"I spent my entire childhood worrying about nuclear war, partly because it was the 80s, and everyone did, and partly because we spent our lives demonstrating against it. We had Protest and Survive stickers everywhere, in droll parody of the public information booklet Protect and Survive, along with Nuclear Power? No Thanks. We were also early adopters of climate change anxiety, while fiercely against the closure of coalmines."
"I remember endless marches through central London, ending with some speakers they all seemed to be vicars, except one, who was always Tony Benn. They would describe in exquisite detail all the things a hydrogen bomb would do to your flesh, and the flesh of your loved ones and pets, and then what would happen to the teeth and gums of anyone whose flesh had mysteriously been spared."
A childhood shaped by 1980s anti-nuclear activism created persistent anxiety about nuclear war alongside participation in demonstrations and protest culture. Home life featured ironic protest slogans and practical thriftiness in place of central heating. Visits to protest sites, marches through central London and encounters with prominent political figures provided vivid, sometimes gruesome public explanations of nuclear effects. Those public descriptions combined moral rhetoric and graphic biological detail, producing simultaneous boredom and terror. Activism linked nuclear disarmament with early climate concern and local economic issues, reflecting a complex blend of political priorities and personal memory.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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