Records of the West Yorkshire European Nuclear Disarmament Group

Minutes, correspondence, circulars and notes. Most material dates from the period 1981-1983 when the group was most active.

European Nuclear Disarmament (END) was a British group set up in 1980 to further the work called for in the END Appeal. This document had been produced by E.P. Thompson, with the input of others including Mary Kaldor, Ken Coates, and Robin Cook. It called for a non-aligned, nuclear-weapon free Europe, from “Poland to Portugal”.

The West Yorkshire Regional END (abbreviated as WYREND or WYEND) was one of several regional END groups. WYEND did not attempt to “become involved in all aspects of peace campaigning”, but to promote the END idea outlined in the Appeal, “to concentrate on the political dimension of the peace campaign and to promote discussion of the issues involved”.

WYEND’s activities included promoting nuclear-free zones, organising and attending conferences, offering speakers to local groups, and publishing a regular bulletin. Close links were formed with local universities, for example a 1983 joint conference for Western European peace activists with Bradford University Peace Studies department.

Individuals active in the group, many of whom undertook various officer roles at different times, included David Browning, Graham Carey, Ursula Duncan, Josephine Elgin, Brigitte Fath, Roger Fieldhouse, Julian Harber, Fred Hasson, Tony Lockwood, Michael McGowan, Lydia Merrill, John Schwartzmantel, Richard Taylor, Peter Thompson, and Nigel Young.

Dwindling membership in the mid-1980s led to a decision to wind up WYEND in 1988.

Approximately half of the Archive had been sorted very roughly by date and type of record, into envelopes, the handwriting on which has not yet been identified. This system has been retained in the absence of any other information about the original system, and until more detailed cataloguing is possible.

Access to archive material is subject to preservation requirements and must also conform to the restrictions of the Data Protection Act and any other appropriate legislation. Most sections of this archive contain personal data on individuals and access is therefore restricted under the Act. More detailed cataloguing may make it possible to refine this restriction. Researchers should contact the Special Collections Librarian for information about the status of the material they wish to view.

Donated to Commonweal in 1994 by Peter Thompson, who was secretary at the time the group was disbanded. Some material appears to have been acquired separately by Commonweal.

Unpublished boxlist.

Described by Alison Cullingford.

Copies may be supplied or produced at the discretion of Special Collections staff, subject to copyright law and the condition of the originals. Applications for permission to make published use of any material should be directed to the Special Collections Librarian in the first instance. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Some obvious duplicates and published items have been removed. It is probable that further weeding will be appropriate when more detailed cataloguing is carried out.

The papers of European Nuclear Disarmament are held by the London School of Economics Archives.

The Archive of Ted Edwards (GB 0532 EDW), also in Special Collections at the University of Bradford, includes papers from END and WYEND.