Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.71.5
Object Name
poster
Title
'It's a shame they can't abolish the nuclear threat. Make London nuclear free. GLC. Working for London and Peace.'
Place
London
People
Greater London Council (GLC), Ken Livingstone, Labour Party, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
Events
Peace Year (1983)
Description
A white poster with text in blue and red. The blue reads: 'It's a shame they can't abolish the nuclear threat', and the red 'Make London nuclear free. GLC. Working for London and Peace'. The Greater London Council anti-nuclear campaign logo of hands breaking a nuclear missile in two is in the bottom right corner.
This poster was created by the Greater London Council (GLC) as part of a campaign against nuclear weapons, including storing nuclear weapons for allied countries like the USA, or the use of nuclear weapons by the UK, and against nuclear waste being transported through London on freight trains. After Manchester City Council declared the city a 'nuclear free zone' in 1980, other councils across the UK followed suit, including the GLC under leader Ken Livingstone. This brought the councils into conflict with the Conservative government (the 'they' referenced in the poster text). The colours of text on the poster - blue for the unnamed people being criticised for not abolishing the nuclear threat, and red for the positive statement about making London nuclear free, are coded for viewers to recognise as references to the party colours of the Conservatives, and Labour Party respectively. Anxieties about nuclear weapon usage were high due to the Cold War between two nuclear capable countries,
the USA and the Soviet Union. The USA had begun storing nuclear weapons in the UK, which made the UK a target to the Soviet Union in the event of an escalation of the Cold War.
As well as advertisements like this one, council leader Ken Livingstone from the Labour Party declared 1983 to be 'Peace Year' as a way to advocate for nuclear disarmament, and was a strong supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament which held large anti-nuclear marches in London. The left wing administration of the GLC was a fierce opponent of the then Conservative government, and often held policies which contradicted government stance, including this one. The Conservatives eventually abolished the GLC in 1986. Livingstone was leader of the GLC from 1981-1986, and became London's leader again as Mayor of London in 2000-2008. He also served as an MP for 14 years and continued to strongly support CND's work and ties with the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which had experienced atomic bombings during the Second World War.
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