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Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2001 09:41:16 -0000
Subject: [act-locally] 50th actlocally main part
Reply-To: act-locally-owner@yahoogroups.com
URL: http://www.tapp.cjb.net

Shut Down Faslane!

October 2001 Blockade Report

Thirty local people hit the A1 on Sunday 21st of October heading for the Nuclear Missile base at Faslane near Glasgow. We have all been traumatised by the deaths of 6000 people in New York and the revenge bombings in Afghanistan. This brings home the horrendous threat of nuclear war, imagine hundreds of millions of people dying, some quickly, some slowly from fallout. That's why Faslane exists - to prepare for the deaths of millions of ordinary people. And that's why we joined the blockade of Faslane on Monday the 22nd to close down this truly evil place before the otherwise inevitable happens.

At 5.30 a.m we boarded the buses for the final leg to Faslane, our mini-bus covered in Heath Robinson contraptions to lock us to one another and help halt the 'usual business' of nuclear war. When we got there we were met by the dark and beautiful loch, and the omnipresent fluorescent yellow of policemen. But then it stopped being scary because all along the road hundreds of people were disembarking, laughing and singing. I think there is more joy and meaning in a single morning of protest at Faslane than some people experience in their whole life.

We spent the day going from gate to gate, going where people were needed to stop the traffic, deter the police and boost the numbers. We were magic - every time we showed up the police gave up trying to move people! The people we met are without question the most kind and vibrant individuals on this planet, where do these people go when they're not at Faslane? I want to live there!

Tiredness and the winding down of the blockade eventually led us home. Together we'd closed down the base, cost the Government thousands and broadcast our message to the world that Trident must go. We are going to do it and it partly depends on whether you go to the next blockade in February.

Contact Trident Ploughshares for info on the next Big Blockade -

http://www.tridentploughshares.org
tel - 0845 4588366
TAPP, PO Box 1TA, Newcastle, NE99 1TA

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From: loombreaker@nematode.freeserve.co.uk
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 18:21:39 -0000
Subject: manchester eloombreaker 24 [Dec 01]
URL: http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/loombreaker

Faslane - Court Reprts

Last month saw another blockade at Trident nuclear base in Faslane. Over 150 people were arrested for breach of the peace (in other words sitting on the road).

Meanwhile some of those arrested at the Big Blockade in February finally had their court cases. Three people from Manchester travelled all the way to Glasgow only to be told that their cases had been adjourned, two because they had too many cases that day and a third because one of the policemen who arrested him had had an accident and the other was flying a helicopter that day!

On a happier note, another peace protester from Manchester won his court case. The police's evidence completely contradicted each other and the magistrate had no choice but to let the person off. The man who was defending himself in court asked one of his arresting officers whether the protest was peaceful, the cop agreed that it was. When the defendant asked why then was he arrested for breach of the peace the prosecutor objected, apparently a police officer cannot be expected to answer a legal question!

The next Big Blockade will take place in February, contact CND -

tel - 0161 273 8283
email - gmdcnd@gn.apc.org
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