September 2, 2013: Activists from all over Europe today blockaded the two gates of AWE Burghfield, starting at 5:15am. For almost an hour, all vehicle access to AWE Burghfield was blocked, until police cleared a lock-on blockade of six Finnish activists on The Mearings to the south of the main gate. Later, a blockade of Scottish activists and another blockade of Belgian activists were cleared to the east of AWE Burghfield, near construction gate. Up to the time of writing, 22 activists have been arrested by police, and one blockade on The Mearings leading to the main gate of AWE Burghfield is still in place.
The blockade and actions were part of a two week peace camp organised by Trident Ploughshares and Action AWE [1], involving peace activists from all over Britain, and from France, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, and Germany. “This action has been a successful example of international action“, says Andreas Speck of Action AWE. “The renewal of Trident is not just a British issue, but through NATO and it’s policy of nuclear sharing the UK’s Trident nuclear missiles are de-facto European nuclear weapons. We joined together to protest against new nuclear weapons in Europe, and for complete nuclear disarmament.”
Two CND vice presidents, Pat Arrowsmith [2] and Rebecca Johnson, were among today’s activists. CND also held a solidarity protest in London on Parliament Square in the morning, calling for the scrapping of Trident [3].
Angie Zelter, one of the organisers of today’s action, concludes: “Today was a day of successful nonviolent action by concerned citizens from all over Europe. It was the pressure from civil society that pushed government to agree to a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, banning nuclear tests, and to ban landmines. We need more actions like today to finally achieve a complete ban of nuclear weapons.”
Further updates will be provided via Twitter by @ActionAWE using #aawe.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
[1] The two-week peaceful protest is organised by Trident Ploughshares – http://tridentploughsharesarchive.org – in conjunction with Action AWE – http://actionawe.org – to show active opposition to Trident replacement and urge the government and elected representatives to support Britain’s disarmament obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and join multilateral efforts to ban nuclear weapons worldwide. Action AWE (Atomic Weapons Eradication) was launched in February 2013 as a grassroots peace campaign of autonomous groups taking nonviolent action to halt nuclear warhead production at AWE Aldermaston and Burghfield and advocate for a global treaty banning nuclear weapons.
[2] Pat Arrowsmith was the organising secretary of the Direct Action Committee and organiser of the first CND Aldermaston March in 1958, serving several prison terms for her peaceful protests against nuclear weapons over many decades. Now 83 years old, she is a Vice President of CND.
[3] CND: CND congratulates activists for blockade of Atomic Weapons Establishment, http://cnduk.org/cnd-media/item/1739-cnd-congratulates-activists-for-blockade-of-atomic-weapons-establishment