But increasingly the protests began to revolve around the bravery of a minority of activists rather than making wider links. So the Greenham camp, for example, became women-only and was eventually dominated by a committed few who increasingly adopted mystical ideas. CND did not pull off mass demonstrations on the streets again. To do that meant a strategy of connecting with wider forces in order to shift Thatcher. Many protest groups were focused on single issues, and this sectional approach dragged down the general radicalism that had been seen at CND's height.
Today there is a great chance to build a wide movement.
Since the Seattle demonstration in November 1999 there has been an inspiring, growing wave of protests against global capitalism. The world capitalist system is driven by economic competition and the nuclear arms race is part of that same system dominated by big corporations, governments and institutions like the International Monetary Fund. The end of the Cold War did not herald a new era of peace. If anything, the world is a more dangerous and unstable place than ever before. This was underlined by the spy plane confrontation between two nuclear powers, the US and China.