Two women aged 79 and 82 successfully blocked access to the Trident nuclear submarine base in Faslane, Scotland for fifteen minutes this morning (14 June). Joy Mitchell and Joan Meredith sat down in the road to the north gate of the base, preventing traffic from getting through.
Work at the base has been disrupted since last week by the Faslane Peace Camp and Trident Ploughshares, a network of people committed to nonviolent direct action to disarm nuclear weapons. They have called for thirty days of action at the base to highlight the dangers posed by Trident.
The thirty days of action follow the beginning of campaigns for the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence. The UK's Ministry of Defence have admitted that they do not know where Trident would be stored if Scotland separated from the rest of the UK.
Joy Mitchell, 79, from Berwick upon Tweed explained, "I have to come and do my small part in disrupting the immoral and illegal work that goes on in this base”.
Joan Meredith, 82, from Cheshire, dismissed the notion that they were “breaching the peace”. She said, "To accuse us of breaching the peace when deployment of these indiscriminate weapons is allowed to continue unchallenged by the authorities is wrong”.
The month of action began on 7 June, when Mary Millington and Barbara Dowling were detained by guards after calmly walking through the gate without permission. The guards sounded an alarm causing personnel to remain inside and gates to be closed, delaying the work of the base.
Barbara Dowling said that “the majority of people in Scotland are ashamed and embarrassed that we have to host these expensive and illegal Cold War relics”.
[Ekk/1]
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