Press Releases & Updates 2002

Coral Hallums, a mature housewife from Gillingham in Kent, was accused of causing a breach of the peace at the mass blockade of Faslane on 11th February this year. Summing up in her own defence Coral said that Trident was not only in direct contradiction to Britain’s stated commitment under the Non-Proliferation treaty to eliminate its nuclear arsenal, but it meant that nuclear warheads traveled our roads, that dangerous levels of tritium were discharged into the Tamar in Devonport and that a vast amount of money that would be better spent on the basics of human life were being squandered on a monstrous system of mass destruction. She referred to the recent statement by Geoff Hoon that Britain would use Trident “in the right conditions” coupled with the admission by junior Defence Minister Lewis Mooney that nuclear weapons were weapons of mass destruction. She quoted Martin Luther King: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”

After consideration Justice of the Peace Duncan acquitted her on the grounds that there was reasonable doubt that she had committed an offence. He made it clear that his verdict was based on the quality of evidence in the prosecution case and not on Coral’s arguments about the illegality and immorality of Trident.

Gillian Laurence, 46, a community education worker from Edinburgh, also took part in the February blockade. She pointed out that the Fringe Parade, soon to take place in Edinburgh, would disrupt the free flow of traffic in the city, yet there would be no prosecutions. She said: "Some things are more important than the free flow of traffic. Peace is a process which requires active citizenship." JP Duncan’s opinion was that her behaviour was "flagrant". He found her guilty and fined her £100.

The camp is scheduled from 4th to 19th August and will begin with a blockade of Faslane naval base on Monday 5th August (from 7 a.m.) followed by a "Die-in" at the same place the next day (Hiroshima Day, at 8 a.m.) to protest against US/UK plans for a war against Iraq which have involved the threat to use nuclear weapons. At the same camp last year activists caused considerable disruption to the work of the bases and on two occasions were able to swim into the Trident "high security" area at Faslane.

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