THE HIGHLAND FEDERATION OF CND GROUPS

A Short History

In 1979 two small CND Groups were formed in Alness and Dingwall and they decided that they would take the "War Game" around the Highlands. At each venue new groups formed and we decided to form the Highland Federation of CND Groups. Regular meetings every two months were set up at various locations from Thurso in the far north to Fort William, and Cromarty on the east coast to the Isle of Skye. By 1982 we had 22 groups operating with total membership of over 2000. These meetings continued until 1992 and during the peak campaigning period some 50 people attended. Each meeting was followed by a ceilidh, and overnight accommodation was provided for everyone by the guest Branch. The groups, some situated 100 miles apart, kept in touch with each other all the time, and produced a good quality newspaper. We supported each others "Peace Days" with marches through the town, those at Ullapool and Dingwall being particularly well attended with MPs etc joining us. Support from many Councillors etc swung towards us. On one occasion a supporter gave us the use of a first class hotel on Loch Duich on the west coast for a weekend, where we held workshops etc. and this attracted sympathetic people, such as writers, from across Scotland. Because of the huge area we covered we decided at the beginning to appoint two co-ordinators, one of whom was myself. One of my duties was to liaise with Scottish CND, so I attended their meetings regularly and brought back reports, also serving on the SCND executive for some years. During these years I rarely slept in my bed at weekends such was the demand from groups, and I was also invited to key meetings in North East Scotland, at one of which I found myself on the platform on my own with the Leaders of each of the main political parties in Scotland! One of those was a Mr Alex Salmond. On being introduced, I shook hands and said "Pleased to meet you Mr Salmond". He gave me a wink, as the previous weekend he had given me a lift from Invergordon to Banffshire.

Scoraig CND made a brilliant "Nessie" monster. This looked somewhat like a long dragon with 6 members putting their heads and shoulders inside so that it could walk at good speed and wiggle from side to side. We took this to London in 1983 for the demonstration in Hyde Park, against Cruise and Trident. We decided to walk Nessie through London from Euston holding the large banner "Nessie wants no more monsters in Scottish lochs". Much to our surprise the police stopped traffic for us and guided us through the city accompanied by much cheering and clapping by passers-by.

Bruce Kent made 3 tours with us around the Highlands. He was surprised how we all knew each other over such an area. In Stornoway, where we had arranged a meeting we became very anxious as only a few minutes to go before we were due to start we had only a handful of people in the hall. And then, like a scene from a Western film, the door of the pub opposite swung open and in minutes the hall was packed.

Our campaign differed somewhat from those in the lowlands of Scotland - our key priorities were focussed on "Military Low Flying", "Dounreay", "Nuclear submarines in the North Atlantic", the proposed "Elf Transmitter in Glengarry" and of course "Trident" when a middle section of a Trident submarine complete with engines arrived at HMS Vulcan (next door to Dounreay) by sea from Barrow for testing. As it arrived at an isolated spot mid-week, we decided not to hold a demonstration there then but to do so a fortnight later on a Saturday at both Dounreay and Thurso. We had a bit of fun with the M.O.D. over this. Knowing that our phones were being tapped, we decided to put around false information and see what happened, e.g. Anne would phone me from Fort William asking did I know 6 more buses would be coming from Manchester to which I replied "In addition to the 12 we already know about?" So on the day of the Trident arrival no one was there except hundreds of police. However, one of our members, Eddie from Golspie, somehow got it wrong, and arrived at Sandside Bay on his motorcycle and sidecar. He was immediately surrounded by masses of police, and as he stood by terrified they crawled underneath his bike and almost took his old Velocet apart. Perhaps the fact that Eddie was coloured and spoke with a cockney accent may have added to police concerns, but it was a very relieved man who arrived back home in Golspie that evening.

John S. Jappy

P.S. 8,000 copies of our leaflet "Low Flying - Your Questions Answered" were distributed throughout the U.K. with a few going to Europe and Canada.

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