Nuclear weapons

On 8 June two women from mid- Wales were arrested at a cocktail party. Drunk and disorderly? How very dare you!

The party was to celebrate 22 years of the Women's Peace Camp at the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment.

The MoD are, however, evidently not happy about the attention the peace camp and its sister campaign Block the Builders have focused on the nuclear weapons factory. Recent actions called for an end to expansion of the base in preparation for Trident…

On 25 July, 12 people from Japan joined around 100 others to take part in the ongoing Faslane 365 Blockade.

Ten of the Japanese were arrested, including Masahiko Moriguchi, who survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki when he was seven.

Masahiko said, “As one who experienced the A-bomb, I wanted to see this nuclear base with my own eyes and personally take part in this action to halt the nuclear weapons.”

On 5 August, five protestors were arrested for obstructing a…

On 14 August, Marcus Armstrong, a 46-year-old anti-war protester who entered the cockpit of a US Air Force plane at Prestwick Airport, Scotland, a year ago was imprisoned for 28 days for “entering a restricted zone” and “trespassing” in a military aircraft.

Marcus entered Prestwick with seven other Trident Ploughshares “weapons inspectors” to investigate claims that the airport was being used to refuel US aircraft supplying arms for the Israeli invasion of Lebanon…

On 2 July, former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu was sentenced to one year in prison (6 months suspended) for fourteen violations of a ban on talking to foreigners - actually, foreign reporters.

This ban was one of several imposed on Mordechai on his release in 2004 from a full 18-year prison sentence for telling the world about Israel's nuclear weapons. The Israeli justice ministry justified the sentence in terms of protecting national security. Mordechai insists that…

The greatest danger to the peo ples of the Middle East, including the people of Israel, comes from Israel's determination to retain control of the land it conquered 40 years ago, and its willingness to use nuclear weapons to maintain its dominance of these territories.

Israel is committed to a semi-open nuclear policy referred to as the “Samson option”, a threat to bring down the entire Middle East, and perhaps even the world, to maintain its controlling position, and to prop up…

Twenty-five years ago the Falklands/Malvinas War was controversial in Britain for three main reasons.

One was a widespread belief that the war was fought by Margaret Thatcher's government to cover up their failure to anticipate an Argentine invasion. They were prepared to fight a war that would cost the lives of nearly a thousand soldiers, not so much to safeguard the lifestyles of less than 2,000 islanders as to prevent an electoral disaster.

Related to this was the bitter…

Oxford people campaigned on all fronts against a dangerous, unnecessary and horrifically expensive Trident replacement.
Hundreds of Oxfordshire people, some of them more than once, contributed to the 365 day blockade of Faslane, the nuclear base in Scotland. Oxford people joined the monthly Block the Builder blockades at Aldermaston, where they build Britain's bombs. The Oxford for Peace group leafleted on new nuclear weapons many times on the Friday leafleting sessions. Two coaches…

This summer, long-time US peace campaigner/researcher Joe Gerson is visiting the UK for a speaker tour to launch his brilliant new book Empire and the Bomb: How the US Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World.

Joe Gerson documents operational planning for the use of nuclear weapons in the Korean war, the Vietnam war (early French phase as well as the later US debacle), and later.
Empire and the Bomb records the use of US nuclear threats during…

On 10 April, activists from Trident Ploughshares, Block the Builders and Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp blocked the boilerhouse gate at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, where Britain's nuclear weapons are developed and maintained, halting traffic for forty minutes. There were 11 arrests at three locations around the perimeter, and over sixty participants in total, travelling from Bristol, Plymouth, Yorkshire and Newcastle.
Friday 13 April was unlucky for the Trident…

What is Trident for? Launching the Trident debate on 14 March, former CND member and current foreign secretary Margaret Beckett said Britain needed nuclear weapons because we cannot be sure that “no power hostile to our vital national interests and in possession of nuclear weapons would emerge” over the next 50 years.

The crucial question then is what these “vital interests” are.

In November 1993, the then defence secretary Malcolm Rifkind said that in…

On Wednesday 14 March, the government won a House of Commons vote to replace Britain's Trident nuclear weapons. Thanks to the campaigning efforts of the peace movement, it also suffered its biggest rebellion on a domestic policy issue since Labour came to power in 1997.

Trident vote day was a busy day for anti-nuclear campaigners, with pressure being applied from all sides. From Faslane to Plymouth, people showed their opposition to Britain's weapons of mass destruction, by lobbying,…

Following the publication of the White Paper, The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent, in December 2006, the government promised a parliamentary debate and vote on their proposals for Trident replacement. That vote is likely to take place in the second or third week of March (date unconfirmed when PN went to press).

It is believed that MPs will only be presented with one set of proposals to vote on (the government's, naturally). Despite polls consistently…

“We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices ... As in past deliberations, we have examined other human-made threats to civilisation. We have concluded that the dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons.”

On 18 January, the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands on the Doomsday Clock from…

In Denmark, a group of citizens are preparing to challenge the legality of their country's participation in the invasion of Iraq.

In a historic case to be heard by the High Court of Eastern Denmark on 29 January,a group will argue that Denmark's decision to join the war was in breach of the constitution. Mean-while, in the US, where a recent poll found that only 54% of serving army personnel support the Iraq war, 1,000 active duty soldiers and sailors have joined peace activists in…

Later in the month, groups from Ireland, Leicester, Staffordshire and Stoke all blockaded successfully. Trident Ploughshares blockaded with the help of Faslane Peace Camp, who used nine-year old concrete barrel lock-ons to great effect. One group from TP attempted to use bikes to blockade. These tactics are part of the continuing effort to overcome the large numbers of police officers and resources.

Christmas crackers Scottish Students blockaded the week before Christmas with steel…