Reclaim the Bases Summer Camp
muke trollyd | 25.08.2003 12:37 | Anti-militarism | Oxford | Sheffield
Around 35 people from around the country joined in the 'Reclaim the Bases Summer Camp' at Aldermaston in Berkershire.
Organised by the D10 group the camp brought together activists from around the counrty to share information and skills to widen the network of non violent direct activists taking part in actions against militraism.
Saturday morning began with a discussion on the location and activity of all the military bases in the UK. One activist talked about the refitting of the Trident class Submairnes that was taking place at Davenport, meaning that nuclear reactors are stored on the doorstep of the poor people of Plymouth. Other activists spoke of thier actions against the Wellford base, site of the ammunitons that were transpotred to Fairford and loaded onto B52 bombers bound for Iraq.
There were other reports from:
Faslane-On the west coast Scotland, nr Helensborough, Faslane is home of the British Navy's Trident nuclear submarine fleet, and Coulport is the nearby site where warheads are stored and loaded onto the subs. The Glen Douglas arms depot is nearby.
Northwood-This base in North London is home to two NATO headquarters as well as the British Permanent Forces Headquarters - the heart of the UK'smilitary operational planning.
Menwith Hill-Located in North Yorkshire, Menwith Hill is a US spy station and phone tapping centre. Menwith is involved in military and industrial espionage across the northern hemisphere.
The Camp then got down to practicalities with the first action workshop.
As you can see the fence climbing went well despite a few injuries and as we had spoken to the MOD police they let us scale the fences over and over??? We then toured Aldermaston Weapon Establishment (AWE) and got a look at the different fences and tips on how to sacle them.
Some of us went off to train on fence cutting using bolt crops on different typesof fence and then had a go at at constructing tripods for the use in blockades.
Pictures below also show the now very eerie sight of the now decomissioned Greenham Common as you can see we wondered around inspecting stuff.
Sunday saw discussions on devloping NVDA within the wider peace/anti-militarist movements, before again getting down to business with workshops on blockading using Dlocks and arm tubes and a workshop on police liaison.
This weekend was wicked Sheffield Trollyd Soundsystem met loads of great and comitted people and learned loads about how to incraese the pressure on the death dealers.
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muke trollyd
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trollyd@burngreave.net
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