FASLANE MARCH AND RALLY
EASTER MONDAY APRIL 12 2004
Faslane, on an inlet of the Firth of Clyde called the Gare Loch, is home to Britain’s 4 Trident nuclear submarines. Just 30 miles from Glasgow as the wind blows it was the rallying point for the Easter CND march and rally.
Coaches came from Glasgow and Edinburgh and the 200 or so protestors assembled outside the Faslane Peace Camp. There whistles and shouts of “Tony, Tony, Tony, out, out, out!” “All we are saying is shut down Faslane” “Who let the bombs out? Bush, Bush and Blair!” and “This is what democracy looks like! That is what hypocrisy looks like”
Banners and placards `CAAT – Campaign Against the Arms Trade`, `Greens for Peace`, `CND Scrap Trident`, `Pace`, `WIB [Women In Black] say no to Depleted Uranium`, `Globalise Resistance`, `WMDs are here, stupid` and `No More Lies`.
Alan MacKinnon of Scottish CND chaired the event. He said that the whole Iraqi nation was in total rebellion; from the Sunni Triangle to the Shia south. The people were in open resistance to a brutal regime of occupation. Iraq today is a testament to the greed and folly of Bush and Blair and the people whose interests they serve, the banks, the oil companies and the arms manufacturers. He said that unlike Iraq or Libya, Britain actually did have nuclear weapons and they were right behind the miles and miles of razor wire at Faslane. The 4 Trident submarines had 180 nuclear warheads – enough to destroy the world several times over. If Tony Blair wanted to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction he should start at Faslane.
He passed on a message of support from the sister demonstration at Aldermaston in England.
The first speaker was Chris Balance, Green Party MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament) who said the government had no interest in the wishes of its people. The ordinary citizen had to speak out. He spoke of the dangers of depleted uranium, which the MOD fires into the Solway Firth in the South of Scotland. “What the hell use is a nuclear submarine against a terrorist suicide bomber?” He said the weapons were useless, referring to them as dinosaurs.
The second speaker, Morag Forbes from Faslane Peace Camp, joked we were here to visit `the neighbours`. She told us that the Peace Camp had been there for 22 years and there would be a birthday party at the camp in June. She told us of direct actions by ploughshare activists at Devonport and blockades and wire cutting in Faslane. The work done at Faslane was useless and was costing £1.5 billion each year.
Next was SNP leader John Swinney who thanked CND for all their efforts. He said he wanted no nuclear weapons in his country. He reminded the crowd of the huge anti-war rally in Glasgow just over a year ago and said that we were lied to about the weapons of mass destruction. He called for consistency from the British government saying: “Let the Prime minister hear the message from this demonstration today that we demand consistency from the British Government – if you want rid of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq get rid of the weapons of mass destruction in our country at the same time! That’s the message he should hear from today!”
Then the fourth speaker Ewa Jasewicz who has spent 8 months in Iraq said that the people in Fallujah were burying their 600 dead in two football fields. There is no cease-fire despite what the news says. She described the governing council of Iraq as “unelected, unrepresentative, widely ridiculed and rejected governing council members.” She said there had been no liberation in Iraq and that Iraq’s economy had been 100% privatised and the `free market` had taken over. The occupation has passed over 70 de facto laws and the Iraqi people resent this. She likened the siege of Fallujah with that of Jenin two years ago. She urged people to take direct action against arms manufacturers. Ewa is on a speaking tour of Scotland and will be in Glasgow on Saturday 17th at the Kinning Park Complex in Glasgow. Her website is: www.tramping.org/ewa
The final speaker was Scottish writer A L (Alison Louise) Kennedy, author of `So I am glad` and `Indelible Acts`. She thanked everyone for coming and said that public opinion was important. It prevented President Richard Nixon from using the atom bomb in Vietnam. She told us the minimum payload in a trident missile is 1,000 times that of Hiroshima. She said: “ But then I start thinking about Tony Blair and I start thinking about George Bush and I think the people that have their fingers on our nuclear button are a bunch of Jesus freaks, psychotic neo-Zionists” (Loud Cheers and laughter) “who are an embarrassment to anybody who describes themselves as Christian - one of whom has the IQ of a table, the other one has the IQ of a table lamp. So these are the people who’re in charge and if you look at the way that they behave with all of our other weapons of mass destruction; indiscriminate things, which do not discriminate between combatants and non-combatants, even if you just look at Iraq - if you don’t think of all the other crap that we’ve done everywhere else. Just think about this Iraq war – think about the amount of depleted uranium we’ve dumped all over that country, around about 2,000 tons they reckon, never mind the tons we dumped in the first gulf war… If we leave TODAY we will still be committing genocide in Iraq for generations just because of depleted uranium.”
She went on sardonically “ We’ve dumped 2,000 tons on a country that we’re bringing democracy and freedom to, does that make any sense to you? Because it makes me very confused late at night!”
Napalm hasn’t been used but MK77, which is identical, is used instead. She spoke of the mercenaries and torturers from Chile and South Africa being dumped on Iraq.
She finished by reading a quotation form Barbara Bush, the `lovely mummy of little George`: “ Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day is it going to happen? It’s not relevant so why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”
She continued: “Now all of you here today, you’re gonna tell people like her why she would waste her fucking beautiful mind on stuff like that.” (Prolonged cheering and applause)
There were several announcements including an appeal for cash and a reminder about a vigil in Glasgow on April 21st for Mordechai Vanunu, who blew the whistle on Israel’s nuclear programme. There is to be a big blockade of Faslane on August 23rd. The rally finished around 4.15pm.
Photo: Marching down to the North gate at Faslane
EASTER MONDAY APRIL 12 2004
Faslane, on an inlet of the Firth of Clyde called the Gare Loch, is home to Britain’s 4 Trident nuclear submarines. Just 30 miles from Glasgow as the wind blows it was the rallying point for the Easter CND march and rally.
Coaches came from Glasgow and Edinburgh and the 200 or so protestors assembled outside the Faslane Peace Camp. There whistles and shouts of “Tony, Tony, Tony, out, out, out!” “All we are saying is shut down Faslane” “Who let the bombs out? Bush, Bush and Blair!” and “This is what democracy looks like! That is what hypocrisy looks like”
Banners and placards `CAAT – Campaign Against the Arms Trade`, `Greens for Peace`, `CND Scrap Trident`, `Pace`, `WIB [Women In Black] say no to Depleted Uranium`, `Globalise Resistance`, `WMDs are here, stupid` and `No More Lies`.
Alan MacKinnon of Scottish CND chaired the event. He said that the whole Iraqi nation was in total rebellion; from the Sunni Triangle to the Shia south. The people were in open resistance to a brutal regime of occupation. Iraq today is a testament to the greed and folly of Bush and Blair and the people whose interests they serve, the banks, the oil companies and the arms manufacturers. He said that unlike Iraq or Libya, Britain actually did have nuclear weapons and they were right behind the miles and miles of razor wire at Faslane. The 4 Trident submarines had 180 nuclear warheads – enough to destroy the world several times over. If Tony Blair wanted to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction he should start at Faslane.
He passed on a message of support from the sister demonstration at Aldermaston in England.
The first speaker was Chris Balance, Green Party MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament) who said the government had no interest in the wishes of its people. The ordinary citizen had to speak out. He spoke of the dangers of depleted uranium, which the MOD fires into the Solway Firth in the South of Scotland. “What the hell use is a nuclear submarine against a terrorist suicide bomber?” He said the weapons were useless, referring to them as dinosaurs.
The second speaker, Morag Forbes from Faslane Peace Camp, joked we were here to visit `the neighbours`. She told us that the Peace Camp had been there for 22 years and there would be a birthday party at the camp in June. She told us of direct actions by ploughshare activists at Devonport and blockades and wire cutting in Faslane. The work done at Faslane was useless and was costing £1.5 billion each year.
Next was SNP leader John Swinney who thanked CND for all their efforts. He said he wanted no nuclear weapons in his country. He reminded the crowd of the huge anti-war rally in Glasgow just over a year ago and said that we were lied to about the weapons of mass destruction. He called for consistency from the British government saying: “Let the Prime minister hear the message from this demonstration today that we demand consistency from the British Government – if you want rid of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq get rid of the weapons of mass destruction in our country at the same time! That’s the message he should hear from today!”
Then the fourth speaker Ewa Jasewicz who has spent 8 months in Iraq said that the people in Fallujah were burying their 600 dead in two football fields. There is no cease-fire despite what the news says. She described the governing council of Iraq as “unelected, unrepresentative, widely ridiculed and rejected governing council members.” She said there had been no liberation in Iraq and that Iraq’s economy had been 100% privatised and the `free market` had taken over. The occupation has passed over 70 de facto laws and the Iraqi people resent this. She likened the siege of Fallujah with that of Jenin two years ago. She urged people to take direct action against arms manufacturers. Ewa is on a speaking tour of Scotland and will be in Glasgow on Saturday 17th at the Kinning Park Complex in Glasgow. Her website is: www.tramping.org/ewa
The final speaker was Scottish writer A L (Alison Louise) Kennedy, author of `So I am glad` and `Indelible Acts`. She thanked everyone for coming and said that public opinion was important. It prevented President Richard Nixon from using the atom bomb in Vietnam. She told us the minimum payload in a trident missile is 1,000 times that of Hiroshima. She said: “ But then I start thinking about Tony Blair and I start thinking about George Bush and I think the people that have their fingers on our nuclear button are a bunch of Jesus freaks, psychotic neo-Zionists” (Loud Cheers and laughter) “who are an embarrassment to anybody who describes themselves as Christian - one of whom has the IQ of a table, the other one has the IQ of a table lamp. So these are the people who’re in charge and if you look at the way that they behave with all of our other weapons of mass destruction; indiscriminate things, which do not discriminate between combatants and non-combatants, even if you just look at Iraq - if you don’t think of all the other crap that we’ve done everywhere else. Just think about this Iraq war – think about the amount of depleted uranium we’ve dumped all over that country, around about 2,000 tons they reckon, never mind the tons we dumped in the first gulf war… If we leave TODAY we will still be committing genocide in Iraq for generations just because of depleted uranium.”
She went on sardonically “ We’ve dumped 2,000 tons on a country that we’re bringing democracy and freedom to, does that make any sense to you? Because it makes me very confused late at night!”
Napalm hasn’t been used but MK77, which is identical, is used instead. She spoke of the mercenaries and torturers from Chile and South Africa being dumped on Iraq.
She finished by reading a quotation form Barbara Bush, the `lovely mummy of little George`: “ Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day is it going to happen? It’s not relevant so why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”
She continued: “Now all of you here today, you’re gonna tell people like her why she would waste her fucking beautiful mind on stuff like that.” (Prolonged cheering and applause)
There were several announcements including an appeal for cash and a reminder about a vigil in Glasgow on April 21st for Mordechai Vanunu, who blew the whistle on Israel’s nuclear programme. There is to be a big blockade of Faslane on August 23rd. The rally finished around 4.15pm.
Photo: Marching down to the North gate at Faslane
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