Our public meeting and AGM

Posted: 16th April 2010

‘Is a nuclear-free world possible?’ ‘Yes’, replied Kate Hudson at our public meeting at Salisbury Methodist Church in March.

Kate, chair of national CND, said that there are positive indications that public opinion generally is seeing the need for world-wide nuclear disarmament. She told us that the negotiations between the US and Russia on arms reduction are encouraging – in fact a day or two later their deal was announced.

At the United Nations opposition to nuclear weapons is growing and there is some hope that serious steps towards multilateral disarmament might be agreed at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference in New York in May.

But there are serious obstacles, including the US continuing its missile defence system and the danger of nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran.

Governments see nuclear weapons as giving them political clout and in the UK no political party wants to be the first to relinquish them. But the latest poll shows that a majority of the population wants Britain to rid itself of nuclear weapons. This should begin with cancelling the replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system.

The peace movement must employ all the arguments – political, moral, ethical and financial – to keep up pressure on the government. CND members are urged to lobby all candidates in the general election, including by using the new CND online lobbying facility.

The discussion that followed Kate Hudson’s lively talk covered a range of issues, including CND’s opposition to nuclear power. It believes that nuclear power is dirty, dangerous and expensive. There is still no safe storage for nuclear waste and in Germany research is being carried out into links between nuclear power and child leukemia.

After a break for refreshments we held our AGM at which the current Group Contact, Treasurer and Membership Secretary, respectively Caroline Lanyon, Alex Raws and Moura MacDonagh – were re-elected and gave their reports on our activities and finances in 2009. Everyone present was encouraged to do more campaigning with the funds we have available.

Ideas for local activities welcome!