Tony Southall, the joint secretary of Scottish CND, played a key role in the early days of the campaign against nuclearweapons in Britain.
He was a founder member of Youth CND after the 1959 Aldermaston march. The involvement of young people in the campaign at this point played a crucial part in building a popular movement against the bomb.
He was then chairman of Cambridge University CND. At this time the Committee of 100, led by Betrand Russell, was organising sit-down protests against the bomb which resulted in
many arrests. Tony became active in the committee and was its full-time acting secretary in 1961 and 1962.
In 1964 he was a founding member of the International Marxist Group. He moved to Glasgow as a lecturer at Glasgow University. While there, he organised protests against the Vietnam war and helped to establish the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. He was also a core figure in the Labour movement in Glasgow at this time.
Tony spent much of the 1970s teaching in Africa. Soon after his return, while working in York, he was diagnosed with multiple scelerosis .
The disease increasingly limited his physical capabilities but did not reduce his energy or commitment to the peace movement and socialism.
He continued to work as a lecturer at the Glasgow College of Building and Printing
until 1993.
In 1983 Tony founded Scottish Labour CND, an organisation in which he played a central role for 19 years. Over two decades he organised lobbying on nuclear disarmament within the Labour movement. His efforts played an important part in retaining an anti-nuclear stance at successive Scottish conferences of the Labour Party.
Despite the British conference abandoning its commitment to unilateral disarmament, the Scottish conference never followed suit.
In 1993 he became joint secretary of Scottish CND and his home in the south side of the city became an extension of the campaign's office. Despite being confined to a wheelchair and only able to use one hand, he organised events and protests, largely by use of the phone but also by voice-operated computer. He remained as mentally alert as ever guiding the campaign effectively through the past decade. He helped in the recent revival of CND in Scotland, including reforming Glasgow South CND in his house.
His health deteriorated towards the end of 2001.
In December he took part
in his last march, a protest against US military action
in Afghanistan.
In January he contributed to a major peace conference in Glasgow. Even in his bed in the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, he continued his work, urging the nurses to ''Ban the Bomb'' and displaying a Palestinian flag above his bed.
Tony displayed remarkable energy despite his medical condition. He has given us a rare example of determination and commitment sustained over more than four decades.
Tony Southall, CND activist; born 1939, died May 27, 2002.
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