Briefing pack now available online

You can now view or download the Aldermaston Blockade briefing pack here:
http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1577

Follow Trident Ploughshares on Twitter: @TridentPlough

Aldermaston Big Blockade - Monday 15 February, 2010

Called by Trident Ploughshares and supported by CND and Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp(aign)

The Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire is in the process of spending billions of pounds of UK taxpayers' money building the facilities for a new generation of nuclear warheads. Britain's submarine-launched Trident nuclear missile system already endangers us all, encourages global proliferation and undermines international law and disarmament negotiations. Instead of building new nukes, we call for global leadership by disarming now.

Come and join the blockade at Aldermaston on Monday 15 February, 2010 and help us make it BIG. The action will begin at 7am and continue for as long as possible. You can sit, lie down, "lock-on" or perch atop a tripod, or you can support and entertain blockaders (arrest is optional). Please encourage your friends and relatives to join what promises to be an empowering and fun day out for all the family (best leave pets at home though).

There will be groups travelling from all over the UK and abroad, so we can put you in contact with a group near you well in advance for nonviolent direct action training, transport, logistics and support. Specific gates are allocated for groups of internationals, environmentalists and cyclists, women, faith groups, students, choirs, parliamentarians, academics and Nobel Peace Prize laureates, as well as groups travelling from Scotland, Wales and the north and south of England.

We will organise pick-ups from police stations as people are released and somewhere warm we can all meet after the action to share our experiences and eat a delicious hot vegan meal together. Overnight crash space accommodation will also be available after the blockade.

For more information on how to get involved, phone 0845 45 88 361 or e-mail blockawe [at] yahoo.co.uk . Our current flyer is downloadable here, and a briefing pack is now available here: http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1577

There is also now a Facebook page for this event.

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

Please note that Trident Ploughshares actions are strictly nonviolent and alcohol- and drug-free. This includes not having alcohol or (non-medicinal) drugs in the bloodstream during the action and not carrying any weapons. We ask participants to be respectful and non-aggressive to all whom we meet, and to leave abusive placards, banners, T-shirts, etc at home. We will clear the blockade if necessary to allow emergency vehicles to pass, then resume the blockade afterwards.

Aldermaston blockaders acquitted!

Four people who took part in the Aldermaston Big Blockade on 27 October 2008 were found not guilty on Thursday (12 November, 2009) of obstructing the highway by a District Judge at Reading Magistrates' Court, Berkshire, south-east England.

District Judge Peter Dixon Crabtree OBE ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove that the defendants were in fact on a highway or obstructing a highway. The defendants successfully argued that their blockade took place on the access road to the Tadley Gate entrance to the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston, which they claimed lies on Ministry of Defence land, and that their action to impede the development and deployment of nuclear weapons did not significantly affect traffic flow on the adjacent main road, the A340.

Royal Navy Captain Crabtree, appointed as a District Judge in 2005, did not, however, find that it had been shown that the Atomic Weapons Establishment was engaged in unlawful activity.

The successful defendants, who have each been awarded costs, are Jean Oliver from Lanarkshire in Scotland, David Polden and Emma Sangster, both from London, and Renate Zauner from Switzerland.

The trial took place on 21-22 October, 2009, but the defendants were required to return to court on Thursday to hear the judgment.

A fifth defendant, Barbara Dowling, from Glasgow, pleaded guilty on 21 October and was given an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 in costs.

ENDS

Notes:

1. Trident Ploughshares is a campaign initiated in 1998 to disarm Britain's Trident nuclear weapon system in a peaceful, nonviolent, open and accountable manner.
http://www.tridentploughshares.org

2. For further information and quotes in relation to this trial, please see the earlier press releases:
http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1579

http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1578

3. Photo (credit D. Viesnik) shows defendants with counsel and supporters outside Reading Magistrates' Court on the first day of the trial, 21 October 2009

Aldermaston five sought to halt “nuclear war crimes preparations”

Five peace activists who were among 33 people arrested for blocking access to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Aldermaston during last October's Aldermaston Big Blockade claimed during their trial at Reading Magistrates’ Court this week (21-22 October) that they acted to stop preparations for war crimes involving nuclear weapons that they suspected were taking place at the Berkshire site in southern England.

AWE Aldermaston is used for research, maintenance and development of nuclear warheads for both the UK’s own Trident missile system and the US nuclear weapons programme, the latter as part of the bilateral 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement.

Barbara Dowling, from Glasgow, Jean Oliver, from Lanarkshire, David Polden, from London, Emma Sangster, also from London (all self-represented) and Renate Zauner (represented by Prof. Nicholas Grief) were accused of wilfully obstructing the highway without lawful authority or reasonable excuse on 27 October 2008, the day of the Aldermaston Big Blockade, which took place during the annual UN Disarmament Week. This peaceful mass action was called by nonviolent direct action campaign Trident Ploughshares and was supported by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) and others.

Barbara Dowling changed her plea to guilty on the first day of trial and, after making an emotional speech in mitigation, was handed an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 in costs by District Judge Peter Crabtree.

Judgment as regards the remaining four defendants, all of whom were pleading not guilty, will be passed on Thursday 12 November, at 2pm at the same court.

Five in court for stopping nuclear proliferation at Aldermaston while Obama gets Nobel peace prize for calling for disarmament

Trial at Reading Magistrates’ Court, Berkshire on Wednesday, 21st October and Thursday 22nd October 2009

While Barack Obama is being congratulated for receiving the Nobel peace prize, partly for his commitment to ‘a world without nuclear weapons’ (1), five people who protested at the gates of Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Aldermaston, where the renewal of Britain’s nuclear weapons is being planned, will be on trial for exactly the same commitment.

Renate Zauner from Switzerland, Barbara Dowling and Jean Oliver from Scotland, and Emma Sangster and David Polden from London will be on trial at Reading Magistrates’ Court on October 21st and 22nd.

On 27 October 2008, the five defendants lay down at one of the entrances to AWE Aldermaston, successfully preventing workers and contractors driving into the base, where Britain's nuclear warheads are developed and maintained. It took the police more than an hour to remove and arrest the blockaders.. (2)

The defendants believe that the ongoing activities at, and expansion of, AWE Aldermaston and nearby AWE Burghfield, together with the ongoing deployment and planned renewal of Britain’s submarine-launched Trident nuclear missile system, contravene Britain’s obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. (3) They also believe that Britain’s Trident nuclear missile system violates the 1996 landmark ruling of the International Court of Justice regarding the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, which could find no lawful use for these weapons of mass destruction. (4) They further argue against the massive cost of replacing and maintaining Trident, particularly in the current economic climate.

On 9 September this year, during the parliamentary recess, Quentin Davies, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Defence, quietly announced that an extra £1 billion per year of taxpayers’ money would be given to AWE Aldermaston. (5) The defendants have submitted to the court a report by expert Dr. Nick Ritchie, from the University of Bradford, to underpin their claims. On 24 September 2009, President Obama chaired an historic meeting of the UN Security Council which affirmed its commitment to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and established a broad framework for reducing global nuclear dangers. The Security Council passed a new UN resolution strenghtening the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. (6)

Commenting before the trial, Renate Zauner said, “My grandfather was mayor of his hamlet during the Second World War. He never broke a single national law. At the end of the war, six million people had died in the Holocaust. He might not have realised the consequences of his actions at the time, but I do: if I simply watch while crimes against humanity and war crimes are being prepared at Aldermaston and don’t act, then I am co-responsible for the preparation of these crimes and for the possible deaths of millions of people.”

Emma Sangster added, “A poll taken in July this year showed that the majority of people in Britain want all of this country’s nuclear weapons scrapped, rather than see Trident be replaced. Despite all the concern about nuclear proliferation and talk of a nuclear-free world, this Government is developing a new generation of nuclear weapons. I believe we all must do what we can to stop this process.” (7)

ENDS

For further information see: http://blockawe.blogspot.com and
http://www.tridentploughshares.org

Notes

1. The White House Fact Sheet on the United Nations Security Council Summit on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Disarmament UNSC Resolution 1887, September 24, 2009. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Fact-Sheet-on-the-United-Nations-Security-Council-Summit-on-Nuclear-Nonproliferation-and-Nuclear-Disarmament-UNSC-Resolution-1887/

2. On 27 October 2008, three to four hundred campaigners joined the Big Blockade at AWE Aldermaston, organised by Trident Ploughshares and supported by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) and Block the Builders. Of the dozens of people who peacefully blockaded access to the base on that day, thirty-three were arrested. Other blockaders were not arrested, despite some remaining in position for up to five hours.

3. Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, which has been ratified by Great Britain, stipulates: “Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”

4. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Court_of_Justice_advisory_opinion_on_the_Legality_of_the_Threat_or_Use_of_Nuclear_Weapons

5. See http://bit.ly/481R0E

6. Security Council calls for world free of nuclear weapons during historic summit, 24 September 2009. http://www.un..org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32223&Cr=disarmament&Cr1

7. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/13/icm-poll-nuclear-weapons