Protest and Survive, edited by EP Thompson and Dan Smith Penguin Special, £1.50 DURING the winter of 1979 and the spring of 1980 a series of significant decisions were taken by NATO and the Tory government which made the danger of a nuclear holocaust more imminent.
It was announced that by 1983, Cruise missiles would be located in Britain at two American air bases.
Polaris was to be replaced in the 1990s by Trident at a cost of £5,000 billion, while in the meantime £1,000 million was being spent on modernising the present warheads.
1rue CLO aneu manitesto the Tories were cutting every aspect expenditure except defence and law and order.
Protest Since then a broad movenier or oooosiuon was Derun to emerge. CND has grown dramatically. Many trade unions have come out against nuclear weapons. The Labour Party conrerence volca unilateral nuclear disarmament.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest. EP Thompson must be well he made in his pamphlet, Protest and Survive, has met such a stunning response.
That pamphlet, published and of ahead for the British atomic bomb. The expenditure Iwa.
penditure called •Public Buildings' Te then has Bareed and since and developed the British nuclear tained a firm commitment to NATO.
Ine book also fails to draw any link between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are now within the grasp. of several "states due . Ic perialist expor of the technology for the construc tion of puclear reactors and reprocessing. plants.
But the weakest section or? the book pertains to action : the final chapter contains a foll call for variousit sorts of action and appeals to. a diversity of people it fails to offer any perspective for the organised working class" movement ol explain now trade union action can help halt the menace of nuclea weapons RIC SISSONS 23 Octobar 1980. Page 11