This week I was arrested for participating in a Faslane 365 blockade. It was the first time I have taken part in non-violent direct action and, for any one who wants to give it a go, hurling yourself head first into the state apparatus sure feels good. But is it really going to reverse New Labour’s Nuclear obsession?
Last Thursday morning at 7.15am Jill and I tried to cash in a giant cheque at Faslane, Britain’s trident nuclear submarine base on the Clyde in Scotland. The receipt of the cheque would have signalled a U-turn in Government policy and could have delivered real gains for working people, whilst simultaneously halting Britain’s most immoral WMD programme. Unfortunately the cheque bounced and Jill, myself and 26 others, were locked up and arrested for having such a sensible idea.
The cheque to which we were bolted (for safety reasons of course) was worth £76, 000,000,000,000. I think that’s the right number of zeros but you can see why we needed a cheque. The sum Brown, Blair or Cameron will pledge for Trident replacement over its 30 year life would pay for: 50,000 more firefighters for five years, save seven million acres of rainforest, employ 120,000 nurses and build 30 new hospitals, hire 60,000 more teachers for the next five years, save the lives of 1.5 million children in the Third World and scrap student top-up fees for five years.
This is a truly obscene amount of investment and highlights the unbelievable hypocrisy and cynical lip service that establishment politicians are paying when they claim real concerns about world poverty, environmental issues, public services or pensions. Perhaps more hideous still are the moral questions surrounding the capabilities of a weapon that has 8 times the destructive power of the bombs that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The thought that the Royal Navy will be allowed to replace its four trident Nuclear Submarines without so much as a debate in parliament has rightly angered a lot of people. So much so that up to 100 are going to blockade Faslane almost every day and in doing so are causing a minor irritant to the state, all be it a major one for Strathclyde Police. More effective is the reverberations each visit could have in raising the profile of the issue and thus building the campaign amongst local and national groups.
The group of activists who I went with were a mixed bag or ‘umbrella group’ from the East. It consisted of a group of UEA student, a number of Quakers, Environmental and Green Party activists - including a councillor, a number from CND and a small group of us from Cambridge Stop the War. Some were prepared to risk arrest through blockading and others were supporting.
There was plenty of opportunity to network and share ideas and as an activists weekend break there was potential for team building and cultural and political input. Further to this I got a 30 hour meditation and relaxation session thrown in courtesy of Her Majesty: en-suite room, hot dinners and much needed time to catch up on some reading and sleeping.
Our position on Trident is simple. It is morally wrong and financially, and environmentally ludicrous. Public opinion is however a little more divided. A recent Greenpeace survey of UK showed 46% oppose Trident Replacement and 44% are in favour. If you tell people how much it costs then 54% are opposed and 33% support. This is still reasonably firm base from which to build a no campaign. In Scotland the argument is all but won with 80% opposed.
However the perceived problem for the campaign is raising the issue as a public and political priority. In the early 80’s when the CND campaign reached its height over 40% of the public sited Nuclear Weapons as the most, or one of the most important issues facing Britain today (unprompted survey). However since the end of the 80’s the figure has been consistently below 5%.
On first glance this might inspire little hope for turning the government on this question. The Labour Party changing it no nukes policy and the end of the cold war has lowered the priority of Nuclear Weapons in the public sphere. However we must not forget that there are a raft of other important issue for people to worry about. The environment, global poverty and opposition to ‘the war on terror’ are high on many peoples priorities and all campaigns capable of mobilising massive numbers of people.
If the campaign to stop trident replacement takes place in isolation we might struggle to achieve that goal. If it is part of the wider movement against the neo liberalism and imperial aims of the British establishment then the 365 campaigns could play an important part in uniting a number of movements.
Trident replacement represents a clear marker in Britain’s relationship with the United State’s. It could not be used without US say so and know-how. Economically it is a direct payment of UK taxation in to US arms firms. Worse still it indicates a ‘more of the same’ foreign policy direction for the duration of ‘son of trident’ - taking us up to 2055. Many also see it as a commitment to the nuclear industry as a whole.
Radicalised activist will be drawn to Faslane as an embodiment of this Governments shameful trajectory. We need to make sure that the messages and activity this campaign throws up is not just supported but consistent with the aims of the broader movements.
The ambitious task of a year long blockade might struggle a bit through the winter but a significant number of groups are going to have gone before then and many will be re-grouping and others planning to get involved through the spring and the summer when the campaign could really take a hold. The issue could swing some marginal seats in the May Scottish parliamentary elections and then start to put pressure on in other areas by galvanising the existing public feeling and channelling it into strong local and national campaigns related to the anti war work we have already been building.
I enjoyed my weekend but, unlike many others who will be making the pilgrimage for the second time in their life, I don’t want to have to do it again aged 80!
Last Thursday morning at 7.15am Jill and I tried to cash in a giant cheque at Faslane, Britain’s trident nuclear submarine base on the Clyde in Scotland. The receipt of the cheque would have signalled a U-turn in Government policy and could have delivered real gains for working people, whilst simultaneously halting Britain’s most immoral WMD programme. Unfortunately the cheque bounced and Jill, myself and 26 others, were locked up and arrested for having such a sensible idea.
The cheque to which we were bolted (for safety reasons of course) was worth £76, 000,000,000,000. I think that’s the right number of zeros but you can see why we needed a cheque. The sum Brown, Blair or Cameron will pledge for Trident replacement over its 30 year life would pay for: 50,000 more firefighters for five years, save seven million acres of rainforest, employ 120,000 nurses and build 30 new hospitals, hire 60,000 more teachers for the next five years, save the lives of 1.5 million children in the Third World and scrap student top-up fees for five years.
This is a truly obscene amount of investment and highlights the unbelievable hypocrisy and cynical lip service that establishment politicians are paying when they claim real concerns about world poverty, environmental issues, public services or pensions. Perhaps more hideous still are the moral questions surrounding the capabilities of a weapon that has 8 times the destructive power of the bombs that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The thought that the Royal Navy will be allowed to replace its four trident Nuclear Submarines without so much as a debate in parliament has rightly angered a lot of people. So much so that up to 100 are going to blockade Faslane almost every day and in doing so are causing a minor irritant to the state, all be it a major one for Strathclyde Police. More effective is the reverberations each visit could have in raising the profile of the issue and thus building the campaign amongst local and national groups.
The group of activists who I went with were a mixed bag or ‘umbrella group’ from the East. It consisted of a group of UEA student, a number of Quakers, Environmental and Green Party activists - including a councillor, a number from CND and a small group of us from Cambridge Stop the War. Some were prepared to risk arrest through blockading and others were supporting.
There was plenty of opportunity to network and share ideas and as an activists weekend break there was potential for team building and cultural and political input. Further to this I got a 30 hour meditation and relaxation session thrown in courtesy of Her Majesty: en-suite room, hot dinners and much needed time to catch up on some reading and sleeping.
Our position on Trident is simple. It is morally wrong and financially, and environmentally ludicrous. Public opinion is however a little more divided. A recent Greenpeace survey of UK showed 46% oppose Trident Replacement and 44% are in favour. If you tell people how much it costs then 54% are opposed and 33% support. This is still reasonably firm base from which to build a no campaign. In Scotland the argument is all but won with 80% opposed.
However the perceived problem for the campaign is raising the issue as a public and political priority. In the early 80’s when the CND campaign reached its height over 40% of the public sited Nuclear Weapons as the most, or one of the most important issues facing Britain today (unprompted survey). However since the end of the 80’s the figure has been consistently below 5%.
On first glance this might inspire little hope for turning the government on this question. The Labour Party changing it no nukes policy and the end of the cold war has lowered the priority of Nuclear Weapons in the public sphere. However we must not forget that there are a raft of other important issue for people to worry about. The environment, global poverty and opposition to ‘the war on terror’ are high on many peoples priorities and all campaigns capable of mobilising massive numbers of people.
If the campaign to stop trident replacement takes place in isolation we might struggle to achieve that goal. If it is part of the wider movement against the neo liberalism and imperial aims of the British establishment then the 365 campaigns could play an important part in uniting a number of movements.
Trident replacement represents a clear marker in Britain’s relationship with the United State’s. It could not be used without US say so and know-how. Economically it is a direct payment of UK taxation in to US arms firms. Worse still it indicates a ‘more of the same’ foreign policy direction for the duration of ‘son of trident’ - taking us up to 2055. Many also see it as a commitment to the nuclear industry as a whole.
Radicalised activist will be drawn to Faslane as an embodiment of this Governments shameful trajectory. We need to make sure that the messages and activity this campaign throws up is not just supported but consistent with the aims of the broader movements.
The ambitious task of a year long blockade might struggle a bit through the winter but a significant number of groups are going to have gone before then and many will be re-grouping and others planning to get involved through the spring and the summer when the campaign could really take a hold. The issue could swing some marginal seats in the May Scottish parliamentary elections and then start to put pressure on in other areas by galvanising the existing public feeling and channelling it into strong local and national campaigns related to the anti war work we have already been building.
I enjoyed my weekend but, unlike many others who will be making the pilgrimage for the second time in their life, I don’t want to have to do it again aged 80!
Labels: No Nukes
I will be part of a group of Cambridge peace activists from the Stop the War coalition will this week and will join with 100 others from the region to campaign against the replacement of Trident Nuclear weapons.
On Thursday and Friday the 26th and 27th of October the group will take part in a peaceful blockade by chaining ourselves together at the Scottish naval base which is home to Britain’s Nuclear submarine fleet. The action is part of a co-ordinated year long protest called Faslane 365. They will be joined by a group of Quakers from the south of England on the Friday. A group entirely from Cambridge will also be going in January and we will be looking for others to join us.
Each group will highlight its own reasons as to why the £76 billion replacement of Britain’s nuclear submarine capability is wrong. The members of Cambridge Stop the War are taking the message that the replacement is morally wrong, fraught with hypocrisies and is illegal under international law.
We are going to Faslane because Nuclear Weapons an indesciminate means of warfare and because there are so many other humanitarian causes that tax payers money should be spent on. Gordon Brown is overseeing the worst cuts to the NHS that we have ever seen. He claims there is no money for maintaining our public services or solving the problems of poverty and the environment. Yet the £76 billion he is pledging to Trident could pay for 30 new Hospitals and 160,000 nurses as well as 50,000 new FIREFIGHTERS, save 7 million acres of rainforest, hire 60,000 more teachers for the next five years, save the lives of 1.5 million children in the Third World and scrap student top-up fees for five years.
The GOVERNMENT'S commitment to Trident replacement is far from a deterrent. It is the beginning of a new and unnecessary arms race. Trident will further tie us to US foreign policy as we USE their satellite guidance systems. Britain will also be breaking the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and the Nuremburg principles. Britain is flouting
international laws whilst at the same time using international law to construct a case for war against Iraq and more recently to build a case against Iran and North Korea. I am going to Faslane because I want to see the end to nuclear weapons in my lifetime and because we should be using scientific expertise to solve the world’s problems not to perpetuate weapons which can destroy it.
On Thursday and Friday the 26th and 27th of October the group will take part in a peaceful blockade by chaining ourselves together at the Scottish naval base which is home to Britain’s Nuclear submarine fleet. The action is part of a co-ordinated year long protest called Faslane 365. They will be joined by a group of Quakers from the south of England on the Friday. A group entirely from Cambridge will also be going in January and we will be looking for others to join us.
Each group will highlight its own reasons as to why the £76 billion replacement of Britain’s nuclear submarine capability is wrong. The members of Cambridge Stop the War are taking the message that the replacement is morally wrong, fraught with hypocrisies and is illegal under international law.
We are going to Faslane because Nuclear Weapons an indesciminate means of warfare and because there are so many other humanitarian causes that tax payers money should be spent on. Gordon Brown is overseeing the worst cuts to the NHS that we have ever seen. He claims there is no money for maintaining our public services or solving the problems of poverty and the environment. Yet the £76 billion he is pledging to Trident could pay for 30 new Hospitals and 160,000 nurses as well as 50,000 new FIREFIGHTERS, save 7 million acres of rainforest, hire 60,000 more teachers for the next five years, save the lives of 1.5 million children in the Third World and scrap student top-up fees for five years.
The GOVERNMENT'S commitment to Trident replacement is far from a deterrent. It is the beginning of a new and unnecessary arms race. Trident will further tie us to US foreign policy as we USE their satellite guidance systems. Britain will also be breaking the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and the Nuremburg principles. Britain is flouting
international laws whilst at the same time using international law to construct a case for war against Iraq and more recently to build a case against Iran and North Korea. I am going to Faslane because I want to see the end to nuclear weapons in my lifetime and because we should be using scientific expertise to solve the world’s problems not to perpetuate weapons which can destroy it.
Labels: No Nukes
Pete Seeger’s songs are as meaningful today as when he wrote them. They have been sung by many since and you should come and sing them with us . This week George Bush admitted that Iraq could now be compared with the Tet offensive when 10s of thousands of Vietnamese joined the fight back against the US troops in 1968. The events turned US public opinion against the occupation. We have to make the same case today about the occupation of Iraq.
Labels: Video
Stand up to racists, stand up for diversity!
0 Comments Published by Tom Woodcock on Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 1:34 PM.
Labels: Unite/Anti Racism
The Neo Liberal agenda is to Blame for NHS Crisis Point
0 Comments Published by Tom Woodcock on Sunday, October 08, 2006 at 3:17 AM.
The threatened closure of Hinchingbrooke Hospital is the latest crisis to face the NHS. The cuts are a result of debts accumulated by New Labour and Tory commitment to privatisation and the market.
The dismantling of public services cost lives and leave the many area under resourced. But muli-nationals and big businesses see public services as industries from which profit can be sucked.
We have seen the destruction of mental health provision in Cambridge and the end of funding for Author Rank House. Further cuts are predicted in 12 of the regions NHS direct sites and the local Blood transfusion service. NHS logistics in Bury St Edmunds faces closure when the service is been taken over by the German corporation DHL. NHS Debt has soared to over £800 million this year and PCT’s are further pressured to privatise and cut.
Hospitals are now in competition with each other and outside providers. Crippling loan repayments from PFI (Private Finance Initiatives) and sub contraction advised by private consultancy firms are resulting in wholesale job losses, casualisation of staff and the limiting of services. Yet all three major parties support the breaking up and selling of off the NHS
Gordon Brown can commit £76,000 million to replace the Trident Nuclear Submarines and £7000 million to the War in Iraq yet he and the majority of MP’s won’t directly fund services.
It is no coincident that the same conglomerates and share holders plundering our public services are driving the wars to gain control of Middle Eastern assets.
The rally of over 1000 people this weekend in Huntingdon was a good demonstration of the publics anger. Many can see the hypocrisy of the Market. We need to unite worker, patients and the general public up and down the country and continue to link the privatisation agenda with the bigger picture. The Neo-Liberal agenda of successive British Government mean that the tax payer is paying for a war and being asset stripped at the same time.
Labels: NHS privitisation
Demonstrations Matter!
0 Comments Published by Tom Woodcock on Sunday, October 01, 2006 at 12:42 PM.
When, as from time to time I have heard people say ‘we marched against the but they didn’t listen’ I think they are wrong. It is true that we have had to put up with a government that ignores the majority of the people when it matters most but over the last five years the mass mobilisations of people around the Stop the War coalition have acted as a beacon of hope for not just the people of Britain but for those opposed to the Bush/Blair project all over the world.
We have helped Iraqis and Afghanis, Palestinians and Iranians understand that we are different to our government. As although pictures like this one from Manchester last weekend rarely make the press in Britain and the US, they are a priority on the News agenda in the Middle East.
The demonstrations have also been a constant pressure on Tony Blair and the other war mongers in the corridors of power and it is clear to all that Blair’s resignation is because of his Pro War stance.
Demonstrations are not stand alone events. They give activists an oppotunity to talk and work together to build politically and to find a voice and an alternative to the limited choice we are so often offered from the mainstream. Blair will go but we will stay. The fight back has started. Long may it continue!
Labels: Stop the War
