On monday the march from London to Aldermaston reached the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston, having been joined by a youth march from Oxford. A few hundred of us were waiting for them. We believed we had found a site containing those elusive WMD. But the local authorities were not co-operating.
Though there was some level of co-operation. They's opened a car park inside the outer perimeter of the base to keep us all off the road as far as possible. But no-one was allowed in to inspect the facilities and see if the UK was in compliance with its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. That is to work towards the elimination of its own nuclear arsenal.
The march was late arriving, but while we were waiting, Raised Voices sang protest songs, the Theatre of War crew gave an enjoyable demonstration of why we must support the new wave of usable weapons, and when it started getting a little quiet, a samba band kicked in.
We headed down the road to meet the marchers and to accompany them on the last mile of their journey. There were quite a few weary folk and sore feet. But spirits were raised by the welcoming cheers, the loudest of all being when the end of the march came into view. The samba band were going again, and were joined by the radical cheerleaders who had been on the march.
It was nearly 4 o'clock. There were speakers, but the energy was low by now, and people started drifting off. Many of us visited the permanent camp there and enjoyed some food.
It was a nice day, though numbers were a little low. Especially given the recent talk of low yield, and therefore "usable" nuclear weapons. A very scary idea, and coupled with the UK government recently having stated that they would be prepared to use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear armed state. So full respect to all the walkers, and to those on the walk from Glasgow to Faslane - home of the lovely trident submarine.
PS tried to post this on tuesday, but it didn't work ...
The march was late arriving, but while we were waiting, Raised Voices sang protest songs, the Theatre of War crew gave an enjoyable demonstration of why we must support the new wave of usable weapons, and when it started getting a little quiet, a samba band kicked in.
We headed down the road to meet the marchers and to accompany them on the last mile of their journey. There were quite a few weary folk and sore feet. But spirits were raised by the welcoming cheers, the loudest of all being when the end of the march came into view. The samba band were going again, and were joined by the radical cheerleaders who had been on the march.
It was nearly 4 o'clock. There were speakers, but the energy was low by now, and people started drifting off. Many of us visited the permanent camp there and enjoyed some food.
It was a nice day, though numbers were a little low. Especially given the recent talk of low yield, and therefore "usable" nuclear weapons. A very scary idea, and coupled with the UK government recently having stated that they would be prepared to use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear armed state. So full respect to all the walkers, and to those on the walk from Glasgow to Faslane - home of the lovely trident submarine.
PS tried to post this on tuesday, but it didn't work ...
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Aldermaston links with USAF Lakenheath...
15.04.2004 10:11
We have some if you want...
Hope to see you at the RAF lakenheath events, Esp 4th July, peace makers ball.
Lakenheath is the home of about 30 B-61 plane dropped nukes, The B-61 nukes are the ones that they maybe developing into Mini nukes/bunker busters.....
Hope to catch up with the indy lot at Strawberry fair.
Peace, love and ostrich's
Mell
Mell ... Theatre of War
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