Press Releases & Updates 1999

Admission of Vulnerability as Activists Admonished for Blockade of Faslane

As two Trident Ploughshares activists were admonished in Helensburgh District Court for their part in a blockade of the North Gate of Faslane Naval Base, home to Britain’s nuclear weapons submarines, a police witness admitted that a blockade by thousands of people could put the operation of the base under severe stress.

Angie Zelter and Clive Fudge, both of Norwich, may be the only two to appear in court following the blockade on 15th February which led to 49 arrests, including that of ex-chair of the SNP, Billy Wolfe. Both were found guilty and admonished. It was in answer to a question from Angie that a Ministry of Defence Police Officer agreed that life could easily be made very difficult for the base if thousands were to join the blockade.

Angie, a potter from Norwich, said: " I only came to do these actions because the government is breaking the law. We are always getting fresh information that underlines the fact that these weapons pose an immediate threat to the planet and its people. The recent discovery of faulty reactor cooling pumps in the new sub, HMS Vengeance, shows that we are daily risking another Chernobyl, to say nothing of another Hiroshima, only much, much worse."

Clive has been an anti-nuclear campaigner since 1964 and was one of the millions of signatories to the Declaration of Public Conscience which led to the nuclear weapons case being taken to the International Court of Justice. Clive said: "The police have noted that my conduct was orderly. Our blockade brought peace to the place and a temporary interruption of its plans for genocide."

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