Dilemmas in the British Peace Movement since World War II

Abstract

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, founded in 1958, was by 1960 the largest mass movement in Britain in this century. By 1968, however, most of its mass support had evaporated. The present article sees two explanations for this: (1) the CND was an untenable coalition of four distinct political traditions; this made serious internal crises in evitable ; and (2) the CND was never able to gain the allegiance of the British working class. Through brief comparisons to the United States and Italy, the author indicates that these are common failings of most antiwar movements.