Welcome to the Tower Hamlets branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament CND
Posted: 03/02/2012 Filed under: news Comments Off on Welcome to the Tower Hamlets branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament CND
CND campaigns non-violently to rid the world of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction and to create genuine security for future generations.
CND opposes all nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction: their development, manufacture, testing, deployment and use or threatened use by any country.
We aim to:
Change Government policies to bring about the elimination of British nuclear weapons as a major contribution to global abolition.
Stimulate wide public debate on the need for alternatives both to the nuclear cycle and to military attempts to resolve conflict.
Empower people to engage actively in the political process and to work for a nuclear-free and peaceful future.
Co-operate with other groups in the UK and internationally to ensure the development of greater mutual security
As a British campaign, we concentrate first and foremost on British nuclear weapons but we also work with anti-nuclear groups in other countries to eliminate the global threat. CND is also present at the United Nations and other international disarmament conferences.
………………. ………………. ………………. ………………. ……………….
Campaigning News
Stop the War on Gaza!
Posted: 17/10/2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Comments Off on Stop the War on Gaza!
21 October 2023 London – Assemble 12 noon at Marble Arch
Horror at the violence in Israel and Palestine saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets of London and cities around the country last Saturday, calling for an end to the indiscriminate killing of civilians. With an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza imminent, we need as many people as possible to join us in demonstrating for peace, and calling for international law to be respected.
To keep up the pressure for peace, we are asking supporters to join us in London this Saturday to demand an end to the killing and for a just and lasting peace for everyone living in Palestine and Israel.
Saturday, 21 October 2023 –
Assemble 12 noon, Marble Arch, London
Stop the War on Gaza!
150,000 of you joined us when we marched for Palestine in London last Saturday 14 Oct 2023. We cannot stop now. Join us again on Saturday 21 October 2023 to demand an end to the war on Gaza.
Saturday, 21 October 2023 –
Assemble 12 noon, Marble Arch, London
Organised by: Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Contact information@cnduk.org with any queries, or if you are interested in volunteering to be a steward.
Uniting for Peace Annual Conference 2023
Posted: 17/10/2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Comments Off on Uniting for Peace Annual Conference 2023“Are we already in World War III? Can a Roadmap for Peace Change Culture of War to Culture of Peace”
Date: Thursday 19 October, 2023 Time: 18:00 – 20:00
Chair: Rita Payne, President Emeritus, Commonwealth Journalists Association
Speakers:
Vijay Mehta, Chair, Uniting for Peace, Author, How Not To Go To War, Board Member, GAMIP (Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace) (UK)
Medea Benjamin, Political Activist, Co-Founder of CodePink, Author, War in Ukraine (USA)
Tony Robinson, Editor, Pressenza – An International News Agency and Author, Coffee with Silo and the quest for meaning in life (UK)
Joseph Gerson, Peace and Disarmament Activist, President of Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security (USA)
David Swanson, Executive Director, World Beyond Wars, Author, War Is A Lie (USA)
Clive Wilson, Author, Leading Beyond Sustainability, Partner, Primeast Ltd. (UK)
Description:
In an era marked by geopolitical tensions, proxy conflicts, and global challenges, the question arises: Are we already embroiled in World War III? This pressing concern serves as the focal point of an upcoming conference.
This pressing concern serves as the focal point of an upcoming conference that aims to explore the current state of international affairs and investigate whether a roadmap for peace can effectively rescue us from the brink of a catastrophic global conflict. Under the subheading “From Culture of War to Culture of Peace,” a distinguished panel of speakers will engage in an insightful dialogue, shedding light on the intricate web of political, social, and cultural factors shaping our world today. The Roadmap for Peace will explore innovative approaches that can help transform our world to avoid the dire consequences of a World War III.
Either you can register through Eventbrite link:
https://roadmapforpeace.eventbrite.co.uk
Or join directly with the zoom link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3482765417? pwd=dXI1WXJRUS9TbHowWVhVNDVMRlR5QT09
Meeting ID: 348 276 5417 Passcode: 2022
London • Hiroshima commemoration 2023
Posted: 17/07/2023 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Common Women, Resister, Tower Hamlets CND Comments Off on London • Hiroshima commemoration 2023
London CND Hiroshima Commemoration
- Sunday, August 6
- Tavistock Square, London
Hiroshima Remembered 2023
London CND will host a Hiroshima commemoration event in Tavistock Square, London at 12PM on Hiroshima Day.
Speakers include Councillor Nazma Rahman, Mayor of Camden, Roger McKenzie, Councillor Emma Dent-Coad and Jeremy Corbyn MP.
12:00 Choir – Raised Voices
12:05 Welcome
- Hannah Kemp-Welch, Co-Chair London CND
- Councillor Nazma Rahman – Mayor of Camden
12:15 Memorial
- Laying of the wreath – Councillor Nazma Rahman
- Chanting – Rev Negase
12:20 Speeches
- Roger McKenzie, Vice President of Liberation and International Editor of the Morning Star, former Unison Deputy General Secretary
- Councillor Emma Dent-Coad
- Jeremy Corbyn MP
12:40 Cultural responses
- Michael Mears & Riko Nakazono perform an extract from ‘The Mistake’
- Hugh Goodachre plays guitar
12:50 Close
- Carol Turner, Co-Chair London CND – London CND announcements
- Shigeo Kobayashi, Japanese Against Nuclear – Nagasaki Day announcement
- Thanks – Hannah Kemp-Welch
12:55 Choir – Raised Voices
Please get in touch with Julie at info@londoncnd.org if you have any queries.
See also: Tower Hamlets CND website which includes an archive of newsletters.
https://towerhamletscnd.wordpress.com
Lakenheath reActivated 2022
Posted: 25/11/2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Comments Off on Lakenheath reActivated 2022TH CND members joined campaigns from all over Britain protesting against storing nuclear weapons and reactivation of the RAF United States military base at Lakenheath, Suffolk. On a misty November Saturday morning coaches, with more than fifty members from CND and other campaigning groups, travelled the 80miles from London’s Embankment to the airbase. Arriving around midday people met up with other protestors and set to work unfurling their banners, drumming, singing protest songs, and making sure their voices were heard. A number of speakers from each of the organisations addressed the gathering including CNDs, General Secretary, Kate Hudson.
Wallace & Gromit – ‘always ready to own the skies’ – RAF 48th Fighter Wing (Liberty) Lakenheath
Photos from the protest at Lakenheath Air Base on 23 November 2022
Date to Remember 6 August 1945-2022
Posted: 12/08/2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Comments Off on Date to Remember 6 August 1945-2022Hiroshima Day was commemorated once again in Tavistock Square, Camden on Saturday 6 August by members of London’s CND. The “Cherry Tree” (planted by the Mayor of Camden in 1968) was again a focal point for the event around which people gathered to decorate it with the iconic paper “peace” herons, lay flowers and listen to speakers from supportive organisations. This year’s event was hosted by CND’s co- Chair, Hannah Kemp-Welch. She was joined by speakers including: Nasim Ali – the Mayor of Camden. Other speakers, Jess Bernard chair of Young Labour, Benali Hamdache (Green Party) and John Morris (CND) also contributed their thoughts and reflections on the continuing expansion of nuclear warfare since the first nuclear weapons were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 – bringing WWII to a sudden and violent end.
The “Raised Voices” choir brought the event to a close by singing a programme of campaign songs and a chanting of prayers led by buddhist monk Rev Nagase.
This year there were more missing faces, Bruce Kent – who was the very essence of CND and a lively contributor on the “campaigning platform”, passed away a month earlier on 8 June and Isabel Rowe a Tower Hamlets CND longstanding active member, who sadly passed away also in June.
Photos from the event at Tavistock Square
Photos from the event at Tavistock Square: © 2022 ArtZone Co-op
Military posturing fans the flames of war in Europe
Posted: 13/02/2022 Filed under: news | Tags: NATO Comments Off on Military posturing fans the flames of war in EuropeLABOUR CND STATEMENT
Keir Starmer has chosen the moment of mounting tensions over Ukraine to announce that ‘Labour’s commitment to Nato is unshakable’, attempting to justify his stance with selective and inaccurate statements about the defensive and democratic character of the North Atlantic Alliance and accusing those who disagree of showing solidarity with Putin.
Nato is not ‘a defensive alliance that has never provoked conflict’ nor does it provide a ‘guarantee of democracy and security’ as the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere will readily testify, whose countries have been shattered and lives destroyed by two decades of war.
Neither has Nato ‘ushered in what is now approaching three-quarters of a century of peace between the nations of Europe’. Nato’s bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999 was the first military attack on a sovereign European country since the end of World War II. It took place without UN approval and is widely regarded as illegal under international law.
Even Denis Healey, who Starmer describes as a ‘giant of the Labour movement’, argued: ‘It was a terrible mistake to attack a sovereign state without even consulting the United Nations… we should have asked Richard Holbrooke [US ambassador to the UN] to have another go at negotiation.’
In contradistinction to the benign picture Starmer seeks to paint, Nato’s evolution includes:
- The North Atlantic Alliance is a nuclear-armed alliance committed to using
- The North Atlantic Alliance is a nuclear-armed alliance committed to using nuclear weapons pre-emptively in a military conflict whether or not its adversaries possess nuclear weapons. Since the 1950s, Nato has rejected successive calls to adopt a nuclear no-first use policy.
- Declassified US documents testify to the fact that the use of nuclear weapons was actively considered during Nato’s first military engagement, the Korean war of 1950- 53.
- The Warsaw Pact dissolved in July 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By contrast Nato extended its area of operations. In the ensuing three decades, it has expanded its mission statement and enlarged its membership.
- There are currently 30 Nato member states. Additionally, Nato works with 40 non-member partner states across the globe on a wide range of political and security- related issues. Full Nato members in East Europe include Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Albania, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania which border Russia. Nato partners with borders on Russia include Finland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Russia’s near abroad – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – are also Nato partners.
- Three Nato members are nuclear weapons states – Britain, France and the US. Five European members – Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Turkey – host US nuclear weapons on their territories and are pledged to deploy them if Nato so commands.
Tensions between Nato and Russia have been building for three decades. Ukraine must not become the pretext for a military clash between two nuclear armed adversaries.
Labour CND calls for de-escalation and dialogue, not a build-up of armaments and troops leading to the brink of a war in which the people of Ukraine will be the losers. This is a strategy of sanity, in contrast to the military posturings of Britain and the US which fan the flames of war in Europe.
Carol Turner
Co-Chair Labour CND
Where do we stand now – post Brexit?
Posted: 10/12/2021 Filed under: news Comments Off on Where do we stand now – post Brexit?
I wrote to our TH Bethnal Green & Bow MP, Rushanara Ali, some time ago to protest about the AUKUS Treaty that increases military (including nuclear) cooperation between the three countries. This reply was not exactly what I’d hoped for…
Phil Sedler
THCND – Chair
Note: “Five years ago this month” – Read THCND newsletter (pdf) “Resister” (March 2017) “Dangerous Times”… • Where prospects for an alternative future – UN Negotiations for a Global Ban on Nuclear Weapons – were avoided by Boris Johnson (Foreign Minister) and Theresa May (Prime Minister)
From: Rushanara Ali <rushanara@rushanaraali.org>
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2021 at 16:54
Subject: Re: Office of Rushanara Ali (Case Ref: RA78761)
Dear Philip Sedler,
Thank you for contacting me about the new security partnership between Australia, the UK and the US – AUKUS. Please accept my apologies for not being able to write back to you sooner.
I welcome the increased collaboration between our country and our allies Australia and the US, two of our closest security partners. Sharing resources and intelligence with them and enhancing capabilities makes them safer, makes Britain safer, and makes the world safer.
Australia has no intention to acquire nuclear weapons, nor does AUKUS enable that. However, given the sensitivities involved in sharing nuclear technology, it is of course important for AUKUS to be pursued in a way that is consistent with all our international obligations, including under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and adheres to relevant International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
More broadly, I believe AUKUS should be matched by stronger efforts to support nuclear non-proliferation arms control and multilateral disarmament. The global non-proliferation architecture has come under increasing strain in recent years with the UK reduced to being a bystander. The UK has a proud record of being a leader of global efforts to promote multilateral disarmament and I believe it is time for the UK Government to rediscover leadership on this issue.
To protect our security and interests, we also need to look after our broader alliances. NATO remains our most important strategic alliance and I hope the Government will ensure that AUKUS will not see resources redirected from Europe and the high north to the Pacific. It is important that this new trilateral arrangement strengthens rather than weakens the NATO alliance, including our indispensable bilateral relationship with France. The Government should also ensure that AUKUS does not result in a two-tier Five Eyes intelligence-sharing operation with Canada and New Zealand.
Finally, AUKUS clearly brings potential economic opportunities for Britain. We need the well-paid, high-skilled jobs that the defence industry provides in every corner of Britain. I hope the Government will therefore ensure that Britain gets its fair share of any contracts that come out of this new arrangement and that no region or nation of the UK misses out on any new job opportunities.
Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue. With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Rushanara
Rushanara Ali – Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow
Follow me at: | Twitter: @rushanaraali | Facebook: Rushanara Ali
Sign up to my newsletter here: https://www.rushanaraali.org/newsletter.
We remember them all – 2021
Posted: 01/11/2021 Filed under: Uncategorized Comments Off on We remember them all – 2021Each year is punctuated with moments to remember. At this time we cannot forget past THCND members who campaigned against the use of nuclear weapons and war by raising their voices for world peace and harmony. Angela Broome (2019), Marg Behrman (2018), Phillip Wearne (2018), John Rowe (2017), Len Aldis (2016). Although we remember the (recent) loss of so many good people it is heartening that many more carry their legacy into a world which continues to struggle with the aggressive decisions that jeopardise everyone’s future.
2021 Hiroshima Day Commemoration – 6th August
Posted: 03/08/2021 Filed under: Uncategorized Comments Off on 2021 Hiroshima Day Commemoration – 6th August
People gathered in London’s Tavistock Square to commemorate Hiroshima Day – this year was particularly poignant given the unusual circumstances that we are in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic. Tower Hamlets CND members joined others, from across London, who came to hear speeches given by prominent politicians and activists, join in the singing and the traditional laying of flowers by Sabrina Francis, the current Mayor of Camden, at the Cherry Tree which was planted in 1967 by Millie Miller (Mayor of Camden).
Friday 6 August 12noon 1pm (Tavistock Sq Gardens, London)
Co-hosted by: Catherine West MP, Hannah Kemp-Welsh (London CND co-chair)
Speakers: Sabrina Francis (Mayor of Camden), Benali Hamdache (Green Party), Carol Turner London (CND-co chair), Jeremy Corbyn MP
Performers: Rev Nagase (chant & drumming), Hugh Goodacre (song & acoustic guitar), Raised Voices (choir)
Camellia Japonica Arrives in London
Posted: 29/07/2021 Filed under: news, Uncategorized Comments Off on Camellia Japonica Arrives in LondonTower Hamlets CND organised a “Planting of the Camellia Japonica seed” at AND EventSpace on 29 July 2021. See the story and images…
Camellia Japonica settles in Tower Hamlets
We have received from National CND a seed of the Camellia Japonica bush that has survived the Hiroshima bombing, and are keen to plant it in a local park. However, while it will eventually grow to at least six feet this will take a number of years. Meanwhile, a few of us held a small, Japanese-themed planting ceremony at AND eventSpace, where it was planted in a pot, and will be lovingly tended and, once our baby has achieved a suitable height and strength, we’ll arrange a public planting. This could be some time in the near future, so readers of this should carry on with their lives till further notice! In the meantime our campaign to establish ‘Peace Gardens’ in Tower Hamlets continues. Those of you who are interested in this project please get in touch with THCND.
Phil Sedler
Tower Hamlets CND 
You must be logged in to post a comment.