Plymouth Anti-Trident Protest

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/webcams/

If you select the Plymouth Webcam, you can watch the sub arrive, I'd rather be there in person to offer my support.

In Peace

Rich

The protest at Plymouth-a great turnout, I was especially impressed at some as they had actually bothered to come from as far afield as Southampton and Birmingham. Thankyou to everyone who came-as a resident of Plymouth I am extremely bothered about what they dump in the water in the Sound and Tamar. There were masses of police-mostly because of a lot of propoganda put about that there was going to be 200-500 people marching, which scared the cops big time and made them issue warnings beforehand to the effect that they were up for arresting those who 'stepped out of line', and some arrests were made.
Although some people believed the sub was due in on Monday, there were signs all over Plymouth informing us that the Torpoint ferry was cancelled until 10.30am on Sunday so that could have been a massive clue as to when it was really coming in. Many people were there to witness the event of the nuclear sub coming in-either claiming it made them feel 'proud to be British' (hilarious comment by random plymouthian interviewed by local radio station) or in the case of a girl from Birmingham I spoke to, just 'very sad'.
All in all, I hope we have let some people know that Plymouth will not take this lying down and that there are people that care about what ELSE they are trying to pollute our rivers and seas with.
Thanks again to those who came out and chanted/sang/waved banners/generally supported, especially to the dog who barked in time to the chanting.
Charlie xxx

What an amazingly revolutionary day! Around 20,000 people from all over the UK turned up at Plymouth to ‘welcome’ trident into Devonport. The police were hopelessly out numbered and it wasn’t long before the fences surrounding the base had been pulled down in scenes reminiscent of Quebec. As hundreds of people stormed into the compound, a cheer went up from the crowd and police lines at the gates were forced aside. The next ten minutes were chaos as police and military personnel ran around the base trying to round up those inside. A little while later we heard that a group had made it to the water front and had taken a hammer to the delicate electronic equipment on the conning tower of the trident sub…

Okay so that’s just wishful thinking. Actually there were perhaps 250 people who marched around the perimeter of the docks pausing for token sit down protests at five of the gates. Police outnumbered protesters… in fact the number of hired mini buses used by the police probably outnumbered those on the march. Seven plucky Ploughshares people decided they’d walked far enough and refused to move from the gates of HMS Drake where they were sat. Subsequently they were removed and arrested by the altogether good-natured officers of the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary (but then again they’re still prepared to deprive people of their liberty, flying in the face of the illegality of weapons of mass destruction…). This and moments of creative improvisation on the usual tired and overused slogans, as well as some cheeky flyposting, helped to offset the tedious omnipresence of the parasitic, megaphone-wielding and hardly inspiring Socialist Worker party (anyone wanna buy a paper?).

Ahem…

Numerous times before we have seen that when people feel strongly enough about something, they can make a difference. Maybe Trident in Plymouth isn’t such an issue but at least some people cared enough to be there. Those people may have gone away having made connections that will change their own lives and help to create a better future. Who can tell?

So if you read the first paragraph and thought – yeah! nice one! - then get together with others who feel the same way and make it happen. If not you - then who? If not now - then when?

Puddings not Genocide is an adhoc Affinity group formed to stop bad stuff! We form part of Earth First!, a network of autonomous groups and individuals using direct action and non-hierarchical organisation to defend people and planet from the destructive forces of greed and profit. Rah!
See www.eco-action.org/ef/

public health warning flyposted around plymouth.

Just resized the pics because they were very big.
Big pics still available at:
 http://uk.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/p2030034.jpg
 http://uk.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/p2030037.jpg

Just resized the pics because they were very big.
Big pics still available at:
 http://uk.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/p2030034.jpg
 http://uk.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/p2030037.jpg

It was a bleak morning in Plymouth on Sunday and I’m not talking about the weather. HMS Vanguard – a trident class nuclear submarine arrived in a blaze of media glory for a long overdue refit, circled by an impregnable ring of police boats, Royal Marines raiding craft, and 4 Police helicopters. Vanguard carries a very large nuclear reactor and there are now 12 nuclear reactors in the dockyard in the middle of a city of 270,000 people.

Hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters had travelled from across the country to demonstrate at her arrival. The police fielded around 200 and 300 officers from Devon and Cornwall, plus dozens of Ministry of Defence police officers who scoured Plymouth Sound in rigid inflatable craft. They also hired up all the minibuses in the area as they didn’t have enough transport…fuck knows how much that little lot all cost…

Plymouth is primarily a military town, and collectively has that mentality. Some residents were saying that the town would die if the dockyards closed. In my eyes the town already looks depressed, and near to death. Todays rally was called by CANSAR (Campaign Against Nuclear Storage and Radiation -  http://www.westcountrylinks.co.uk/cansar/ ) – a broad coalition of CND, EF, Trident Ploughshares, FOE, Greenpeace, various Trot and union groups alongside dozens of concerned residents. All in all over three hundred protestors rallied in Devonport park from afar afield as Southhampton, Cornwell, Bristol and Scotland. Various Speakers lifted the spirits of this good natured gathering before setting of for a march around the dockyards from Granby Way to Camels Head.


As the protestors reached each gate they sat down and observed a moment of silence. Songs were sung, incense sticks were lit, as everyone remembered the horrors of nuclear accidents such as three mile island, Sizewell and Chernobyl.

The march finished peacefully and dispersed, but the atmosphere was dampened when we heard that six protestors who stayed behind at one of the gates were arrested for obstruction. Well I guess the old bill has to justify their OTT ‘policestate’ tactics somehow…


C.A.N.S.A.R information

This is the story of Plymouth, our Plymouth.

Devonport Management Limited (DML) has just applied to the Environmental Agency to increase the amount of Tritium that it discharges into the river Tamar by
700%. Tritium is a particularly dirty piece of work, which if it enters the human body at a cellular level is known to react with the DNA and cause mutation of that DNA. This can lead to birth defects or exotic forms of cancer.

Nuclear experts acknowledge that there is no safe dose of radiation, and the only safe way of dealing with the radiation industry is to carry out its activities in an area remote from human population. In Plymouth it’s all happening in the centre of the city. We have a small resident based pressure group called CANSAR Campaign Against Nuclear Storage And Radiation.

CANSAR have formed links with Greenpeace, CND,WDC, Green Party, Nuclear Information Service and more. There is one thing that we should stress and that is that we are not against the servicing of nuclear submarines, we are only concerned with the Health and Safety of the people of Plymouth and S E Cornwall. We are not a threat to dockyard jobs! A report in the Evening Herald on Monday 2nd of October quoted a DML spokesman as saying that Nuclear Waste being discharged into the Tamar was a "small price to pay" for having the submarine refits etc in Devonport Dockyard – Later denied /retracted. CANSAR says: A small price to pay by whom and how many? How many children with leukemia is a small price?

CANSAR has begun legal proceedings to try to stop DML (Brown and Roots an
American company) from increasing the amount of Tritium that it discharges into the
Tamar by 700%. So far we have spent £1200 on lawyers, we see this as an act of
faith on behalf of the local population and their children/grandchildren.
To date we have received donations for just over two hundred pounds, and the WDC
have offered to pay half, so we have to appeal for funds.

If you or your group/organisation can help us please make your cheque payable to
CANSAR. and send it to: CANSAR @ 60 Royal Navy Ave. Keyham, PL2 2AQ - thank you.

Campaign Against Nuclear Storage and Radiation  http://www.westcountrylinks.co.uk/cansar/

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Can Indymedia help us find photos or video footage of the Devonport demo - and especially the bit where the seven of us got arrested ? (Our solicitor would like to find visual evidence of how peaceful and fluffy the demo was.)

If you think you CAN help, could you please mail or e-mail stuff to :

Rowland Dye, 15 Badminton Road, Bristol BS2 9JY
E-mail:  Nicefella@tesco.net
His phone no. is 07711-214-168

(He's not the solicitor, but he'll know how to keep things on track, if I'm away from home.)

We can pay for any stuff you send, if need be.

Any help you can give us would be MOST appreciated !

Very best wishes -

Margaret

I am just letting anyone intrerested know that Jill Wood, 'Granny Member' of South East Cornwall CANSAR was one of the arrested on the Plymouth Protest March of Feb 3rd.
Jill and I were both in the march.
She was burning incense as a symbol of hope and peace outside the gate where she was arrested along with 6 other peaceful protesters.
This does mean that Jill can now bring her protests to court.
Jill is protesting, as I am, on behalf of all the unborn children as well as our children ( I am a mother of three) and grandchildren, who do not have voices to protest at the terrible nuclear inheritance we are leaving them from the nuclear wastes discharged from Plymouth Dockyard. We are leaving them a legacy of geonomic instability, cancer and malformation, this is only what scientists are beggining to discover. ( see CANSAR on inymedia for more info)

Jill would like the support of anyone willing.
She will be in the Plymouth Magistrates Court ( behind St Andrews Church, Royal Parade ) for her Court Hearing on Thursday 28th Feb 2p.m. She is determined that the case of the Human Rights of these children to Health, of now and the future, be heard.

Jill and I are both ordinary people who refuse to sit back and let this terrible inheritance become a reality. So much damage has already been done and is yet to be seen. Are we going to let corporate companies make great profits from the creation of such destructive nuclear forces, destroy the lives of our children.

We are also concerned for all the creatures and plants that also have no voice to protest about their destruction and suffering, I have been lucky enough to see the dolphins that visit the Tamar.

Deb Hoskin