Start replacement treaty ratified
As always we begin with the good news: against all expectations President Obama has persuaded the US Senate to ratify the new START Replacement Treaty in the dying days of 2010. National CND’s General Secretary Kate Hudson welcomed the ratification as a “significant advance for disarmament, enacting real reductions in the size of the nuclear forces deployed by the US and Russia. They both retain the ability to destroy all life on earth, but reducing the size of their deployed forces lessens the possibility of accidents or unauthorised launches on either side”.
Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC)
Our own year also started impressively with a turnout of 11 members at our first meeting of January 19. This is not counting the two “pixies” Gemma and Kieren , who came to talk with us about their ongoing campaign against the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at Catcliffe, or ‘Death Park’ as they like to call it. During its official opening by Her Majesty the Queen in December, the Pixies and one of our own members had been the only protesters despite a last minute call to arms on the internet. But happily the police were on hand to hide our protesters behind some bushes from where little could be spied and they could not be seen. The police even rang them up in the morning to ask how they might be of help.
With all these precautions and the care and attention paid to them by her Majesty’s Constabulary, it is curious but not unwelcome that the Communications Director of the Centre, Tim Chapman, nevertheless felt moved to email us before our January 19 meeting to warn us against some ‘grossly inaccurate information by one or two individuals who have been spreading all kinds of nonsense in recent months’ and to suggest that we in CND have much more important things to be concerned about than these nonsensical allegations. For the record, he said that the Nuclear AMRC is working solely on manufacturing for low-carbon energy and has no connection to nuclear weapons. For the record, and without repeating what has been said in previous bulletins, we know this but we object to nuclear energy on its own demerits and dangers, future and present, of which its link to nuclear weapons forms only a minor and tenuous part.
We are however, delighted with his invitation to get in touch if we have any questions about what NAMRC does, and we resolved at our meeting to certainly do this. Watch this space for new developments.
National CND Conference (2010) Report
Somewhat belatedly Richard Baker was given the opportunity to give us a run down of his very interesting experiences and astute observations of the October Conference. He noted that sadly the ‘social movement’ and mass base character of CND seems to have been eroded and that in its place has come a collection of what can only be described as passionate but rather idiosyncratic individuals each with their own narrow obsessions and little wherewithal for joint action. This dissipation of energy has accompanied a decline in numbers with only about 2/5ths of activist present in the conference hall compared with 10 years ago (including a lot of very old people) Leslie Matthews reminded us that in Germany and elsewhere on the continent the situation is very different and we can only hope that our situation is a temporary blip. So we will just have to carry on in the hope of better times ahead.
Next AGM?
It has been suggested that we should bring our AGM date forward to spring time to be in step with the more general lightness of being at that time of year and the advantages of mobilizing before the calendar round of protests and peace events. Views welcome.
Letter Writing campaign
Recent disclosures reveal that the Ministry of Defence is about to sign contracts for billions of pounds worth of work for the replacement of Trident – despite the Government undertaking not to decide this matter until 2016, after the next general election. The CND press release ‘No trident replacement through the back door’ summarises the issues. For more information see the accompanying press briefing ‘Trident replacement Initial Gate’.
We suggest that we insist that no commitments to start building for Trident replacement can be undertaken until parliament has voted for it. The basic question must be decided whether this nuclear weapon contributes any longer to national security in the current international situation.
Please write to: Rt Hon. David Cameron MP
Prime Minister – 10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA
Email via https://email.number10.gov.uk
Copy to Dr Liam Fox MP
Secretary of Defense, Ministry of defense, Whitehall, London SW1A 2HB
Email via:
www.mod.uk/DfenceInternet/Contact Us/AskAMinister.htm
Also copy to your MP if possible.
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