Marching for a nuclear-free world
After stepping down as CND’s General Secretary in 1985, Bruce remained in the leadership of the organisation as Vice-Chair and later Chair. He continued to meet with supporters, especially on his Long March for a nuclear-free Britain. This brought him from the Faslane nuclear submarine base in Scotland to the nuclear weapons research facility at Burghfield in Berkshire, where Britain’s nuclear weapons are assembled. Along the way he met supporters and held meetings in towns and cities. Another peace march saw him walk 1,000 miles from Warsaw to Brussels, traversing both Warsaw Pact and NATO countries.
The following gallery is a selection of photos from 1986 and 1987 along with a postcard sent by Bruce to former Orpington CND group secretary, Mark Grey who remembers: “During the March the West obsessed about a presumed Soviet threat, and the fear/ size of the Warsaw Pact’s assumed nuclear arsenal while the East German government played down the deployment of SS20s and its home-grown ‘swords to ploughshares’ peace movement.”