Out from Under
HE departure of five more or less dissident I members of the executive of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is no particular sur- prise. For some months the movement has been losing the support of many moderate rank-and- filers and it, was only a matter of time before the inherent stresses in the movement produced fission at the top. The trouble is not so much an argument about civil disobedience and illegal activity as such—CND and the Committee of 100 had already carved up the anti-nuclear movement between them along this dividing line. The present split (which extends to the Com- mittee of 100 as well as CND) is over the scope of the activities to be sponsored by the anti- nuclear groups. Mr. Arthur Goss, one of the departing executive members, put his finger on the trouble when he said last week that if CND was going to become an 'umbrella' for a whole gamut of activities it could count him out. The truth is that since the nuclear test-ban treaty a lof of the steam has gone out of the movement; and even before .the treaty the anxiety of the militants to get on every bandwagon of 'protest' had alarmed genuine anti-nuclear sup- porters. When CND reluctantly gave its official countenance to the demonstrations against the Greek Royal Family it was at once clear that the moderates had finally allowed themselves to be outmanoeuvred. Once the principle of diversi- fication had been admitted the 'umbrella' men were given a very strong' hand, especially since the demonstrations were reasonably successful. It began to look as if the choice for CND was either to disband or fall into the hands of the anarchists. The second of these alternatives is now almost inevitable. Thus we may expect to see CND supporting a growing number of causes whose main attraction will be their appeal to negativism, neutralism and disillusionment and their suitability as vehicles for demonstration (whether violent or non-violent hardly seems to matter). This will seem a very harsh fate to those who have been convinced that the best way to abolish nuclear weapons from the world is to go into the streets; to those who have complained that the movement had failed to think out a coherent case it may.seem an exemplary end.
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