Press Releases & Updates 2004

Members of Trident Ploughshares in Parliament Hall (JPEG, 75 kb)

Performed by 17 non-violent peace activists from Trident Ploughshares this new oratorio highlights the hypocrisy of "justice" around Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system. Peace protestors are branded criminals for taking action against these illegal weapons of mass destruction, while Trident itself continues to be maintained, sucking resources away from other vital public services.

The oratorio was specially written by Camilla Cancantata, an improvising musician and composer based in London. "I wanted to challenge the idea that art and politics are separate. Bringing music to these oft-repeated words reveals their true meanings and will, hopefully, bring the message home to the Scottish judiciary that Trident is a crime."

Second performance outside Parliament House (JPEG, 26.7 kb)

The singers were resurrecting the 19th century tradition of music making in Parliament Hall. Shortly after the performance started security at the Hall became agitated and seemed insistent on halting the performance. Several advocates and lawyers, and even a judge, stopped to listen to the oratorio and commented on how much they enjoyed such an innovative way of making a point - although few were so eager to pledge their support for the message being conveyed.

This performance will be the first of many, with plans to take the oratorio to USAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, where US nuclear weapons are stored, to a tribunal considering the legality of nuclear war plans in London, and possibly even to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York next year. The next Scottish performance will be on August 23rd and form part of "Carry-on up the Clyde", an action to disrupt business at all the Trident related sites on the Clyde.

Trident Ploughshares Reinstates an Old Tradition in Parliament House With a Performance of an Oratorio

Trident - A British War Crime

Parliament House was built in the 1630’s at the request of King Charles I, to provide accommodation for the Scottish Parliament, Court of Session and the Privy Council. Nowadays it is used as a meeting place for lawyers and their clients and is part of a complex of buildings used by the Scottish Judiciary, including the High Court of Justiciary. With its parliamentary and law court connections, Trident Ploughshares felt it was an ideal place to sing their message to the lawyers and judges of the Scottish Judiciary and to remind them of Nuremberg.

In 1815, 1819 and 1824, Parliament Hall was the scene of a series of musical festivals, with choral works being favourites. Trident Ploughshares are thus reinstating a long-lost musical tradition, and hope that the event will be taken in good spirit. The performance will only take 20 minutes - unless we are asked for an encore.

The performers are all peaceful, responsible citizens who are passionately concerned about the integrity of the Scottish legal system. Many of them are Trident Ploughshares Pledgers and have been before the Scottish courts in connection with their acts to prevent the UK Government from threatening mass destruction with the nuclear weapons on the Trident System.

They believe that the independence of a just and wise judiciary is essential in any democratic nation and is a necessary check to the power of the Executive. This is why they are so concerned at the way in which the Scottish courts are dealing with the protests around Trident. They believe that the judges are failing to control the excesses of the UK Government in its pursuit of narrowly defined national interests that are actually against the interests of humanity as a whole. They would like to remind the High Court of Justiciary that the essence of the law is to protect the innocent from wrongdoing. They believe that there is no greater crime than to threaten mass destruction whilst leaving all the underlying causes of conflict unresolved.

Trident Ploughshares hope that the power of this specially written choral music may help reach into the soul of the Courts of Scotland and inspire all who are in them to do all they can within the law to help rid the UK of all weapons of mass destruction. On future occasions when asked to judge on the rights and wrongs of civil resistance against Trident and war-mongering. We hope the courts will remember the music and judge for the benefit of humankind as a whole.

The Message the Scottish High Court Needs to Hear

Today’s performance of the oratorio, "Trident - A British War Crime", in the Parliament Hall at the heart of the Scottish High Court has a very serious purpose. Judges in this court have repeatedly failed to take seriously the fact that this country is committing a serious crime by threatening the survival of millions with its weapons of mass destruction.

The most obvious example of this failure is the Lord Advocates Reference of 2000 on the trial of the Trident Three, who were acquitted by Sheriff Gimblitt after disarming the Trident research barge Maytime. In nine days of hearings the panel of three judges, Lords Prosser, Penrose and Kirkwood were given a mass of evidence about Trident - its capabilities and effects and the fact that it is threateningly deployed - along with an exposition of the relevant principles of International Humanitarian Law.

In spite of this their Lordships issued an Opinion which completely let down all who had hoped that our judiciary would have the courage and independence to rule that the British State must obey the law. They failed to answer the basic question: how could a 100 kiloton warhead ever be used against a military target without unlawfully affecting protected citizens?

Meanwhile the lower courts continue, on a weekly basis, to prosecute ordinary individuals who do take a principled stand on nuclear weapons and the High Court backs them up on this.

Ordinary people believe that the senior judges in Scotland, who have the power to act to uphold the law, are failing to control the excesses of the UK Government in its pursuit of narrowly defined national interests. Let us remember that the essence of the law is to protect the innocent from wrongdoing.

The message is one that the legal establishment must hear. This is why we are here today. We are committed to non-violent direct action against Britain’s nuclear weapons. Though our focus is on Britain, we are an international campaign, reflecting the world-wide frustration with nuclear weapon states, like Britain, which refuse to disarm.

Hall rings to chorus of nuclear protest

Raymond Duncan, July 13 2004, The Herald.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/19849.html

THE heart of Scotland’s law courts has never seen, or heard, anything like it.

Parliament Hall, in Edinburgh, where advocates and solicitors confer, was invaded yesterday by protesters who formed a choir to perform a specially-commissioned anti-nuclear oratorio.

The move by 17 members of Trident Ploughshares, a campaign to rid Britain of nuclear weapons, caught visibly unimpressed security staff at Parliament House off their guard with their rendition of Trident: A British War Crime.

In an incident which one legal figure described as "an unwarranted invasion of privacy", the demonstrators, dressed in black, spent almost 30 minutes in the hall, home of the first Scottish Parliament.

A Scottish Court Service spokeswoman said later: "Today’s incident did not cause any disruption to court business."

Trident Ploughshares, whose members had taken up discreet positions within Parliament House before converging on the hall at 10am, said the performance, applauded at the end by some onlooking advocates, had been staged because judges had repeatedly failed to take seriously Britain’s weapons of mass destruction.

Jane Tallents, 45, of Helensburgh, a veteran of protests at Faslane, said the action had been in protest at the treatment of anti-nuclear activists who are regularly prosecuted in the courts.

"We had invited Scotland’s judges to a premiere of the work at St Augustine’s Church, in Edinburgh. They didn’t come, so we have come to them," she said.

Protesters in note of disapproval

BBC News, 12th July 2004.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3887595.stm

Anti-nuclear campaigners have staged an informal concert at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to protest against repeated legal rulings against them.

The 16 Trident Ploughshares campaigners sang a collection of anti-war songs specially written for the event. They invited judges to listen to them in Parliament Hall but none did.

Earlier this year, five judges at the appeal court refused to quash breach of the peace convictions against Ploughshares campaigners.

Lawyers, court clerks and members of the public clapped loudly following the 14 anti-war songs.

But security guards were less impressed and complained at having been taken by surprise when the activists suddenly gathered together inside the hall and started singing at 1000 BST.

At the end the campaigners filed outside and delivered an impromptu concert in Parliament Square, to the amusement of passing tourists.

Veteran campaigner Jane Tallents, originally from Sheffield, said the action was part of an ongoing campaign against Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system, which is based at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde.

She said the aim was to highlight the need for an "just and wise" judiciary to condemn the hoarding of massive nuclear weapons by the British Government.

And she said the action was in protest over the treatment of anti-nuclear activists who are regularly prosecuted in the courts.

She said: "Every time this is put to the judges they just duck and we were trying to find a creative and peaceful way to express our frustration.

"Let us remember that the essence of the law is to protect the innocent from wrong-doing.

"The protesters believe that there is no greater crime than to threaten mass destruction whilst leaving all the underlying causes of conflict unresolved."

In May five top judges at the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh refused to quash breach of the peace convictions for three protesters, including Ms Tallents, who now lives in Helensburgh.

The activists were found guilty of the public order offence during protests at the Scottish Parliament and the Faslane base between 1999 and 2002 and the judges ruled that their convictions should be upheld.

"The protesters believe that there is no greater crime than to threaten mass destruction whilst leaving all the underlying causes of conflict unresolved." - Jane Tallents.

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