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Fighting for peace: opposition to Thatcher's Falklands War
On May 1 the Peace Pledge Union carried out a series of actions nationwide against what is largely regarded as a war that 'almost all' British people supported — not true, writes SYMON HILL, revealing a hidden history of resistance
Royal Marines exercise the deck of the HMS Hermes, the Flag Ship of the British Task Force on route to the Falkland Islands, April 1982
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ON MAY DAY 40 years ago, anti-war campaigners were arrested in cities around Britain.
Argentinian troops had invaded the Falklands Islands a month earlier. The British naval task force had been dispatched to the South Atlantic and the Thatcher government avoided a negotiated settlement. All-out war looked likely to break out very soon.
On May 1, 1982, the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) called a country-wide day of protest and resistance. Demonstrations and vigils took place in at least 30 towns and cities. Some involved small-scale marches, others were more dramatic. Women in Sheffield occupied a Royal Navy recruitment office. Another recruitment office was paint-bombed in Holborn. Protesters in Glasgow were arrested while handing out leaflets and selling newspapers.
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