Even in far Northern Britain, anti-nuclear action is a world wide affair, as demonstrated by the arrests of 23 Swedes and 19 Finns who made up the bulk of the 42 people nicked at last Monday’s Faslane 365 demo (see SchNEWS 562) at the nuclear weapons base in Scotland.

Despite all the heavy-handedness, cops would probably have felt a bit more chuffed about nicking almost two thirds of the total number of demonstrators there, were it not for the fact they’d spent so long trying to clear access to the base. It would appear that the same nation that wowed the world with sturdy cars and well-made furniture also makes top grade tubes for lock-ons! Cops spent two and a half hours cutting people away from the north gate whilst the tripod lock-on made a welcome return and police struggled to reopen the south gate for more than three hours.

Protesters were nicked for breach of the peace, held for more than 30 hours and then released with a warning letter. Things got a bit tighter for one protester as he found himself nicked for attempting to pervert the course of justice when he nipped off for a pee in a nearby wood. Unfortunately for our bustin’ hero, police wouldn’t let him finish what he’d started and he had to cross his legs for another three hours!

The action was part of the Faslane 365 campaign - a year long ‘relay blockade’ of the nuclear base on the river Clyde. As UK plc prepares to splash out another £76 billion building new bombs, its own breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty risks pushing the world into another potentially deadly arms race. Between now and Christmas loads of different groups have planned dozens of actions that are sure to keep cops busy and the bomb builders out of their place of work.

The first few days of action saw a 90-strong Women in Black blockade. A couple of days later the baton was passed to activists from Sheffield and North Derbyshire who did a little bit of locking on themselves, with another 12 arrestees being given sternly written letters warning them off doing any blockading in future. On Sunday, a physician was arrested as he joined members of the Assynt Peace Group from Sutherland in another demo, and the next day a Welsh grandmother was nicked for chaining herself to the north gate causing a three-mile traffic jam.

So far protesters are just getting written reminders from cops about how naughty they’ve been, but how long this ‘leniency’ will last in the face of such determined protests remains to be seen. Keep an eye on our Faslane365in365-ometer – will the cops get an average above one arrest a day for a whole year!? Special SchNEWS prize for the 365th arrestee!

* For more see www.faslane365.org

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For the rest of this weeks issue including stories on peat land destruction, new laws in UK and USA and more go to  http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news565.htm