Global day of action on military spending

On Monday 14th April, as part of GDAMS – the Global Day of Action on Military Spending – Action AWE were out in sunny Reading. Eight of us ran a ‘People’s Budget’ game, asking members of the public how they would move the money being wasted on Trident, and handed out leaflets. People were very much split on whether education, the NHS, jobs in green energy or housing were their top priorities – but crucially, no one who played the game wanted to see £100 billion wasted on Trident!

Events like this are really useful for getting the word out about Aldermaston and Burghfield, too; most people we spoke to were against replacing Trident, but very few connected this up with the billions being spent every year at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, even though it is just a few miles down the road. Some didn’t even know that AWE existed, that the missiles were driven in convoys up to Scotland, or that the government were making plans to replace Trident.

Over several hours we handed out hundreds of leaflet’s, postcards and flyers, and had lots of good conversations with a broad range of people. It felt clear that people wanted to engage in the issue, and interestingly, some people were worried about the recent crisis in Russia, and felt that Trident was keeping the UK safe by acting as a deterrent – one man blamed the recent Russian invasion of Crimea on the fact the Ukraine was no longer a nuclear power; it was a strong reminder that that the narrative of nuclear deterrence is still strong.

For more information about GDAMS, see www.demilitarize.org, or the Twitter hashtag #demilitarize