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Campaign CND Review 2019 Give the gift of peace Dear friend of CND, I’ve been, like you perhaps, in the CND world for a long — and happy — time. Funding has always been a problem. Perhaps I won’t see the abolition of all nuclear weapons before I depart but I very much want the work we are all engaged in to continue — despite my absence! Campaigning for a nuclear weapons-free world does not produce much income. But I will make sure that there will be a slice of whatever I leave in my Will for CND. And I very much hope you will consider doing the same. Doing so could help ensure the longevity of CND, transform the campaign, and raise greater public awareness. I doubt if you need much persuading. Do your best! Warm wishes, Bruce Kent CAMPAIGN REVIEW 2019 N this issue of Campaign Review, we not only Campaign for have a chance to reflect on the past year but Nuclear Disarmament Ialso to consider how we take our campaign CND campaigns non-violently forward into the new year and beyond. to rid the world of nuclear Our survival is still very much in jeopardy weapons and to create genuine security for future because of the twin threats of climate change and generations. CND calls for the nuclear war. UK to scrap its Trident nuclear However, there have also been some weapons system and the encouraging developments. In this magazine, planned replacement. there are wonderful examples of our collective CND works to secure UK campaigns calling on the government to save £205 billion by scrapping support for the Treaty on the the Trident replacement programme. Prohibition of Nuclear weapons, which would make it CND members and supporters have also been raising awareness of illegal under international law the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. At the time of for its signatories to make or writing, 34 countries had ratified this treaty, and we’re confident it will possess nuclear weapons. We hit the required 50 next year and enter into force. also work to end Britain’s Our work in 2019 has included the link between climate change participation in the US Missile and the military. Weapons production and military exercises are Defence system and – with other campaigns internationally generating huge amounts of CO2 emissions. We protested at the – against missile defence and DSEI Arms Fair in London to highlight this connection, point out the weapons in space. exhibiting companies involved in nuclear weapons development and Other current campaigns production and make the case for diversification of jobs in the already include the prevention and declining defence industry. cessation of wars in which We took a significant step forward in broadening our campaign nuclear weapons may be this year as we joined Extinction Rebellion Peace and participated in used, opposition to NATO and its nuclear policies, and to the XR October Rebellion. Similar moves to bring together peace, nuclear power. environment and climate change campaigns are being made CND is funded almost entirely internationally. Another example of international campaigning by members and supporters, collaboration was the protests organised in opposition to the NATO and our policies are decided summit in London early in December. upon by our annual national The UK government is set to continue with its extremely delegates’ conference, where dangerous and enormously expensive nuclear power programme. Read our national leadership is also elected. Details of our national about our work to oppose nuclear power production in this magazine. offices, and our network of You will also find in this issue updates on our very important work regions can be found at the with parliamentarians and in developing and disseminating peace back of this Review. education material. Whatever the result of December’s general election, there will be plenty for us to do in 2020 and we look forward to continuing our work together with you, to help realise our vision of a safer, more peaceful and more secure world. 1 CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT New nuclear arms race CND General Secretary Kate Hudson analyses the events that have shaped CND’s work this year. HIS YEAR opened INF Treaty scrapped with the grim news Landmark nuclear that once again the T disarmament treaty the Doomsday Clock’s hands were Intermediate-range Nuclear set at two minutes to midnight. Forces Treaty was scrapped They’ve never been closer, not in 2019, following US even at the height of the Cold President Donald Trump’s War and the trend of increasing announcement he was nuclear dangers has continued. withdrawing the US from The trend that became so the agreement. CND apparent last year – President protested, labelling it ‘an act Trump’s attacks on the treaties of diplomatic vandalism’. and agreements that have We arranged a photo stunt curtailed nuclear weapons – has in Parliament Square and continued and worsened. The wrote to the Prime Minister Intermediate-range Nuclear Boris Johnson, highlighting that the end of this treaty Forces (INF) Treaty finally bit cannot mean a return of US the dust in August this year. nuclear weapons to British soil. There are so many dangers as a result of its cancellation: a new nuclear arms race, US missiles for President Trump – far from The Iran nuclear deal is back in Europe – and that the actual role designated to it verging on extinction following includes Britain – trained on which is essentially scrutiny and US withdrawal and the failure of Russia, US missiles in Okinawa accountability. the other signatories to trained on China, nuclear war. US withdrawal from the sufficiently support the Iranian While other European INF treaty also calls into economy as the wrongly re- countries urged the US and question whether Washington imposed US sanctions take their Russia to continue with the will work with Moscow to toll. There has been some minor Treaty, Britain gave craven renew Obama and Medvedev’s support but not sufficient to support to the US. The House New START treaty in 2021, prevent serious hardship for of Commons Defence when it is due to expire. If US ordinary Iranian citizens. Committee produced a report hawks get their way, once the Whilst opposing these into the breakdown of the INF Treaty expires there will be no negative developments, which pretty much turned the restraints on nuclear weapons however, we always work to Committee into a cheerleader left. A grim prospect indeed. pose positive alternatives, and it 2 CAMPAIGN REVIEW 2019 has been good to watch the Indeed, this year NATO two decades long. progress of the UN’s Treaty on celebrated its 70th birthday, These activities have turned the Prohibition of Nuclear meriting an assessment of the the end of the Cold War from Weapons (TPNW). We have nuclear-armed military alliance a unique opportunity for new taken a variety of approaches that came into being to ensure diplomacy and peaceful to support it, from pressure on western military superiority development into a new era of our own government to during the Cold War. Most global tension, encircling Russia and China thereby creating the conditions for a new Cold War, tearing up international legal norms, notably around national THE NEW sovereignty, and introducing bogus notions of ‘humanitarian war’. A second NATO anniversary fell in March 2019: WORLD 20 years since the first former Warsaw Pact states joined NATO. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic signed up, DIS and just days later they found ORDER themselves at war with their neighbour Yugoslavia. The war was illegal and brought No to Nato devastating human consequences to what remained of Yugoslavia – including the lobbying embassies in the UK, strikingly, during its first 40 legacy of toxic Depleted urging states to sign and years of existence – namely the Uranium. It was also the first congratulating those who have. Cold War – NATO embarked use of Tony Blair’s baseless The number of ratifications is on no wars or military justification for wars of steadily increasing and it’s campaigns. Yet in the 30 years intervention. We saw how that possible that it will achieve the since the Cold War and the developed in Iraq and 50 required to bring it into force removal of its political and elsewhere. during 2020. Our own military rival, the Soviet Union, Combatting the climate government still opposes the NATO has massively expanded emergency has achieved a real TPNW and this is one of the territorially, changed its mission sense of urgency with the biggest challenges we face: statement from a defensive to outstanding work of young breaking the logjam of the an aggressive posture and activists across the globe. This nuclear weapons states – and embarked on a series of wars, is an issue that touches us all, the power they exert over of which its intervention in not only as individuals but also NATO and allied states. Afghanistan is getting on for in wider campaigning terms. It 3 CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT is one of the twin existential threats identified by the Bulletin Scrapping Trident would be a great of the Atomic Scientists – alongside way to cut the UK’s carbon footprint nuclear weapons, and there are – £205 billion could be used to install key ways in which they solar panels in every home or build contribute to the problem. In the event of nuclear war, enough wind turbines to power all nuclear weapons would cause households in the UK. severe damage to the climate and environment on a scale incomparable to any other weapons. Research by the Red Cross shows the effect of a ‘limited’ nuclear war would disrupt the global climate to such an extent that a billion people could face starvation.

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