Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Welcome for Key Nuclear Weapon Status Report

Details

Published on Friday, 19 June 2020 12:44

Bill Kidd MSP, chair of the Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Nuclear Disarmament, has given a warm welcome to the publication by Scottish Scottish CND of the UK chapter of the Reaching Critical Will¹ report “Assuring Destruction Forever.”

Bill said: "I welcome the publication and launch of 'Assuring Destruction Forever.' The UK Chapter of this study was edited and led by a respected friend and fellow disarmament practitioner- Janet Fenton. In this chapter, Fenton persuasively dismantles prevailing deterrence ideology and lays its contradictions bare. I highly recommend this report to those looking to develop an in-depth understanding of the UK's posture towards disarmament and why a new way forward must be embraced for the sake of strengthening our collective peace and security."

Janet Fenton's work covers the status of the UK's nuclear weapon system, and forms the UK chapter in the global report, which is a guide for diplomats and elected representatives worldwide on the activities of the nine nuclear armed states, with the upcoming Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty particularly in mind. The UK chapter builds directly on the highly regarded research conducted by the late John Ainslie, formerly Co-ordinator of Scottish CND.

Nuclear Free Scotland Spring/Summer 2020

Details

Published on Friday, 12 June 2020 13:22

The latest edition of Nuclear Free Scotland will be exclusively launched online for all our members and supporters to read due to the ongoing pandemic and to ensure the safety of our postal service and staff team. This edition is packed with articles from the ICAN Paris Forum in February this year to the fantastic work that the young people at Glasgow University have been doing around the institution's financial support for the arms trade. We also reflect on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ahead of the 75th anniversary this summer. READ HERE: http://www.banthebomb.org/images/stories/images/magazine/NFSSS2020.pdf

We understanding being posted a physical copy of the magazine is vital to some of our members and supporters and we know that it is a great piece of material for introducing people to our campaign. We hope later in the year once we are in a safer position to get some copies printed for this purpose. If you would be interested in receiving a physical copy please get in touch ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).

READ THE MAGAZINE: http://www.banthebomb.org/images/stories/images/magazine/NFSSS2020.pdf

Assuring Destruction Forever - Reaching Critical Will

Details

Published on Wednesday, 10 June 2020 13:55

Reaching Critical Will are a partner organisation of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and they have just released an updated study exploring the ongoing and planned nuclear weapon modernisation programmes in China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Our vice-chair Janet Fenton wrote the UK Chapter for this report which you can read through this link.

As of early 2020, the nuclear-armed states are estimated to possess approximately 13,410 nuclear weapons, most of which are many times more powerful than the nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima. All the nuclear-armed states have plans to modernise—upgrade and/or extend the lives of—their nuclear weapons. 

This report is an update of a study that Reaching Critical Will initiated in 2012.  Each chapter of the Assuring destruction forever: 2020 edition has been prepared by experts on national nuclear weapon programmes. Each goes through the current status of nuclear weapon forces; modernisation programmes and plans; the costs of these programmes; the countries’ positions on international nuclear weapon law and policy; and public discourse related to nuclear weapons. You can read the full report through this link.

Black Lives Matter

Details

Published on Wednesday, 03 June 2020 11:05

Black Lives Matter.

It may be the 21st Century but racism still has a firm foothold in our institutions, in the policies and actions of the state, and in our own attitudes and reflexes.

This is another moment when its ugly nature is palpable, and it is a moment to take a side and stand with the oppressed. In the peace movement, we have always recognised that nuclear weapons are not a thing on their own, but are a particular expression of corrupt, patriarchal and racist power.

Their roots are in early 20th century fantasies of a Superweapon that could wipe out inferior races and establish white supremacy forever, a fantasy enacted at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, on the very clear basis that these were lives that did not matter.

None of the specious gloss of justification since has made an iota of difference to their hideous rationale. This is also a time for us in the anti-nuclear movement to hang our own heads and admit that we have often failed to take the stand and failed to spell out the connections.

It's time to wake up.

SUPPORT:

Support US actions: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights: https://www.crer.scot/

Ethnic Minority National Resilience Network: https://bemis.org.uk/emnrn/

Justice for Sheku Bayoh: https://www.change.org/p/police-scotland-investigate-the-death-of-sheku-bayoh-in-police-custody

Scots Show Solidarity with US Anti-Nuke Protesters

Details

Published on Thursday, 28 May 2020 11:37

MSPs among those signing letter to judge.

Scots, including 11 MSPs, have registered their support and solidarity with seven US peace activists as they face the possibility of long prison sentences following a protest at a nuclear weapon submarine base in Georgia.

On April 4th, 2018, seven Catholic Plowshares activists - Carmen Trotta Mark Colville, Clare Grady, Steve Kelly, Martha Hennessy, Elizabeth (Liz) McAlister, Patrick O’Neill - entered King's Bay nuclear weapon submarine base in St. Mary’s, Georgia, USA, carrying hammers and baby bottles of their own blood. They went to make real the prophet Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares”. They were convicted in October last year on charges of destruction and depredation of government property in excess of $1,000, trespassing, and conspiracy, and could be facing up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing is expected on the 8th, 28th and 29th June.

The letter of support1 asks the sentencing judge to consider the risks to the seven of jail time in the middle of the COVID-19 emergency and points out that they pose no risk to the public. The signing MSPs2 are members of the parliament's Cross-Party Group on Nuclear Disarmament.

Janet Fenton, Vice-Chair of Scotish CND, said:

When the UN adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on that wonderful day in July 2017 I was privileged to be in the room in new York, sitting with the Plowshares nuns who, along with Liz McAllister had given me hospitality a few years earlier in a US Catholic worker house. Together we had distributed essential food to some of America’s poorest in the morning and helped immigrant children speak Engish in the afternoon, and in the evening we swapped action and arrest stories, Faslane and Y12, Coulport and King's Bay, but the long prison sentences and the stigma that is faced in the US for taking peaceful action requires a very deep and lifelong kind of courage. From Scotland, we can recognise the loving bravery of the seven and we are writing to Judge Wood in hopes of gaining some degree of humanity for them in a brutal and repressive prison system. But fully honouring the courage of the US peace activists requires an and to these weapons end any system that considers them to have utility.”

Contact: Janet Fenton 07795 594573 Lynn Jamieson 07974 631397