Press Releases & Updates 2010
2nd November 2010
The Devonport Big Blockade 1st November - A great day of action
UPHOLD THE NPT - WORK TOWARDS DISARMAMENT.
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14 people were arrested for participating in the Trident Ploughshares big blockade day of action.
At 5 a.m. on Monday 1st November 2010, anti-nuclear campaigners from across the UK and Europe began to peacefully and non-violently blockade the Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth, where the UK’s Trident nuclear submarines are maintained and re-fitted. The blockade at Camels Gate Head was not cleared until 9.45 a.m, four and a half hours after it began. This action was called by the Plymouth-based Trident Ploughshares group, The Tamarians.
"Trident is not just bad for Plymouth, it is bad for everyone," said John Robb, local Tamarians member. "An ever-dwindling number of jobs is a poor reward for housing a facility that is not only immoral and illegal, but is a real and present danger to the 250,000 who live in the City. The dockyard walls, while formidable, do not stop radiation."
Mary Kemmenoe of Downderry said, "The deployment of armed Trident submarines is an ongoing criminal threat to the World, which as citizens of conscience, we feel we have a duty to try and prevent."
The 12 people who were arrested were peacefully blockading the entrance at Camel’s Head Gate into the Devonport Dockyard.They used a variety of methods to blockade including attaching themselves to a car and joining themselves together with metal arm tubes and superglue. After they were arrested they were taken to the Charles Cross Police station in Plymouth.
The Big Blockade day of action culminated with between 30 to 50 peace activists demonstrating outside the police station in order to show their solidarity with those held inside the police cells .The railings were festooned with the colourful banners that were displayed at the gates blocked during the morning. Protestors came from Devonport itself, and as far away as Wales, Scotland & Europe to interrupt the refit of the Trident nuclear submarines at Devonport.
The 12 arrestees were held for several hours before being released. Several of them were charged with offences under Section 14 of the Public Order Act, whilst others were given bail and will be charged at a later date.
Trident Ploughshares urge the UK government to uphold it’s commitments to work towards nuclear disarmament in "good faith", and argue that the intention to replace Trident is a clear breach of the spirit, if not the letter of the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty.
Campaigners argue that the untold billions of pounds spent on weapons of mass destruction would be better spent on green technologies and vital public services.
Contacts - John Robb 07840129247 - 07969858214
Notes.
CND Report, Trident Costs Jobs - http://www.cnduk.org/images/stories/briefings/trident/trident-jobs-ukeconomy.pdf
For further info about issues surrounding Trident refit work at Devonport, contact Ian Avent of CANSAR, 07799337433, or email avent362@btinternet.com
Blockade Briefing Pack - http://tridentploughshares.org/article1608
Trident Ploughshares - http@//tridentploughshares.org
Tamarians - http://plymouthtamarians.wordpress.com/
CND - http://www.cnduk.org
ICM Poll showing that more than half respondents favour nuclear disarmament -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/13/icm-poll-nuclear-weapons
Article VI of the NPT, ratified by the UK, stipulates -
“Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and international control.”
NPT background - http://reachingcriticalwill.org/
For further info on the international campaigns for the NPT Review Treaty to commit to negotiations towards a Nuclear Weapons Convention, see http://www.icanw.org
Last updated: 4th November 2010
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Trident Ploughshares,
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