against the Missiles is to be held on 28 March this year.
support of all those in the labour movement who support the fight against Tory missile madness, to stop Cruise missiles f7bn Trident gramme.
backed unilateral disarmament. Now that has to be translated into action.
held at UMIST Students Union in Manchester, will be accepted from all bona fide trade union organisations Party branch or constituency, trade union branch, trades council or shop stewards committee - at f3 a delegate.
to: Labour Movement Conference, CND, 11 Goodwin St, London N4.
Socialist Challenge 22 January 1981 Page 8 THE Labour Movement Conference The conference aims to mobilise the submarine proLast year the Labour Party conference Delegates to the conference, to be and Labour Party two from each Labour For delegations and further detaits write MICHAEL FOOT says that he supports unilateral disarmament. Despite this, he has appointed as spokesperson on Brynmor John, who openly opposes unilateral disarmament.
The Labour Party conference in October voted for unilateral disarmament. The membership of the Nuclear Disarmament is 20,000 and rising fast. Canada has already got rid of its nucical wcabulls.
Despite this there labour movement who oppose getting rid of Britain's nuclear arsenal been the case ever since Aneuran Revar said that Britain could not walk naked into the conference chamber.
Socialists have to maintain the fight for unilateralism. arguments which we should take up. Multilateralism doesn't work The argument of those who say we should keep our nuclear weapons is that the best way to abolin nuciear weapons is through winning main powers to abolis time.
All the hawks, both in the West and the Soviet Union, support this approach. But the balance sheet is crystal clear — it does not work.
In the past 20 years the explosive power ot nuclear weapons has increased a thousand times, and the number of natons which possess them dramatically. It is thought that Israel and South Africa, for example, now possess nuclear shadow defence Campaign for are still many in the - that has There are four crucial nuclear weapons.
agreement from the sh them at the same conferences were a farce.
that • time unlikely to be.
nuclear multiply. Michael Foot leads CND march in 1959 The furthest that the world has gone towards mutual disarmament has been the SALT 1 and 2 conferences. Yet these SALT 1 did not deal with the main breakthrough in weapons technology at - WELC walled. as MIRVs, on one rocket SALT 2 has not been ratified by the US Senate, and is While the USA and USSR have spent 10 years talking in Geneva the number of warheads has continued to The SALT conferences have acted as a cover for doing nothing. Britain doesn't have an independent nuclear deterrent The argument that in a nuclear world Britain is defenceless dependent deterrent fact that Britain would never use nuclear weapons independently States.
In the event of a conventional war in Europe, NATO is committed to some form of nuclear response. DUSSCSSIOl nucled membership of NATO could easily drag Britain into the American's nuclear war.
With th Britain, wh and contro last remnar rent disap! tagon and i trol over th ignores the basic Even b hand and the United strategy. Fi friend of contes lat Britain's weapons and would be t Soviet Uni pallal
ake place. In 1957 it was anounced that site as to be built on the East oast of Scotland The Dundee rea of the Building Trades peratives came out against le base:
'Not a pick, not a spade, ot a trowell will be used for establishment rocket tes in the area.' The proosal was withdrawn.
In the of 1960 ere was a two-month camign aimed at Bristol Sidelev engines which culmin. ed in a token stoppage callI oy lic sloo slewares com ittee. In the autumn of 1961 pallas of LOnGOI ockers refused to handle irgo for Aldermaston.
Merseyside, at the etrochemicals site at Carrgton, the workforce of 1000 ld a one-day strike on 14 ay 1962 against the resumpon of surface nuclear tests America do kussa.
The actions small. ney were token. But they inof Cruise missiles in l be targetted, serviced y the United States, the an 'independent' deterWall Street, the Pend Reagan will have confear weapons in Britain.
Cruise, Britain was tied US's nuclear larshal Lord Carver (no ar disarmament) comthat Britain would never contact without 'the risk to ourselves whereas the risk to the buld be great but only dicated a potential that the CND leaders and their labour movement friends in places refused to explore.
The mass movement CND and pae no have an impact on unions and amazing places. In June 1959, the General and Municipal outraged leadership was thus put to the bother of having to amance recall conference and bully the delegates into getting it right in time for the TGWU Inen unilateralist. Right-wing commentators normally write this off as a result of the can mence or ene general secretary, the winger rrank Cousins. this explains the G&M and, ollowing year, the AEU USDAW, NUM and a host o smaller unions is not clear.
In reality there was a big shift of opinion Then working class. the replacement for Polaris is to cost £5-7bn. One Trident submarine will cost the equivalent of 100 hospitals, 4,000 houses or 1,000 schools. when resources are desperately needed for precisely such things; when massive cuts are being made, the economic waste involved is appalling.
It is arguable that the political and military cost Britain's weapons is even higher than their purCHase SACC The United States appears to have decided that it can win a nuclear the wal 'theatre'.
undeniably hastened the process was the decision in 1960 high oine Communist support CND ot unilateralist resolutions Before May Do the May 1999 c the May 1959 editorial in Unilaterialism divides the diverts attention from the real Issue. Hainely, agreement to weapons.' By the time of the LP conference, a majority of went union votes had been won for unilateralism.
There bureau- advance in the influence unilateralism left In 1957 66 unilateralist resoluHow tions went to conference. This , in was partially a response to the H-bomb Christmas Island. posite resolution was moved by Harold Davies seconded ov ine Vivienne Mendelsohn. other European nation. primary target, unlike the Swiss, At a time lack Enemyer rest of the world nuclear European Party to the right and to reverse spasm' 1960 the CP expressed only anO The lationa ban nuclear Hugh Gaitskell The defeat had been a steady 5,836,000 to 781,000 tially due to the within the LP votes unions.
test small advance The com year MP and Icience.
Trotskyist was on in the unions.
Per head of population, Britain has more nuclear bases and devices than any It would be a the first nation to get ally for example, whose or nuclear weapons Wlakes Getting rid of nuclear weapons is not primarily a moral gesture aimed at the it is a very practical step aimed at securing our own existence. It is a myth that the Soviet Union iș preparing to invade Western Europe.
Defence thinking in the West was the moment when Bevan made his move to and savaged the resolution as an 'emotional but to get send it by than real.
was huge was not • parimpact of Bevan and partially due to the was, of the CP-influenced alliance.
The '58 Conference saw a the uni- the lateralist vote and '59 was an Labour no con- The swing This was helped by the cancellation in dominated by crude which sunDose Union aims for world domination, and is preparing for an assault on West Europe through the 'central front' in Germany. Yet the bureaucrats who rule in the Kremlin are defenders of the status quo; they seek Loreserve men Twice in this century — in 1917 and 1941 — the Soviet Union has been invaded by the world capitalist powers.
The Soviet rulers must know they have no hope of -and for that matler any reason for - dominating Europe militarily. They have difficulty enough controlling East Europe.
An overview of the disposition of the military forces of East and West shows April of the production of the proposed Blue Streak own, inTory Labour leaders had British H-bombs them to Moscow they would be forced to in. novate the Busby bomb and parcel post. confusion was more apparent and some of the left didnt. What Gaitskell was that it was not particular missiles that were crucial but allegiance to the foreign 1 and military policy of NATO. It Blue Streak, nor Thor, nor Skybolt - not ever Cruise - thạt was central. It and is, NATO The 1960 Scarborough conference should have been greatest victory left had ever won. union votes were there but the proposing speech of Cousins was lack-lustre. The response of Gaitskell anti-communist that the soviet States and race.
own rule ner.
that west The Tories' full backing to CND.
Socialist Challenge 22 January 1981 electric. He rejected unilaleralisin and would • 'fight and fight and fight again to save the party we love.
Many of the Labour left leaders listened with a sinking feeling The issues were now wider than mere nuclear an nihilation the party could split and the next election be lost. worrying feature of the victory was thai the constituency parties sup ported Gaitskell by 512,000 to The right wing prepared to wage a counter-attack to reverse the decision.
The problem was whether the seize the icer pared o seize victory Aldermaston marchers had pul into inel nanas. Their proven specialism was gallantly losing and remaining a critical but loyal minority Would the Lefts have the wil political ability to fight again?
Next week: CND's defeat and its lessons for today. clearly that it is the forces of the United NATO which surround the USSR and not the other way around Both in numbers and technology the USA is way ahead in the nuclear arms In a nuclear war there will be no winStrategies based on nuclear war are built on quicksand. We can start to fight the danger of nuclear war by disarming our own rulers. There is little chance that it can be stopped by discussions at the conference table in Geneva.
policy can and must be stopped. A mass movement bas ed on unilateralism can stop it. Michael Foot should sack Brynmor John and give
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CND labour movement conference against the missiles
The cost of nuclear weapons is appalling