H-Bombs are still thundering

London CND will join in chorus again this year, when Raised Voices choir’s offer their rendition of The H-Bomb’s Thunder at our Hiroshima commemoration, on 6 August in Tavistock Square, London CND Chair Carol Turner, writes. The lyrics were penned in 1958 by CND member John Brunner for first of what became a decade-long tradition of Easter marches between Aldermaston and London. The song asks:

Will you let your cities crumble?
Will you see your children die?
Shall we lay the world in ruin?
Shall we blast, or shall we build ?

Today, as the world moves closer than ever to nuclear war, CND lays the same challenge before peace and justice campaigners and political leaders everywhere:

Stop the headlong rush to war!
Build the Peace!

John Brunner, 1934-1995, was born in the market town of Wallingford, south Oxfordshire. A passionate supporter of nuclear disarmament, John was at the start of his career as an award- winning sci-fi writer when he joined the first Aldermaston March and wrote what was to become an enduring anthem of the nuclear disarmament movement.

The H-Bomb’s Thunder

Don’t you hear the H-bomb’s thunder
Echo like the crack of doom?
While they rend the skies asunder
Fall-out makes the earth a tomb
Do you want your homes to tumble
Rise in smoke towards the sky?

Chorus:

Men and women, stand together
Do not heed the men of war
Make your minds up now or never
Ban the bomb for evermore

Tell the leaders of the nations
Make the whole wide world take heed
Poison from the radiations
Strikes at every race and creed
Must you put mankind in danger
Murder folk in distant lands?
Will you bring death to a stranger
Have his blood upon your hands?

Shall we lay the world in ruin?
Only you can make the choice
Stop and think of what you’re doing
Join the march and raise your voice
Time is short; we must be speedy
We can see the hungry filled
House the homeless, help the needy
Shall we blast, or shall we build ?

The lyrics and voice clip below are reproduced from Mark Gregory’s Union Songs, an online archive of more than 840 songs and poems by hundreds of different authors.

Hiroshima Remembered 2024

On Tuesday 6 August London Region CND will once again gather at Tavistock Square for our annual Hiroshima Commemoration. Below you can see the schedule for the event.

Choir

Raised Voices

Welcome 

Carol Turner, London Region Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Address by Councillor Samata Khatoon, Mayor of Camden

Memorial

Wreath Laying at the Hiroshima Cherry Tree - participants are welcome to add their own floral tributes to those of the Mayor of Camden andLondon Region CND

Prayers for Peace, Rev Nagase

Speeches

Kate Hudson

Murad Qureshi

Performances

Hugh Goodwin guitar and voice

Ann Garrett poem recital

Jenny Malca Brown poem recital

Paul Steel guitar and voice

Close

Carol Turner

Raised Voices Choir

Followed by

A CND Picnic in The Park (bring your own, soft drinks provided) and an opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones

Join the H-Bomb’s Thunder Chorus

Men and women, stand together
Do not heed the men of war
Make your minds up now or never
Ban the bomb for evermore

Participant biographies in order of appearance

Raised Voices

Raised Voices is a London-based choir addressing social & political issues through music, including justice, peace, climate change, refugee support, Palestinian and womens rights.

Carol Turner

Carol Turner is the Chair of London Region CND, a national Vice Chair of CND and Coordinator of the International Advisory Group. She is author of Corbyn & Trident: Labour’s continuing controversy and Walter Wolfgang: A Political Life.

Councillor Samata Khatoon

Cllr Samata Khatoon is the Mayor of Camden for 2024-2025 and has served as a councillor since 2010. She is actively involved in the community, including as a Trustee at New Horizon Youth Centre and St Pancras Welfare Trust, and a parent governor.

Reverend Gyoro Nagase

Reverend Nagase arrived in England from Japan in 1978 to help build the UK's first Peace Pagoda in Milton Keynes. He completed the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park in 1984 and now focuses on meditation and peacefully drawing attention to the human cost of nuclear war.

Kate Hudson

Kate Hudson has been General Secretary of CND since 2010 and is an internationally recognised peace campaigner. She is an historian and author of CND at 60: Britain’s Most Enduring Mass Movement and CND: Now More Than Ever.

Murad Qureshi

Murad Qureshi served on the London Assembly, 2004-16 and 2020- 21. He is a Vice President of London CND, a member of CND National Council, and a former chair of the Stop the War Coalition.

Hugh Goodacre

Hugh Goodacre is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at UCL and Westminster Universities. He is a folk musician and trade unionist.

Ann Garrett

Ann Garrett is Secretary of Bromley & Beckenham CND, Joint Convenor of Bromley Peace Council, and co-coordinator of Bromley Green Party. She is a community organiser and a drama teacher who co-founded Theatre in Education at the Belgrade Theatre.

Jenny Malca Brown

Jenny Malca Brown has a long-standing tradition of visiting the Cherry Tree at Victoria Park, where she joins Japanese families and CND members singing peace songs to commemorate Hiroshima.

Paul Steel

Paul Steel is a peace campaigner and member of Sheerness CND. He is singer and acoustic guitarist who regularly contributes his musical skills to CND group activities across London.

Join MEDACT in writing to your parliamentary candidates on nuclear war

Ahead of the General Election on July 4 - London CND is supporting MEDACT in calling on voters to contact their local candidates on issues of nuclear weapons and nuclear war.

The Medact Nuclear Weapons Group has prepared this short letter (and longer Appendices) which Medact members can send to their local PPCs. It cuts through all the complexity of the nuclear weapons debate, to the central point: Nuclear Deterrence strategy can fail.

You can find all the information - including how to find your local candidates - on the MEDACT website.