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BBC - 1st report

BBC - 2nd report - "The arrests were made after dozens of people gathered at Aldermaston to mark World Disarmament Week." - Actually there were probably at least 300 campaigners present. It seems numeracy isn't the BBC's strong point when it comes to demonstrations. Probably taught maths by the police.

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Ekklesia - Peace protesters successfully blockade Atomic Weapons Establishment

-Earlier related event

-Earlier publicity

Independent Catholic News

Earlier related event - Bishop and ordinands in lamentation at Aldermaston - Inspire magazine

Indymedia Ireland - Dublin Catholic Worker solidarity vigil

-Indymedia Ireland - Publicity for Dublin vigil

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Local

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Newbury Today / Newbury Weekly News

(excellent article, includes gallery with 16 photos)

-Wonderful video

Reading Evening Post / Get Reading website

-Earlier short

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-Pre-action report 2

-Imbecilic commentary with a couple of sensible readers' comments

Reading Chronicle

Basingstoke Gazette / This is Hampshire website

Rochdale Online (featuring Pat Sanchez)

Cornish Guardian / This is Cornwall website (featuring Peter le Mare)

Chester Chronicle (featuring Joan Meredith)

Guardian report

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/28/anti-nuclear-aldermaston-protest-disarmament

More than 30 arrests at Aldermaston anti-nuclear protest

Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian
Tuesday October 28 2008

More than 30 people were arrested yesterday during one of the biggest anti-nuclear protests at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston for 10 years. The gates of the site were blocked as people attached themselves to concrete blocks which had to be broken apart by police. Others climbed scaffolding or lay in the road at the demonstration by about 400 people to mark the start of the UN World Disarmament Week.

They were protesting against a decision to modernise the Aldermaston plant in Berkshire and plans to develop a new warhead for nuclear missiles that the government wants to buy to replace the Trident system.

The government plans to spend nearly £6bn on Aldermaston over the next three years. Ministers claim the money is needed to preserve Britain's ability to manufacture nuclear warheads safely; they say a decision has not yet been taken to develop new, "more usable" warheads with the help of American knowhow.

The Guardian revealed earlier this year that one of the MoD's senior officials told a private meeting of arms companies that a decision to replace the existing stockpile of nuclear warheads had already been taken despite ministers repeatedly denying there were any plans to replace them and insisting that no decision would be taken until the next parliament, probably sometime after 2010.

Daniel Viesnik, spokesman for Trident Ploughshare, said: "The government does not seem to take notice of anything else other than direct action. We are opposed to the development of a new generation of warheads and protesters feel more extreme measures like [yesterday's] have to be used to get attention."

Kate Hudson, chair of CND, said the protest showed there was a strong increase in public support for nuclear disarmament.

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More than 30 arrests at Aldermaston anti-nuclear protest
This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday October 28 2008 on p9 of the UK news section. It was last updated at 00.02 on October 28 2008.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

Morning Star front page

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Hundreds blockade WMD base

(Monday 27 October 2008)

by PAUL HASTE

DEFIANT: Protesters barring the way into Aldermaston on Monday. pic: CND

HUNDREDS of peace protesters blockaded one of Britain's secretive WMD sites on Monday to expose the billions being wasted on nuclear bombs while the country plummets into recession.

Demonstrators descended on the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory in Berkshire under cover of darkness just before dawn, to blockade the gates before security forces surrounding the base could react.

Peace campaigners from Norway to Switzerland joined Trident Ploughshares and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists to link themselves together with chains and concrete tubes before police tried to drag them away.

CND chairwoman Kate Hudson explained that demonstrators had come to "highlight the existence of Aldermaston's Atomic Weapons Establishment and the work which goes on there.

"The fact that our government is planning to spend billions of pounds on a replacement to Trident, prioritising nuclear bombs over health care and job creation at a time of economic crisis, needs to be exposed and condemned," she stressed.

Aldermaston is where Trident submarine-based nuclear missiles are designed and built.

The government has pledged to spend £76 billion - handing over much of it to private weapons firms - to upgrade the weapons of mass destruction during the next few years.

Protester Dan Cole said that the blockade was intended to highlight that private companies "are making billions in profit at the taxpayer's expense through military spending.

"It is a sad reflection on our society that people need to take this action in order to have their voices heard," he said, as police arrested at least 33 of the protesters.

Trident Ploughshares spokesman Dan Viesnik added: "This is the biggest direct action that Aldermaston has seen for a decade and highlights the strength of feeling from the public against Trident and the government's plans to upgrade the missiles.

"These weapons and the massive multibillion-pound expansion of this nuclear arms factory are unnecessary expenses in the current financial climate and contradict the government's stated commitment to disarmament," the Trident Ploughshares spokesman said.

"We demand that the new developments are ceased and the whole Trident system taken out of service without delay."

Mr Viesnik urged the government to "make Aldermaston safe so it will be fit for use as an international centre of expertise on warhead decommissioning and verification as part of a global nuclear weapons convention."

But Mr Viesnik warned: "Unless the government listens, they can expect more of the same direct action."

Yesterday's blockade follows a huge CND demonstration on Easter Monday, when thousands of protesters surrounded the weapons factory to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1958 peace march from London to Aldermaston.

Ms Hudson said that campaigners would continue to press the government to keep its commitment to global nuclear disarmament.

"Britain's security should be based on peace and justice, not war and nukes," the CND chairwoman insisted.

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