Members and Supporters may have noticed that this newsletter is a month late and will cover the months from November through January. The AGM report in our August–September edition said we were discussing a move to quarterly publication, and that has now been decided upon. At least 46 people have been prepared to pay the £5 subscription to be members of this local group — numbers are never exact — and the new Steering Group (four people covering five positions plus former Officers willing to remain on the committee) hope it will be possible to carry on.
The newsletter brings reports and perspectives to inform and encourage commitment. Fourteen complimentary copies are posted to our MPs and some Councillors, local CND groups, London Region and local churches. Though we no longer run a Fête of the Earth our now largely inherited funds allow us to support London and National CND as well as other causes such as Medical Aid to Palestinians. Many of you donate generously more than the £5 subscription.
The change to quarterly newsletters means we will rely even more heavily on contacting members and supporters through e-mail, a problematic fact of life these days. It won’t be possible to give a date for the planting of our Memorial tree in time for this edition but we’ll do our best to reach everyone by e-mail or phone.
In this issue we have reports from our Chair, Alex Forbes, our Treasurer Christine Bickerstaff and our Secretary, William Rhind, variously altered or supplemented by me, Alison Williams. I warmly welcome input from our members and supporters on issues relevant to our Disarmament Coalition. We support Nuclear Disarmament and causes related to achieving a Peaceful, Just and Sustainable world.
Alison Williams
On Sunday 6th August we had another meaningful and well attended commemoration at Rushmere Pond for the victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima on the 78th anniversary. Gill McCall helped and instructed in the making of traditional Japanese paper origami boats for candles to be floated on the pond. We sang some familiar songs of our campaign including “The H Bomb’s Thunder… Ban the bomb forever more”. We heard a moving talk from Alison Judge, Vicar of Christ Church, Colliers Wood, and several poetry readings before the candle-floating ceremony.
As Gill had predicted, the wind picked up as the light faded and we were able to watch our little boats carry their candles across the pond. They were joined by Edwin Cluer’s spectacularly large candle glowing orange in an upturned bucket. It’s a time for remembering a past event that should never be repeated and the friends no longer with us, especially Maisie and Joanna whom we miss so much.
Alex Forbes
The Eco-Fair returned to Carshalton on the August Bank Holiday. It had music and over 150 stalls with food, local artists, green projects and lots of fun for children and adults. In previous years WDC/CND has had its own stall selling some plants, giving out CND leaflets and publicising our activities. This year William Rhind had liaised with Maggie of the Kingston Peace Council for members of WDC/CND to join them at the KPC stall. Ruth Crabb offered transport to William and Christine and contributed some plants to Kingston Peace Council.
They were very keen to publicise their activities against the forthcoming DSEI Arms Fair, and welcomed our efforts to engage people on that issue as well as CND’s support for the Nuclear Ban treaty.
The Defence & Security Equipment International conference runs every alternate year, and 12–15 September 2023 saw the gathering of arms dealers, military personnel and representatives from many of the world’s most violent and undemocratic regimes, warmly invited by the UK government. Organisations opposed to the Arms Trade, CND included, did all we could to disrupt preparations in the week beforehand.
The leaflets for DSEI had prompted such lively conversations at the Eco-Fair that Christine ordered over a thousand more of them. She gave four hundred to the KPC and the rest were distributed on two Saturdays at Centre Court in Wimbledon and outside the Curzon cinema where the Oppenheimer film was being shown.
RAF Lakenheath is owned by the UK Ministry of Defence, and run by that of the United States. Inside information indicates the American base has added the UK to its list for nuclear weapons storage in Europe. Coaches of CND supporters made their way to Lakenheath on the designated Day of Action and London Region CND released a video of a related action outside the American Embassy in London. Photos of the Lakenheath and London events are on the London Region website: https://www.londoncnd.org/latest/2023/9/26/no-us-nukes-in-britain-reports-from-the-day-of-action-in-london
Christine Bickerstaff
William Rhind travelled to the CCND Conference on 9th September with retired engineer, now full-time peace activist, Martin Birdseye. At the conference of the Justice & Peace Network a year ago he said that Nuclear Weapons posed an existential threat equal to Climate Change and possibly even more urgent. To succumb to accepting them as a permanent reality indicated despair, which was a collective sin against hope. He then gave figures for state signatures of the Nuclear Ban Treaty and, even more impressive, the support from cities across the world — especially within the Nuclear Weapon States. WDC/CND has tried to persuade Merton Council but we need to try harder!
William reports:
The event was held in Liverpool, hosted by a Pentecostal church. Though the business of the AGM was in itself not of particular interest to the outsider, a bit of Any Other Business might be noteworthy; namely a proposal to turn Christian CND into a charity.
As an unincorporated body the members of the committee had considerable and ambiguous liabilities concerning the organisation’s work and employment of staff. Also they had to seek re-election each year which together with the above liabilities made planning awkward. It was stressed that in the opinion of the committee becoming a charity would not prevent them from continuing their campaigning work and the motion was passed.
The rest of the day was spent networking and having discussions about how sad it is that the Liverpool area now has only 3 branches of CND and despite their best efforts they are finding it hard to get students and young people involved. Christian CND members present felt it was important that they should support those local branches. Although none were from the Merseyside region they hoped that through their contacts in other church organisations it would be possible to link Christians involved with them and encourage more support for CND.
William Rhind
Anita Gray, a long time supporter of CND and many other left wing causes, died recently. I got to know her in the early 1980s when America had installed nuclear weapons at Greenham Common. We both joined the local CND group in Putney and from there went to many CND demonstrations and rallies together. Indeed it was Anita who took me out to Greenham Common for the day to join the protesters camping outside one of the gates.
She and her husband Ron ran Hammersmith Books which specialised in left wing books. It started out as a bookshop in Hammersmith but had expanded into an enormous warehouse in Barnes. The first time that I visited I couldn’t believe the number of shelves, let alone the thousands of books. She was interesting and interested in the world around her. She and her husband Ron had been members of the Communist Party, and they later joined the Labour party but left after the Iraq war. Anita then joined the Green Party. She cared deeply about trying to make the world a better place for everybody.
After surviving breast cancer Anita volunteered at the Marsden for many years, both as a support to others suffering from cancer, and on the board.
Latterly it was going to the theatre with friends that she so much enjoyed. Her memory of plays, films and actors that she’d seen was phenomenal, and for someone who often can’t remember what I saw last week, decidedly scary!
Anita was a wonderful and inspirational friend and I miss her greatly.
Ruth Crabb
At the time of writing, Israel is bombing a refugee camp in Gaza in its response to a savage Hamas attack about three weeks earlier. Most of northern Gaza has been reduced to rubble and a press statement from UNRWA, the main UN Agency in the territory, asks “Why does the world not have the will to act and put an end to this hell on earth?”
The world as represented by the UN General Assembly supported a non-binding resolution drafted by 22 Arab countries. It called for an immediate ceasefire with free access for supplies and a release of all hostages: 120 for, 14 against and 45 abstentions. The United States and Israel voted against; the United Kingdom abstained. An amendment proposed by Canada which included condemnation of the attack by Hamas failed to get the required two-thirds majority.
The UN Security Council was unable to do its job because the United States and Russia chose to veto each other’s resolutions. The International Court of Justice exists to handle cases between states and the International Criminal Court cases against individuals. We see what military revenge has achieved for Afghanistan and Palestine. Surely it is time for the world which produced all the treaties to “find the will to act”.
The Nuclear Ban Treaty, which came into force in January 2021, aims to enable states to achieve the total eradication of nuclear weapons in gradual and clearly verifiable stages. The accompanying aim — to delegitimise the policy of Nuclear Deterrence — approaches success along with the growing list of signatories. It will have its second Review Conference in New York at the end of November this year.
This treaty represents a major step toward implementing the basic goal of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which entered into force in 1970. Article VII of the NPT affirms the right of any group of states to ensure the total absence of nuclear weapons from their territories. By 2010 nearly half the world was covered by Nuclear-Free Zone treaties and history seemed to be moving our way.
But at the end of 2023 we see the two nuclear super-powers engaged in a proxy war of attrition in Ukraine, both developing new nuclear weapons and one threatening to use them. We find the public more receptive to our CND leafleting. Let’s approach the Review Conference and our own election year with confidence and fresh determination.
Alison Williams
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