A vigil was held at Faslane Naval Base on 15 February in solidarity with the Aldermaston blockaders’ action that day. The vigil was called by Faslane Peace Camp and neighbouring Helensburgh CND. Renfrewshire CND also joined the protest, which marched with banners and flags from the peace camp down to the north gate of the naval base, which is home to all of the UK’s nuclear weapons. A presence was maintained during the shift change at the base.
Subcontractors
Being at…
At the 15 February Big Blockade of the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), the Welsh were assigned to Construction Gate, one of the most important gates for vehicle access in the coming months.
The Welsh started arriving around 6am. Around 6.30am, vans with internationals arrived, followed quickly by more Welsh groups and Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhists.
People with metal lock-on tubes and a very effective lock-on drum of four positioned themselves in the…
This May, parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will meet for a full review conference. International youth will be represented there through “Ban All Nukes Generation” (BANg). The youth will make a speech calling for Obama to earn his Nobel peace prize, and asking other world leaders to have the courage to act so that young people will not be left the legacy of nuclear weapons, which they had no hand in creating.
Young people everywhere are encouraged to contribute to…
Daniel Viesnik writes: On Monday 1 February, at Highbury Corner magistrates’ court in north London, I was sentenced to 14 days’ imprisonment (of which I served just four) for wilfully refusing to pay a £50 fine and £465 court costs for a symbolic sit-down protest at the gates of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire in July 2007. It was my first time in prison.
The peaceful protest took place during the three-month Footprints for Peace walk towards a nuclear-free…
Footprints for Peace are currently walking from the Y12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to New York. They are due to arrive at the UN on 1 May, in time for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.
A month-long walk in Scotland following the route of the nuclear warhead convoy will be taking place in August.
www.tinyurl.com/peacenews215
Justice Not Vengeance are planning a southern England walk…
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is scheduled to hold its next review conference from 3-28 May, just when Britain is likely to have a general election. For many governments and NGOs, the NPT will be a major focus for their work in 2010. But should it be the main focus for disarmament activists? What, realistically, can be achieved at the 2010 review conference?
Even when important commitments have been adopted at NPT conferences, as with the “13 Practical Steps on…
The long-awaited report from the Scottish Parliament Working Group on Scotland Without Nuclear Weapons was published on 18 November. It concluded that “there is a bright future for Scotland without nuclear weapons”, recommending that a route map be created for disarmament. The route map would include identifying the needs of the key communities and businesses most affected by the removal of nuclear weapons, so that assistance, including the allocation of a “disarmament dividend”, could be…
After serving 18 years for revealing details of Israel’s nuclear weapons programme, Israeli technician Mordechai Vanunu was released in 2004 with restrictions on his freedom of speech, association and movement.
On 28 December, Vanunu was arrested and charged with violating one condition, that of not talking to foreigners. His lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, said Vanunu was arrested because he has a Norwegian girlfriend whom police also interrogated. Vanunu was held for three days, then put…
Following the acquittal of Aldermaston blockaders (PN 2516-7), three women, Alison Crane, Morgan Woodland and Alison Parfitt, due to appear before Newbury Magistrates on 9 December charged with highway obstruction at Aldermaston in June, received a letter a few days beforehand to say the case had been dropped due to lack of evidence.
Others who appeared before Newbury magistrates on 26 November on the same charges arising from the same action were not so lucky – they were found guilty…
As dawn begins to break on a Monday morning in February, hundreds of dedicated individuals from all around Britain and beyond will descend upon the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston, determined to block the base and halt work on facilities for a new generation of nuclear warheads.
The Aldermaston Blockade on 15 February 2010 will highlight the illegality, immorality and criminal waste of resources involved in the multi-billion pound expansion of the nuclear…
At CND’s International Conference on 10 October, the UK branch of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN-UK) launched its new website (see end of article).
ICAN-UK, which has nine core members, including Medact, CND and the World Court Project UK, aims to abolish nuclear weapons through a nuclear weapons convention (NWC). A NWC would prohibit the development, testing, production, stockpiling, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as the…
On 2 November, All Souls Day, five Christian peace activists carried out a “Ploughshares” action against Trident nuclear missile submarines at the Kitsap naval base in Bangor, WA, USA. Bill “Bix” Bichsel, 81; Susan Crane, 65; Lynne Greenwald, 60; Steve Kelly, 60; and Anne Montgomery, 83, made their way through two fences, and were about to enter the Strategic Weapons Facility-Pacific when they were arrested, carrying a banner saying: “Disarm Now Plowshares: Trident: Illegal + Immoral”.…
On 12 November, four of us who “locked-on” across a gate at the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston, during the Big Blockade on 27 October last year were cleared by Reading court of obstructing the highway and awarded costs.
We were: Jean Oliver from Scotland, Emma Sangster and myself from London, who defended ourselves; and Renate Zauner from Switzerland, represented by professor Nick Grief.
The “not guilty” verdict was on a technicality – the prosecution…
Five anti-nuclear activists who peacefully blocked access to the atomic weapons establishment (AWE) Aldermaston last autumn were tried before Reading magistrates’ court on 21 and 22 October.
The defendants, Barbara Dowling, from Glasgow; Jean Oliver, from Lanarkshire; David Polden, from London; Emma Sangster, also from London (all self-represented); and Renate Zauner from Switzerland (represented by Prof. Nicholas Grief) were charged with “wilfully obstructing the highway”.
…On 16 July, the government published its international strategy in the lead-up to the NPT Review Conference next May. Called “Road to 2010”, the document was overshadowed in the media by an informal briefing given by cabinet office officials later that afternoon suggesting the government was to delay the next development step for the new Trident nuclear missile submarines until after the NPT review conference.
There had always been a suspicion that the rush into this project was…
