‘Lego brick poll’ shows that Rochdale wants decent social care services, not nuclear weapons

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group leafleted in Rochdale town centre on Saturday, 29 June 2013. They called for an end to all spending on the Trident nuclear weapons system and for all monies allocated to upgrading nuclear weapons to be transferred immediately to funding social care services. As striking Future Directions workers marched past their stall at the bottom of Yorkshire Street, the peace campaigners said that ‘Rochdale needs decent social care services, not nuclear weapons’. 

In what they dubbed a ‘Lego brick poll’, they asked Rochdale’s Saturday shoppers to choose whether they want their taxes spent on building ‘Decent Adult Care Services’ or on the ‘Trident nuclear weapons system’? An overwhelming majority chose ‘Decent Adult Care Services’. Many also signed postcards and petitions from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament urging MPs to demand an end to Trident and its replacement.   

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said,

“During recent years, people in Rochdale have been very much on the sharp end of cuts in essential local services. We have lost acute inpatient services across the board at Rochdale Infirmary, while our Council has been forced to slash tens of £millions from planned spending on essential services. Yet, the Government with support from the Labour Party’s national leadership continues to squander £2.2 billion every year on the Trident nuclear weapons system and refuses to abandon plans to develop even deadlier nuclear weapons of mass destruction which will cost an estimated £100billion.

Based on population, Rochdale’s share of the current costs of Britain’s nuclear arsenal already amounts to £7million per year, but the staggering cost to Rochdale of so-called ’Trident Replacement’ totals well over £300million. This is more money than the Council would need to restore and maintain all local services at uncut levels and to ensure that proper salaries are restored to those who provide them. Rochdale’s £300million could and should be spent, on the essential services people need. It is time to tell the government and all those who support retention of nuclear weapons that we want our taxes spent on decent local services not nuclear weapons.

“A nuclear- free Britain would be £billions better off. Trident is a dangerous waste of public money”, he added.

Ground the Drones - Channel 4 News - 27 April 2013

GROUND THE DRONES - Waddington - 27 April 2013

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group travelled to Lincolnshire on Saturday (27 April 2013) to join the national demonstration against the growing use of military drones which are causing civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza and elsewhere. The demonstration at RAF Waddington, near Lincoln was called by War on Want, the Stop the War Coalition and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

 The Ministry of Defence had earlier admitted for the first time that armed drones have been operated remotely from RAF Waddington and used in attacks in Afghanistan (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/25/uk-controlling-drones-afghanistan-britain ).

On 6 April 2013, in a single incident, a drone attack ended up in killing 18 people including at least 10 children in the Shigal district of Afghanistan (http://www.asiantribune.com/node/62242 ).

On behalf of Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said,

“It was very important for Rochdale to be represented at this demonstration. We were pleased to join fellow campaigners from throughout Greater Manchester and other parts of the country. We all travelled to Lincoln to make our voices heard against these unacceptable weapons. The killing of civilians by weapons controlled from an air-conditioned bunker in the East of England is not ‘collateral damage’ in a ‘game’ played on a computer screen. Each death and injury is a murderous war crime.

Over the past four years, the USA has launched hundreds of drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. Drones have killed thousands of people, including hundreds of children. They are indiscriminate killers. Drones make the world a much more dangerous place.

In our own country, the government’s willingness to use drones has grown rapidly in recent years without any public consultation or debate. This spring they will double the number of Reaper drones in Afghanistan and begin operating them from Waddington where we have been protesting today.

Drones are killing civilians who play no part in war. They are violating human rights and increasing the risk of conflict. We need to bring their use under control.”

See also http://www.channel4.com/news/drones-protest-at-raf-base-over-behind-our-backs-war

WE ARE ALL DOWNWIND OF A NUCLEAR POWER STATION

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group marked the 27th anniversary of the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl on Friday (26 April 2013) by calling on local MPs to support the decommissioning of all existing nuclear power stations and an end to plans to build new nuclear plants. They displayed poster and distributed leaflets reminding shoppers that "WE ARE ALL DOWNWIND OF A NUCLEAR POWER STATION".

On behalf of the peace group, Pat Sanchez said,

“The explosion and fire at Chernobyl released vast quantities of radioactive particles which spread all over Europe including the United Kingdom and Rochdale, but Chernobyl is only one of many disasters which have threatened all our futures. Like Chernobyl, the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi in March 2011 was also classified by the International Nuclear Event Scale as a highly dangerous level 7 event.

In Rochdale, we are very vulnerable to the existing nuclear power stations at Heysham and at Sellafield where there have been successions of accidents, fires and closures which threaten our safety.

Nuclear power is dangerous, expensive, unnecessary, damaging to health and closely linked to nuclear weapons proliferation. An accident or terrorist attack at a nuclear power station could leave large parts of Britain uninhabitable for hundreds of years, but even without an accident, routine releases from nuclear plants lead to rises in childhood leukaemia. New nuclear plants would create vast amounts of nuclear waste for which there is no agreed safe storage solution.”  

SCRAP TRIDENT - GLASGOW 13 April 2013

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined a Scrap Trident rally in Glasgow on Saturday (13 April 2013) calling for removal of nuclear weapons from the Faslane submarine base in Scotland, from all countries of the United Kingdom and from the world.

Standing beside a statue of Sir Walter Scott in St George's Square, they heard Scottish trade unionists emphasise that ongoing funding on the Trident project is a waste of public money especially in times of harsh cuts to spending in all areas of the public sector, while convener of the Church of Scotland's church and society council, sent a message asking whether a world burdened with the scourge of nuclear weapons is a place we want to live in and leave behind? (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22134802 )

Philip Gilligan on behalf of the Peace Group said:

"Sally Foster-Fulton reminded us that nuclear weapons are a profound evil and their potential for irretrievable harm is immense.  She and other Scots are demanding a nuclear free future, but this is not just a Scottish issue. Scrapping the Trident nuclear weapons system is just as important to Rochdale and to England as it is north of the border. Trident is an expensive and dangerous menace which we cannot afford. It is utter madness that the government continues to spend more than £2 billion every year on these evil weapons and even crazier that it is planning to squander another £100 billion on their successors. It is unforgivable that Cameron and Clegg are doing this at the same time as they are cutting services for the disabled and punishing people for having an extra bedroom. Our taxes should be funding human needs, not being wasted the means of humanity's destruction. It is time to scrap Trident."

Ten Years On Peace Group Says 'No More Wars'

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group has been marking the tenth anniversary of Britain's biggest ever anti-war demonstration which was held in London on Saturday 15 February 2003 . At their stall in Yorkshire Street on Saturday morning (16 February 2013), they reminded Rochdale's shoppers that ten years ago they had joined between one and two million people in London and millions more around the world in an effort to stop George Bush's and Tony Blair’s plans to invade Iraq.

Their leaflet told people that "Since NATO’s invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, more than 600 British troops have been killed in pointless foreign wars." and that "These same wars have killed and injured tens of thousands of civilians— men, women and children.", adding that "Now, in 2013, NATO’s disastrous war in Afghanistan still takes lives on a daily basis; British troops are bound for Mali  and drones are regularly taking the lives of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan." They said that "It is time to bring the troops home and to tell the government that we want no more of their wars."

The Peace Group asked people to join them in urging MPs Jim Dobbin and Simon Danczuk to support Early Day Motion 1055 in Parliament and collected more than 100 signatures in support of calls to express deep regret "that the war went ahead and that the will of the people was ignored" and for the view that "any decision to engage in armed conflict should be subject to prior approval via a free vote in Parliament rather than relying on prerogative power."

Partricia Gilligan who was in London on Saturday 15 February 2003 and campaigning again in Yorkshire Street on Saturday 16 February 2013, said,


"In 2003, we were packed so tightly in the streets that we could not move. It was obvious that this was a huge demonstration and there was a great sense of solidarity and purpose. We knew that regardless of whether we were two million people or one million people, we represented the overwhelming view of ordinary people in Britain. We rejected Bush and Blair's war. There was no need to invade Iraq and when the invasion took place, I felt that the politicians had betrayed me. A country was going to be destroyed and thousands of innocent children, women and men would be killed. Remembering Iraq reminds us of the futility and horror of war. It should make us more determined than ever to say no to war.”

Peace Group highlight risks from nuclear waste in North West England

On Wednesday 6 February 2013, Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group discussed  the growing crisis surrounding nuclear power and nuclear waste in the United Kingdom and especially in North West England. They called for the decommissioning of all existing nuclear power stations and the immediate scrapping of plans to build any more.

Philip Gilligan said: "The government plans to build more nuclear power stations, when the existing ones are already polluting our planet and deforming our children.
"Those promoting nuclear power don't want us to know the dangerous truth. They tell us that nuclear power is "safe", but as the disasters at Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima have all shown us, this is not the case. They tell us that nuclear power is "clean”, but the nuclear industry produces dirty radioactive waste that remains dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.
"Now MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have told us that the 'enormous' legacy of nuclear waste at Sellafield has been allowed to build up, with no indication of when the cost will stop rising.
"The PAC said that Sellafield already costs the public around £1.6 billion per year and its chairwoman, Margaret Hodge MP says that a solution to the problem of long-term storage of nuclear waste is as far away as ever following the decision by leaders of Cumbria County Council to reject plans for an underground dump in the Lake District.

"Successive governments have failed to find any solution to the thousands of tons of nuclear waste that has been allowed to build up on the notoriously accident-prone sites around the often renamed nuclear power sites in Cumbria, while the current government’s plans to build more nuclear power stations will produce more nuclear waste.

"This hazardous and very long-lasting material is taken by train from places like Sizewell in the South East of England up the west coast mainline to be dumped 'temporarily' above ground at Sellafield. It is time to stop this dangerous and expensive madness.”