Week of Action 1 – 7 July

Between 1 – 7 July, concerned citizens across the country will demand that law enforcers make sure that the various crimes - including crimes against humanity and war crimes - being planned and prepared for at Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Aldermaston and AWE Burghfield in Berkshire are properly investigated by the police.

On 8^th February this year, over 50 people reported the crimes of AWE at Reading Police Station: now we’re going nationwide!

This is not a stunt. It is a genuine and wholehearted attempt to get these crimes investigated - and stopped.

Why take part?

We want to use the police as they are intended.

February 8th: Reporting Trident Crimes at Reading Police Station

The police are a public service paid for out of our taxes and under democratic control. So we will be demanding that they carry out their duties impartially, in the public interest, by investigating the crimes we will report to them.

Such investigations should, if we have a just and democratic system, lead eventually to the courts ordering the government and armed forces to take all of the UK nuclear weapons off alert, and start the long promised process of honest nuclear disarmament. This would fulfil the UK’s international obligations under Article VI of the 1968 NonProliferation Treaty (NPT).

As we write,the government are pumping millions of pounds into upgrading Aldermaston and Burghfield in preparation for the renewal of Trident, an act which is not only in direct contravention of their obligations under the NPT, but is illegal preparation for mass murder.

The replacement of the UK nuclear weapons system is an attempt to force the UK into many more decades of nuclear dependency. It is the police force’s job to enforce the law and international humanitarian law is not only a part of UK law, but trumps all purely national laws (the Nuremberg Trials verified that international humanitarian law is superior to state law.) In the UK, the government has tried, fairly successfully, to keep the issue of the illegality of nuclear weapons and the Trident system, out of the courts, saying that matters of defence cannot be brought before the courts or ruled upon as it is the prerogative of the Queen. This must be challenged.

We, the public, cannot allow our government and armed forces, under an outdated ‘Crown Prerogative’, to continue to plan for mass murder. Threatening to use the nuclear weapons that the UK deploys is a war crime, a crime against humanity and a crime against peace – some of the most serious crimes known to humanity.

Join us

Ordinary members of the public go to the police station when they are robbed, or injured, or if they think that someone else is preparing for a crime. Join campaigners all around Britain to report the crimes being committed at AWE Burghfield and AWE Aldermaston. These Atomic Weapons Establishments are assuredly preparing for unimaginably horrific crimes.

Read the full briefing for details of the national and international laws that we believe are being broken by the nuclear armed forces, and visit www.actionawe.org for more details.

Some people will report the crime of preparing war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. Others will report crimes of environmental contamination and pollution (radioactive leaks into ground water), unacceptable dangers of nuclear convoys on public roads, crimes of misuse of tax payers money and any others that concerned citizens wish to raise with the police.

You can gather with a group of friends and fellow campaigners, or go on your own or with a buddy.

Not sure how it will feel to report a crime like this? We took heart from reading Maggie Freake’s account of taking part in the Reading reporting day. Maggie told the Police ‘I want to report a crime: they’re building weapons of mass destruction just down the road…It is done with an intention to kill millions of people in other countries; to commit mass murder. This is wrong”.

Read Maggie’s words here, and watch our video of the day here.

For more information please contact us on [email protected]

It is a crime to threaten mass murder.

It is a crime to prepare for mass murder.

Trident is the crime.

How to get involved

Here are some tools that will help to report Trident’s crimes:

• Read the full briefing for info on crimes you can report
• Template press release: inform your local media
• Tell us and others you are taking part! Email [email protected] to have your event added to the Action AWE Calendar