Larkin, Brian

Sister Megan Rice, a US Ploughshares activist, spoke on 8 January at the newly-opened Edinburgh Peace & Justice Centre about being imprisoned for two years for a symbolic act of resistance at the facility where the US is making new nuclear weapons and where the explosive components of the Hiroshima bomb were produced as part of the Manhattan Project.

Megan was 82 years of age at the time…

On 16 November, a group of Scottish peace groups launched a campaign focusing on the links between banks and financial institutions and companies involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

According to ‘Don’t Bank on the Bomb’, a report published by the Dutch peace organisation PAX, 53 financial institutions in the world now prohibit or limit investments in nuclear weapon producers, a 50…

A diverse group of Scottish organisations and individuals has set up a coalition to resist the notion that an independent Scotland should become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has long held the position that it would insist on the removal of Trident if Scotland should achieve independence and that a future Scotland would not be a member of NATO. While the SNP says it will remain firm in opposing Trident, the SNP leadership…

The upcoming Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference could be the beginning of the end for nuclear weapons.

Under the terms of the NPT “nuclear weapon states” – the US, Russia, UK, France and China – promised 40 years ago to pursue nuclear disarmament but have failed to do so.

But momentum for a nuclear weapons convention is building across civil society and governments. The mayors of 3,680 cities in 135 countries are calling for abolition by 2020.…

Four years ago the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), in coalition with the Greens, formed a minority Scottish government. Its manifesto and campaign literature had prominently declared opposition to the Trident nuclear weapon system.

After the Westminster government authorised design work for the replacement of Trident submarines, the Scottish parliament answered with a resolution calling upon the UK government not to replace Trident.

Then, in October 2007, the Scottish…

Last year, the Conservative chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne announced that any replacement of the Trident nuclear missile system would have to come out of a reduced MOD budget. CND responded with the report Trident, Jobs and the UK Economy which argued that Trident replacement would therefore lead to the loss of other defence sector jobs. Peace News praised the report (PN 2526) because it recommended the conversion of Aldermaston and Barrow to work on disarmament and production of…

A new book, Trident and International Law: Scotland’s Obligations was launched on 1 February. The launch took place at the Scottish parliament and was hosted by Bill Kidd MSP. Edited by Rebecca Johnson and Angie Zelter, the book is a project of the Acronym Institute, Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre and Trident Ploughshares. The eminent judges and lawyers writing in the book, review the arguments for the illegality of nuclear weapons and support Scotland’s right to demand the disarmament…

In early December, members of Trident Ploughshares, Helensburgh CND and the Faslane Peace Camp braved freezing temperatures to hold a vigil at the gates of Faslane Naval Base in solidarity with the five members of the Disarm Now Plowshares group on trial in Tacoma, Washington, USA.

The five members of the Disarm Now group entered the US Navy’s Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific (SWFPAC) on 2 November, 2009 in a symbolic act intended to bring light to the immoral and illegal…

Immediately after being fined £500 for blockading Faslane two women painted their judgement on the walls of the Dumbarton court building. Barbara Dowling wrote “This JP court does not uphold international law” on an interior wall while Janet Fenton painted “We want a peace court” over the brass plaque by the entrance. They now may face jury trial for an alleged £3000 worth of damage on vandalism charges.

The painting was an indictment of the Scottish courts’ persistent refusal…