Students stick together for peace
Bradford Faslane | 23.03.2007 09:25 | Faslane | Anti-militarism
This morning Bradford students took part in one of the most daring and creative acts of civil disobedience ever seen at Faslane Naval base. Ten of them superglued themselves together outside the North Gate whilst another four chained themselves together outside the South Gate, effectively shutting the base.
The peace activists decided to take the dramatic action in response to the vote in parliament last week to spend billions of pounds on a replacement of the Trident Submarine program.
“The government needs to realise how strongly many of us oppose replacement of Trident. Blair has condemned many activists to a life time of civil disobedience against this illegal and immoral weapon” said one blockader, a peace studies student at Bradford University.
“We decided that the best and most effective way of blocking the gates at Faslane would be to physically bond ourselves together, showing that we are prepared to stick together for peace. It may seem dramatic but its nothing compared to this governments decision to waste £76 billion on a weapon system that is ineffective against the modern threats to Britain”
“We feel we must take these actions to demonstrate and respond to undemocratic actions of the government. The policy was driven through parliament with no real debate and with MPs being bullied to vote against their conscious.” Said another blockader.
“We hope that hundreds of others will come to Faslane to share in this protest and that thousands more would be prepared to write to MPs in the hope of reversing this terrible decision for our country. We should be supporting the non-proliferation treaty rather than destroying by upgrading our nuclear arsenal.”
This is the second time activists from Bradford have taken action at Faslane during this year of protest. On the last occasion 28 people were held for up to 32 hours in police cells.
Further updates and photos will be published once they become available.
“The government needs to realise how strongly many of us oppose replacement of Trident. Blair has condemned many activists to a life time of civil disobedience against this illegal and immoral weapon” said one blockader, a peace studies student at Bradford University.
“We decided that the best and most effective way of blocking the gates at Faslane would be to physically bond ourselves together, showing that we are prepared to stick together for peace. It may seem dramatic but its nothing compared to this governments decision to waste £76 billion on a weapon system that is ineffective against the modern threats to Britain”
“We feel we must take these actions to demonstrate and respond to undemocratic actions of the government. The policy was driven through parliament with no real debate and with MPs being bullied to vote against their conscious.” Said another blockader.
“We hope that hundreds of others will come to Faslane to share in this protest and that thousands more would be prepared to write to MPs in the hope of reversing this terrible decision for our country. We should be supporting the non-proliferation treaty rather than destroying by upgrading our nuclear arsenal.”
This is the second time activists from Bradford have taken action at Faslane during this year of protest. On the last occasion 28 people were held for up to 32 hours in police cells.
Further updates and photos will be published once they become available.
Bradford Faslane
