In another life I was a teacher, and I recall that in the early nineties we used the tag Design Model to explain how injustice was embedded in formal educational institutions.
In the Scottish case the well-intentioned move to universal public education in the nineteenth century was underpinned by assumptions which gave us an institution (and buildings) designed for the a favoured group, which had the obvious characteristics of being white, male, middle class, able-bodied, straight,…
On Sunday 12 February, a group of anti-nuclear campaigners and activists gathered in front of the Camel's Head Gate at the Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth to protest against the agreement between the city of Plymouth and the Ministry of Defence to refit Britain's Trident nuclear submarines.
HMS Vanguard was refitted at the dockyard between 2003 and 2004 and, in early 2005, HMS Victorious came in for its refit; it is expected to remain there for two to three years. Refits of the other…
“No Nuclear Hypocrisy - Report on UK Nukes,” read dozens of placards outside the BBC's Portland Place HQ on Thursday 9 February. CND called the midday protest to draw attention to the BBC's failure to report fairly on the nuclear non-proliferation obligations of all nations.
Speaking about BBC Radio 4's Today programme of 31 January, Bruce Kent, CND Vice-President, said, “Once again the BBC has run an item on Iran without any mention of the major breach by the `declared' nuclear…
On 7 February, eight of us appeared at Newbury Magistrates' Court for planting vines and fig trees inside the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston last August (see PN2465).
Throughout our action we've tried to challenge both nuclear weapons and traditional protest practices and mindsets (see PN2467). One of the workshops we did during our trial preparation was entitled “Treating court as a gig”. At the time I felt it was a bit of a leftfield approach, but it…
As Peace News went to press, campaigners were making a last ditch attempt at halting the planning process for AWE Aldermaston's controversial Orion laser facility. Janet Kilburn reports...
At a meeting on 25 January, a small group of local councillors is expected to rubber stamp the plan - despite hundreds of objections and a growing call for a public inquiry. Campaigners, locals, parliamentarians - and even another nearby local authority - have been lobbying both…
Doors continue to swing open for Faslane 365, the ambitious plan to blockade Faslane naval base continuously for a year. It seems to be catching the imagination.
Perhaps one of the reasons for this lively response is the fact that these days people working for social change are showing an increased readiness to express solidarity across a wide range of connected problems and injustices, such as war, debt, poverty, abuse of asylum seekers, arms sales, drugs, corporate scams,…
There is strong public demand for debate about the future of Britain's nuclear weapons system, to which the government has recently appeared to acquiesce. But there are serious problems about the way in which it is trying to frame the debate.
The recent Greenpeace-commissioned MORI poll results show a popular preference for non-replacement, particularly when it is made clear how much taxpayers' money is actually spent on these weapons of mass destruction and what could be bought…
AWPC is a women-only anti-nuclear, anti-war group based around a monthly peace camp at the Atomic Weapons Establishment(AWE) Aldermaston, the UK's nuclear weapons factory. Women of all ages are involved, from 18 to 80, who oppose nuclear weapons in particular, and war and militarism in general. The camp(aign) is nonviolent, and likes to take direct action. Camp women are also involved in Nukewatch, which tracks nuclear weapons convoys deployed to Coulport in Scotland, and other military…
On 5 December, ten anti-Trident activists were each fined a total of £300 by a Scottish Sheriff who takes a dim view of people not doing exactly what the police tell them on every occasion. The activists were in bother for being the crew of a large model nuclear weapons submarine which blocked the street outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on 10 March.
The ten were accused under the Roads (Scotland) Act with placing an obstruction in the roadway without reasonable…
Anti-nuclear campaigners celebrated another small victory on 23 November, as the West Berkshire Eastern Area Planning Committee voted to defer a decision on whether to support AWE Aldermaston's full planning notice for the controversial Orion laser facility (see PN2458).
The catalyst for the proposal to defer was the lack of adherence to agreed procedure, with not all councillors having received vital environmental information relating to the development in advance of the…
Oxford CND members and Nukewatchers snapped this Trident nuclear weapon warhead carrier travelling north on the A34 at Botley, at 1.15pm on 9 November. The convoy comprised three nuclear weapon warhead carriers and full support team. In October the full Oxford City Council voted 23:1 in favour of writing a letter to the Ministry of Defence protesting at nuclear warheads being taken through their patch. Another letter was sent to John Kelly, County Emergency Planning Officer, saying theCity…
The shiny image of Rolls Royce was been somewhat tarnished at the end of October, after a group of determined protesters from across the country spent three days getting under the skin of the company and exposing to the residents of Derby the dirty underbelly of the engine that powers Britain's illegal Trident submarines.
Over the course of the action, protesters leafleted the town, held a public meeting, a silent vigil and a blockade and demonstration to make sure that the good…
Well maybe not. Plans to build a £20 million state-of-the-art laser facility at Aldermaston are beginning to unravel. Thefate of the laser, which forms part of the massive new developments at AWE Aldermaston, the UK's nuclear bomb factory, currently lies in the hands of the West Berkshire planning committee.
For the past two years, Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp (AWPC) have been attempting to undermine AWE's plans, through opposing the developments as they come up before the planning…
To us who were around at its beginning, it may be as shock to realise that CND is approaching its 50th birthday in 2008. A new review of its progress and achievements is therefore timely.
Kate Hudson, Chair of CND, took on a daunting task, and it is not surprising that more attention is given to the dramatic developments of the past 25 years than to the earlier ones - though that is no bad thing given the errors and omissions in the earlier history.
Kate does not actually…
I must love the questions themselves, as Rilke said, like locked rooms full of treasure, to which my blind, and groping key, does not yet fit. (Alice Walker from "Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful")
Some years ago former UK government minister Chris Smith wrote in the New Statesman about the joys of hill-walking in Scotland as an escape from politics. My first reaction to the article was to share in his pleasure -- but soon enough the question hit me: How in the…
