Being Arrested For Trident

Hilary Wainwright, co-editor of Red Pepper, writes in the Guardian about her arrest during a protest at the Faslane nuclear base against the Trident nuclear deterrent.

Within the police force, there is respect for the nonviolent actions of people such as Angie Zelter, a past saboteur of Hawk jets bound for East Timor, and now one of the organisers of Faslane 365 ... A CID officer asked to be let into her cell to shake her hand to show his respect for the Hawk action.

Angie is midwife to a movement to stop up to £40bn being spent on weapons whose threatened use (the basis of nuclear deterrence) has been declared illegal by the international court of justice ... It was as clear as the glaring light of my police cell that nothing within the political system was going to change the government's decision. Democracy in the Labour party has all but been destroyed by Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and sickening opportunism from many who should know better. The response of the Lib Dems has been pathetic.

Civil disobedience is the only way to give voice to the majority of people who want the UK to champion, not undermine, the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and who want the billions being sunk in the Clyde to be spent on ending the poverty that feeds violent conflict.