Why anti nuclear

Three days later the second was dropped on Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians died and countless more had their lives blighted by the horror, by sickness and by loss. The Atomic Age had begun. During the late s and 50s, first the US, then the Soviet Union and Britain developed and tested new atomic weapons with ever increasing frequency. Not only were there fears of nuclear war breaking out but there was growing concern and protest around the world at the health risks and environmental damage caused by these atmospheric tests.

By the late s, these fears had become acute. In the s Europe was gripped by a very real fear of nuclear conflict and, building on the work of earlier anti-war movements, CND was launched with a massive public meeting in London in February Shortly afterwards at Easter the first Aldermaston March attracted a good deal of attention and the CND symbol appeared everywhere.

From the outset people from all sections of society got involved. The Society of Friends Quakers was very supportive, as well as a wide range of academics, journalists, writers, actors and musicians. Labour Party members and trade unionists were overwhelmingly sympathetic as were people who had been involved in earlier anti-bomb campaigns organised by the British Peace Committee or the Direct Action Committee.

In the early years membership increased rapidly. Multilateral disarmament — simultaneously by negotiations between countries — was clearly not working, although CND also strongly supported the goal of global abolition. All attempts to control, let alone reverse the process broke down repeatedly. As an example, negotiations for a treaty to halt the spread of nuclear weapons began in but the final agreement was not reached until In the Soviet Union was discovered to be installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, only 90 miles from the Florida coast.

This very nearly provoked a nuclear war and although the Soviet Union pulled back at the last moment, both sides had been severely frightened. The first telephone hot-line was set up between Washington and Moscow so the leaders could talk directly to each other. The Soviet missiles were taken out of Cuba and shortly afterwards US missiles already based in Turkey were quietly removed. The next year a ban on nuclear testing in the atmosphere was agreed between the US, Soviet Union and Britain.

For the first time the multilateral approach seemed to be working. International tension relaxed as the immediate threat of nuclear war faded away and CND numbers began to dwindle. CND continued but as a much smaller movement. But protests continued, particularly in Scotland where British nuclear-armed submarines were now based. During these years, CND faced significant political challenges.

There had also been internal arguments about whether it was ever legitimate to break the law. Supporters of non-violent direct action NVDA wanted the campaign to include mass civil disobedience actions such as sit-ins and blockades. In the Committee of , led by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, was set up to organise mass civil disobedience.

In February 4, protesters sat down outside the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall. Even if the anti-nuclear movement could assert its influence on the general public, it remains to be seen whether the president would respond to such opposition. There is nonetheless cause for optimism. Disarmament initiatives are in rude health and numerous organisations are still working diligently: Global Zero , the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament , and the Arms Control Association are to this day assertive, robust campaigners.

Meanwhile, legislative efforts persist to secure the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would in turn provide significant momentum for further arms control agreements. In these unstable times, it will need to increase its visibility and be ready to rally widespread public support when future crises occur.

This is certainly a difficult challenge — but the movement has met it before. Festival of Social Science — Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom.

Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Jon Coburn , University of Hull. An early group action occurred in Cheyenne when the Committee for Non-violent Action, a Philadelphia-based group, mounted a consciousness-raising campaign in the summer of , which sought to stop the construction of Atlas missile sites in the Cheyenne area.

Warren Air Force Base and to raise the level of public awareness and concern about nuclear weapons. Additional campaigns mounted against the missile silo sites and the United States nuclear arsenal included actions by the War Resisters League. The War Resisters League distributed pamphlets encouraging Nebraskans and others to protest nuclear weapons.

The intensity of anti-nuclear activism varied depending on the political climate. Public debate over nuclear weapons in America remained virtually nonexistent during much of the s. Nuclear weapons development and testing continued unabated, however—the United States conducted more tests in the five years after the test ban treaty than the five years before its signing—the perception of the nuclear threat lost its immediacy.

From the mids until the early s, many local and national peace groups shifted their focus, concentrating instead on the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. The anti-nuclear movement was not reinvigorated until the late s and early s, when Europe and the United States experienced a resurgence of concern over nuclear weapons. In Europe the renewed activism centered on anxiety over the arms build-up during the Reagan administration and the proposed deployment by the United States of short and medium range nuclear missiles in continental Europe.

These anxieties sparked numerous European protests against the arms race that helped inspire the dormant American anti- nuclear movement. Greater public concern in the United States over nuclear missile silos also coincided with the emergence of the nuclear freeze movement, which attracted strong support in the United States. This period saw the renewed activity of the national peace movement, as well as the formation of anti- nuclear groups at the state and local levels.

For example, the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center, which had been established in , became active in protesting the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Anxiety over new missile systems, such as the mobile MX missile, drew people to an anti-MX rally at silo Q-5 outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming, in the late s. The furor over the MX deployments focused attention back on the Minuteman as well.

Though no two were alike, protests typically involved vigils, praying at the site or on the silo cover, trespassing, damaging the surface installations by either hammering on the covers or pouring blood on the site to produce a symbolic disarming, or the delivering of statements from the activist to the military.

Such statements commonly referred to international laws, such as the Geneva Convention, which bars attacks on civilians, and the Nuremberg Charter, which bans attempts to annihilate whole populations, as the rationale for disarmament. The activists argued that since the effects of nuclear weapons cannot be limited or controlled that they will harm civilians, thus violating these international laws.

One such action, performed by members of a Ploughshares group known as the Silo Pruning Hooks, involved people from Wisconsin and Minnesota. The activism of Ploughshares organizations is based on religious convictions that oppose war.

The Silo Pruning Hooks members were two Catholic priests, a writer, and a mental health worker. For members of the Silo Pruning Hooks, the potential dangers and destructive power of the nuclear missiles justified their actions.