At 10 am on 16th June (7th day of the FABB camp) Sal Bennett along with peace protesters from the Trident Ploughshares and XR Peace groups delivered a letter to the base commander at Coulport.
They then went back to their camp at Peaton Wood and collected the giant CND symbol on the trailer and drove it on the MoD road to Faslane. Just after 11 am it was parked in front of the Faslane sign by the main gate that had been especially closed for them. An MoD Sergeant came out to the demonstration and received the letter for Commodore Bob Anstey, which was handed in by Julia Mercer.
The police liaison and other police officers facilitated the demonstration and the handing over of the letter. The camp appreciated the consistently amicable and respectful relations between protesters and police.
The contents of the letter (see below) were read out by Angie Zelter with amplification so all could hear. The letter spoke of the immense danger we were all in and the real hope that the multilateral TPNW offered the boldest and most realistic hope for progress towards a nuclear free world.
With 62 ratifications and the Central American countries all having signed and ratified the treaty there really is hope. The 1st Conference of the Parties of the TPNW starts in Vienna on the 21st June.
Trident Ploughshares / XR Peace
xrpeace@gn.apc.org and tp2000@gn.apc.org
To Commodore Bob Anstey, Commander of HM Naval Base Clyde, with overall responsibility for the naval bases of Faslane and Coulport.
16th June 2022
Regarding UK nuclear weapons policy and the TPNW states parties meeting
Dear Commodore Bob Anstey,
We are writing to you as members of the Trident Ploughshares and XR Peace campaign groups who exist to promote the cause of a nuclear-free world within a stable climate that supports a wide diversity of life.
Some members of our two organizations are camping at Peaton Wood near Coulport base and are joining forces with other campaigning groups across Europe, to urge our governments, and those of Russia and of all European countries possessing nuclear weapons or harbouring them on their territories, to renounce nuclear weapons and remove the terrifying threat which they represent, from our continent and from our planet.
Next week, from 21st to 23rd June, the first meeting of the states parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will be held in Vienna. Ahead of that meeting, we are holding simultaneous protests in Paris, Berlin, London, Coulport and Faslane, in order to encourage our governments to attend the States Parties meeting as observers, to engage with the TPNW process, and ultimately to sign the TPNW.
The TPNW marks the boldest and most realistic hope for progress towards a nuclear-free world. It supplements rather than replaces the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT): we do not seek the abolition of the NPT, but observe that its ratification 52 years ago has not prevented an increase both in the number of nuclear-armed states and in the worldwide level of risk.
The protest we are holding today outside both the Faslane and Coulport bases, liaising with our fellow-campaigners across Europe, is about the TPNW. It also serves to denounce the many factors which make the current situation not more reassuring, but increasingly and fearsomely worrying for the ordinary citizens who we are and for whom we speak.
The war in Ukraine does not reinforce the need for nuclear weapons, but underlines the urgent need to work for their worldwide abolition. We are concerned that, instead, cooperation tending towards the use of nuclear weapons between NATO allies is increasing: the extension of the facilities of your bases and other military sites to US and French nuclear forces is alleged; and all nuclear-armed states including the United Kingdom are increasing operational deployment of their nuclear forces and decreasing both confidence-building measures and security triggers abating the risk of accidental or precipitate use.
We are writing to the Prime Minister, and to the ambassadors of France, Germany and Russia. By our protest outside your bases, and by this letter, we wish to represent to you that nuclear weapons are not an abstraction or a theoretical pawn in a complex strategic contest, but a terrifying, inhumane and morally and economically ruinous aberration posing an existential threat to life on our planet.
Sincerely,
Alan DAVIES, Angie ZELTER, Brian LARKIN, Brian QUAIL, Camilla CANCANTATA, Carol Archer, Carolyn GELENTER, David PEUTHERER, Denise BAKER, Gillean LAWRENCE, Gillian SIDDONS, Ginnie HERBERT, Jane PICKSLEY, Jane TALLENTS, Jonathan RUSSELL, David KELLY, Glasgow Catholic Worker, Kimberly HOLROYD, Margaret Ferguson BURNS, Margery TOLLER, Martin PRADY, Mary-Alice MANSELL, Mena REMEDIOS, Nigel FONSECA, Ros MCEWAN, Roz BULLEN, Sal BENNETT, Zsuzsanna IHAR, Zelda JEFFERS.
On behalf of Trident Ploughshares and XR Peace