Protest and Survive

Posted: 27th March 2024

From the archives…

To mark E. P. Thompson’s centenary we make available in facsimile his landmark pamphlet, Protest and Survive. First published as Spokesman Pamphlet No 71 in 1980 for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Protest and Survive circulated far and wide. It helped spark a revival of anti-nuclear campaigning and the growth of the international campaign for European Nuclear Disarmament. The influential END Appeal, which called for a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Europe, was included with Edward’s text.

The END Appeal opened with these words: We are entering the most dangerous decade in human history. Can the same be said for the 2020s? If so, we must continue to Protest and Survive.

European Nuclear Disarmament

In this pamphlet, Ken Coates traces some of the history of the development of European Nuclear Disarmament and explains why an international campaign to rid Europe of nuclear weapons was so desperately needed: “while all these political cauldrons boil, the military-technical processes have their own logic, which is fearsome.”

This ‘fearsome logic’ towards the possibility of nuclear war in Europe.

First published as Spokesman Pamphlet No. 72 in 1981, we make this facsimile available as a resource for those seeking new ways to make Europe a nuclear-weapon-free zone.