Today in 1987, New Zealand became a nuclear free zone after the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act passed into law.
One of the key organisations behind the country’s anti-nuclear movement was the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which formed in 1959. This ca.1986 leaflet, warning of the dangers of nuclear warship visits, is from the archives of CND’s Auckland branch.1
The CND archives span nearly 40 years of the organisation’s records, and include campaign materials opposing French atmospheric testing in the Pacific, atmospheric testing in China, nuclear-armed warship visits to New Zealand, and support for disarmament, a nuclear-free Pacific and the adoption of a non-aligned defence policy.
A related collection is the post-Cold War archives of the English CND movement from 1989 to 2000, which is on microfilm in the Microtexts room.
Jo Birks, Special Collections
References
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (N.Z.) Papers. 1957-1978. MSS & Archives A-249, Special Collections, University of Auckland Library.
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (N.Z.). Further records, 1957-1976. MSS & Archives 90/7, Special Collections, University of Auckland Library.
1 Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (New Zealand). Auckland Branch. Further records, 1957-1994. MSS & Archives 94/9, item 64. Special Collections, University of Auckland Library.