Rae Street and Pat Sanchez
joined hundreds of other peace campaigners for two days of
protests and a counter-summit in South Wales on Saturday (30
August 2014) and Sunday (31 August 2014). Their messages for
Barak Obama, David Cameron and other heads of government who
will be meeting in Newport was very clear: "No New Wars. No to
NATO".
On Saturday, Pat and Rae marched alongside the General
Secreatary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Kate
Hudson, friends from Greater Manchester and District CND and CND
Cymru. On Sunday, they participated in workshops at the counter
summit which included sessions on how to combat the spread of
military drones, how to stop the increasing militarisation of
the European Union and how to achieve the closure of all
military bases.
Pat Sanchez said "We were joined in Wales by people from throughout
Britain and from other NATO member states, especially Germany,
France, the USA. We all agreed that far from being a guarantor of
stability, NATO and its aggressive policies present a major threat
to peace in the world. Not only is NATO is dogged by its disastrous
and misguided military adventures in Afghanistan and Libya, it is
also morally tainted by its declared policy of 'first use' of
nuclear weapons. This means that it would be prepared to take the
first steps towards a nuclear war. Next week's NATO summit will,
unfortunately, not be discussing how we create a just and peaceful
world. David Cameron and the other leaders will not be considering
matters such as how to end hunger across the world or how to bring
justice to the Palestinians. Instead they seem intent on developing
ways of spreading instability, rekindling the Cold War, obliging
governments to spend ever increasing amounts of their citizens'
money on arms - which they will, of course, insist on being bought
from the same US weapons companies. We are resisting increased
spending on weapons which we do not need and which threaten all our
futures. We are telling the NATO leaders to 'talk; don't bomb'. We
need no more wars".
Peace
campaigners from Rochdale and Littleborough Peace
Group donned Santa hats in Yorkshire Street on Saturday
(13 December 2014) to ask Rochdale's shoppers what they really want for
Christmas. Their giant letter read "Dear Santa, We live in Rochdale and
we have tried to be good this year. What we really want for Christmas is
to know that the government will stop wasting £billions on the Trident
nuclear weapons system and will start spending this money on:"
Individuals were invited to write their own suggestions on squares which
they added to the board. Many focused on the health service, including
requests for better hospital services in Rochdale, nurses and doctors. 
Philip
Gilligan, on behalf of the Peace Group said
“Christmas shoppers in Yorkshire Street were very clear that they think
that the £3billion which the government wastes every year on the Trident
nuclear weapons system can be better spent on everything from better
services for Alzheimers patients to allotments; an end to the bedroom
tax to more midvives and from crossing ladies to better mental heath
services and jobs for learning disabled people. They are angry that
successive governments have continued
to squander £billions on useless and dangerous nuclear weapons of mass
destruction, but
constantly divert scarce resources from the public services we all need.
They want the Trident system decommissioned and they want the
government to scrap plans to squander another £100billion
on even more dangerous and expensive nuclear weapons. They want the
money which could so easily be saved to be spent on the NHS, the jobs,
the
homes and the social and education services we need.”
