[NukeNet] Scotland: Nuclear power and Trident renewal have rekindled protest, finds Vicky Allan

[The Roy Process]

Sunday Heraldhttp://www.sundayherald.com/56998
      Sunday Herald - 30 July 2006
     
      On the road with the new peace campers
      Nuclear power and Trident renewal have rekindled protest, finds Vicky AllTHERE are reasons to expect there may be more activists than usual this year at the annual Trident Ploughshares camp near the Coulport weapons base on Loch Long. With government proposals that Trident be replaced with another nuclear weapon system, the anti-nuclear movement is swelling and CND membership has surged in the past few months.
      The question, though, for those setting up camp at Peaton Glen Wood, is whether that enthusiasm will transfer into numbers willing to be involved into direct action, such as vigils, blockades and even breaking into military bases. 

      On Saturday morning there were no crowds quite yet, but already police cars ping-ponged along the nearby road. Tents were still being erected by 10 or so stalwarts of the anti-nuclear campaign, jigsaw puzzles in old canvas and steel. "If we can put up this tent, getting rid of the weapons of mass destruction should be easy," said Jane Tallents. 

      For the Ploughshares activists, getting rid of Trident hasn't been straightforward. The first peace camp at Faslane was pitched in 1982, and some, like Tallents, can recall being arrested in early protests when the weapons were first installed. 

      "We protested every submarine arriving," she said. "We did all of that, and we've kept on. And the thought that we're now on to another weapons system is depressing. You think this should have been done with in the last millennium." 

      At no point in those 24 years of protest has Trident looked close to being decommissioned. Far from it: it looks set to be replaced by a more advanced nuclear weapons system . The decision is to be put to a vote in the Commons, but as the government has embarked on a £60 million spending programme for the next generation of nuclear submarines, many believe any public debate is a mere display. 

      As Ludwig Appeltans, a Belgian protester and full-time inhabitant of the woodland, put it: "I think the whole government discussion is a smokescreen. The decision has already been made. They've invested millions of pounds in Aldermaston and development." 

      Many factors have led to a renewed anti-nuclear vigour. The war in Iraq, the Middle East conflict, the drive to nuclear power: all these have put the wind back in the sails of the movement . In the past two months British CND swelled with 600 new members, and according to Eileen Cook of Scottish CND, attendance at meetings has doubled in a year. 

      " Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are doing a very good job of recruiting for CND, with their commitments to nuclear power and replacing Trident," said Cook. "There are also people that came in because of Make Poverty History and the G8, and yes, they have continued to do things." 

      But not everyone at Coulport is optimistic that this enthusiasm will transfer into action. Sylvia Boyes, a veteran Greenham Common campaigner, thinks these are uninviting times for activists - "Especially now, with the whole climate of fear and secrecy in this country and the use of the word terrorism, which the government is applying to any campaign they feel like ". 

      There remain many, however, for whom marches and passive protest are not enough. For Appletans, who for the past five years has been a year-round resident at Peaton Glen Wood, it was direct action that drew him to Ploughshares. 

      "I lost belief in marching and vigils and I felt that it didn't help. It didn't make a change. I had to find a way to get rid of my anger and the only way I could find was doing something constructive, direct action, especially the non- violence aspect," he said. 

      Tallents said she believed Scotland is a place where protest could work. "A lot of us feel this is a place where change could happen. Although defence is reserved [to Westminster], MSPs can have an opinion, they can speak for us. If they would just have the courage, we might be able to change something." 



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