30 years of campaigning for peace and disarmament

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group will hold its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday (8 June 2011) exactly 30 years after the group first met. As the minute book shows (see photograph), at 8 pm on 8 June 1981, ten people met at 83 Smithy Bridge Road to discuss forming a 'group against missiles'. They were amongst the many thousands of people concerned about the escalating nuclear arms race and the arrival of 96 Cruise nuclear missiles from the USA at Greenham Common in Berkshire. They named themselves 'Littleborough Peace Group' to emphasise their positive objectives and agreed to affiliate to the national Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Many of those present, subsequently, spent time supporting the Greenham Common Peace camp which ultimately saw the departure of Cruise nuclear missiles from Britain ten years later, while the earliest local campaigns focused on collecting signatures for the International Peace Petition. This called on the presidents of the USA and the then Soviet Union "to end the arms race which threatens all with annihilation ... to terminate immediately all research, development, testing, manufacture and deployment of nuclear bombs and missiles; and ... progressively, but quickly, destroy present stockpiles."

The group has remained continuously active since 1981. Littleborough Peace Group worked closely with Rochdale CND during the 1980s and 1990s and formed a key part of Rochdale Stop the War Coalition from 2002. The three groups merged in January 2007 to become the current, borough-wide, Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group.

Some of the founding members have sadly died or moved away during the past three decades, but several remain very active supporters of the group.

Rae Street was one of those attending the inaugural meeting in June 1981. She has since been a vice-chair of national CND and was, until earlier this year, chair of the Greater Manchester and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Along with Pat Sanchez who sent her apologies for the inaugural meeting in 1981, Rae was also a founder member of the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons.
She said,

"Greenham Common is, now, thankfully, a natural resource and wildlife sanctuary, open to the public, while all those people in Littleborough who signed the International Peace Petition in the 1980s played their own small, but essential role in persuading Reagan and Gorbachev to eventually sign the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987. However, the threat of nuclear annihilation remains and the need to campaign for a nuclear-free future has never been greater. The nuclear-armed states (China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the USA) have the capacity to destroy our planet many times over. Just one of the 48 nuclear warheads carried by each of the UK's Trident submarines has an explosive power 8 times greater than that which killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima. Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group remains as determined as ever to rid our world of nuclear weapons and war."

"All those who have supported our campaigns in the past or who wish to join us in future campaigning will be very welcome at our 30^th anniversary celebrations. For details of all our activities, they should contact Philip Gilligan ( philipgilligan@lineone.net, 01706 370712)." she added.

'Rochdale Palestine Solidarity Campaign urges shoppers to "Boycott Israeli Goods !" '

Rochdale Palestine Solidarity Campaign supported by Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group, today (Saturday 21 May 2011), urged Rochdale shoppers to "Boycott Israeli Goods!"

Rochdale PSC Branch Coordinator Jenny Turner said,

"For over 60 years successive United Nations' resolutions have not brought any respite for the suffering of Palestinian refugees or the people in territories occupied by Israel. The world's governments have done nothing, so ordinary people in Rochdale and elsewhere must take their own action. We are here today to raise awareness of the Palestinian struggle and to promote and support the international boycott of Israeli goods. The state of Israel has repeatedly shown through their words and deeds that they have no respect for the rights of the Palestinian people or those supporting them around the world. We need to bring global pressure to bear on Israel to respect human rights and international law."

"The Israeli military seeks to control every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967. We in Rochdale PSC and RLPG believe that it is a scandal that Israel profits from exporting fruit and vegetables grown on illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land and often misleadingly labelled 'West Bank'. People in Rochdale do not want to buy food grown on stolen land. Israel's siege of Gaza caused untold misery to it's people throughout 2007 and 2008 ; then Israel used overwhelming military force to kill 1,500 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children, at the start of 2010. We are calling on shoppers in Rochdale to show their solidarity with and support for the Palestinians against occupation, to join the boycott and help bring down Israeli apartheid in the same way the consumer boycott brought down South African apartheid. It has worked before and it will work again." , she concluded.

Andrew Wastling said,

"Today we are telling Rochdale shoppers to check the label ~ and asking them not to buy goods labelled 'Israel' or 'West Bank'. 'West Bank' means that this is produce from Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land. We are urging people to complain and challenge their supermarkets and to buy Palestinian goods wherever they can. Rochdale PSC has distributed cards for shoppers to hand to the manager of their local store. We urge anyone who wants to support the Boycott or who wants to join Rochdale PSC to contact us at 07787 575 570 at 07842 252639 or email us at rochdalepsc@gmail.com. We will be pleased to supply details of future,meetings , events and activities, especially our showing of the 'Iron War' film and Social Evening planned for 5 October 2011 in Rochdale."

No More Chernobyls. No New Nukes.

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined campaigners from across Greater Manchester on Monday evening (25 April 2011) to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl which resulted from the meltdown of the nuclear reactor there on 26 April 1986. Alongside the Chernobyl Children's Project, Greater Manchester and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities Association and the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Rochdale campaigners attended a concert in St Ann's Church, Manchester commemorating the deaths at Chernobyl and highlighting the ongoing consequences for those affected by the disaster. At 9 pm they joined the vigil in St Ann's Square where people holding candles spelt out a giant '25'.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said,

“It is 25 years since the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station had a such devastating effect on the country of Belarus and many other places in the world. Chernobyl continues to cast a shadow over the lives of thousands of people. It continues to impact on their physical and mental health, but, despite this, many governments, including our own, have not yet learned the lesson that nuclear power stations will always be a risk too far. We have to hope that the, still unresolved, crisis at the nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan will remind our politicians of the threats posed by nuclear power generation and, finally, persuade them to decommission plants at places like Heysham and Sellafield and to cancel all plans for building new nuclear power stations. We need no more Chernobyls. We need no more Fukushimas. We need to be rid of the dangers posed to us by Heysham and Sellafield. We need no new nukes.”

Warmonger Clegg welcomed to Milnrow - 12 April 2011

Peace group joins half a million on anti-cuts march

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined half a million protesters and many other groups from Rochdale in central London on Saturday (26 March 2011) demanding an end to cuts in public services which will seriously damage, not only Rochdale, but the whole country. We marched from Victoria Embankment to Hyde Park calling once again for the Government to cut war not welfare and to cease spending on the Trident nuclear weapons system and to save jobs, health and education services The march stretched for over four hours and for three miles through central London and culminated in a mass rally in Hyde Park, where the crowd applauded speakers who told the coalition Government to end its policies of cuts and privatisations, to introduce higher taxation on the banks and the super-rich and to ensure that corporations currently avoiding taxes are made to pay them.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said, “Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were in London on Saturday afternoon to tell politicians in Westminster that we will never accept their attacks on public services, jobs and pensions. We are united in resisting their cuts and privitisations. The peace group is pleased to be part of this mass movement and eager to remind people that money squandered on Trident and on wars is money that could be better spent on education, health and social services. We are confident that people in Rochdale would rather see their hospital and other services restored than to see their taxes being wasted on nuclear weapons of mass destruction and on continuing to send our young people to kill and be killed in NATO’s disastrous wars.”

March for the Alternative - Photo Gallery - 26 March 2011

Eve of Budget Message for Members of Parliament

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group is proud to be amongst the many organisations and individuals who contributed to the cost of the billboard currently displayed at Westminster underground station asking all our MPs, on the eve of the budget, 'How much are you spending on Trident?'

The answer, of course, is £2.2 billion and rising. This is what the present and the previous Government has squandered every year on a nuclear missile system we do not need, whilst at the same depriving Rochdale of its hospital services and forcing our Council to make drastic cuts in essential services throughout the borough.

The message is clear; we need Governments to stop spending on things we do not need and to transfer the money saved to spending on the services we do need.