Nuclear weapons

This Easter Monday 24 March the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is holding a massive “surround the base” event at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston.

It will be a celebration of 50 years of campaigning for nuclear disarmament and a clear demand for an end to Aldermaston's continuing role as the beating heart of Britain's nuclear warhead production.

Each of Aldermaston's seven gates will have a theme of one of the decades, the '50s, '60s, all…

While UN nuclear inspectors report “good progress” on their “work plan” to clear up suspicions about Iran's past nuclear activities, the United States has been deliberately undermining Russian diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis.

Meanwhile, urged on by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian government seems to be edging closer to a climbdown over its nuclear programme.

On 18 November, Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who won the Nobel…

Not needless to say, Wales was well represented at the Big Blockade on 1 October. It is, let's admit it, quite an effort to get up to Scotland and lock-on, superglue yourself to the tarmac, or sing your heart out all day.

Ray Davies was arrested and pictured in the newspapers before some of us got out of bed, as usual: “Four burly policemen grabbed hold of a leg and arm each and I was carted away.”

Phil Steele of Bangor and Ynys Môn Peace and Justice Group…

Are the US, UK and others that are increasing the pressure on Iran genuinely concerned about nuclear proliferation? After all, the IAEA reports that there is no evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme.

Many people feel that the US has another agenda. Cynicism about the stated concerns of the US is not surprising, given that the case for war against Iraq was based on lies about possession of WMD.

And if you look at the record of nuclear weapons states on…

International law does not ban uranium enrichment. In fact, countries which have signed the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) gain the `inalienable right' to develop nuclear power programmes for peaceful purposes.

The bargain made in 1968 was that non-nuclear weapon states would gain access to nuclear technology, so long as they did not use it to develop nuclear weapons (Article IV); and the nuclear weapon states would get rid of all their nuclear weapons (Article VI).…

Hundreds marched up Edinburgh's Royal Mile on 4 November to say: “No to Trident”. The demo had support from the Scottish Trade Union Council, churches and the Scottish National Party and was organised by Scotland's for Peace. Alex Salmond, the new SNP first minister, has stated his opposition to Trident replacement. Scottish CND and other lobbyists will be expecting to see action. Watch this space in 2008, the year of CND's fiftieth anniversary.

The Chagos Islanders

The right of Chagos islanders to return to their homeland has been once again thwarted by the British government. On November 6th the government declared that it was going ahead with its decision to appeal to the House of Lords to seek clarification about the status of its overseas territories. The appeal will be heard in 2008.

Darfur

The conflict in Darfur has escalated in recent months with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.

The…

After a year of near-continuous protests at the Faslane submarine base, the international nonviolent direct action network Faslane 365 ended its campaign triumphantly on 1 October with 1,000 people blockading the home of Britain's Trident nuclear weapons force.

Before the final “Big Blockade”, the rolling protest had notched up over 900 arrests. This number crashed through the 1,000 mark by mid-morning, and by the end of the day the arrest total for the year stood…

Hopes for a peaceful resolution of the Iran crisis rest on the success of a “work plan” devised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve concerns about Iran's nuclear past.

Iran's new chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, closer to confrontational president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than his predecessor Ari Larijani, stated on 26 October that Tehran's nuclear policy remained “totally unchanged”.

On 28 October, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei…

Delegates from across the country flocked to London's City Hall from 13-14 October for this year's CND AGM, to update the campaign's objectives and learn something new whilst at it.

The usual policy debates - with very little debate - took their course in the mornings. (There were major debates over two amendments relating to nuclear power and peace education.)

Dr Alan Mackinnon, Scottish CND chair, spoke just after noon, describing the year's successes in Scotland…

After four years of mounting tension, Iran has finally agreed to answer by December all questions about its nuclear programme posed by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The United States, however, seems to want to undermine the Iran-IAEA agreement reached on 21 August, arguing that it does not halt Iran's uranium enrichment capability immediately.

    According to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the purpose of the new “work…

On 9 August, charges against ten women (and a dog), brought under the Aldermaston byelaws, were dropped ( “Women arrested at cocktail party”, July/Aug PN).

The women had been charged with “camping” and “lighting a bonfire”, following the introduction of new bylaws on 31 May 2007. Their original arrest - on 8 June - was, frankly, bizarre; Ministry of Defence (MoD) police took more than three hours to get women to the nearest police station - partially due to women vanishing,…

By the time parliament voted in March 2007 to replace the Trident nuclear submarine fleet, AWE was busy building new facilities to test, design and build new warheads -- while the government continued to tell us that a decision on the new warheads would not be needed “until the next parliament”.

Britain has designed, tested and built nuclear warheads at Aldermaston for 50 years, including the warheads for the current Trident missiles. In 2002 AWE published their Site Development…

In July, twenty European young people met to represent their nations at Faslane 365. Joining them at the blockade were twenty Japanese students from the Global University, a programme organised by the Japanese NGO Peace Boat.

Following the blockade, five of the young women from Europe joined the Global University on board Peace Boat, which makes four voyages each year. Naomi Proszynska (15) from Narberth, told her new-found Japanese friends, “The reason young people don't get…

Fresh from a speaking tour that included a warm welcome in Wales, US peace activist Bruce Gagnon was extended the full hospitality of the British state at Faslane nuclear submarine base in Scotland. Joining the year-round blockade for a day, he was arrested.

Bruce is Coordinator of the Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. His speaking tour highlighted the hypocrisy of the US as it lectures the rest of the world about the evils of WMD while at the same time…