Diary

Tim and Patrick formed the advance party travelling up with the Pedals soundsystem from Lancaster to Glasgow on Sunday November 8th. They got a lift with some of the Seize the Day crowd, staying with them overnight in central Glasgow. Amazingly, Pedals and the tandem fitted into a Ford Mondeo (saloon not estate!). Pedals supported Seize the Day's blockading on Monday and Tuesday. Monday early morning saw a confused convoy of vehicles out to Faslane then dawn lock-ons at North and South gates. The band played a great gig at the North Gate on Monday afternoon. The following day the music, and lock-ons, continued, culminating in a final action during the afternoon shift change with Shannon serenading Theo over Pedals as he got carted away by the cops. In the midst of this, Tim got arrested for taking a photograph in the road, a ridiculous arrest that seemed to have been ordered over police radio net by visiting senior cops venting their frustration.

Pedals and crew settled in to the peace camp for what turned out to be a week's residency. It was great to find Jon already established, and we set about working on the peace camp's array of knackered bikes, getting six up and rideable. On Wednesday we supported the South West crew for more blockading. Tim was released after an overnight stay at Dumbarton nick with a warning letter. James arrived to boost our numbers.

Thursday was the first of our two official cycle blockade days. Two cyclists arrived from London with bikes, and some peace campers joined us on two wheels for an early morning rolling slow blockade of the gates and roundabouts. This went okay, but, to be honest, the traffic into the base was moving really slowly anyway, even without our efforts! By mid-morning things were quiet enough, so we went on a ride over to Coulport, shadowed by a police escort. Coming back along the hills overlooking Faslane, we experimented with an acoustic blockade, pointing pedals towards the berthed submarines and playing appropriate tunes at bowel-moving sound levels. Marine patrol boats turned in formation to investigate this strange noisy apparition up on the hill, and even the Frigate seemed interested for a while.

Friday was our second official day and as dawn broke we found a large and energetic contingent of Edinburgh students at the North Gate. Pedals thundered out Asian Dub Foundation as the students dived through police lines to lock-on across the road. The drum and bass was too much and Jon couldn't resist joining them, ending up getting arrested. Tim and James began slowly cycling round the roundabout and, with barely a warning, were arrested and their bikes (one unfortunately with a peace camp trailer attached) taken. Later two Edinburgh cyclists joined those cyclists still at liberty, riding old bikes that they thoughtfully donated to the peace camp at the end of the day. An Edinburgh student took over as stoker on Pedals to keep the soundsystem moving.

Jon and James were released on Saturday, and we had to hold on until Monday for Tim to be released. It was just as well we had stuck around because Monday morning saw an amazing co-ordinated action by the Nordic group (see Schnews 20/10/06). With a tripod and lock-ons the Finns blocked the main road south of the base for around 2 hours, and the Swedes did a mass blockade at the North Gate with an array of steel lock-ons that wore out the regular police cutting tools and forced them to bring out an angle grinder. Pedals supported the Finns as best we could, but at the peak of the action the cops were loosing the plot and threatening us with arrest if we didn't turn it off. Not wishing to prolong our stay any longer we complied. A peace camper got arrested having a pee in the woods - that's how ridiculous it was. The cops took ages building two scaffold towers to extract the tripod protester from his nest, and we soon got the music going again to give him something to dance to. The morning had seen around 40 arrests and a really successful blockade over the morning rush-hour period. After all that we took Pedals into Glasgow on the Nordic bus, Tim got released, and we called it a day.

Good points

• It happened!
• It was a good learning experience
• Supporting other groups with the soundsystem was really
  appreciated
• We were able to help out at the peace camp for a week

Bad points

• Organisation and co-ordination before the event was a bit
  crap
• There were small numbers of cyclists on the day
• We didn't arrange proper legal support
• It was difficult and expensive to travel up (especially with
  bikes)

What next?

• Another Faslane 365 bicycle blockade next year?
• A collective ride up from Edinburgh and/or Glasgow?
• Assemble an array of "disposable" bikes so riders
  don't have to bring their own?