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!

Labels: No Nukes