I have been a member of CND and supported Peace News since the 1950s. However, I no longer wish to receive Peace News as I am becoming increasingly disappointed at the left-wing manner in which it has developed.
The final straw for me is the article in the copy received today, ‘Here are your choices’ (PN 2582-83), advocating ‘We must make ourselves ungovernable, that is a strategy accessible to all’.
What an appalling idea – what depth have you sunk to?
I shall be cancelling my standing order. Please do not send me any more copies of your paper.
Thank you for your letter and for your kind permission to print it. I’m very grateful for all the support that you’ve given Peace News over the decades, and I’m sorry to hear that you want to cancel your subscription.
It would be good to know more about why you think it is appalling for peace activists to set themselves the goal of becoming ‘ungovernable’. Was this not Gandhi’s goal in British India? I’m not saying that I think this should be the immediate goal of the peace movement, or any other movement in Britain, but I’d be grateful to hear more on why you think it’s such an objectionable aim.
Coming to the larger point that you are making, I would really like to know more about what about PN you have found more left-wing, and disappointing, recently.
It is probably worth saying again that, as editor, I don’t necessarily endorse any particular article printed in Peace News. I choose material to go in if I think it will be useful to people working for change, or if it seems to be making an important contribution to the discussion that is going on among people working for change.
There are plenty of things that have appeared in Peace News over the last eight years I’ve been editing it that I’ve disagreed with!