wpjf blog

Cycling to Aldermaston for ‘The Bomb Stops Here’ CND Demo

It’s nearly a couple of years since I cycled from Parliament Square in central London to a demo at Aldermaston.  It turned out to be further than I’d anticipated, mainly because the map I’d very stupidly assumed was 4 inches to a mile was, in fact, 8 inches, so everything was twice as far as it looked.  That, combined with a relentless headwind which made the virtually level route feel like a steep hill all the way, and my cycling mate Karl’s borrowed bike, which proved to have only one usable gear and very poor brakes, made what should have been a pleasant summer’s ride into a waking nightmare.  After about eight hours we had completely exhausted our energy resources and resorted to sleeping in a field in bivi-bags about 6 miles from Aldermaston. This bit was not as bad as it sounds. After two nights under tarps in Parliament Square, with tubes rumbling under us and sirens wailing all night and being attacked by drunk revellers, sleeping in a peaceful field was pure bliss.  Day dawned dewless, clear and calm, but by the time we’d re-packed and cycled the last few miles, the demo was all but done. This time round I was determined not to make the same mistakes.

Read on… 

With 15 British sailors still detained in Iran, it’s worth reading what Craig Murray has to say on the matter to balance the moral outrage of the British government and media.

No doubt at all that the sailors are being used as pawns, but at least as much by Britain and the US - who are, we must remember, illegally occupying Iraq - as by the Iranians.

As for all that nuclear hypocrisy being spouted in relation to Iran’s Uranium enrichment programme, our own home-grown Uranium enrichment facility is just up the road in Capenhurst, near Ellesmere Port.

This report from the BBC rather smugly states that "Nations which are signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have the ‘inalienable right’ to make nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes, through enriching uranium or separating plutonium."

All very well, except our Uranium is not only used for peaceful purposes, and we are in breach of the NPT in any case because we haven’t made any attempts to get rid of our nuclear weapons.   The result of exercising this ‘inalienable right’ is that Uranium from Capenhurst is discharged with the blessing of the authorities into the local Rivacre brook which runs close to schools and houses… the childhood leukaemia rate is four times the national average close to the site.  The Uranium is used in the Trident nuclear weapons programme; it ends up in Uranium weaponry which has polluted forever areas of the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq; the fallout from this pollution ends up all over the place including back here in the UK; Uranium weapons have contaminated parts of Scotland where they have been tested; surplus uranium is dumped illegally in Russia.

Local Peace Campaigners were in Wrexham town centre on Saturday 3rd Feb collecting signatures for a petition against the TRIDENT nuclear weapons programme.

Saturday morning shoppers were surprised to see a five foot model of a missile outside Milletts on Hope Street. Members of the public were invited to express their opinions on alternative uses for the estimated £25 billion cost of replacing Trident by writing them down and sticking them to the missile.  Suggestions included more spending on health, education and other public services, helping those who live in poverty, and “anything but this!”

The stall was organised by campaigners from Wrexham Peace and Justice Forum, some of whom were amongst the 19 people from Wales arrested at a blockade of the Faslane Nuclear Weapons facility in November of last year.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament argues that the huge sum required to replace Trident might be better spent paying for 120,000 newly qualified nurses every year for the next ten years.

The Prime Minister renewed the UK’s commitment to Trident in December of last year, prior to a debate in Parliament which will take place in March. He referred to the threat of global terrorism and stated that it would be ‘unwise and dangerous for Britain, alone of any of the nuclear powers, to give up its independent nuclear deterrent’.

Genny Bove of WPJF said: “Britain signed up to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty nearly 40 years ago.  No serious efforts have been made towards nuclear disarmament in all those years and it is this which makes the world such a dangerous place and encourages other countries to want to join the nuclear club.  Possession on nuclear weapons does nothing to protect us from global terrorism and, in fact, makes us more of a target.  The best way to make the world safer would be to get rid of our nuclear weapons and to spend the money on something socially useful, such as measures to combat climate change, reduce poverty and improve public services.”

More pictures can be seen here.

Just got back from Faslane, along with about 100 other activists from across Wales who took part in the rolling 1-year Faslane 365 campaign between 13th and 15th November. Different groups from across the country and beyond are taking on 48-hour blocks to maintain the pressure of an ongoing blockade in protest at Trident and government plans to spend an estimate £75 billion on a new generation of nuclear weapons to replace Trident.

The South and Mid-Wales group brought with them a contingent of the Rebel Clown Army, a giant red dragon and assorted politicians, while the North Wales group included a sizeable group of "Merched Beca" (Daughters of Rebecca) with voluminous skirts, bonnets and blackened faces. The actions of Merched Beca in 1839-44, where protesters dressed up in women’s clothes and destroyed much-hated toll gates in Wales, led directly to a Royal Commission to examine the issue, and by 1844 most of the remaining toll gates had been legally removed, allowing ordinary people to move freely along the roads. The 21st Century Daughters of Rebecca hope that their nonviolent direct action as part of Faslane 365 will bring about the decommissioning and dismantling of Britain’s nuclear weapons, allowing taxes to be diverted to more useful purposes.

19 protesters including eight teenagers, some of whom were as young as 14, were arrested for blockading the nuclear base on the 13th and 14th. Those under 16 were almost immediately de-arrested by the police, but those aged 16 and over are treated as adults in Scottish law and were detained overnight in police cells along with everyone else. My (not very) exciting account of 27 hours in police custody is here. Having spent most of my time in Scotland in a police cell, I didn’t have much else to write about.

Warning letters from the procurator fiscal were issued to arrestees on their release. Since the campaign began on October 1st, only one Faslane 365 case has been referred to court but this looks set to increase as groups and individuals return for a second and third blockading visit.  We were certainly talking about next time on the way home and will be getting together in December to discuss how the action went and to do some early planning for another visit.