Press Releases & Updates 2005

Some politicians, including MEP Caroline Lucas, have declared their intention to join with thousands of others to risk arrest to draw attention to the links between militarism and the G8’s destructive economic policies, and the connections between war and poverty.

A number of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) including Mark Ballard and Chris Balance (Green) and Tommy Sheridan, Carolyn Leckie, Rosie Kane and Colin Fox (SSP) will help blockade the base, and more are expected to add their names.

Others expected to join the protest include Rose Gentle - the mother of Gordon Gentle, a soldier killed in Iraq. Author and former Director of the World Development Movement, Mark Curtis will also join the demo. Church leaders are to hold an inter-denominational mass in the entrance to the North Gate of Faslane at noon, and many of them will also risk arrest in the planned peaceful disobedience.

Caroline Lucas MEP, who is Co-President of the European Parliament Cross-Party Peace Initiatives Group, said:

“The G8 leaders meeting in Scotland cannot hope to persuade states as Iran and North Korea to abandon their nuclear ambitions whilst they maintain their own nuclear arsenals: and I will keep protesting about Trident until it has been scrapped. Military expenditure and nuclear research not only diverts funds from educational, healthcare and social welfare programmes, it also defines bilateral relationships between nations and provides the means for the world’s many conflicts, which represent the greatest cause of extreme poverty and threat to sustainable development.”

Labour MP, Alan Simpson, is unable to travel to Faslane on July 4th, but added his support, explaining:

“The first step in global action against poverty has to be diverting of resources from war to peace. In particular, it means not only going rid of nuclear weapons but also the bases that support them. The blockade of Faslane will force us to recognise that everyday unquestioned funding of Britain’s nuclear defence industry steals the same day’s funding from the poor. This is why I support your blockade, and the demands it seeks to make.”

Among the church ministers to blockade Faslane will be Rev. David McLachlan, a father of two, who explained:

“As a Scot, I’m ashamed that my country has the highest concentration (per square mile) of nuclear weapons in the world. I consider the fact that six of the G8 countries have nuclear weapons as being an affront to Jesus Christ, the peacemaker. By helping to blockade Faslane, I will be acting out of principle - in line with the teachings of the Church.”

Author, Al Kennedy, added her support for the blockade, saying:

“We stand at a key moment in world history. Either preemptive war becomes the norm and preemptive nuclear war an acceptable option - or we do something about it. Either the US ramps up its nuclear weapons development, weaponises space and starts a whole new arms race - or we do something about it. Either the crumbling and utterly discredited nuclear industry is dragged back to act as a phoney alternative to genuine, climate-saving change - or we do something about it. Either the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF and a handful of major corporations enforce their will with the (highly profitable) threat of military intervention - or we do something about it. Either we hand over our future to politicians who lie as easily as they breathe and who have Mengele’s respect for human life - or we do something about it.”

She continued, “The people demonstrating at Faslane are doing something about it. What’s more they are an active demonstration that change can be brought about through peaceful means. They prove that pursuing other, sustainable alternatives for humanity and the planet is, from the ground up, about living a life that does not harm others.”

The day of action at Faslane is organised by CND and Trident Ploughshares, but supported by Britain’s biggest trade union - UNISON, Scottish TUC, Stop the War Coalition, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), G8 Alternatives and Voices in the Wilderness.

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