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The key speaker was Labor Party Leader Foot, who was so moved by the size and enthusiasm of the crowd that he spoke twice. His message: "Only by disarmament can we properly protect our people." The organization behind the huge rally was the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament. Two years ago, the group had 3,000 members; today, counting its affiliates, it has 250,000. C.N.D.'s secretary-general is Monsignor Bruce Kent, 52, a Roman Catholic priest who served in the British army as a tank commander after World War II. The monsignor is a pacifist, but, by his estimate, 80% of the organization he heads is not. Says he:
"Although we are entirely opposed to weapons of mass destruc- tion, I suppose many of my colleagues would support conven tional weapons of one kind or another. No one at C.N.D. is suggesting that any country abandon all military defense." The C.N.D. wants Britain emptied of nuclear weapons because, says Kent, "we are not prepared to be the first casualties in a war between the superpowers."
But the C.N.D. is not urging the U.S. to scrap its own nuclear arsenal. "What we are saying to both superpowers," points out Kent, "is that without any more negotiations you could both cut massively into your nuclear stocks without risk because you both have enough for deterrence." The national headquarters of C.N.D. is a few cramped offices in London's seedy Camden Town. Twelve full-time staffers (two of whom are Communists) and 20 volunteers clad in jeans and T shirts stuff envelopes, sort mail and dispatch the leaflets, badges and stickers that have already brought in $200,000 this year.
The floor is stacked with copies of C.N.D.'s magazine, Sanity, whose circulation has increased from 5,000 to 60,000 in a year. Up a flight of stairs, Bruce, as the monsignor is known to his associates, works at an old wooden desk. He is on the phone constantly, helping run up a $2,400 monthly bill as he talks to reporters, accepts speech invitations, consults with labor unions and coordinates activities with peace groups on the Continent. Still, the operation is not as rickety as the surroundings suggest: on the third floor is the computer that stores the names and addresses of members.
The second major British peace figure is E.P. Thompson, 57, the spokesman for European Nuclear Disarmament, an 18-member committee of intellectuals and activists who have similar goals to the C.N.D. In a pamphlet titled "Protest and Survive," Thompson argues that the deployment of new missiles in Western Europe is part of a plot to protect the U.S. from nuclear war at Europe's expense. America's NATO allies would be obliterated, he writes, although immense damage would also be inflicted upon Russia west of the Urals. The deployment of 160 cruise missiles in Britain, Thompson adds, is thus so frightening to the Soviets that they might actually invite a pre-emptive strike.
Italy's interest in the antimis-Isile movement was late to develop.
The main force behind the "Movement for Peace and Disarmament," which brought more than 200,000 protesters into the streets of Rome last month, was the Italian Communist Party.
"Without their decision, such a large demonstration would not have taken place," says Columnist Arrigo Levi. In fact, it was Italy