Social Democracy and the Antiwar Movement in Western Europe (From the Late '70s to the Mid-'80s)

Abstract

The prevention of nuclear war and the preservation and strengthening of peace depend in large measure on the efforts of political and social movements in Western countries, including countries on the European continent. Europe, which has already been the arena of two bloody wars, has been turned into a powderkeg by imperialism. Europeans are increasingly aware of the real menace besetting human civilization. "Europe probably feels the split in today's world more painfully than ever before," M. S. Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, emphasized during his meeting with A. Natta, General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party. "But it seems to us that it is here, on this continent, that all the conditions now exist for overcoming the division between East and West, especially on questions of security and mutually advantageous cooperation."¹ All efforts forming the potential for peace, including such an important component part as the "antiwar movements of the broad masses, … movements that have become a longterm influential factor in social life," must be directed toward the realization of this objective.