Anti-war action

On 9 April, the People’s Weapons Inspectors visited a Roxel arms factory in Worcestershire that manufactures components for Brimstone missiles. An order for 1,000 Brimstones has been placed by the Saudi military, which uses them in Yemen.

Inspectors came from the Christian-Quaker direct action group ‘Put Down the Sword’ and from the London Catholic Worker. Some weapons inspectors blocked the main entrance for over five hours by ‘locking-on’ to each other with arm tubes. Others met…

On 27 March, I was arrested, handcuffed and placed in a police cell for over 12 hours. My crime? Nonviolently protesting at an event glorifying violence: the Cardiff Arms Fair (officially ‘Defence Procurement, Research, Technology and Exportability 2018’).

The Welsh government has built links between Wales and arms industries – selling it as job creation. The arms fair, in the Motorpoint Arena…

On 24 January, Peter Anderson and Jamie Watson were both found guilty of ‘breach of the peace’ at Dumbarton justice of the peace court for blockading the Coulport nuclear weapons store during the Trident Ploughshares summer disarmament camp last July.

Two Finns who were arrested and charged with them, Esa Noresvuo and Kaj Raninen, did not turn up. Peter and Jamie accepted prosecution evidence that none of the four who locked-on across an access road to Coulport had moved when asked to…

In January and early February, there were acquittals for 12 of the 102 people arrested during the set-up of the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair last September (PN 2610–2611).

Most of the 102 were charged with obstruction of the highway, some with aggravated trespass, and a few were released without…

As part of an international event, a four-day fast was held in central London between Hiroshima Day, 6 August, and Nagasaki Day, 9 August, to commemorate the 300,000 deaths caused by the atomic bombings of Japan in 1945.

At 8.15am on Hiroshima Day, three fasters set out banners on railings on the Thames side of the ministry of defence, where they camped throughout the fast. By 8 August, numbers had grown to seven, and they held a one-hour protest in front of Downing Street. They…

On 12 July, two Trident Ploughshares (TP) campaigners were put in prison after refusing bail conditions. Brian Quail (79), a retired teacher from Glasgow; and Angie Zelter (66), a peace and environmental campaigner from Knighton in Wales, were both remanded in custody by Dumbarton sheriff court until 3 August.

Brian and Angie had both refused to accept a bail condition barring them from going within 100m of the Coulport nuclear weapon store and the Faslane nuclear submarine base.…

Every year on 4 July, US Independence Day, there is an ‘Independence from America’ protest at the Menwith Hill US spy base on the North Yorkshire Moors. The base is run by the US national security agency and is linked to circling satellites gathering political, military and economic information that is fed to the Pentagon in the USA.

This year began with a public reading of ‘The People’s Declaration for Independence FROM America’ and the handing over of a letter to the RAF…

On 7 March, 13 members of the Pacific Life Community were arrested amid snow and rain as they blockaded the Pacific home port of the US Trident nuclear ballistic missile submarine fleet, during the community’s annual gathering.

Seven people were in the road on the state side of the line, blocking the main gate into the Kitsap-Bangor naval base, Washington state. They were arrested for ‘leaving the kerb’. Six others were arrested for trespass after they crossed the marked property…

On 16 March, James Dowling of the Brisbane Catholic Workers pleaded not guilty at Brisbane magistrates court. He said that he had not ‘wilfully damaged’ a metal sword attached to a large stone crucifix known as the ‘Cross of Sacrifice’, a war memorial which has stood since 1924 by the gates of Brisbane’s Toowong cemetery.

Dowling told reporters after the hearing: ‘The damage was done when the sword was put on a cross, that is wilful damage. We tried to repair that damage. We took…

With the trial that concluded just after last issue went to press, all 13 people charged during the Trident Ploughshares June month of action at the Burghfield nuclear bomb factory in Berkshire have now had their cases resolved (all at Reading magistrates court).

On 19 October, Helen Swanston was found guilty of obstructing the highway and was given 12 months conditional discharge plus costs of £215. She had locked onto a vehicle parked across the northern end of ‘The Mearings’, a…

This is a statement carried by the pair when they were arrested inside BAE Warton on 29 January.

Today we intend to enter BAE Warton, to locate warplanes bound for Saudi Arabia, and disarm them. We take this action in order to prevent the export of weaponry that will almost certainly be used in…

In Australia, five Christian peace pilgrims had charges against them dismissed after entering one of the country’s most sensitive locations.

On 29 September, Jim Dowling, Margaret Pestorius, Andy Paine, Tim Webb and Franz Dowling walked onto the Pine Gap US spy base at Alice Springs, in Arrernte country, ‘to lament the death caused by the base and to resist the violence that is perpetrated there’.

The Pine Gap Five, aged 19 – 72, were charged with trespass under the…

Here is some cheery news of recent direct action in the US collected by the very wonderful Nuclear Resister.

On the 100th anniversary of the battle of the Somme, a French choir was banned from singing Song of Craonne at the 1 July ceremony at a German cemetery. It was too anti-war (sample lyrics: ‘... we are all doomed / We are sacrificed’).

The song was banned by the French military from 1917 – 1974.

2 December Syria Vote: die-in outside Parliament

All images © indyrikki

For here more images and a full report

A die-in

A minute's silence…