What?
A gathering of people to peacefully confront the UK’s ongoing addiction to the possession and deployment of horrific and illegal weapons of mass destruction.
Faslane Demo
At and around the Faslane/Coulport nuclear weapon complex in western Scotland.
Why?
Faslane and Coulport are the deployment sites for the UK’s nuclear weapon system, comprising the base for its 4 nuclear-armed submarines and storage for its nuclear warheads, now estimated to number 255 – each capable of 8 to 10 times the destructive power of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Our resistance to this ongoing criminal activity must be made visible and tangible and we will be building on the strong popular and political opposition in Scotland to having such a launch pad for mass murder on their land and in their waters.
Blockading Coulport
The Ukraine crisis has made it plain that not only do nuclear weapons fail to prevent war they increase the likelihood of aggressive behaviour by those states that possess them. It has also shown people that the risk of nuclear war is at a very high level and that such an outcome is horrifying beyond imagination. And then there is another vital segment of the big picture.
Our necessary pre-occupation with the conflict in Ukraine has put climate rescue on the back burner. The Ukraine crisis has almost exclusively focussed on energy substitution, and emphasised nuclear, oil and gas, missing the point that sane global cooperation is vital to impact on the climate emergency. For the climate crisis and the nuclear crisis both, the message is clear: we co-operate or we perish.
All of this is grim but it has given us a window of opportunity that we must not miss and to build on the growing awareness of the menace. We must share the long view that while arms control can temporarily mitigate the threat of nuclear war we will keep coming back to the crisis point until one day our luck runs out, unless we can achieve the total elimination of these weapons. And we now have the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – now established as international law and regularly attracting the support of 130 plus countries at the General Assembly. The first Meeting of States Parties to that treaty takes place the week following our gathering and this will help confirm the perspective that the UK’s WMD are but a part of a toxic global problem that now has a potential global solution.
Faslane North Gate July 2017
On a practical level the hope is that people coming to the gathering will make their own arrangements (for travel, accommodation, sustenance and material for protest and nonviolent direct action), but there will be camping space at Peaton Wood, close to the Coulport base, and there will also be some common legal support and media work.
Our peaceful confrontation may take many forms, including blockading, entering the bases, and “redecoration”. All of this we can enhance by good preparations, good networking and sharing of ideas and some common planning here and there.
And in all of this, adhering to the principles of nonviolence. The gathering will also give us the opportunity to reflect in the miniature the mass nonviolent movement that is essential for reversing the fatal and destructive direction of humanity and showing the path towards a good future.
This week of action is being facilitated by Trident Ploughshares and XR Peace.
Please contact Angie Zelter for more information and to get involved.