increasing Parliamentary While nothing can stop imperialism ing class: it must disarm the US important monopolists before they turn their As long as capitalism survives struggle as clas resolution peace and litionaries no nor a illr war, pure illusion.
cannot pacifists, for that is to fly in the fac wing.
To avoid war, to end war, we have to step up the class struggle on every front, and take it through to and his own This means supporting revoluand growing number of countries as the condi. tions for revolution mature across began the support simu other us pitains stains, the fighting against Alliance war drives that imperialism will tr to unleasn against each successive In the final analysis the question of whether or not there will be a war will be decided by the Germany, Britain and above all in North American When the working class ol the world has finally overthrown the war-mongers then we oppose, Cruise this country The Campaign for Nuclear Disarma ment was one of the most successful mass campaigns ever conducted in Britain. Today, after years at a very low ebb, it is undergoing a revival.
PHIL HEARSE looks at the rise of the CND, its gradual demise in the early sixties, and the lessons we can draw from its history.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament got off the ground in 1957 — no acci dent. In 1956 the world had been shaken by two dramatic events: the brutal suppression of the Budapest uprising by Soviet troops, and the joint British, French and Israeli invasion of Egypt to prevent the nationalisation of the Suez canal by the Nasser regime.
Out of these two events crystallised an awareness of the Western powers, and the truth of what Stalinism represented. People left the Communist Party in droves, and the 'New Left' began to emerge.
At the same time people became increasingly disturbed by the escalating level of nuclear tests: Evidence of ill-effects on health of above ground nuclear tests came to light. It was clear that nuclear weaponry was getting more effective and sophisticated and that a future nuclear war could wipe out humanity completely.
The founders of CND included left Labour Party members, scientists, religious figures and a wide range of supporters from every walk of life. In 1957 CND initiated its annual Easter marches from the Aldermaston nuclear plant in Berkshire to London. Progressively CND's activities drew in wide support. Huge public meetings were held all over the country to launch the campaign. Unilateral At first the campaign was centred on one demand — unilateral nuclear disarmament. But gradually the campaign was extended to include opposition to nuclear alliances, and thus support for British withdrawal from NATO, and opposition to nuclear bases in Britian.
CND's biggest impact, however, was made inside the Labour Party and the trade unions. Virtually the whole of the Tribune left of the Labour Party unilateralist, despite Nye Bevan's refusal, supported by left-leaning trades unionists, the most whom was the Transport Workers, Frank Cousins.
The polarisation inside the Labour Party le to CND's finest hour — the debate at the 1960 Labour Party conference: Cousins the Transport unilateral disarmament.
It was opposed in person by Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the party and spokesperson of the right Against a rising crescendo of heckling which made parts of his speech virtually inaudi.
, Gaitskell, in his famous 'fight, fight, and fight again' speech, staked the future of the right personal future on the struggle against unilateralism in the party.
The right-wing organised the Campaign for Democratic Socialism, which, with huge funds, task of defeating the unilateralism. But for a year the official position of Labour was for unilateral disarmament.
The changes in the world political situation and the development of the radicalisation in the left of British politics began to put strains on the alliance around CND. The attempted US-backed invasion of Cuba in 1961 led directly to the Cuban missile crisIs or IS0z U2 planes over discovered the setting up of Soviet missiles on the island. President Kennedy ordered the blockade of Cuba by the US Navy — all boats heading for Cuba were stopped and searched.:
The world held its breath, awaiting a clash •between the Soviet and American navies. CND overwhelmingly take begins t the radical left.
developing.
Seats of Government (RSGs), imperialist mobilised its supporters in a protest that was directed United States — the supporters of the campaign were CND was becoming identified as a campaign of Two developments in 1963 confirmed this trend. A more radical wing, led by such figures as Bertrand Russell and Pat Arrowsmith, They wanted direct, non-violent action to confront the war mongers. Already they had organised sit-down demonstrations in central London and at US bases which had been met with considerable police violence.
This radical wing — known as the Committee of 100 — exposed the existence of the Regional shelters where government personnel would go in me event or nucicar war. wards le 1o0› castel march, a section of the demonstration broke away and marched to an RSG near Reading.
Although 80,000 marched on the last day of the demonstration in London, that evening, Easter Monday, CND's best known figure, Cannon L John Collins of St. Paul's, appeared on television and denounced the extremists shelterLater that year, the campaign against the visit of Queen Frederika of Greece confirmed the trend of CND supporters to the left. The regime in Greece was still holding thousands of political prisnors — mainly Communists — in jail. Rightwing thugs, in league with the police, had recently murdered the left-wing pacifist deputy Lambrakis (the murder of Lambrakis is the subject of One of the most celebrated political prisoners the husband of a Communist. In 1963 he had been in prison for 17 years. Against this background of repression in Greece, Queen Fredrika was receiv. ed by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
For a week in July 1963, thousands of people, organised by CND and the Communist Party, fought nightly battles against the police, trying to march to Buckingham Palace. CND had never before been so closely associated with the mili. tant left. The CND alliance started to break up As CND's more moderate support began to ebb away, the left began to turn its attention from simple unilateralism towards the issue of Vietnam, as the United States began to draw the line against Communism in that country. CND began to peter out as a mass campaign.
on British political was overwhelmingly positive. It had the immeasurable merit of breaking with cold war consensus. From being oppossed to a particular type of weapon, it moved towards active neutralism in world politics, while many of its supporters went a stage further towards antiThousands of young people were drawn into Socialists through CND at a time when CND was dominated by the SLL-organised Keep Left tendency and the IS supporters around Young Guard.. Hundreds of today's left-wing activists were brought into Any campaign on nuclear weapons will even tually have to start to confront the questions of world politics, above all the question of the reason for the existence of nuclear weapons and the threat of war. No explanation of these things can be found without explaining imperialism.
For many of the early supporters of CND who opposed nuclear weapons on moral grounds - or who thought that Britain could make an moral gesture to the world by unilateral disarmament — anti-imperialism was & • Without doubt there is a place in British politics today for a single issue campaign agains Cruise missiles and for unilateral nuclear disa mament. That campaign should be based ou - and not like today's CND on a wide range of neutralist policies.
Socialist Challenge 19 June 1980 Pape 9