An Attempt to Subvert the US Military, December 1966

A further document relating to the history of Aberdeen YCND (mid-1960s vintage) has come to light in the form of the leaflet transcribed here. Current world events suggest that, although the base at Edzell is no more, some at least of the leaflet's content may be only too relevant today. 

TO U.S. PERSONNEL (EDZELL)

This weekend while we are fasting in protest against your Government’s policy in Vietnam, and while you are celebrating Christmas with your families, there is occurring a truce of two days duration in that war-torn country. After the truce is over the war will be resumed with ever greater ferocity. More civilians will be accidentally killed by American troops, more members of the N.L.F. have their flesh seared by Napalm and their crops poisoned by the chemicals which are in daily use in Vietnam.

All over the world people are crying out in protest against the crimes being perpetrated in Vietnam by the American Government, in the names of freedom and humanity. We have come here to add our voices to this protest. To appeal not to those of you who are so blind and so unassailable in your bigotry, so hate-filled that you would gladly kill us as well as slaughter the Vietnamese, but to those of you who have misgivings about the war. The war being waged in your name, the war that is CRUEL, ILLEGAL and IMMORAL.

There are many amongst you who see through the lies put out by your Government, who know that the people of South Vietnam are not heroically resisting Communist aggression but are fighting a foreign invader from 5,000 miles across the sea. Who would agree with former President Eisenhower when he said, “I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indo-Chinese affairs who didn’t agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possible 80% OF THE POPULATION WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR THE COMMUNIST HO CHI MINH” (White House Years, 1953-6, p.372). But who do not draw his conclusions, namely that they should not be allowed to take such a course as it would prejudice America’s access to supplies of certain minerals and raw materials in South East Asia. The Vietnamese are suffering not because they are being invaded by Communists, but because of the GREED of certain sections of American society, who are finding war “GOOD BUSINESS”. But war is not good business for the young Americans who through their daily contact with the horror that is Vietnam lose all regard and respect for human life. They are becoming hardened to cutting people down like cloth dummies as they flee, frantic, helpless. ALREADY VIETNAM IS A SCAR ON THE AMERICAN CONSCIENCE THAT CAN NEVER HEAL.

During the days we are here you will see us fasting. Many of you will manage to shrug your shoulders and call us commies but others will know this is not so, you will be unable to ignore us and disregard our leaflets.

We in Britain can only do two things. The first is to stop our Government supporting America in Vietnam. This is difficult because, as Dean Rusk puts it, “AMERICA SUPPORTS THE POUND AND BRITAIN SUPPORTS THE AMERICANS IN VIETNAM”. The second thing we can do, and what we have in fact come here to do is to ask you to DISENGAGE YOURSELF FROM THE AMERICAN MILITARY MACHINE of which you are a part, TO PUT ASIDE ALL CONSIDERATIONS OF JOB AND FAMILY – TO DESERT.

This is a difficult step to take, requiring courage, but as the great Pacifist thinker Tolstoy said, “Not billions of roubles, not millions of soldiers, no institutions or wars have so much power as the simple declaration of a free man that he considers something to be  right or wrong.” WE ASK YOU TO MAKE THIS DECLARATION.

The war continues, the war ESCALATES, WE GIVE YOU A WARNING. This conflict will lead to World War III unless stopped soon. In this you and your families will CERTAINLY DIE, and the attack which Edzell base will draw upon itself will kill by fire and fallout a large number of the population in Dundee and Aberdeen. By leaving the American forces you would be helping in some measure to avert this terrible prospect and also to bring about a lasting peace in VIETNAM.

CHRISTMAS 1966

THIS FAST IS SUPPORTED BY THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS –

[All supplied with Aberdeen addresses]

YOUTH FOR PEACE IN VIETNAM

Y.C.N.D.

COMMITTEE OF 100

“MEGATON” GROUP

Further information:-

http://www.ivycom.com/edzell/site/ - for background on the base.

https://lenathehyena.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/scotlands-radical-youth-1960s-scotland-ban-the-bomb-and-anti-vietnam-movement-in-aberdeen/ - background on the protestors.

Captured American tank on display to tourists in Vietnam, summer 2017

Scots Against War, mid 1960s

Extract from article 'The spies who stayed out in the cold', Inside Story magazine no.9, May/June 1973:

Back cover of Inside Story issue no.9 

   During all this time [1963-64] a parallel but completely independent response to the situation in the Committee of 100 had taken place in Scotland. Some Glasgow activists who had attended the Way Ahead conference in February 1963 were impressed by the arguments of Beyond Counting Arses, and developed their ideas in a similar way. 
   The first public indication of this phenomenon was the appearance at the Holy Loch demonstration on 25 May 1963 of a duplicated leaflet called How to disrupt, obstruct and subvert the Warfare State, and signed 'Scots Against War'. This was followed by an irregular series of publications over the next couple of years, aimed at stimulating radical activity in the nuclear disarmament movement.
   This activity was not confined to argument, and sabotage became frequent and widespread from 1963 to 1966. Several fires were started at the Holy Loch and Faslane bases, and many Civil Defence and Army offices all over the country were broken into and often wrecked. Occasionally some individuals were arrested, but the authorities preferred to keep things quiet. Few charges were brought, and only fines were imposed. The Scots Against War group was never broken, but in the end it faded away.
   In June 1966 the Scottish Solidarity group published as its first pamphlet A Way Ahead, which was a collection of the articles on the Scots Against War and the sabotage issue printed in both Scotland and London, with editorial comments. The subtitle was 'For a New Peace Movement', but the pamphlet virtually marked the end of the old one. Nevertheless, the career of the Scots Against War, inspired by the same idea as the Spies for Peace (and frequently in informal contact with them), may be seen as one of the most successful practical assaults on the military system mounted by the whole nuclear disarmament movement.  

"INSIDE STORY was a brave UK South London based underground alternative publication aimed at the counterculture & focusing on political issues alternative living, inside information etc ."

What the C100 and SfP were bothered about.:

Page preceding the 'Spies' article

The nuclear planners envisaged a scenario in which, among other demographic consequences, the number of (internal) refugees after the bomb dropped would exceed the population of Scotland, plus a large chunk of England and Wales. 

The full article can now be seen (images of pages) at http://radicalhistorynetwork.blogspot.com.

Scots Against War, 1914-18 style

Augmented BOOK REVIEW about -  

Robert Duncan, Objectors & Resisters: Opposition to Conscription and War in Scotland 1914-18 (Glasgow: Common Print/Common Weal, 2015)

Previous publications in the past few years have looked at manifestations in Britain of opposition to the First World War (refs. below) and on the impact of the war more generally in Scotland. While all these works necessarily pay some attention to aspects of the Scottish anti-war scene, Robert Duncan's informative book breaks new ground, drawing together evidence from official records and dissident, mostly left-wing press, sources. His half-dozen chapters cover not only such fairly well-known topics as the Glasgow rent strike, the imprisonment of prominent conscientious objectors (COs) - John MacLean, James Maxton - industrial unrest, and the launch of the Women’s Peace Crusade, but also many lesser-known people and events, deploying newly unearthed material. Some great group photographs and two portraits (of women, Helen Crawfurd and Agnes Dollan) enhance its attractive presentation.

The narrative runs from perspectives and protest in the prelude to war through the mass protest rallies and evolving of the anti-war position in the early months of the conflict to the growth of opposition to the threat of conscription. That threat was of course carried out in early 1916, and the longest chapters (4 and 5) deal with COs: what they said for themselves and what was said against them; their trials, testimonies, and punishment in prisons and labour camps; and their ways of surviving and coping. Finally there is an overview of repression and resistance, peace campaigns, and radical politics, 1916-1918 and the striving for a lasting peace – until the sowing of the "seeds of future conflict" at Versailles.

Without dwelling at undue length on cases of ill-treatment in barracks and prisons the book illustrates the sort of ordeals COs had to face, and the authorities' wilful incomprehension of their principled stand:

‘In my opinion Sangster is more than a little daft, and Maxton more insane than sane. Neither is accessible to reason. They are alike in their exaggerated egoism and in their want of a sense of proportion, and I should not be at all surprised if either or both of them become certifiably insane.’  - Scottish Prison Commissioner Dr James Devon on James Maxton and James Edny Sangster, two COs in Perth prison, 10 Feb.1917.
‘His mind has lost grip to a large extent. That such a man should have been a teacher is a marvel and a mystery. He may yet have to be certified. If he were liberated I do not say he would be quite sane, and he may be a cause of trouble in these times.’ – Dr Devon, report on Maxton as above, 16 June 1917. (Both quotations on p.84)

One of the individuals Duncan looks at who deserve to be more widely remembered is Dr John MacCallum, an Edinburgh graduate in Arts and Medicine who in his early 30s had become Medical Officer of Health for Ayrshire, specialising in tuberculosis (and was a Scottish rugby international). He chose to become a CO rather than seek occupational exemption, and was one of those sent to do noxious work in appalling conditions at an ‘artificial manure’ manufacturers in Broxburn, near Edinburgh, where he was victimised. He had spoken out against abusive treatment of the workers and was accused of exerting a bad influence. (p. 109) A letter of protest about his arrest and recall to the army was addressed to the Home Office in May 1917, but he was returned to Perth prison, where he served a third sentence in 1918.

There are interesting similarities between some of the book’s findings and those of researchers elsewhere, notably the harrowing experiences of COs and their capacity for resistance, the existence of support networks, the active part played by women, and the fact that jingoistic hostility, while troublesome, was less than universal. At the same time special features of the anti-war scene north of the border are brought out, such as the apparently higher incidence of ‘political’ (especially Independent Labour Party) rather than purely religious motivation for conscientious objection, and the greater disinclination for the martyrdom consequent upon maintaining ‘absolutism’ to the point of refusing all alternatives to repeated prison sentences. (p.99) 

The map of opposition is extended beyond Glasgow and ‘Red’ Clydeside to show the varying strength of the movement in other cities - considerable in industrial Dundee. It was more difficult to get the anti-war message across unmolested in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, although there were certainly supporters in each, with large rallies in the former, and Quakers from the latter providing much-needed food and encouragement to COs at Dyce camp. Names of smaller towns like Kilmarnock crop up too, but the map seems to stop short of the Highland line, not surprisingly perhaps since the sources used are mainly concerned with the more populous industrialised areas. Demographic and social factors would have made for a lower number of COs in the Highlands and Islands but there were some in even the most remote locations (see previous posts listed below). In this and other respects the research effort is already being extended as more records become generally available. Appeal tribunal records for Lothian and Peebles, used by Duncan, are now online as are those for the Isle of Lewis, and shortly after the book's publication the invaluable Pearce Register of COs with 17,426 records at time of writing was added to the Imperial War Museum website for Lives of the First World War.

[A version of this review may be published in Medicine, Conflict and Survival in due course: now online: 

free eprint available for the first 50 to click here]

References

Objection Overruled: conscription and conscience in the First World War, by David Boulton, Dent, Cumbria, Dales Historical Monographs in Association with Friends Historical Society, 2014.

Comrades in Conscience: the story of an English Community’s opposition to the Great War, by Cyril Pearce, London, Francis Boutle, 2014.

A Small Vital Flame: anti-war women in NW England 1914-1918, by Alison Ronan, Manchester, Scholars’ Press, 2014.

(Combined review of the 3 above in Medicine, Conflict and Survival - online 6 Nov 2014)

The Flowers of the Forest: Scotland and the First World War, by Trevor Royle, Edinburgh, Birlinn, 2013.

Chapter titles and selected additional notes

1. Prelude to war: perspectives and protest

            Labour Leader claimed 100 protest marches in Scotland, from the Borders to Fraserburgh

2. Wartime objection and protest in Scotland: August-December 1914

            “No war fever” in Glasgow, except in the Jingoistic press...

                    few cases of confrontation or obstruction

3. Opposing the conscription threat: 1915-early 1916

              Munitions Act: Militarisation of labour, "industrial slavery"

                   Glasgow rent strike: 40,000 households. May-Nov. 1915

4. Conscription and conscientious objection 1916-1918: testimonies and trials of objectors

               200 Local Tribunals in Scotland + 50 Appeal Tribunals - 

                    Glasgow busiest, most troubled. Supporters in gallery singing Red Flag, often. 

                    Dundee: <50 applications on opening, many moral/political, nearly all refused

                       – furious reaction in town   

                Central Tribunal test case, Cameron Roberts: setback – political objection ruled out 

                      but Exemption from Combatant Service if sincere objection to taking life.

                Case studies [more on some of these to follow] e.g. Hugh Gemell - 

                        class-war socialist, ILP: "willing to fight to defend a workers’ state."

5. Objection and punishment: prisons and labour camps

                Detention in army camps inc. Cromarty, Fort George;

                                          soldiers “kind & considerate” to CO, mutual help

                 Prison: Barlinnie, Calton, Perth. Health effects: cold, food, hard labour 

                          - almost continual solitary confinement, strict silence;

                          mental & cultural deprivation.

                          “COs developed persistent melancholia & committed suicide” - 

                       Charles Yachnies, Feb.1918, certified insane, “criminal lunatic”

                           – committed to Colney Hatch; died 27-7-18.

                  Not to waste lives as martyrs; opting to disappear; 

                            on the run, anti-war propaganda for board & lodging,

                  Work centres usually in country; compulsion, penal conditions.                                                                           Ballachulish. Cancellation of Xmas leave, 1916:

                              6 AWOL; confrontation, arrests 

                              - hunger strike in prison, threat of forced feeding. Letters, pleas in support.

                                (Primitive, reactionary diagnosis of state of mind - see Maxton above). 

                      Dundee COs refused to act as beaters on Cruachan estate 

                               - shooting birds wrong, inappropriate, against principles                                       

                      Willie McDougall, Glasgow anarchist, tried to organise strike at Dartmoor 

                       - successful escape bid, on bike - with help made it back to Glasgow,  

                        "resumed his political activities." 

6. Repression and resistance, peace campaigns, and radical politics: 1916-1918

             Range of repressive measures, disruption; police raids.

             Early 1917 Aberdeen South by-election - F Pethick-Lawrence; jingo mob.

             Women activists' aim of mobilising anti-militarist campaign 

                         with strong base among working-class women

                         Networks: tenements, streets.

              Glasgow May Day, 1918: the 1st of May was a Wednesday  - 

                   thousands took a day off  (strike, unpaid): 

                   70,000 at  Glasgow Green, 20 platforms.for speakers; "mass civil disobedience".

Plus: Introduction, End Notes, and Names Index.

Previously on this blog:-

Not All Like Lambs to the Slaughter

Conscientious Objectors from Lewis, continuing.

First World War Conscientious Objectors from Scottish Islands: Skye

More Scottish First World War COs: from Orkney, Shetland and Cullen

Scotland's First World War COs: Two Fletts from Findochty

To follow on this blog: More about some of the personalities featured in the book.

At the People's Palace, Glasgow:

"IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO OPPOSED WORLD WAR ONE 

IN ORDER TO CHALLENGE THE PURPOSE OF THE WAR AND THE WASTE OF LIVES.

THEY ALSO CAMPAIGNED FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE, 

AND AGAINST THE EXPLOITATION OF THOSE WHO LIVED IN THE CITY DURING THE WAR."

Contre les Essais Atomiques Français 1966: Photos and recollections

"Marche de la Paix", an Illustrated Memoir

(partly based on an unpublished account by one of the participants, 30 or so years later)
See also: http://smothpubs.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/fallout-from-french-nuclear-tests.html

Supposed to have been inscribed
Marche de la Paix 1966

 

The French nuclear tests in the Pacific in 1966 did not lead to much audible outcry on the other side of the Channel. One group which took action was the Committee of 100, diminished and changed since the days of the Trafalgar Square mass sit-downs but still committed to direct action and civil disobedience in the cause of opposing nuclear weapons, whether "capitalist" or "workers'". A protest march was planned, to go from London to Paris in early July, timed to finish on the Champs Elysées on the 14th, Bastille Day. An advertisement was placed in papers like Freedom and Peace News asking for volunteers to take part.

A mighty handful?

Possibly at the start, in London

It was rather short notice for such an undertaking at a difficult time of year, and only a few responded to the call from different parts of the country, including two students from Aberdeen. They arrived in London to meet together with the then secretary of the C100, who was herself a participant as well as organiser. The march set off on a sunny morning, headed for Brighton (the shortest way to the coast) and the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry crossing. Along the way, bystanders - when there were any - contemplated the placards adorned with Polynesian flowers, exotic names (Muroroa) and slogans in French, with the customary stares and occasional comments, generally showing mere curiosity rather than the hostility that Ban-the-Bombers often experienced and expected in south-east England (criticism of the French going down well, perhaps). Local supporters provided food and drink, overnight accommodation and sometimes company for a bit of the road. In Brighton there was also a meeting and a social under the auspices of the Labour Party left-wing and CND. Hospitality and comforts were appreciated but not without a degree of embarrassment, given that the Labour Party (Wilson's Labour government) and mainstream CND were prime targets of C100 militancy and criticism respectively.

... plus one behind the camera. 
Not quite the full hundred.

Contre Toutes les Bombes

Similar situations, only more so, arose in northern France when some - not all - support came from Communist mayors and local groups, although the C100 had been vociferous in opposing CP influence in CND (and elsewhere), and had even taken the message to Red Square. From arrival in Dieppe, however, the ambiance around the marchers was upbeat and encouraging, almost like a holiday in spite of their seriousness of purpose. Through Normandy to the outskirts of the capital they were surrounded by a fluctuating but by comparison with the English side substantial body of supporters and well-wishers including socialists, anarchists and the MCAA (Mouvement contre les Armaments Atomiques). These variously rallied round with al fresco meals and at least two more elaborate dinners, places to stay - an unoccupied flat, an empty hostel, their own homes - and morale-boosting reinforcement on long stretches of dusty road, frequently rounded off by a "petit tour de la ville", not always a welcome culmination to a tiring day.

On arrival in Dieppe, a walk round the town with French supporters
(the first of many such "tours" in towns en route)

A roadside respite

Il pleut.

(The weather was good most of the way.)

Medals & Mayors

Such a degree of popularity, even if still among a minority, was quite a novelty for the British protest marchers, who were not entirely at ease with it, being mostly of a libertarian persuasion and tending to expend a lot of their political energy on denouncing the traditional left. Some of the French of course shared their views, including a number of young men who were shortly to come up for conscription, and a certain amount of political discussion naturally went on along the way and in the evenings. Walking alongside others who felt strongly enough to make the same protest from a differing viewpoint was not much of a problem either, until their appreciation, if still not uncongenial, began to look like going somewhat over the top. All the same, just as it would have been difficult and discourteous to refuse the "petits tours", it was hardly on the cards to turn down glasses of Pernod and slap-up meals, try to evade the odd champagne reception organised by a communist mayor of a small town, or decline ceremoniously presented souvenirs, notably an ashtray (remember those?) from "Oissel-sur-Seine, la cité des fleurs" and a medal "offert par la ville de Louviers" (no-one had quite got round to getting it inscribed on the back).

A civic welcome frae the toun at Louviers, 
led by the mayor, with great hospitality

On the eve of le quatrorze juillet

At the end of a fortnight's trek, the protest was on schedule to culminate as planned in a calculated attempt to gain maximum publicity with a strictly illegal demonstration down the Champs Elysées, challenging the patriotic fervour building up to the French national day. Up until then there had been few or no hassles from the police, and any opponents among the public had kept their distance. Realising that arrests would become inevitable, the demonstrators delegated one of the British to attend a press conference so that their version of what they were doing and why would be heard, whatever else happened. The rest and a larger number of French, (who of course were risking rather more, especially in the case of intending or actual draft-dodgers), proceeded with the demonstration. They were duly scooped in by the forces of law and order, but in a controlled fashion: "Une à la fois, et sans brutalité", an officer was heard to instruct, no doubt with diplomatic considerations in mind.

An early aerial view of Paris:
Avenue des Champs Elysées leads to the Arc-de-Triomphe (centre)

Not quite a jour de gloire, pas si mal quand même

After a couple of hours spent by the arrestees in a large enough, though bare and overcrowded cage or wild-west-type cell in a police station, another of the British contingent, with about enough knowledge of French to do some interpreting, was summoned to hear their fate. Evidently not wanting to create a set of martyrs or get into international complications, the authorities let them off with a warning that if the offence was repeated, any British who took part would be deported, while the French would have to pay a fine. Since no-one had any ambition to become a martyr and they felt they'd made their point, this was agreed as understood, and the freed protestors returned in modified triumph to the scene of the crime, this time to unwind, reunited with their spokesperson and others. It was not quite all over; a petition against the tests was handed in to the Elysée palace for the attention of the head of state (de Gaulle); it's not known whether he attended to it at all, certainly the tests were far from over.

Accommodation was provided for two of the marchers by this couple in Paris

Thirty years later, the French state embarked on yet another series of nuclear tests in the South Pacific, and found themselves faced with a barrage of opposition from world opinion, on a scale and at a level for which they seemed to be unprepared. The widespread media clamour, diplomatic repercussions, calls for boycotts and mass protests within France and elsewhere contrasted markedly with this small group effort of 1966, perhaps suggesting that the world had moved on in some respects at least. And this time the tests were finally called off.

Previously on this blog:

Fallout from French Nuclear Tests

[nuclear tests, Polynesia, radiation effects, radioactive contamination]

The Lighter Side of Protest

Invited c.2010 to supply anecdotes about the 1960s, a former member of Aberdeen YCND came up with the short compilation of memories below. 

Individuals’ names have been replaced by YC1, YC2 etc. (for Young Comrade/ Young Campaigner).

Sometimes you just had to be there...

  

Singing on the bus going to a demo, to tune of ‘We Shall Overcome’: ‘Aibirdeen for the Cup – some day...’

YC1 selling anarchist newspaper, singing sotto voce ‘Oh Freedom over me..’ and adding ‘It was raining at the time...’

YC1 going in to Lodge Walk [police station] to be questioned by local CID about some incident: ‘If I’m not out in an hour, call the police.’

YC2 used to denounce British subservience to US policy, saying ‘’We are tied by the balls to America’. Once he was giving the  same speech to the Student Christian Movement at a joint meeting with Students’ CND and caught himself in mid-flow: ‘’We are tied to America by the -- strings of finance!’

A custom arose for a few people to stay over at a comrade’s house at the weekend when his mother was out. One week YC3 was stopped on the way by police and had to empty his pockets, which contained a toothbrush among other things.  ‘I always carry a toothbrush on Fridays,’ he explained (pause, dead-pan) ‘ - Religion.’

Sometimes irrelevant or absurd slogans were frivolously added to the serious ones in the interests of general confusion, such as ‘Restore the Stuart Monarchy’ among the anti-war messages, or SEX alongside SAW (Scots against War) – later rationalised for public consumption as Society for the Extermination of Xenophobia.

Student on a grant, faced with a fine to pay: ‘The state giveth and the state taketh away...’

The Press and Journal (or was it the Evening Express) did a write-up on YCND and the anarchist connection, which YC4 read out with great gusto substituting ‘Aibirdeen’s ‘YC5 and YC3’’ as the subject, in extracts like (adapting a quote from police)  ‘We are interested in all YC5 and YC3’s nocturnal activities...’

Flower power had a certain appeal c1967; there was even an attempt or two to put it into practice by presenting the forces of law and order with assorted specimens (‘Hae a floo’er’), possibly with the dubious (from a peace-and-love point of view) motive of annoying them more than anything.

The fashion for eastern mysticism had some echoes too, notably on a demonstration advertised as ‘Coulport-Come-All-Ye’ (1967? [1966]) which ended up with some desultory chanting of ‘mantras’ after a lot of fairly pointless wandering about the countryside. This episode was satirised in ‘Megaton: the [short-lived]’magazine of Aberdeen YCND’ under the heading ‘Om Sweet Om, or Coulport-Where-Were-Ye’… ’

We (YCND and anarchists) used to meet in the Trades Halls, Adelphi, off Union Street on a Sunday afternoon. One week a couple of lecturers from the university came along, apparently out of curiosity. They were surprised to find how youthful the gathering was, and one of them, a psychologist, offered us  [the anarchists] his cellar as an alternative meeting place (perhaps he wanted to observe us). We tried it but it didn’t really suit, although our standards weren’t high. At one point someone was investigating one of the holes in a wall, and someone else yelled ‘Dinna dae that, it’ll be all full of rats and mingin mice!’

YC5 wending his way homewards after a convivial evening in a student residence, flourishing a stick: ‘Death to lamp-posts!’ ‘Death to Corporation things on wheels!’

YC5 trying to persuade YC4, who was still adhering to the SLL [Socialist Labour League] at the time, to come along to a folk-song event: ‘We’ll sing “Trotsky was a good lad”!’

On the plinth

King Edward’s statue in Union Street was a favourite point for (small) demonstrations and vigils. YCND held a fund-raising fast there for War on Want over Christmas 1965. We wanted to pitch some sort of tent but this wasn’t allowed because it was ‘against the bye-laws to have an erection in the vicinity of King Edward’s statue.’ Later it was the scene of some puir daft Goons-meet-Situationist would-be ‘happenings’… 

YCND: When it was all kicking off in Aberdeen

(Extracts edited and expanded - it was a minimalist sort of diary - from diary entries by a 17-year-old first-year student at Aberdeen University in the mid 1960s)

CND-related Diary 1964-65: From a small student society to an active group in the town 

            Year                 Date                 Event/Note

"One should always have
something sensational to read..."

October    1964             Wed. 14th         CND Hop

November 1964             Fr. 2nd              Lumpentrot (Marxist Soc. hop)

November 1964             Thu. 19th           CND Meeting

November 1964             Mon. 30th         Anti-Apartheid Meeting 7.30

Feb.     1965                 Th. 4th              CND Meeting

March   1965                 Fr. 5th               Meeting that wasn't; leaflets; Vietnam; Apartheid debate

March   1965                 Sat. 6th             Vigil 3.30 - 5

April     1965                 Fr. 16th             CND bus from Aberdeen to start of Easter March

April     1965                 Sat.16th            Easter March: High Wycombe - Uxbridge, 19mls.

April     1965                 Sun.17th           Easter March: Uxbridge - Wembley - Ealing Common, 14mls.

April     1965                 Mon.17th           Easter March: Hammersmith - Hyde Pk. - Trafalgar Sq.

May      1965                 Sun. 2nd           May Day March, 2.30; CP: "A merry May Day, comrades."

May      1965                 Tue. 4th            Meeting of Students' CND with Students' Christian Movement

May      1965                 Sun. 9th            Afternoon with YS comrades

May      1965                 Mon. 10th          Press & Journal re. Cowdray Hall heckle & walk-out

May      1965                 Fr. 14th             "Helping the police with their enquiries." 

May      1965                 Tue. 18th           CND AGM

May      1965                 Thu. 20th           Leaflets. Oxford Union debate, majority of 27

May      1965                 Fr. 21st             Vietnam meeting 7.30

June     1965                 Sun. 6th 2.30     YCND in Trades Halls, Adelphi; folk-club; visitor from C100

June     1965                 Sun. 13th 2.30   YCND; folk-club, Martin Carthy

June     1965                 Mon. 14th         YCND bods in Falkland (Cafe) - also later mentions

June     1965                 Wed. 16th         mini-van; "working for the party in darkest Mastrick"

June     1965                 Sun. 20th          YCND, Civil Defence sub.cmte; folk-club

June     1965                 Mon. 21st         YCND at St. Mary's Youth Club

June     1965                 Wed.. 23rd        "St. Mary's Folk Song Clique"

June     1965                 (Fr.) 25th           Dundee stopover on way to Glasgow

June     1965                 Sat. 26th           FASLANE; Demonstrators fined at Dumbarton, 

Aberdeen student at Faslane in June 1965
(not the writer of this diary or blog)

June     1965                 30th                  Lobby of Parliament re. Vietnam

August  1965                 3rd                   Court cases in Dumbarton

August  1965                 6th                    HIROSHIMA 20th anniversary

August  1965                 Sun. 8th            "RSG"

August  1965                 Mon. 30th         Freedom: Scots Against War again

September 1965             Sat. 11th           PORTON; London

September 1965             Sun. 12th          London: Hyde Park; CUCaND* meeting, Housmans (Tariq Ali)

September 1965             Thu. 16th           London: Freedom Press

October    1965                 Fri. 1st              YCND, Falkland

October    1965                 Sat. 2nd            Students' Societies Morning. "Reception for Wilson at Dyce"

October    1965                 Tue. 12th           CND meeting

October    1965                 Fr. 22nd            Lumpentrot (Marxist Soc. hop)

*CUCaND = Colleges and Universities Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Looking back 45 years later, the diarist as above recalled "the mid-sixties Aberdeen YCND, a phenomenon worthy of being written up in its own right":
"Attracting 70 or 80 to meetings at its height, its activities included white-washing slogans on the streets, a money-raising fast for War on Want, raids on the nearest Civil Defence centre, leafleting at Edzell USAF base, a protest fast at Rosyth naval dockyard, producing 2 or 3 issues [more, actually] of a magazine, Megaton, and, for some of us, supporting local busmen and paperworkers' struggles and trying to sell Solidarity round high-rise council flats - not to mention organising sundry demos, late licences, folk-song sessions and weekends in the hills." 

For more on the group and what happened next see: 
https://lenathehyena.wordpress.com/tag/aberdeen-ycnd/

(includes another diary from 1965, by a 15-year-old schoolgirl)