Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

I was not in the least surprised to hear that Egypt had walked out of yesterday’s nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in Geneva. The continued failure to make any progress on the NPT’s long-standing goal of a nuclear weapons-free Middle East has been a source of huge frustration to Egypt – a country that has long worked for disarmament within the NPT process. A nuclear weapons-free Middle East was established as a core goal of the NPT in 1995 and after years of inaction, was at last reasserted in the NPT’s 2010 Action Plan.  Finally something seemed to be happening. A regional conference was planned for 2012 to move the long-awaited process forward, facilitated by Finnish Minister Jaakko Laajava. This was widely welcomed and all bar one of the countries in the region signed up. But despite Laajava’s best efforts, Israel – the region’s only nuclear weapons state, subject to no inspections regime - refused to participate. The proposed conference was cancelled, apparently without consulting the states in the region. In Egypt’s walk-out statement, it pointed out, “The breach of the 2010 Action Plan's clear decision to hold a Conference in 2012 is yet another failure to implement a key NPT…

I don't mind a fair political fight but that is not what CND got from Margaret Thatcher's government. As anti-nuclear protest rose across Britain in the early 1980s, against cruise, Pershing and Trident, support for CND grew exponentially. Thatcher's government carried out its own attempts to counter the growing strength of CND and anti-missile opinion. During 1981, this was more or less confined to encouraging the media to limit CND's access and coverage. But as public support increased, she put more energy into the anti-CND campaign, much of it focused on suggesting that CND was funded by the Soviet Union. Bruce Kent's response was to offer a prize of £100 to anyone who could produce evidence of Soviet funding. Needless to say, no one came forward to claim the prize, but wild and baseless accusations abounded in the most disgraceful way, designed to drive people away from campaigning on the basis of sheer lies.  From the beginning of 1983, Thatcher appointed Michael Heseltine as defence secretary who established DS19, a team within the MoD, to organise the campaign against CND. Attention also came from MI5, as subsequently revealed by whistleblower Cathy Massiter. A number of attacks came from an organisation…

This is a guest blog from fashion designer, Katharine Hamnett, who designed these t-shirts for CND. Austerity is for everyone: including defence spending. The UK is wasting money on replacing Trident, an expensive weapon we are never likely to use, when our education and health care systems are in collapse. This seems pretty stupid to me. Our illegal invasion of Iraq proved we can't be trusted with an army, let alone nuclear weapons. Replacing Trident would be a material breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – so say Matrix Chambers, Cherie Blair’s old law firm! It actually puts us on a worse legal footing than Iran who haven't even got WMDs, yet we already have a whole arsenal. Who are we going to use them on anyway? I have a brilliant idea, let’s get Calais back, let’s attack France! If we cut our defence spending, scrap Trident and scrap our commitment to the ‘special relationship’ (that old Chestnut), if we pulled out of any further commitment to the 'joint strike force' and didn't buy anymore rubbish F-35 Lightning II at £100 million each, we could have free higher education, a grant system and buckets of money left over to rebuild…

Few people effectively confronted Margaret Thatcher. But I am proud to know one of them. When fashion designer Katharine Hamnett reluctantly went to meet Thatcher in 1984 she took the opportunity to act for all of us in the anti-nuclear movement. Her t-shirt spelled out our message as bold as brass: 58% DON’T WANT PERSHING. Thatcher was working with Reagan to bring cruise and Pershing missiles to Europe, securing our position on the front line in any nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. Millions of people were saying No and Katharine – in a gesture described by Vogue magazine as one of the most iconic moments in fashion – was out there on the design and fashion front, speaking to an audience we had little access to. Katharine’s work as a political designer has covered many causes. Close to my heart and all of those in the anti-war movement over the last decade, has been her anti-war design STOP THE WAR BLAIR OUT – again speaking for millions. Now she is speaking out again, on a crucial and urgent issue – the appalling waste of money on the Trident nuclear weapons system. As we head to Aldermaston…