AWE Aldermaston is where Britain’s scientific research and development of nuclear weapons is conducted. Upgrades taking place at Aldermaston will enable the building and testing of a new generation of weapons of mass destruction.

Hundreds of activists will converge on Aldermaston in the biggest day of direct action against Trident nuclear weapons since the Faslane Big Blockade last October. On that amazing day there were 171 arrests as campaigners celebrated the end of Faslane 365, a 12-month rolling blockade of the nuclear submarine base in Scotland.

Last year, Westminster voted to replace the Trident submarines, but not the warheads (yet). But this summer, Ministry of Defence (MoD) documents made public indicated that despite government assurances to MPs and the public that a decision to renew Britain’s warheads would not be made until the next Parliament, in fact the decision has already been made behind closed doors.

Meanwhile, the MoD is spending billions of pounds on a massive construction and recruitment programme at AWE, which itself says the expansion is on the scale of Heathrow Terminal 5. New buildings have been springing up since 2005, including the massive Orion laser facility.

You can join the blockade to add your voice to those calling for an end to Britain’s nuclear arsenal. Arrest is completely optional. All support welcomed.

Accommodation and vegan dinner provided on Sunday night. Essential briefings, nonviolence training and planning will take place at the convergence centre in Reading on Sunday 26 October from 2pm. We would ideally like all participants to attend these, and to have studied the briefing pack, especially the nonviolence and safety guidelines. The blockade will commence at around 6:30am on Monday morning. Volunteers are needed for various non-arrestable roles on Sunday and Monday, including drivers, first aiders and legal observers. Please, please get in touch to let us know you are coming to help us plan food, accommodation, transport, etc.

For more information, including the briefing pack see:
Trident Ploughshares website:  http://www.tridentploughshares.org
and Aldermaston Big Blockade blog:  http://blockawe.blogspot.com

E-mail: blockawe [at] yahoo.co.uk
Tel: 0845 45 88 361
Mobile: 07804 640 643

Trident Ploughshares is a campaign to disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapons system in a non-violent, open, peaceful and fully accountable manner.