Peace group’s call for 'pressure on MPs' backed

Rae Street speaking at the conference

Members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) from across Britain have unanimously supported a resolution from the Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group.

The resolution, which was heard at the CND’s annual conference on Saturday (15 October) noted, in particular, that: "The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition is spending scarce public monies on developing a replacement for the Trident nuclear weapons system and that claims that a decision on Trident replacement has been postponed until after 2016 are clearly false, in light of the decision, announced on 18 May 2011, to spend up to £3billion of public money on designing submarines for the Trident system." 

It committed CND to continue the campaign for the scrapping of all UK nuclear weapons and to encourage all branches, affiliated groups, members and supporters to ensure that all their local MPs state, publicly, their view on the decision announced in May 2011 to spend up to £3billion on designing submarines for the Trident nuclear weapons system.

Philip Gilligan who spoke in favour of the motion said: “For many, this will mean discovering yet again about the duplicity of their elected representatives; learning that some of those who, as candidates in 2010, appeared to declare their opposition to so-called 'Trident Replacement' have, in 2011, supported or said nothing about the Coalition Government's ongoing programme to upgrade the Trident system."

"We need to bust the myth of so-called 'deterrence'. We need to put the scrapping of Trident on the agenda of political parties. We need a nuclear-free future,” he added.

The CND conference also endorsed the membership of three people from Rochdale on its national council. Pat Sanchez and Rae Street remain as directly elected delegates, while Philip Gilligan remains the representative from Greater Manchester and District CND.