Kate Hudson has been General Secretary of CND since 2010, having served as chair since 2003. She first became active in the peace movement in the early 1980s in the big upsurge of activity against cruise missiles. One of her proudest moments was helping to Embrace the Base at Greenham Common in December 1982, along with 30,000 other women. With the end of the Cold War, like many others, Kate felt that the issue of nuclear weapons had gone away, so she turned to other campaigning work. But by the mid-1990s with expansion of NATO and escalation of the US ‘Star Wars’ system, she came back into CND activity and into CND’s leadership just as the ‘war on terror’ was beginning. She has been a key figure in the anti-war movement nationally and internationally and considers international cooperation and solidarity to be the key to our ultimate success.
By profession a historian, Kate was Head of Social and Policy Studies at London South Bank University prior to working for CND. She is author of a number of books, including a history of CND.
Lyrics to the song that was inspired by the interview:
IF THE BOMBS GO OFF
Ordinary people feel under attack
And that the enemies invisible they can't fight back
So they focus on an issue that's important to them
But they forget about the worst thing that could happen to men
Global warming's irritating like a splinter
Compared to hunkering down for a nuclear winter
Don't let politicians blind you with their commotion
When you see missiles flying over that's one issue you'd vote on
Make nuclear disarmament the thing you're locked on
By asking all your leaders where they stand on the bomb
Cos if the bombs go off
No other issues matter
If the bombs go off
Your life will be in tatters
If the bombs go off
You'll wish that you'd acted before
If the bombs go off
There's no way to vote them back
If the bombs go off
Your world is going black
If the bombs go off
Your overriding emotion will be regret
Only 9 countries have nuclear weapons
But any single one of them could end us in seconds
One determined hacker and security breach
A single crazy president with a button in reach
An angry dictator who won't be disarmed
Some kind of malfunction that sets off an alarm
So many scenarios can't think of them all
Of course the one that you forget would be the fate we befall
The odds are all long but the risk is so high
And there's no way back, once they're all up in the sky
Cos if the bombs go off
No other issues matter
If the bombs go off
Your life will be in tatters
If the bombs go off
You'll wish that you'd acted before
If the bombs go off
There's no way to vote them back
If the bombs go off
Your world is going black
If the bombs go off
Your overriding emotion will be regret
Nuclear war could lead to social improvement
With equal opportunity and freedom of movement
Freedom of speech would be a forgotten obsession
When you're pushing round a shopping cart with all your possessions
There'd be no discrimination or judging by race
After a massive a fireball has burnt off your face
Cos if the bombs go off
No other issues matter
If the bombs go off
Your life will be in tatters
If the bombs go off
You'll wish that you'd acted before
If the bombs go off
There's no way to vote them back
If the bombs go off
Your world is going black
If the bombs go off
Your overriding emotion will be regret