Last week I received an email from a friend in England who seemed amazed that independence issues like the forced removal of Trident and NATO membership were getting quite radical coverage in the Scottish media. Their surprise was framed in a way that suggested few people south of the border are fully aware of the scale of the Scottish independence debate and the potential it has to force nuclear disarmament on the UK.
There is no doubt that independence is a subversive demand that…
Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond (of the Scottish Nationalist Party, SNP) has announced that if Scots vote for independence in the 2014 referendum, the nation's new constitution would explicitly outlaw nuclear weapons.
The proposal was announced on 7 October, a day after the pro-independence Scottish Green…
Questioning France's nuclear arsenal is not quite taboo, but the myth that it enables the country to retain great power status is accepted slavishly by most politicians, and with resigned passivity by the majority of the press and population.
Nevertheless, there is a strong and diverse protest movement.
One strand, closest to the Green party, opposes nuclear weapons as an extension of its opposition to nuclear energy. Just as nuclear weaponry is supposed to guarantee military…
On 27 October 1962, a Russian naval officer named Vasili Arkhipov saved the world.
Twelve US navy ships (part of the US blockade of Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis) were dropping practice depth charges on B-59, a submerged Soviet submarine, trying to signal that the sub should surface. The captain of B-59, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, panicked, believing that the Third World War had started. He gave orders to fire a nuclear torpedo, saying, according to one account: 'We're…
On 6 September, anti-nuclear protesters from Faslane Peace Camp delivered an emotive message to the 'next generation' of nuclear weapons engineers at a nuclear weapons seminar in a hotel in Clydebank.
The 'Introduction to Nuclear Defence' seminar, held in Beardmore Hotel Clydebank, invited 'young delegates' for two days of seminars and presentations on military nuclear topics from 'leading industry figures'. The programme, only open to UK passport holders subject to stringent security…
Trident Ploughshares affinity group 'Rise Up Singing' organised two days of tuneful protest at (and a blockade of) the Faslane nuclear submarine base on 16-17 September.
There was a busy day of workshops, singing practice and banner-making on 15 September.
The next day, more than 50 people headed to Faslane to raise their voices in protest against the Trident submarines housed there.
Two visitors from Bhopal described their campaign for justice for the…
On 3 September, a London magistrate refused to grant a compensation claim of £300 demanded by the ministry of defence (MoD) from Catholic peace activists Ray Towey, 68, Henrietta Cullinan, 50, and Katrina Alton, 44.
Earlier, the three had been joined by 25 supporters for a time of prayer outside Hammersmith magistrates’ court before a three-hour trial.
The three activists offered clear and moving accounts of their peace actions at the MoD during Holy Week when they…
Eighty people from all over France and from several European countries – Lithuania, Finland, Germany – and also several Americans, fasted in Paris from 6 August, anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, to 9 August, the date Nagasaki was bombed.
The Paris town hall, the local 2e arrondissement town hall, and the organising associations, the Maison de Vigilance, the Sortir du nucléaire network and the umbrella organisation Armes nucléaires STOP were present throughout the four…
Nuclear sub HMS Vanguard arrives back at
Faslane, Scotland. PHOTO: CPOA (PHOT) TAM MCDONALD
@UK MOD / CROWN COPYRIGHT
Britain may not be able to maintain its nuclear missile submarine capability because of shortages of navy and civilian personnel.
That was the stark message of the ministry of defence’s official risk register, obtained by the Nuclear Information Service (NIS) through the Freedom of Information Act. On 9 August, NIS placed on its website both the…
In the Senedd on 19 June, Wales’ first minister, Labour’s Carwyn Jones, said he would welcome Britain’s Trident nuclear missile submarines if an SNP government kicks the fleet out of an independent Scotland. Come to Pembroke, Carwyn said, Milford Haven awaits. Oh boy, if he did....
The peace movement in Wales reacted in outrage across its diverse and formidable range. Peace activist Mabon ap Gwynfor instigated an online petition urging the national assembly to oppose the idea of…
With the help of their Glasgow Kiss friends in arms, the ever-wonderful Faslane Peace Camp people and friends, the newly-expanded Lampeter gaggle of Byddin Boncars Clowniad, the Welsh Rebel Clown Army, closed Faslane nuclear submarine base for five hours on 7 July as part of the Faslane 30 campaign to blockade the base for 30 days to mark the 30-year anniversary of the Faslane Peace Camp.
The action followed hot on the heels of the previous day’s academic blockade, where academics…
TP die-in outside SNP HQ, Edinburgh, 9 August. PHOTO: Trident Ploughshares
Various stalls and ceremonies were held across Scotland over the first week-end in August to mark the anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb. On 9 August, Trident Ploughshares (TP) held a more pointed Nagasaki commemoration at the Scottish National Party’s HQ in Edinburgh.
TP wanted to challenge the SNP leadership’s ludicrous lack of consistency in declaring an absolute opposition to hosting nuclear weapons while…
Having recently rejoined Merseyside CND, and believing that membership of an organisation necessarily entails participation in its activities, I decided to attend this year’s Hiroshima commemoration in Liverpool, part of which was a film screening at our local social centre. The documentary had originally been shown on BBC4 and concerned the attack on Hiroshima itself, particularly the logistics of…
The Muriel Lesters affinity group visited the corporate headquarters of Lockheed Martin in Cunard House, 15 Lower Regent St, near Piccadilly Circus, London, on 6 June. Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest arms manufacturer, is one of three companies running the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston (on behalf of the British government), where they are designing and building a new generation of nuclear weapons. The Trident Ploughshares affinity group will be visiting again at…
Photo: Christian CND.
On 3 June, Christian CND and ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) celebrated the royal jubilee with ‘The Queen’s Peace Alternative Jubilee Party’ outside the nuclear bomb factory, AWE Aldermaston in Berkshire. There was a short service, followed by a secular event at 2pm, with a ‘best hat or crown’ competition, fence-decorating, children’s activities and a shared party tea.
