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: armed with rubber gloves, headscarves and thought-provoking banners, like good domesticated women (irony intended) we gave the gate a good old-fashioned scrub. Of course, we had to stop the influx of NATO army trucks by blocking the road as that was why the gate was so dirty in the first place!
The whole cleaning operation ended amicably with no arrests and some of us went on to the South Gate to make our feelings on the illegality and immorality of the British nuclear weapons programme known to the base traffic we had successfully diverted.
Our visit to the Coulport nuclear weapons storage depot earlier that morning also caused a bit of mischief for the gate staff. On behalf of the nation footing the bill for these abhorrent bombs, we formed a team of “Weapons Inspectors”. We merely wanted to take a look at the warheads that are engulfing so much of the nation’s taxes at the expense of our NHS and community projects, but were denied entry. We love our accountable, democratic state.
Those of us at Faslane Peace Camp greatly appreciated the wonderful atmosphere and engaging conversation that came with our weekend invasion. Our formidable sisters of Aldermaston Peace Camp are welcome to come and make Domestic Extremist Mischief with us any time!