European Nuclear Disarmament

European Nuclear Disarmament (END) was a Europe-wide campaign by the peace movement that dealt with the consequences of the Cold War . The "END-Appell" (call for a nuclear weapons-free Europe) is an appeal from the peace movement of the 1980s that was received worldwide. In its wake, eleven congresses , the so-called END conventions , took place.

The END appeal

Calling for an end to armament and the overthrow of the military blocs was still utopian at the time the appeal was made. Barely a decade later, the demand had become a reality. On the basis of an appeal from Great Britain, between 1982 and 1992 international peace conferences, the "END Conventions", were held annually. They became the world's most important meeting place for peace organizations, initiatives and movements and for all political parties that supported the peace movement.

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“We are on the threshold of the most dangerous decade in human history. A third world war is not only possible, it is also becoming more and more likely. Economic and social difficulties in the developed industrial countries, crises, militarism and wars in the 'Third World' form the basis of political tensions that fuel an insane arms race. In Europe, the geographic main arena of the East-West confrontation, new generations of increasingly murderous nuclear weapons are emerging.

For over 25 years, the military powers of NATO and the Warsaw Pact have had enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other and at the same time endanger the very basis of civilized life. But year after year the nuclear arms race has multiplied its number and thus increased the probability of a catastrophic accident or calculation error.

As each side seeks to demonstrate their readiness to use nuclear weapons in order to prevent their use by the other side, new, more 'operational' nuclear weapons are being developed and the public is becoming more and more interested in the notion of a 'limited' Accustomed to nuclear war. This is happening to such an extent that this paradoxical development can logically only lead to the actual use of nuclear weapons.

None of the leading powers are now in a moral position from which they could induce smaller countries to abandon nuclear weapons. The increasing proliferation of nuclear reactors and the growth of the industries that operate them make a worldwide spread of nuclear weapons more and more likely and thus multiply the risks of nuclear disputes.

For years, public opinion has been pushing for nuclear disarmament and détente between the rival military blocs. This effort was unsuccessful. A growing proportion of the world's economic potential is used for armaments, although mutual annihilation has long been guaranteed in excess. This economic burden contributes to growing social and political tensions in the East and West and sets in motion a vicious circle in which the arms race feeds on the instability of the world economy and vice versa: a deadly interplay.

We are in great danger today. Generations have grown up in the shadow of nuclear war and are used to the threats. Concern has given way to apathy. Meanwhile, in our world, which lives under constant threat, fear has spread in both halves of Europe. The power of the military and the internal security organs is expanded, the free exchange and movement of thoughts and people are subject to restrictions, the civil rights of independently thinking people are endangered in the East as well as in the West.

We are not concerned with sharing the blame between the political and military leaders of the East and the West. Both opponents are to blame. Both have taken a threatening stance and committed acts of aggression in different parts of the world.

It is up to us to do something about it. We must work together to clear the whole of Europe, from Poland to Portugal, from nuclear weapons, from air and submarine bases and from all establishments engaged in the research or manufacture of nuclear weapons. We call on the two superpowers to withdraw all nuclear weapons from European territory. In particular, we call on the Soviet Union to cease production of the SS-20 medium-range missiles, and we call on the United States not to implement its decision on the development of cruise missiles and Pershing II missiles for deployment in Western Europe. We also urge the ratification of the SALT II agreement, a necessary step on the way to resuming effective negotiations on general and full disarmament.

At the same time we must defend and extend the right of all citizens in East and West to participate in this common movement and in all kinds of exchanges of views.

We appeal to our friends in Europe, regardless of their beliefs and worldview, to think hard about how we can work together for these common goals. We envision a pan-European campaign in which the most varied forms of exchange take place, in which representatives of different countries and opinions advise one another and coordinate their actions with one another and in which more informal forms of encounter between universities, churches, women's organizations, trade unions, youth organizations, professional organizations and individuals are used for a common goal: to free all of Europe from nuclear weapons.

We must start by acting as if a united, neutral and peaceful Europe already exists. We must learn to be loyal not to the 'East' or the 'West' but to one another, and we must defy the prohibitions and restrictions imposed by the nation states.

It is the responsibility of the people of each country to work towards the elimination of nuclear weapons and bases in Europe, on land and at sea, and to decide for themselves which means and strategies are appropriate for their country. These will vary from country to country; we do not believe that a single strategy needs to be implemented. But this has to be the subject of a transcontinental movement in which all possible forms of exchange can take place.

We must oppose all attempts by politicians from East and West to manipulate this movement for their own benefit. We do not want to give any advantages to NATO or the Warsaw Pact. Rather, our goal must be to free Europe from the confrontation, to achieve detente between the United States and the Soviet Union and finally to dissolve the big power blocs.

When we appeal to our fellow Europeans, it does not mean that we turn our backs on the rest of the world. In working for peace for Europe, we are working for peace in the world. Europe has trampled its civilizational claim twice in this century by instigating world wars. This time we must pay our debt to the world by instigating peace.

This appeal will be ineffective as long as it is not accompanied by purposeful and imaginative actions that can attract more people to its support. We need to put overwhelming emphasis on the demand for a nuclear weapons-free zone. We do not want to impose uniformity on the movement or anticipate the deliberations and decisions of the numerous organizations that are already exercising their influence in favor of disarmament and peace. But time is of the essence. The danger is constantly increasing. We ask for your support for our common goal and we appreciate your help and advice. "

- END appeal

history

The first steps

At the cradle of the END appeal stood the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (BRPF) , founded in 1963, and its board member Ken Coates. He writes that the idea of bringing a European peace movement together emerged in 1974 in Bradford at a BRPF seminar on "The Just Society". In addition to Labor MPs and other social democratic representatives, Lucio Lombardo Radice from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Italy PCI, Eduard Goldstücker (chairman of the CSSR Writers' Union during the “ Prague Spring ”) and Jaurès Medvedev from the USSR were present. András Hegedüs , sociologist and former Prime Minister from Hungary, sent a paper.

The NATO decision of December 12, 1979 to deploy Pershing II rockets and cruise missiles in five European countries led to public protest by the renowned social historian Edward P. Thompson (1924–1993). In late 1979 he wrote a letter to the left Labor MP Tony Benn , whom he met in Bradford in 1974, asking for help in organizing civil disobedience against the proposed atomic bases, and sent a copy of it to Ken Coates. He then called Thompson and suggested developing a European answer instead of a purely national answer, ideally with the demand for the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone across Europe. Thompson then prepared a draft for such an appeal. The supporters met for the first time in London during the editing process on the text.

The majority of the appeal came from people associated with the Labor Party (Kaldor and Smith advised the LP on defense issues). Advice also came from the political scientist and peace researcher Ulrich Albrecht (Free University of Berlin), from the former "Resistance" member Claude Bourdet (Mouvement pour le Désarmement, la Paix et la Liberté, Paris) and from the physicist Jaurès Medwedew, who lives in England, his brother, the historian Roy Medvedev , belonged to the left opposition in the USSR at the time. Peggy Duff, an activist of the Easter marches , who had been Secretary General of the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), the largest British peace organization, from 1958 to 1967 , also joined the inner circle of initiators . In 1963 she founded the “International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace” (ICDP), whose international contacts she brought in when spreading the END appeal.

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation sent the finalized appeal to its contacts throughout Europe in 1980, where it was sometimes known as the "Russell Appeal". The appeal, along with a list of international signatories, was officially presented at a press conference held on April 28, 1980 at the House of Commons in London , where Ken Coates , Mary Kaldor , Bruce Kent, Jaurès Medvedev and Edward Thompson spoke. Similar press conferences were held in Paris, Oslo and Berlin. Soon thereafter, Thompson presented his brochure “Protest and Survive”, which he had co-authored with Dan Smith, in which the END appeal was printed and which was to be an important contribution to the revival of the British peace movement.

The gathering of signatures under the END appeal was to last until August 6, 1980 (the 35th anniversary of the dropping of the Hiroshima bomb ) across Europe , but was then continued. British supporters soon included over 70 MPs (mostly Labor), representatives of Christian churches, peace activists, trade unionists, scientists and thousands of others: “Dockers, coal workers, students, housewives, bus drivers and computer programmers returned the preprinted appeals, often with self-made, full signature lists ”. The Labor Party , led at the time by the left party leader Michael Foot , passed a resolution at its party congress in 1980, which took place in Blackpool from September 29 to October 3, 1980, in which it said: “The party congress says its support for the European Nuclear Disarmament Campaign and calls on the next Labor government to take the necessary initiatives to establish a European nuclear weapons-free zone as a major step towards global disarmament ”.

END did not intend to establish itself as a mass organization with membership as “competition” to the “Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament” (CND), which had existed since 1958 , but rather to offer CND a “European perspective”. Nevertheless, local END groups emerged, for example in West Yorkshire. The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation published the first issue of the magazine "END Bulletin" in the spring of 1980, of which a total of 12 issues had appeared by spring 1983. From December 1982 Mary Kaldor took over the publication of the "END Journal", of which until spring 1989 a total of 37 issues appeared.

In the mid-1980s, the British END had its own organizational structure with membership, but concentrated (as a complement to CND) primarily on contact with peace groups in the Warsaw Pact states. In 1992 END was merged into the new organization "European Dialogue".

Europe-wide support

In West Germany, millions of people signed the Krefeld appeal against the stationing of American medium-range nuclear weapons in Europe. In 1981 the peace movement called hundreds of thousands of people to large demonstrations in Bonn and Brussels.

Eurocommunists from Italy (e.g. Romano Ledda and Lucio Lombardo Radice from the PCI Central Committee , Spain (e.g. Manuel Azcárate, former PCE Central Committee member ) and Greece (from the "Inlands-KP") supported the END appeal. ), still active and former influential politicians of socialist and social democratic parties (e.g. the ex-ministers Albert de Smaele / Belgium, Ernesto Melo Antunes and Marcelo Curto / Portugal, the opposition leader and later Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou / Greece, the international secretary of PvdA , Maarten van Traa / Netherlands, PSOE board member Enrique Baron / Spain, the international secretary of the SPÖ Walter Hacker, etc.), members of independent left and alternative parties (e.g. The Greens / Federal Republic of Germany, Parti Socialiste Unifié / France, Radical Party PPR / Netherlands), peace researcher (e.g. Ulrich Albrecht, Johan Galtung , Guido Grünewald, Ekkehart Krippendorff , Marek Thee, Hylke Tromp, Tapio Varis), artist ler and writer (e. B. Günther Anders , Joseph Beuys , Constantin Costa-Gavras , Joan Miró , Victor Vasarely ), university professors, trade unionists, theologians and members of the peace movement of the 1950s ( Seán MacBride , Nobel Prize winner 1974 and chairman of the “International Peace Office”, Alva Myrdal , Swedish Ex-Disarmament Minister, Robert Jungk from Austria).

The "Yugoslav League for Peace, Independence and Equality of Peoples" joined the appeal. a. András Hegedüs from Hungary, Artur London (author and survivor of the Slansky show trial in 1952) from the CSSR, the engineer Jozef Halbersztadt from Poland and the historian Roy Medvedev from the Soviet Union. Even Rudolf Bahro , who in 1978 in the GDR had and because of the publication of the book "The Alternative" in the West to jail emigrated to Germany in 1979, where he joined the Green Party, was among the first signatories.

Smaller international meetings took place shortly after the publication. From 12-14 September 1980 the first took place in London (in the local Pax Christi Center), with the participation of groups from Belgium, the FRG, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Ireland and Norway as well as from six international peace organizations. For the first time, the perspective (nuclear disarmament in Eastern and Western Europe) and the strategy (“lateral contacts” at all levels) were presented and discussed directly in front of an international forum.

A follow-up meeting took place on 7./8. March 1981 in Frankfurt am Main . Peggy Duff and Sheila Cooper from ICDP invited them to the event, hosted by the conscientious objectors organization DFG / VK . Edward P. Thompson spoke about END's policies and plans. Workshops dealt with a. with the planned international Easter march to the NATO headquarters in Brussels from 16.-18. April 1981 (an idea from West Yorkshire END, around 10,000 people took part), with the peace march Copenhagen - Paris for a nuclear weapons-free Europe from Poland to Portugal (June 21 - August 9, 1981) and with east-west contacts.

By the summer of 1981 tens of thousands of people had already signed the END appeal. In several countries, including the Federal Republic of Germany, groups had arisen around this call. The Italian activists organized a meeting together with the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation on 11/12. November 1981 in Rome , where the problems connected with the preparation of a European convention were discussed. Around 90 people took part, 40 of them from Italy (from PCI , DP , PdUP, PSI , Radical Party and DC, several trade unions, the cultural organization ARCI, Pax Christi, Reconciliation Union and other groups), the rest from Austria ( Paul Blau / Pugwash Group and Gerhard Grössing / Austrian Students Union , later also ARGE UFI ), Belgium (Jean du Bosch / UBDP, Pierre Galand / CNAPD, Robert de Gendt / VAKA, Albert de Smaele / Ex-Minister, Ann-Marie Lizin / European Parliament - Member of the PSB), Great Britain (from BRPF, CND, END and others groups), Denmark (Dagmar Fagerholt and Tony Liversage / Nej til Atomvaben), Finland (from the Peace Council and the "Committee of 100"), France (Claude Bourdet / MDPL , Viviane Cartairade / Committee for Nuclear Disarmament in Europe CODENE, Bruno de Commines / MAN, Girard Feldman / Comité Communiste pour l'Autogestion), FRG ( Rudolf Bahro and Michaela von Freyhold / Russell-Initiative Bremen, Eva Quistorp , Jürgen Graalfs / working group Nuclear Weapons Free Europe, K laus Wolschner / Die Grünen ), Greece (a representative of the socialist PASOK ), Netherlands (Bert Kappers / Interkirchlicher Friedensrat IKV, Marianne van Ophuysen / Women for Peace, Maarten van Traa / Sozialdem. PvdA ), Hungary ( András Hegedüs ), Ireland (Jennifer Fitzgerald / Irish CND), Norway (Jon Grepstad / Nei til Atomvapen, Johan Galtung ), Portugal (Ernesto Melo Antunes / former Foreign Minister, Cesar Oliveira / Member of the Union of the Socialist Left ), Spain (Enrique Gomariz / Fundación Pablo Iglesias) and Switzerland (Johann Binder / "Atomwaffenno", Werner Meyer / Swiss Peace Council).

From appeal to the END conventions

At the meeting in Rome, an agreement was reached to hold a convention in 1982. A 32-member provisional "Liaison Committee" (LC), which comprised almost all groups represented in Rome, was appointed. It should be open to other organizations and people who support the END appeal.

The LC encompassed all currents of the international peace movement. In addition to non-bloc peace organizations, most of which arose at the beginning of the 1980s, political parties of the most varied of orientations also collaborated - euro-communist , socialist , social-democratic , green and left-wing alternatives - from 1987, i.e. in the wake of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, gradually organizations from Eastern Europe too . The only condition for admission was support for the END appeal. In most cases, members of the LC were present in their personal capacity without a formal mandate from their organizations. The LC concentrated exclusively on the preparation of the annual conventions.

The following 11 “END-Conventions” took place: from 1. – 4. July 1982 in Brussels (Belgium), from 9-14. May 1983 in (West) Berlin , from 17. – 21. July 1984 in Perugia (Italy), from 3rd to 6th July 1985 in Amsterdam (Netherlands), from 5. – 8. June 1986 in Évry near Paris (France), from 15. – 19. July 1987 in Coventry (Great Britain), from June 29th to July 2nd, 1988 in Lund (Sweden), from June 6th to 9th. July 1989 in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain, Basque Country), from 3rd to 7th July 1990 in Helsinki (Finland) and Tallinn (Estonia, then still a Soviet republic), from 14th to 17th August 1991 in Moscow (USSR) and from 1st to 4th July 1992 back in Brussels (Belgium).

The number of participants varied between 800 and 3,000. The conferences did not pass binding resolutions, but were primarily a forum for exchange between the representatives of movements and parties present, a kind of "peace bazaar". From the mid-1980s onwards, it was gradually also possible for independent peace and human rights activists from Eastern Europe, who had previously been persecuted in their countries, to take part in the conventions. Some of them moved into parliaments and governments after the "fall of the wall" in late 1989. The free exchange between people in East and West had turned from utopia into daily practice.

The conventions of 1983 and 1984, which at that time were also shaped by conflicts with the pro-Soviet currents in the international peace movement, were the first to be noticed by a broader public.

The END conventions reached a high point with the meeting in Helsinki / Tallinn in 1990. For the first time, members of the civil rights movement from states of the former Soviet Union were officially able to participate. During the congress, the participants took a ship to Tallinn in Estonia (then still the Soviet Union) and met with human rights groups there. Peace activists from West and East Germany also met for the first time in Helsinki. A separate workshop dealt with the incipient networking via computer networks (at that time mainly: mailbox networks ).

The END Convention in Moscow ended spectacularly in August 1991. Computer networkers from Europe, the USA and the Soviet Union met at the “Telecommunications for Peace” workshop. With the express support of Gorbachev , the telecommunications service GlasNet was created in Moscow, which was connected to the German-speaking CL network via the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) . The coup against Gorbachev began one day after the end of the END Convention. The end of the Soviet Union became visible. The putschists had foreign connections under control from Moscow. But via the computer networks of the mailbox operators, the information from Moscow within the Soviet Union reached Belarus, from there to Estonia, via a telephone line to Helsinki, and from there to Los Angeles, London, Hanover and Munich all over the world. In this way, the peace activists kept in touch and informed the public in their home countries about the events in Moscow.

Due to the signing of nuclear disarmament agreements between the USSR and the USA, the movement weakened from the late 1980s onwards, as an important part of the peace policy goals seemed to have been achieved. The 11th END Convention in Brussels, 10 years to the day after the 1st Convention and in the same building, can be seen as a kind of conclusion of the process.

literature

• EP Thompson : Thinking About the New Movement. In: END Bulletin. No. 1, Nottingham 1980.
• Edward P. Thompson, Ken Coates, Rudolf Bahro and Michael Vester: For a Europe Free of Nuclear Weapons. Published by West German supporters of the Russell Peace Foundation appeal. Berlin 1981.
• Ken Coates : European Nuclear Disarmament: Moving towards a European Convention. In: END Bulletin. No. 4, Nottingham, February 1981.
• John Minnion & Philip Bolsover (Eds.): The Upsurge since 1980. In: The CND Story. The first 25 years of CND in the words of the people involved. London 1983.
• Ken Coates : Listening for Peace. END papers special 2. Nottingham n.d. (1987).
• Gerhard Jordan: European Nuclear Disarmament. The "END process" and its contribution to the East-West dialogue of the independent peace movements in Europe in the 1980s. Diploma thesis at the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, 1997.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Wording from: For a nuclear-free Europe , with contributions by Edward P. Thompson, Ken Coates, Rudolf Bahro and Michael Vester, edited by West German supporters of the appeal of the Russell Peace Foundation , Berlin 1981, pages 3–5.