Up and Atom: Winter 2007

Editorial: Trident replacement? Sanity replacement more like it!

The government released its white paper on 'the future of the united kingdoms nuclear deterrent' in December 2006, and there will be a vote in the House of Commons in March. That gives us just a couple of months to lobby our MPs and hope that sanity will over ride the madness of a new generation of nuclear weapons. It just seems unreal that the UK government does not see that if we replace our nuclear weapons, we would give the green light to other countries that are unsure what the next 50 years hold to produce their own nuclear bombs.

Poliferation is a real danger. If countries aroung the world think the NPT is breaking down then how else are they going to protect themselves against these immora l weapons? Lets say that Iran gets the message that the NPT is not working, and they decide they need nuclear bombs themselves, Whos next? Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia? Now is the time for the UK to change thier position from US poodle to a moral Authority in nuclear disarmament. To win. In December 2006 Eastern Region CND held an emergency meeting in Cambridge on the issue of Trident Replacement and 40 people attended. It was a good meeting with many ideas on how we can campaign most affectively together as a region. The outcomes of the meeting seemed to fall into three sections

1. MPs

This included face to face lobbying of MPs from across the region and gathering the information given to us in one place so that we can share the information for future letter writing and meetings. To help people lobby their MP it was suggested that we had available a list of arguments that we can use and that the MPs may use and a list of questions we can ask our MP. It is also a good idea to look at how your local communities could use the £25 billion. Just by looking in our local papers we can see how many hospitals, schools, play parks, etc could use the money and it is always good to bring national issues back down to a local level. The replacement of Trident affects us all.

2.Press

Local press is so important. Letter writing to local media can kick start a debate and keep an issue in the light. When you take a look at just how many local papers, town magazines, university papers, trade union mags, radio stations, church magazines etc there are. Just a week ago I had 5 phone calls of people wanting to join a local CND group from one article in the local parish magazine. We need to be visible and we need to be approachable. Local press can help us achieve this.

3. If we need to..

How can we continue campaigning on No Trident replacement after the vote?

Education. It always surprises me when in the past, people have come up to me, whilst I am on a stall or leafleting and say that they did not realise that the UK had nuclear weapons. Thankfully now less people do this due to the media attention Trident has had over the last few months. But it still goes to show that not everyone knows we have nuclear weapons or they are unaware of the issues surrounding these WMD. Eastern Region CND has a list of speaker who can come and speak at events. So if you have a local WI, Rotary Club, Lions Club, church group, peace group, environmental group, university, school etc that would like us to visit then please contact Eastern Region CND.

Being visible with good local stalls, with good information. Local vigils and street theatre are also good for networking with other peace, environmental, trade unions, human rights and other local groups as well as being visible to the public.

There is a national demonstration in London on 24th of February calling for NO TRIDENT, this will be the largest anti nuclear demonstration in decades, and its up to us to make it as big as possible. Demos are a great way for us to all join together and get our views known. Campaigners from all over the region will be joining the demonstration taking with them banners, passion and a will for a nuclear free world.

---

---