Ben_Norman's diary

Ben Norman, Aldermaston

If you were to look up Aldermaston on a map then you’ll see a quaint middle class village which more then likely calls itself home to people with names such as Gerald or Audrey. What you wouldn’t see on the map is Aldermaston’s worst kept secret. It is the home of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, AWE, the secret facility which researches, builds and maintains Britain ’s nuclear arsenal. Within this seemingly sleepy village, less then twenty minutes from Reading , there are weapons which could consign millions of people to nuclear inferno at the push of a button. This was why on a rain soaked bank holiday Monday thousands of protestors descended on Aldermaston to stand against the Government’s decision to re-new the Trident missile system, at a cost of £70 Billion pounds.

 

 Monday the 24^th March 2008 was a landmark day as it not only marked fifty years since the first Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, CND, march in 1958 but was also in direct violation of recently passed Ministry of Defence by-laws which prohibit the right to protest and public assembly outside of the base. This protest was a continuation of the fifty year campaign against Nuclear weapons but also a mass statement of defiance against the constant erosion of our civil liberties. Both CND and Police spokesman approximated that 5,000 protesters attended the demonstration. They came from over fifty locations around the United Kingdom from the Scottish highlands of Aberdeen and Farslane, to Sheffield , London , Penzance and Portsmouth . The geographical diversity of the protesters was outshone only by the sheer range of groups from which they heralded. Christen Action Aid, Black Flag Anarchists, Socialist party members, Stop the war peace protesters and many more stood together against the continued construction of nuclear weapons. In 1958 10,000 people made the original march when the British Government first starting building the so called “deterrent weapon”.

As it was history which was being both marked and created it was fitting that history s...