For immediate release: 3 August 2006
Walter Wolfgang, CND Vice-President and a long-time Labour Party activist, was elected today to the Labour Party National Executive Committee with 40% of the vote. Wolfgang, who was forcibly ejected from last year’s Labour Party conference for shouting ‘nonsense’ during Jack Straw’s speech on Iraq, campaigned on an anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons platform.
Wolfgang is part of a slate of NEC candidates called the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance (GA). Three other CLGA members, Peter Willsman, Christine Shawcroft, and Ann Black, who all opposed the war in Iraq, were also elected to the NEC. The four took the top four positions amongst the six elected places for constituency party representatives.
Walter Wolfgang said:
“My immediate priority is to call for an unconditional ceasefire in Lebanon. The British government should have pursued this position from the beginning. What is happening in Lebanon is a disgrace to humanity.
I also believe that British troops should be brought home from Iraq and that the government should not replace Trident.”
“I believe my election represents a growing sentiment within the Labour Party calling for policies of peace not war.”
· Walter Wolfgang will be joining CND Chair Kate Hudson, Air Commodore Alistair Mackie, Canon Paul Oestreicher in handing in a No Trident Replacement petition to Downing St at 11am tomorrow. The hand-in coincides with the publication of a new opinion poll which shows an increase in public opposition to Trident replacement rising to 59%.
end
Notes to Editor:
1. For further information and interviews please contact Rick Wayman, CND’s Press & Communications Officer, on 0207 7002350 or 07968 420859
2. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is one of Europe’s biggest single-issue peace campaigns, with over 32,000 members in the UK. CND campaigns for the abolition of all nuclear weapons everywhere.