Antinuclear protesters score a small victory

A coalition of some 70 New England antinuclear groups here has claimed a small victory in the name of peace. A delegation from the New England Campaign to Stop the Euromissiles last week persuaded a Boston hotel to reconsider hosting an electronic warfare marketing conference in mid-February.

A spokeswoman for the Colonnade Hotel would only say: ''We canceled on advice of our attorney.'' The hotel's attorney, Robert Bernheimer elaborated: ''The Colonnade's position is that the seminar has been canceled.''

The two-day conference, sponsored by the California-based Technical Marketing Society of America, was similar to the TMSA missile systems conferences held in Washington, D.C. and at another Boston hotel in December. The earlier Boston conference was met by a picket and civil disobedience actions. A total of 73 people were arrested. The TMSA's missile and electronic warfare conferences in Paris, Rome, London, and Copenhagen during the past six months have also been met by demonstrations.

The literature advertising the latest conference described electronic warfare as ''a multibillion-dollar R&D/procurement market and is forecast to double over the next five years. Information on this high-growth market is a must for all those in government and industry who need to plan ahead for optimum allocation of resources to meet tomorrow's challenges in electronic warfare. . . .''

Reaction was predictable in Boston, which is home to several thousand peace activists. Melvin H. King, an unsuccessful Boston mayoral candidate, spoke for the coalition saying that he is ''aghast at the fact that we are at a stage in society where we have merchants of death conferring on how we can more effectively kill each other and that we are looking at more effective ways of killing each other as a way of making money.''