Welcome to the summer – at last, to plans for action with Action AWE and our latest reports of exciting blockading, knitting and anti-arms campaigning action in Spring…

Upcoming actions

1. Report the crime of nuclear weapons!

• Action overview, details & info here.
• When: 1-7 July 2014
• Where: your local police station
• Resources, here.

The next big action will be Reporting the Crime of Nuclear Weapons – at your local police station. In the first week of July we’re inviting anti-Trident campaigners to organise together to go along to their local police station and report the crime of nuclear weapons production, ownership, proliferation… We began this on-going action in February in Reading, and followed on with a group in Plymouth in May – you can hear from some of the people who took part in videos and reports on the Reading event, here and Plymouth, here.

Read the written response from Thames Valley police, to the complaints made in Reading here.

Angie’s reply to the Thames Valley police response is here.

Really useful information you may want to include in your reporting and which will perhaps encourage the police to be more pro-active in their investigations can be found here.

Please tell us which police station you will be going to and when. If you give us a contact details we can promote your event on the website and in the Action AWE calendar so people in your area can join you to report the crime. This is your chance to take local action on a national and global issue – and possibly help to build a movement for legal action to stop the renewal of Trident!

Please consider signing the pledge at ‘Nuclear Weapons - War crimes.org‘.

2. Laying the human peace scarf in August

• Full details at Action AWE and Wool Against Weapons websites.
• When: 9 August 2014 – Nagasaki Day
• Where: Aldermaston AWE – Burghfield AWE, Berkshire

For many many months knitters all over the world (really!) have been producing gorgeous metre-lengths of pink knitting to make a giant pink scarf to stretch between Aldermaston and Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment sites. And now the time has come for thousands of us, not only the knitters but also anyone who is anti-nuclear, to come together to lay the scarf! Plans for the day are coming together! There will be a number of milestones along the route, each hosting people from a different region around the country. We’ll stretch a length of scarf between each milestone, and at a set time we’ll hold a moment or so of silence to remember Nagasaki and recommit ourselves to the movement to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

Full details of the milestones can be found on an interactive map of the route, here.
A mobilising postcard can be found here, for downloading and printing. You can also order them free from CND in London.

Jaine at Wool Against Weapons keeps her website and facebook fantastically well updated with news and stories. Click here to view ‘the 7 mile scarf’s’ progress!

See you there, and bring a friend!

3. Fast for Hiroshima and Nagasaki

All details and information for this event will be posted here. If you’d like to discuss ‘Fast 2014’ please email: [email protected]

• When: 6-9 August 2014
• Where: Burghfield AWE, Berkshire; wherever you are

From 6-9 August, as last year, campaigners will once again camp at the main gate of AWE Burghfield and hold a fast in remembrance of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You can also join the fast, or join the remembrance in other ways, wherever you are, in your local community, alone or with friends.

Recent actions

Two successful blockades of Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment!

In the last three weeks, there have been two blockades at Burghfield, severely disrupting the ongoing work towards the replacement of Trident. On the 19th May, 12 activists used concrete lock-on tubes to shut the construction gate for four hours, with delivery trucks having to be redirected to the main gate. On the 9th June, over 30 activists from Trident Ploughshares and other groups used cars and trailers to block every entrance to AWE Burghfield – traffic was completely blocked to the base for four hours, and two arrests were made. There are full write-ups on the Action AWE website 19th May action & 9th June action

On the day of our blockade AWE had their ‘gold standard’ health and safety awards for 2011, 2012 and2013 removed, because of a serious fire that occurred there in 2010.

No to nuclear research at Bristol University

Link to story, here…..

Marshall islands story

On 24th April, the Guardian newspaper reported that the Marshall Islands is suing all of the world’s nuclear powers at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, arguing that they have violated their obligations to disarm. Full story is here:

Action AWE press coverage:

Basingsoke Gazette, Morning Star, More.…..