A vigil was held at Faslane Naval Base on 15 February in solidarity with the Aldermaston blockaders’ action that day. The vigil was called by Faslane Peace Camp and neighbouring Helensburgh CND. Renfrewshire CND also joined the protest, which marched with banners and flags from the peace camp down to the north gate of the naval base, which is home to all of the UK’s nuclear weapons. A presence was maintained during the shift change at the base.
Subcontractors
Being at…
At the 15 February Big Blockade of the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), the Welsh were assigned to Construction Gate, one of the most important gates for vehicle access in the coming months.
The Welsh started arriving around 6am. Around 6.30am, vans with internationals arrived, followed quickly by more Welsh groups and Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhists.
People with metal lock-on tubes and a very effective lock-on drum of four positioned themselves in the…
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is scheduled to hold its next review conference from 3-28 May, just when Britain is likely to have a general election. For many governments and NGOs, the NPT will be a major focus for their work in 2010. But should it be the main focus for disarmament activists? What, realistically, can be achieved at the 2010 review conference?
Even when important commitments have been adopted at NPT conferences, as with the “13 Practical Steps on…
The long-awaited report from the Scottish Parliament Working Group on Scotland Without Nuclear Weapons was published on 18 November. It concluded that “there is a bright future for Scotland without nuclear weapons”, recommending that a route map be created for disarmament. The route map would include identifying the needs of the key communities and businesses most affected by the removal of nuclear weapons, so that assistance, including the allocation of a “disarmament dividend”, could be…
After serving 18 years for revealing details of Israel’s nuclear weapons programme, Israeli technician Mordechai Vanunu was released in 2004 with restrictions on his freedom of speech, association and movement.
On 28 December, Vanunu was arrested and charged with violating one condition, that of not talking to foreigners. His lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, said Vanunu was arrested because he has a Norwegian girlfriend whom police also interrogated. Vanunu was held for three days, then put…
Following the acquittal of Aldermaston blockaders (PN 2516-7), three women, Alison Crane, Morgan Woodland and Alison Parfitt, due to appear before Newbury Magistrates on 9 December charged with highway obstruction at Aldermaston in June, received a letter a few days beforehand to say the case had been dropped due to lack of evidence.
Others who appeared before Newbury magistrates on 26 November on the same charges arising from the same action were not so lucky – they were found guilty…
As dawn begins to break on a Monday morning in February, hundreds of dedicated individuals from all around Britain and beyond will descend upon the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston, determined to block the base and halt work on facilities for a new generation of nuclear warheads.
The Aldermaston Blockade on 15 February 2010 will highlight the illegality, immorality and criminal waste of resources involved in the multi-billion pound expansion of the nuclear…
On 12 November, four of us who “locked-on” across a gate at the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston, during the Big Blockade on 27 October last year were cleared by Reading court of obstructing the highway and awarded costs.
We were: Jean Oliver from Scotland, Emma Sangster and myself from London, who defended ourselves; and Renate Zauner from Switzerland, represented by professor Nick Grief.
The “not guilty” verdict was on a technicality – the prosecution…
At CND’s International Conference on 10 October, the UK branch of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN-UK) launched its new website (see end of article).
ICAN-UK, which has nine core members, including Medact, CND and the World Court Project UK, aims to abolish nuclear weapons through a nuclear weapons convention (NWC). A NWC would prohibit the development, testing, production, stockpiling, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as the…
On 2 November, All Souls Day, five Christian peace activists carried out a “Ploughshares” action against Trident nuclear missile submarines at the Kitsap naval base in Bangor, WA, USA. Bill “Bix” Bichsel, 81; Susan Crane, 65; Lynne Greenwald, 60; Steve Kelly, 60; and Anne Montgomery, 83, made their way through two fences, and were about to enter the Strategic Weapons Facility-Pacific when they were arrested, carrying a banner saying: “Disarm Now Plowshares: Trident: Illegal + Immoral”.…
Five anti-nuclear activists who peacefully blocked access to the atomic weapons establishment (AWE) Aldermaston last autumn were tried before Reading magistrates’ court on 21 and 22 October.
The defendants, Barbara Dowling, from Glasgow; Jean Oliver, from Lanarkshire; David Polden, from London; Emma Sangster, also from London (all self-represented); and Renate Zauner from Switzerland (represented by Prof. Nicholas Grief) were charged with “wilfully obstructing the highway”.
…On 16 July, the government published its international strategy in the lead-up to the NPT Review Conference next May. Called “Road to 2010”, the document was overshadowed in the media by an informal briefing given by cabinet office officials later that afternoon suggesting the government was to delay the next development step for the new Trident nuclear missile submarines until after the NPT review conference.
There had always been a suspicion that the rush into this project was…
This summer I participated in my third International Walk for a Nuclear-Free Future, from Geneva to Brussels. This year’s “pilgrimage”, organised by Footprints for Peace and Sortir du Nucléaire, set off from Geneva on 26 April, the 23rd anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The walk passed through Switzerland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, covering around 850 miles on foot over 10½ weeks, staging events at the World Heath Organisation headquarters in…
On 17 August, five citizen inspectors from Trident Ploughshares entered Britain’s most important military site, the nuclear submarine base at Faslane, north of Glasgow, by walking in through the main gate.
Sylvia Boyes, Mary Millington, Brian Larkin, Penny Stone, and Angie Zelter reminded the Faslane workers of the commitment by the UK government, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, to nuclear disarmament. They warned that the failure of the Scottish government…
For the first time in Britain’s nuclear history, an opinion poll has found that a majority of people in Britain are in favour of Britain abandoning its nuclear weapons - without regard to considerations of cost.
ICM conducted its poll for the Guardian on 10-11 July, asking: “Do you think Britain should replace the [Trident] nuclear weapons system with a new one or should it no longer have any nuclear deterrent?”
There was no prompting about the high cost of the Trident…
