Campaigners Claim Successful Valentine's Blockade Of Trident Submarine Base
Over 400 protesters blockaded the gates at the Trident submarine base on the River Clyde in Scotland this morning,
Valentine's Day.
No vehicles passed through the gates between 7.00 am and 8.45 am. Only a few drivers managed to get into the base after
that and vehicles were backed up bumper to bumper for a long way.
Several protesters jumped onto a bed in the road and padlocked themselves together. Another group locked themselves
together around the shape of a heart. The police had great difficulty removing a wheelchair campaigner who was also
'locked on'.
By 9.00 am the police had arrested over 90 protesters and taken them away for processing. Among the arrested were
Scottish MSP Tommy Sheridan and Green MEP Caroline Lucas. It remains to be seen if they will be charged or released
without charge.
Other parliamentarians, christian ministers and activists from across Scotland, Wales and England intend to keep the
blockade going for as long as possible and many more are willing to risk arrest.
In an historic ruling on 21st October Sheriff Margaret Gimblett instructing the jury to acquit three protesters for
malicious and wilful damage. This is just the ruling members of Trident Ploughshares had been waiting for in their
campaign to challenge Trident's legaility in the courts.
"In 1995 the UK signed up to the indefinite extension of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This historic agreement
obliged Britain to engage in the process of nuclear disarmament," said CND Press Officer Nigel Chamberlain, "Tony
Blair's contribution to the NPT was the commissioning of the aptly-named Vengeance, the fourth Trident submarine in
November."
UPDATE!!
FASLANE ACTION
By mid afternoon, the police had arrested nearly 200 protesters. The organisers said that the personal commitment of the
few who were arrested was supported by the thousands who believe that their government's nuclear weapons policy breaches
international law.