Manchester, 29 September 2013

Manchester, 29 September 2013

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Saturday, April 25, 2015

'Vote Out Trident' says Peace Group


On Saturday morning (25 April 2015), twelve days before the general election, Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group braved the rain in Yorkshire Street, Rochdale to urge people to use their votes to bring an end to Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system.

They were supported by the Green party candidate for the Rochdale constituency, Mark Hollindrake who confirmed his agreement with the view that "the next government should scrap its nuclear weapons rather than replace them with a new system and that the money saved should be spent on things such as education, social care and the NHS."  

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said:


"A majority of people in Rochdale have made it clear, time and again, that they think it would be a ridiculous and very dangerous mistake to spend £100,000,0000,0000 on replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapon system and they want their MPs to take that same message to Westminster after 7th May 2015. Whatever the final composition of the government, it is clear that our country cannot afford to squander £billions on useless nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear missiles do not keep us safe. In fact, they put all our lives at risk and threaten our planet with total destruction. We need MPs who will vote against nuclear weapons of mass destruction and who will ensure that the money saved will be spent on the services we need." 

Friday, April 24, 2015

Rae Street reports on US Tour

Displaying Rae in the USA.jpgRae Street from Hare Hill Road Littleborough gave fellow anti-nuclear campaigners a full report on her recent visit to the USA on Wednesday night (22 April 2015) at the monthly meeting of Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group. Rae had been invited to New York to help launch the new Interference Archive exhibition which features artefacts, posters and photographs from the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp together with interviews with Greenham veterans. These include interviews recorded with Rae Street and Maggie Muir in Littleborough last year. Both are veterans of the successful campaign to remove US Cruise nuclear missiles from the Greenham Common base in the 1980s.

From New York, Rae moved-on to California where she joined old friends like Gwyn Kirk, Judith le Blanc, Jackie Cabasso and others at a number of peace events, including a demonstration against the enormous amounts of money allocated to military expenditure by the government of the USA.

Rae Street said:


“It was great to meet old friends from the USA who had been so supportive of our successful campaign to get Cruise missiles removed from Greenham Common, and it is always a delight to be reminded that the peace and anti-nuclear movement is alive and well in the USA. We hear too little in the British media about the very active campaigns against the Trident and other nuclear weapons on the other side of the Atlantic. Trident, including the UK’s so-called ‘independent deterrent’, is a system very much in the control of the US government and many in the USA recognise that it is dangerous, immoral and ineffective. Like most people in Rochdale, they know that far from protecting anyone, nuclear missiles threaten to destroy our world.”

Sunday, April 12, 2015

'People Not Trident'

Rochdale and littleborough Peace Group joined fellow campaigners from Greater Manchester and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmanent (GMDCND) on the streets yesterday (11 April 2015) urging people to think about the issue of nuclear weapons when they vote on 7 May 2015. They highlighted the fact that current plans to replace the Trident nuclear missile system will cost the country a staggering £100 billion (£100,000,000,000) and noted that the government already spends £6.6 million a day on nuclear weapons. They described this as "an appalling waste" and stressed that cancelling the Trident replacement would release around £100 billion which could be spent on healthcare, education, housing and energy, which they described as "the things we need".

Philip Gilligan, on behalf of the Peace Group, said:

"With the final vote on Trident replacement due in 2016, at an estimated cost of £100bn, this is the final election before the decision – and it is one which requires a higher level of debate than we are seeing at the moment. Senior military figures warn that the £100bn white elephant of Trident replacement does nothing to keep us safe. How a blind commitment to squandering our overstretched national resources on an outdated weapon of mass destruction can be touted as being "strong on defence" is beyond me.
It's time to ensure that we vote only for parliamentary candidates who are opposed to so-called 'Trident Replacement'. It's time for the Conservatives and Labour to wake up to the huge public opposition to Trident. It's time to scrap Trident, save £100bn, and spend it on things we really need."