Press Releases & Updates 2009

January

12th Sylvia Boyes is released from HMP New Hall in West Yorkshire after serving three and a half weeks of a three-month sentence (which included Christmas and New Year) for refusing to carry out so-called “community payback.” Her original conviction for criminal damage was for cutting the fence to enter Fylingdales Ballistic Missile Early Warning Station in North Yorkshire and symbolically pouring red paint with Erica Wilson on Hiroshima Day, 6 August 2008 in opposition to the US “missile defence” programme.

February

4th Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) (AWPC) celebrates victory in the Court of Appeal in London in their judicial review against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) bylaws outlawing their 24-year-old protest camp outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) nuclear bomb factory in Berkshire.

11th TP’s Angie Zelter is involved in organising Edinburgh conference titled “Trident and International Law: Scotland’s Obligations.” Speakers include Judge Christopher Weeramantry, former vice-president of the International Court of Justice, who tells the conference: “Anti nuclear civil resistance is the right of every citizen of this planet. For the nuclear threat, attacking as it does every core concept of human rights, calls for urgent and universal action for its prevention.”

March

9th Five TP women argue international law at their trial at Reading Magistrates’ Court for blockading AWE Aldermaston during the Big Blockade in October 2008. The district judge hears their arguments but still finds all the defendants guilty of obstructing the highway and issues fines.

April

4th Five TP activists form part of a small British contingent joining a two hundred-strong five-hour international nonviolent blockade of NATO’s 60th anniversary summit in Strasbourg, France. None of the participants is arrested. Two TP members later get pepper sprayed but recover quickly.

17th Lindis Percy is arrested at a protest outside Menwith Hill “Star Wars” / spy base, for an alleged bail offence. On the 21st she is sentenced by Harrogate Magistrates’ Court to 45 days’ imprisonment at HMP Low Newton, County Durham for refusing to pay outstanding fines for aggravated trespass at Menwith Hill and Fylingdales. She is released after just a week and a half, on 1st May.

29th TP sends an open letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling on the Government to comply with its obligations under international law and disarm its Trident nuclear weapons.

30th TP activists from the Muriel Lester affinity group visit the offices of US firm Jacobs Engineering in London following the news in December that the company has bought BNFL’s one-third stake in AWE ML, the private consortium operating AWE on behalf of the MoD.

May

28th As the world condemns North Korea for carrying out underground nuclear weapons tests, TP activists visit Faslane, Scotland - the base for Britain’s nuclear-armed submarines - to draw attention to UK double standards. Janet Fenton gets arrested engaging with workers entering the base.

June

15th TP is joined by Bikes Block Bombs, Scrap Cars - Scrap Trident, AWPC and Eastern Region CND in a surprise blockade of AWE Aldermaston. Cars, a caravan, bikes and lock-on tubes are used to block four gates for several hours, resulting in 11 arrests. The blockaders seek to stop the building of new nuclear warhead facilities at the site and are protesting at the lack of democratic accountability.

July

2nd Fifteen activists from TP and Women in Black enter the lobby of Parliament in Westminster to call on the Government to scrap Trident and its planned replacement. They stand displaying t-shirts painted with the messages ’DISARM NUCLEAR WEAPONS NOW’, ’SCRAP TRIDENT’ and ’STOP TRIDENT REPLACEMENT’ whilst waiting to lobby their MPs. They refuse to move when told that slogans on t-shirts constitute a protest, not allowed inside Parliament. They are asked to remove their t-shirts or turn them inside out but they refuse. They remain in the building for two hours, meeting with their MPs and making their visual protest. They finally join hands before being escorted outside.

Also 2nd Eleven activists attend Newbury Magistrates’ Court for plea hearings for the June blockade of Aldermaston. Mell, Helen, Irene and Emma from the cars blockade at Tadley Gate all plead guilty. Helen is fined and ordered to pay compensation totalling £150 (first offence) and the other three are given £175 fines and are also ordered to pay compensation. Alison C, Alison P, Morgan, Roger and Zina from the caravan blockade at Boilerhouse Gate all plead not guilty and trial is set for December. Ippy and Charlotte from the lock-ons at Home Office / Aldermaston Gate plead not guilty and try to get their bail conditions changed but are given short shrift by the court despite arguing their case well. They then try to change their pleas to guilty so they can attend the AWPC Cocktail Party (their bail conditions would prevent this), but the court will not accept this and trial is set for November.

August

3rd Irene Willis is sentenced to 20 days’ imprisonment by Aberystwyth Magistrates’ Court for non-payment of fines totalling over £600 for her part in nonviolent protests against nuclear weapons and the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon from 2006-8. She is released after serving 10 days of her sentence.

15th - 23rd Twenty-five activists take part in the 10th TP Coulport Camp. Campers maintain a daily morning vigil at the gates of Coulport nuclear warhead depot and engage in various other actions (see below).

17th Five activists walk straight past security guards to enter the main gate into Faslane naval base. They reach the high security fence a hundred and fifty yards inside the base before being stopped by MoD police. They hand out a letter calling on those within the base to join them in beginning disarming Trident while one member of the group hands out flowers to police. The bandit alarm sounds and the base is locked down for nearly an hour. The five are charged with entering a restricted area under section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. Angie and Sylvia are later sent citations to appear at court for alleged offences under the MoD bylaws, while charges against the remaining three are dropped.

Later in the week, Sylvia Boyes and Mary Millington paint a rock outside the main entrance to Faslane with the slogan “SCOTS! SAY NO TO TRIDENT.” They are both charged with malicious mischief. Sylvia still faces prosecution.

25th Coulport warhead depot is blockaded by three TP members joined by three Faslane Peace Campers. Four of the group link arms inside lock-on tubes to block the main gate while two others attempt to block the construction gate. Work at the site is disrupted for three hours as traffic is diverted.

October

23rd As President Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for calling for nuclear disarmament, five Aldermaston blockaders (one from Switzerland) go on trial at Reading Magistrates’ Court for doing the same a year ago, in October 2008. An expert report from Dr Nick Ritchie on developments at AWE does not convince the judge of their illegality, but on 12th November four of the defendants are acquitted on a technicality regarding the status of the access road (the fifth defendant earlier changed her plea to guilty and was given an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 in costs).

November

2nd In the early hours, five senior US activists reach high security area of Trident submarine base in Bangor, Washington in US Disarm Now Plowshares action. They are being prosecuted for trespass and destruction of Government property.

17th Six TP activists are arrested in Edinburgh attempting to enter conference centre to highlight NATO hypocrisy as delegates “pay their respects” to fallen troops in Afghanistan during the coalition’s Parliamentary Assembly. All are charged with breach of the peace, held overnight and then released with the charges being dropped. This was part of the Smash NATO mobilisation working with other groups in the Anti-Militarist Network.

20th TP activists initiate protest to “welcome” the arrival of the first Astute Class “hunter-killer” submarine at Faslane.

26th AWPC’s Ippy and Charlotte are on trial for car blockade of Aldermaston in June. They are found guilty despite questionable evidence from the prosecution and are given conditional discharges and ordered to pay over £300 each in costs.

December

4th TP pledges support for the Rethink Trident coalition opposing Trident replacement.

8th The five activists who blockaded Boilerhouse gate at Aldermaston with a caravan in June have the charges against them dropped at the eleventh hour.

9th Helensburgh District Court, scene of many TP / Faslane trials over the years, finally closes.

11th Nuclear weapons profiteers Lockheed Martin are serenaded with “updated” festive tunes at their central London office by fourteen activists, from TP affinity group the Muriel Lesters plus friends.

You can read more about the TP activities above at: www.tridentploughshares.org

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