11.12.2006
1st report: This morning the Trident submarine base at Faslane and the atomic weapons factory at Aldermaston have both been the focus of disruption as activists blockaded entrance gates.
At Faslane the North gate was blockaded by activists from the Trident Ploughshares campaign. The gateway was blocked around 7 a.m. by a group of cyclists who formed a cordon and then locked on to each other using chains and padlocks. Shortly afterwards another group on foot blockaded the gateway by lying in the road, joined to each other through tubing of plastic and other materials. Police, using specialised cutting teams, removed these blockages and made 14 arrests.
At the same time a group from Faslane Peace Camp blocked the road at the entrance to the South gate of the base, using lock-on tubes and barrels filled with concrete. It took two hours to clear the roadway. There were 7 arrests.
The Faslane protests are part of the Faslane 365 campaign which so far has led to over 350 arrests.
2nd report: Faslane Nuclear base successfully blockaded for over 2 hours
Garry | 13.12.2006 19:01 | Faslane | Anti-militarism | Scotland
Monday the 11th of December saw one of the most successful blockades of the Faslane nuclear submarine base since the start of the Faslane 365 campaign. The blockade was a joint effort between a group of Trident Ploughshares and the crew from Faslane Peace camp.
Monday the 11th of December saw one of the most successful blockades of the Faslane nuclear submarine base since the start of the Faslane 365 campaign. The blockade was a joint effort between a group of Trident Ploughshares and the crew from Faslane Peace camp. One of the roads to the base was completely blockaded for 2 hours and 10 minutes. In a day that saw 20 people being arrested and the running total rising above 365 people, 3 of the blockaders have actually been summoned to court on charges of breach of the peace.
At approximately 6:30 am a group of people from the peace camp assembled by the road leading to the base just by the south gate. After waiting for one of the patrolling police vans to drive past, they pulled part of the fence of the peace camp out into the middle of the road creating a temporary boundary between themselves and the police who were not much more than 100 metres away. Behind this fence they had hidden 2 large oil barrel lock-ons which were rolled out onto the road, 3 people locked onto them in a line then 3 others joined them with 2 tough steel lock-on tubes, and another “baby� oil-drum lock on creating a daisy chain of six people with 5 pretty hardcore lock-ons.
It took the police about 20 seconds to arrive on the scene by which point they had successfully blockaded the main road between Helensburgh and the base. The police called for back up and for the cutting teams and within minutes there were between 30 and 40 police on the scene. They immediately got to work cutting into the lock-ons and were as usual very concerned not to let anybody see what sort of cutting equipment they were using to the extent that they erected large visual barriers to conceal their work. Peace campers did however manage to get footage of their equipment from our birds eye observers in the trees. They had 3 separate cutting units at work on us yet it still took them 130 minutes to clear the road. 7 people were arrested at this incident 6 for blockading and one for possessing a rope and harness.
As this blockade was happening a second group blockaded the entrance to the base at the north gate. The group of Trident Ploughshares blockaded the round-about by chaining their bicycles together and locking themselves to them with D-locks around their necks. Others were arrested for simply cycling around the roundabout slowly. This blockade was successful in shutting down the road for half an hour. Both blockades together ensured that the work of the base was severely disrupted for the whole morning.
Of the 20 people arrested all have been released but 3 of the releases were under condition that they will appear in court on the 20th of December. These are the first of the 360 odd people that have been arrested to be formally charged with breach of the peace and gives an opportunity for the first time since the launch of Faslane 365 to actually bring the legality of the Trident system into question in court. Particularly important since the announcement by Blair that Trident is to be replaced despite being illegal under international law.
We are now witnessing an escalation of the campaign against the spectre of nuclear war. Expect to see much more civil society resistance throughout next year as the Faslane 365 campaign comes to a climax.
www.faslane365.org
www.tridentploughshares.org
www.cnduk.org
www.peacenews.info/
www.faslane.co.nr/
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Seven people have been arrested during an action which blocked two gates at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston this morning.
The Aldermaston bomb factory, where preparations are being made for a new generation of nuclear weapons for the UK, has also been blockaded this morning by the Block the Builders campaign. The “Home Office” gate of the site was closed, causing a tailback of worker traffic as far as the A4.
The protest at Aldermaston was part of an ongoing campaign against the £5.3 billion development at Aldermaston which will not only provide information for the British nuclear programme but also for the US programme under the sharing of information under the Mutual Defence Agreement. The facilities include a new laser system which will help scientists create conditions similar to that inside a nuclear bomb to allow more accurate modelling. This allows Britain and the US to circumvent the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty which bans the actual testing of nuclear weapons.
http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/
http://www.cnduk.org/pages/altwhitepaper.pdf
A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said: “Our government, far from honestly moving towards disarmament, is planning to tie us to weapons of mass destruction for the next 50 years. We must do what we can to put a spoke in the wheel of this ongoing crime. Trident, present or future, is an instrument for bullying and mindless, unrestrained violence. It belongs to a mindset of threat, hatred and fear and is the very opposite of what we need at this critical stage in the history of the human race.”
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