Protest at Brimar Friday 19 March 2010

Pat Sanchez ensured that Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group was represented at the demonstration at the Brimar factory on Friday 19 March 2010.

Pat comments,

“Brimar, make the targeting equipment for the US M1A1 tanks that took part in the 'second battle of Fallujah', in Nov 04. The company also supplies parts for the delivery of depleted uranium munitions, not only by the M1A2 tank, the Bradley IFV and the Challenger 11 but by the notorious A-10 Warthog planes that have left so much contamination in Iraq. Contamination that is linked to a huge increase in birth defects and cancers. The sad thing is that the firm used to make goods with a purely civilian use, goods that no worker need have felt ashamed to make.

It was a lovely bright morning, a blackbird was singing - it felt like spring had at last come. But it felt totally wrong that workers were calmly turning up for a job that was going to help rain down death and mutilation not only for the immediate targets of those weapons, but for their descendents for many generations to come.”

For more information, please see www.targetbrimar.org.uk

Peace Group welcomes candidates' opposition to 'Trident Replacement'

At its meeting in Spotland on Wednesday night (10 March 2010), Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group welcomed news that the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Rochdale has joined local MPs, Paul Rowen and Jim Dobbin and the Liberal-Democrat Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Middleton and Heywood in confirming that he would vote against 'Trident Replacement', if elected as an MP.

Paul Rowen, MP and Jim Dobbin, MP voted against the government's plans to upgrade the Trident nuclear missile system when the matter was debated in Parliament on 14 March 2007, but the Peace Group had, until very recently, been unclear about the views of prospective parliamentary candidates, Wera Hobhouse and Simon Danczuk . The Peace Group meeting welcomed news that Ms Hobhouse had, now, written to say that she "would follow official Libdem policy on the matter which is for not replacing Trident". The meeting also learned that Mr Danczuk, who has previously said that he was "undecided" about the issue and that there were "compelling arguments for both sides" (see http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/community-news/1526/danczuk-happy-to-answer-questions ) had written to Pat Sanchez, saying that he "would oppose the Government replacing Trident" and "that money spent on Trident could be better spent on social and health care" .

Philip Gilligan, on behalf of the Peace Group said,

“We are very pleased to see that our ongoing campaign for nuclear disarmament is achieving positive results, and are particularly delighted that that there now appears to be cross-party support throughout the whole of Rochdale Borough for our view that the government’s plans to upgrade the dangerous and unnecessary Trident nuclear weapons system should be rejected. We hope that this will help persuade other local MPs, like Phil Woolas and Janet Anderson to follow public opinion and to, also, change their positions. We hope that it heralds the day when all our local MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates will join us in calling for the immediate decommissioning of the current Trident system. The existing system already costs the country £2,000,000,000 per year. This is money that needs to be spent on essential services, like social care, not on nuclear weapons.”

Peace Group asks ‘What would you do with Rochdale’s £300,000,000?’

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group were in the town centre on Saturday (6 March 2010) calling for an end to spending on nuclear missiles and an increase in spending on health, education and social care. They invited people to sign the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s petition calling for an immediate end to the government’s plans to upgrade the Trident nuclear weapons system and supporting a global ban on nuclear weapons. The local campaigners included Patricia and Philip Gilligan, Jenny Turner and Pat Sanchez, who was fresh from a visit, last month, to the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment where she lay down in the road in an attempt to halt work on the development of new nuclear weapons. The Peace Group report a very enthusiastic response from local shoppers, including Heywood and Middleton MP, Jim Dobbin who stopped to sign the CND petition on his way up Yorkshire Street and wished the group well.

Pat Sanchez said,

“At a time of economic crisis, when care homes are being closed in Rochdale and services cut, because of a lack of funds, it is scandalous that £billions are being squandered on new facilities at Aldermaston. While health services in Greater Manchester are facing yet another round of cuts, spending on new facilities at AWE Aldermaston has increased seventeen-fold over the past decade, from £24m in 2000 to £420m last year. Trident is a Cold War weapons system which does nothing to protect Britain from any threat we face today, yet it is the only item that was excluded from reconsideration in the government's recent Defence Review. We are delighted to have the support of local MPs like Jim Dobbin in our struggle to halt Trident Replacement, and hope that, eventually, a majority in parliament will wake up to the fact that most people in Britain are opposed to spending £billions on upgrading nuclear weapons of mass destruction. We want our taxes spent on decent public services, not on a means to spread death on a global scale. Nuclear weapons are an immoral, illegal and hideous misuse of public funds. Greenpeace estimates that the true cost of Trident Replacement would amount to £97billion over the next few years. Based on population, Rochdale’s share of even the current costs of Trident already amounts to £7million per year. This is more than 4 times what the Council hopes to save by closing the Meadow View Care Centre in Middleton, but the proportionate cost to our borough of so-called ‘Trident Replacement’ amounts to much more; in excess of £300million. This is money that needs to be spent on essential services, like social care, not on nuclear weapons.”

For confirmation of Pat's figures on spending at Aldermaston, please see http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2005-10-31c.22020.h and http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2010-01-29a.313384.h