CND Conference
Event Date: 10th October 2020
Location: Internet October 10 and 18th
Here are some important dates for CND’s AGM and Policy Conference, which will be taking place this year in London over the weekend of October 10-11.
Given the unprecedented situation, we will keep you updated if there needs to be a change from our usual conference arrangements.
Please note the following important dates:
- Thursday July 23
Resolutions deadline and nominations deadline for directly elected Council members and officers.
- Friday September 4
Amendments deadline.
- Monday September 21
Regional and organisational Council delegates submission deadline. (Note this is only for group reps to council — not directly elected Council members and also not for group delegate registration to attend Conference.)
- Monday October 5
Emergency resolutions deadline.
- Saturday-Sunday October 10-11
CND Conference.
If you have any questions please do ask. More information will be provided in the Conference First Mailing in the near future.
In peace,
Rob Wells
CND Office Manager
[email protected]
CND Annual General Meeting & Policy Conference 2020
First Mailing
Dear CND Groups, Areas, Regions, Nations, Specialist Sections and Affiliates,
We look forward to welcoming you to CND’s AGM and annual conference, this year titled “Campaigning in the post-virus world”, which will be held on Saturday 10th October and Sunday 18th October (on separate weekends).
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we will be holding our conference online this year, so members can take vital decisions and carry out crucial discussions while keeping everyone safe.
CND’s AGM and policy conference will take place on Saturday 10th October, while on Sunday 18th October London Region CND will host the second day of the conference focusing on the theme of real security after COVID-19. Please join us!
Saturday 10th October – CND AGM & Policy Conference
The AGM will include the announcement of the results of elections for Officers and directly elected Council members. The election will take place online in advance of the AGM, and details about the arrangements for this will be circulated in due course.
The review of campaigning activities and finances will be taken at the AGM.
Following on from the AGM there will be policy and strategy debates centred on motions submitted by groups and members. This is our policy conference that provides members with the important opportunity to decide our overall direction for the coming year so please do encourage as many of your groups or members as possible to join and contribute!
Pre-Conference Timetable
Action
Deadline
Nominations for Officer and directly elected National Council positions
Thursday 23rd July
Submitting resolutions
Thursday 23rd July
Submitting amendments
Monday 4th September 12 noon
Accepting Nominations for Officer and directly elected National Council positions
Friday 28th August 12 noon
Registering for conference
Monday 28th September 12 noon
Submitting emergency resolutions
Monday 5th October 12 noon
Registration Fees
This year there will be no registration fee for conference delegates.
Information about CND AGM and Policy Conference
Who can participate?
CND Groups, Areas, Regions, Nations, Specialist Sections and Affiliates are all entitled to send delegates to CND conference and AGM. Individual members are also eligible to participate. All those voting at the AGM must be company members of CND (a legal obligation because CND is a company limited by guarantee). Company member forms (where you agree to pay £1 if CND is wound up) for individuals and organisations as well as registration information can be found on the Conference website.
The number of delegates eligible to attend conference and the number of votes to which your group is entitled will be emailed to groups in late September by the Supporter Database Manager. The number of company members in your group determines your voting entitlement at conference. To maximise your votes, make sure as many of your members as possible are company members as well as members of CND by Monday 7 September.
Nominations
Please send nominations for officers and directly elected Council members to the CND Office Manager [email protected]. Please provide contact details for your nominees (a current email address is enormously helpful) and your own contact details, including email addresses where possible. We will confirm receipt of your nomination by email; if you don’t hear from us within 3 working days, please send it in again.
Resolutions
Please see the online Conference page for information about submitting resolutions to Conference, which can be done through our website. The detailed rules about resolutions are contained in the Conference Standing Orders, which are also available online. Alternatively, you can email resolutions to [email protected]. We will confirm receipt of your resolution by email; if you don’t hear from us within 3 working days, please send it in again.
Compositing
If you are submitting a resolution please provide contact details for a representative available to agree compositing during the two weeks from July 23, but particularly in the first week of August.
Registration deadline
Please help our team by registering as early as possible for Conference. The final deadline for registration is Monday 28th September.
Further Help
We hope that the information in this mailing will help you play an active role. If these procedures are unclear, please contact us using the details below and we will be happy to clarify them or talk you through any points. You will receive further information about Conference in the summer membership edition of Campaign and in future Conference mailings. As more information becomes available we will also be updating the website at www.cnduk.org/conference.
Contact details
Please send enquiries by email. Because of the pandemic, the CND office may be closed for much of the period between now and Conference and post may be delayed significantly.
Email: [email protected] with the subject line CND Conference 2020.
Write to: CAWG, Mordechai Vanunu House, 162 Holloway Road, London, N7 8DQ
Yours in peace,
Daniel Blaney, Katy West & Adam Beese
CAWG (Conference Arrangements Working Group)
CND Annual General Meeting & Policy Conference 2020
Second Mailing
Dear CND Groups, Areas, Regions, Nations, Specialist Sections and Affiliates,
This mailing contains the motions that have been submitted for Conference and which are open for amendment (by member organisations only, not individuals). Standing Orders state that “representative organisations and affiliates of CND may each submit up to two amendments to the resolutions on the Interim Agenda. In selecting amendments to go onto the Final Agenda the CAWG shall operate under the same rules and guidelines as for the resolutions. No amendment shall be selected which introduces new matter outside the scope of the resolution, or which negates the sense of the whole resolution, or which lengthens the resolution by more than 50 words.”
Any amendments must be sent to CND Office Manager Rob Wells at [email protected] by 12 noon on Friday 4 September.
Any constitutional amendments also must be received by this date (these cannot be amended).
For further information about Conference please see the website at https://cnduk.org/cnd-conference-2020/
For your convenience, all resolutions are also attached to this document in a single Word file.
Important deadlines to note
Action
Deadline
Special (Constitutional) motions
4th September, 12 noon
Amendments to ordinary motions
4th September, 12 noon
Nomination of Organisational Representatives
21st September, 12 noon
Emergency Resolutions
5th October, 12 noon
Conference registration
As this year’s Conference will take place online, the usual registration process has changed. Further information about registration for conference and other practicalities will be distributed soon. Please check the Conference web page at https://cnduk.org/cnd-conference-2020/ for the latest information.
Conference dates
Please note that this year CND Conference will take place online over two weekends. CND AGM and Policy Conference will take place on Saturday October 10 and our public conference Real Security after Covid-19 will be hosted by London Region CND on Sunday October 18.
If you have any further queries please contact Rob by email at [email protected]
Yours in peace,
Daniel Blaney, Katy West & Adam Beese
(CAWG)
Resolutions to CND Conference 2020
Christian CND: Methodist Central Hall meeting July 2021
Conference notes that:
Christian CND are excited to announce that Methodist Central Hall, a prime faith-based London venue with long associations with the United Nations, has generously agreed to host a major meeting on the afternoon of Monday July 12th 2021, to mark the 4th anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and Christian CND’s own 60th anniversary. The meeting will be inclusive, with speakers and audience both religious and secular;
Faith groups, including Christians, have played a significant part in work towards nuclear disarmament over the past decades as part of the mobilisation of civil society.
Public meetings of this kind are important for raising the profile of our issue and in reaching a new audience.
Conference resolves to:
Encourage supporters to attend the event at Methodist Central Hall and that the office will continue to offer practical support and expertise as needed by Christian CND in the organising of the meeting.
Greater Manchester and District CND: Disarmament treaties
Bearing in mind President Trump’s dangerous and reckless withdrawal from nuclear disarmament agreements which include:
- The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 as a result of which the USA and the Soviet Union destroyed 2,692 short-, medium- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles in 1991. In 2019 President Trump declared the suspension of US obligations under the Treaty. Russia then followed suit.
- Withdrawal from The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action known as the Iran Deal by which Iran would have redesigned and converted its nuclear facilities in order to have lifted all the nuclear related economic sanctions freeing up tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues;
CND can only view with alarm President Trump’s threat of renewing nuclear testing. This would break the spirit of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Although the US stalled on ratification of the Treaty, every country in the world has adhered to a global non-testing norm since 1990. Should the US resume testing, in whatever form, It will put pressure on Russian, China and others to resume or start nuclear weapons testing.
Conference resolves to:
1. Demand that the government and the main political parties condemn the US actions on disarmament.
2. Prepare a new briefing on nuclear weapons testing.
3. Raise the issue with Parliamentary CND.
Jenny Clegg: New Cold War with China
Conference notes that:
1. US-China relations are deteriorating sharply into a racialised, ideological Cold War with China seen as an existential threat to Western civilisation;
2. The US maintains a huge encirclement of military bases and an enormous naval and nuclear presence to contain China and undermine its security, whilst issuing increasing threats to its sovereignty.
3. The situation is becoming highly dangerous (i) with US withdrawal from arms control treaties to compete with China more freely; (ii) with three US navy carrier groups operating around China, escalating the likelihood of accident leading to war;
4. Trump is fostering a new global Cold War division; NATO’s chief vows to work even more closely with partners worldwide since China’s rise is ‘fundamentally shifting the global balance of power’, ‘multiplying threats’ and ‘heating up the struggle for supremacy’;
5. The Tory government is succumbing to US pressure to ‘choose sides’ and plans to send an aircraft carrier battle group to the area early in 2021;
6. Excessive negative media coverage reinforces racial stereotypes, stoking fears of the ‘China threat ‘.
Conference believes that:
1. The US government’s increasingly aggressive stance towards China constitutes the most serious threat to world peace;
2. US disengagement with multilateralism and dialogue and anti-China posture presents the main obstacle to successfully tackling the real and serious threats that confront the whole world – climate change, control of pandemics, racist discrimination and economic development; it will prevent efforts to strengthen arms control for a generation; wreck any opportunities to regulate cyber capabilities and anti-space technologies; and may unleash a costly new arms race.
Conference resolves to:
1. Campaign against a New Cold War as well as preparations for war on China in accordance with its priority commitment to the prevention and cessation of wars in which nuclear weapons might be used;
2. Call on the UK government, all political parties and trade unions, to oppose the doctrine of ‘major power competition’ and support a foreign policy of common security with all nations;
3. Work with likeminded organisations to bring the issue to the forefront of debate in the international peace movement to build the worldwide opposition.
Labour CND: Defence diversification
CND Conference notes:
The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the versatility and creativity of British manufacturing industry. Several arms companies – including a number involved in nuclear weapons production – were members of the consortium VentilatorChallengeUK which manufactured over 13,000 ventilators. Workers at the Barrow shipyard, where BAE Systems is building the Dreadnought submarines, were put to work on producing medical equipment.
CND Conference believes
- The UK must now start to redefine the type of economy it wishes to build in a post Covid world.
- That in no area of British industry will this be more important than in defence.
- Defence diversification must be at the heart of our work as we build for the future.
CND conference resolves:
- To engage with all interested parties across civic society to lay down a blueprint for a future Defence Diversification Agency.
- To continue to call for the Labour Party to implement TUC policy that it, as the official opposition, should establish a Shadow Defence Diversification Agency.
London Region CND: Covid-19 and defence diversification
Conference notes that:
1. Britain’s nuclear weapons do not protect us from the real threats this country faces, identified by the National Security Risk Assessment and incorporated in the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2015;
2. These threats include health pandemics as well as terrorism and cyber-attack;
3. The Covid19 crisis has further demonstrated the weakness of the UK manufacturing sector and the need to shift the UK’s skill base away from military contractors and towards sustainable manufacturing;
4. In response to the crisis, defence contractors such as Babcock, Airbus, Rolls Royce, and BAE Systems have participated in the Ventilator Challenge UK Consortium to make ventilators for the NHS; and
5. An unanticipated consequence of the Consortium has been to demonstrate the real possibilities for diverting military manufacture towards renewable, sustainable, and socially useful production.
Conference believes:
It is time to campaign within the labour movement for the implementation of motion 17 passed by the 2018 Trades Union Congress and backed by Unite the union, to establish a Shadow Defence Diversification Agency.
Conference calls on the incoming CND officers and National Council to draw up plans to do so.
London Region CND: Covid-19 and Trident
Conference notes that:
The Covid-19 crisis has made it clear, despite the bravery and devotion of staff, how underfunded the NHS and other caring organisations actually are. An important part of the solution to this problem would be to redirect the £205 billion currently committed to creating another set of nuclear weapons for Britain, to the NHS and partner organisations.
Trident is not independent. It is a project aimed at boosting Britain’s weight in international affairs and is dependent on missiles provided by the USA.
Conference urges all peace organisations to unite with CND in calling on our government to redirect these billions to health and welfare projects.
Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group: New nuclear power stations
Preamble
As part of its plans for ‘new nuclear build’ the government is planning a new nuclear power plant in Suffolk – Sizewell C.
This drive for new nuclear reactors makes no sense, whether it be on financial grounds, energy supplies, dangers from explosions, protection of the environment, or present and future problems of storing radioactive waste.
Conference notes that:
1. As seen in Kate Brown’s book, ‘Manual for Survival’ and the film ‘Chernobyl’, the health and economic effects of that nuclear accident were catastrophic.
2. We are already seeing the effects of climate change in the UK. With rising sea levels, nuclear reactors built on the coast will be vulnerable to flooding.
3. The cost of building nuclear reactors is exorbitant; the money would be better used on developing renewable energy
4. With political commitment and investment, renewable energy could supply the UK’s needs.
5. The number of jobs created at nuclear reactors is exceeded by those created for sustainable energy.
6. At a time of decreasing biodiversity, the building of Sizewell C would destroy a Site of Scientific Interest which should be protected, a fragile coast environment and areas of outstanding natural beauty.
7. The current plans from EDF indicate that nuclear waste would be stored on Suffolk’s eroding coastline.
Conference resolves:
1. To urge members to support ‘Together Against Sizewell C’ and contact their own MPs to ask that the project is abandoned.
2. To urge members to join in, wherever possible, Non-violent Direct action against Sizewell C or other new nuclear plants.
3. That CND write to the appropriate Minister to express our concerns.
Tom Cuthbert: Youth engagement
Conference notes that:
1. 1.The international recognition of climate crisis protestors like Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion with a distinct focus on younger people whose futures are blighted by species extinction, deforestation, melting ice caps, rising sea levels, carbon dioxide pollution, extreme rainfall in some regions and drought in others- to name just some consequences.
2. A generational difference in global values which pits young concern for future climate crisis against the interests of fossil fuel industries (including uranium) represented by aging, politicians sceptical of climate crisis prepared to abandon the Paris Agreement of 2015,and wage genocidal wars to defend their economic advantage.
3. Younger people face a multitude of issues growing up in the UK, 4 million are living in poverty now, that figure is predicted to rise in 2020. Billions of pounds overspent on the UK’s weapons of mass destruction are in effect an economic crime against the welfare of young people, with the present UK government borrowing heavily to avert another existential threat in the global pandemic.
4. A real campaigning advantage in the encouragement of awareness and free speech of a young generation opposing Trident’s replacement with the challenge of the nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in 2021 and progress on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, begun in 2017.
Conference resolves to:
1. Extend an invitation to young people of school age in the UK from CND members, to specifically campaign for anti-nuclear action and commentary, believing that the risk of nuclear threats represents a real risk to the future lives, prosperity and peace of this generation.
2. Promote petitions, videos, questionnaires, artworks, banners, placards, dance routines, all means of creative expression made by young people themselves to oppose nuclear threats and disarm nuclear weapons.
3. Make explanation available to young people of the treaties mentioned in conference note 4 above promoting international peace and justice, in leaflets, meetings and videos.
4. Build the opposition of young people to the opportunity costs of alliances sponsoring the threat of nuclear weapons, Trident Replacement and UK government activities incompatible with international law.
Yorkshire CND: Militarisation of space
Conference notes that:
1. Donald Trump has announced that the US must achieve “dominance in space” and that space domination is “America’s destiny”.
2. The US Space Force has been established to take warfighting into space and to integrate tracking, surveillance and sensing systems with US nuclear forces.
3. The 2019 US “Missile Defense Review” advocated the placing of interceptors, which can also be used as first-strike missiles, in space.
4. In April, President Trump signed an executive order to formally recognise the rights of private companies to claim resources in space.
5. These actions are in direct contradiction the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and are a clear indication that the US no longer views space as a “global commons” but as a region for colonialization and exploitation.
6. The UK government has made it very clear that it also views space as a warfighting domain and is creating a number of space hubs in Scotland, England and Wales from which to launch mini satellites from – some of which will have a military role.
Conference believes that:
1. The possibility of a war in space constitutes a huge threat to international security – even now the malfunctioning of a vital satellite at a time of international tension could have catastrophic consequences.
2. Developing military Space Forces to fight wars in space and on the ground is a serious threat to world peace and must be prevented.
Conference resolves to:
1. Continue to campaign against the militarisation of space and draw attention to the US bases in the UK such as Fylingdales, Menwith Hill and Croughton, that operate as important centres for the US military activities including missile defense and drone wars.
2. Continue to support the Global Network’s “Keep Space for Peace” week in October.
3. Call on the UK government to work to save and strengthen the Outer Space Treaty and reinstate the concept of space as the province of all humankind.