Trident Ploughshares Press release: 28th June 2016
RED LINE ROUND AWE BURGHFIELD, TRIDENT, AND FUTURE NUCLEAR WEAPONS – Thursday 30th June, 7a.m.
Anti-Trident protesters, will be ending their highly successful month of disruption and nonviolent civil resistance at the nuclear bomb factory at Burghfield, near Reading on Thursday 30th June.
The construction site entrance to this nuclear weapons factory was blockaded continuously night and day for 11 days and then kept shut for the rest of the month. Thus all construction traffic to AWE Burghfield has been blocked since the 1st week in June. Numerous other events, actions and blockades have also caused disruption to the only other gate – the Main Gate (with an entrance via an MoD road called The Mearings).
Many diverse groups took part – academics doing a seminar in the road, religious groups holding multi-faith services, European anti-militarists and conscientious objectors to all wars discussing the rise of militarism, peace and justice activists, women’s groups and climate change activists making the links between connected issues. Some held blockades and others leafleted and showed their banners and placards.
Trident Ploughshares will now be holding a final Grand Finale starting at 7 a.m. on Thursday 30th June.
Large red X’s will be tied onto the fences around the Atomic Weapons Establishment and people dressed in red will be swarming around the perimeter. They will be showing-
* their resistance to the continuing proliferation of the UK’s nuclear weapons;
* their shame at the UK’s breaches of international humanitarian law by deploying and modernising nuclear weapons that are in fact preparations for war crimes;
* the scandalous abuse of scarce resources of metals, oil, energy, and people wasted by the military. The red line will not only remind us all of how war is a major cause of climate change and that the red line of 1.5% can only be kept if wars are ended and militarisation halted but also indicate that Trident Replacement is a red line that must not be crossed.
Kate Holcombe, of Trident Ploughshares, said, “Governments and rulers have been killing innocent people en masse for centuries. It was, is not and never will be acceptable for governments to carry out wanton acts of mass slaughter, or to conspire to do so. Nor is it acceptable for citizens of a country to sit idly by ignoring such crimes.”
Contact at Burghfield : Angie 07456 588943 or Rowland 07711 214168
https://tridentploughshares.org/pics-videos/
Contact ktholcombe@aol.com or admin@tridentploughshares.org for hi-res images.
Notes for editors:
The Month of Action is organised by Trident Ploughshares https://tridentploughshares.org/
AWE Burghfield is where Trident warheads are assembled before being driven to Scotland to be deployed on Vanguard class submarines
The cost of the Trident renewal programme is currently £205 billionhttp://www.cnduk.org/cnd-media/item/2450-%C2%A3205-billion?-how-the-cost-of-trident-replacement-doubled