student CND (Jen), it is hoped this programme can be stepped up and a countrywide list of CND people willing and able to dazzle Sixth forms built up.

REEL ELEVEN

Christian CND. Ploughshare, March 1995
50 Years of Nuclear Weapons … a Time for Change. Christian CND Annual Conference, Oxford

In the Old Testament the 50th year is a time for Jubilee, a time for emancipation and forgiveness of debts. Can the world in this Jubilee year, 50 years after the start of the nuclear arms race, free itself and future generations from the slavery of nuclear testing? Will the nuclear powers stop testing and free the indigenous people’s land? And in freeing themselves of the nuclear arms race, will resources be used for the poor of the earth?

… The conference will look to the future. What will happen if the opportunities are not grasped? How can we build a non-nuclear Europe? How can the United Nations evolve democratically and develop new structures of peace keeping and peace making? The AGM on Saturday afternoon will look at important issues about the future direction of CCND …

Parliamentary Labour CND
Local MP Protests Against Nuclear Weapons, 6 August 1998

Local MP Ken Livingstone is a member of a group of almost forty signatories in a letter to George Robertson, the secretary of state for defence, calling for action to push global nuclear disarmament. The letter is in response to the Strategic Defence Review, which came out at the beginning of last month.

Jeremy Corby MP will hand the letter in today, the 53rd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, to the Ministry of Defence on behalf of the signatories.

The signatories, all Labour MPs and members of the newly re-established Parliamentary Labour CND, welcome some aspects of the review, such as the cut in the number of nuclear warheads.
However, they also feel that many other elements achieve little to meet Labour’s commitment to work to a nuclear weapon free world …

Youth and Student CND. Now! … or never! Together we can stop the new nuclear nightmare.

Autumn-Winter 1995

5/9/95: 2130 hours GMT: France conducts an underground nuclear test in the South Pacific. ‘The ocean turned white … a flash - like lightening underwater - then the whole sea boiled over’ (Eyewitness account). Words cannot adequately describe the contempt that this action shows for human life and the environment - not to mention for the international disarmament agreements that France has committed itself to.

DIY! The threat of nuclear weapons affects every one of us. The only way we can counteract that threat is by confronting it - and changing it. Spread the word! Design and distribute your own
leaflets, posters and stickers … Arm yourself with the facts - information is power! And lastly, use your imagination - we can fight our nightmares with our dreams!

REEL TWELVE

Newsletter Ex-Services CND. August 1994
CND Rally in Trafalgar Square - Sat, 29th October

Britain must not wa(i)ve the rules
In April, 1995, the whole international community will sit down to discuss the review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Britain must not break her obligation to disarm or the whole Conference could break down. If the current treaty is renewed indefinitely, it opens the door to other countries who would like to join the nuclear club. What we must have is a global ban on nuclear weapons and cessation of all testing.

Special place for Ex-Services CND
Up to 150 of us will be able to picket outside the MOD, wearing our medals and bearing our banners. Assemble there at mid-day. CND boats will be on the Thames, so the MOD offices will be surrounded with peace people …

Labour CND
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

For the past 12 weeks, Labour CND has focussed its energy and attention of opposing NATO’s illegal and immoral bombing of Yugoslavia, which included the use of Depleted Uranium munitions which are categorised as weapons of mass destruction. We have played a prominent role in the committee for Peace in the Balkans which has organised three national demonstrations and a variety of other events. Over 100 local committees came into being, supported by - and in some cases brought into being by - CND groups, areas and regions.

Many CND members have complained that CND nationally failed to be sufficiently forthright and explicit in its opposition, despite the fact that April council was clearly opposed to NATO bombing and not a single council member raised their voice in opposition to this view. This is a serious failure by CND, especially in view of the incredible media bias in reporting the anti-war voice in Britain …

REEL 13

Campaign, Autumn 1998
Bishop says no to nuclear weapons

Members of Christian CND have been very busy and very successful. First they made contact with Archbishop Desmond Tutu via a number of left messages. The CND office was most surprised one morning to find an answerphone message from Archbishop Tutu waiting for them!

‘I am most willing to endorse the Abolition 2000 Statement and support the campaign calling on governments to commit the world to the permanent elimination of nuclear weapons. As you so rightly suggest, in South Africa we overcame apartheid relatively peacefully. This gave us confidence that all that is required to establish a nuclear weapon-free world is the will to make it happen. We can do it. I believe we are on the winning side. God bless you.’

Press & Information
Russian nuclear submarine accident, 14 August 2000

A Russian nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered submarine, the Kurstk, lies a the bottom of the Barents Sea.

A British nuclear-powered submarine, HMS Tireless, sits, broken-down in Gibraltar Harbour.

The Russians deny that the Kursk has any of its nuclear cruise missiles on board although CND approaches any statement about nuclear weapons, from any nuclear-armed state with extreme scepticism.

However, even if true, there are still environmental threats. Were the hull and the reactor compartment of the Kursk damaged in the emergency grounding? If so, even though the reactor has been shut down, there are dangers of a leakage of radioactive materials into the sea - as has already happened in the case of HMS Tireless …

REEL 14

Welsh CND - CND Cymru, Winter 1997
Nuclear Flights danger over South Wales

New and frightening information made available to CND Cymru had detailed flights of aircraft carrying radioactive nuclear materials over highly populated areas of South Wales. ‘Special Nuclear Materials Flights’ travel to and from the USA from Brize Norton (Oxfordshire) - overflying the Cotswolds, Chepstow, the northern edge of Newport, Caerphilly, the northern edge of Cardiff and Port Talbot and down the Bristol Channel out into the Atlantic. The flights are meant to be a secret.

The exact nature of the cargo remains a secret but the containers are those used to transport nuclear material. The ‘Special Nuclear Materials’ comes from or are destined for the Atomic Weapons Establishments at either Burghfield or Aldermaston. From this information it is assumed that the material is either Plutonium or Highly Enriched Uranium.

An accident involving one of these aircraft could permanently devastate South Wales and the South West of England. Because of the potential devastation posed by such flights, the US Government has banned transport of nuclear materials by air over US territory. Once again, the nuclear ‘deterrent’ that was set up to protect us is threatening our lives.

Scottish CND Conference 1995. Clyde Centre, Helensburgh,
7th & 8th October. Former Navy Commander addresses CND

Rob Green used to play a key role in supporting Britain’s nuclear fleet when he served as a Commander in the Royal Navy. Today he is a leading light of the peace movement. Rob left the Navy following the Falklands War and in particular the sinking of the Belgrano. Since then he has become the Chair of the UK World Court Project, a position which has taken him around the world campaigning for an end to nuclear arms. This summer he has been in New Zealand, during the hectic build up to the French nuclear tests at Moruroa.

Rob will be coming to speak at our annual conference on Saturday 7th October. We are delighted to be able to enlist a senior Navy officer to our cause as we meet in the shadow of Faslane.

REEL 15

Crawley CND, The Activator, January 1997.
Free Vanunu (the world’s first nuclear hostage)

For three decades Israel declared that they would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East. During this time it was secretly developing an extensive nuclear programme, hiding it from the Israeli people and Parliament, and from the international community. Mordechai Vanunu had the courage to break this wall of silence.

He worked as a nuclear technician at Dimona, Israel’s nuclear installation from ‘76 to ‘85. In ‘86 he revealed the facts in the Sunday Times. Based on his evidence, experts concluded that Israel had stockpiled up to 200 warheads, making it the sixth largest nuclear power in the world.

On 30th September ‘86, before his information was published, he was drugged and kidnapped from Rome by Israeli agents. He was tried in secrecy, charged with treason and espionage, and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. Since then, he has been kept in isolation in conditions ‘cruel, inhuman, and degrading’ (Amnesty International). The European Parliament has repeatedly called for his release, and he has been honoured by international organisations and five times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

‘I have sacrificed my freedom and risked my life in order to expose the danger of nuclear weapons which threaten this whole region. I have acted upon behalf of all citizens and of all humanity.’

REEL SIXTEEN

Greater Manchester District CND, Early Warning, September 1998. Vengeance is coming …

Britain’s fourth trident nuclear submarine, HMS Vengeance, is being launched by the government, at Barrow in Furness, Cumbria on the 19th September. Wouldn’t you rather have the £1.5 billion per year that is spent on nuclear weapons spent on health, education & social welfare ???

CND are organising a big demonstration at Barrow, to try and disrupt the official naming ceremony with as many drums, whistles and noisy people as possible. Add your voice to the clamour against nuclear weapons.

Summer Campaigning, Saddleworth

Saddleworth Peace Movement held its annual Peace Walk on Hiroshima Day in drizzle and rain, but our Affirmation to work for peace was not dampened. Twenty people walked from Greenfield to the canalside at Saddleworth museum, Uppermill with prayers and secular readings along the way. We were joined this year by Oldham East and Saddleworth MP, Phil Woolas, who spoke with feeling about the need to reduce Britain’s trade dependence on arms sales. Although the core of walkers, who ranged in age from 6 to over 90, come each year, we were joined by new people attracted by the leaflets we put in letterboxes along the route a few days before hand, and by our other publicity, mostly in the local papers.

Steve Roman

REEL 17

Merseyside CND, Newsletter, February / March 2000

What New Fence … Alert Black Bikini - Threatcon Bravo
The above is on signs inside one of the USA’s biggest Spy Bases controlled by National Security Agency - after a busy year for the USA spies in support of military operations in Serbia, Iraq, the planet … international row over ECHELON global spying network - of which Menwith Hill Station, Yorkshire is a major part … and now all the adverse publicity about ‘Son of Starwars’ developments at the base … well, at least they got rid of those bloody women from that Peace Camp - OR DID THEY? actually they didn’t … for several weeks now the MOD police have repeatedly found women strolling around inside the security fence on recce’s (reconnaissance) … military speak kids ? … actually the women are beside themselves it’s like a new Disneyworld on the Yorkshire Dales … for details of ‘HOW TO GET OVER-UNDER-THROUGH A HIGH SECURITY FENCE’ … please contact: WOMEN WITH HILL WOMENS PEACE CAMP …

West Midlands CND, November 1999
Ploughshares Three acquitted

On October 20th, Sheriff Margaret Gimblett instructed the jury at Greenock Sheriff Court to acquit Angie Zelter, Ulla Roder and Ellen Moxley on the charge of damaging a Trident facility in Loch Goil. In June, the three swam out to the laboratory barge ‘Maytime’, which is part of the Trident weapons system. They damaged some items and threw others into the loch. The Sheriff considered the International Court of Justice judgement in July 1996, saying, ‘I have to conclude that the three accused … were justified in thinking that Great Britain, in its use of Trident, not simply possession, coupled with a first strike policy, … has indeed been construed by others as a threat and as such is an infringement of international and customary law’. She accepted that the three had tried ‘every other reasonable method to prevent nuclear catastrophe’. As anticipated, the case is being referred to the High Court for clarification, a move welcomed by Trident Ploughshares, whose spokesperson said, ‘We have been looking forward to the day when the legality of Trident would be properly debated at this level’.

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