Trident Ploughshares's Blockade Reports

*Press Release*: 13 April, 2007

Twenty-two (22) Trident Ploughshares activists using heavy “lock-on” tubes shut down all gates at the Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde today for more than two hours, as part of the on-going Faslane365 year-long blockade in opposition to the Trident nuclear weapons. In the wake of the government’s decision in March to procure the next generation of Trident Faslane 365 is determined to keep the pressure on, because the Trident nuclear weapons system is illegal and immoral: it should be scrapped, not renewed.

An audacious blockade today at the gates of the Faslane naval base in Scotland, where the Trident nuclear weapons are deployed, saw the Faslane 365 movement chalk up its 500th arrest since launching the year-long civil resistance on October 1st.

Monday morning, 7:30am. A dark road somewhere North of Glasgow.Scottish cold and rain beating in my face. I'm chained via a bike lock to Irene, veteran of the Faslane struggle. One arm disappears into a tube, at the other end of which is my mate Steve. There are seven of us, five women and two men, standing in a line stretched across the road.

This morning the Trident submarine base at Faslane and the atomic weapons factory at Aldermaston have both been the focus of disruption as activists blockaded entrance gates.

At Faslane the North gate was blockaded by activists from the Trident Ploughshares campaign. The gateway was blocked around 7 a.m. by a group of cyclists who formed a cordon and then locked on to each other using chains and padlocks. Shortly afterwards another group on foot blockaded the gateway by lying in the road, joined to each other through tubing of plastic and other materials. Police, using specialised cutting teams, removed these blockages and made 14 arrests.