About StirlingCND

Stirling Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament : A short history

British and Scottish CND were formed in the late 1950’s in response to the growing threat from nuclear weapons created by the Cold War. The siting of the Polaris weapons system on the Clyde by the British government in 1968 led to a further upsurge of public opinion in Scotland against nuclear weapons.

Scottish CND has a good history of the movement in Scotland on their web site www.banthebomb.org and British CND on the growth of the movement in the UK on their web site www.cnduk.org – both worth checking out.
Stirling CND as a local lobby group emerged in the mid/ late 1970’s as the nuclear arms race escalated in Europe with the siting of American cruise and Pershing missiles in Britain and other Western European Countries, and the former Soviet Union’s siting of SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe.

Three local individuals Professor Hans Meidner who had settled in Stirling to lecture at the new University, Helen Steven and Ellen Moxley came together to raise awareness of the issues and dangers of the nuclear arms race and to kick-start a fledgling CND group in the town.
The organisation is not aligned to any political party and is generally a single topic campaigning group for the disarmament of Nuclear Weapons. However in the context of events such as the war on Iraq, Stirling CND has aligned itself with the local and national anti-war coalition because the there is a threat that such a war may have nuclear consequences. For example through the use of warheads utilising depleted uranium.

The group was influential in encouraging the Labour Party Administrations in Stirling District Council & Central Region Council to support the Scottish Local Authority Nuclear Free Zones Association. At the time it was great to see all the Council vehicles sporting the dove of peace symbol, the support with balanced educational materials available in Schools, and the financial and other support for the organisation that we received then – hard to believe now? The group quickly established regular activities including;

• regular street actions;
• public meetings;
• lobbying of politicians;
• election hustings;
• nuclear weapon convoy watch;
• production of a newsletter;
• media stunts;
• links to local trade unions;
• links with the academic staff and students of the University of Stirling
• attendance at national demonstrations and rallies;
• an annual street collection to raise funds;
• and other campaigning activities.

An early action was the establishment of a peace garden in the Pullar Memorial Park in Bridge of Allan, with the garden being the focus of many campaigning activities and visits from fellow campaigners from around the globe (many the guests of our Nuclear Free Zone Local Authorities). The garden remains a focus for peace activities including the Hiroshima day commemorations on 6 August each year. A peace pillar was also erected in the grounds of the Smith Art Galley and Museum – must check if it is still there buried in the undergrowth?

Twenty years on the group continues to thrive and is still actively campaigning at a local level and in national actions primarily against the Trident weapons system on the Clyde and the regular nuclear weapons convoys that pass through the town to and from Coulport on the Clyde.
Stirling CND remains one of the strongest and most active of groups in Scotland and works with Scottish CND and comes together with other groups at many of the demonstrations – our Jeely Peace Café has given succour to many weary campaigners at Faslane. We are still producing educational material – even video production no less.

We continue to attract a great cross section of local people as members young and not so young, politically active in a range of parties, trade unions or not.