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Anti-Trident campaigners blockade naval base Anti-Trident campaigners blockade naval base
(about 1 hour later)
Campaigners have chained themselves to the gate of a naval base in protest against the nuclear missiles stored there. Police have arrested 47 people protesting outside a naval base where nuclear weapons are stored.
More than 100 supporters of the Scrap Trident coalition, which wants Scotland to be allowed to "lead the way to a world free of nuclear weapons", are demonstrating at Faslane naval base in Argyll, the home of the UK's Trident weapons system. Campaigners chained themselves to each other and blocked the entrance of the Faslane base in Argyll, home of the UK's Trident nuclear weapons.
Around 20 protesters chained themselves to the north gate of the base, and eight people have done the same at the south gate. The Scrap Trident coalition wants Scotland to be allowed to "lead the way to a world free of nuclear weapons" and more than 100 of its supporters demonstrated outside the base.
Police issued a warning to the group at the north gate, then officers started using cutting equipment to separate them. About 20 people, in pairs or in groups of three, chained their arms together inside sections of drain pipes and other plastic tubing and lay down on the road in front of the north gate at Faslane, while eight others did the same at the south gate.
Police issued a warning to the group at the north gate then officers started using cutting equipment to separate them.
Forty-seven people were arrested five hours into the protest. The 32 women and 15 men have been charged with alleged offences such as breach of the peace and resisting arrest, police said.
The blockade follows a weekend of action calling on the UK government to scrap Trident and use its budget to fund welfare, education and health instead.The blockade follows a weekend of action calling on the UK government to scrap Trident and use its budget to fund welfare, education and health instead.
Ray Davies, 83, a Labour councillor for Caerphilly in Wales, travelled to Scotland for the protest. He sat on the road in front of the north gate holding a Welsh flag. Organisers said disability rights campaigners, students, pensioners, trade unionists and environmentalists took part in the protest on Monday, which started at 7am after a convoy of buses brought people to the site.
"I am here on behalf of the people of Wales. I am here on behalf of my seven grandchildren, my 12 great-grandchildren and for the children of the world because we want a world that's not poisoned. We want a planet that can live in peace and can have a future," he said. Nicole MacLean, a student from Falkirk, chained herself to Zach Hampstead, 24. "We want to set a precedent for other countries," she said. "I know it's hard with nuclear to give it up but if we've got people behind supporting it, saying this is what we want, I think it sends a positive message to the world to get rid of nuclear weapons."
"There can never be a peaceful world with nuclear weapons, not just nuclear weapons but the pollution from the power stations that they need. Everything that is connected to nuclear weapons is slowly but surely poisoning this beautiful planet. Jamila Haidar-Al-Amin, 36, travelled from her home in Manchester with her two-year-old son Raphael to take part in the weekend of protests. She said she was motivated by her family's roots in Iraq to join the campaign against nuclear weapons.
"I will never, ever give up. As long as there is a fire burning in my belly," said Davies. "I have family that live in Iraq and my husband is Lebanese, so I have seen first-hand what weapons from this country are doing, where they are going and the havoc they are creating in the Middle East," she said.
A convoy of buses carrying protesters arrived at Faslane at 6.45am. The group started their protest by singing as some chained themselves to the gate. "Most of my family have had to leave Iraq over the past few years. They've become refugees all over the world."
Organisers said disability rights campaigners, students, pensioners, trade unionists and environmentalists were taking part in the protest. Leonna O'Neill, 27, has lived in the Faslane peace camp for the last two-and-a-half years and helped organise the blockade.
Nicole MacLean, a student from Falkirk, chained herself to the north gate. "By building up to this we show people they can actually affect the situation and put their bodies in the way of these weapons. We don't have to be complicit," she said.
"We want to set a precedent for other countries," she said. "Parliament needs a bit of a push and certainly there needs to be a much bigger mass movement of people. And it's been a long time since there was a blockade like this at Faslane, so we're starting again from scratch."
"I know it's hard with nuclear to give it up but if we've got people behind supporting it, saying this is what we want, I think it sends a positive message to the world to get rid of nuclear weapons. Further similar events are planned in the near future, O'Neill suggested.
"It's really important that if something bad is happening, you are bearing witness to it and let the government know we are still watching them and know what they are doing." Patrick Harvie, Green MSP for Glasgow, was also at the protest.
Jonathan Shafi of the Radical Independence Campaign said: "Instead of spending billions on Trident, weapons and warfare, money should be spent on schools, hospitals and services. He said: "We're finally on the verge of being able to do something about it. If Scotland decides next year to take control of its own defence and foreign affairs policy, we will be able at last to consign Trident to history and make Scotland a force for peace in the world.
"We want to play a role right across the world, in terms of disarmament, to say that nuclear weapons are an obscenity and should be confined to the past and we should be looking forward to a more positive future." "David Cameron has been quite shameless in milking the situation on the Korean peninsula in terms of the Trident debate.
On Saturday, hundreds of supporters of the anti-Trident cause marched through the centre of Glasgow and came together for a rally in George Square. "Most people clearly know that North Korea does not pose a direct threat to the UK at present and even if it did, Trident as a response to that is a weapon which is only capable of the mass slaughter of innocent people.
The Faslane blockade is said to be one of more than 100 similar protests in dozens of countries on a global day of action against military spending. "It is not something that would be morally defensible to use."
The Faslane blockade is one of more than 100 protests in dozens of countries in what is a global day of action against military spending.
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