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Newsletter July 2007
Dear friends of Faslane 365,
Three quarters of the way through this marathon of NVDA we have not yet gotten rid of Trident, but political developments in Scotland, and perhaps even in Britain make it seem that we are in fact closer to the goal than before the start of this amazing year. And for that we can thank all of you who have made the trek to the Gareloch and to the Glasgow city jail cells. Thus far 106 autonomous Groups have blockaded in 155 days of presence with 879 arrests, yet there have been only 33 prosecutions. It is hard to believe that there are only 87 days left. But one of those days is the FIRST of OCTOBER BIG BLOCKADE . We invite all of you to COME to FASLANE and CELEBRATE THIS INCREDIBLE YEAR of RESISTANCE !!!
More than 50 anti-nuclear choristers from Euridyce Women’s Socialist Choir (Glasgow), Body of Sound (Sheffield), Protest in Harmony (Edinburgh), Leeds People’s Choir, Red Leicester, and Silsden Singers (West Yorkshire) sang from soggy songsheets in a day of non-stop heavy rain. Clad in waterproofs and brandishing umbrellas they sang “Ye’ll no sit here” (from the ’60s anti-Polaris demos), Holly Near’s “Gentle Angry People” and “Watch Out”, and Pat Humphries “Peace Salaam Shalom” (Lyrics and music can be found on the Protest in Harmony website .) They taught each other new harmonies and kept on singing in the rain all day.
The day culminated in a blockade of the North Gate while singing Hamish Henderson’s the “Freedom Come-All-Ye”. Six women remained sitting in the road singing, with powerful harmonious support from the rest, and continued to sing all the way to Clydebank police cells… and throughout the afternoon and evening (including wonderful classical arias from Penny). Singing resumed again about seven in the morning. Shereen’s repertoire was still not exhausted by the time they were released at midday.
Participants in the Power of the Word blockade included actor-musician Rebecca Thorn and writer A.L.Kennedy who performed a stand-up monologue about nuclear weapons, which exposed the bizarre madness of nuclear thinking. Poems about war and resistance were read by Allan Cameron, Sean Legassick and Gerry Loose. Roger Lloyd Pack, known for his role as Trigger in Only Fools and Horses said “The money could be so much better spent on other things, like funding alternative energy sources and, in particular, combating climate change, where the real danger lies.” John Rowley, a Trustee of the Gandhi Foundation, spoke on ideas for non-violence in public life. A number of singer-songwriters performed, including Theo Simon of Seize the Day, David Ferrard, Ciaran Dorris, Paul Baird and folk legend Leon Rosselson, who captured everyone’s attention with a rendition of The World Turned Upside Down, better known as The Diggers’ Song. The presentation of a birthday cake and gift to Angie Zelter effectively diverted the attention of the police so that a group were able to lie down with arms linked and block the road, a fitting birthday present for Angie who reciprocated not only by joining them but then entwining them with ribbon.
Contrary to the somewhat absurd rumours circulated on the Penninsula24seven website and repeated by the MSP for Dumbarton Jackie Baillie in Parliament neither a disco nor a Barbecue was ever planned to take place at the Faslane cemetery nor were said events cancelled. But a Silent Disco was organized outside the North Gate by none other than Shonagh Glen, daughter of MSP Marlyn Glen, but shhh! don’t tell Jackie that! It was difficult to discern what possible objection to a small group of committed MP3 listeners dancing to their own beats behind the barriers in the designated legal protest area Ms Baillie felt could warrant the consideration of the Parliament. Perhaps she feared the silence might be enough to wake the living dead down in the cemetery. Regardless of attempts to curtail the quiet enjoyment of heavy metal the dancers chalked one up for individual freedom of personal listening and against the silent black behemoth that lurks in the dark waters of the Gareloch.
Theological Colleges and Courses
Having participated in the high profile January Academics and Scholars Seminar at Faslane the blind Theologian Professor John Hull decided to organize a group of seminarians and ordinands from the Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education in Birmingham and St. John's College, Ushaw College and the Wesley Study Centre in Durham to go on pilgrimage to Faslane. Professor Hull said “Our faith demands that we condemn the planned renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons programme….Their use would cause destruction on such a scale that the very ability of creation to create would be destroyed. And that is an offence against God that cannot go un-challenged.” Professor Hull and two other ministers were arrested after a large contingent of staff and students had blocked the road for more than an hour.
On the 25th Birthday of the Faslane Peace Camp 89 year old Margaret Harrison, one of the Camp’s founders came back to visit with the latest campers. While she was sitting round the fire and proudly showing photos of her husband and Camp co-founder Bobby with Bruce Kent, word came that the Manchester lot were locked on at the South Gate. Margaret wandered down and met another 89 year old campaigner Betty Tebbs who was thumb-locked with fellow activists and lying in the road. Last year, Betty received a lifelong commitment award from CND which she joined when it started in 1958. She said: "My age is no impediment to my commitment to nuclear disarmament. I have been campaigning for over 40 years and I am not about to stop now."
This energetic crowd danced and dodged the midges before blockading. One of the group wanted to strip off but was arrested too soon.
A beautiful candlelit vigil marked the shortest night of this year of resistance with circle dancing in the gateway and over a hundred candles in brightly painted jars decorating the roundabout. In a circle of renewal each person threw away the pains and horrors of our present world and committed to bring in the hopes and desires of our wanted world. Thick swarms of midges did their best to discourage both protesters and police. A smoking brazier made some difference while a group huddled under yards of mesh netting and many wearing midge hoods appeared as apparitions of the dead dancing eerily in the gloomy darkness, possibly awakened by that silent spirit of resistance to the horror on the other side of the fence. A single protester walked unimpeded through the gates in the early hours, to be charged to his surprise under SOCPA but released next day without being prosecuted.
More Quakers
This group of only two Quakers (from Mosedale) vigiled and leafleted and were inspired by their visit to plan to return for future action. Quoting a Palestinian girl one of them said “Hope is not something you believe it is something you do”.
A group of about 25 engaged Buddhists travelled by train from Glasgow to Helensburgh and then walked out to Faslane in the rain, stopping for a cup of tea at the Peace Camp. They held a meditative presence which was maintained the following day by a single member of the group, Shantiketu, who sat with a beautiful Buddhists for Peace banner behind him looking across to the base.
Academics Again
Over 40 academics and students held a second seminar at Faslane calling upon Gordon Brown, to justify his commitment to Trident to the intellectual community or scrap his plans to renew Trident. The conference and blockade combined discussion with non-violent direct action, with fourteen academics arrested.
Participants from universities across the UK, Sweden, Spain and other countries were experts in international relations, environmental and economic impacts of the base, UK nuclear policies, and the history of protest. Papers addressed the negligible economic impact of closing the base on the local area, and the need for greater and more widespread resistance to environmentally disastrous government policies. The Papers from the 2 blocks can be read here.
About 100 students participated in the week long Strident Tent State at Peaton Woods, adjacent to MOD Coulport nuclear weapons depot. Dialogue with Peninsula24seven, the local anti-protest group resulted in a joint press release confirming that there was no intention to hold a Barbecue at the cemetery. On Thursday a group of four from Merseyside were arrested, on Friday nine from Nottingham. Another group was blockading on Saturday when police received news of the flaming car crashing into the glass front of Glasgow Airport. The police asked the students to lift their blockade so they could respond to the crisis and the students did so immediately. Strathclyde Police further requested Strident Students to refrain from blockading for 24 hours in order to enable them to deploy resources in response to what was being treated as a terrorist attack. The students released the following statement: “The Strident Tent State has come to a consensus decision to assure the public and police that there will be no direct action to disrupt the daily running of Faslane or Coulport for the whole of Sunday 1st July. This is so as not to divert Strathclyde police resources from investigating the incident which occurred at Glasgow International Airport on Saturday afternoon”. Alerted by NukeWatch of simultaneous preparations for a warhead convoy to leave Burghfield the students made clear to the police that they would however not refrain from blockading it.
Their blockade report continues: “Both police and residents had already voiced their gratitude for the way in which we had approached the organisation of Strident and our cooperation when the police asked us to leave our lawful protest outside the North Gate of Faslane as soon as they heard about what happened in Glasgow on Saturday. On Sunday we continued to have a presence at the gate of Coulport…. A tea party … was accompanied by samba, acro and queer politics workshops, with more workshops including Plane Stupid and a …project aimed at preventing the destruction of Europe's largest wilderness in Iceland (See the Saving Iceland website for more info). MOD police restricted access to areas outside Coulport.
There was much concern about restrictions being placed on civil liberties. Discussions turned on the ongoing terror threat posed by Trident as a source of anger at the UK making us less not more secure from the threat of terrorism. Jo Tyabji, stated “It is becoming increasingly vital that we blockade the Trident system; recent events in Glasgow and London make that clear. Trident poses a massive security risk to Scotland, and the continuous nuclear threat at sea does nothing to ease international tensions…. (W)e have educated ourselves in order to address the state of terror inflicted through foreign policy founded on a continuous nuclear threat”. Having kept their promise and concluding that M.O.D.and Strathclyde police had had ample time to distribute resources Strident students effectively blockaded both Coulport and Faslane on Monday morning; 37 students were arrested. There were 60 Strident students arrested in all, making them the biggest group yet.
Scottish Parliament Votes Against Trident
During this month of unremitting active resistance Scottish Parliament took political action and voted overwhelmingly to call upon the UK government not to replace Trident at this time. The motion introduced by Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie, a Faslane 365 Statement of Support signatory, attracted the support of all SNP members and Independent Margo MacDonald, and, by including the words “at this time” also gained the support of the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives voted en masse against, and most Labour party members abstained. Five Labour members however did support it. They were Malcolm Chisolm, Bill Butler, Marlyn Glen, Cathy Peattie and Elaine Smith. It was the first time Scottish Parliament has voted against nuclear weapons. Stirring contributions to the debate were made by several members and can be read in the Official Report on the Scottish Parliament website .
Amongst these can be read the full remarks of Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie in which she made a number of statements about the impact of the Faslane 365 blockades on the local community with which we have taken issue in a letter sent to MSPs which can be read here. These statements seem to inappropriately repeat allegations and rumours which have appeared in some media outlets and on the website of Peninsula24seven. Amongst these are the factually inaccurate statements that the A814 is the only road serving the Peninsula and that the students were planning a Barbecue and Disco at the Faslane cemetery. This was never the case but seems to be a distortion of the suggestion by one student on the Strident website that they camp “near the cemetery” conflated with the Silent Disco, a separate event which took place at the North Gate. Although this misunderstanding has been cleared up with Peninsula24seven Ms Baillie has perpetuated it quite inappropriately in the debating chamber of Parliament. She also asserted that blockades have prevented school pupils from getting to school and caused pupils to miss exams. Though this may have happened in one or two cases involving lower level exams Ms Baillie neglected to mention that Faslane 365 called upon groups not to blockade in the mornings during the SQA (Higher) exam period during the whole month of May and that no group did so. We believe that public officials have a duty to give accurate information, particularly MSPs in Parliament. We have invited Ms Baillie to check her facts with us in future.
And we have received several Statements of Support from MSPs since. The Supporters list page on the Faslane 365 website includes current and former MSPs who have signed the Statement of Support.
BIG BLOCKADE 1st OCTOBER
On 1st October 2007 Faslane 365 is celebrating the diversity and impact of this year of civil resistance against the UK's illegal weapons of mass destruction.
Groups and individuals, who have disrupted the nuclear business as usual at Faslane, are coming together for a celebration, a carnival of resistance. We want to invite you too! Please come along and bring loads of your friends with you too.
On the evening of Saturday 29th September we will have a celebration including music, poems and films.
We will also be looking forward to renewed resistance based on our shared vision of a nuclear free world in a strategy session, on Saturday 29th and the morning of Sunday 30th September in Glasgow. This will be a planning session for continuing the energy of Faslane 365 for resistance to nukes in the UK. For more info please contact us.
TEACHERS WANTED
There will be a Teachers’ blockade on 1st and 2nd August. For details see the Teachers Blockade Page on the website. Contact brian@faslane365.org . If you have contacts who are teachers who might be interested please pass this along to them.
CALLING AMERICAN RESISTERS
A US Group will be blockading 20th and 21st of August. For details see the US Group Page or email brian@faslane365.org
GRANNIES’ BLOCKADE
A Grannies for Peace group will blockade on Thursday 23rd August to Friday 24th August 2007. For details click here.
WELCOME the JAPANESE DELEGATION
A group of Japanese, including 2 or 3 Hibakusha (survivors or the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) will participate in a blockade on 25/26 July. All are invited to come welcome and support them. Click here for details. There will also be an event welcoming them in Edinburgh. Contact Janet Fenton at the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre for details: 0131 229 0993.
Faslane 365 GREETING CARDS
Each of the cards is a collage of the different banners brought to the first 6 months of Faslane 365 blockades and includes a photo of one blockade per card. Each of the 8 cards in a set contains different banners and photos and is blank inside. Four new designs now available! Pack of 8 cards in colour with envelopes. £5 per pack (inclusive of p&p). View the cards on the website here .
To order contact cards@faslane365.org or ring 07835 354652. Make cheques payable to 'Faslane365' and send to Valley Farmhouse, East Runton, Cromer, Norfolk, NR27 9PN with a note to say that the cheque is for cards.
DONATIONS ARE WELCOME. Please send cheques to:
Faslane 365
Valley Farmhouse East Runton
Cromer Norfolk
NR27 9PN
UK.
FILL the GAPS in the ROTA
We invite new groups to sign up and old groups to take another turn. Contact us at: info@faslane365.org.
Visit the website for updates: http://www.faslane365.org
Call for info: 0845 45 88 365 or 07768 312676
In peace,
Brian, on behalf of Faslane365 Steering Group
Faslane 365 - The Book
F365 Poster
A commemorative poster containing photos of many of the actions and banners during Faslane 365 is now available.
