Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Campaigners to blockade nuclear bomb factory to mark World Disarmament Week

Trident Ploughshares Big Blockade | 23.10.2008 09:25 | Anti-militarism | Ecology | Oxford | South Coast

Trident Ploughshares has called a major blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston near Reading during UN World Disarmament Week [2], on Monday 27 October.

Campaigners to blockade nuclear bomb factory to mark World Disarmament Week

Trident Ploughshares Press Release

23 October 2008

Trident Ploughshares [1] has called a major blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston near Reading during UN World Disarmament Week [2], on Monday 27 October, from 6:30am. The Aldermaston Big Blockade is supported by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) [3], Block the Builders [4] and the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp [5] and aims to disrupt work on existing Trident nuclear warheads and their successors.

Hundreds of peace campaigners are expected to converge on Aldermaston in what looks set to be the biggest day of direct action against Trident in the UK since the Big Blockade of Faslane naval base in Scotland last October. [6] On Easter Monday, around 5,000 people surrounded Aldermaston as CND marked the 50th anniversary of the first march to the base from London. [7]

Christian CND is planning an overnight vigil at Tadley Gate from 9pm on Sunday 26 October and a daytime procession around the base on Monday in solidarity with the blockade. [8] Joining them will be monks and nuns from Nipponzan Myohoji, a Japanese Buddhist order strongly opposed to nuclear weapons, who plan to walk to Aldermaston from their Peace Pagoda in Milton Keynes.

In addition to calling for an end to Trident, campaigners want to highlight urgent concerns about public health and safety and environmental contamination, especially in light of recent revelations of severe flooding at AWE’s nearby Burghfield site last summer and numerous other ongoing safety issues. [9]

Daniel Viesnik from Trident Ploughshares said, “The massive expansion of AWE, continued deployment of Trident and its planned replacement are unnecessary expenses in the current financial climate and contradict and undermine the Government’s stated commitment to global abolition of nuclear weapons. This is hypocritical, destabilising and in breach of the UK’s disarmament obligations. Trident is a serious hazard to life, health and the environment and there can never be a lawful or moral use for it. We as concerned citizens have therefore called a peaceful blockade during World Disarmament Week to demand that the new developments are ceased and the whole Trident system taken out of service without delay. We would rather see this facility made safe so it will be fit for use for warhead decommissioning as part of a global Nuclear Weapons Convention, in line with Government proposals.”

Musician and songwriter David Ferrard [10], who is travelling down from Scotland, said, “I have participated and sung at several blockades outside the gates of Faslane in Scotland, where the Trident submarines are based. I thought it was time to travel to the source of the weapons of mass destruction and show solidarity with my English neighbours.”


ENDS


Notes:

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

For further information and to arrange interviews, contact Daniel Viesnik: 07506 234 091  aldermaston_blockade_media_team@yahoo.co.uk

 http://blockawe.blogspot.com
 http://www.tridentploughshares.org

2. UN Disarmament Week – 24-30 October
 http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/disarmament/

3. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is one of Europe’s biggest single-issue peace campaigns, with over 35,000 members in the UK. CND campaigns for the abolition of all nuclear weapons everywhere. Contact Ben Soffa, CND Press Officer: 0207 7002350 or 07968 420859  http://www.cnduk.org

4. Block the Builders  http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk

5. Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp  http://www.aldermaston.net

6. Faslane 365, a year-long blockade of Faslane naval base, Scotland  http://www.faslane365.org

7. CND The Bomb Stops Here event, Easter Monday 2008  http://www.cnduk.org/aldermaston

8. Details of Christian CND’s vigil and procession  http://ccnd.gn.apc.org/events.html

9. Reports on severe flooding at AWE Burghfield in July 2007 and other safety issues:

SWAMPED!
The devastating impact of the July 2007 floods on Britain’s nuclear weapons factories
Nuclear Information Service report
 http://nuclearinfo.org/view/nuclear_sites/accidents/a1952

Flood threat to nuclear arms site - Channel 4 News
 http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/environment/flood+threat+to+nuclear+arms+site/2513357

Britain's nuclear weapons factory 'nearly overwhelmed' by flood - The Telegraph
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/3178392/Britains-nuclear-weapons-factory-nearly-overwhelmed-by-flood.html

Trident plant shut down in safety alert - The Guardian
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/25/nuclear.defence

10. David Ferrard’s website  http://davidferrard.com

11. In March 2007, Westminster voted in principle to retain nuclear weapons and to build new submarines from which to launch them. To date, there has been no vote in parliament on the future of warheads. However, Ministry of Defence (MoD) documents obtained by CND in July 2008 confirmed that contrary to repeated ministerial denials, the government has already made the decision to replace the warheads.

CND press release  http://www.cnduk.org/index.php/press-releases/trident/secret-plan-to-replace-nuclear-warheads-parliament-misled.html

12. The MoD has already committed billions of pounds to a massive ongoing construction and recruitment programme at AWE, where Britain’s nuclear warheads are researched, developed and maintained. AWE first outlined its expansion proposals, which it claimed would be on the scale of Heathrow Terminal 5, in its 2002 Site Development Strategy Plan. Building work commenced - on the Orion laser facility - in 2005 and continues to this day.

Trident replacement - a short chronology
 http://www.aldermaston.net/campaigns/tng/chronology.php

AWE site development strategy plan (2005 update)  http://www.awe.co.uk/Contents/Publication/1567930Site%20Development%20Strategy%202005.pdf

Trident Ploughshares Big Blockade
- e-mail: blockawe [at] yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: http://blockawe.blogspot.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech