WHEELCHAIR USER BREAKS INTO TOP NUKE BASE

Breaking through a fence, being picked up on camera and then being arrested before even getting to the second fence. Not really the "breaking into Nuke base" of the title is it ?

Don't get me wrong I'm all for direct action but this is another one of those empty gestures that achieves nothing.

It didn't illustrate security failures - security worked
It didn't raise awareness - the public is aware that Faslane exists and what is does
It didn't show up any safety issues - just a wire perimiter fence was broken
It didn't get national coverage - the mainstream media didn't care.

Events of this kind always remind of a activist oneupmonship. "Look what we did, aren't we clever"

In all honesty we need to question what we are achieving with so many of the current round of protests.

its so helpful and worthwhile for people to stick up posts slagging other peoples actions, while they sit in their chair reading about those other peoples action. really, it is.
thank you for doing this and reminding me how many tossers there are out there, lest i ever get complacent. i have so many great folk around me right now its easy to forget how poxy some of the cretins are out there, and how much work "we" have ahead of us...
cheers!

i take your points len, but it does show that pepole can get through the fences despite alarms, maybe if these pepole hadn't painted slogans on the inner fence they'd have got further in.
how do you know they weren't trying to get in further to do something else?
having said that, trident ploughshares do seem to be becoming one of the sort of greenpeace type groups who like to brand their actions - publicising their group and their members whilst not really acknowledging the work of others - as though the only way of doing this kind of thinig is as part of an organisation - THEIR organisation.... iykwim?
i'd really like to know what you think they should have done iinstead?

1) This action did get mainstream coverage. Roz was on a radio station in New York today talking about Trident. Scottish press have today taken an interest and it may be in some of them tomorrow.
2) Disrupting work in the base is inevitable when these actions happen. A bandit alarm goes off, and workers must stop what they are doing and go into buildings...
3) Trident Ploughshares is just one of a large number of groups involved in the peace movement in the UK, and in fact these particular campaigners have served prison sentences, and are residents of Faslane Peace Camp - a hub of anarchist, environmental and peace activism in Scotland.
4) It was a MASSIVE security breach, had they been terrorists they could have done much harm (and its worth recognising Roz was in a wheelchair (!), though obviously the real security breach is the global proliferation of nuclear weapons
5) This action was carefully timed to occur in the few days that US and UK are negotiating renewal of the NPT, and there is much discussion in journals such as New Scientist as to the development of new nukes
6) This action occurred on the day a new commander took over at Faslane, making a boasting speech at how good security was in the base...!

So stop slagging of those who are working for change, and get off your ass!

Yes I had hoped for a more considered response than the ones above but I suppose I was too optimistic.

If we want to achieve change it will not be by protests of this kind, the camp at Faslane is an irrelevant one in the same way the Camp at Greenham Common became an irrelevance. Long term established camps of this kind make no diference to those in the base, they do not raise public awareness because after a very short time the public ignore them, the mainstream media treat them like a joke and in the end they simply become a place for people to live an alternative lifestyle. (Not in itself a bad thing just not viable a a protest action)

Trident Ploughshares has been around for a long time, it has received financial, practical and spirital support from a number of people (including me) and what has it achieved?

We continue to confuse real change with stunts.

Gosh, I'm persuaded, "Red Len", that you're definitely an activist and just awfully depressed at the state of activism in general, and this protest in particular. Guess we should probably argue among ourselves now, isn't that what's supposed to happen when spooks and amateur pro-war wankers try to infiltrate an activist site?

Do us all a favour "Len", fuck off and explode.

*"It didn't raise awareness - the public is aware that Faslane exists and what is does"

-Actually I think you'll find a lot of people aren't aware of Faslane at all. There are even people locally who think that "only" conventional weapons are stored at Faslane. Sort of a case of "don't mention the nukes" which is why we feel the need to publicise our actions and remind people what their taxes are paying for. (That and the fact that we're shameless media tarts and self-promoters, well I am anyway :p ).

*"It didn't get national coverage - the mainstream media didn't care."

-It's already been pointed out that this isn't true, but in any case, isn't the apathy of the mainstream media (part of) the reason that sites like Indymedia exist?

*"Events of this kind always remind of a activist oneupmonship. "Look what we did, aren't we clever""

-Um, not really, I normally post about actions to show how easily they can be achieved. (Tho obviously not to incite others to illegal activity, anarchists being such great respecters of the law). Everyone can do direct action, and at the peace camp we always welcome new faces.

*"the camp at Faslane is an irrelevant one in the same way the Camp at Greenham Common became an irrelevance."

-Have you ever been? Who is it irrelevant to exactly? Not the MoD anyway, if the amount they spend on surveillance of campers is anything to go by. What about the sailors who come to camp when they're having doubts about being in the military and need a sympathetic ear? Or the anti-nuke locals who regularly visit, and are glad that there's a loud dissenting voice in their militarised community? And actually, a lot of people who used to work in the base or the navy are now anti-war activists, so we must be having some effect on them....

*"in the end they simply become a place for people to live an alternative lifestyle"

-Yes, of course the only reason I'm here is to be "alternative", not because of any political reasons at all. Of course I could have chosen from any number of less political alternative communities, but then I do so love having my phone calls listened to, having a police file and constantly being told that I'm just a selfish lifestylist and not a real activist at all. Oh, and of course I never wash and am constantly on drugs, even when travelling to the dole office with my dog on a string.

*"In all honesty we need to question what we are achieving with so many of the current round of protests."
"If we want to achieve change it will not be by protests of this kind"

-Finally something I almost agree with. Yes, of course we should be questioning and evaluating our actions - if you are doing so Len, let's hear some of your ideas for what we should be doing next. And no, we won't achieve change only by direct action alone. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be using it as one tactic out of many.

[Usual postscript - visitors always welcome at Faslane Peace Camp, call us on 01436 820 901 or send us an email for more info. If you want to use us as a base for your own self-promoting, pointless base infiltrations, we'd be delighted -].

Morag

P.S. Some sections of this post may be sarcastic.

Some hole nuh!
Jess x