Press Releases & Updates 1999

Vital "Silent Running" Equipment Put Out of Action by International Group

Today, Tuesday 8th June 1999, at 7.30.p.m. three Trident Ploughshares 2000 activists disarmed a vital part of Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system when they disabled "Maytime", a floating laboratory in Loch Goil, Scotland, which is used to check on the ability of individual submarines to avoid sonar detection.

Ellen Moxley (63), a peace campaigner from Dollar, Scotland, Ulla Roder (44) a shop assistant from Denmark and Angie Zelter (49), a potter and peace campaigner from Norfolk, England, made their way from the shore to the Maytime’s anchorage by inflatable boat. Once aboard they cut their way into the lab with cold chisels and wrecking bars and disarmed the testing equipment with hammers, as well as throwing quantities of paperwork into the water. They draped banners over the lab, reading "Stop Nuclear Death Research" and "TP2000 opposes Research for Genocide."

The women are members of the "Pheasants’ Union" group, part of the Trident Ploughshares 2000 campaign which aims to rid the UK of its illegal weapons of mass destruction by non-violent and accountable direct action.

In their collective statement the women said:

"Our actions are based on the legal and ethical premise that the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system is a system preparing for the mass murder of innocent civilians over untold generations. As loving, feeling human beings we feel responsible for trying to do everything in our power to prevent the system from being able to operate, providing that our actions are safe, non-violent, open and accountable."

The Floating Laboratory Complex is run by the Defence Evaluation and Reseach Agency (DERA), a prime supplier of technical advice to the UK Ministry of Defence and submarine trials are conducted regularly at their facilities in Loch Goil.

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