London remembers Hiroshima and Nagasaki

This year marks the 74th anniversary of the dropping of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Commemoration events will be taking place across the city, including a peace walk through central London, and ceremonies in Tavistock Square and London’s Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park. Below are a list of all events taking place. If yours is not on this list, please contact info@londoncnd.org.uk and let us know what you’re planning so we can add it!

Hiroshima Commemoration Peace Walk

Join us on Sunday 4th August for a guided peace through London and discover some of the people and places in the city associated with international peacemaking - from the Gandhi Statue in Tavistock square to Victoria Tower Gardens nearby parliament.

London CND Hiroshima Day Ceremony

This year we'll be back for our annual commemoration service in Tavistock Square on 6th August, opened by Cllr Maryam Mayor of Camden, and compered by London CND Vice President Jenny Jones of the Green Party, with the usual mix of performers and speakers.

Kingston Peace Council/ CND Hiroshima Day event

Assemble 8.30 pm, 6th August, in Canbury Gardens on the Kingston river bank. Please bring white flowers to cast onto the water in remembrance of those who died, and candles to illuminate the path beside the river.

Organised by: Kingston Peace Council/CND

Contact: 0208-399-2547

Hiroshima to Chernobyl: No to Nuclear

Hosted by Bruce Kent, with a video link up with Hannah Kemp Welche in Hiroshima, CND's representative at the Japanese Conference Against A&H Bombs. More speakers tbc.

Nagasaki Day Peace Walk and Lantern lighting ceremony

On Friday 9th August, there will be a peace walk from Westminster Cathedral after the service for Franz Jaegerstaetter, to the London Peace Pagoda, followed by a Lantern-Lighting Ceremony. Timings TBC but for more information please contact londonpeacepagoda@gmail.com

Finchley Hiroshima and Nagasaki Commemoration

On Saturday 10th August, Finchley’s annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemoration ceremony will take place at VIctoria Park, Ballards Lane, Finchley (nearest postcode N3 1LY). Meeting by the commemorative cherry tree at 11am, a minute of silence will be held, and participants are invited o bring flowers to lay beneath the tree and to share tea and thoughts afterwards at the café. Contact: Charles Wicksteed finchley@traknat.org.uk for more information. (Accessibility: Level access over grass. Nearby parking for blue badge holders.)

Hiroshima Day Commemoration Peace Walk

Join us on Sunday 4th August for a commemorative peace walk through London and discover some of the people and places in the city associated with international peacemaking.

In this guided walk with Valerie Flessati and Pat Gaffney we'll be making our way from the Gandhi Statue in Tavistock square to Red Lion Square, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Westminster, finishing in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to Parliament. During the course of the walk we'll be joined by Bruce Kent - Honorary Vice President of CND. Though this is a guided walk, those attending are welcome to drop out on the route when/if they need to.

We’ll be meeting at 2pm at the Gandhi statue in Tavistock Square. Tickets are free, but limited, so make sure to book yours now here;

Jeremy Corbyn remembers Walter Wolfgang

Walter Wolfgang at Aldermaston

Around 100 people attended CND Vice President Walter Wolfgang’s funeral service in North London on 6 June, many of them London CND members. Known to many as the old gent evicted from 2005 Labour conference for heckling then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw over the Iraq War and detained under the prevention of terrorism Act, Walter was a lifelong nuclear disarmer and anti-war activist, and a campaigner for Palestinian rights.

An organiser of the first Aldermaston March, Walter was active in London Region CND from its inception in the 1950s and was a committee member until he died. Walter was also a Labour Party member and a friend of Jeremy Corbyn for many years. Corbyn’s message was read at the funeral service:

‘I am sorry I cannot be with you today. I am attending the commemorations for D-Day in Normandy.

‘While I am there, I will be thinking about all those who suffered at the hands of Nazism and fascism, but especially Walter and his family, who were put through so much by that ideology of evil.

‘I first got to know Walter in the 1970s, through the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. I remember chairing meetings of the CND council. Every single council member would speak at length, all on the same topic. When nobody could take any more, I would try and bring the meeting to a close. It was always at that point that Walter would raise his hand to make his contribution.

‘But you couldn’t say “no” to Walter. You knew that whatever he wanted to say, it would be important and interesting. We loved him for it.

‘I continued to work with Walter through CND, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, and the Campaign for Non-Alignment, in which Walter played a huge part. I will be eternally grateful for all the support he gave me, particularly at the 2005 General Election, where he spent hours on end fundraising, and telephone canvassing for our campaign in Islington North.

‘And I will never forget him turning up at my house with a present in hand, the very first visitor after my eldest son Ben was born.

‘I was so proud to be able to present him with a Labour Party Merit Award at our Annual Conference last year, where he delivered a televised video message to the conference, emphasising the importance of peace, justice and socialism. He was an inspiring comrade, a brilliant mentor, and a wonderful friend. He is a huge loss to the international labour movement and the peace movement.

My wife Laura and I were among the last people to visit Walter in hospital before he died. He said to me: “Jeremy, we are going to win aren’t we?” I said “yes”, and he smiled. And that is how I will remember him.’