London Region CND
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UN International Day of Peace 2024 London CND ...

On the 19th of September, London CND marked the lead-up to the UN International Day of Peace by visiting embassies across the capital, reinforcing its commitment to nuclear disarmament. This report delves into the day's activities.

UN International Day of Peace 2024 London CND visits embassies across the capital

London CND in 2023: report from our AGM

London CND is entering 2023 with force and determination!

Starting with a very well-attended online conference, we met in person for our New Year social and followed with an online Annual General Meeting to decide on key campaigns for this year.

New Year Social

After a few years of unfortunate events meddling with our plans, we were happy to bring our New Year social back! We returned to the Ev Restaurant just next to Southwark Station.

It was a lovely evening of catch ups with friends, with a raffle and delicious Anatolian mezze food shared with Jeremy Corbyn MP and our Vice-President Emma Dent-Coad.

A new Vice-President was annouced: Murad Qureshi, who gave an interesting speech on CND’s campaigning prospects in 2023.


Annual General Meeting

London CND Coordinator Julie Saumagne presented her report on 2022 activities:

With the war in Ukraine and the return of US nukes in Britain, promoting our message of Peace has been at the forefront of our activities. But cutting through the thick layer of warmongering covering the media and public attention was, and remains, a major challenge. So we got creative.

First, we made our voice heard twice at RAF Lakenheath, bringing two coaches full of protestors. We painted original banners and staged a theatrical intervention that got shared in the media and online.

Second, I’m particularly proud of our new partnership with the V&A. We first organised a visit of their poster archive with the artist Peter Kennard. We then organised a second event as part of the Hiroshima commemorations which focused on the cultural impact of the two nuclear bombings through the lens of Giant Monster movies. These two events were part of our wider efforts to generate new ways of engaging with the youth.

Finally, another approach we took was to support CND in launching a TikTok page - you have probably heard of this new social media platform, it is most used by Gen Z and supports political messages quite well. We started experimenting with more humorous videos and are hoping to do more this year.

2022 has seen an acceleration of existing tensions, and we have done all we could to face them with determination and inventiveness in calling for nuclear disarmament everywhere.

As closing words, I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that I’m always pleased to receive feedback and listen to any new ideas you might have. So feel free to email or call me if you’d like, I am available every Tuesday.

Three motions were voted upon and accepted. One covered London CND’s commitment to the pursuit of deescalation and peace in Ukraine. Our priorities for 2023 were outlined in a second motion, and Murad Qureshi was appointed as a Vice President of London CND.

Murad Qureshi, appointed new London CND Vice-President

Murad Qureshi, whose family hails from Bangladesh, was born in Greater Manchester and brought up in Westminster. At university he specialised in environmental economy and maintains a keen interest in South Asia, in particular the potential for nuclear conflict between Pakistan and India. Murad was a member of the London Assembly from 2004-16, and again in 2020-21. He is a member of CND National Council and a former chair of Stop the War Coalition, and an avid football fan.

[VIDEO] Annual Conference recordings available

Our online Annual Conference on the theme of New Cold War Challenges platformed:

  • Jeremy Corbyn MP

  • Vijay Prashad from the Tricontinental Institute

  • London CND Vice-President Emma Dent-Coad

  • Junayd Islam from Cambridge Student CND

  • Margaret Kimberley from the Black Alliance for Peace USA

  • Karina Lester, an Yankunytjatjara Angu woman and ICAN ambassador

  • and Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP

A recording of the event is available here:

Tribute to Ellen Sheffield

Tribute to Ellen Sheffield
on 23 December 2022

London CND is sad to report that Ellen Sheffield, a long-time London peace campaigner passed away on 23 December 2022, at the age of almost 94. The short tribute below comes from her friend and colleague, Daphne Trotter.

Ellen Sheffield joined CND when she was young. She volunteered with the Campaign practically all her life. For a long time she was chair and secretary of Muswell Hill CND, and later a member of Haringey CND.

She had been unwell for some time, and last summer Ellen moved to a care home in Bristol, to be near her daughter Barbara. I hadn’t seen Ellen since lockdown although we kept in touch by phone.

Ellen’s funeral takes place on Wednesday 18 January and will be followed by an informal commemoration at a nearby location. Details are available from info@londoncnd.org

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War in Ukraine, Cold War with China - The big challenges 2023 holds

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As we cross the threshold of a new year, two imponderables demand our attention: how will the new cold war between the US and China shape up in 2003, and what course is war in Ukraine likely to take? Both will come under scrutiny this Saturday at London CND’s online conference.

The Ukraine propaganda bubble, a short military campaign leading to a rout of the Russian invasion, burst months ago. No one doubts the Ukraine war is an extended and devastating struggle. With the potential to spread beyond Ukraine’s borders, it raises the spectre of nuclear engagement.

Nato and the EU are discussing providing another round of heavy weaponry to Ukraine. Modern tanks are top of President Zelensky’s military must-have list, though Germany for one is reportedly reluctant to sanction the further escalation of conflict this would presage. Germany, France, Poland, and others including Britain, have already provided some tanks to Ukraine, but well below the 500 or so Zelensky is calling for.

Recent news that  Britain is considering providing up to 10 Challenger II tanks to the Ukrainian army is a step in exactly the wrong direction. More military hardware will encourage Ukraine forces to stay dug in for a long war which they cannot win without Nato backing or US support. If the west escalates the conflict and Russia finds itself under even greater pressure in Ukraine, who’s to say President Putin won’t consider using nuclear weapons?

Neither is Russia the only party likely to be considering the use of nukes. The notion of a nuclear war in Europe isn’t something circulating among crazed peacenik circles. Since early summer 2022, this danger of has been publicly acknowledged by a growing number of western military sources.

On 9 January this year, the Federation of American Scientists nuclear specialist Hans Kristensen revealed that B61-12s nuclear bombs have been cleared for transport to bases in Europe. They are the United States newest guided nuclear bomb, the same type used on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, though considerably more powerful of course.

Their locations in Europe include RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk which last year became the sixth nuclear base in Europe funded by the US. Guided nuclear bombs were stored at Lakenheath until 2008. The silo facilities at are still intact there.

The first of a new-generation US fighter bomber aircraft, the F-35A which is equipped to carry them, arrived at Lakenheath in December 2021. Crew training began last year, as more of these aircraft began arriving.

Last October, Politico news service reported that the US had brought forward the deployment of the B61-12s from spring 2023 to December 2022. The Pentagon dismissed the report at the time, saying ‘There is no speeding up because of any Ukraine crisis’. In his recent report, Kristensen point out ‘it is unknown if B61-12 shipments to Europe have begun’.

Meanwhile, the strategic background against this threat of escalation between Nato and Russia over Ukraine takes place, is another escalation of tensions – that between the US and China. Under Biden, US rhetoric about the supposed threat to Taiwan posed by China, has been a growing factor in acclimatising western public opinion to the idea that we are heading into a new cold war.

The Guardian recently reported, for example, the US Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) had wargamed a variety of military confrontation scenarios. Unsurprisingly all of them involved heavy losses on both sides. Of more concern, their report highlighted the need for both Taiwan and the US to build up ‘deterrence forces’.

The immediate material corollary of a propaganda campaign around Taiwan is a real growth of US military forces in the region, including drawing Japan closer via bilateral security arrangements with the US. This includes the use of the Japanese island of Guam, which is a strategic US naval base. In 2009, it was combined with a US air force base, and would be an important facility in any nuclear confrontation.

Britain is already closely tied into the United States strategic pivot to Asia. The UK is part of the Aukus partnership, with the US and Australia, created in 2021 which provides for nuclear powered submarines to patrol the waters surrounding China’s coastline. Only days ago, Rishi Sunak welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to London for the signing of a bilateral defence agreement which allows UK forces to be deployed to Japan. Downing Street has described it as ‘the most significant defence agreement between the two countries in more than a century’.

Each of these developments, and other related realignments in security relations, merit fuller consideration. We are heading into a truly dangerous period, and need to begin mapping out a military as well as political picture of how international relations are shaping up.

As with Ukraine, so with China. The single most important question about both these conflicts is, undoubtedly, whether they will remain non-nuclear.

Such major issues as these raise bigger questions than London CND’s 2023 annual conference alone can answer. With a terrific line-up of speakers though, we hope interest in New Cold War Challenges will extend well beyond the boundaries of Greater London. Register in advance for your free ticket and join us on Saturday.

This article originally appeared on Labour Outlook website.

Carol Turner is co-chair of London Region CND. She is a directly elected member of CND’s National Council and part of the International Advisory Group.

Carol is a long-time peace campaigner, a member of Stop the War Coalition’s National Officer Group, and author of Corbyn and Trident: Labour’s Continuing Controversy.

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We need your help!

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Dear London CND supporter

I’m writing to ask for your financial support in the busy year ahead. London CND faces big challenges – the return of US nuclear weapons to Lakenheath, Britain’s role in the new cold war, which is the subject of our upcoming annual conference, and deescalating the drift towards nuclear war posed by the Ukraine crisis. We also have some important opportunities – expanding support in Britain for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and last but by no means least, continuing to press our government to abandon Trident.

Our activities in 2021 were marked by strong actions and creative ways of attracting new audiences to our message. There’s a short account of this below. We plan to keep up the pace this year too.

Activities began with a London CND Annual Conference, exploring Britain’s international role in the context of the AUKUS, with guests from America and Australia adding their perspective on the new tripartite treaty. An AGM followed, which agreed to expand our committee meetings to include reps from all London CND groups. As #KillTheBill protests kicked off, we hosted an explanatory session with one of London CND’s Vice-Presidents Baroness Jenny Jones, who was instrumental in the House of Lords voting down some of the worst elements of the bill.

With the covid ban lifted, we demonstrated side by side with sister struggles, such as Palestinian solidarity, and highlighted the discrepancy between the urgent need to prioritise welfare spending as opposed to the nuclear spending spree heralded by the Integrated Review and the military spending hike the Ukraine War represented. As the cost of living crisis grew, London CND joined protests organised by the People’s Assembly and the TUC, under the banner of Nurses Not Nukes and Wages Not Weapons.

In line with our priorities, we deepened our social media presence, producing explanatory videos such as NATO Debunked, a format we re-employed when the return of US nukes to Britain was announced. As we organised transport to RAF Lakenheath, we recorded a last video from Bruce Kent, just before his sad death, encouraging everyone to join the protest.

We held our traditional Hiroshima Day commemoration in Tavistock Square and supported the London Peace Pagoda’s Nagasaki Day ceremony. Thanks to London Coordinator Julie’s creative campaigning, we also developed a partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum, with an exclusive tour of the museum’s archive of anti-nuclear posters with artist Peter Kennard. A second event brought a cultural angle on the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with Bombs and Monsters, exploring the links between Japanese mythology and the nuclear bomb.

In September, we led national CND’s creation of a TikTok account, launching with a comedy video confronting the Labour Party’s pro-nuclear stance and another made for the Just Stop Oil month of action, highlighting the links with militarism. In November, London CND joined forces with Yorkshire CND and Drone Wars UK, to organise an in-person Future War: the shape of things to come conference, aimed at scientist and science students. After an xmas break we’ll kick off activities again with an annual conference on New Cold War Challenges on Saturday 14th January, an AGM, and a New Year get together over supper in Waterloo on Friday 27th January.

London CND is self-financing, so I hardly need say we’re relying on your support to see us through 2023. We recognise it’s going to be a difficult year for everyone, please donate if you can, or better still make a regular financial commitment, by completing the form. If you make a bank transfer, please reference it ‘Appeal’; if you’re sending a cheque or setting up a standing order, please return it to Phil Sedler, London CND Treasurer, 6 Headlam Street, E1 5RT.

With warm wishes,

Carol Turner

London CND Co-Chair

Back from RAF Lakenheath [Photos]

On Saturday 19th November, CND organised a second national demonstration at RAF Lakenheath, a military base in the UK that is run by the US. This follows annoucements that the US Department of Defense has added the UK to a list of NATO nuclear weapons storage locations in Europe being upgraded under a multi-million dollar infrastructure programme. This means that US nuclear weapons will be coming to RAF Lakenheath.

110 nuclear bombs were stored at the airbase but they were removed by 2008 following persistent popular protest. CND firmly opposes their return, which would only increase global tensions and put Britain on the frontline in a NATO/Russia war.

After a first action in May, protesters from London, Norwhich, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham returned with the same message: No US Nukes in Britain.

Here are some pictures of the day.

 

Chair of Cambridge Student CND, Junayd Islam, delivers a rousing speech

 

Left: Reverend Gyoro Nagase, of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist order, based at the Peace Pagoda in Battersea park in London.

 

CND General Secretary Kate Hudson introduces speakers

 
 

Protester from Musicians for Peace and Disarmament holds a placard saying ‘No Nukes Here (Again..)’

 

Deputy Board Chair of the IPPNW and MEDACT activist, Dr Bimal Khadka

 

The choir Raised Voices sings ‘Ban the Bomb’

Protestor with signs reading ‘Warheads Dishonor Nuclear War Victims’ knits a giant scarf

 

The CND banner floats in front of the RAF Lakenheath entrance gate

 
 

Chair of CND Dave Webb speaks about space wars in his capacity of convenor of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and a member of Scientists for Global Responsibility.

 
 

Rae Street from Manchester CND

 

Protestors dressed up as Ben Wallace (UK Defence Secretary) and US President Joe Biden

 

The Automn light fades on RAF Lakenheath, spreading on the horizon

 

Activist David Polden walks on the side of the fence, decorated with banners

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Protestors sign the CND petition ‘Stop US Nukes Coming to Lakenheath’

 

ACTION:

Future War: Programme and Recordings

The Future War conference takes place on Saturday 12th November at Birkbeck University. On this page, you will find the conference programme with a detailed schedule, some reading on autonomous weapons and our speakers’ bios (button below).

Recordings will be added here after the conference. Please allow a few days for processing.

If you can make it to the conference, please register here.

In the meantime, check out the event’s trailer video made with Prof. Paul Rogers!

CND national conference details

CND’s annual Conference this year, Nuclear Disarmament not Nuclear War! will take place over two weekends in October.

 

AGM & POLICY CONFERENCE

Saturday 8 October

This will be held by zoom, and determins the shape of our work for the year to come. London CND can send 5 representatives to speak and vote in accordance with London CND policies and priorities. Phil Sedler, John Morris, and David Leal will be three, two place for London reps are still open. If you’d like to put your name forward, please volunteer by relying to this email. (In the event of competition directly elected members of our committee will be given priority.)

Local groups and individual members of CND can also register to attend conference. Register here  for the AGM & policy conference by 28 September at the latest. Individuals please note you must be a Company Member to vote at the AGM. Unsure whether or not you are? Contact membership@cnduk.org

 

PUBLIC CONFERENCE

Sunday 16 October

This takes the form of a Day of Action at Menwith Hill, Yorkshire – with workshops, a visit to the base, and transport back to Leeds railway station Julie and I will be there and we hope as many as possible London CND supporters will join us. Full details and registration here

The AGM and Policy Conference is a crucial part of CND’s democratic structure, and the discussions had and decisions made will shape the work of the campaign over the next year.

You find full details about CND’s national conference and AGM on the CND website here

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One miscalculation away from nuclear war?

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The last couple of months have seen a growing number of warnings that nuclear war could be closer than we think – not just from CND, but from international figures, security specialists, and military personnel.

Speaking at the opening of the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s 10th review conference in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres counselled that we are ‘one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation’. The possibility of ‘a nuclear attack or accident hasn’t been this high for decades.’ he said.

It is a sad irony that Guterres was speaking less than a week before London CND commemorated the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in which an estimated 340,000 lost their lives and hundreds of thousands more suffered the terrible aftereffects of radiation poisoning. Indeed, a third generation of Hibakusha, the atom bomb survivors, still suffer the health consequences to this very day.

The UN Secretary-General is not alone in expressing concern that nuclear war is moving closer. A week before, as tensions mounted over Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the UK’s national security adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove warned another New York audience that a ‘breakdown of communication’ with China and Russia had increased the chance of ‘an accidental escalation into a strategic war’.

During the cold war, the US and USSR benefited from a series of negotiations and dialogues that improved their understanding of each other’s doctrine and capabilities. ‘This gave us both a higher level of confidence that we would not miscalculate our way into nuclear war,’ Lovegrove said. ‘Today, we do not have the same foundations with others who may threaten us in the future…’

In mid-August, Hamish De Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of UK and NATO Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Forces wrote in the Daily Telegraph that the ‘threat of a nuclear attack or accident has rarely been higher.’ Despite assertions by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu that Russia has ‘no need’ to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, De Bretton-Gordon queried whether it was so unlikely ‘that Putin would make use of a nuclear weapon, even a small one, to achieve his goals’.

These and other such warnings reinforce CND’s message that the war in Ukraine is closer to the shores of Britain than we might like to think.

The war in Ukraine is a direct result of the inability of OSCE negotiators to broker an agreement which satisfied the security interests of both Russia and Ukraine and ended the conflict over the Donbas region – the Minsk Agreement negotiations which began in 2014. On 21 February this year, Russia officially recognised the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics, and President Putin declared the Minsk Agreements ‘no longer existed’. Three days later, on 24 February 2022 Russian troops entered Ukraine.

CND continues to call for the withdrawal of Russian troops and for the re-opening of negotiations. The Ukrainian peace movement has condemned ‘all military actions on the sides of Russia and Ukraine in the context of current conflict. We call the leadership of both states and military forces to step back and sit at the negotiation table.’ Peace activists in Russia have also spoken out.

Behind the immediate conflict over Donbas, tensions between Russia and the United States have been building for two decades. During this time Nato has expanded its area of operation to the borders of Russia, accepting the majority of Russia’s neighbours into full membership or bilateral partnership.

Recognising this, CND continues to argue that the entry of Russian forces into Ukraine makes diplomacy more urgent, not less. The Ukraine war poses the possibility, accidental or deliberate, of a nuclear engagement – a possibility now acknowledged to be closer than almost ever before.

The US has around 150 nuclear weapons stationed in Europe. British and French nuclear arsenals are committed to Nato should conflict break out. Meaningful negotiations are the only road to a lasting peace in Ukraine and a secure future for us all.

Against this background, the danger that siting US nuclear weapons in Britain brings must not be ignored. As Antonio Guterres said in his address to the NPT, and as Kate Hudson rightly highlights on behalf of CND: ‘Luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict’.

US intelligence-gathering infrastructure is already located. The rapid growth of the US Spy Base, Menwith Hill, during the past two decades and its widening role in new forms of intelligence-led warfare is cause for concern. As part of CND conference 2022, Yorkshire CND is hosting a day of workshops, with a trip to RAF Menwith Hill on Sunday 16 October. We hope many of you will be able to join us.

More about Menwith Hill here.

Carol Turner is co-chair of London Region CND and a Vice Chair of CND UK. She is a member of Stop the War Coalition’s National Officer Group.

Carol is a long-time peace campaigner, a former foreign policy advisor to British parliamentarians, and author of Corbyn and Trident: Labour’s Continuing Controversy.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki 77th Commemorations in London

On 6th August 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by US air forces. This was the first time a nuclear weapon had ever been used; the fireball created by the bomb destroyed 13 square kilometres of the city, and those dead as a result numbered up to 180,000.

77 years later, we remember. Several events were organised in London to commemorate these crimes.


Friday 5th August: cultural event at the V&A

On the eve of the 77th anniversary of Hiroshima day, London CND hosted a screening of 'The Dawn of Kaiju Eiga' at the Victoria and Albert Museum. This documentary explores the relationship between Godzilla and the atomic bomb.

The event was introduced by CND General Secretary Kate Hudson, who provided some historical context and reminded the public of the importance to keep campaigning against nuclear weapons today.

Two V&A experts followed. First, Zorian Clayton presented a selection of posters relating to Hiroshima and nuclear disarmament. Then, Josephine Rout from the Japanese collection offered a fascinating presentation on Godzilla, kimonos and Japanese legends.

The documentary was then screened and complemented by a Q&A with the filmmaker, Jonathan Bellés.


Saturday 6th August: Hiroshima Remembered

Hiroshima Day opened with Finchley CND’s morning remembrance ceremony in Finchley Victoria Park.

London CND’s event followed at noon with the traditional Tavistock Square commemoration. The event was hosted by London CND co-chair Hannah Kemp-Welch, with speeches from Nasim Ali, Mayor of Camden, Kate Hudson and Benali Hamdache, Green Party spokesperson on migrants and refugee support.

London CND committee member John Morris spoke in memory of Bruce Kent, recalling their first encounters. The event was accompanied with drumming performed by Reverend Nagase from the London Peace Pagoda and songs by the choir Raised Voices. The Mad Hatters had decorated the square with hundreds of peace cranes and posters inviting people to join.

A message from Jeremy Corbyn MP
and a film of the full event is available here:

Kingston CND held a vigil with boards and leaflets in the town centre. In the evening a candlelit commemoration took place by the river in Canbury Gardens. The Mayor, Yogan Yoganathan, said a few words. White flowers were foated on the river, and lanterns lit the path.

Bromley CND organised a reading of poems and speeches opposite the Churchill Theatre and gave out leaflets. After this, they marched to the lake in Church House gardens and threw chrysanthemum flower heads on the lake. Peace were songs sung by Paul Steele and Leon Silver, and paper cranes were held in memory Sadako Sasaki, the young girl who died of leukemia in Hiroshima in 1955 and who folded 1000 paper cranes before she died. 1000s of paper cranes had been sent in a shoe box from Scottish CND.

Bromley CND commemoration pictures by Ann Garrett

Wimbledon CND also held a ceremony of poetry and quiet reflection. This year, they had a change to their usual procedure of launching symbolic lighted boats, in the Japanese tradition. Due to the tinder-dry grass on the common and the risk of an accidental fire, they floated some origami boats, but with LED lights instead of candles. They formed a solemn procession around the pond.

Wimbledon CND commemoration pictures by William Rhind

Tuesday 9th August: Nagasaki Remembered

The South East London Peace, Justice and Solidarity Network

The South East London Peace, Justice and Solidarity Network marked the day in the Archbishop Tutu Peace Garden, Chinbrook Meadows , with a peace picnic followed by speeches, poems, and songs. The group then walked to River Quaggy for a minutes silence. White chrysanthemum flower heads were thrown into a small patch of water, which was what was sadly left of the Quaggy due to the present drought.

Nipponzan Myohoji, JAN-UK and Paxchristi organized a Peace Walk. The ceremony opened with an ecumenical service and followed with a walk, congregating at Westminster Cathedral and walking towards Battersea Park. After arriving at the Peace Pagoda in the park, a short commemoration ceremony took place.

We would like to thank all those who participated in these events. While Britain announced a 44% increase in its nuclear arsenal and the US is set to return nuclear weapons to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, it is ever more crucial to remember the victims of nuclear bombs and continue fighting against their spread.

We invite everyone to join us at RAF Lakenheath on Saturday 17th September. More information here.

#NoNukes