Tributes flow in for lifelong peace activist Bruce Kent
Tributes flow in for lifelong peace activist Bruce Kent
Sunday 19 June 2022
Tributes are continuing to pour in following the death of popular lifelong peace campaigner Bruce Kent.
Announcing their "great sadness" at the news of Bruce's death, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) said, "With his warmth and wit, Bruce Kent was a popular speaker with audiences of all ages from primary schools to pensioners’ groups."
Bruce, who was General Secretary of CND in the 1980s, died on 8 June, aged 92.
He played a major role in the growth and development of CND in the 1980s, as the organisation campaigned against the siting of US nuclear missiles in the UK, at the Greenham Common and Molesworth bases. They also challenged the continued possession of nuclear weapons by the UK government, and other governments such as those of the Soviet Union, France and China.
Under Bruce's leadership, the size of CND's membership increased several times over.
Bruce also helped to move CND away from the opposition to direct action that had characterised the organisation in the 1950s and 1960s, when it had clashed with the Committee of 100 over the use of civil disobedience to resist nuclear weapons. Bruce sought to maintain good relations between CND and direct action groups such as the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp - an approach not shared by all his CND colleagues.
Bruce was a member of the international Catholic peace group Pax Christi. In the early 2000s, he established the Movement for the Abolition of War.
While not a pacifist, Bruce was keen to maintain good relations with pacifists and other peace campaigners with whom he differed over certain issues. He was widely hailed as humble man who sought to build bridges and treat people with respect, and whose commitment to the cause of peace never wavered.
Bruce had been a Roman Catholic priest and remained committed to Catholicism after leaving the priesthood.
He was frequently smeared by the pro-war and pro-nuclear lobby, portrayed as a Soviet sympathiser despite his clear rejection of the Soviet system. The so-called Coalition for Peace through Security, a group set up by Tory activists to attack the peace movement, tried to falsely portray Bruce as an IRA supporter.
Thanks to a whistleblower within MI5, Bruce discovered he was spied on by an undercover agent who became a volunteer in the CND office. Bruce explained, "He reported me to his superiors as a pseudo-Marxist, which sounds even worse than being a real one."
When his death was announced by his family, the Peace Pledge Union said, "It is with deep sadness that we have heard of the death of Bruce Kent, lifelong campaigner for peace and strong activist against nuclear weapons. Our thoughts are with Valerie, all Bruce's loved ones, and thousands of people touched & inspired by his life."