Cyclists from Everywhere (Nudes against Nukes) Blockade Report

To the tune of John Lennon’s `Give Peace a Chance’ the four naked protestors sang out:
All we are saying is “Naked for peace!”
All we are saying is “Trident must cease!”
Given the small turnout of just eight cyclists, what better way to maximise our impact and take the police by surprise than to carry out an unprecedented `Nudes against Nukes’ action at the North Gate in the sleepiness of mid-afternoon? It was a great success, expertly captured on film by our hero photographer, Roy.

Early morning `go slow’ at South Gate

We began the build up to the afternoon climax in good cyclists’ tradition by slowing down the morning shift on their way to the South Gate (photos 1 – 3 showing Matt, Jesse, Kat, Paula, Simon, Roy, Vicky, Eco). With a good line of cars nicely backed up behind us, this cued the entrance of the police, who wasted no time corralling us to the side of the road, thus allowing the cars to pass. We missed a trick here, since if we had speeded up past the police van and then slowed down again, we could have played cat and mouse with them for a while, causing longer delays. Ahh well, one to remember! One slow pedal down to the gate is all they allowed us, since as soon as we had cycled back to the top of the road, they issued us our first warning (photo 4) that if we attempted to slow the traffic to the South Gate again we would be arrested. But we had other plans, of course (!), so we left them be and cycled off to the North Gate.

Round and round the roundabout

We announced our arrival with a few circuits of the North Gate roundabout (photos 5 and 6), where we checked out the lay of the land and began to plan our main action. We didn’t linger long here, and once we were happy with our strategy, we streamed off towards Garelochead to refuel at the local shop, and also to get started on a press release for what was to come.

Holes of resistance!

Along the way, we happened upon a work team beginning repairs to the barbed wire fence, where several stealthy activists had managed to clamber over a few days before (good on ‘em!). We decided to assist in overseeing this delicate operation (photo 8), as all good managers do, by standing and watching. Foreman Jesse (photo 9) was particularly mindful that they do a good job!

The bus shelter?

“What were you doing in the bus shelter for two hours?”, asked one of the arresting officers later that day. Good question we thought, did we know ourselves? Sheltering from the rain mainly – fortunately the only rain we witnessed – as well as writing the press release and summoning up the courage to go ahead with laying ourselves bare!

Later the four of us – Jesse, Simon, Kat and Paula – did some trial run strip-offs, with Roy’s finger on the stop watch: 6 seconds – not bad; 5 seconds – getting there; 4 seconds – you’re ready!

“This isn’t what we expected!”

And so back up to the North Gate which, to our delight, was thinly policed with just two officers. Our main concern had been whether we would manage to strip off before actually being arrested, so this was good news indeed. But we had a good plan, largely master-minded by Roy, who figured that instead of trying to occupy the road where we could all too easily be surrounded, we should use the police’ own barricades to protect us from them.
As the four of us calmly lined up for what appeared to be an innocent photo, someone cried, “Now!”. Who would have thought we had nothing on under those anoraks (photo 12)? And those deceptive black `skirts’ us women were wearing unravelled in a second!

So yes, in four seconds flat, our nakedness mirrored the vulnerability we all share in the face of the nuclear threat, as well as laying bare the truth that replacing Trident is naked aggression. We were also exposing the hypocrisy which sees the US and UK pressuring Iran to keep to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty while breaking it ourselves.

Caught on the hop, our duty police showed somewhat bemused looks of, “What to do?” (photos 13 and 14). Protected by the barriers, we had time for Roy to get all the pictures we needed, whilst we broke into cheery song with, “All we are saying is naked for peace . . .” (photos 14 and 15).

It was great to have the support of our fellow cyclists, Vicky and Eco, who backed us in a non-arrestable way.

“You’ve made my day!”

As we were driven away up the hill in the police van, our male arresting officer said, “You’ve made my day!”. The four of us were taken on the scenic route to Clydebank police station, where we saw the full scale of the base from above, and further on, stunning views over Loch Lomond. The police were really friendly and jovial, and treated us very well the whole 20 hours we were detained. We were released without charge just after lunch next day (Simon thought how considerate of them to feed us immediately before being released!). All four of us were held for Breach of the Peace, pleased to see that the rumours of a possible charge for Jesse and Simon of Indecent Exposure under Scottish Law could not be applicable since their intention was not indecent. Surprisingly though, no one arrested any Trident missiles for indecent exposure . . .

Meditation on the pavement

After our one day’s break, we carried over our second day’s demonstrating to Friday 7th, where Jesse, Simon and Paula did a meditation on the pavement at the North Gate, under the banners of, “Arresting Time for Peace” and “Trident Replacement is Naked Aggression” (photos 16 and 17). Such silent action always seems to evoke a lot of reaction, both positive and negative.

We then cycled over to Coulport along the beautiful low-lying route. There was nothing we could do other than chat to a couple of Military Police (photo 18), which quickly gave rise to another police vehicle to check us out. At the end of the long, long hill back up to the top, there was a police vehicle stopping us from going up a road we didn’t want to go up anyway. We told them we haven’t got time now; it will have to wait for another day . . .