One of the most famous peace signs is the CND symbol. CND is the acronym of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. This campaign was founded in 1957 by opponents of nuclear buildup and was at the forefront of the peace movement in the United Kingdom. It demanded nuclear disarmament of all states and, as a first step, a halt to further nuclear armament by means of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
A few months after the campaign was founded, the first Easter March took place. Campaign members and supporters walked from Trafalgar Square in London to Aldermaston in Berkshire from Good Friday to Easter Monday (April 4-7, 1958). A nuclear research center was located there. The march, also known as the Aldermaston March, was 83 kilometers long and 10,000 people participated in the final rally. It became the model for many such pacifist-motivated Easter marches, including in Germany.
At the first Easter march (64 years ago today), the CND peace sign made its first appearance, designed by British artist and designer Gerald Holtom. The symbol is composed of two characters of the winker alphabet. The waving alphabet is an alphabet in which the Latin letters are encoded by a person with two flags, holding them in different directions. It was used mainly for communication between ships until the invention of voice radio, but it was also used on land. The peace sign is composed of the N and D, which stand for Nuclear Disarmament.
According to the artist’s own information, there is another interpretation of the sign. It could also represent a stylized human being with his arms helplessly down in the face of a world full of weapons. In this interpretation, the circle stands for the earth.
The peace sign was used in later years in the context of the 1968 movement and resistance to the Vietnam War, among others. To this day, the CND symbol is one of the most prominent peace signs. In recent weeks, this sign has again been increasingly seen at peace rallies on the Ukraine war.
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