LONDON-Eighty thousand people marched in London October 26 against nuclear missiles.
Called by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the demonstration was one of the largest seen in London in many years.
Demonstrators marched under three main slogans: No Cruise, No Trident, and Cut Arms Spending.
The slogans refer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) decision to site 162 nuclear Cruise missiles in Britain. Also, the British Tory government has decided to spend more than £6,000 million (US$14.4 billion) on buying Trident submarine-launched nuclear missiles from the United States.
The demonstration was officially supported by the Labour Party. There was a wide range of people from the labor move. ment, environmentalists, and antinuclear and political organizations. Most prominent on the demonstration were young people.
The demonstration culminated an intensive six-month campaign against the threat posed by the new missiles. Hundreds of antimissile groups have sprung up around the country.
These efforts got a big boost when the National Conference of the British Labour Party at the beginning of October voted
against Cruise and Trident and for unilateral nuclear disarmament by Britain. This also represented a substantial victory for the left in the Labour Party.
The upsurge of this campaign in Britain represents increased awareness of the danger of nuclear war. The huge amounts of money to be spent on the Trident has caused a great deal of anger, but it was the decision to site the Cruise missiles in Britain that caused particular concern.
They are designed for NATO's strategy, referred to as "theater" nuclear war.
As relations between the United States and the Soviet Union have worsened, an increasing number of reactionary voices have been arguing the possibility of fighting a limited "theater" nuclear war, which would supposedly avoid an all-out nuclear exchange.
The "theater" most often referred to is Europe. Many people in Britain feel the country is being made America's "aircraft carrier"-thus, a prime target in the event of a nuclear war.
A key catalyst of the antimissile campaign in Britain has been the writings of the Marxist historian E.P. Thompson. His pamphlet Protest and Survive sold more than 40,000 copies before being reprinted as a book.
In May of this year, together with the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation,
Thompson launched a European Nuclear Disarmament Campaign, which aims for a nuclear free Europe "from Poland to Portugal." In the past six months Thompson has spoken to huge rallies and meetings all over Britain.
While the founders of the European Nuclear Disarmament Campaign want to attribute blame equally to the United States and the Soviet Union for the new arms race, at many rallies socialists have spoken either from the platform or the floor to point to the Cruise missiles as part of Washington's war drive, which is being supported by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The antimissile campaign has repercussions at every level of the British labor movement. The 1.75 million-strong Transport and General Workers Union recently affiliated to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
In the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, the question of nuclear weapons is an issue in the current elections for new union president. The right-wing incumbent, Terry Duffy, supports NATO and the missiles. His left-wing opponent, Bob Wright, calls for the missiles to be cancelled.
The president of the Yorkshire area of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Arthur Scargill, backs the campaign against the missiles and against all forms of nuclear power.
Every local branch of the Yorkshire NUM has an official responsible for coordinating the fight against nuclear energy.
The missiles are already an issue in the fight over the new leader of the Labour Party. One of the candidates, Michael Foot, announced that if he became prime minister he would send the Cruise missiles back to the United States.
One of the main speakers at the October 26 rally was the leader of the left wing in the Labour Party, Tony Benn. He argued that the Tory government was carrying out an old trick-trying to divert attention from injustice at home by concentrating attention on the alleged enemy abroad.
He said that a future Labor government would refuse to base its defense policy on nuclear weapons.
Supporters of the British Trotskyist paper, Socialist Challenge, have played a prominent part in the campaign against the missiles. At every stage of the campaign they have linked the decision to site the missiles in Britain with the militarization policy of the U.S. government.
Socialist Challenge argues that opposing the missiles logically means pulling out of the imperialist war alliance based on nuclear weapons-NATO. They also link opposition to the missiles to defending the revolutions in Nicaragua and Grenada, menaced by U.S. imperialism.
On October 23, a Socialist Challenge rally in London to build for the demonstration was addressed by Sakai, a leader of the Japanese Trotskyist movement, and
Doug Jenness, a leader of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party.
Sakai outlined the buildup of Japanese militarism. Jenness explained how American youth had defied the militarization plans of the U.S. government by opposing the draft registration.
The October 26 demonstration in London shows that thousands of British youth have now joined in that opposition.