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Diocese of Leeds Justice and Peace Commission (1)

Tag: CND

Hiroshima and Nagasaki remembered – events in Yorkshire

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Thursday, 06/08/2026 - 12:00 - 13:00

BradfordCND supporters will gather in Norfolk Gardens (behind the Town Hall) to remember the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – all welcome to join. Contact:  For any queries please contact 01274 730795 or email info@yorkshirecnd.org.uk Wreath on Hiroshima Memorial, Norfolk Gardens, Bradford. Thursday, 06/08/2026 - 13:00 - 14:00

Sheffield

CND supporters will gather in Tudor Square to remember the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – all welcome to join.For any queries please contact 01274 730795 or email info@yorkshirecnd.org.uk Tudor Square Sheffield Thursday, 06/08/2026 - 11:00 - 12:00

Manchester

The event will start in the Living Worlds Gallery in Manchester Museum at 11am where a piece of melted glass from the Hiroshima attack is on display along with hundreds of paper cranes, the symbol of peace that came out of the attack. We will then move upstairs for readings, poetry and some choir singing. Organised by:  Manchester City Council with support from GMD CNDVenue:  Manchester Museum, Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PLContact:  For any queries please contact 07840 303539 or email gmdcnd@gn.apc.org melted metal glass from hiroshima Saturday, 08/08/2026 - 14:30 - 15:30

Hebden Bridge

CND supporters will gather on the Wavy Steps by Packhorse Bridge to remember the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – all welcome to join.  Wavy steps Hebdon Bridge Sunday, 09/08/2026 - 10:30 - 11:30

Leeds

CND supporters will gather in Park Square to remember the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – all welcome to join. A gathering of people Sunday, 09/08/2026 - 14:00 - 15:00

Manchester

Greater Manchester & District CND invites all our friends and supporters to join us to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bombing. The event will take place in Heaton Park by the peace tree behind the Stables Block. Heaton Park Stables

Independence from America Day

A day of information about what goes on at the Menwith Hill base and why we should be concerned – speakers, music, stalls and refreshments. PROGRAMME (DRAFT) 3pm Assemble at Kettlesing Millenium Village Hall 3.10pm Welcome by Hazel Costello, Chair of MHAC. 3.15pm What is happening at Menwith Hill? Led by Professor Dave Webb (Chair of Yorkshire CND) 3.45pm Visit to the Main Gates of Menwith Hill by those who want to go. 4pm *Reading of the Declaration of Independence from America. Moira Hill and Peter Kenyon Reading of a letter to the Officer Commanding Menwith Hill. 4.15pm Return to Kettlesing Millennium Village Hall. 4.30pm Park Against the Dark. Led by Jim Scott. PARC Against DARC is the campaign which has set up to oppose the US military building a giant 27 dish DARC radar array in Pembrokeshire in Wales with the stated purpose of militarily dominating space. DARC (Deepspace Advanced Radar Capability) is part of AUKUS and Northrop Grumman have been awarded the contract to build 3 DARC sites globally. DARC poses great risks to health, environment, tourism and security. With growing political and public support as well as increasing public awareness the campaign aims to stop the US/MOD’s planning application for DARC in its tracks. Please visit www.parcagainstdarc.com for more information. 5pm Refreshment Break and opportunity to see the stalls. 5.30pm What is happening in Space? Led by Carla Ibled “Dr Carla Ibled is a Career Development Fellow in International Political Economy at Durham University. Her research on neoliberal networks’ activism has led her to study how these networks have been involved in long-term lobbying campaigns for the commercialisation of outer space. She published a report about this (“Star Wars: Why the Left Should Protect the Status of Space as Humanity’s Commons”) with the British think tank Common Wealth in April 2025.” 5.50pm Commoners Choir Led by Jane Morland A strange yet open and inclusive choir that meets in leeds. We come from all over the place, and try to act more like a band or a gang than a choir. we sing our own songs, about the world immediately around us, about inequality, hope. 6.05pm Surveillance matters Led by Martin Schweiger 6.15pm Open Microphone 6.30pm Konrad Kinard Konrad Kinard (musician, producer, performer) bolted from Texas, where he was born, as quickly as he came of age. He worked and lived in New York before finally escaping the US completely. He has lived and worked in Montreal, London, Berlin, and now Leeds. He has worked with Rhys Chatham, Arthur Russell, La La La Human Steps, Bettina Koester(Malaria), Fiona Templeton, Glenn Branca, Slash Orchestra, Zero Ping, and the Woodentops. He assisted the Belorussian duo, Naviband,for the English release of Girl In White. Additionally he has served as a producer for music and performances in Europe and the US. As well, he has created Sexiland, a Berlin dance club in the‘90s, and in the 2000s, Stranded In Neverland ( SIN Bar) Performance Space, also in Berlin. In London, he presented Bisplitters and The Butterfly Lounge. His music is a fusion of Americana, Experimental, Folk, Jazz and Rock, often engaging in timely topics. His latest album release is just that. War Is Family (Surviving the Cold War and the Unraveling of an Imagined America) is a spoken word and music ‘radio drama/opera’ about growing up in Texas in the Cold War years. Excerpts from this album will be presented. 7pm Closing Words and thanks

26 July – Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the end of the Second World War, 80 years on

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by Sean Morris, Commission member

 

Over the past 12 months, commemorations have taken place to remember the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. These have included the 80th anniversary of D-day, remembering VE Day on 8th May and soon there will be commemorations for the formal end of the war with VJ Day on 15th August.

 

As is usual, many of these commemorations are often militaristic in style, with parades or events at town and city war memorials. They are all the more poignant as the veterans of that huge conflict are now small in number and there are fewer eyewitness accounts to the war, regardless of all the documentaries on television, as these people inevitably reduce in number.

 

For the peace and justice movement, one of the most notable and tragic of anniversaries arrives on August 6th and August 9th with the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic weapon attacks. The use of nuclear weapons in war led to the direct deaths of over 200,000 people in the two cities, either vapourised or burnt to death on the day or suffering the awful effects of radiation on their bodies. Many more have had radiation illnesses up to the present day.

 

The attacks also arguably helped initiate the following decades of the Cold War, as the world came very close on many occasions to a third use of nuclear weapons in warfare. There were also the regular and highly destructive testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific Ocean, affecting indigenous communities in Australia and in the deserts of Nevada and Semipalatinsk, and affecting many other people from around the world.

thumbnail_20240806_135720 For over 20 years I have been involved with the local government organisation, Mayors for Peace. I was the Mayors for Peace lead officer when I worked in Leeds City Council, and I was the UK and Ireland Mayors for Peace Secretary in Manchester City Council from 2008 – 2021. Led by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this group of over 8,500 towns and cities in 175 countries and regions around the world seeks to build support for a more peaceful world free from nuclear weapons.

 

It engages closely with the Nobel Peace Laureate group the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the current Nobel Peace Laureate Nihon Hidankyo (the Japanese Confederation of A and H-bomb Sufferers Organisation) and many other local, national and international peace groups. Many Mayors for Peace members will be holding events for Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day around the world.

 

It is important in this 80th anniversary year to keep the story of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki alive to our current generation, as the number of hibakusha (A-bomb survivors) is also declining rapidly now. As a Vice President of Mayors for Peace, the Lord Mayor of Manchester and the UK & Ireland Mayors for Peace Secretary will represent its members at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Ceremonies and the Executive & General Conferences of Mayors for Peace.

 

But there will also be lots of chances for you to join with them in active solidarity with the hibakusha, to call for a more peaceful world, at a time when nuclear proliferation is beginning to grow again in our volatile world.

183535_4f6a95af Here are some of the events in and around the Leeds and Salford Dioceses:

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  • Leeds – a solemn commemoration with readings, wreath laying, choir singing and the reading of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Declarations will take place in Park Square, Leeds city centre by the Mayors for Peace tree and plaque from 10.30am – 11.30am on Saturday August 9th. All are welcome to attend
  • Bradford – a commemoration will take place in Norfolk Gardens behind Bradford City Hall from 12pm – 1pm on Wednesday August 6th.
  • Hebden Bridge – a commemoration will take place by the wavy steps at the historic pack horse bridge in the centre of Hebden Bridge from 11am – 12pm on Wednesday August 6th. All are welcome to attend.
  • Keighley – a commemoration will take place in Keighley Town Hall Square from 11am – 12pm on Wednesday August 6th. All welcome.
 

  • Manchester – I will be hosting Manchester City Council’s official solemn Hiroshima Day commemoration in Manchester Museum, Oxford Road, Manchester from 11.30am – 12.30pm. We will have readings, a minute silence for all innocent victims of warfare and a group reading of the UN Peace Affirmation.
  • Heaton Park, Manchester – the Nagasaki Day commemoration will take place by one of Manchester’s gingko peace trees in the Western Pleasure Grounds by the Stables Café from 2 – 3pm on Saturday August 9th with readings and choir singing.
  • There will also be walks of the Manchester Peace Trail on August 6th and 9th. Reserve a ticket by going to this weblink: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hiroshima-nagasaki-80th-anniversary-manchester-peace-walks-tickets-1477332103089
 

Events will be taking place across the country with major events in London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, at the National Eisteddfod and in many more places. Please do try and go along to a local event this August.

28 Jan – Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

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by Dave Webb, Chair of YCND

Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament held its Annual General Meeting on 18th January 2025 in Huddersfield. With the world on the brink of chaos through the threat of nuclear war and the realities of climate change, plus the devastating wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan…. it was timely to bring together supporters to look back at our work and explore ways forward. 

The annual review was presented by the Chair, Dave Webb, with a month-by-month slideshow of YCND activities in 2024, and a look at coordination and support roles. 

CND continued to call for talks to stop the war in Ukraine, and opposed the use by Ukraine of UK Storm Shadow missiles to strike targets in Russia as a dangerous escalation risking a devastating response. 

YCND Agm powerpoint presentation The continued destruction of Gaza, and the suffering of so many, was also a huge issue. We backed the calls for a ceasefire, supported student protest camps and joined, leafleted and spoke at the pro-Palestine weekly marches in in the region. 

Another major focus was at Lakenheath, where US nuclear bombs may already have arrived. CND supported events during the National Day of Action in May, and the events in July that included a 3-day march from Norwich to Lakenheath and to the Peace Camp.  

Around 20-30 other events were held, including screenings of the film “Threads”; supporting demonstrations at Menwith Hill; “Artists against the Bomb” events; commemorations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and support for the Nobel Peace Prize award to the survivors of the atomic bombings. 

Screenshot 2025-01-27 091458 CND worked with the Leeds Peace Links committee to organise the annual O. Palme Peace Lecture, presented in 2024 by Jeremy Corbyn, at the Royal Armouries; and with the Movement for the Abolition of War to hold a Peace History Conference at the newly re-opened Peace Museum in Saltaire. 

Following the review, Steve Barwick, Chair of the Trustees of the Nuclear Education Trust, spoke on: “What should the new Government’s Strategic Defence Review conclude about Nuclear Disarmament?” He highlighted the findings of NET’s report ‘The Future for UK Defence, Diplomacy and Disarmament ’ launched in Parliament in May. The report sought to identify how the UK can help reduce tensions and get the world back on a path to nuclear disarmament. The aim was to open up a debate between mainstream and more radical voices. This was followed by discussions on why people no longer seem to be concerned about nuclear disarmament -- and how we might further progress the campaign in Parliament and elsewhere. 

As for 2025: National CND is preparing a demonstration in March at Barrow, where nuclear submarines are built, and monthly vigils and a Peace Camp in April are to be held at Lakenheath. There will be much more.  

What we did in 2024 Organised and participated in a number of meetings throughout the region and beyond Provided newsletters and leaflets Continues to build contacts and word with peace and environmental groups in the region Organised webinars and supported groups around the region Organised, mobilised and joined demonstrations Organised and helped with various events on peace, disarmament and climate change Yorkshire CND will be planning our regional activities at our Strategy Day in March. If you would like to join in, contact info@yorkshirecnd.org.uk and find more information from www.yorkshirecnd.org.uk and www.cnduk.org. 

More details of the AGM and Steve Barwick’s presentation will be posted on the Yorkshire CND website.