The weekend of 14-17 October saw the delectable women of Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp descend on Faslane, home of Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system. The theme of the invasion was “Domestic Extremists At Large” and they did her majesty’s Royal Navy a service by closing off the North Gate of Faslane naval base for a few hours on Saturday 16 October and giving the Ministry of Defence a much needed lesson in domesticity!
A few of us from the Faslane Peace Camp joined our sisters…
11 activists found guilty on 11 May of trespassing at the Y-12 nuclear weapons fabrication plant in Tennessee on 5 July 2010 began being sentenced in mid-September. (Six had been held in prison since May.) Bill Bischel, 83, was sentenced to an additional three months. Jean Gump, 84, was sentenced to time served plus a fine of $500. Bonnie Urfer, 59, was sentenced to eight months, with credit for time served (four months and three days). Mary Dennis Lentsch, 74, was sentenced to time served.…
In July, the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre received a promising reply to an open letter sent to the Scottish government immediately after the Scottish elections in May. The letter was concerned with the Scottish government’s role regarding the removal of Trident and the wider debate on nuclear non-proliferation.
In the reply, Bruce Crawford MSP, the cabinet secretary for parliamentary business and government strategy, restated the government’s opposition to the possession and…
Women for Life on Earth left Cardiff on 26 August 1981 to march to Berkshire to protest against the siting of Cruise missiles at Greenham Common. The marchers stayed and camped; hundreds of thousands of women came and went, lives were radicalised and liberated. Cruise missiles left 10 years later.
This song by Peggy Seeger, Carry Greenham Home, describes the day of Embrace the Base, an action that was organised in six weeks by chain letter.
Hand in hand, the line extends
…
I was about 24 at the time, and I was there with my small son. The diversity of the women was incredible. For some women Greenham gave them an alternative to our society, it gave a community. Many women came back to Greenham because of the benefits of women living together in co-operation. Despite the hardships that life was preferable. There was concern for each other and support. People got together on an open piece of land, not designed for living on. How they improved their lives,…
Walker is reflecting on the 1969 moon landing and the planting of the US flag. The magic of that silver disk, with its message that there are places still untainted by human greed and malice, had been diminished forever.
Many of us have the same feelings about the sea, although the illusion of freedom from contagion is even more difficult to maintain, given the quantity of plastic debris that litters all our coasts, to say nothing of our knowledge of the huge and terrible changes we…
The upcoming Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference could be the beginning of the end for nuclear weapons.
Under the terms of the NPT “nuclear weapon states” – the US, Russia, UK, France and China – promised 40 years ago to pursue nuclear disarmament but have failed to do so.
But momentum for a nuclear weapons convention is building across civil society and governments. The mayors of 3,680 cities in 135 countries are calling for abolition by 2020.…
In the spirit of the protests against Menwith Hill and against the “long arm” of US militarism, 35 Finnish and Swedish peace activists set up an action camp in Fauske, in northern Norway, between 17 and 20 June.
Fau
Morning vigils are being planned to take place during parliamentary sittings up ’til the end of 2008. The aim is to maintain awareness amongst MSPs about Trident replacement by creating a presence at the entrance to the Scottish Parliament.
Following the decision of the Scottish Parliament in June 2007 not to replace Trident, a Scottish Parliament working group on Trident replacement was set up to take this further.
The group, chaired by Bruce Crawford MSP, (see photo)…
It’s hard to imagine what it’s like at Faslane. If you think about a port, then images of dockland housing, pubs and assorted services spring to mind. But Faslane is an isolated port, with none of the usual hinterland, surrounded by an impenetrable perimeter fence. It sits in a fabulous loch-side setting with a jagged mountainous backdrop.
Military bases focus our minds on the reality of what state power is and what that power represents. Power created through the acquisition of…
The Big Blockade Faslane 365, street demonstrations are familiar lively, colourful, noisy campaigning experiences.
Lobbying MSPs to get rid of Trident, leafleting their staff and the civil servants at the Scottish Parliament, was quieter and greyer. It was accentuated by the day – 11 November, Remembrance Day – and by being a soberly-dressed, placard-wearing group of seven anti-nuclear campaigners from around Stirling.
Standing at the two Canongate entrances at 8am, the…
During the Big Blockade of Faslane on 1 October 2007, Emily Freeman was arrested. Charged with breach of the peace, she was finally brought to trial in Helensburgh on 18 May 2008. Reflecting rather badly on police competence, the case was dropped due to lack of evidence. Here is an excerpt from Emily’s defence, which deserves a hearing:
Breach of the peace is defined as “conduct which does present as genuinely alarming and disturbing, in its context, to any reasonable person…
In May 2007, Scotland elected a minority government committed to getting rid of Trident.
Opinion polls showed that opposition to Trident was the foremost reason cited by people who transferred their votes from the Labour Party to the Scottish National Party (SNP). It is important to recognise that the outcome was not due to an upsurge in nationalist opinion, but reflected disgust with Tony Blair's government, not least over Labour's decision to renew Trident for a further 30 years.…
On 4 July 2005, during the G8 summit, 2,000 people blockaded Faslane Naval Base, home of Britain's Trident submarines, armed with nuclear missiles, and closed it for the day. The police strategy was to leave the street party and not attempt to clear the gates. At 5pm folk got up and went home. And for Faslane, it was business as usual.
A few weeks later an email arrived with a “Proposal for year-long blockade”. The concept was simple: get 100 people to arrive each day and blockade…
These days the Faslane machine, as far as can be seen from the outside, goes on as normal. The hundreds of cars and coaches that form the work shifts, the supply vehicles in all their variety, drift in unhindered. However, if Faslane 365 lives up to its promise, from the first of October all this will change.
The British state is trampling on the basic laws of humanity by wielding Trident, a weapon of terror capable of killing millions. How do we respond? There are many equally…
