No Nukes Northants Blockade Report

Well.we were unlucky enough to draw the short straw and be the group on the rota on the day that the locals were planning their own protest about the disruption cause to their lives by FAslane 365!

The night before,Angie and I had typed up the play which Jack , my 14 year old nephew and I had written for the occasion.It was started on the train journey here on saturday and finished on the beach on sunday!

Faslnae 365's amazing technical support team, in the shape of Anna-Linnea delivered me 4 pristine copies at 6.30am monday morning the moment I arrived at North Gate!

I had gone to do a recky with the intention of reporting back to my group about how the local protest may change our plans.

I also wanted to support Faslane 365 steering group who were very responsibly "being there" to meet the locals and listen to their concerns.

The tea party had set up a stall and drinking a welcome cuppa from a china cup seemed extremely civilized and very incongruous in front of the base!

Not half as incongruous as the sight of the local protest being led up the opposite grass verge by police at 8am.

They certainly have learned a thing or two about protesting in these last 6 months........or is it the last 25 years?

They were about 100, young and old alike,concerned for their education and work. Catchy banners telling us to PEACE OFF!
I wrote them all down.......these are a few:
Clever Kids Not Dunces
Practise what you preach, give us Peace
Let us get to Work
Let us get to school
Beep for work
Give us Peace
Trident Rocks
Stop disrupting our lives

I was very proud to see, in this culture of protest, that people were expressing their right to speak out!

But it felt very strange to be on opposite sides of the road.

So i nabbed a lift to the peace camp, picked up my violin and told my group to come up and see for themselves.

When i got back to the gate i went and stood on the traffic island and played to both sides.
I also spoke to a cop and asked why we were seperate as it didn't enable dialogue.

The clowns were already over there talking, and gradually people from both sides crossed over and shared views.

Then at 12.30 the 3 other performers from my group arrived and Faslane 365 went.A small band of locals stayed behind. By this stage the expression of views had deteriorated into the haranguing of traffic by some teenagers screaming "BEEP IF YOU SUPPORT US" and cheering at the considerable amount of response they appeared to be getting. However, of course there were beeps for our side too!

Taking the megaphone we bagan a playful banter claiming the odd "toot" for us.
The hysterical shouting was beginning to wear on me and i realised that the things being shouted were getting personal.
It was almost as if the reduction in numbers to the 4 of us allowed them to feel as if they had "won". Or maybe they could blame someone specific!
We tried to have a rehearsal and ignore the taunts and comments. I told the other 3 to tune out as i could see them getting wound up, and I requested over the megaphone that the local protesters adhere to our non-violent guidelines, especially NO VERBAL ABUSE.
My nephew wanted to go home, not having come to Scotland to be shouted at aggressively by unthinking youths, and my neice was beginning to feel threatened and was seeking re-assurance from the police.
I watched sadly as one young lad, playing on the hill behind, wrecked a sapling, unseen by his parents.I was unable to stop him.
Then one lad came over to the middle and made eye contact with me and asked me aggressively if i had got the message yet?
Well that was that!
I went over to talk to him and explain who we were and found myself prevented from doing so by 2 police women who told me that i was not allowed over on that side.
I patiently explained that i had already been there that morning and was told that things had changed due to the aggressive tone.I was glad that i had not imagined it!
Anyway, I stood my ground and a senior officer was called who arranged for me to talk with the organisers.

Apparantly they had not been aware of any verbal abuse or aggression and assured us it would stop.
I was then able to listen to their concerns.

I did re-emphasize that each protesting group is autonomous and although we all had access to the website, Faslane 365 were not responsible for what any of us chose to do.

I think most people outside NVDA struggle with the lack of accountable leaders.
I also said that knowing of their frustration had affected the decisions which my group made about our plans and that putting their comments on the website would reach someone!

I undertook to put them on here as well

Local Concerns.
One resident with a brain tumour was concerned about getting to the hospital.
One mother told of her 15 year old being on day one of her work experience and having to take charge of 200 kids ,with only the janitor to help, when a teacher was held up in a road block.

They asked "Why do we not blockade Coulport which employs less local people and would only affect Naval Transport?"

I asked which days were exam days as this would allow groups to plan. There response was that every day is important and that kids and teachers need to get to school every day as well as medical personell needing to get to work.

One man would like a guarantee that the road would not be blocked anymore due to actions.

They also explained that when actions do prevent base personell from getting to work they don't have to pay back the hours, so we are not impacting on them!

There was a suggestion that with the 3 lane road we could find a way to blockade without such disruption.

They also stressed the fact that ,were it not for the disruption to their ,lives many of the ptotestors would be standing with us against Trident.

Returning to my group after this exchange i was pleased to notice an immediate change in the atmosphere and within half an hour they had all gone.

It was at this point that the rest of our group arrived and the PA turned up allowing us to proceed with our protest.

Theses are some comments from group members:
Sami 32:
* Good feedback re the play including from the police
*Good rapport with police
*Singing "Down by the riverside" in 3 part harmony was great
*Dealing with verbal abuse from local demonstrators was hard and fairly scary
*There was confusion that the MOD cutting team were reportedly good at cutting but not at dealing with people

Emma 26:
* Scared and vulnerable not knowing what to expect with the locals. They were antagonistic/abusive and when i tried to seek re-assurance from MOD police i got a very hostile response. Strathclyce police were much better.
*enjoyed performing and dancing and singing especially the Greenham songs
* felt very much part of something significant despite there only being 11 of us
*great having Shona and Monica from the camp as extra support
* left feeling that we had achieved something
* Trident?NOT IN MY NAME

Flick 18:
* HIgh energy and enthusiasm
*Struggle with communication
*quickly established friendships
* inexperience of the place and blocKading in general
*despite many issues feels like we got our message across qiuite effectively

Jenny 20:
* locals were not very effective in getting their point across as they seemed to use aggression via abuse, once only a few demonstrators were at North gate
* our group communication was REALLY HARD due to being at the peace camp as we were under surveillance nearly all the time so surprise actions were impossible
*The play was effective and the music and dancing really lifted our spirits
* I found that our planning needs were highly under estimated-largely due to lack of experience. Paula was our saving grace in many ways-she had the knowledge and perspective which acted as the glue in the action and kept the energy/spirits up
* emma, sami and jacks singing was lovely along with fiddle and guitar it gave a nice end to the day
* Strathclyde police were very nice
* MOD were harsh and heartless
* advice to others PLAN!!!!
* looking back, i feel like although we didn't blockade, a prescence of a small group still made a big impact, mainly because the police seemed to expect something big to kick off e.g. more people to arrive by car
* emotions of today.optimism,hyper, exhaustion,confusion(due to inability to easily communicate)slight dissappointment(due to lack of planning) then satisfaction that we made the right choice.

Chris 22: during today things were pretty difficult . We had big problems with communication and i think the fear of constant surveillance was a big weight over everybodies shoulders
* as a support member, although i knew that my role was important, it was hard to understand and support others when they were under a different kind of stress, working together as an affinity group makes this easier.
*because of the difficulties I started to lose the sense of unity within the group
* once we arrived at North Gate i felt the group was again given the sesnse of unity because we were doing something together.And even thought there were still doubts, i don't believe there was one person who doubted that regardless what choices we made we would support each other in every way possible.
* Even though we didn't block the base we felt that we had done something very valuable today.
* Communication with the police was excellent towards the end of the day

*Hopefully we sent a clear message to the locals that it is not our intention to make their lives difficult, but to protest for what we know to be right.For them and for us.

Dave 22 : It was a great day and a valuable learning experience. In future transport, communication,and the rest of planning will be better
* Trying to plan a lock on in front of an active MOD base was one of the sketchiest moments of my life. Every word and movement had to be thought about and considered to appear unsuspicious
* Next time i definitely want to have the action team in a safe place just prior to the action to finalize details.
By contrast, the singing and dancing outside the base was awesome.I was really happy doing that and felt totally at home and safe.
It's all just far too much........the play, the camp, the people,.i loved each and every one of them and could easily write a book about them.
I've been totally inspired and will certainly come again

On a parting note. the counter protest was cute and possibly a unique experience. And with all the unwarranted police attention i got today, i gained a slight insight into what it might be to be black!

For a compact overview of our two days of blockading look at these 2 Press releases!