Catch up - No New Nuclear Arms Race – CND public conference

Posted: 26th October 2021

No New Nuclear Arms Race – public conference

In our morning session we discussed the global impact of the UK’s illegal nuclear arsenal increase. Will the 40% increase in nuclear warheads lead to a new arms race? Will it increase the risk of nuclear war? We were very happy to have with us Professor Paul Rogers from the UK; Vijay Prashad from the Tricontinental Institute in India and across the Global South; Colonel Ann Wright from Veterans for Peace in the US; and Ruth Rohde from the Arms Information Centre in Freiburg, Germany. CND’s Tom Unterrainer chaired the session.

Click on the link to watch the session: https://cnduk.org/about/cnd-conference/cnd-conference-2021/ (The recording of the afternoon session follows on from the morning session at  1:35:15  on the timeline)

No New Nuclear Arms Race – public conference

In the afternoon, we turned our attentions to Britain and the TPNW as it is the time to acknowledge past wrongs. With the TPNW now in force, Britain needs to take a long look at the legacy of its nuclear weapons testing, how it can remediate that, and what it must do to sign up to the TPNW. We were pleased to be joined by Talei Luscia Mangioni, a campaigner for a Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific; Rebecca Johnson, who has worked extensively on the UK and TPNW compliance; and Alan Owen, from Labrats, campaigning with nuclear test veterans. Chaired by CND General Secretary Kate Hudson.

Speakers’ resources


Ann Wright

Golden Rule with Golden Gate bridge behind

Vijay Prashad

Rebecca Johnson

Rebecca’s slides on the TPNW used at CND Conference can be found here, and below is information about Greenham 40th anniversary webinars on nuclear colonialism, disarmament, treaties and peace-building that took place in August and September 2021.

  • Feminist Disarmament and Treaty Building. With Setsuko Thurlow; Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gomez (Costa Rica); Dr Patricia M Lewis; Dimity Hawkins AM; Dr Kathleen Sullivan; coordinated and moderated by Dr Rebecca Johnson.
  • Pacific Women Say ‘NO!’ to Nuclear Colonialism: Five Pacific Women speak from their hearts. Facilitated by Zohl dé Ishtar, with indigenous speakers from the Pacific, including Vanessa Griffin (Fiji); Chailang Palacios (Northern Marianas); Lisa Natividad (Guahan /Guam); Corazon Valdez-Fabros (Philippines).
  • Feminist Disarmament and Treaty Building. With speakers from Women in Black (WiB) Haifa (Hannah Safran), Belgrade (Lepa Mladenovic), London (Liz Khan), Cape Town (Vanessa Ludwig), along with Sian Jones, WiB London, who co-founded Women’s Aid to Former Yugoslavia (WATFY), facilitated by Rebecca Johnson (Greenham, WiB and former WATFY truck driver).
  • Western Shoshone speak out on Nuclear Colonialism. Co-ordinated by Juley Howard, with main speaker Ian Zabarte, who stands alongside Chief Raymond Yowell (ret’d) as Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians. From 1958 to 1992, the UK conducted 24 underground tests at the US Nevada Test Site, on ancestral lands belonging to the Western Shoshone people. Introduction by Rebecca Johnson.
  • All Weaving the Web/inar videos are available via the Greenham Women Everywhere YouTube channel’s playlist.

Alan Owen

LABRATS and the LABRATS Academy. You can email Alan Owen for any matters on [email protected].

I’ll never forget that fateful day,
The day they stole my innocence away.
“Christmas Island” 1957, The 8th of November,
Is the day that I will always remember.
<em>— Alan Lockwood, R.A.F. Equipment Section (Tent D11. Grapple X&amp;Y 1957/8)</em>

Additional online resources

Morning session

Afternoon session


Find out more – call Caroline on 01722 321865 or email us.