Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation founded in 1958, founded as a campaign for unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom. Its mandate has grown over the years to cover chemical, biological and nuclear weapons as well as opposing the construction of nuclear power stations. Its symbol has become an international symbol for peace.

Splitting more than hairs
Nuclear energy
Ionizing pages
v - t - e

History

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was formed in late 1957 and launched in 1958. After Aneurin Bevan's support for maintaining the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent, the CND was formed by the editor of the New Statesman, Bertrand Russell, Michael Foot and many others (including journalists, left-wing politicians and clergymen). Five thousand people attended the first public meeting in February '58 and the CND became the biggest peace and anti-nuclear movement in the United Kingdom.

Nuclear issues took second position as the peace movement began massive popular protests against the United States's part in the Vietnam War. CND survived but as a much smaller movement. Some protests continued, particularly in Scotland where both British and US nuclear missile submarines were now based.

In 1979 the decision was made to deploy American Cruise and Pershing missiles in Britain and several other Western European countries. This resulted in such famous actions as the Greenham Common womens' protest.

State surveillance

Britain's internal security services, MI5, closely monitored the CND and considered it a subversive group with communist links.[1] In 1985, an MI5 officer involved in the monitoring of the CND resigned and released information to Channel 4 about her investigations. She alleged that the investigation was more politically-motivated than related to any actual subversive threat.[2] The CND treasurer was believed by MI5 to be a 'communist sympathiser'.

Opponents of the CND have often raised the specter of it being a communist-funded organisation. Certainly, communists have played an active role in the organisation, and John Cox, its chairman from 1971 to 1977, was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.[3]

In the spring of 1959, as interest in, and membership of, the CND was growing, they were approached by the communist-led British Peace Committee, with the aim of joining forces and supporting each others' initiatives. CND, however, rejected thee overtures.[4]

Similarly, stories were frequently circulated, by the Conservative Party and mass-media, that the CND was funded by the Kremlin. Once again, these allegations were untrue. Funds were raised via donations by members, as well as the sale of literature. In an attempt to squash these allegations, Bruce Kent, the then-general secretary of CND and a Roman Catholic priest, offered a £100 award to anyone who prove a link between the CND and Moscow existed. The award was never claimed.[5]

Current day

Support for the CND fell after the end of the Cold War, but popular support and membership increased dramatically after Tony Blair stated his commitment to nuclear power.[6] Though quieter and smaller, the organisation continues to exist and to campaign against nuclear weapons and power.

The organisation has campaigned against British involvement in the Middle East and has co-organised anti-war rallies with the Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain. In March 2007, the CND began one of its biggest campaigns of recent years - rallying in Parliament Square as parliament voted on renewal of the Trident Missile Programme. The government's own party (at the time, Labour) had enough rebels that votes from the opposition were required for the motion to pass - as had previously been the case with Britain's participation in the Iraq War.

Symbol

The CND symbol, a combination of the semaphore symbols for N and D has become an international 'peace sign' which is well recognised. It was picked up by American pacifists during the Cold War. The original drawing of this symbol is housed in the Peace Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

If you happen to be an insane Christian fundamentalist it is instead clearly a satanic symbol showing an inverted cross with the arms broken or an upside-down pitchfork, with the circle probably representing some pagan thing or other.

In an ironic coincidence, the symbol slightly resembles the rune "Yr" (ᛦ), which means death.[7][8] Due to the resemblance, and the appropriation of runic symbols by the Nazis,[9] discreditors of CND have (libellously) attempted to link the peace sign directly to Nazism.[10][11]

gollark: A crossbow which shoots arrows containing small batteries and lasers, that is.
gollark: Make a laser crossbow. Obviously.
gollark: And I doubt the people voting on them actually read them all.
gollark: I feel like laws being hundreds of pages of legalese is quite a big problem, as it means no human can actually fully know all the law they're legally bound by.
gollark: It seems to be a law or something talking about editing another law in an overly precise way.

References
  1. https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/myths-and-misunderstandings.html#8
  2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/true_spies/2336987.stm
  3. Daily Mail - Cathy Ashton EUs new Foreign Minister
  4. Resisting the bomb: a history of the world nuclear disarmament movement; Lawrence S. Wittner; pg 331; Stanford University Press; 1997
  5. Toward Nuclear Abolition: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament; Lawrence S. Wittner; Stanford University Press; 2003
  6. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cnd-membership-booms-after-nuclear-uturn-408265.html
  7. http://www.therunesite.com/keyword/yr/
  8. https://www.printmag.com/post/runes-are-more-than-an-alphabet
  9. https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/runic-writing-racist
  10. https://www.britannica.com/story/where-did-the-peace-sign-come-from
  11. https://forums.skadi.net/threads/76869-The-Peace-Sign-and-the-Rune-of-Death
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