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…
On 4 December the government published a White Paper outlining its preferred option for the continuation of Britain's nuclear weapons programme, committing the country to a new fleet of nuclear submarines and to a service life extension for the US-owned Trident D5 missiles. Buried on page 30 was the news that the future of Britain's nuclear warheads would be determined in the next parliament. For now, a reduction in existing warhead numbers, from the equivalent of approximately 1,600…
November saw 16 different groups covering 20 days at Faslane, clocking up a mighty 148 arrests. The total number of arrests since 1 October 2006 stands at 330, but still only one prosecution so far.
Cumbria and North Lancashire started the month on a Halloween theme, handing over to the Iona community and the Clergy Action Group. By all accounts the police found it a surreal experience to be arresting so many church ministers. CND and Stop The War were next in line, with small but…
On 4 December the government published a White Paper outlining its preferred option for the continuation of Britain's nuclear weapons programme, committing the country to a new fleet of nuclear submarines and to a service life extension for the US-owned Trident D5 missiles. Buried on page 30 was the news that the future of Britain's nuclear warheads would be determined in the next parliament. For now, a reduction in existing warhead numbers, from the equivalent of approximately 1,600…
Five of the 17 Prestwick weapons inspectors were acquitted on 1 December after the Crown failed to prove that they did not have permission from the US Air Force to be on their plane!
The five had entered Prestwick Airport on 7 August this year looking for evidence of bomb shipments from the US to Israel. Prestwick is an apparently civilian airport near Glasgow, but it also has military traffic. At the height of the bombing of Lebanon it became clear that the UK authorities would not…
Nearly a year after Maya Evans became the first person to be criminalised under Section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 for demonstrating without authorisation the “designated area” around Parliament, she and three others appealed against their convictions at the High Court on 16 November.
Lawyers for the four argued that the enforcement of SOCPA was disproportionate in the, very peaceful, circumstances in which they were demonstrating. If they lose their…
One of the outcomes from last month's anti-occupation strategy gathering in London, hosted by Iraq Occupation Focus, was the need for an Early Day Motion to enable MPs to demonstrate their support for withdrawal. Since then, Labour MPs John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn have tabled EDM 335, calling for the immediate withdrawal of UK troops.
Given the reluctance of all the major parties to come out unequivocally against the occupation, however, it is unlikely that the majority of even…
Campaigners in more than 50 cities across Europe have taken part in a month-long action protesting against the nuclear capacity of NATO member states. Concerned citizens have been filing official complaints with relevant authorities on the grounds that NATO's nuclear capacity is contrary to international humanitarian law, as the weapons' indiscriminate nature is certain to cause unnecessary suffering.
The series of complaints, organised by Greenpeace and the Belgium peace…
On 2 December, hundreds of people from across the peace and anti-war movements descended on RAF Brize Norton.
The Oxfordshire base is used extensively as a transport hub for maintaining the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and, over the summer, campaigners established a peace camp outside after a US flight bound for Israel landed there. The base is also used to fly nuclear materials between AWE Aldermaston and US nuclear labs.
Naming the deadSpeakers at the event included…
In October 2005, Maya Evans was arrested for reading out the names of British soldiers killed in Iraq during a remembrance ceremony at the Cenotaph on Whitehall. She was charged with taking part in an “unauthorised demonstration” in a “designated area” under section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) and on 7 December 2005 she became the first person to be convicted under this Act.
The case attracted huge attention in the mainstream media as well as being…
Frances Laing talks to Joan Meredith, founder member of Trident Ploughshares, following her arrest at Faslane 365 in October.
Frances: Why did you join the opening Faslane 365 blockade?
Joan: I remembered Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was 1945. I was 15 years old - the announcement on the radio that the bomb had been dropped and then the awful thing was seeing it on the Pathe Gazette news - utter devastation and the tales of horror - how people had finished up…
As more observant readers will have noticed, parliament was not sacked on 9 October. However several hundred people did turn up to show their opposition to the war on Iraq and to challenge the ludicrous provisions of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA).
The day started slowly, with more journalists and bystanders than protesters. But by 1.30pm around 100 people had gathered in Parliament Square, all expectantly waiting to see if anything would happen... and sure…
On 11 October Phil Pritchard and Toby Olditch - the B52 Two - walked out of Bristol Crown Court after the jury failed to reach a conclusive verdict in their case for conspiracy to damage US warplanes.
This is the second Fairford disarmament case at Bristol to end inconclusively within the space of a few weeks. In September the jury in Margaret Jones and Paul Milling's case - for damage to USAF supply vehicles at the base - also ended with a hung jury. Both sets of defendants are…
Helen John and Sylvia Boyes, both charged under the Serious Organised Crime Act for breaking into Menwith Hill, the US spy base in North Yorkshire, will go to trial on the from 9 to 11 January 2007.
The pair were arrested on 1 April 12006, as the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (S128) came into force for additional designated sites - criminalising trespass at a number of military and nuclear facilities across Britain. Both women had visited the North Yorkshire spy base to…
On 1 October, 200 people descended on USAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. The airbase is believed to be home to around 110 US nuclear weapons of vital strategic importance to the US military. The following day eight activists broke into the base and locked on to the gates of the ammunition depot.
The demonstration on 1 October was called by CND and the Lakenheath Action group, and saw CND's Kate Hudson and Bruce Kent address the crowd along with Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn (who, apparently, had…
