Bruce Kent – a sad loss to the Peace Movement
JVL Introduction
JVL shares with so many others committed to peace our sadness at the death of Bruce Kent. To acknowledge his passing, we are reproducing a fairly detailed obituary from the Guardian. He was most known for his involvement in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, for which he was Vice President at the time of his death. CND have written their own tribute noting that he was also a Vice-President of Pax Christi Pax Christi, and Emeritus President of the Movement for the Abolition of War.” Bruce Kent was also a Patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (something missing from this obituary and CND’s tribute).
His stand for peace and his questioning of the attitude of the Catholic Church within which he was ordained meant he was not always popular with the Establishment but highly respected by secular as well as religious activists for peace, whether against nuclear weapons, the War on Iraq or war in general. In 2019 he was awarded the Sean MacBride Peace Prize through the International Peace Bureau
Bruce Kent was a courageous man with strong principles. As the Guardian obituary says: “With the approach of the 1987 general election, and the nuclear question once again high on the agenda, Kent felt he had no choice but to leave the priesthood if he was to carry on speaking out on the threat facing the world….. ‘I knew,” he later wrote, “that I no longer fitted into the priesthood as others saw it.’ “
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Thu 9 Jun 2022. Read the original here.
Bruce Kent - obituary
Leading light of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and charismatic peace activist ordained as a Roman Catholic priest
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This obituary seems to peter out just when Bruce was gearing up – the invasion of Iraq, Trident renewal, Stop the War etc etc. He was speaking as recently as 6th March at STWC in Trafalgar Square.
A political giant – may he RIP.
One of the truly great men of our history
Bless him
I remember him well. I marched a small way in the early CND marches.
Hero to many youngsters at that time. A man to admire, appreciate and thank for all his nonstop work for peace. RIP
Thank you for this article.
Do you stand for something or do you stand for nothing?
Well, that is a question that never had to be asked of Bruce Kent who always remained steadfast in the pursuit of the causes in which he believed.
I heard him speak locally and met him on three occasions. He was an effective and entertaining speaker.
His death comes at a time when the risk of nuclear war is growing again and on a very important but very much ignored anniversary: President Johnson’s order to launch a nuclear attack on Cairo 55 years ago.
Just imagine how quickly jet combat aircraft could reach Egypt’s capital from an aircraft carrier patrolling the eastern Mediterranean. And whilst such an attack would have been horrific in itself, it might have triggered a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union and thus ended life on earth.
I would imagine that it was probably Defence Secretary McNamara who was able to, just in the nick of time, get Johnson to abort the mission.
Further reading:
https://lbjthemasterofdeceit.com/2022/06/07/on-the-55th-anniversary-of-the-day-the-u-s-nearly-kick-started-a-nuclear-war-with-the-soviet-union-6-8-1967/
The only problem is JVL are again using ‘the Guardian’ as their ‘bible’, remembering that the Guardian despises 2 institutions; the Catholic Church & a Socialist Labour Party.
Well said Stephen Richards. The Guardian is well known in real socialist circles for whining about the political excesses of the establishment, while reserving their utmost cynical bile for those in the Labour movement who particularly oppose the treacherous machinations of those currently at the top of the Parliamentary Labour Party, who the middle-class, washed-out, Liberal Party “whingers” of the Guardian view as “extremists”.
True socialists consider to be attacked by the Guardian as a badge of honour.
He just could not understand the concept of deterrence,” si pacem vis bellum para”, or pretended not to be able to. Those who really preserved peace were those who achieved our nuclear deterrent. Kent and co. were just noises off, self-righteous and ineffectual.