Приветствие председателя Кампании за ядерное разоружение К. Хадсон

Greetings to the Federation for Peace and Conciliation on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK.

On this occasion of your 60th anniversary, we are proud to send greetings from one citizens' movement for peace to another, across continents, uniting our peoples in our common struggle for peace.

Our own organisation, CND, has recently marked its 50th anniversary, and we have reflected on the significance of our movement, in helping achieve positive steps towards peace and nuclear disarmament, and in creating a climate of opinion where the use of nuclear weapons is unthinkable.

Over the past decades, the history of our movements has been the story of those fighting for humanity against the horror of war. It is the story of ordinary people's struggle to shape a world without nuclear weapons and war, based on legality and morality; to make our governments responsive and accountable over our right to stay alive, our right to breathe air free of radio-active pollution, our right to say no to the indiscriminate killing of other peoples.

CND has been most successful and effective when it has related directly to people's most pressing concerns - linking our issues to the reality of what is going on in the world. In recent years this has included not only the need to abolish all nuclear weapons; but also strong opposition to the illegal war on Iraq; opposition to the US so-called missile 'defence' system - which we see as a destabilising provocation; opposition to NATO's nuclear policy and its expansion; and for a just peace in the Middle East.

We are pleased to welcome the new initiatives towards nuclear disarmament pursued by Presidents Obama and Medvedev and we look forward to the securing of a replacement for the START Treaty and substantial reductions in nuclear weapons, moving towards the essential position - now so widely supported - of Zero nuclear weapons in the world.

We look forward to increased cooperation with the Federation for Peace and Conciliation in the years ahead, until we achieve our shared common vision of a world of peace, free from war and nuclear weapons.

Greetings of peace in your 60th anniversary year.

Kate Hudson, Chair Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament