Campaigners Claim Successful Valentines Blockade

Campaigners Claim Successful Valentine's Blockade Of Trident Submarine Base

Over 400 protesters blockaded the gates at the Trident submarine base on the River Clyde in Scotland this morning, Valentine's Day.

No vehicles passed through the gates between 7.00 am and 8.45 am. Only a few drivers managed to get into the base after that and vehicles were backed up bumper to bumper for a long way.

Several protesters jumped onto a bed in the road and padlocked themselves together. Another group locked themselves together around the shape of a heart. The police had great difficulty removing a wheelchair campaigner who was also 'locked on'.

By 9.00 am the police had arrested over 90 protesters and taken them away for processing. Among the arrested were Scottish MSP Tommy Sheridan and Green MEP Caroline Lucas. It remains to be seen if they will be charged or released without charge.

Other parliamentarians, christian ministers and activists from across Scotland, Wales and England intend to keep the blockade going for as long as possible and many more are willing to risk arrest.

In an historic ruling on 21st October Sheriff Margaret Gimblett instructing the jury to acquit three protesters for malicious and wilful damage. This is just the ruling members of Trident Ploughshares had been waiting for in their campaign to challenge Trident's legaility in the courts.

"In 1995 the UK signed up to the indefinite extension of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This historic agreement obliged Britain to engage in the process of nuclear disarmament," said CND Press Officer Nigel Chamberlain, "Tony Blair's contribution to the NPT was the commissioning of the aptly-named Vengeance, the fourth Trident submarine in November."

UPDATE!!

FASLANE ACTION

By mid afternoon, the police had arrested nearly 200 protesters. The organisers said that the personal commitment of the few who were arrested was supported by the thousands who believe that their government's nuclear weapons policy breaches international law.

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