In 1982 Hackney Council declared the borough a ‘Nuclear Free Zone’. This was part of a wider national peace movement with many Hackney residents becoming involved in campaigns including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Greenham Common Peace Camp.
This blog explores local campaigns and community-led action against nuclear power and weapons in 1980s Hackney.
The Nuclear Problem
During the 1980s, communities in Hackney and the local council were very active in the anti-nuclear campaign, joining a wave of protest around Britain. As nuclear programmes for developing energy and weapons were expanded across Europe, Hackney residents got involved in both community action and national campaigns.
In 1979, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) announced plans to deploy nuclear weapons across Europe. As tensions between the Soviet Union and the USA escalated in what became known as the ‘Cold War’ (1947-1991), many feared that the European continent could become a nuclear battleground between the two powers. Responding to growing public anxiety, the British Government promoted a public information campaign in 1980 called Protect and Survive, providing guidance in the event of a nuclear strike. As the guidance advised people to stay inside their homes, many inferred that the government had no realistic measures in place to protect the lives of civilians.
Concerns were also raised about the transportation of nuclear waste from power plants along the North London Line, through Dalston Junction and Stratford (today’s Mildmay Line). Campaigners argued that accidents or targeted terrorist attacks could release the cargo, causing London to become uninhabitable for 125 years and many civilian deaths. In 1983, the Hackney Anti-Nuclear Group (HANG) staged an ‘attack’ in which campaigners launched a fake rocket at a container storing nuclear waste, which was stationed at Stratford. This demonstrated how accessible, unprotected and therefore dangerous the nuclear cargo was.
The Hackney Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Many Hackney residents joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Founded in 1957, CND advocates for Britain to give up nuclear weapons and withdraw from NATO. In 1979, the Thatcher-led Conservative government agreed to station US cruise missiles holding nuclear warheads on British soil. A public outcry against this led to membership in CND’s local groups to surge, rising to 250,000 nationally by 1984.
Hackney CND (HCND) was a large and active branch. In 1980, hundreds of people turned up to a meeting at Hackney Town Hall where they showed The War Game, a 1960s film about the aftermath of a nuclear war. As membership of HCND grew, area sub-groups formed and quickly drew in significant numbers. The first to form was Clapton. Following their success, Stoke Newington CND was established in spring 1983. Weekly meetings took place at the Old Fire Station on Leswin Road.
“[Stoke Newington in the 1980s] was a happy time and place to be but the icy needles of the Cold War punctured our feelings of safety. We really did believe we could be on the edge of a conflict in which nuclear weapons would be employed”
Jude Carroll, member of Stoke Newington CND, 2015
In 1983, CND organised a national demonstration against nuclear weapons in Britain. HCND and its sub-groups raised awareness for this demonstration across the borough through a letter campaign, adverts in local newspapers and going door to door. Supportive of the cause, Hackney Council agreed to fly the CND flag across the borough’s three town halls (Shoreditch, Hackney and Stoke Newington) for the week leading up to the demonstration. The resulting demonstration took place on 22 October and was the largest in CND history with 400,000 people joining the march in Hyde Park.
A Civil Rebellion
In early 1982, Hackney Council officially declared the borough a ‘Nuclear Free Zone’, joining Manchester City Council’s call to oppose the British government’s nuclear stance. Hackney was one of 100 local authorities taking part in this civil rebellion. Hackney councillors used this position to support local campaigning. In January 1983, the CND’s annual Peace Fair at a public baths in Hackney was opened by the council leader, Anthony Kendall.
A few months after Hackney’s announcement, in June 1982, the Greater London Council (GLC) announced that London would be a ‘Nuclear Free Zone’, and co-ordinated local councils campaigning against nuclear power with public education events such as Nuclear Waste Awareness Week. The GLC reallocated money it received from central government that had been earmarked for civil defence into a cultural arts programme. This programme found creative ways to promote and communicate the dangers of nuclear power through war or accidents in London: one event was the club night ‘GLC Nuclear Bunker Parties’ which toured London, including at the Rio Cinema in Dalston, and Chats Palace in Homerton.
The GLC also themed 1983 as its ‘Peace Year’, organising a programme of cultural events to promote values of peace and international cooperation, and support the world-wide anti-nuclear campaign. This theme inspired Hackney’s own community-led events. The Hackney Show, an annual festival on Hackney Downs, adopted the peace theme and staged a peace carnival, which featured members and banners from HCND. The carnival became the inspiration for a peace mural, which was one of four commissioned by the GLC. Hackney Council also provided funding and secured the site for the mural. In 1985 The Hackney Peace Carnival Mural designed by artist Ray Walker (1945-1984) was revealed on Dalston Lane.
The Greenham Common Women Peace Camp
Many Hackney residents and HCND members were involved in the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. In 1981 the UK Government agreed to station US nuclear cruise missiles at RAF bases at Greenham Common in Berkshire and RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire. Under this agreement, the US would have had the power to launch a nuclear attack from British soil.
Soon after this announcement, a group called ‘Women for Life on Earth’ marched 120 miles from Cardiff to Greenham Common and founded a peace camp at the base. At first a mixed gender movement, it transitioned into a woman-only camp protesting against nuclear weapons as well as for the land around Greenham Common to be given to the Berkshire community.
While the camp relied on a core group living onsite at Greenham Common, they were visited and supported by a national network. A large group of women from Hackney joined the peace camp and played a major role in the peace movement. Hackney CND sent their own members to events at the air base, organising entire buses for transport. In 1982, 30,000 women from around the country travelled to Greenham Common to take part in ‘embrace the base’, where they joined hands and encircled the whole RAF base.
There was a lot of media attention and interest in the peace camp, particularly as the deadline of nuclear weapons arriving in 1983 drew closer. Some media outlets referred to the campaigners as ‘a coven of witches’, a description that was embraced by the movement. On 31 October 1983, over 60 Hackney residents travelled to the camp dressed as witches for a ‘Halloween party’. The camp used this cover story to successfully cut down almost half the fence around the site, causing disruption as a form of protest: it was their most successful attempt to date.
Greenham Women in Hackney
Despite national protests and heavy media coverage, the nuclear missiles arrived at the RAF bases in November 1983. As a result, campaigning spread from the site of Greenham Common to local areas around the country. During this time, the Hackney branch of the Greenham Common Women grew, with 11 active groups in the borough such as Women Oppose Nuclear Threat (WONT), a group based in Dalston. While each group worked independently, they coordinated joint actions in support of the wider movement.
In February 1984, the Hackney Greenham Women set up their own 24-hour peace camp on Hackney Town Hall Square. The encampment organised activities to promote the cause, with an exhibition communicating the real threats of nuclear war, picnics and music performances. A few weeks later, word reached the groups that a convoy of nuclear cruise missile launchers would be travelling on the roads of Britain as part of a practice exercise. To bring attention to the fact that there would be nuclear weapons passing on the roads of Britain unknown to the British public, the Hackney Greenham Women groups staged two blockades on the 9 and 29 March (see main banner image). Holding up traffic at Dalston Junction, both blockades lasted between 10 and 20 minutes. While there was a heavy police presence, there were no arrests. In May, the group held another peace camp lasting three days during Hackney CND Peace Week.
This show of local action helped fuel support at home with membership to the Hackney Greenham Common groups rising. In September 1984, they organised for several coaches to take women from Hackney to support the peace camp on Greenham Common.
What happened next in the world…
In 1986 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher disbanded the GLC following their rebellion against the national government’s policies, including their nuclear-stance. This left London without a city-wide authority until 2000 when the new Labour administration created the Greater London Authority (GLA) with Ken Livingstone leading as mayor. Livingstone had previously been a Hackney Councillor and the leader of the GLC during their anti-nuclear campaigning years in the 1980s.
With the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the end of the Cold War, the nuclear cruise missiles were removed from Greenham Common in 1991. The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp continued to exist, campaigning for peace more generally and for women’s rights. In 1997, the RAF base ceased operations and the land was given to the local community as public parkland.
While the perceived threat of nuclear war and accidents has fallen, Hackney CND has continued to campaign for the complete disarmament of nuclear weapons across the world.
