Kingston Peace Council/CND AGM

The Annual General Meeting of KPC/CND was held on 13^th February at the Quaker Meeting House, Kingston. Rosemary Addington (Chair) presented the Annual Report and Hilary Evans (Treasurer) presented the Financial Report. Both reports were discussed and accepted and Carol Clisby was thanked for agreeing, at very short notice, to examine the accounts.

Annual Report

The year has been dominated by Government decisions to replace Trident and to co-operate with the US Government by allowing Menwith Hill to be used for the “missile defence “ programme’s guidance systems.

Campaigning & meetings:

KPC/CND members have taken part in demonstrations against Trident and the Iraq occupation, and a group went to Faslane to participate in the year long Big Blockade. Some members have supported ‘Block the Builders’ at Aldermaston. In August we held our usual Hiroshima Day commemoration, and in September marked the UN International Day of Peace with an event at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. This was a wonderful occasion, organised by Mary Holmes, with excellent speakers and participants, on the theme “Sowing the Seeds of Peace’. We hope to be able to build upon this and expand into work with schools in the forthcoming year. In July George Farebrother spoke to us about the campaign to return to the World Court to try to get a clearer statement on the illegality of nuclear weapons, and in December we heard from Claudia and Michaele about their music teaching in Palestine.

Individual members have participated in many meetings and conferences on various peace issues. We have succeeded in maintaining our twice-monthly stall in Kingston market place, thanks to Ed and Carol, and Harry and Gill have produced our excellent monthly newsletter, with Barbara and Jean continuing to organise the distribution. Many thanks to them all.

Fundraising:

Thanks to Maggie and her helpers in organising stalls at Kingston Green Fair, other fairs in New Malden and Sutton, and in her own garage, and to those who have given items to sell.

Membership:

This has remained fairly constant - thanks to Hilary for this and for her work as treasurer. We were saddened by the deaths of two of our most long-standing members and former Chairmen – Jim Addington and Norman Smith.

The future:

Trident, Missile Defence, Iraq, Aldermaston, Peace Education…….

Election of Officers

The following were proposed and unanimously accepted for office:

Chair – Noel Hamel

Secretary – Hilary Evans

Treasurer & Membership – Gill Hurle

Literature Secretary – Rosemary Addington

Press/Website – Fred Ashmore

Newsletter Editors – Harry Davies, Gill Hurle, Rosemary Addington, Angela & Philip Cooper

Fundraising co-ordinator – Maggie Rees

Stall organiser – Ed Evans