CND firm

Letter by Dave Webb, chair, CND

ImageI would like to respond to John Taylor’s letter (PN 2542). It is an important point well made and not the first (or probably the last) time that there has been a call for CND to “stick to its own nuclear remit.” In fact we discuss just this point frequently at CND Officers meetings and CND Council. In October last year there was even a resolution on this topic put to our annual conference. As part of the discussion – unfortunately limited by time – it was emphasised that well over 90% of CND work is firmly focussed on the UK Trident nuclear weapons system.

Sometimes there are obvious links between our campaign and others – eg the war on Iraq and the threat of war against Iran. At other times the connections may not be quite so obvious.

As such, we are always aware of the intricate links with other ‘peace movement’ issues and campaigns – such as stop the war, the arms trade, global poverty, oppression, etc. While not wanting to lose focus on nuclear weapons we do often make the links with these, partly because we want to emphasise the connections and invite people to join with us on our issues but also because that’s what many of our members are also involved with anyway.

It seems from his letter that John Taylor’s overriding concern was that CND’s work should not lose or dilute its powerful anti-nuclear weapons message. All I can say is that we will continue to lead the campaign for national and global nuclear disarmament as well and as effectively as we can.