Three people swam close to the Trident submarine, HMS Vigilant, inside the Faslane base in the early hours of the morning of 18 August. Rick from the USA, Katri from Finland and Krista from the Netherlands were all arrested by Ministry of Defence Police. They were part of Trident Ploughshares 2000 who are a group of 97 people from around the world who have committed themselves to non-violently, openly and accountably attempting to disarm Britain’s Trident submarines. A Faslane Peace Camper described the confusion inside the base when the swimmers were discovered - It was like a pin-ball machine ! All the lights went on and the alarms went off. All hell broke lose.
The Ploughshares group include 30 people who have just completed a 1000 km Peace Walk from NATO headquarters in Brussels organised by For Mother Earth.
The photo shows the protest on Sunday 16th August when 37 people were arrested for climbing over the fence, cutting through the fence and blockading the main entrance to the nuclear weapons store at Coulport. The following day 7 of those who had been arrested were due to appear in Court having been arrested the previous day. Dumbarton Sheriff Court did not want to hold the hearing in Dumbarton and it was moved to Helensburgh. The normal venue used in Helensburgh, the Victoria Halls, was not available so the Court used the hall of St Martin’s Episcopal church. The JP hearing the cases initially tried to impose a condition of bail that the accused promised not to go within 25 metres of Faslane or Coulport. However when they refused to accept these conditions the JP backed down and released them on normal bail conditions. Those in Court included a priest and a trainee priest from Sweden and Angie Zelter who took part in the British Aerospace Ploughshares action.
Around 200 people joined in a demonstration on 11th August to mark the start of the ploughshares action. A blacksmith had prepared a metal model of a submarine. Volunteers broke it apart with hammers. The blacksmith then used a small forge to make a CND sign out of the fragments of metal. The ploughshares protests are to uphold international law, in the light of the ruling of the International Court of Justice of 8th July 1996 which said that the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules and principles of humanitarian law. So far there have been 81 arrests since 11th August.
CND held a march and rally at Faslane on 15th August. CND supporters came from across Britain to show their support for the international Ploughshares gathering. Over 300 people marched the length of the nuclear base led by the members of the women’s drumming band Sheboom. In the afternoon there were cruises on a chartered boat which sailed within sight of the Trident submarine.
Detailed questions asked in Parliament have revealed that, contrary to the impression given in the Strategic Defence Review, no Trident nuclear warheads are going to be dismantled. 12 warheads will be removed from each submarine and stored in Coulport (they could be put back on again ). Each of the three submarines will then be carrying 48 Trident nuclear warheads. This is still far more than the 32 warheads carried by each Polaris submarine in the 1980s and 1990s.
FUTURE EVENTS:
Faslane Peace Camp could be evicted any time in the weeks ahead.
Sat 19 Sep
Launch of 4th Trident submarine, Vengeance, at Michaelson Bridge, Barrow, Cumbria. CND demonstration at 10.30 am. Minibus leaving George Square, Glasgow at 4pm on Friday 18th Sep, social & overnight stay in Barrow, returning to Glasgow by Saturday evening.
Sat 10 Oct
Scottish CND Conference, Municipal Buildings, Stirling. Including debate on Trident with representatives of political parties.