The Peace Movement in the United Kingdom, 1963–83

Abstract

The peace movement in the United Kingdom went into decline between the early 1960s and 1980. Two events marked the start of the decline. First, CND lost the broad support of the Labour Party. The unilateralist policy adopted by Labour’s annual conference in 1960 was reversed when Hugh Gaitskell’s pledge, as party leader, to “fight, fight and fight again” against unilateralism prevailed at the 1961 conference. Between 1964 and 1979, during two periods in office covering a total of 11 years, successive Labour Governments maintained support for the British nuclear deterrent and for the policy of multilateral negotiations as the only acceptable basis for disarmament. Although unilateralist resolutions were passed at the party’s annual conferences in 1972 and 1973 they had little effect on party policy, failing to attain the two-thirds vote necesary to secure policy changes. It was not until 1980 that the Labour Party conference once again voted to put its weight behind a policy of British unilateral disarmament and not until 1982 that the two-thirds barrier was again breached.