The Scottish Revival in the 1970s

Ian Davidson.

At the beginning of the 1970s, CND in Scotland was just as weak as in the rest of the U.K. One or two members went down to the annual conference, and we had a representative on National Council. Occasionally, someone would breathe life into a local CND group, sell pamphlets, or feed lonely resolutions into political parties, councils or trade unions. Sanity carried articles from Scotland; a few people went round delivering it; many of us did no more than read it – if that!

But underneath the general apathy, wide support for nuclear disarmament lived on. The memories of the anti-Polaris campaign were vivid and the songs were still sung.

Some people now pinned their anti-nuclear hopes on the revived Scottish National Party. But in almost the political parties, trade unions, churches and community organizations, there were key people in their thirties and forties, who were increasingly influential and who had first seen political daylight in Aldermaston. The large (but usually emigrant) Scottish waves in the “drop-out” flood also retained a lot of affection for CND (and the committee of 100). Some of those currents flowed together briefly, on the initiative of Morris Blythman, for a Glasgow-to-Holy-Loch motorcade and rally in 1971.

But the tide turned in 1972/3. British CND decided to hold its next main demo (traditionally at Easter) away from the South East, especially Aldermaston. There was a hunch that in 1973 Scotland could provide the first growth- point in this public side of our campaigning. CND decided to show up the full Clydeside complex of nuclear weapons bases, by going to the British Polaris base at Faslane, rather than to the already notorious US base at Holy Loch.

The Scottish ground was sown very carefully in the autumn of 1972, by John Cox and Dick Nettleton from the South, to make sure of all-party support (except Tory). This headed off the bitter sectarianism which sometimes disgraces Scottish radical politics. The demonstration was a fair size for a two –day event; the cheerful atmosphere, the music and the hospitality in Clydebank made a strong impact. There was a “peace train” from London and an “exorcism” at the Faslane base by Bruce Kent. Ian Munro’s overall organization was brilliant, with excellent help from the trade unions and local authorities.

A whole series of Clydside demos for nuclear disarmament followed over the next eight years, and most benefitted from the lessons of that 1973 success: they were imaginative, they were carefully planned and budgeted, and they involved early inter-party political preparation. The next time everything clicked quite as well was when we organized a Peace Cruise to the Holy Loch in September 1977, (after 1973, we steered clear of Easter for our main event. This avoided close comparisons with the Aldermaston legend; and it enabled the handful of really keen people to support both an English Easter event and a Scottish summer demo!).

But in between these public spasms, a steady base of local activity was built up. In the summer of 1973, Scottish CND was re-formed. A solid foundation of affiliations, especially from trade unions, was laid down; and a unique “regional” membership scheme was started. CND activities were fostered first in the main cities and the colleges. For stability, with limited resources the Scottish CND Committee had a clear Glasgow base, with a small office, regular fund-raising jumble sales and weekly street-petitioning from April to September. We sent out a two-monthly newsletter and held a general meeting of Scottish CND at least every six months and not always in Glasgow.

We were well aware of weaknesses. There was a crying need for simple literature, but we produced little Scottish material. Our press work was very weak after 1973. Our organized contact with youth and with women, especially housewives, was poor, and our work in the churches was hesitant for several reasons; much church opinion was hostile to our message while those who were sympathetic within had their own separate peace groups. When our message was accepted, our image was still rather “left-wing”.

Films were quickly found to be a success: we followed Yorkshire CND’s example and bought our own copy of “The War Game”. Our fruitful activities were our interventions of various kinds, at trade unions and nationalist events, and at ecology occasions which were making the word “nuclear” better understood.

A vital ingredient for Scottish CND’s steady growth in the 1970’s was diversity: diversity of individual members who worked together, and diversity of activities. And of these activities, one of the most valuable was one of the least spectacular – street-petitioning.

Street-petitioning was done mostly on a Saturday afternoon, especially in the centers of Glasgow and Aberdeen. It gave us a wide audience of ordinary people who would never come looking for us. It gave us a regular weekly income from countless and painless 10p donations. It gave us an outlet for huge numbers of badges, leaflets and othe literature. It let us persuade the most interested people to join us in activity. And it told us quickly how public opinion was responding to events and media reports over the years- French open-air nuclear tests, the neutron bomb, early talk of Cruise missiles, and NATO “modernization”decisions and so on.

If you want to be in touch with the (wo) man in the street, you’ve got to be there!