Devonport

Plymouth Trident Ploughshares was established during March 2002 as a response to the arrival of the Trident nuclear submarine, HMS Vanguard, at Devonport and as a part of the growing resistance to the Trident nuclear weapons system nationally. The Trident refit programme began here during 1993 when Devonport Management Ltd. (DML) bid against Rosyth for the refit contract. DML was assisted by local Labour Party leaders and trade union bureaucrats, who had previously made out that they were opposed to nuclear weapons in the CND, and who used council tax payer’s money and union contributions, set aside for diversification away from the weapons industry in Devonport Dockyard, towards ’battle’ buses and trains to win the contract - for what they dubbed ’the people’s bomb’. They cared little either that they were setting worker against worker with this ’battle’ between Devonport and Rosyth.

Those of us here who had been in the anti-nuclear and anti-war movements since the 1960’s and 1980’s were not in the least bit surprised at this political vanity and mass-hysteria. However, we were also dismayed by it all along with the instant undermining of things we had built within the unions over the years. Although we also knew that the time for protest would all come round again, and that when it did so, less people would trust the wolves in sheep’s clothing strategy of false representation, and that more and more would want to become involved in direct action.

Trident nuclear submarines, along with a fleet of smaller nuclear submarines, in the heart of a city with a population of 270,000 can hardly be ignored, and when the dangers are pointed out, anybody with an ounce of sense will oppose them out of self-interest if for nothing else. Therefore, most of the groundwork carried out over the past few years had concentrated mainly on health and safety and environmental pollution with the dumping of tritium being increased into the waters of the River Tamar, Hamoaze, Millbrook Lake and Plymouth Sound. There were several demonstrations throughout 2001 and 2002 against Trident in Plymouth with a national CND demonstration against both Trident and against attacking Iraq during October 2002. Then during November 2002 came the first Trident Ploughshares Devonport Disarmament Camp with high profile direct actions and subsequent court cases - especially since two ’foreign’ activists, Petter and Elisa, managed to breach and embarrass MOD security by climbing aboard HMS Vanguard at the No. 9 dock. However, the local media is still reluctant to report the proper moral & legal international anti-Trident issue and only tends to report the sub-issues such as cost, security and health and safety.

A tense political climate has been created in Plymouth in which many people are afraid to mention the anti-Trident debate because of the way Trident has come to dominate economically. Some dubious local economists, working for the University of Plymouth (which is another monopoly grabbing much prime land for development and expansion), have backed up the politicians and argued, without any real evidence, that Trident is good for the economy (and one wonders also how the University’s Environmental Science Department can maintain its integrity without investigating the environmental effects of Trident). The reality, however, is emerging that Trident and dependence on the weapons industry in general, is stifling the economy, hindering local regeneration and is killing Plymouth. Therefore resistance is growing for both the moral issues as well as the socio-economic issues. It should also be noted that the private contractors DML are a subsidiary of the Root & Brown/Halliburton consortium, which is a USA based multinational supported by George Bush et al.

Sandra Leslie of Plymouth Trident Ploughshares. September 2003.

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