Skip Navigation | Sheffield IMC | UK IMC | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

UK Indymedia UK Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia

Campaigners disrupt UK Weapons Production

Dominic | 07.05.2013 14:24 | Anti-Nuclear | Anti-militarism | Terror War | Oxford | Sheffield

Peace campaigners disrupted a nuclear weapons production facility at Burghfield, near Reading this morning, as they blockaded a gate for 5 hours on Tuesday 7th May 2013. The action is part of an ongoing campaign to Scrap Trident and end investment in weapons of mass destruction.

Campaigners blockade Burghfield
Campaigners blockade Burghfield


OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Campaigners disrupt UK WMD Production
Burghfield, Berkshire, UK, Tuesday 7th May 2013

At 7.30am this morning a group of campaigners acting as part of ActionAWE [1] blocked the gate of the AWE Burghfield nuclear bomb factory near Reading, causing disruption to the production of weapons of mass destruction with the power to kill millions. Bound together with superglue eight activists knelt in the road, sang, and remembered those who have lost their lives to nuclear arms. The blockade stayed in place for 5 hours causing serious disruption to the nuclear weapons facility. No arrests were made.

Self employed businesswoman Nina Carter-Brown, 29, from Bradford, said: "Peace cannot be brought about through fear and greed. It must come from acts of love and justice. Trident's dependence on the threat of violence is obscene, and I cannot stand by and watch our government spend £100 billion of taxpayers' money to continue this evil."

Annelie Leinhos, 25, a project worker from Bradford, said: "Nuclear weapons are unethical, immoral and a horrendous waste of public funds in the face of cuts to health and care services."

Chloe Skinner, 25, a Ph.D student from Sheffield, said: "the planned renewal of Trident indicates that lessons haven't been learnt from past mistakes that have caused terror, destruction and the death of countless civilians. In the face of cuts to essential welfare systems, now is the time to take action against the government's dedication to this most horrific form of warfare."

The UK has an armed nuclear submarine at sea and ready to fire every day of the year, able to wipe out cities almost anywhere on earth within 15 minutes[2]. The UK has a stockpile of around 225 nuclear warheads[3], each with around eight times the explosive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 [4] that killed an estimated 140,000 to 200,000 people. Running the Trident nuclear weapons system currently costs £2 billion a year[5], at a time when other government services are facing cutbacks across the board. The government will vote in 2016 to decide whether to invest in the UK's Trident nuclear weapon system for another 30 years.

Operated by a consortium of Jacobs Engineering Group, Lockheed Martin and Serco, AWE Burghfield plays an integral part in the final assembly and maintenance of nuclear warheads for use in the Trident system[6]. In 2011 Peter Luff, the then Minister for Defence Equipment, announced £2 billion of spending for redevelopment of the Burghfield and Aldermaston weapons factories[7]. The total spending on Weapons of Mass Destruction in the UK will soar to over £100 Billion should the government take the decision to renew Trident in 2016 [8].

Action AWE (Atomic Weapons Eradication) is a grassroots campaign of nonviolent action dedicated to halting nuclear weapons production at the Atomic Weapons Establishment factories at Aldermaston and Burghfield. The purpose is for groups and individuals to undertake autonomous actions and events from February 2013 onwards to raise awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and exert political pressure for Britain to end the production, replacement and deployment of Trident and join other countries in negotiating a global treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

For further details or interviews contact:

James 07814 789 337
Dominic 07939 143 698



[1]  http://www.actionawe.org/

[2] http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/peace/trident-the-uks-nuclear-weapons-system

[3]Stockholm International Peace Research Institute:
www.sipri.org/research/armaments/nuclear-forces‎

[4] http://www.cnduk.org/information/briefings UK warheads are thought to have a yield of 80-100kt.

[5]  http://fullfact.org/factchecks/cost_trident_nuclear_deterrent-28864

[6] www.awe.co.uk/aboutus/the_company_eb1b2.html

[7]  http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm111122/text/111122w0002.htm#111122114002933

[8]  http://www.cnduk.org/information/briefings/trident-briefings

Dominic
- e-mail: dominic@yorkshirecnd.org.uk
- Homepage: http://yorkshirecnd.wordpress.com/

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Sheffield Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Sheffield [navigation.actions2016]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2015]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

Sheffield Actions 2013

G8 2013

Sheffield Actions 2012

Workfare

Sheffield Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

Sheffield Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Sheffield Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Sheffield Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Sheffield Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Sheffield Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Sheffield Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Sheffield Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Sheffield Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech