Nuclear weapons

Nuclear weapons have been used since 9 August 1945. They have been used ‘in the precise way that a gun is used when you point it at someone’s head in a direct confrontation, whether or not the trigger is pulled.’

These are the words, over 30 years ago, of analyst Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon insider who leaked the US government’s top secret internal…

Suppose you get a reply from a government ministry to your carefully-crafted letter – about Trident maybe. The minister or official should think about this one. Off-the shelf answers will not do.

But that’s just what you usually get – the creaky story about living in uncertain times, and how we must maintain a ‘credible’ nuclear capability.

We’re not asking much. We don’t expect a sudden conversion to sanity. We just want considered replies to considered questions or…

From 6-9 August, a group of peace activists including Serge Levillier, a lively 79-year-old Frenchman, held a fast and vigil outside Burghfield atomic weapons establishment in Berkshire. This was in solidarity with fasts also happening in France and Germany.

We put up banners, sang together, and read from the accounts left by survivors of the terrible atomic bombings in Japan. We did shadow drawings on the tarmac outside the main gate to remember those at the heart of the explosion,…

The connections between the UK’s Trident nuclear weapon system and the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014 are both fiendishly complex and absurdly simple

Here are a few of the complications. It is partly a tale of two governments that have their own referendum agendas but that are also highly sensitive to the potential effect on the referendum vote of positions they adopt publicly. The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), conscious of the power of the old principle — ‘…

Mil Rai is correct to underline nuclear threats  made by major powers to the South. But I  think that Mil should also ask why, when push  comes to shove, as in the Vietnam debacle and humiliation, the US  for instance  found itself  politically unable to use its nuclear arsenal. Are these horrors usable weapons at all?
However, 16 pages of Peace News and not a  mention of Trident replacement.  Please do better next time. Getting rid of Trident and thus kick-starting global abolition…

The most serious threat of nuclear terrorism comes not from some fragmented, vengeful jihadist network, but from the western states who form the nuclear core of the NATO alliance, who have issued repeated threats against non-nuclear weapon states in the Global South.

It is in fact official policy that Britain will use or threaten to use its nuclear weapons to preserve its economic and financial advantages throughout the world. You just have to join the dots.

This is one of the…

Last Saturday I went to Waddington to protest about drones and I took the opportunity to ask a number of people whether they knew where Britain’s nuclear weapons are designed and made. 

Of course, the results are anecdotal but I was shocked to find that many of these people, all of whom were against nukes, had no idea where we make our bombs.

When prompted, most of them knew the word ‘Aldermaston’, but had no idea what was made there. I wonder whether it is important…

Each year a fast is held in Paris (or in the Paris area) between Hiroshima and Nagasaki days (6-9 August) calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons in general, and the abolition of French nuclear weapons in particular.

The fast is organised by the Maison de Vigilance, which has been demonstrating against French nuclear weapons since 1984.

A movement, a campaign, and a spiritual home for opponents of nuclear weapons which organises monthly protests in…

Faslane Peace Camp, May 2013. Photo: Camcorder Guerrillas

Newspapers across the world published articles indicating the camp would likely close, and activist groups across the country publicised our plight.

The final meeting held yesterday [14 May – eds] saw many individuals, including past and present residents, travel from all over the UK to offer their time and support to keep the camp running.

It has been widely agreed that it would be a bad move to close the camp…

Blockading Burghfield. Photo: Action AWE

The blockaders, who ‘locked-on’ by joining their hands together inside plastic tubes, managed to stay in place for five hours before leaving. There were no arrests.

The action was part of a year-long campaign of actions organised by Action AWE, which describes itself as ‘a grassroots campaign of nonviolent actions dedicated to halting nuclear weapons production at the atomic weapons establishment (AWE) factories at Aldermaston and…

For the last two years, there has been a small group of us rebuilding Faslane Peace Camp as a community of anti-nuclear action.

We came together with a shared vision that if we maintain the camp as a safe, alcohol- and drug-free space with regular actions and campaigning, we could create a strong, autonomous community active in the fight against Trident and the militarisation of the west coast of Scotland.

Part of our vision has been achieved in making the…

All gates into the base were blockaded for three hours on a Monday morning, from 7am to 10am. Those arrested ranged in age from 19 to 83 and came from across Scotland, Wales and England.

Students, pensioners, environmentalists and activists from a dozen campaign groups and political parties lay down in the entrance to the base and locked themselves together with metal and plastic tubes, chains and ‘thumb-cuffs’ (handcuffs for thumbs). They demanded the UK disarm the Trident weapons…

Buzzy bees at Aberporth drone testing site Photo: Lotte Reimer

Initiated by Anonymous activists, who pulled out at the last minute because they forgot to ask their mums if they could have a party, the protest went ahead with local people, singers, Rebel Clowns and other busy bees, who buzzed in solidarity with drones trying to clear their name.

Said one local drone: ‘It’s tough enough that there are so few of us these days, with pesticides and whatnot, but tarnishing our…

 At the beginning of March, 500 activists from 70 countries gathered in Oslo for a Civil Society Forum organised by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). This preceded the Norwegian government’s conference on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and reflected ICAN’s intention to redirect the debate towards the catastrophic impact of nuclear weapons and to push for a treaty banning them.

The first day focussed on the…

Easter Monday at Aldermaston Photo:Sue Longbottom

This year, appropriately or not, Easter Monday fell on 1 April, and CND staged a demo there entitled, ‘Stop Fooling with Nuclear Weapons’.

People from different parts of the country were assigned to various of the eight gates to the factory complex. Those of us from London were assigned to the ‘Home Office Gate’, so, before noon, the start time for the demo, I got out of one of three nearly-full 50-seat coaches from London.…