Press Releases & Updates 2001

Encouraged by their success in blockading the Faslane Trident submarine base on the Clyde on February 12th this year when 1000 people came to show their opposition to Trident and 379 activists were arrested, campaigners are keen to apply pressure to the nuclear bomb factory. The blockade, which will begin at 7 a.m., is jointly organised by London Region CND, Trident Ploughshares, the Student CND Network and Aldermaston Women’s Camp.

The blockade fits into the Trident Ploughshares disarmament camp at Aldermaston, which will run from 10th to 15th May, providing activists with an opportunity to carry out a range of direct actions against the site. On Saturday 12th May there will be a march through Reading, beginning at 11.30 a.m. from the railway station, and ending with a mock trial outside Reading Magistrates Court at noon. On Sunday 13th May there will be an interfaith vigil at the main gate of the Aldermaston site at 2.30 p.m.

The Trident Ploughshares campaign will be just three years old as the camp begins. In that time there have been 1211 arrests, 1144 days have been spent in jail and fines totalling £15580 have been imposed. There have been effective and serious disarmament actions and dramatic acquittals at Crown Court or equivalent level. As recently as last Friday morning Danish activist Ulla Roder swam to and spray-painted Trident submarine HMS Vanguard in its high security berth at Faslane.

A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said: " Both the authorities and the public are now beginning to accept that we are not a flash-in-the-pan campaign but one which is serious and determined in its intention to disarm Britain’s horrifying and illegal weapons of mass destruction."

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