Press Releases & Updates 1999

MSP Tommy Sheridan is among the politicians who will join the Trident Ploughshares rally and action at 10 a.m. on August 14th at the north gate of Faslane naval base, home to the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons submarines. Meanwhile, as international disarmers gather for the two-week camp at Coulport from the 10th to 24th August, two activists have been convicted for their protests at previous camps.

Tommy said: “ I am looking forward to taking part in the protest against Trident on the 14th. I shall be tabling a motion in the Scottish Parliament calling for it to be removed from Scotland.”

On Monday (2nd August), in Helensburgh District Court, Rupert Eris, a nature conservation warden from Norfolk was fined £50 for his part in a blockade of Faslane north gate in February. Rupert said: “When British service personnel are in Kosova to uphold international humanitarian law it is absurd to claim that the same law does not apply in Scotland.” On 4th August, in the same court, another activist, Peter Lanyon, a retired teacher from Suffolk, was admonished on charges of malicious mischief. Peter said: “ In spite of a most courteous discussion, Justice of the Peace Stirling and I fundamentally disagreed about the place of international humanitarian law in Scots law. I will appeal.”

The Trident Ploughshares direct disarmament campaign will be a year old on 11th August. In that time there have been many disarmament actions, leading to 231 arrests and 38 court cases. Among the more dramatic actions are the swimming feats last August when three disarmers twice swam to within metres of a Trident submarine at Faslane; the damage done to testing equipment on board HMS Vengeance at Barrow in February; the putting out of action of a Trident-related floating laboratory in Loch Goil in June. Ulla Roder from Denmark, Ellen Moxley from Dollar in Scotland and Angie Zelter from Norfolk face charges connected to the Loch Goil incident and are currently on remand in Cornton Vale prison.

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