2 The Euromissile Crisis and anti-nuclear activism in the UK in the early 1980s

A second and even larger wave of anti-nuclear activism emerged in the late 1970s and peaked in the early 1980s. In Western Europe, this was chiefly triggered by the 1979 decision by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to deploy hundreds of new American nuclear weapons in five Western European countries: the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Opposition to the deployment of these ‘Euromissiles’ surged in the early 1980s, as citizens feared such an escalation in the nuclear arms race would make nuclear war more likely.

Figure 2 A demonstration in Bonn, then capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, in October 1981 against the planned deployment of ‘Euromissiles’ in the country. This demonstration attracted roughly 300,000 participants, and similar demonstrations across Western Europe included comparable numbers of protesters.

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Figure 2 A demonstration in Bonn, then capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, in October 1981 against the planned deployment of ...

Activity 1

Watch this video featuring activists, policymakers and historians discussing what forms of action took place in the UK during the ‘Euromissile Crisis’ of the early 1980s, then answer the questions below.

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Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

KATE HUDSON

A lot of seeing these activities that were well known were the big national demonstrations, huge rallies in Hyde Park, for example. But there were loads and loads of local demonstrations and rallies across the country throughout this period. It was almost like people were on permanent mobilisation alert, so to speak. So there was all that going on. And then at the same time, there was a huge wave towards direct action. And the direct action was focused on the military bases. The most famous one, of course, is Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, because it was a women’s peace camp. And it caught the headlines. And they had very innovative and bold campaigning methods, let’s say, dancing on the silos, and breaking in through the fences, and embracing the base. But there were lots of other peace camps, mixed peace camps, other places. So Molesworth, for example. Greenham and Molesworth were the places where the cruise missiles were coming to. There was a peace camp there. And many other bases as well.

BRUCE KENT

Well, seeing these action is never very, very much. Partly its publicity, its education, pamphlets, literature. Its films or videos. In fact, Peter Watkins, his film for the BBC, called The War Game, was an absolute standard in groups around the country.

[LAUGHS]

FILM CLIP

At this distance, the heatwave is sufficient to cause melting of the upturned eyeball.

BRUCE KENT

If nobody’s seen it, they ought to go and have a look at it. That was the thing with public education. And then every once in a while, we would have some demonstration of some sort. And very often in London, sometimes in Trafalgar Square. But outward expression of what we were doing was quite important to our position and things.

LUC-ANDRE BRUNET

The CND was consistent in opposing both the acquisition of Trident and the deployment of cruise missiles throughout this period. But clearly those messages resonated to differing extents in different parts of the UK. So the cruise missiles were to be stationed at two military bases, one in Berkshire, one in Cambridgeshire. And so, consequently, opposition to cruise resonated much more strongly, say, in the south of England, whereas opposition to Trident was much more important in Scotland. So the Clyde Naval Base is where initially the Polaris, the precursor to Trident, was based. And then, of course, Trident would be based there subsequently. So as a result, CND activities in Scotland tended to be much more focused on opposition to Trident, whereas the anti-cruise message featured much more prominently in England as well as Wales.

MARY KALDOR

Well, I think END was, in a way, the intellectual wing. In a way, the movement, certainly in this country and perhaps all over Europe, was inspired by E. P. Thompson’s pamphlet Protest and Survive. But I think E.P. Thompson, an idea-- and Ken Coates and I was part of it --was that in the past, anti-nuclear campaigns were very easily dealt with by the establishment, because you could accuse them of being Pro-Soviet. And also that unilateralism was only about Britain. So we wanted to make it clear that we were both unilateralist and multilateralist. We didn’t care how you got rid of nuclear weapons. And we wanted it from the whole of Europe. And we wanted to make it clear that we were not just an anti-nuclear movement, we were an anti-cold war movement. And so from the beginning, we tried to make links with dissidents in eastern Europe. So in April 1980, the END appeal was launched. And it just collected thousands of signatures from all over Europe, including Olof Palme, Vaclav Havel, the Czech jazz-- actually Vaclav Havel signed later, but the Czech jazz section signed straight away. And so it became, in a way, the literature of the movement.

EIRINI KARAMOUZI

What is interesting about this transnational movement of peace and mobilisation that we’re talking about, and we’re discussing it as a Pan-European phenomena, is because the style of activism was really global, even when the framing of the message was quite local or regional. So in the UK, for example, we know that the main message was unilateral, nuclear disarmament. In the Nordic states was about nuclear free zones. In places like Spain and Greece was about membership of NATO and removal of bases. But despite these differences in framing, what was interesting is that these activists were emulating each other in terms of how to communicate their message, because it had to be low cost, but it had to be truly effective. So what happened is that they were looking at each other, either by, let’s take the example of Greenham Common. The air base, the women’s camp proved to be really an inspirational example for other peace camps in Comiso, in Italy. Or in Australia, where they were creating this feminised space for self-action and dissent against nuclear activity. But also at the same time, because it was so successful in countries like the United States, nuclear freeze, or in the in the United Kingdom, the CND campaign, the activists really learned how to get their message across. And the way to do that was through the same tactics, demonstrations, sit-ins, human chains across bases, peace camps, all of them with the hope and idea to really affect public opinion, and make them motivated to get interested, and put the topic on the political agenda.

RICHARD MOTTRAM

Well, I think, when you see the world that the government were operating in, there was growing concern, which the peace movement picked up on about the risks of nuclear war, and indeed what nuclear war would look like if it occurred. So there were TV programmes and so on. And the peace movement piggybacked on this growing concern, and amplified it, and tried to develop it. And to develop in two directions. One, to stop the deployment of cruise in this country, and two, to try and stop the decision to modernise the UK’S independent deterrent.

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1. What form did activism take in the UK in the early 1980s?
2. How did activism differ across the UK?

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Discussion

1. Perhaps the two most visible forms of anti-nuclear activism were large public demonstrations, such as those in Hyde Park or in Trafalgar Square in London, and the Women’s Peace Camp set up at Greenham Common, one of the two military bases in the UK where the new ‘Euromissiles’ were to be deployed. Additional activities included letter-writing campaigns, public education and lobbying Members of Parliament.
2. In the UK, the focus of anti-nuclear activism in England and Wales was mainly on the Cruise missiles which were to be stationed in southern England. In Scotland, however, there was a greater emphasis on opposing the UK government’s nuclear weapons systems – Polaris, and then Trident – which were deployed on submarines based at Clyde Naval Base, near Glasgow. These issues resonated differently in different parts of the UK, leading to more targeted local campaigns.

The late 1970s and early 1980s saw the emergence of new forms of anti-nuclear activism. Especially striking were ‘die-ins’, in which groups of activists would fall to the ground and play dead, drawing attention to the deadly effects of nuclear weapons. Another iconic form of action was peace camps, in which activists would remain at a particular site (often a military base where nuclear weapons were deployed) for months or years at a time. The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in Berkshire, England, was established in 1981 and remained at the site until 2000. The period also saw massive anti-nuclear demonstrations as well as less visible forms of activism such as letter-writing and public education campaigns.

The peace movement was a heterogeneous phenomenon encompassing a broad spectrum of autonomous activists and youth movements, but also institutions such as political parties, trade unions and churches. Beyond those involved in the anti-nuclear campaign in some way, popular culture reflected the pervasive anxieties of the very real possibility of a nuclear war that could lead to the end of humanity. Pop music from this period saw artists ranging from ABBA, Metallica, Queen, and Sting to Nena reflecting these fears of nuclear war in their lyrics. Nuclear weapons and the possibility of nuclear annihilation were a prominent topic in films, television, video games, comic books and board games. Along with the widespread anti-nuclear activism seen across many countries, these cultural outputs reveal just how ubiquitous fears of the dangers of nuclear weapons were during this period.

Figure 3 A poster advertising the BBC film Threads, produced in 1984. The film depicts the horrifying consequences of a nuclear attack on the British city of Sheffield.

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A poster advertising the film Threads.

Figure 3 A poster advertising the BBC film Threads, produced in 1984. The film depicts the horrifying consequences of a nuclear attack on...

In addition to fears that these new ‘Euromissiles’ would make nuclear war more likely, many citizens felt that the imposition of new American nuclear weapons on their country’s soil undermined national sovereignty. As a result, anti-Americanism was often a feature of anti-nuclear protest in Europe in the early 1980s.

In the next section, you’ll see how the themes of anti-nuclear activism and national sovereignty interacted in other parts of the world.