NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AFTER THE COLD WAR

Part 3: Archives of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 2001-2005

Publisher's Note

Established in 1958, the aim of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is to rid the world of nuclear weapons in order to create a genuine security for future generations. Working as a network of local groups and individual members CND membership covers the whole of Britain. Over the decades CND has continued to campaign non-violently, talking to schools and colleges, organising peace camps and running stalls at festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading. CND members work with political parties, the media and trade unions, while Christian CND works through the churches, organising its own protest actions. Demonstrations, rallies and marches are organised in towns throughout Britain including Barrow, where the Trident nuclear submarines are built, and at Faslane in Scotland where the submarines and their nuclear-armed missiles are based. Nationally produced leaflets, posters and pamphlets provide further publicity for the campaign and Campaign, the CND’s membership magazine, reports on news, analysis and campaigning ideas. While at local level journals and local group newsletters reflect the views of the ordinary CND member.

As a British campaign CND concentrates on British nuclear weapons, but they are also committed to working with anti-nuclear groups in other countries in the tracking of nuclear materials. CND have also been present at international disarmament negotiations, covering such areas as nuclear testing and non-proliferation, for instance at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, where they provide delegates with advice and analysis.

In Parts 1 and 2 of this project we brought together the complete CND archive from 1989-2000. These document the first ten years after the end of the Cold War, a period that began with much rejoicing as the Berlin Wall fell. The archive includes full runs of the National Council and National Executive Committees on CND, papers of its sub-committees, and Annual Conference Programmes and Papers. It also features all of their periodicals and printed sources such as Sanity, Campaign and CND Today, as well as Information/Defence Briefings, Press Releases, specialist sections of CND, the campaigns in Scotland and Cymru, and local CND newsletters.

Part 3 continues the CND archive covering the years 2000-2005 with material on all aspects of the development and progress of the movement. They include:

• National Council Meeting Minutes
• Council Papers and Minutes
• Finance and Admin Group Minutes
• Officers Meeting Minutes
• Annual Review
• Conference Report and Minutes
• International Advisory Group Report Minutes
• Press Releases
• Campaigns and Events
• Briefings
• Our Nuclear World, Press Summary
• Lobby, Parliamentary Newsletter of CND
• Campaign and CND Today
• Nuclear Transport
• Non-Violent Resistance Network Newsletter
• Specialist Interest Groups including: Christian CND, Musicians Against Nuclear Arms, Youth and Student CND, Ex-Services CND and Labour CND.
• Scottish CND
• Cymru CND
• Irish CND
• Local Group Newsletters

There is much good information on the development and progress of the CND campaigns concerning:

Trident – CND’s campaign against all nuclear weapons of mass destruction including the Trident submarine-launched nuclear weapons system.

End the Plutonium Trade – the campaign for the establishment of a British nuclear waste management policy.

Missile defence – CND’s campaign against American plans to set up a missile defence system – Star Wars – with its threat to destabilise international relations.

No to NATO – CND urges NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) to abandon nuclear weapons and look instead to European security initiatives.

No War on Iraq – CND’s campaign that international nuclear disarmament can be brought out by diplomacy and negotiation, not military action.

These archives provide valuable information on all aspects of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as a pressure group working at local, national and international levels to rid the world of nuclear weapons. This is an essential collection for all those interested in Peace Studies, Modern Politics, Pressure Group Tactics and Popular Opinion.

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