Brian Quail letter In 1961 Britain had a nuclear attack plan which was designed to result in the deaths of 40 million people in the USSR. These casualty figures were revealed in a memorandum from the head of the RAF, Air Cheif Marshall Sir Thomas Pike to Admiral Earl Mountbatten, who was Cheif of Defence Staff at the time. The memorandum has surfaced in a new file in the Public Records office. James McKillop of the Herald discovered the document and publicised it in an article in the paper in late August. The following letter was written by Brian Quail and printed in the Herald in response to this news.
Dear Sir,
"Britain Planned Nuclear Attack - 40 Million Would die" - the horrifying article in Friday's Herald should be made compulsory reading for the dwindling band of nuclear apologists who, through the columns of your esteemed journal, perversely attempt to defend the indefensible.
My fear is, however, that the most horrendous words in the article could easily slip by unnoticed. I quote verbatim from James McKillops's report "the release of these papers make it clear that UK military chief had prepared for first-strike nuclear attack ". Let me repeat that slowly. A first-strike nuclear attack. That's official. And that is still UK policy. Tory or Labour, no British government has ever been prepared to give a no first use guarantee.
The only thing that has changed is that now instead of Vulcan bombers, we have the vastly more efficient and lethal Trident system. This was designed specifically to meet the infamous Moscow Criterion; that is, to be able to penetrate and destroy the Galosh anti-missile system defending the Russian capital. As it makes no sense to fire at empty missile silos, logic makes it clear that Trident is indeed a first strike system.
This fact was confirmed to me personally by the one man who probable knows more about Trident than anybody else in the world. It so happens that on an unforgettable occasion in a lovely leafy garden in Belmont Crescent here in Glasgow, I met and had a long talk with Dr Robert Aldridge, head of the design team in Lockheed Corporation assigned to produce Trident. In fact, as he explained to me over an exceptionally fine malt, it was precisely his realisation that Trident had all the characteristics of a first strike system that drove him to give up his job and to devote himself to campaigning against it.
Far from being a mere inert deterrent, a purely defensive weapon never to be used except in extremis as people fondly imagine, Trident has the technical specifications of an offensive, first-strike weapon system. And that is how it will be perceived by other nations, who look at the technical possibilities of our weapon, and judge it on these and these alone, and not on our perfervid assurances of benign intent. Precisely as we do in reverse in their case.
So now at last following this public admission of Britain's aggressive nuclear war plans - which we in the peace movement been trying to expose for years - can we at least have some honesty in our dialogue? Will the prophets of our ethical foreign policy please stop rabbiting on about deterrents and devices and capabilities - not to mention the dreaded nuclear umbrella- and learn to call things by their true name? Labelling the hellish thing a deterrent or a detergent or a daffodil or the Star of Bethlehem, or any other lying garbage they can grub from the lexicon of Orwellian nukespeak will not alter the objective fact that these are atom bombs. They are designed and built for one purpose only, and that is to effect the mass slaughter of "enemy" civilians in utter defiance of all the rules of war. If Trident is not a criminal and illegal weapon of war, then nothing in the world is.
Note also that the cant term "deterrence" disregards the current doctrine of tactical or sub-strategic Trident. This was explained by Malcolm Rifkind, the then Minister of Defence, when he announced back in November 93 that Trident would also have a "sub-strategic role" whereby we would fire "only" one of its warheads - i.e. 8 Hiroshimas of killpower - in order to "undertake a more limited nuclear strike... by delivering an unmistakable message of our willingness to defend our vital interests". In plain English, this means we are prepared to use Trident, to use it first, and to use it against any non-nuclear Third World state that steps out of line.
By constant mindless repetition of the word deterrent, we attempt to validate not only the bomb, but the whole hypocritical and sanctimonious mind-set that produces and justifies our submarine superbelsen. The very utterance of the word presupposes a benevolent, purely passive, defensive role for our atom bombs; it also casts us in a self-righteous, helpless-victim role that flies in the face of historical facts. Above all it wilfully and inexcusably ignores our doctrine of first use. Your article vindicates fully what we in the peace movement have been saying for years.
Yours for peace,
Brian Quail.
Joint Secretary,
The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Son of Trident
The US is designing new bombs, including some for use on Trident. This has been revealed in the details of the "Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program" (SSMP). SSMP is the mechanism through which billions of dollars continue to be poured into the US nuclear weapons industry.
The part of the project which deals with Trident is called "Submarine Launched Ballistic Warhead Protection Program" or SWPP. Official documents reveal that -
"[SWPP] is a collaborative Navy / DoE effort to maintain the capability to jointly develop replacement nuclear warheads for the W76/Mk4 and W88/Mk5 should new warheads be needed in the future. SWPP is concentrating on two designs, one near-term and the other long-term."
These references are to the warheads used on Trident missiles. Currently two designs are deployed - the W76/Mk4 used by both Britain and the US, and the W88/Mk5 only used by the US Navy.
Declassified timelines for SWPP indicate that the US could have a prototype of a new warhead available between 2003 and 2005.
Keeping the old warheads going
In addition to designing new warheads, the US is also preparing to modify existing warheads in order to keep them in service beyond their original planned life. This comes under the acronym "Stockpile Life Extension Program" or SLEP.
There is a substantial program under SLEP to modify the W76 warheads in the US arsenal. This involves replacing a number of key components including the firing mechanism, tritium system and neutron generator. The plutonium pit and high explosives will also be examined and possibly replaced.
The British role
The Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston has "participated significantly" in the SLEP W76 refurbishment project.
The warheads on submarines at Faslane are copies
of the US W76 design. There are indications that Aldermaston will begin a major refurbishment
of Trident warheads in the first half of the next decade.
This is surprising as the British warheads are
much newer than their American equivalents which
were built between 1978 and 1987. The refurbishment
of
British warheads may be carried out earlier in
their life to take advantage of the new components available from the US. It may also be due to the
fact that an unspecified generic problem with the
W76 warhead was identified during surveillance in the
US between 1993 and 1997. This potential fault
probably also affects the British warheads.
While there has been close Anglo-American cooperation over nuclear weapons for decades, the extent of scientific exchanges has increased in recent years. Alan Simpson MP has asked a series of parliamentary questions on visits made by British officials to the US. In the financial year 1990/91 there were 110 visits concerned with nuclear weapons. This has increased to 235 similar visits in 1998/99.
There is close collaboration in the development of new facilities to test nuclear warheads. As full scale nuclear explosions are no longer carried out, very expensive specialist facilities are being built which will simulate some of the effects of a nuclear detonation. These will be used not only to monitor existing warheads, but also to test new designs.
This year George Roberston gave the go-ahead for
a new £100 million facility at Aldermaston which
has been designed to take 3D pictures of how the core of
a nuclear weapon reacts when it explodes. There
is
close collaboration between the scientists
designing this and those building a similar US facility.
Part of the US warhead development program is the construction of the world's largest laser - the National Ignition Facility. Britain has invested in the NIF and intents to make use of its capabilities.
The next Chevaline scandal ?
In 1980 there was uproar in Parliament when it was revealed for the first time that £1 billion had been spent on developing a new warhead for Polaris called Chevaline. The project had been given the go-ahead by Harold Wilson's government in 1967, but had been kept secret from Parliament for 13 years, despite the huge sums being spent on it.
In 1973 a backbench MP asked if the government of the day was spending millions of pounds updating Polaris. The reply was completely evasive and gave nothing away. The government today is equally reticent when it comes to answering any questions about its plans to update Trident.
A 26 page report on this issue, "The next Chevaline Scandal ?" is available from British CND, 162 Holloway Rd, London, and at www.cnduk.org
John Ainslie
From Alba to Albuquerque
I was an absolute honor and a delight to be able to accept an invitation to attend Peace Actions National Congress in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the beginning of August as part of their international panel. Although I was only there for four days so much was packed in that it felt like at least a month.
On August 6th, Hiroshima Day, I went out to Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of an International Weapons Inspection Team, which included people from India, Pakistan, France, Canada, Belau and Japan. Before we looked at various sites of present and future war crimes we visited Technical Area 16. Here through the overgrown vegetation we could see the building where the Fat Man and Little Boy bombs were constructed. As the hot sun beat down on us and the Lab security men shuffled nervously a few metres away we stood in a solemn circle to hear the words of Seiko Ikeda. Through her interpreter she told us of the day 54 years ago when as a 12 year old school girl she was out making firebreaks in her home town of Hiroshima as an atomic bomb dropped. She will never forget that day or the faces of the people dying in agony around her. Her courageous determination that we should not forget was breathtaking. Then she and her colleague Sueko Motoyama, a survivor from Nagasaki scattered sunflower seeds, equal to the number of Japanese deaths, in the grass around us.
I spent the weekend attending the Peace Action Congress and making new friends. Peace Action is similar to CND and it was interesting to see them debating all the same kinds of things that we do and struggling to choose priorities when they want to campaign on everything.
The presentation on Trident Ploughshares went down very well and was a good introduction to the next session: the major challenge of preparing 200 people in two and a half hours for going out to the Lab the following day to take part in and support direct action. It was amazing to discover how experience of NVDA here could so easily be applied to an action so many miles away.
August 9th, Nagasaki Day, saw about 300 people gathered in the town of Los Alamos for a rally. Dr Helen Caldicott was among a large number of contributors. The actor Martin Sheen was the final speaker and he led everyone in a march into the center of the huge laboratory complex. Lab security had agreed that we could go to a particular car park, which would be roped off, anyone crossing the rope would be arrested. Martin Sheen was the first to cross the rope (his 59th arrest!) and he was followed by another 75 protesters. With more willpower than you can imagine I resisted the urge to join them in confronting the total insanity of that place, especially when we learned that those arrested were just being bused back into town and released. The slight doubt that a foreign national would be dismissed so quickly and the thought of missing my flight home held me in check, but another time……..
Jane Tallents
Nigel Gardner
Nigel Gardner, along with his wife Moyna, attended the earliest CND marches in Glasgow in the fifties and rarely missed a demonstration throughout his life.
Moyna retired some years before Nigel did, and was more visibly active, in Glasgow West CND and in the office. Nigel meantime led a life even busier; his job as assistant head at Cleveden became more and more demanding with changes in education and his EIS commitments involved him in meeting after meeting. He also contributed to professional groups concerned with his subject, physics, for example with the setting of exam questions and the use of programmed learning material, as well as groups with more general concerns like the raising of the school leaving age.
Yet he could always be called upon to work behind the scenes in his local CND group Glasgow West, to steward at big events, and in the early days when it was a very new and daunting experience, to get arrested.
In 1961 he was arrested at Holy Loch along with his wife and his father Hamish who was then head of Glenwood and who, at 96, survives him.
Cancer was diagnosed earlier this year, but
Nigel pursued his many interests as long as he
physically could. He died in July, survived by his wife, 3
sons and 2 grandchildren.
Keith Gardiner
Keith Gardiner, an activist for nuclear disarmament and for socialist died suddenly on Monday 28th June. For a number of years, Keith had been the principal stalwart in the campaigning of Dundee CND and, at the time of his death he had been the group's secretary for several years. Keith's achievements in promoting the case for nuclear disarmament were many campaigning as he did in the Labour Party, Unison, Dundee Trades Council and on the streets. He will be remembered as an activist, a man of strong resolve; and a man of great conviction. He was not one given to overlong rhetoric. Keith got on with doing things. He spoke to people on a one-to-one basis persistently pointing out the virtues of the convictions which he held. He made sure that stalls appeared where and when they were supposed to. He booked and filled buses to demonstrations. He encouraged others to become a part of his campaigning.
Everyone involved in progressive campaigns in Dundee, and in the cause of nuclear disarmament across Scotland, will greatly miss Keith - for the work which he did and for the immense amount of help that he gave to many.
We have lost a great campaigner. I have lost a friend. Our sympathies are extended to Keith's parents, his brothers and their families.
Neil Cruikshank
- FLYING NUCLEAR WASTE
Pigeons at the Sellafield plant in Cumbria are so radioactive they should be classified as nuclear waste. That was the finding of research by Greenpeace when they analysed a number of pigeons which had been culled by BNFL because they were contaminated.
The pigeons were fed at a pigeon sanctuary in Seascale, 2 miles from the nuclear reprocessing site. Inspectors were so concerned at the level of nuclear waste at the house that they not only culled all the pigeons, but they also removed some of the soil and even the garden gnomes and took them to the nuclear waste dump at Drigg.
Analysts discovered that the breast of the birds contained high levels of radioactivity. They also found plutonium in their feathers. This could easily have been dislodged, posing a health risk.
In its latest annual report the Radioactive
Waste Management Advisory Committee said that it
was "unacceptable that sources of radioactivity of
the
magnitude necessary to contaminate pigeons to the levels observed had not been managed in a way
that prevented access by wildlife".
This tale highlights a major weakness in radiation protection systems. Nuclear safety bodies try to identify which sections of the public are most in danger from radiation. But until now, no-one had thought that pigeon fanciers were in a high risk group.
Analysing the results of the survey for Greenpeace, Dr David Sumner warned "The findings described here show that existing methods may not in fact have identified those members of the public with the highest exposure, and there may be additional important pathways previously undreamed of. For example, very recently the possibility that other wildlife (eg insects and doves) may be implicated in the spread of contamination into the environment has been highlighted in the US".
There have been similar concerns at Dounreay with seagulls visiting the pits where nuclear waste lies in plastic bags. Only recently have nets been spread over the open pits to try to keep away the seagulls.
Scottish CND
Annual Conference
Edinburgh
Saturday 9th October
Friends Meeting House,
Victoria Terrace,
Edinburgh
At conference we will brainstorm ideas in workshops, looking at questions including -
(1) What is our message ?
(2) What slogans should we use ?
(3) What ways are there of getting our message out ?
(4) How do we get more people involved ?
John Ainslie
10 am Meet up at Friends Meeting House,
followed by lively street campaiging
around the city centre
12.30 pm Lunch
1.30 pm John McAllion MSP - on Trident and
the Scottish Parliament; followed by
reports on recent campaigns
2.30 pm Discussion on future strategy for
Scottish CND
3.30 pm AGM business
evening ceilidh organised by Edinburgh CND
Creche provision - please notify in advance if required.
David Mackenzie
Amid a crowd of memorable images from the Trident Ploughshares August camp at Coulport, three
stand out for me. In the blazing sun on the last Sunday,
at the Coulport main gate, Barbara McGregor's
clear voice rang out in solidarity with the people of
the Marshall Islands, victims of nuclear bomb
testing. Behind her were sixty or so peace campaigners and
in front, row upon row of police. There was a total
hush as heads before and behind dipped in acknowledgement of the truth and power of
her words.
Darkness now and the midnight homecomings of activists from the MOD processing centres or police stations in Clydebank or Maryhill. In the big tent the fire is stoked up and a brew got going as stories and laughter are exchanged. If the released prisoners have attempted a swim into Falsane in wetsuits (this happened three times) they appear at the camp in a now fashionable and collectable outfit, white paper prison suit and bare feet.
And then on the day of the clear-up, Dave Heller surrounded by a group of attentive police officers as he helped them to make origami cranes and told them the story of the young girl in Hiroshima who first made them as she lay dying from radiation sickness. This was typical of the fortnight _our commitment and peaceful ways were gaining respect and this feedback was boosting our confidence.
In all there were 102 arrests arising from 26 separate actions. We had folk from Scotland, England, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Eire, Germany and Israel. Those responsible for the camp arrangements, such as the splendid Bumble Bee cooks, Caroline and Matthew, and the Turning the Tide Trainers, who provided workshops on site on non-violent direct action, were delighted that the campers took advantage of the opportunity to engage again and again in disarmament _some clocking up five arrests.
In spite of a steady flow of information from the media caravan the coverage in the UK media was poor. Is this due to apathy, laziness or to political pressure internalised by editors, or have they decided on behalf of the public that anti-nuclear protests are not of much interest? By contrast foreign papers and broadcast media responded quickly and enthusiastically to our press releases and put out good stories in the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland.
There seems to have been a decision in the Procurator Fiscal's office to avoid bringing activists to court during the camp itself and instead to release them after a few hours in custody. This softly, softly approach should encourage more people to put themselves on the line for arrest _how much more we could do with double the number, especially more Scots! Actions and arrests can often be fitted into a day off work or a weekend so that folk with ordinary commitments to work and family and their community can cross the line.
The next camp is on the weekend of November 12th to 15th at Coulport. I look forward to seeing you there!
A report direct from Cornton Vale Prison by Ellen Moxley
Over 8 months in the planning, the Pheasants'
Union action finally took place on June 8th in
brilliant weather on Loch Goil. Ellen Moxley, Ulla Roder
and Angie Zelter were really nervous. During the
previous two reconnoitres, there had been a lot of police
boat/car presence; our small battery operated angle
grinder had died; the unreliable inflatable dinghy had a
dicey engine. Yet it turned into the perfect action. Ulla
was at the spot 4 hours before the start time and
phoned with the message: "Beautiful weather." Then the
boat, Angie and Ellen arrived in a rented van. We
launched on time (7 p.m.), and in spite of some
heart-stopping moments with the engine, soon arrived at
"Maytime" -the large floating laboratory complex which tests
the sonar signals from Trident. We know now that
the Chinese Defence Department can track Trident's movements through geo-magnetic fluctuations
and the laboratory on Maytime is more essential than
ever to Trident's operation.We had tools with us to
open padlocks but fortunately we didn't have to use
them for that. One window into the laboratory was able
to be unbolted and in a flash Angie squeezed
through. Ellen and Ulla hung a huge black banner, saying:
"TP 2000: STOP NUCLEAR DEATH RESEARCH/D.E.R.A.= DEADLY EFFICIENT RESEARCH
FOR ANNIHILATION". Helen Steven's beautiful
banner had rainbow people pushing Trident into the
sunlight and said: "BRINGING CRIME INTO THE
LIGHT". Banners made by other Horties said: "CONSTRUCTIVE DECONSTRUCTION" and
"TP 2000 OPPOSES RESEARCH FOR GENOCIDE".Angie and Ulla handed Ellen load
after load of computers, printers, monitors, fax
machines, telephones, computer disks, papers, manuals
etc. Everything went overboard into the drink! Inside
the laboratory there was an almost impenetrable
cage which housed the mechanism for the model submarine which is used for many of the tests.
Angie cut her way in and destroyed (by cutting the
electric wires and hammering the circuit boards) the
three control panels for the winch and model
submarine. Ulla found a sign saying "MOD No Mooring,
No Boarding" and propped it up beside the cage!
We carefully cleaned up the lot, arranged on the table
our police statement, video, Tridenting -it handbook
and several photos of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the victims -a good finale to our housework.
Having exhausted the possibilities in the laboratory, we
three went up on top of the barge and tried getting into
the
control room for the vessel. It was protected by hardened perspex/glass. We tried glass
cutter, hammer and cold chisels, and a drill with several
bits and almost got through. Above the control room
we cut the aerial antenna and
superglued/liquid-metalled the moving parts of an outside winch. We then
settled down for a picnic. "Newt", a moveable platform ,
was a few hundred yards away and we thought we
might inspect that with a life-raft (as our own boat was
now beyond use and we had untied it in the hope it
might wash ashore and be retrieved by our supporters).
We let down one life-raft which opened in a
spectacular manner. We were unsure whether it was right side
up, or if it had paddles inside. So we released the
second
one which fell into the water, its capsule still
intact. By this time 3 hours had gone by and the
internal radio started hailing us. We did not want to be
caught ineptly trying to control a life-raft halfway to Newt
so we agreed to be satisfied with the disarmament
work already accomplished. It was an excellent time
to have done this work, for the laboratory was
between experiments. Before damage was done to any component we made sure the power was off.
When the police arrived they were friendly, having
had previous experience talking to TP 2000 people. Throwing out these components felt to Ellen as if
she were getting rid of the building blocks of
oppression: Trident; the "free " market; the exploitation
of children; unbridled militarism; the
all-prevailing violence of society; third world debt. This was
an amazingly liberating experience. The fact that
we three are now on remand for 110 days and will face
a protracted trial, we hope with a jury, is a small
price to pay for having actually disarmed a Trident-
related facility. We send our best wishes to all our
fellow pledgers and look forward to reading of
their experiences disarming Trident. Together we
can change the system!
SOLIDARITY WITH TP 2000 PROTESTERS
Write letters of support to: Ellen Moxley, Ulla Roder, Angie Zelter, HMP Cornton Vale, Cornton Road, Stirling FK9 5NU.
Their trial will be in the Sheriff Court, Nelson St, Greenock from 27th September and is likely to last for a week and a half. They will be hearing from expert witnesses including leading international lawyer Professor Francis Boyle from the USA, Professor Paul Rogers from Bradford School of Peace Studies, Jack Boag of Pugwash, A German Judge who has taken part in anti-nuclear weapons protests, Rebecca Johnston from ACRONYM in Geneva and John Ainslie from Scottish CND.
There will be a vigil outside the court, leafleting in Greenock and a presence inside the court. Please come along and show your support if you can.
For further infomation contact Jane Tallents
(01436 679194) or David Mackenzie (01324 880744) e-mail davidmc@enterprise.net
THE BUG IN THE BOMB
As the dawn of the new millenium approaches, so
the prophets of doom will be forcasting all kinds
of apocalyptic disaster for us all. Alongside this
we have the predictions of global computer failure caused by the millenium bug. It is too early to
tell how serious this will be - but it is prudent to take
a few precautions.
The Year 2000 [Y2K] issue has already resulted in chaos for those seeking passports. The passport office had to completely replace their computers systems to make them Year 2000 compliant. Unfortunately they chose to do this at the same time as the rules on passports for children were changed - resulting in thousands queuing outside offices around the country.
There are around 15 billion microchips embedded in all kinds of devices around the world and it has been estimated that 2 per cent of them could fail to correctly recognise the date roll over from 1999 to 2000.
William Peden of British CND has investigated the implications of Y2K for nuclear weapons. He says "The failure of an embedded microchip in a discrete, localised computer or machine, such as a wristwatch or the air-conditioning system in a building can be merely inconvenient. However the failure of a microchip in a critical, large, or dangerous piece of machinery - loss of air pressure in an F15 or a submerged submarine - can be devastating and even life-threatening."
Modern nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons systems are controlled by a complex of computer systems. The US Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre has said "Probably one out of five days I wake up in a cold sweat thinking [Y2K] is much bigger than we think, and then the other four days I think maybe we really are on top of it. Everything is so interconnected, it's hard to know with any precision whether we have got it fixed."
Both in the US and in Britain officials have tried to reassure the public and have said that they have already examined most of the "mission critical" elements of their nuclear weapons systems and have found them to by millenium compliant. Even if this is true, it does not remove the risk. There are lots of other computer systems related to the operation of Trident and other weapons, which if they failed could affect the safety of nuclear operations.
Former US missile officer Bruce Blair, who now works for the Brookings Institute in America, says that two systems which are crucial for communications with nuclear submarines will not be Y2K compliant in time.
The problems become greater when we add in the nuclear arsenals of Russia, China, France,
Israel, India and Pakistan. Progress on millenium compliance in China has been poor. Russia was
slow to recognise that there was a problem with Y2K.
Aleksandr Krupnov chair of the State
Communications Committee said "Who knows if
the country will be ready ? I can't give any guarantees."
Today there are 35,000 nuclear weapons around the world, the vast majority in the US and Russia. At least 5,000 of these are on a high state of alert, ready to be launched in around 15 minutes and to reach their targets in an additional 30 minutes.
On the 3rd of June 1980 one microchip in the US nuclear command system failed. Seconds later the computer screens were showing that Soviet missiles had been launched. The first steps were taken towards preparing US bombers and Minuteman missiles to retaliate. Then the commanders realised that it was only a computer malfunction.
Britain plays its part in continuing the preparations for Armagedon. For 24 hours of each day, 365 days of the year there is one Trident submarine concealed at sea, armed with 48 nuclear warheads. In July 1998 George Roberston said that the missiles were on a state of readiness measured in days rather than hours. While this appears to be significant progress the statement was deliberately vague. The government has acknowledged that the alert status can be increased at any time.
If you would like to help to draw attention to the Y2K problem please send the letter below, or in your own words write to some or all of the leaders of the nuclear states.
"I am writing to convey my extreme concern over
the possibility that Year 2000 (Y2K) related
computer failures in nuclear weapons systems may lead to
an unacceptable risk of nuclear war by accident or miscalculation.
.
"Because none of the nuclear-weapons states
can guarantee that their nuclear-related computer
systems are Y2K compliant, the only responsible solution
is for them all to stand down nuclear operations.
This should include taking nuclear weapons off alert
status and removing nuclear warheads from delivery vehicles.
"The immediate stakes are so high, and the potential for global catastrophe so clear, that mutually verified dealerting in the face of the Y2K computer problem must take precedence over all other considerations of politics and national security."
SEND LETTERS TO:
Britain: Prime Minister Tony Blair, 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA.
France: President Jacque Chirac, Palais de l'Elysee, 55 rue de Faubourg St Honore, 75008, Paris.
India: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, South Block, New Delhi, 110011.
Israel: Prime Minister Ehud Barak, PO Box 187, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91919.
Pakistan: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Prime Ministers Secretariat, Islamabad.
Russia: President Boris Yeltsin,
Krasnopresenskaya-2, Moscow.
United States: President Bill Clinton, White House, Washington DC.
Copies of a more detailed breifing are available
from British CND, 162 Holloway Rd, London, N7 8DQ website: www.cnduk.org
ALDERMASTON
There is a unique opportunity to register our
objection to Britain's nuclear weapons' program this Autumn.
The Environment Agency is consulting the public on
plans by the nuclear bomb factory at Aldermaston
to increase the amount of radioactive material they
are allowed to discharge into the environment.
They have produced a 108 public consultation
document which details the quantities of radioactive waste
the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) intend to release into the atmosphere and into the Thames.
Within the document they repeat a recognised international principal in nuclear safety that "no practice involving exposures to radiation should be adopted unless it produces sufficient benefit to the exposed individuals or to society to offset the radiation detriment it causes."
The first principal benefit which they state is - "delivery of a UK defence requirement for an independent nuclear deterrent".
Any individual or group can write in to the Environment Agency and say that they object to the proposed nuclear discharges, both because they are a hazard to human health, and because AWEs work produces no benefit to society as they are making nuclear weapons.
The tables reveal that the levels of discharges from Trident production will be higher in the future than they have been in recent years.
Annual average airborne discharges at AWE
Current Future
Alpha 144 KBq 165 KBq
Plutonium 241 576 KBq 540 KBq
Tritium 5 TBq 30 TBq
Beta and gamma 0.1 MBq 1.5 MBq
Krypton 85 4 GBq 1000 GBq
The Current figures are an average of those from 1995 to 1998 and include both Trident
production and decommissioning. The future discharges
shown here are only for Trident production. There
are additional proposed discharges for
decommissioning on top of this.
The document is asking the public to comment on Aldermaston's proposal to dramatically increase the amounts of nuclear material it is releasing into the atmosphere. Tritium discharges are to increase by 6 times, beta and gamma discharges by 15 times and Krypton 85 discharges by 250 times.
These releases of Krypton are related to AWEs
plans to conduct hi-tech experiments to both prolong
the life of Trident and to design new warheads.
The document also discusses how an accidental release of tritium in June 1993 has resulted in substantial contamination of the ground water in the area. It says that "national security restrictions prevented public knowledge of the incident at the time." Only 6 years later has AWE admitted that the accident happened.
Submissions to this public consultation should be sent before 5th November 1999 to:
The Environment Agency
Radioactive Substances Public Consultation
PO Box 191, Wallingford DO, OX10 8PL
email lorna.stevens@environment-agency.gov.uk
Standard responses on a postcard and more detailed information are available from Scottish CND,
15 Barrland St, Glasgow, G41 1QH. 0141 423 1222.
Britain's changing defence and foreign policy
Alan Mackinnon
human rights of the people. The real aim of the
war was also contained in the Rambouillet terms - that
the province of Kosovo should be run according to
"free market principles". This was a war to defeat
any remaining resistance to the "free market" and open
up Eastern Europe and the Caucasus to American and European multinational firms.
This brings us to the third element in the new strategy. The creation of a new EU army. The crucial decision was taken at the Cologne Summit of the European Union in May 1999. The EU would move immediately to military and foreign policy union and merge with the Western European Union (WEU), the cold war organisation created to cover NATO's European flank. Since then George Robertson has become Secretary General of NATO, Xavier Solana (the previous NATO Secretary General) will be Foreign Secretary of the European Union, and Chris Patten has been appointed European Commissioner with responsibility for defence. This is the new thrust of NATO and the EU. The EU wants to expand eastwards for bigger markets and cheaper labour. It wants access to strategic resources including oil. And it needs the military muscle to achieve it. Meanwhile Europe's biggest defence firms are manouvring for position with a whole series of rival bids and mergers involving defence giants from Britain, Germany and France.
In short, then, the ending of the cold war and
the demise of the Soviet Union has not led to the
ending of the arms race and a "peace dividend". Rather
the contrary. The west has adopted a much more aggresive foreign policy. Shamelessly
one-sided conflicts like the Gulf War of 1991 and the
recent Balkans War would have been inconcievable in
the bad old days when there were two superpowers.
And it is particularly galling to see a British
Labour Government as the most hawkish of the
western powers. Perhaps it was significant that the 3
most aggresive powers during the Balkans War - the
US, France and Britain - are those with the biggest
arms manufacturing industries and who, therefore,
had most to gain from the restocking process after
the war.
The revelations in the Guardian article of 12th August should come as no real surprise. The
British Government is secretly spending more than
£200 million on developing a new warhead for
Trident, making nonsense of the Labour Government's
own pre-election pledge that "Labour is committed to
a nuclear weapons free world". Taken together
with the statement of Graham Jordan, Chief
Scientific Advisor, MoD, on 11th June at the
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory that ".. nuclear weapons
will remain an important influence on our national security for a long time to come", we can see a
clear pattern developing. At the same time the US government is involved in a 15 year programme
to produce a new generation of nuclear weapons at
the staggering cost of over $67 billion. Much of
this programme is designed to develop new weapons without underground testing thus breaching the
spirit of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the
Non-Proliferation Treaty and undermining the international nuclear disarmament process. And
all this in a situation where the "enemy" which
nuclear weapons were designed to attack (the Soviet
Union) has disappeared. The question must be asked:
what on earth are thse weapons for ?
The second part of the jigsaw is the recent war in
the Balkans. A brief examination of the ultimatum placed before the Yugoslav goverment at
Rambouillet is revealing. That document demanded that
the whole of Yugoslavia be occupied by NATO troops with total legal immunity for all NATO personnel
and free and unrestricted movement for NATO
vehicles, vessels, aircraft and equipment throughout
the Yugoslav republic including associated airspace
and territorial waters. No independent and
self-respecting government would have agreed to such terms.
The Rambouillet terms were deliberately designed to
be rejected. This was never a humanitarian war.
It caused an enormous increase in human suffering throughout the region. In Kosovo alone,
ethnic cleansing escalated and the numbers of
refugees quadrupled in the weeks after the bombing
campaign started. Depleted uranium bombs which destroy
the economy and poison the land do nothing for the
BREW , BOMBS , AND BOTANY
Diary of a Peace Camp January to August 1999
It would probably be impossible to find a protest camp on this small island that doesn't from time to time have an alcohol problem. Unfortunately the peace camp is no exception. Nine times out of ten we have visitors who walk into camp. There is however the one in ten who stagger in then collapse in a drunken heap. Many a drunken submariner has frequented the camp. They need some dutch courage as if they are caught by the naval provost (police) then its a few days in a cell or even worse. The navy it seems doesn't want its expensively trained seamen to be influenced by a bunch of hippies. The stress of living by the big bad base also drives a few of the campers to partake of the occasional can of lager. This is tolerated providing it is just that .... an occasional can. Like any pub owner will tell you though if you start making an arse of your selves then you're out. Thus this was the fate of two heavy drinking campers who caused a great deal of internal conflict until they were kicked out of camp.
So though life at the camp remained complicated
and unpredictable, the seasons changed and the
garden looked more lovely than ever as the plants began
to take back the ground that was hurriedly taken
from them by concrete and barb wire defences. The
MOD though never change and continue to be the same
as they've always been - predictable programmed
nice little soldiers of the state. The seemingly
impregnable
base security would make a sieve seem waterproof as when HMS Vengeance arrived and 3
campers broke into Coulport one making it as far as the
EHJ (explosive handling jetty).
In August bored with just cutting through the fence, two campers decided to enter the base in the back of a staff bus then invite themselves to the officers ball. As they were not wearing tuxedos they were refused drinks at the bar. This incident it seems has caused such embarrassment it seems unlikely they will be charged. In April and July peace campers took part in the now traditional convoy actions. The nuclear warhead convoy was stopped for quite some time, which is no real surprise as we've been stopping them successfully now for over 17 years.
The eviction of the camp. These were words on everybody's lips a mere 6 months ago. However after the 6th of May council elections the main advocates of the camp's removal councillors William Petrie and Dick Walsh were moved downwards and sideways. They were replaced by two women who have more than one brain cell between them. Though they still want the camp removed. They admitted in a leaked document that the eviction proceedings were "badly handled" last year. This was we thought superb understatement. BR> Unfortunately though the camp is now off condition red the eviction defences must remain collecting dust until we are granted security of tenure.
Rather than wait for the council to decide our future, some campers have been looking into acquiring another site near the base. To do this the camp is in the process as registering as a Co-op so it can apply for loans.
With the camp's future uncertain, Peace campers were overjoyed to see on the 23rd of August the opening of the permanent display of a peace camp caravan in the Glasgow transport museum. Though Argyll and Bute council may not, we know that at least history will treat us kindly.
Due to lack of numbers the last mass action at the peace camp was a disaster. This is a very unusual occurrence. So on the 5th of November the peace camp will be staging the Torch Trident action. Be there for the action experience of a lifetime. We hope to make it a big one.
Disco Dave
FUTURE EVENTS
Monday 27th September - 3rd October
Trident Ploughshares Trial
Sheriff Court, Greenock.
Trial of Trident Ploughshares 2000 campaigners Angie Zelter, Ellen Moxley and Ulla Ruder for causing £100,000 of damage to a Trident related barge in Loch Goil. This will be a jury trial and a detailed case of the illegality of Trident will be presented to the court. For further information contact David 01324 880744.
Friday 1st October 7.15 pm
Trident and the law
Friends Meeting House, Elmbank Crescent, Glasgow. Public meeting with speakers who are expert witnesses at the Ploughshares trial including Professor Francis Boyle from the USA and Rebecca Johnston. Chaired by Lord Murray.
Saturday 9th October
Scottish CND Annual Conference
Friends Meeting House, Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh.
10.00 Campaigning on the streets
12.30 Lunch
1.30 John McAllion MSP on Trident and the
Scottish Parliament; followed by reports on
recent campaigns.
2.30 Discussion on future strategy
3.30 AGM business
evening Ceilidh organised by Edinburgh CND
Friday 5th November Torch Trident
Demonstration at Faslane Trident base organised by Faslane Peace Camp. Phone 01436 820901 for details.
Saturday 6th November
UNA Peoples Hearing on Disarmament
European Room, City Chambers, Edinburgh.
am Plenary: Ahmad Fawsi, the UN Secretary General's representative in UK (to be confirmed)
Workshops - Children and families (Paul Ignatief, UNICEF), Refugees (UNHCR), Economy and social disruption (Scottish Somalia Action).
pm Workshops: Weapons of Mass Destruction (Lynn Jamieson, Scottish CND), Conventional Weapons (Oxfam), Conversion Strategies (Ian Goudie, Arms Conversion Project).
This United Nations Association event is intented to feed into the UN General Assembly's session on disarmament. Contact Frances Mildmay, UNA, 40 Grosvenor Lane, Glasgow, G12 9AA, 0141 339 5408 or Charles Reid 0131 661 4276.
Weekend 12th to 15th November
Trident Ploughshares 2000 camp
Peaton Wood, Coulport.
Join in the next TP2000 event. Contact Jane (01436 679194) or David (01324 880744)
New Year - Vengeance returns
The fourth Trident submarine was in Scotland from April to July 1999 to carry out sea trials, then it returned to Barrow in Furness, Cumbria. It is expected to be commissioned in Barrow either just before Christmas or very early in the next year. It will then return to Scotland.
Rev Adrian Rennie has agreed to take up the position of SCND Scottish Parliamentary Liason Officer. Adrian is a former Chair of Scottish CND. He can be contacted at:
15 House o Hill Gardens, Blackhall,
Edinburgh, EH4 2AR. Tel 0131 332 3785.
email adrian@drylawmanse.freeserve.co.uk