14 Resolutions
1. Trident replacement - LRCND
2. Trident replacement - Scottish CND
3. Aldermaston Tower - Hamlets CND
4. Missile Defence – Yorkshire CND & Hackney & Islington CND
5. Nuclear Power – Scottish CND
6. Nuclear Power – GMCND, Oxford CND , Rochdale & Littleborough Peace Group
7. Nuclear transport – GMCND, Rochdale & Littleborough Peace Group & Oxford CND
8. Liberal Interventionism – Labour CND
10. International dimension of campaigning – IAG
11. Global uranium ban – Marple CND
13. Peace education – Bristol CND
Campaigning to Overturn the Decision to Replace Trident
This conference notes:
1. Whilst the government won the vote in support of the replacement of Trident, it faced the biggest parliamentary rebellion on a domestic issue since coming to power in 1997 and 161 MPs from across the political spectrum voted against replacement.
2. The previous Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett’s concessions that the decision was ‘not irreversible’ and that there are opportunities for a further parliamentary vote in the future.
3. A substantial increase in the opposition to replacement, with 59% opposing replacement in summer 2006, rising to, just before the vote this year, 72 per cent opposing the decision being made now; the deepening of opposition from trade unions, faith communities, culture and the arts, in particular, from a large number of ‘new wave’ musicians.
4. A substantial increase in membership for CND throughout this campaigning period and the necessity to organise local initiatives that will attract these new members to get actively involved in CND’s campaigns.
Conference resolves to:
Build on the increased awareness of Britain’s nuclear weapons that now exists amongst the general public, through continuing our campaigning activities against Trident’s replacement. In particular, to focus energies on securing another parliamentary vote to overturn the decision and to call for a global ban on nuclear weapons by encouraging support for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.
Submitted by London Region CND
Conference notes that:
- the UK Government plan to base the replacement for Vanguard class submarines at Faslane;
- on 14 June the Scottish Parliament called on the UK Government not to go ahead with the plan to renew Trident;
- three out of four Scots oppose Trident renewal along with Scottish churches, trade unions and other organisations in civic Scotland;
- a joint report by Scottish CND and the STUC showed that renewing Trident would have a negative effect on employment in Scotland;
- the Scottish Government have called for a summit of key stakeholders to consider how to oppose the renewal of Trident.
Conference recommends that CND supports Scottish CND in its effort to build an effective campaign against the renewal of Trident in Scotland.
Submitted by Scottish CND
This resolution calls on National CND to invest time and money in activating its members and the general public to take action over developments at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, Britain’s nuclear bomb factory.
Developments there are clearly breaching the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by committing the UK to making WMD for the next 50 years. The construction site is on a scale with that of Heathrow Terminal 5. It contains the world’s largest laser (which AWE admits can be used for designing and testing a new nuclear weapon) and a new office building for 1,500 staff.
As of May 2007, new byelaws came into force which threaten the 22 year old Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) and criminalise camping, meetings, assemblies, processions, attaching anything to the fence, or acting in any way likely to cause annoyance. These new byelaws are disproportionate and incompatible with the Human Rights Act, and in effect are aimed at ending all peaceful protest at AWE.
CND pledges its resources, networks and influence to focus national attention and peaceful protest on AWE Aldermaston in order to bring to a halt the treaty-breaching developments and the blatant attempt of the new byelaws to stifle protest. CND will work in co-operation with Block the Builders and the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) in implementing this resolution. Submitted by Tower Hamlets CND
US National Missile Defence – Building the European Campaign
Conference notes that recent developments in the U.S. National Missile Defence programme show that the US administration plans to station Interceptor Missiles in Poland and a Radar Station in the Czech Republic. Indications suggest the formal decisions could be made in both countries by the end of 2007.
The NMD programme could give the US administration the ability to launch nuclear attacks on any perceived enemy without fear of retaliation.
It could also be integrated into the growing plans for NATO theatre missile defence systems in an attempt to produce a European Missile Defence system with little or no debate in the parliaments of the states involved.
Missile defence systems can be used against space based systems leading to the further militarisation and possible weaponisation of space.
NMD bases put local populations at risk from military attack whilst offering no protection from such threats.
There is majority public opposition in both Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as widespread opposition across Europe. A recent poll indicated that 68% of the Czech public were opposed to the plans and 77% wanted a referendum. The Russian Government are concerned that the proposals will start a new nuclear arms race.
Conference welcomes the development of a European-wide campaign against US Missile Defence and CND’s participation in this.
Conference calls on CND to:
a) Continue and strengthen campaigns to oppose NMD and the weaponisation of space.
b) Develop links with the European-wide campaign against US Missile Defence and to support the Prague Declaration of May 2007 which calls for;
‘… disarmament as a precondition to peace and genuine human security.
To face the impending ecological crisis we need international cooperation
and trust, not confrontation.’
c) Continue to support the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, encouraging participation in the annual International Keep Space for Peace Week.
d) Increase campaigning pressure on the British Government to withdraw support from US National Missile Defence, the use of bases at Menwith Hill and Fylingdales, and to work with European counterparts to prevent the expansion of NMD and the weaponisation of space.
Submitted by Yorkshire CND & Hackney / Islington CND
Conference
- Recalls discussion emerging from the 2006 G8 summit in St. Petersburg relating to proposals by Putin for the manufacture of floating nuclear power stations and the suggestion that such power stations could be provided to third world developing economies with the supply and recycling of fuel being kept in the hands of the G8 powers.
- Notes that the first of seven such power stations is now under construction in Russia.
- Further notes that the US has provided $50m towards setting up an international nuclear fuel bank to guarantee reactor fuel to "qualifying countries" which would be prohibited from undertaking uranium enrichment and reprocessing spent fuel.
Conference calls on CND closely to monitor these developments and observes that a country provided with such a power station could well have been provided with a Trojan horse because:
- That which can be towed to a Qualifying Country can also be towed away.
- A country in receipt of such a power station can be held to ransom over the provision of fuel.
- A floating nuclear power station, like any other nuclear power station, has the potential to be used as a weapon of war. Should the reactor core be ruptured,the radiological consequences for human populations could well exceed those resulting from the detonation of a nuclear bomb.
Submitted by Scottish CND
Given:
the UK Government intentions to build new nuclear power stations;
that there is an inextricable link between nuclear power and nuclear weapons;
the dangers to existing and any future power stations from damage to the coastline and flooding, especially along the coast but also inland, from the effects of climate change;
that every nuclear power station is a potential source of nuclear weapons, a certain source of materials for use in dirty bombs and could be a target for a catastrophic ‘terrorist’ attack;
that the exorbitant costs of nuclear energy and weapons will deprive truly
renewable energy sources of vital funds for development;
that building nuclear power stations does produce CO2 and they cannot possibly be ready in time to have any immediate effect on global warming;
that there is no safe solution to the problem of huge quantities of existing nuclear waste, let alone that which would be produced by new nuclear power stations;
1. This conference condemns all current plans for new nuclear power
stations and resolves:
To urge local, regional and national CND to continue CND´s campaigning against nuclear power by:
* promoting CND´s policies on nuclear power and drawing attention to the link with nuclear weapons;
* encouraging their local government councils to join the Nuclear Free Local Authorities
* gathering information on the risks to human health of workers and those living in the vicinity of nuclear facilities from low level radiation
* producing further campaigning materials on all the dangers from nuclear power;
* publicising these issues in their local media, including press, radio, TV, and on-line web sites.
2. Conference calls for the government to put substantial resource and money into the development of sustainable energy supplies and the promotion of energy conservation.
Greater Manchester & District CND, Oxford CND and Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group
Given the current government’s stated intentions to continue with the maintenance of Trident and to go ahead with Trident replacement;
Conference resolves to:
emphasise the risks from accident, terrorism or sabotage to current and future transport of nuclear warheads and Special Nuclear Materials on UK roads, railways, sea and airspace,
expose the dangers to health from nuclear accidents or radioactive leaks;
ask local groups to support Nukewatch;
publicise these issues as widely as possible in their local media including press, radio, TV and on-line web sites.
Greater Manchester & District CND, Oxford CND and Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group
CND condemns the doctrine of “Liberal Interventionism” which was used as a cover for the aggressions against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan. CND believes that it is merely another name for the ancient imperialist doctrine of “the White Man’s Burden”.
What we need today instead is negotiated global nuclear disarmament, strict adherence to the spirit and letter of the U.N. charter and compliance with negotiated international agreements. That will avoid a nuclear holocaust.
Submitted by Labour CND
This Conference notes with sorrow that the Israeli Courts have sentenced Mordechai Vanunu to a further six months for speaking to foreign journalists. It is the Government of Israel which is at fault, for producing and storing nuclear weapons, rather than Mordechai for broadcasting the fact to the world, and his original imprisonment was entirely unjustified, and the imposition of solitary confinement cruelly unnecessary. We call on our Government to require the Israeli government to lift all restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu, and allow him the freedom to travel. Submitted by London Region CND
The International Dimension of Campaigning
A. The US administration’s insistent pursuit of nuclear primacy, supported by the UK government, constitutes a serious challenge to the international arms control system.
But another world is also emerging. Nuclear Weapons Free Zones (NWFZ), which already cover the Southern hemisphere, are extending into Asia with the signing of a Central Asian NWFZ treaty in 2006, and increasing calls for a North East Asia NWFZ as the talks on a denuclearised Korean peninsula progress.
A Sino-Russian mutual non-targeting agreement has helped give impetus to these developments.
This scenario opens new opportunities for the UK government to demonstrate a more independent foreign and defence policy.
B. CND is currently campaigning for the government to pursue multilateral negotiations with a view to concluding a Nuclear Weapons Convention by the year 2020. To support this, and in light of the above, the International Advisory Group (IAG) proposes a two-pronged approach, highlighting:
1. the ties between the UK Trident system and the US quest for ‘full spectrum dominance’; the extent of UK complicity in the US global nuclear agenda, and the impact of this agenda on multilateral disarmament negotiations, which the UK claims to promote;
2. the positive developments in different regional contexts towards a nuclear-weapons free world.
C. To these ends, Conference:
1. endorses the IAG proposal;
2. calls on the UK government to distance itself from the US administration, and help create an international environment favourable to meaningful multilateral negotiations by giving full support to:
(i) the Central Asian NWFZ;
(ii) proposals for a treaty on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space;
(iii) the inclusion of the Iranian government in the current consultation mechanism covering Iran’s nuclear development, drawing positive lessons from the 6 Party talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula;
(iv) a verifiable Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, including stock-piles;
and
(v) opposing any US-India nuclear cooperation agreement which does not meet the requirements of international law.
- tasks the IAG to produce materials in support of its proposal for dissemination to a wider audience through the CND website, Campaign and in pamphlet or book form.
Submitted by the International Advisory Group
This Conference, considering the strong supporting evidence for the link between Depleted Uranium and health hazards, such as cancer and birth malformations, urges CND to affiliate to the International Coalition to Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) and, furthermore, we ask that CND, both nationally and through local groups, strengthen its support for ICBUW's work for a global ban on uranium in conventional weapons systems.
Submitted by Marple CND
This Conference agrees that CND should devote time and energy in campaigning for the elimination of the use of nuclear waste weapons (DU), bombs and ammunition, its manufacture and deployment.
Campaigning against “Depleted” (a misnomer) uranium weapons is winnable within the foreseeable future, as the taboo of secrecy and deception is removed. Damage, mainly to civilians and the unborn, is devastating for those who ingest fall-out radioactive dust, which is widespread in war zones and beyond.
Of course, the uphill slog of CND for world-wide elimination of nuclear weapons has to continue, but the banning of DU, so beloved of the military high command, needs to be addressed.
We acknowledge and applaud the brave pioneering work of CADU over past years, but CND has greater influence and resources. Submitted by Richard Crump
PREAMBLE
CND must look ahead to the next generation. While keeping the issue of nuclear weapons in the public mind, we must also help educate the young to realise that war is not an inevitable part of human life, and that nuclear and other forms of modern warfare threaten our very existence.
Bristol CND welcomes CND’s establishing of the post of Peace Education Officer, and its production of suitably graded materials for schools.
MAIN RESOLUTION
1. Conference resolves to commit resources for wider publicising of CND’s appointment of a Peace Education Officer, and CND educational materials for schools, than is at present the case.
2. Conference supports work to counter the influence of militarism in the education system, as promoted by representatives of the armed services, and by the military-industrial corporations through careers advertisements and corporate recruitment.
3. Conference urges all local members to make peace education a priority, familiarising themselves with existing materials and publicising the issue in education circles in their areas.
Submitted by Bristol CND
Conference notes:
1.the high profile achieved in 2007 for our principal strategic objective i.e. ending Trident and our other prioritized aims,
2. the continued rise in National Membership & methodical and imaginative work of Officers, National Staff and CND members in this vital growth through group contact, personalized meeting and information technology.
CND Conference resolves to:
a) maximize outreach approaches involving established coalitions
flexible inclusive initiatives and the use of new member packs
b) concern a wider membership in skill sharing, problem solving
approaches to the campaigns agenda, to strengthen networks,
involving established groups, new groups and individual members
embracing cultural diversity and political ideology.
c) to consolidate and sustain support in the UK for the aims of CND
as a positive contribution to the role of civil and political society as a force
for international nuclear disarmament, peace & justice.
Submitted by East Midlands CND