Tunbridge Wells CND Quiet Phase (written
more than
10 years ago - page added 13-01-03) 06-01-04
Except for GrassRoots, members of T/W CND have not
been so active for a while. This may be because many of us in CND have
been involved with the group for quite some time, and now feel it is
time to do something else. I feel that anyway, and I don't expect that
I shall be involved so much,
but as treasurer I am quite happy to continue to make sure income is
used
to pay our affiliation to National CND, pay Cruise Watch £3-00 a
month,
purchase Sanity for those still getting Sanity through the group. And
keeping
some money by to allow us to advertise any Demos or public meetings
that
the group may have etc. If you are still collecting CO-OP stamps
for
CND leave them in the shop, and I shall have them credited to our
account.
I would like to review some of the things that have happened over the
past decade.
The 1980's saw the rise of the antinuclear movement to great strength,
and decline to a modest level. Probably many of us became growingly
concerned about the military towards the end of the 70's Regan, and
Thatcher were not the Instigaters of the new Soviet Hate Phase, but the
Human face of that under
current of change. My own awakening to the growing concern about
Nuclear Weapons
was as a result of things like the Electronics Magazine "Wireless
World",
published an editorial "Microchips and Megadeaths" followed by more
than
a year correspondence. The TV was also showing Promotional film on
Cruise Missiles, Flying over a rocky terain.
In October 1981, Some one called at home canvassing signatures for The
World Disarmament Campaign. Soon after I joined the newly reformed
Tunbridge Wells CND group. Our local group has been active in a great
number of ways a stall every week, public meetings, and some other
demonstrations at least once a
month. Things that have particularly stood out since I have been a
member of the group have been.
- Tunbridge Wells Library Display (autumn 82). : 4000 or 5000
signatures were collected in the space of a week in support of
reinstating a CND display in the Tunbridge Wells Library Foyer.
- 1983 CND demo : Sarah Tisdale spilt the beans about the imminent
arrival of Cruise. Partly as a result of that about half a million
people went on that demo. Although they were not all in Hyde park at
the same time. People were leaving Hyde park in droves at 4.30PM when
the Tunbridge Wells crowd arrived, and still people were at the
Embankment waiting to start the march.
- Shadows (August 85) : A dozen or so of us went out painting with
homemade chalk based removable paint, representations of the shadows
left by the victims of the two Japanees bombs. Needless to say 6 of us
spent most of the night in police cells (no one was charged). Similar
actions happened all over the world, Quebec, Hungary, Australia, and it
all started in New York. That was quite the biggest show of world
people power I ever expected to see.
We also played the numbers game a bit, but it quickly became apparent
that you can shuffle numbers of bombs arround and stitch you self up
with it. There
is still one clear thing though, and that is that the arms stockpile is
huge.
One of the set of figures that helped me though was Silo Kill
Capability. Old weapons like Our Polaris, Soviet SS20 etc. have a
chance of about 13-16% of destroying a Missile Silos because of there
low accuracy. The British modernisation
of Polaris missiles (The Chevaline Project) completed in 1986 brought
that
figure up to 60%, MX, Pershing II, Cruise, and Trident all have a
99%
chance of destroying missile Silos. Therefore there only purpose can be
to
Destroy Soviet Nuclear Weapons whilst they are in there Silos. As a
result
of that NATO countries cannot sensibly sign a no-first-use agreement.
There are lots of WhatIf's for instance what if Earl Mountbatton had
survived into the 80's perhaps the establishment would have lead the
disarmament movement into a nuclear Glasnos leaving the Labour Party as
the pro nuclear party. Well that did not happen. NATO are replacing
Ground Launched Cruise with Air
Launched Cruise as well as other Launchers in Europe, the warheads, and
the
Guidance systems from Ground Launched Cruise are being re-used. This is
all
happening with the public perception that we are disarming. The
important thing though is that Cruise Missiles are the first current
weapon system to
be taken out of service since 1814 when Americans and Canadians agreed
not
to have warships on Lake Ontario. The peace movement must take some
credit for that, and for changing the political atmosphere so that it
is not political popular to be in favour of Nuclear Weapons, but the
question still has to be continualy asked why have them ?
Andrew Lohmann