Resist and survive: Welsh protests and the British nuclear state in the 1980s

ABSTRACT

This article explores Welsh protests against chief policies of the British nuclear state, especially nuclear deterrence, civil defence and its close relationship with the USA. It contributes to the social, cultural and political histories of the post-war British nuclear state by further demonstrating the plural character of protests across and within the British nations. It shows that, while local authorities, individuals and extra-parliamentary groups certainly dreaded the prospect of nuclear war, the nuclear weapons issue often presented them with a vehicle to protest against British government policy more broadly.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-nuclear weapons protests
• Wales
• 1980s
• Cold War
• Britain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Halliday, The Making of the Second Cold War, 203–64; and Heuser and Stoddart, “Großbritannien zwischen Doppelbeschluss und Anti-Kernwaffen-Protestbewegungen,” 305–24.

2. On Welsh anti-militarism and pacifism in general, see Ellis, “A Pacific People—a Martial Race,” 15–37; and Morgan, “Peace Movements in Wales,” 398–430.

3. For a recent appraisal of four-nation approaches see Lloyd-Jones and Scull, “A New Plea for an Old Subject,” 3–32.

4. On places see Hevly and Findlay, eds, The Atomic West; Hunner, J. Robert Oppenheimer; and Farish and Monteyne, eds, Cold War Cities. On the spatial dimensions of anti-nuclear activism see Miller, Geography and Social Movements: Schregel, Der Atomkrieg vor der Wohnungstür; Schregel, “The Spaces and Places of the Peace Movement,” 173–88.

5. On links between CND and morality see Burkett, “Re-defining morality.” On individuals see Hughes, Young Lives on the Left.

6. Notably see Hill, “Nations of Peace,” For other work on Scotland see Eschle, “‘Bairns Not Bombs’,” 139–51; Jamieson, “Britain’s National Deterrent,” 449–69; and Mort, Building the Trident Network.

7. For an introduction see Johnes, “Wales and the Cold War,” 5–15. Also see Hill, “Nations of Peace,” 26–50; Jones, “A Comparative Study of Local Authority Preparations for Nuclear War in North-Eastern Wales,” 89–115; LaPorte, Reid, and Williams, Eds Cold War Wales; Olsson-Rost, “The Cold War Home Front, An Age of Anxiety?” 42–57; Pincombe, “‘The Cold Brain of the Machine’,” 62–83; and Whitham, “Sheep, Subs and Showcases,” 168–86.

8. Johnes, Wales since 1939, 245–341.

9. For a comprehensive historiographical problematization of the concept of the “Cold War” see Nehring, “What Was the Cold War,” 920–47.

10. Central Office of Information, Protect and Survive; HC Deb 20 February 1980 vol 979 cc625-30; Stafford, “‘Stay at Home,” 383–407. The booklet formed part of a wider civil defence programme that also included television infomercials to be broadcast if nuclear war appeared likely.

11. Thompson, Protest and Survive.

12. Simpson and Llewellyn, H-Bomb on Ogwr, 10.

13. “A Table for You: When the bomb drops the government says you should shelter from the blast, heat and radiation—under the kitchen table…,” Rebecca (November 1981), 16–18.

14. Baxendale, “You and I—all of us ordinary people,” 295–322.

15. Rogers, Dando, and van den Dungen, As Lambs to the Slaughter, 120–22. Magnus Clarke drew similar conclusions in The Nuclear Destruction of Britain, 106, 198, 273.

16. Duncan Campbell, “Bad Day at Hard Rock,” New Statesman, 17 September 1982, 6, 8–9; “Hard Luck,” Radioactive-Times (November-December 1982), 3. Note that the Radio-Active Times operated under different sub-titles over the years (The Newspaper of Cardiff CND, CND’s Paper for South Wales and CND’s Paper for South Glamorgan).

17. “Hard Luck Scenario. Burst List, Wales,” n.d., London School of Economics Archives, London, United Kingdom, CND Papers, CND/2008/8/4/27.

18. Duncan Campbell, “Armies of the Night,” Radical Wales 3 (Summer 1984), 14–15 (p. 14). Also see Campbell, The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier.

19. John Cox, “Target Wales,” Arcade 10 (20 March 1981), 13; Cox, Overkill; and Nigel Jenkins and Martin W. Roberts, “Will World War Three Start Here?” Arcade 16 (12 June 1981), 6–7.

20. “Mystery of U.S. Base,” Rebecca, 10 (June 1982), 12–13.

21. “Burns Unit and the Bomb,” Welsh Nation, 56, no. 3 (1984), 1.

22. Tony Simpson, “U.S. Base Threatens S. Wales,” Radioactive-Times (March-April 1984), 1.

23. “N.A.T.O. Arms Dump,” Campaign Wales: CND Cymru’s Paper for Groups 26 (June 1986), unpaginated.

24. “News Extra,” Rebecca 2 (October 1981), 14; “The Road to Peace,” Rebecca 11 (July 1982), 16–18; Clare Hudson, “Greenham Women Sit Tight,” Radio-Active Times (November-December 1982), 2; Sally Albrow, “Solidarity with Greenham Women,” Radio-Active Times (January-February 1983), 6–7; Carol Westall, “All I Did Was Catch a Bus!,” Radio-Active Times (April-May 1985), 3; Clare Hudson, “Jailed for Peace,” Radio-Active Times (June-July 1985), 1, 12; and Rolph, “Greenham and Its Legacy,” 97–122.

25. For a feminist reading of these protests see Liddington, The Road to Greenham Common. For challenges to such feminist interpretations see Pettitt, Walking to Greenham; Titcombe, “Women Activists,” 310–29.

26. W.W., “Swansea CND,” Double Take, 15 March 1983, 4.

27. “The Cancer in Cardiff,” Radio-Active Times (November-December 1982), 1; “Ministry Lies about Bomb Factory Leak,” Radio-Active Times (April-May 1985), 1.; Alex Farrow, “ROF Cardiff—Leukaemia Risk?’, Radio-Active Times (March-April 1986), 3; “Plans for Action,” Radio-Active Times (March-April 1986), 3; The Friday Morning Women to ROF workers, 12 April 1983; The Friday Morning Women to ROF workers, September 1983, all in, Glamorgan Archives, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, DD/AW/10; Tim Jones, “Candidate Rejects Left-Wing Charge,” The Times, 4 April 1983, 2.

28. “Trident Made in Cardiff,” Radio-Active Times (November-December 1983), 1; “ROF Cardiff—the Welsh Bomb Factory: Blockade & Demonstration, Dec. 2 & 3,” Radio-Active Times (November-December 1983), 6–7; “R.O.F. Llanishen Cardiff: Wales’ Bomb Factory. Blockade and Demonstration, 2nd/3 December 1983,” Radical Wales 1 (Winter 1983), unpaginated back cover; “Three Minutes to Midnight,” Radio-Active Times (January-February 1984), 1; Work for Life Group, “ROF Cardiff—the Welsh Bomb Factory: Blockade & Demonstration, Dec 2&3,” Radio-Active Times (January-February 1984), 6–7; “C.N.D. Demo,” Double Take, 7 December 1983, 2.

29. “Devolution without Democracy,” Radio-Active Times (Febraury-March 1985), 6.

30. “Caerwent—The Sleeping Monster,” Welsh Nation, 56, no. 2 (1984), 1; “Make Wales Nuclear-Free,” Welsh Nation, 56, no. 4 (1984), 2.

31. See Evans, Gwynfor, 183, 436, 445.

32. Menna Elfyn, “The Link between the Welsh Language Society and the Peace Movement,” Campaign Wales 4 (July-August 1987), unpaginated.

33. Evans, The Fight for Welsh Freedom, 160. On this aspect, see also Gwynfor Evans, “Welsh Nationalists Reject Bomb,” Sanity 6 (December 1977-January 1978), 4.

34. “CND and the Coal Strike,” Radio-Active Times (February-March 1985), 3.

35. Francis, History on our Side, 68–71.

36. Hill, “Nations of Peace,” 26–50.

37. South Wales Echo, 1 November 1980. There were even allegations of the peace movement being pro Soviet; Nehring and Ziemann, “Do all Paths Lead to Moscow?” 1–24.

38. Pettitt, Walking to Greenham, 40.

39. Mattausch, A Commitment to Campaign, 148, 157.

40. Ann Pettitt, “Fighting the Nuclear Menace,” Arcade 20 (7 August 1981), 12–13.

41. Pettitt, Walking to Greenham, 38. On opposition to English in-migration, see Cloke, Goodwin and Milbourne, Rural Wales; and Johnes, Wales since 1939, 385–411.

42. “Welsh Tokenism,” Arcade 21 (4 September 1981), 10.

43. Translated from “Grŵp CND Cymraeg Caerdydd,” Radio-Active Times (July-August 1983), 2.

44. Heuser and Stoddart, “Großbritannien zwischen Doppelbeschluss und Anti-Kernwaffen-Protestbewegungen,” 324.

45. Greg Hill, “The Anti-Nuclear Family,” Arcade 10 (20 March 1981), 14–15; Hugh Richards, “Chernobyl Thoughts from WANA: The Muddling Through Approach Must Stop,” Campaign Wales 26 (June 1986), unpaginated; Janet Davies, “Nailing the Nuclear Lie,” Radical Wales 14 (Spring 1987), 18–19; “Hinkley Points A PWR at Wales,” Campaign Wales 5 (September-October 1987), unpaginated.

46. Carol Handcock, “What’s at Caerwent?” Radio-Active Times (May-June 1986), 8.

47. “Welsh Base’s Nuclear Role,” Radio-Active Times (May-June 1986), 6–7.

48. Cynthia Morris, “Snowball of Protest,” Radio-Active Times (May-June 1986), 7. See also Nigel Jenkins, “A Snowball’s Chance in Hell,” Radical Wales 17 (Spring 1988), 4–5.

49. “Campaign Grows against US Bases,” Radio-Active Times (Summer 1986), 1; “N.A.T.O. Arms Dump,” Campaign Wales 26 (June 1986), unpaginated.

50. “Growing concern about US bases in Wales,” Campaign Wales 29 (October 1986), unpaginated. Also see Tony Simpson, “Fortress Wales: The Road from Penyberth,” Radical Wales 12 (Autumn 1986), 4–6. On Cardiff Airport, see also “Welsh Airport’s Secret War Plans,” Radio-Active Times (December 1986-January 1987), 1.

51. Duncan Campbell and Patrick Forbes, “If War Came Close We Would Have New Masters,” New Statesman (13 September 1985), 10–12; “War Base Barry?” Radio-Active Times (March-April 1986), 4–5; R.M.W. Taylor to Nuclear Free Zone County Councils, 22 November 1985, attached: “War Plans: County Chiefs Kept in Ignorance,” n.d., Manchester City Council, Local Studies and Archives, Central Library, Manchester, United Kingdom (hereafter MCC), GMC/2 Box 45, PR11.3; M.D. Boyce to R.M.W. Taylor, 9 December 1985; G.A. Smith to M.D. Boyce, 7 February 1986, MCC, M711/3/9.

52. Carol Westall, “Our Future—A Secret!” Radical Wales 11 (Summer 1986), 14–15.

53. See above 47.7.

54. On the struggle between central and local government, see Butcher et al., Local Government and Thatcherism.

55. Council of South Glamorgan, Annual Report and Accounts, 1981–82 (Cardiff: County of South Glamorgan, 1982), unpaginated.

56. See Gyford, The Politics of Local Socialism; and Lansley, Goss and Wolmar, Councils in Conflict; Payling, “City Limits,” 256–73; Payling, “‘Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire,” 602–27.

57. Schregel, “Nuclear War and the City,” 568–69.

58. County of South Glamorgan, Policy Committee, Industrial Development Sub-Committee, minutes, 17 November 1981, 456 (minute 1045), Glamorgan Archives, SC/C/1/9; Manfred Rommel to W.P. Davey, 18 February 1982, Glamorgan Archives, SC/PO/36.

59. “Minute 746. South Glamorgan County Council Meeting, 22 October 1981,” attached to note, John Southern, Cardiff CND, n.d., CND Papers, CND/2008/18/11.

60. Council of South Glamorgan County, South Glamorgan and Nuclear Weapons (Cardiff: County of South Glamorgan County, [1983]), unpaginated, Glamorgan Archives, D/DCGC114/39; County of South Glamorgan, Policy Committee, minutes, 11 February 1983, 860 (minute 1957), Glamorgan Archives, SC/C/1/10; County of South Glamorgan, Public Protection Committee, minutes, 20 May 1983, 59 (minute 153), Glamorgan Archives, SC/C/1/11; “Council Tells the Truth about War,” Radio-Active Times, (January-February 1983), 1.

61. Council of South Glamorgan County, South Glamorgan and Nuclear Weapons, unpaginated; “Ex. Square Leg—Phase III—Post Strike Section—Scenario and Time Scale,” n.d., attached to P.F. Russell to United Kingdom Commanders-in-Chief Committees, 18 December 1980, the National Archives, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom (hereafter TNA), HO322/950; P.F.J. Griffiths, “RSA Participation in “Square Leg’: Region 8,” 14 October 1980, TNA, HO322/951.

62. Council of South Glamorgan County, South Glamorgan and Nuclear Weapons, unpaginated.

63. Council of South Glamorgan County, Annual Report and Accounts 1983–4 (Cardiff: Council of South Glamorgan County, 1984), 19.

64. “Council Tells the Truth about War,” 1.

65. County of South Glamorgan, Policy Committee, minutes, 11 February 1983, 860 (minute 1955), Glamorgan Archives, SC/C/1/10.

66. Swansea CND, Nuclear-Free West Glamorgan (Swansea: Swansea CND, n.d.), CND Papers, CND/2008/18/11; “Mid Glamorgan County Council. Public Protection Committee. No. 9A, 10 November 1981;” “Mid Glamorgan County Council. Special Meeting of the Public Protection Committee, 10 November 1981: Report of the County Clerk and Co-Ordinator,” all in CND Papers, CND/2008/18/11.

67. “Extract from Unconfirmed Minutes of Last Meeting of Powys County Council held on 26^th November, 1981,” attached to note, T.F.G. Young to P.M. Jeffries, 28 January 1982, all in CND Papers, CND/2008/18/11.

68. “The Clwyd Declaration,” 23 February 1982, CND Papers, CND/2008/18/11; “The Red Dragon Leads the Way,” Rebecca 7 (March 1982), 6–7 (p. 6).

69. “Press Information. CND: First Principality Declares Itself a Nuclear Free Zone, 23 February 1982,” CND Papers, CND/2008/18/11.

70. County of South Glamorgan, Policy Committee, Industrial Development Sub-Committee, minutes, 17 November 1981, 457 (minute 1046), Glamorgan Archives, SC/C/1/9; County of South Glamorgan, General Purposes Committee and Council Summons, minutes, 27 January 1982, 935 (minute 2512), Glamorgan Archives, DCC/C/1/9.

71. Whitham, “Sheep, Subs and Showcases,” 168–86.

72. Hudson, “Caerwent,” 9. On the background of anti-nuclear weapons and peace activism at the Caerwent site from 1967, see Tony Simpson, “Caerwent Archive,” Radio-Active Times (March-April 1984), 5.

73. Hudson, “Caerwent,” 9.

74. Geraldine Hackett, “The Day Wales Stopped,” Labour Weekly, 1 February 1980, 7; Chris McLaughlin, “Vale of Despair,” Labour Weekly, 14 March 1980, 1; “The Iron Maiden’s Steel Blitzkreig [sic],” Rebecca 11 (Spring 1980), 11; Mike Sullivan and John Osmond, “Sir Keith—Man or Maniac?” Arcade 2 (14 November 1980), 15–16.

75. Cocroft and Thomas, Cold War, 197–235; McCamley, Cold War Secret Nuclear Bunkers, 207–15; Simpson and Llewellyn, H-Bomb on Ogwr, 29.

76. W.P. Davey, “County of South Glamorgan Council, Public Protection Committee: 1st July, 1983. Report of the Chief Executive, County Wartime Headquarters,” 20 June 1983, Glamorgan Archives, SC/PU/38; Althea Osmond, “Inside the Warbunker,” Radio-Active Times (November-December 1982), 3.

77. County of South Glamorgan, Council Summons, 25 November 1981, 696 (minute 1844), Glamorgan Archives, DCC/C/1/9; David Heaton, “Defence and Overseas Policy Committee—Meeting on 13 July: Civil Defence Policy—OD(82)57. Brief for Home Secretary,” 9 July 1982; “Exercise ‘Hard Rock’—Local Authority Participation,” n.d., 2, all in TNA, HO322/1000.

78. County of South Glamorgan, Public Protection Committee, minutes, 18 May 1984, 94 (minute 201), Glamorgan Archives, SC/C1/12; “CND Cymru. Working Group on Civil Defence, 27.3.84,” CND Papers, CND/2008/18/11; “Civil Defence Summit,” Radio-Active Times (August-September 1984), 1.

79. “S. Glam Pushes for Peace,” Radio-Active Times (August-September 1984), 1; Julie Nedin and Alison Jackson, “Peace Week and Beyond,” Radio-Active Times (August-September 1984), 3.

80. “Home Office Ultimatum to Councils,” Radio-Active Times (May-June 1986), 8.

81. Simpson, No Bunker Here, 27.

82. See, for example, James Stewart, “War Plan U.K.,” Radio-Active Times (January-February 1983), 8.

83. “More War Games by the R.O.C,” Campaign Wales 29 (October 1986), unpaginated.

84. Simpson, No Bunkers Here, 15, 19.

85. Michael Reed, “The Carmarthen Nuclear Bunker,” 7 June 1986, available at: http://www.mjreedsolicitors.co.uk/uncategorized/the-bunker-case/ [accessed 21 February 2018]; “No Bunkers in Wales,” Radio-Active Times (October-November 1985), 1; “What Is CND Cymru?” CND Cymru Individual Member’s Newsletter (August 1986), unpaginated; Hilary Blunden, “Bunker Politics: Civil Defence in Wales,” Radical Wales 12 (Autumn 1986), 8–9; “The Bunker Campaign Continues,” Radio-Active Times (December 1985-January 1986), 1.

86. Simpson, No Bunkers Here, 23–2.

87. Hill, “Nations of Peace,” 26–50. Similarly, Berger and LaPorte have also demonstrated Welsh dimensions to the left’s responses to the Cold War in “The Labour Party in Wales and the Cold War,” 58–76.

88. For the growing sense of Welsh identity across postwar Welsh society, see Martin Johnes, Wales since 1939.

89. David Regan, “Nuclear Free—at a Price,” The Times, 5 August 1985, 12.

90. See Sabin, The Third World War Scare in Britain.

Additional information

Funding

This work was in part supported by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust under Grant SG151932.

Notes on contributors

Christoph Laucht

Christoph Laucht, FRHistS, FHEA, is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Swansea University, Wales. He works on the cultural history of the nuclear age and the transnational history of the Cold War and is the author of Elemental Germans: Klaus Fuchs, Rudolf Peierls and the Making of British Nuclear Culture, 1939-59 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and co-editor (with Tobias Hochscherf and Andrew Plowman) of Divided, But Not Disconnected: German Experiences of the Cold War (New York: Berghahn Books, 2010) and (with Jonathan Hogg) of British Nuclear Culture, a special issue of the British Journal for the History of Science, 45. 4 (2012).

Martin Johnes

Martin Johnes is Professor of History at Swansea University where he works on modern Wales and the history of popular culture. His books include Wales since 1939 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012) and Christmas and the British: A Modern History (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016). A new edition of his co-authored book Aberfan: Government and Disaster will be published in 2018.