1st Letter from Action AWE to Police Commanders, prior to campaign launch

Text of first letter sent to all Police Commanders, Ministry of Defence and civilian, in police areas likely to be initially involved with policing the Action AWE campaign, at and near AWE Aldermaston & AWE Burghfield, and also Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke.

Action AWE,
c/o 6 Church St, Knighton,
Powys.
LD7 1AG
UK
Tel: 0845 4588 362

10th January 2013

Dear Inspector *,

As you are probably already aware a new campaign called Action Atomic Weapons Eradication (Action AWE) has just been formed and will be active over the next 3 years. It is part of a responsible democratic attempt to persuade the UK government to comply with international law by NOT renewing Trident. Any further development of nuclear weapons would be a severe breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The Action AWE events and actions that will take place will all be nonviolent and in accordance with our democratic right to freedom of expression and protest. I have attached a copy of our leaflet and briefing pack and our website is open and available for you to look. I hope that you will note that we are promoting only peaceful resistance to immoral and illegal weapons of mass murder. As part of our nonviolent and peaceful process we are introducing ourselves to you to initiate an open dialogue and liaison with all the police and security personnel likely to come in contact with us.

Although Action AWE is a new network, you will know some of the people involved and hopefully their nonviolent ethos will be very familiar to you. We have a core facilitating group who have put together the resources for the campaign and who are actively sharing information and advice to people and organisations wanting to take part. The campaign is not however centrally organised or hierarchical and the participants of each event and action will be autonomously responsible for how they arrange them. There is, however, a shared commitment to nonviolence by all the participating groups that is specified clearly at http://actionawe.org/nonviolence-guidelines/and which include among others:

• Respect and care for everyone involved, including those representing or defending the opposing positions and/or facilities.
• Refusal to harm, damage or degrade people.
• Refusal to carry any weapon or use physical or verbal abuse against others.

Within these nonviolence guidelines it will be up to each group to decide what level of contact they want with the police before, during and after their actions. While our core facilitating group will not be in a position to provide overall liaison for the groups, we are likely to be in touch with them all and are willing to pass on any information you would like them to have or any concerns you would like them to consider. We will encourage participating groups to get in touch with you in advance and to choose people who will be responsible fo police liaison during their actions but we wanted you to know that ultimately it will be their choice whether and how they do this.

We are writing similarly to the Police Commanders of each area where activities are most likely to take place –ie. AWE Aldermaston, AWE Burghfield, Reading, Basingstoke and Newbury.

We will be acting under the assumption that as our own police force, acting in the public interest and in accordance with the law, you will police our protests in a respectful and supportive manner and will have everyone’s health and safety as a priority.

We would also like to take this opportunity to cordially invite you to a public launch of the campaign that will be held at The Conference Room, Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC), 35-39 London Street,Reading, RG1 4PS, www.risc.org.uk on Wednesday 27th February 2013 at 7.30 pm.

If you would like to meet or talk with our police liaison team at any time then do get in touch.

Love and peace,
Angie Zelter,
Action AWE.