Anti-Nuclear Defences: Aspects of Legality and the Peace Movement in England

Abstract

A healthy suspicion of the law has always (with good cause) been a feature of progressive politics. In recent years the Trade Union and Labour movements (Wedderburn, 1971; Griffith, 1977, pp. 57–87), anti-military groups (Young, 1976) as well as the Irish Civil Rights movement (Boyle et al., 1975, p. 15) have all suffered the disillusionment and disintegration which follows from major reverses in the courts. The peace movement has been no exception. In 1961–2, after a short but vigorous confrontation between the Conservative administration and the ‘Committee of 100’, direct action for peace was interrupted and finally disorganised by a series of prosecutions leading up to the crucial defeat of Chandler in Chandler v. D.P.P.¹ It is arguable that the impetus of the entire 1960s peace movement was destroyed by the crushing of its radical wing in the courts in 1962.