Category: Nuclear

Call for workshops at the Earth First! Summer Gathering 2007

This year’s gath­er­ing is from 18 — 22 July in Nor­folk, near a main­line rail­way sta­tion.

The focus is on prac­ti­cal skills, but there will also be many of the reg­u­lar diverse and inter­est­ing work­shops.

EF! summer gathering 2007 logoThis year’s gath­er­ing is from 18 — 22 July in Nor­folk, near a main­line rail­way sta­tion.

The focus is on prac­ti­cal skills, but there will also be many of the reg­u­lar diverse and inter­est­ing work­shops.

The idea is to have mul­ti­ple work­shop ses­sions, e.g. four two-hour slots spread over four days build­ing up skills in a par­tic­u­lar area, so peo­ple can learn the basic skills to actu­al­ly do the job at oth­er mobil­i­sa­tions, events like the cli­mate camp — or wher­ev­er. For exam­ple plumb­ing, elec­tri­cal skills, medics…and what­ev­er else peo­ple want to do… It’s not just about the prac­ti­cal skills but also about get­ting to know each oth­er and start­ing to work togeth­er.

If you would like to offer a work­shop please write to:
martinshaw64@riseup.net

Thanks — the EF! sum­mer gath­er­ing col­lect­ing
Gen­er­al con­tact details etc at http://www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk/

please for­ward to peo­ple you think would be inter­est­ed.

documentary: Reclaim Power — voices from the camp for climate action 2006

In the sum­mer of 2006, 600 peo­ple con­vinced that there is no time to waste set up a Camp for Cli­mate Action in the shad­ow of one of the biggest C02 emit­ters in Europe: Drax coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in York­shire / UK. Cine Rebelde pro­duced a doc­u­men­tary film about the camp.

Cli­mate change is now a real­i­ty. Lead­ing sci­en­tists across the world agree that in a ’busi­ness as usu­al sce­nario’ we have no longer than 10 years to pre­vent 2–3 degrees of addi­tion­al glob­al arm­ing that will lead to irre­versible cli­mat­ic changes with dra­mat­ic con­se­quences for our plan­et.

Climate camp view from gateIn the sum­mer of 2006, 600 peo­ple con­vinced that there is no time to waste set up a Camp for Cli­mate Action in the shad­ow of one of the biggest C02 emit­ters in Europe: Drax coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in York­shire / UK. Cine Rebelde pro­duced a doc­u­men­tary film about the camp.

Cli­mate change is now a real­i­ty. Lead­ing sci­en­tists across the world agree that in a ’busi­ness as usu­al sce­nario’ we have no longer than 10 years to pre­vent 2–3 degrees of addi­tion­al glob­al arm­ing that will lead to irre­versible cli­mat­ic changes with dra­mat­ic con­se­quences for our plan­et.

How­ev­er, in a world dri­ven by prof­it and com­mit­ted to unlim­it­ed eco­nom­ic growth, human­i­ty seems very unwill­ing to change the course of the fos­sil fuel econ­o­my.

In the sum­mer of 2006, the 5th hottest year ever record­ed in recent his­to­ry, 600 peo­ple con­vinced that there is no time to waste set up a Camp for Cli­mate Action in the shad­ow of one of the biggest C02 emit­ters in Europe: Drax coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in York­shire / UK.

With over one hun­dred work­shops on a wide range of top­ics, the 10 day camp was a space of col­lec­tive learn­ing, sus­tain­able liv­ing and tak­ing direct action on the root caus­es of cli­mate change. The gath­er­ing that showed prac­ti­cal low ener­gy solu­tions in action, cul­mi­nat­ed in a day of protest and mass direct action in an attempt to shut down Drax.

DVD 62min + extras
Eng­lish with sub­ti­tles in Eng­lish, French, Ger­man and Span­ish
reports on indy­media UK: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2006/climatecamp/

Trail­er down­load: 2:58 min
http://www.cinerebelde.org/site.php3?id_article=356〈=en

a cine rebelde pro­duc­tion in coop­er­a­tion with http://risingtide.org.uk and http://climatecamp.org.uk

indy­media reports of the Camp 2006:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2006/climatecamp/

Pic­tures, infor­ma­tion and film orders:
orders@cinerebelde.org
http://www.cinerebelde.org

DVDs will also soon be avail­able from ris­ing tide, cli­mate camp groups and at the meet­ing in Bris­tol.

* * * * * *
Prepa­ra­tions for the Camp for Cli­mate Action 2007 are in full swing. The upcom­ing meet­ing will be in Bris­tol on March 17th /18th.

Ris­ing Tide North Amer­i­ca is cur­rent­ly doing a Road Show. Check out:
http://risingtidenorthamerica.org

GP ship impounded during anti-Trident action

23 Feb­ru­ary: Green­peace ship the Arc­tic Sun­rise impound­ed dur­ing float­ing block­ade of Faslane naval base. Snip­pets below from GP press releas­es.

This morn­ing the Green­peace ship Arc­tic Sun­rise out-manoeu­vred MoD ships and is now anchored across the entrance to the base. Mean­while six small­er block­ing boats have dropped off Green­peace vol­un­teers in canoes who are attempt­ing to scale HMS Vig­i­lant, one of the UK’s four Van­guard nuclear weapons subs berthed at Faslane.

23 Feb­ru­ary: Green­peace ship the Arc­tic Sun­rise impound­ed dur­ing float­ing block­ade of Faslane naval base. Snip­pets below from GP press releas­es.

This morn­ing the Green­peace ship Arc­tic Sun­rise out-manoeu­vred MoD ships and is now anchored across the entrance to the base. Mean­while six small­er block­ing boats have dropped off Green­peace vol­un­teers in canoes who are attempt­ing to scale HMS Vig­i­lant, one of the UK’s four Van­guard nuclear weapons subs berthed at Faslane.
…

Lat­er that day:
UPDATE: Twen­ty mil­i­tary police stormed the ship and smashed their way onto the bridge of the Arc­tic Sun­rise short­ly after 5pm fol­low­ing the day-long stand-off. The mil­i­tary police cut the anchor chain and towed the ship into the nuclear base. All onboard have been arrest­ed for being in a restrict­ed area.

See http://www.greenpeace.org.uk for more (pix, etc)
and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6388967.stm

The Arc­tic Sun­rise is due to berth on the Thames in ear­ly March, ahead of the par­lia­men­tary debate and vote on Tri­dent replace­ment.

Anti-nuclear campaigners block UK WMD factory

13.02.2007

Yes­ter­day six peo­ple were arrest­ed out­side AWE mAl­der­mas­ton dur­ing an hour+long block­ade of the nuclear weapons fac­to­ry. Next BtB block­ade 19 March — check the web­site for more info. What fol­lows is a BtB press release, issued yes­ter­day

Aldermaston Feb 07 blockade13.02.2007

Yes­ter­day six peo­ple were arrest­ed out­side AWE mAl­der­mas­ton dur­ing an hour+long block­ade of the nuclear weapons fac­to­ry. Next BtB block­ade 19 March — check the web­site for more info. What fol­lows is a BtB press release, issued yes­ter­day

BLOCK THE BUILDERS
——————————————-
12 Feb­ru­ary 2007 — for imme­di­ate release
——————————————-

ANTI-NUCLEAR CAMPAIGNERS BLOCK UK WMD FACTORY

From 7am today [12/02/07], a group of around 50 anti-nuclear cam­paign­ers par­tic­i­pat­ed in block­ades and protests out­side Britain’s nuclear war­head fac­to­ry — AWE Alder­mas­ton in Berk­shire.

Using a con­crete-filled dust­bin, met­al lock-on tubes and D‑locks, two groups block­ad­ed the A340 on two sides of the base, close to entrances used by con­struc­tion traf­fic. Roads were closed for one hour and ten min­utes while spe­cial­ist police teams cut out pro­test­ers. Cranes and oth­er con­struc­tion traf­fic was pre­vent­ed from enter­ing the site while the block­ade was in progress. Oth­er cam­paign­ers used large ban­ners and flags to com­mu­ni­cate their anti-nuclear mes­sage.

AWE is the site of ongo­ing con­struc­tion work on new nuclear weapons facil­i­ties — on a sim­i­lar scale to Heathrow’s Ter­mi­nal 5. Work on the new Ori­on laser has start­ed, despite the fact that a vote on the future of the UK’s nuclear weapons sys­tem is not due until March.

Six peo­ple were arrest­ed dur­ing the protest, for obstruc­tion of the high­way. Two were sub­se­quent­ly charged and will appear at New­bury Mag­is­trates’ Court on 22 Feb­ru­ary. Between eight and ten hours after arrest, four were giv­en cau­tions.

All six had been hand­cuffed on arrest by Thames Val­ley and Hamp­shire police, though none had resist­ed arrest or attempt­ed to abscond. Organ­is­ing group Block the Builders — an explic­it­ly non­vi­o­lent direct action group — are con­sid­er­ing writ­ing to Thames Val­ley police to query this inter­pre­ta­tion of police guide­lines on the use of hand­cuffs.

With the gov­ern­ment poised to force a par­lia­men­tary vote on whether to replace the Tri­dent nuclear sub­ma­rine fleet, cam­paign­ers are con­cerned that the deci­sion to recom­mit Britain to a fur­ther 50 years as a nuclear weapons state is being made with­out pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion. Polls have con­sis­tent­ly sug­gest­ed that a sub­stan­tial major­i­ty of the British pub­lic do not want to spend tax­es on a new nuclear weapons sys­tem.

A spokesper­son for Block the Builders said, “In a fort­night there will be tens of thou­sands on the streets of Lon­don, demon­strat­ing their oppo­si­tion to Tri­dent replace­ment. When asked, most peo­ple don’t want UK WMD: today in this qui­et cor­ner of Berk­shire, we are trans­lat­ing the will of this — fre­quent­ly silent — major­i­ty, into prac­ti­cal resis­tance. If the par­lia­men­tary vote goes in the gov­ern­men­t’s favour, then AWE and the MoD had bet­ter get used to the idea of a long and active cam­paign of oppo­si­tion.”

This morn­ing’s actions are part of an ongo­ing cam­paign of non­vi­o­lent resis­tance to new facil­i­ties being devel­oped at the Alder­mastn site — which cam­paign­ers believe will facil­i­tate the next gen­er­a­tion of nuclear weapons.

ENDS

btb@aldermaston.net
http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk

12th February Aldermaston Blockade: Join us

THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY — for imme­di­ate release
—————————————————–
With the par­lia­men­tary vote on replac­ing the Tri­dent nuclear sub­ma­rine fleet expect­ed in mid-March, and a nation­al demon­stra­tion of mass oppo­si­tion called for 24 Feb­ru­ary in Lon­don, anti-nuclear cam­paign­ers will return to AWE Alder­mas­ton on 12 Feb­ru­ary.

THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY — for imme­di­ate release
—————————————————–
With the par­lia­men­tary vote on replac­ing the Tri­dent nuclear sub­ma­rine fleet expect­ed in mid-March, and a nation­al demon­stra­tion of mass oppo­si­tion called for 24 Feb­ru­ary in Lon­don, anti-nuclear cam­paign­ers will return to AWE Alder­mas­ton on 12 Feb­ru­ary.

Non­vi­o­lent direct action cam­paign­ers Block the Builders have called for a block­ade of Britain’s nuclear bomb fac­to­ry on the Mon­day morn­ing in an attempt to obstruct con­struc­tion work on new nuclear war­head facil­i­ties. For the past four years a mas­sive invest­ment pro­gramme has been in place at Alder­mas­ton, in advance of any par­lia­men­tary deci­sion on the future of Britain’s WMD.

In pre­vi­ous block­ades, Block the Builders and their friends have closed roads around the nuclear weapons fac­to­ry for between two and four hours. The group, which is opposed to the replace­ment of the UK’s nuclear weapons sys­tem, aims to stop vehi­cles enter­ing the site to work on the Ori­on laser facil­i­ty — which is being built in advance of any par­lia­men­tary deci­sion on Tri­den­t’s future.

A spokesper­son for Block the Builders said “In a week in which the defence sec­re­tary con­firmed that the nuclear ‘deter­rent’ is a polit­i­cal rather than mil­i­tary weapon, has he both­ered to ask the British pub­lic how many peo­ple real­ly want a new nuclear weapon? Peo­ple have to let the gov­ern­ment know what they think. This is a crit­i­cal time to engage in prac­ti­cal and effec­tive action, which is why we’ve called this block­ade. We’d also urge any­one who can’t come to AWE, to express their oppo­si­tion to their local MPs in advance of March’s par­lia­men­tary debate”.

ENDS

———————-
PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS
———————-
Media rep­re­sen­ta­tives are invit­ed to attend from 7am on 12/02
Sug­gest­ed loca­tion for park­ing and locat­ing spokesper­son
http://tinyurl.com/qpm9f
Media con­tact tel no for the day is 07969 739 812

———————-
NUMBERS AND PURPOSE
———————-
With the build-up to the nation­al demon­stra­tion on 24 Feb­ru­ary and the forth­com­ing par­lia­men­tary debate, organ­is­ers are obvi­ous­ly expect­ing good par­tic­i­pa­tion in the this event.

The pur­pose of the block­ade is

- to obstruct con­struc­tion traf­fic enter­ing the site
— to hin­der oper­a­tions at the site
— to sig­nal out­rage at the gov­ern­men­t’s posi­tion

———————-
ABOUT BLOCK THE BUILDERS
———————-
Formed in 2004, Block the Builders is a non­vi­o­lent direct action group which has
been tak­ing prac­ti­cal action to slow con­struc­tion work AWE Alder­mas­ton and at
the sites of com­pa­nies with con­struc­tion con­tracts with AWE.
This has tak­en the form of a month­ly, pub­licly-announced block­ade of AWE
Alder­mas­ton, com­bined with unan­nounced actions at AWE and con­trac­tor sites, and
events in con­junc­tion with oth­er groups such as the recent Greenpeace/BtB mass
weapons inspec­tion (27/11/06).

For reports of pre­vi­ous block­ades, see http://www.aldermaston.net/news

–
*****************************************
BLOCK THE BUILDERS!
non­vi­o­lent direct action against new nuclear weapons
*****************************************
Pledge *your* sup­port at http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/pledge
*****************************************

12 February 2007 — Fantastic February Blockade at AWE Aldermaston

12 Feb­ru­ary 2007
Fan­tas­tic Feb­ru­ary Block­ade at AWE Alder­mas­ton
From 7 am at Tadley gate

Block the Builders photo montage12 Feb­ru­ary 2007
Fan­tas­tic Feb­ru­ary Block­ade at AWE Alder­mas­ton
From 7 am at Tadley gate

Meet up the night before for con­spir­a­cy and prac­tice

Block the Builders are call­ing for spe­cial efforts for this last
announced block­ade before the vote on Tri­dent replace­ment

Par­lia­ment will vote on Tri­dent replace­ment with­in weeks. The gov­ern­ment
are propos­ing a long term pol­i­cy in favour of new nuclear weapons and
against
dis­ar­ma­ment. Now is the time to show your oppo­si­tion to British weapons
of mass destruc­tion in a prac­ti­cal and vis­i­ble way.

If Par­lia­ment vote to replace Tri­dent in March it will be an uphill
strug­gle for decades to come, so it is vital that we exert pres­sure now
to influ­ence the
debate. This means not just tak­ing action, but also let­ting peo­ple know
— local groups, local media and your local MPs as they are the ones who will
be vot­ing.

At Alder­mas­ton new facil­i­ties to devel­op the replace­ment for Tri­dent are
already being built. Block the Builders are call­ing for all build­ing work to
stop until a deci­sion is made about the future of Britain’s nuclear weapons.

Pre­vi­ous­ly…
In Novem­ber 400 peo­ple descend­ed on Alder­mas­ton to oppose Tri­dent
replace­ment and halt the con­struc­tion of new facil­i­ties. Nuclear war work
was dis­rupt­ed for sev­er­al hours but the large num­bers involved meant
that only one per­son was arrest­ed. The more peo­ple we have the low­er the
risks are.

The road out­side Alder­mas­ton was closed by police for two hours in
Decem­ber dur­ing a block­ade by a dozen peo­ple using a con­crete-filled
wheel­ie bin and
a vari­ety of lock-ons. And a suc­cess­ful sur­prise action this week by
Scot­tish activists saw con­struc­tion traf­fic blocked for four hours and
con­crete
lor­ries arriv­ing to build the new facil­i­ties were turned away.

Join the block­ade on Mon­day 12 Feb­ru­ary.
Block the Builders are call­ing for a spe­cial effort dur­ing this cru­cial
time.
Non-arresta­bles and sup­port­ers are need­ed. We are encour­ag­ing oth­ers to “be
pre­pared”. Bring plans, equip­ment and enthu­si­asm. Bring your friends!

Accom­mo­da­tion avail­able the night before, legal sup­port team on the day.

See www.blockthebuilders.org.uk for fur­ther details or
ring 07969 739 812

aldermaston shut down

23.01.2007

A group of eight activists block­ad­ed the entrance to AWE Alder­mas­ton this morn­ing at 6.45am. Using steel lock-on tubes the group have com­plete­ly blocked the road. Thus stop­ping all con­struc­tion traf­fic enter­ing or leav­ing the site. This has called a large tail­back and the police turned all traf­fic away from the site.

23.01.2007

A group of eight activists block­ad­ed the entrance to AWE Alder­mas­ton this morn­ing at 6.45am. Using steel lock-on tubes the group have com­plete­ly blocked the road. Thus stop­ping all con­struc­tion traf­fic enter­ing or leav­ing the site. This has called a large tail­back and the police turned all traf­fic away from the site.

The road is still blocked at 9.30am and the police have made no efforts to remove them yet. The police had giv­en them an hour to unlock but two and a half hours lat­er they are still there.

The police seem to be plan­ning to freeze them out but they havent tak­en into account the fact they are deal­ing with mad weath­er hard­ened scot­tish activists.

The group, which includ­ed activists from Faslane Peace Camp, a protest site oppo­site HMNB Clyde where the UK’s Tri­dent sub­marines are based, say they were act­ing in response to the Government’s White Paper pub­lished in Dec 2006 in which it con­firmed its inten­tion to replace the Tri­dent sub­ma­rine fleet and out­lined pro­pos­als for replac­ing the cur­rent Tri­dent II D5 mis­siles. .

The new facil­i­ties at Alder­mas­ton will enable the UK to test, design and build the next gen­er­a­tion of nuclear weapons. Such weapons are ille­gal under Inter­na­tion­al laws, and encour­age glob­al pro­lif­er­a­tion, insta­bil­i­ty and con­flict.

A spokesper­son for the group stat­ed “the only safe, humane, moral and legal route is to work towards dis­ar­ma­ment of Tri­dent and ditch any ideas of Tri­dent replace­ment or any new nuclear weapons system.â€?

The group are act­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Block The Builders Cam­paign whoose web­site is www.blockthebuilders.org.uk.

Next Aldermaston Blockade Monday 15th January

**Block the Builders return to Britain’s nuclear bomb fac­to­ry as Tri­dent
» debate heats up**
>
> NEXT BLOCKADE MONDAY 15TH JANUARY. FOR DETAILS OF BLOCKADE AND ARRANGEMENTS
> PLEASE VISIT http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/Blockades.php

**Block the Builders return to Britain’s nuclear bomb fac­to­ry as Tri­dent
» debate heats up**
>
> NEXT BLOCKADE MONDAY 15TH JANUARY. FOR DETAILS OF BLOCKADE AND ARRANGEMENTS
> PLEASE VISIT http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/Blockades.php
>
» ———————-
»
» In Decem­ber 2006 the gov­ern­ment pub­lished a White Paper in which it
» con­firmed its inten­tion to replace the Tri­dent sub­ma­rine fleet and
» out­lined pro­pos­als for replac­ing the cur­rent Tri­dent D5 mis­siles. The
» par­lia­men­tary debate on these aspects of Tri­dent replace­ment is expect­ed
» to take place in March.
»
» How­ev­er, the White Paper deferred the issue of what nuclear war­head the
» mis­siles would car­ry. Tony Blair’s intro­duc­to­ry text stat­ed that a
» deci­sion on war­head replace­ment could be tak­en in the next par­lia­ment.
»
» ———————-
» BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE BOMB
» ———————-
»
» Mean­while, mas­sive work to upgrade AWE Alder­mas­ton con­tin­ues with­out
» pause. A recent indus­try report sug­gest­ed that con­struc­tion firms are
» expect­ing £12bn to be spent on the nuclear war­head fac­to­ry over the next
» 12 years [2]. A curi­ous sit­u­a­tion if no deci­sion has been made on a future
» war­head.
»
» Block the Builders will con­tin­ue their reg­u­lar month­ly obstruc­tion of
» con­struc­tion traf­fic enter­ing the base. A spokesper­son said “We con­tin­ue
» to call for a halt to build­ing work at AWE. This mas­sive devel­op­ment
» project com­plete­ly under­mines any faith in the so-called ‘debate’.”
»
» ———————-
» WIDESPREAD CONDEMNATION
» ———————-
» Since the pub­li­ca­tion of the gov­ern­men­t’s White Paper there has been
» wide­spread oppo­si­tion, to both the replace­ment pro­pos­als and the process
» of deci­sion-mak­ing. Con­cerns have been expressed by a very broad range of
» indi­vid­u­als and organ­i­sa­tions; par­lia­men­tar­i­ans from all sides of the
» House have ques­tioned the gov­ern­ment, and faith lead­ers, trade union­ists
» and the anti-nuclear move­ment have con­demned both the pol­i­cy impli­ca­tions
» and the finan­cial cost.
»
» ———————-
» LOCAL NEWS
» ———————-
» Local media may be inter­est­ed to note that, despite pre­vi­ous­ly being
» gift­ed mon­ey by AWE just days before a 2005 plan­ning meet­ing [3], the
» local parish coun­cil is object­ing to one of the base’s cur­rent plan­ning
» appli­ca­tions and a spe­cial plan­ning meet­ing will be held on 22 Jan­u­ary in
» New­bury [4]
»
» ———————-
» ABOUT BLOCK THE BUILDERS
» ———————-
» Formed in 2004, Block the Builders is a non­vi­o­lent direct action group
» which has
» been tak­ing prac­ti­cal action to slow con­struc­tion work AWE Alder­mas­ton and
» at
» the sites of com­pa­nies with con­struc­tion con­tracts with AWE.
» This has tak­en the form of a month­ly, pub­licly-announced block­ade of AWE
» Alder­mas­ton, com­bined with unan­nounced actions at AWE and con­trac­tor
» sites, and
» events in con­junc­tion with oth­er groups such as the recent Greenpeace/BtB
» mass
» weapons inspec­tion (27/11/06). The Decem­ber 2006 block­ade saw roads around
» the site closed for two hours and sev­en peo­ple arrest­ed.
»
» For reports of pre­vi­ous block­ades, see http://www.aldermaston.net/news
»
» ———————-
» NOTES
» ———————-
» [1] White Paper: http://tinyurl.com/ye878z
» [2] Indus­try report:
» http://www.costain.com/externaldocs/finance/Nuclear.pdf
» page 17 (pre­vi­ous pages are very good for explain­ing the gen­er­al nuclear
» sec­tor con­tracts, whose bid­ding etc) but page 17 says “AWE Frame­work
» agree­ment £4m in 2006. Fore­cast £8m in 2007. Posi­tioned for con­tract­ing on
» AWE’s invest­ment pro­gramme £12bn over next 12 years”
» [3] Min­utes of the Parish Coun­cil meet­ing held on 8th Novem­ber 2005
» No mem­bers of the pub­lic were present.
» 94 Parish Plan progress report · The Parish Plan was tabled. It was agreed
» that
» Clerk will write to Ken Ray con­grat­u­lat­ing him and the steer­ing group on
» the
» excel­lent work they have car­ried out. A dona­tion of £1500 had been
» received
» from AWE and it was agreed that the Clerk would write express­ing the
» thanks of
» the Parish Coun­cil. [orig­i­nal at:
» http://www.aldermaston.co.uk/2005/dec05/pc_minutes11.05.doc]
» [4] Spe­cial meet­ing of the East­ern Area Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. The only item
» for deter­mi­na­tion will be 06/2326/comind (AWE office accom­mo­da­tion
» appli­ca­tion).
» This will start at 6.30pm and be held in the Coun­cil Cham­ber, Mar­ket
» Street, New­bury.
»
» Block the Builders: http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk
»

Faslane 365 builds

9/1/07 Fol­low­ing on from yes­ter­days protest by aca­d­e­mics from across the world and stu­dents from Oxford, Cam­bridge, Sus­sex and Edin­burgh Uni­ver­si­ties, today seen elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives from across the polit­i­cal spec­trum con­verge on Faslane in protest against nuclear weapons. Yes­ter­days protest seen aca­d­e­mics hold sem­i­nars on papers they had researched on the sub­ject of nuclear weapons, … Con­tin­ue read­ing “Faslane 365 builds”

Faslane 365 tent
Faslane 365 academics & students
9/1/07
Fol­low­ing on from yes­ter­days protest by aca­d­e­mics from across the world and stu­dents from Oxford, Cam­bridge, Sus­sex and Edin­burgh Uni­ver­si­ties, today seen elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives from across the polit­i­cal spec­trum con­verge on Faslane in protest against nuclear weapons.

Yes­ter­days protest seen aca­d­e­mics hold sem­i­nars on papers they had researched on the sub­ject of nuclear weapons, which start­ed on the pave­ment but even­tu­al­ly moved onto the road. Over­whelmed by sheer num­bers, with over thir­ty stu­dents and rough­ly fifty aca­d­e­mics, the police had no option but to leave pro­tes­tors block­ing the main entrance to the nuclear base. When it was clear that police were in no posi­tion to clear the road any time soon, and due to the cold tem­per­a­tures and heavy rain, pro­tes­tors erect­ed tents, set up a tea table with a gas pow­ered urn and even­tu­al­ly brought a bra­zier and light a fire in the main road. After five hours Strath­clyde police man­aged to mobilise enough offi­cers and along with rough­ly twen­ty MoD police offi­cers spent a fur­ther hour clear­ing the road of peo­ple. Pro­tes­tors man­aged to keep the gate blocked for just over six hours and five min­utes, which works out as three-hun­dred and six­ty five min­utes, an obvi­ous­ly sig­nif­i­cant record for the Faslane 365 project. There was a total of sev­en­teen aca­d­e­mics and eigh­teen stu­dents arrest­ed.

Today elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives from across the UK and Europe turned out at Faslane to once again protest against nuclear weapons. Politi­cians from Labour, SNP, SSP, the Green Par­ty and Sol­i­dar­i­ty along with sup­port­ers gath­ered at ten o’clock to add to the grow­ing protests against nuclear weapons. Krista van Velzen, an MP from Hol­land, urged police to join the pro­tes­tors and uphold inter­na­tion­al law by arrest­ing those who worked on Tri­dent instead of those blockad­ing. She remind­ed them of Ger­man police offi­cers who recent­ly block­ad­ed trains car­ry­ing nuclear waste. SSP MSP Rosie Kane point­ed out the hypocrisy of the UK gov­ern­ment putting pres­sure on oth­er coun­tries over nuclear weapons, and yet they are prepar­ing to replace the Tri­dent sub­marines with a pos­si­ble cost of £76 bil­lion.

After speech­es sev­en elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives and two oth­er sup­port­ers moved onto the road and blocked traf­fic. They were Krista van Velzen (Dutch MP, Social­ist Par­ty), Car­lyn Leck­ie, Rosie Kane, Frances Cur­ran (MSP’s for the SSP), Leanne Wood (AM, Plaid Cym­ru), Jill Evans (MEP, Plaid Cym­ru) and Car­olyn Lucas (MEP, Green). The two sup­port­ers were Bri­an Quail and Har­ry McEachan. They were tak­en to Clyde­bank and Dum­b­ar­ton police sta­tions and were released lat­er this evening with­out charge. These last two days take the total arrests at Faslane since the start of Faslane 365 to four hun­dred and sev­en­ty three, with six­ty one days of pres­ence.

info@faslane365.org
http://www.faslane365.org

Faslane action

19.12.2006
Wednes­day morn­ing, 7:30am. A dark road some­where North of Glas­gow. Scot­tish cold and rain beat­ing in my face. I’m chained via a bike lock to Irene, vet­er­an of the Faslane strug­gle. One arm dis­ap­pears into a tube, at the oth­er end of which is my mate Steve. There are sev­en of us, five women and two men, stand­ing in a line stretched across the road.

19.12.2006
Wednes­day morn­ing, 7:30am. A dark road some­where North of Glas­gow. Scot­tish cold and rain beat­ing in my face. I’m chained via a bike lock to Irene, vet­er­an of the Faslane strug­gle. One arm dis­ap­pears into a tube, at the oth­er end of which is my mate Steve. There are sev­en of us, five women and two men, stand­ing in a line stretched across the road.

Head­lights approach through the dark­ness; our high-vis­i­bil­i­ty min­ders rush for­ward arms wav­ing: “Slow down, SLOW DOWN, This is a block­ade don’t you know!” There are flash­ing blue lights approach­ing now from fur­ther down the road; one of us makes the call “HO!” and we sink to the ground, laid flat out on the tar­mac.

The next forty min­utes are spent blink­ing beat­ing rain out of our eyes, gri­mac­ing at police cam­eras and ques­tions, being fed choco­late by our min­ders and even­tu­al­ly, sad­ly, being cut apart by a very effi­cient Scot­tish police force. We’re tak­en away to a mobile pro­cess­ing unit for the usu­al rig­ma­role. As we’re dri­ven away we can see the traf­fic queues back­ing up in three direc­tions; the Tri­dent nuclear sub­ma­rine base is the work­place for 7000 loy­al sub­jects of Her Majesty.… and a fair pro­por­tion of them are now late for work.

It’s the least we can do.… They’ll be late for work plen­ty more times in the next twelve months — the Faslane 365 block­ade is intent on dis­rupt­ing activ­i­ty at the nuclear base through­out that time and GOOD LUCK to them! The weapons that are based at Faslane are some of the most awful ever devised by human­i­ty and if used would ush­er in obliv­ion for mil­lions, and mis­ery for mil­lions more.

Our next 24 hours are spent in police lock-ups in Dum­b­ar­ton and Clyde­bank. We are yet to hear if the “procu­ra­tor fis­cal” is intent on press­ing charges but with 408 arrests so far and only 4 pros­e­cu­tions it seems unlike­ly. But either way there are big­ger issues at stake than the odd breach of the peace. As our polit­i­cal mas­ters con­tem­plate the renew­al of Tri­dent — against the wish­es of the major­i­ty of the British peo­ple — it is incum­bent upon the ordi­nary cit­i­zen to express our oppo­si­tion in every way pos­si­ble.

Apart from being gross­ly immoral the renew­al of Tri­dent would under­mine all inter­na­tion­al attempts at nuclear non-pro­lif­er­a­tion, as well as being a finan­cial dis­as­ter for Britain. It would sig­nal 24 bil­lion pounds NOT being spent on hos­pi­tals, schools, the envi­ron­ment, etc etc. What insan­i­ty makes us spend all this mon­ey so that we have the option of killing beau­ti­ful human beings? In the face of such a prospect a few hours in a police cell seems a minor incon­ve­nience.

The Faslane 365 web­site (Please, Join the block­ade!):
http://www.faslane365.org/

So you think that, were Tri­dent built, there’s no chance it would ever be used? Maybe you should read some his­to­ry:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/198173.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

Green­peace’s view:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/7611.pdf

My thoughts while in the cell:
http://nickleberry-huxtable.blogspot.com/2006/12/uncomfortable-truth.html