Two peace activists serving prison sentences in Koblenz, western Germany are allowed to leave the prison for an hour a day. On 6 August, Susan Crane (79) from the US and Susan van de Hijden (54) of the Netherlands spent half of their hour outside the local train station with a poster saying: ‘Hiroshima warns: abolish nuclear weapons now in the East and the West’.
The two Susans are in prison for refusing to pay fines resulting from protests at Büchel air base in Germany, which houses…
On 20 July, two women were arrested at USAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, protesting against plans to bring new US nuclear weapons to the base. Ginnie Herbert and Angie Zelter sat down and refused to move when police told them that they would not be able to deliver a letter to the base commanders. They were arrested for aggravated trespass at a ‘protected site’ under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005); the maximum penalty is six months in prison.
Angie and Ginnie were taken to…
Michelle Cobbin’s current work ‘draws upon memories of growing up in Lakenheath, Suffolk, during the Cold War, beside a large US military airbase which housed nuclear weapons and from which fighter jets flew over our heads most days.’ She adds: ‘With the imminent return of US nuclear weapons to this airbase, and the continuation of deafening planes on their daily exercises, I felt compelled to make work about this from the perspective of both the naive and innocent child resident that I was…
In June, ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, published Surge: 2023 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending.
CND described the British figures as ‘particularly shocking’: ‘Over the past five years, Britain’s spending has increased by over 43%. In 2023 alone, Britain spent a staggering £6.5 billion on nuclear weapons, up 17.1% on the previous year.’
Globally, ICAN says that last year the nine nuclear-armed states increased their nuclear weapons spending…
At the beginning of June, two survivors of the atomic bombings (hibakusha) spoke at a gathering in Friends House, Central London.
Toshiko Tanaka, a survivor of Hiroshima, told the gathering: ‘I would like to tell the people they call “world leaders”, who are interested in their own national interests… that in fact we live on something akin to a spaceship; a ship where we can spend our time fighting over borders, over resources, and if we do so then the spaceship and the life…
On 4 June, two women peace activists went to prison in western Germany rather than pay fines for protesting at Germany’s Büchel air force base, which houses US nuclear weapons.
Susan Crane, 79, (of the Redwood City Catholic Worker House in California, USA) is serving 229 days, maybe getting out at the end of September. Susan van der Hijden, 54, (of the Catholic Worker in Amsterdam in the Netherlands) has a 115-day sentence, maybe getting out at the end of July.
Please send…
We are now taking orders for a new four-page A5 PN briefing setting out the facts about Churchill’s belief in 1944 and early 1945 that a Japanese surrender could be gained without an atomic bomb being dropped and without the Allies having to invade Japan (PN 2667).
Churchill believed by July 1945 that there were two diplomatic tools which could end the Pacific War, especially if combined.
In September 1944, Churchill pleaded with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to…
From 13 – 25 July, there will be an international peace camp at USAF Lakenheath to protest against the plan to bring US nuclear weapons there. The camp is being organised by over a dozen groups in the Lakenheath Alliance for Peace (LAP).
LAP was launched on 26 March when eight women including Angie Zelter ‘crossed the line’ onto base territory at USAF Lakenheath, insisting on delivering a letter to the base commanders.
After almost an hour, the RAF commander of the base,…
On 21 May, the Nuclear Education Trust, an independent charity that aims to inform and educate decision-makers, the public and media about nuclear weapons, launched its new report The Future for UK Defence, Diplomacy and Disarmament in the House of Lords.
Written by Dr Tim Street and based on a survey of UK parliamentarians, think tank experts, academics and representatives of civil society organisations (including PN editor Milan Rai), the report considers ‘how the…
The wonderful Nuclear Resister records the following arrests since our last issue, including at three Good Friday actions.
18 March: Two nuclear abolition activists, Rush Rehm and Jim Haber, arrested at Nevada nuclear test site, during the Pacific Life Community annual gathering. 27 March: George Killingsworth, Karen Pettit and Sylver Pondolfino arrested at Creech drone warfare base during the Nevada Desert Experience’s annual Sacred Peace Walk from Las Vegas to the Nevada nuclear test…On 5 February, Nuclear Information Service published a 16-page briefing on Devonport nuclear dockyard in Plymouth, England.
Devonport is responsible for maintaining the UK’s nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed submarines. It also manages out-of-service submarines and their radioactive fuel waste.
On 13 March, Dr Ray Towey of Catholic Peace Action once again used blessed charcoal to mark the ministry of defence (MoD) in Central London.
He wrote: ‘Trident is Genocide’ and ‘Choose Life Not Terror’ and also drew a cross. Ray was arrested and then de-arrested. ‘Go away and come back to write another day,’ said one of the police officers.
Catholic Peace Action has carried out this ‘Lenten witness’ almost every year since 7 March 1984.
A month earlier, on Ash Wednesday…
A German court has sentenced US Catholic Worker Susan Crane, 78, to over seven months in prison. Susan refused to pay €2,500 in fines imposed for a series of actions at Büchel air force base, south-east of Cologne, where US nuclear bombs are stored.
The Nuclear Resister reports that the sentence was imposed on 18 January after Susan had appealed all the way to the European court of human rights (they refused her case on a technicality).
Susan has been ordered to report…
In May, we will be taking orders for a new four-page A5 PN briefing setting out the facts about Churchill’s belief in 1944 and early 1945 that a Japanese surrender could be gained without an atomic bomb being dropped and without the Allies having to invade Japan (PN 2667).
Churchill believed by July 1945 that there were two diplomatic tools with a very good chance of ending the Pacific War, especially if combined.
In September 1944, Churchill had pleaded with the…
“This is a really demanding and frightening subject that we’re dealing with.
Let me begin by saying that [Russian president Vladimir] Putin and [Dmitry] Medvedev [deputy chair of Russia’s security council] have been drawing from the US playbook from the beginning of the Ukraine War with their nuclear threats.
They’re basically, as Noam Chomsky put it, moving to ensure that those who might come to protect those that Russia is determined to attack are at least limited in what…
