‘Pay the Nurses! Stop paying for Trident!’

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group has responded to news that the government is refusing to give thousands of Britain’s nurses even a 1% pay increase, when the retail price index is increasing by almost 3% a year. Local campaigners were on the corner of Hare Hill Road and Church Street in Littleborough on Saturday (22 March 2014) asking people to join them in demanding that more of their taxes are spent on health, education and social services and not on the Trident nuclear weapons system.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Pat Sanchez said,

“We all benefit from the skills and commitment of our NHS nurses and we owe them a decent wage. We need the care and treatment they provide. Yet, the Government is refusing to give them and many others the pay increases they need. Meanwhile, Cameron and Clegg and their ministers seem determined to continue wasting £billions each and every year on the Trident nuclear weapons system. They seem happy to spend on nuclear weapons of mass destruction, but say they can find nothing for our nurses. We are telling the government and all those who support them in wasting our taxes on nuclear weapons that we want our county’s money spent on making lives better not on nuclear weapons which offer us nothing but death and destruction. We say ‘Pay the nurses! Stop paying for Trident!’”

Peace Group joins ‘Around the World in 90 Days’ Bike for Peace tour

                                                         Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined 8 Norwegian mayors and Kjell Magne Bondevik, the former Norwegian Prime Minister, as they started the Around the World in 90 Days Bike for Peace from Manchester on Saturday (15 March 2014).

From Manchester, the Norwegian Group plan to cycle back to Oslo via London, Paris, Nice, Rome, Tehran, New Dehli, Beijing, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Kansas, Indianapolis, Washington DC and New York. They will be hosting a reception with the mayor of Hiroshima to commemorate the tens of thousands of victims of the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945. They are travelling with a letter of support from the current Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg.

Philip Gilligan joined the 8 mayors with his own bike at the Lord Mayor’s reception in Manchester town hall, cycling with them to Platt Fields Park where they all rode the Sri Chinmoy Peace Mile.

Philip said “It was inspiring to meet a group so committed to spreading the message of peace across around the world. Their slogans and objectives are ones which I am sure many people in Rochdale would be eager to support. They include the immediate abolition of nuclear weapons and support for the casualties of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and of nuclear testing and disasters in Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, in Nevada and at Chernobyl in Belorus. The cyclists from Bike For Peace and Mayors for Peace are also promoting the integration of disabled persons, gender equality and cycling as a way to help the environment and to reduce global warming. We wish them well in their campaign”

See http://bikeforpeace.info/2014/BikeForPeaceAroundTheWorld.pdf for more information about the Bike For Peace ‘Around the World’ event.

See http://www.demotix.com/news/4192603/launch-bike-peace-tour-lord-mayor-manchester#media-4191776  for more (professional) photographs of the Bike For Peace events in Manchester on Saturday (15 March 2014)

See http://www.manchester.gov.uk/news/article/6830/bike_for_peace_set_to_depart_on_90_day_world_tour_from_manchester_town_hall for the Manchester City Council statement.

Peace Group Make History

Staff from the People's History Museum in Manchester joined Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group campaigners in Yorkshire Street, Rochdale on Saturday morning (8 February 2014). The museum is collecting materials from contemporary campaigns for peace, justice and equality as part of its 'Play Your Part' project. They were keen both to publicise their project and to record Rochdale's peace campaigners in action.



The Peace Group are urging people to demand that their taxes be spent on decent public services rather than on nuclear weapons. Their leaflets reminded Rochdale's shoppers that "The government spends £2,500,000,000 every year on nuclear weapons", "still plans to squander £100,000,000 on upgrading the unnecessary Trident nuclear weapons system", that "Rochdale's share of the current costs already amounts to £7million per year" and that "the proportionate cost to our borough of so-called 'Trident Replacement' is over £300million". 

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said, 

“We are asking people 'How would you spend Rochdale's £300,000,0000?'. We find that an overwhelming majority want such money spent on essential health, education and social services not on weapons of mass destruction. People in our borough have seen the government impose the bedroom tax, triple tuition fees, cut benefits and freeze the pay of public sector workers. We have seen them force our council to cut essential services, but we know that these cuts would be unnecessary, if the government would stop wasting our money on things like upgrading the Trident system". 

"Nuclear weapons threaten all life on earth. Our goal is to make them 'history', while history shows us that nuclear weapons have not prevented wars, have not prevented terrorism and are a gross waste of public money", he added.  

For more information about the Play Your Part project, please contact Catherine O'Donnell on 0161 838 9190; e-mail catherine.odonnell@phm.org.uk or visit http://phmmcr.wordpress.com/ 

Thanks to Jim Dobbin MP for signing EDMs 854 and 855

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group was delighted to see that Jim Dobbin MP has signed Early Day Motions 854 and 855 (see  http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2013-14/854  and http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2013-14/855 ).


EDM 854 welcomes the statement from 125 states expressing concern about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons at the UN General Assembly First Committee on 21 October 2013; regrets the non-attendance of the UK Government at the governmental conference in Oslo to discuss this issue in March 2013; and urges the Government to ensure that the UK is represented at the new governmental conference in Mexico in February 2014. 

EDM 855 welcomes progress in diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East to eliminate existing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs); and urges the UK Government to do its utmost to take advantage of positive momentum and ensure a conference supported and attended by all states of the region is convened without delay, so as to apply pressure on all states of the region to dismantle their arsenals of WMDs and make serious progress on a weapons of mass destruction free-zone in the Middle East.
 
These are vital issues and it is great to see that Jim is amongst the MPs in parliament taking them seriously and urging the Government to take actions which will contribute towards making this a safer and more peaceful world.

The Peace Group hopes that he will be joined by other local MPs in these efforts.

Messages of Peace for Littleborough

The Peace Group took their colourful peace cranes and an 'NHS Not Trident' message to the corner of Church Street and Hare Hill Road, in Littleborough on Saturday (14 December 2013).

Local campaigners, Pat Sanchez, Pauline Devine, Patricia and Philip Gilligan asked Christmas shoppers enjoying the carols to join them in signing a letter confirming that they want their taxes "spent on decent health and social care services, not the Trident nuclear weapons system". They distributed not only Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament leaflets asking, "What if we had over £100bn to spend on healthcare, transport, housing, education and energy?" but also samples of folded paper peace cranes and instructions for making these paper birds. The cranes were made by children and peace campaigners from across Japan who had attended this year's Peace March from Tokyo to Hiroshima marking the 68^th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. They have been sent to peace and anti-nuclear groups throughout the world, including Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group by 'Gensuikyo', the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs with a request that they be given as tokens of peace to promote a worldwide message of nuclear disarmament.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said, 

“The people of Japan know better than most the horrifying and indiscriminate destruction that the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought in 1945. They do well remind us in Littleborough and elsewhere that nuclear weapons now threaten to destroy our entire planet. We were delighted to receive the gift from Gensuikyo. The cranes symbolise our united call for all countries to scrap their ever-more dangerous nuclear arsenals and inspire us to repeat our demand that politicians in Britain recognise the need to scrap the Trident nuclear weapons system, immediately."

"There are many reasons why our taxes should never be spent on nuclear weapons and amongst them is the fact that scrapping the Trident nuclear weapons system would save our country around £100 billion. This is money which could fully fund all A&E services in hospitals for over 40 years into the future or be used to build 150 new state-of-the-art hospitals or to pay the wages of 150,000 extra nurses for the next 30 years. That would save lives, instead of threatening humankind's very existence.", he added.

Cranes fly-in to back peaceful spending

Rochdale shoppers admired colourful paper cranes on the Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group stall in Yorkshire Street on Saturday morning (23 November 2013) where local campaigners were asking passers-by to sign a letter confirming that they want their taxes "spent on decent health and social care services, not the Trident nuclear weapons system" and where they distributed Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament leaflets asking, "What if we had over £100bn to spend on healthcare, transport, housing, education and energy"?.

The cranes were made by children and peace campaigners from across Japan and were some of the millions gathered during the 2013 Peace March from Tokyo to Hiroshima to mark the 68^th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. Since 6 August 2013, 'Gensuikyo', the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs has been sending boxes of cranes to peace and anti-nuclear groups throughout the world, including Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said, 

“There are many reasons why our taxes should never be spent on nuclear weapons. The people of Japan know better than most the horrifying and indiscriminate destruction that the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought in 1945. They remind us that nuclear weapons threaten to destroy our world. We were delighted to receive the gift from our fellow peace campaigners in Gensuikyo. The cranes symbolise our united call for all countries to scrap their ever-more dangerous nuclear arsenals and inspire us to repeat our demand that politicians in Britain recognise the need to scrap the Trident nuclear weapons system, immediately. This is a campaign which must succeed; for the sake of us all and for generations to come..  At a time when the government claims to have no money, it is spending £95 every second of every minute of every day on nuclear weapons. That's £8 million of our taxes wasted every day on something which former chief of the defence staff, Field Marshal Lord Bramall and Generals Lord Ramsbotham and Sir Hugh Beach denounced in 2009 as "irrelevant" and "completely useless" (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7832365.stm ). Scrapping the Trident nuclear weapons system would save around £100 billion. This is money which could fully fund all A&E services in hospitals for over 40 years into the future or be used to build 150 new state-of-the-art hospitals or to pay the wages of 150,000 extra nurses for the next 30 years. That would save lives, instead of threatening humankind's very existence." 

"We and the cranes will be visiting other parts of the borough over the coming months. We trust and hope that many more people will join us in demanding that our taxes are spent on the services we need, not squandered on nuclear weapons”, he added.

Anti-Nuclear Campaigners from Rochdale attend Mayors For Peace reception at Lord Mayor's parlour

The Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Naeem Ul Hassan, welcomed dignitaries and anti-nuclear campaigners to Manchester Town Hall on Wednesday (13 November 2013) as part of his role as Vice-President of Mayors for Peace.

Councillor Naeem Ul Hassan presented campaigners Pat Sanchez and  Rae Street from Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group with paper cranes which were sent to Manchester from Japan by Gensuikyo, the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.

The folding of paper cranes is a traditional symbol in Japan used to commemorate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki since the 1950's. The paper crane has become synonymous with peace in Japan just like the CND symbol here in the West.

The paper cranes were made by children and peace campaigners from across Japan and were gathered during the 201 3 Peace March. The 1,000+ peace marchers started off from Tokyo and finished in Hiroshima in time for the memorial events surrounding the 68^th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city in 1945. Millions of cranes were collected during the Peace March and they have been sent out across the world to the cities represented at the 2013 World Conference Against A & H Bombs which took place in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August.

Rae, Pat and others  will use the cranes in Rochdale by sending them out to schools and faith groups along with instructions on how to make their own paper cranes. The hope is that young people will spend time thinking about and discussing  the meaning of peace.