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 should be given a voice. Joining the protestors were a group of Japanese veterans who had survived the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Their presence and the speeches they gave to the assembled protestors brought home the key and often forgotten point. The issue of nuclear weapons is not an abstract idea it is not an argument detached from reality and the cost of such weapons is not only measured in sterling but in lives. There will always be arguments from those limited to yet well versed in the traditional narrative of history that the Atomic bomb was vital to the Japanese surrender and the end of the Second World War. Those more astute in history will know that Japan was on the verge of surrender anyway due to the horror of General Curtis LeMay’s devastating firebombing campaign. Hiroshima and Nagasaki shall be written into the pages of history as the first shots of the Cold War rather then the last of the Second World War, a macabre message to Moscow.  What is beyond doubt is that these weapons have been used, to devastating effect resulting in the murder of thousands of innocent civilians and there is no guarantee that they would not be used again today. Joining the veterans was John McDonald. McDonald, who recently challenged Gordon Brown in the leadership elections of the Labour party, stood upon the podium mounted onto a truck touring the base and told the protestors that they were the “conscience of the nation.” He also quoted fellow Labour renegade and CND stalwart Tony Benn, defiantly declaring that “Parliament is the past; the future is on the streets.” It was with fiery rhetoric that McDonald told the assembled protestors that if he had been elected as party leader then the Aldermaston facility would have been closed long ago. As it stands he challenged Gordon Brown to fulfil Britain ’s pledge to the nuclear non-proliferation by de-commissioning the war heads.

The case against the renewal of Trident is as conclusive as it is damming. Is there a need for such a weapon? Why is it deemed necessary for the United Kingdom of Great Britain to be able to consign millions of people to nuclear hell at the push of a button? There is of course the current international situation, those in favour of the weapon point to nations such as Iran or the phantom Al-queda threat and argue that a nuclear weapon is the only deterrent we have from being attacked. Obviously this is not true. Our nuclear deterrent did not deter the suicide bombers of 7/7 any more then the nuclear capability of the United States deterred the hijackers on September 11^th 2001. Even if terrorism is a clear and present threat to our security, the bomb is not the way to defeat it. Indeed it is the sheer indiscrimination of the weapon which makes it so barbarous. The bomb is not like a stray cruise missile or a misguided bullet where an innocent civilian can be deemed “collateral” damage by the Orwellian military spokesman. The bombs inability to distinguish military from civilian is inherent. If a British built mushroom cloud ever rises over an inferno in Tehran, Kabul or Riyadh then it would be a war crime without parallel and it would give rise to a new generation of terrorism. Those fearful eyes looking towards Tehran need to look closer to home. The threat of nuclear war does not come from nations who want the bomb, it does not come from nations who aspire to own the bomb, it comes from nations who have the bomb and have proved they can use it.  If America and Britain truly wish to win the hearts and minds of the world then they must fight the true enemies of the 21^st century such as global poverty and the climate change. You can not fight these wars with Cold War thinking and Cold War weaponry. Second to this is the sheer financial burden of developing such a weapon. It has been estimated that the government will spend over £70 billion pounds of taxpayer’s money over the next thirty years to build, install and maintain the weapon of mass destruction. It almost goes without saying that this money could be better spent. The Scandinavian nations invest just fewer than five billion euros a year for which they receive a free education system from nursery to University, all this while students in the United Kingdom collectively find themselves in millions of pounds worth of debt. This government needs to readjust its moral compass and revalue its priorities.  

Armed with these arguments and with just cause the five thousand protestors gathered together in defiance of the rain and sleet, they joined hands and formed a human cordon around perimeter fence of the fence, which spans five square miles. The protestors then returned to blockading the five entrances to the base for the rest of the day. Whilst the protest at Aldermaston was heralded as a success by CND organisers, not only for commemorating 1958, not only for the numbers of people in attendance, not only for the inter-party and inter-faith solidarity shown but also as a stand for all of our civil liberties. Whilst the protest was all of these things the campaign will not end there. CND and all those who believe that a better world is not only a possibility but a necessity, all those who stand indignant when their tax is being spent on the ability to massacre, as long as there are those who refuse to be silent in the face of crimes. As long as these people remain, and they will remain, then the sleepy town of Aldermaston will witness these events again and again, even if it takes another fifty years.   

Comments have been closed for this article

 

 

I quite agree ben, I live round the corner (10 miles away) and get the lovely propaganda leaflet each year telling us how great AWE is, oh and what to do if bin laden dropped a bomb on it (if were up wind we are fine, down wind and its goodbye charlie).  
 
Just wanted to clarify one point you made near the start, AWE is a reseach facility, and Im under the impression (from said propaganda) that no missles for military use are actually stored on this site. Ive refrereed footy matches in AWE so after writing this I prob wont be allowed to again!

Steven Topazio - Thu, 27 Mar 2008

 

 

i never get that propaganda leaflet steve mentions- perhaps that cos they know i am a lost cause 
 
anyway, hear hear!

Matthew Blackall - Tue, 08 Apr 2008