Burghfield Lockdown and European Antimilitarist Network meeting
On Monday 2nd March, members of the European Antimilitarist Network and hundreds of activists from across the British isles rose early and prepared for a mass blockade of Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) - Burghfield Lockdown. Burghfield is one of the sites where the British government builds and maintains the nuclear warheads that are fundamental to the Trident nuclear weapons system (alongside Aldermaston, seven miles down the road). The activists were aiming to stop work at the base for the day by nonviolently blockading all of the entrances. Working in small affinity groups, they gathered at strategic points around the base, and all but shut the base by sitting in the roads, many locked together using chains and 'lock on tubes' – in fact, it seems work at the base that day had already been cancelled because of the action, something the protesters counted as an immediate success!
WRI helped to facilitate involvement from groups from across Europe. WRI members from ofog (Sweden), AKL (Finland, AA.MOC (state of Spain), Agir Pour La Paix (Belgium), Gruppe für eine Schweiz ohne Armee (Group for Switzerland Without an Army, Switzerland) and Trident Ploughshares (Britain) joined the action. On the way to the action, a bus carrying over twenty five of the peace activists was stopped and the travellers questioned by British anti-terror police in Calais, France. Read the press release here.
Burghfield Lockdown was organised as part of the Action AWE campaign, a grassroots nonviolent direct action campaign that has been taking action against Trident replacement at AWE since spring 2012. The next parliament will have to decide whether or not to replacement Trident, which some have estimated will have a lifetime cost of £100 billion, and would see the UK remaining nuclear armed for many decades to come. AWE is run by a consortium of private companies – Lockheed Martin, Jacobs Engineering, and Serco are already profiting massively from the renewal of Trident, because preparations for Trident replacement are already underway. However, there is still a critical window of opportunity – particularly with the approaching general election in May - to apply the pressure needed to ensure the next parliament votes against Trident replacement.
Despite managing to block every entrance to the base (one lane of one road was kept open by a huge police presence) no arrests were made, and the blockade ended with 'closing circles' at each of the gates in the early-afternoon.
Action AWE video coverage:
News coverage:
European Antimilitarist Network meeting
After the action, a meeting of the European Antimilitarist Network was held. The meeting was all the more productive and dynamic for the participants having shared the action beforehand. It built trust and energy!
We are a network of organisations across Europe that want to take nonviolent direct action together against militarism. Different member organisations have different priorities and lines of work within that – some are entirely focused on mobilising for direct actions, others have direct action as a smaller focus.
We learnt about the work of each organisations, new campaigns and new work. Have a look at these two great videos below, for an indication of some of the work the network has been doing.
(this video was made in 2011; make sure you've got the subtitles on if you don't speak Swedish!)
We held a 'world cafe' conversation to map different aspects of militarism in Europe, and how as antimilitarists we might respond. The meeting appointed a spokescouncil, with representatives from different participating organisations, and developed other methods for working that will help us coordinate our work better in the coming years. To learn more about the European Antimilitarist Network, write to info@wri-irg.org
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