The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) began in 1957 with a small group of public figures and grew into a mass movement. Martin Shaw details CND’s rise, the activists involved, the tensions around direct action, and the culture and social groups that the campaign mobilized to "ban the bomb".

The launch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958 signalled the first modern protest movement in Britain. Martin Shaw details CND''s rise, the activists involved, the tensions with the Committee of 100 around direct action, and the culture, radicalism and social groups that were mobilized to "ban the bomb".


The book discusses how a new movement in the 1980s, led by European Nuclear Disarmament and the Greenham women’s peace camp, helped remove cruise missiles from Europe and end the Cold War. It examines how the campaign influenced – and was influenced by – antiwar movements from Vietnam to Iraq and Gaza, as well as the environmental and women’s movements.


As the nuclear threat returns in the 2020s, this study shows that the antinuclear movement’s ideas and the non-violent direct action it pioneered still reverberate in the campaign against the UK’s "nuclear deterrent" – and in protest movements from Stop the War to Extinction Rebellion.