BEFORE I was a member of a trade union, I was a member of Youth CND. My teenage years were heavily influenced by the peace and anti-nuclear movements in Britain and internationally.

We joined Ban the Bomb demos in London. We visited peace camps at Alconbury, Lakenheath and Greenham Common. We headed to Brockwell Park to hear the Style Council, The Damned and Madness at the CND Youth Festival for Peace in 1983. 

The popular culture of resistance to cold war warriors gave my generation its music, politics and attitude. Growing up in 1970s and 1980s under the shadow of a tactical nuclear arms race and the doctrine of mutually assured destruction affected my generation in a way comparable to the effect of social media today on young people in coverage of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It gave us a sense of urgency that called on us to become activists.