Nuclear weapons

On 8 March, Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp (AWPC) read in The Independent that we were packing up our camp for the last time; famous people were mourning our loss and messages of support were flooding in.

This followed the judgement on 6 March at the High Court in a judicial review, brought by AWPC, of the legality of three Military Lands Act Byelaws introduced (as part of a package with SOCPA) in 2007, one of which prohibited camping.
We had argued against this, on…

On 16-17 February, CND celebrated its fiftieth birthday in style; holding a “Global Summit for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World” at London's dramatic glass-walled City Hall (courtesy of mayor Ken Livingstone, who opened the conference).

The most striking aspect of the gathering was its resolute focus on the future.

Despite its being a birthday event, there was no massive exhibition detailing CND's turbulent and fascinating history, no panel of long-experienced…

This was the key message from a conference on "Trident, Trade Unions & Scotland's Economy" jointly held by the Scottish Trades Unions Congress and Scottish CND.

The cost of the Trident replacement won't come from existing Ministry of Defence budgets. Funds will be redirected from elsewhere, which means cutbacks in essential services. UK-wide, up to 30,000 public sector jobs are expected to be lost.

Of these, 2,500 will be lost in Scotland ­ more than the number of jobs…

This Easter Monday 24 March the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is holding a massive “surround the base” event at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston.

It will be a celebration of 50 years of campaigning for nuclear disarmament and a clear demand for an end to Aldermaston's continuing role as the beating heart of Britain's nuclear warhead production.

Each of Aldermaston's seven gates will have a theme of one of the decades, the '50s, '60s, all…

While UN nuclear inspectors report “good progress” on their “work plan” to clear up suspicions about Iran's past nuclear activities, the United States has been deliberately undermining Russian diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis.

Meanwhile, urged on by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian government seems to be edging closer to a climbdown over its nuclear programme.

On 18 November, Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who won the Nobel…

Not needless to say, Wales was well represented at the Big Blockade on 1 October. It is, let's admit it, quite an effort to get up to Scotland and lock-on, superglue yourself to the tarmac, or sing your heart out all day.

Ray Davies was arrested and pictured in the newspapers before some of us got out of bed, as usual: “Four burly policemen grabbed hold of a leg and arm each and I was carted away.”

Phil Steele of Bangor and Ynys Môn Peace and Justice Group…

Are the US, UK and others that are increasing the pressure on Iran genuinely concerned about nuclear proliferation? After all, the IAEA reports that there is no evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme.

Many people feel that the US has another agenda. Cynicism about the stated concerns of the US is not surprising, given that the case for war against Iraq was based on lies about possession of WMD.

And if you look at the record of nuclear weapons states on…

International law does not ban uranium enrichment. In fact, countries which have signed the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) gain the `inalienable right' to develop nuclear power programmes for peaceful purposes.

The bargain made in 1968 was that non-nuclear weapon states would gain access to nuclear technology, so long as they did not use it to develop nuclear weapons (Article IV); and the nuclear weapon states would get rid of all their nuclear weapons (Article VI).…

Hundreds marched up Edinburgh's Royal Mile on 4 November to say: “No to Trident”. The demo had support from the Scottish Trade Union Council, churches and the Scottish National Party and was organised by Scotland's for Peace. Alex Salmond, the new SNP first minister, has stated his opposition to Trident replacement. Scottish CND and other lobbyists will be expecting to see action. Watch this space in 2008, the year of CND's fiftieth anniversary.

The Chagos Islanders

The right of Chagos islanders to return to their homeland has been once again thwarted by the British government. On November 6th the government declared that it was going ahead with its decision to appeal to the House of Lords to seek clarification about the status of its overseas territories. The appeal will be heard in 2008.

Darfur

The conflict in Darfur has escalated in recent months with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.

The…

After a year of near-continuous protests at the Faslane submarine base, the international nonviolent direct action network Faslane 365 ended its campaign triumphantly on 1 October with 1,000 people blockading the home of Britain's Trident nuclear weapons force.

Before the final “Big Blockade”, the rolling protest had notched up over 900 arrests. This number crashed through the 1,000 mark by mid-morning, and by the end of the day the arrest total for the year stood…

Delegates from across the country flocked to London's City Hall from 13-14 October for this year's CND AGM, to update the campaign's objectives and learn something new whilst at it.

The usual policy debates - with very little debate - took their course in the mornings. (There were major debates over two amendments relating to nuclear power and peace education.)

Dr Alan Mackinnon, Scottish CND chair, spoke just after noon, describing the year's successes in Scotland…

Hopes for a peaceful resolution of the Iran crisis rest on the success of a “work plan” devised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve concerns about Iran's nuclear past.

Iran's new chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, closer to confrontational president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than his predecessor Ari Larijani, stated on 26 October that Tehran's nuclear policy remained “totally unchanged”.

On 28 October, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei…

After four years of mounting tension, Iran has finally agreed to answer by December all questions about its nuclear programme posed by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The United States, however, seems to want to undermine the Iran-IAEA agreement reached on 21 August, arguing that it does not halt Iran's uranium enrichment capability immediately.

    According to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the purpose of the new “work…

On 9 August, charges against ten women (and a dog), brought under the Aldermaston byelaws, were dropped ( “Women arrested at cocktail party”, July/Aug PN).

The women had been charged with “camping” and “lighting a bonfire”, following the introduction of new bylaws on 31 May 2007. Their original arrest - on 8 June - was, frankly, bizarre; Ministry of Defence (MoD) police took more than three hours to get women to the nearest police station - partially due to women vanishing,…