NFLA Nagasaki Commemoration, Peace Gardens, Manchester

Hiroshima Day Commemorations 2010

Peace group members were in a wide variety of places on 6 August 2010. Pat Sanchez, for example, was stuck in Paris, but still managed her own quiet ceremony in her hotel room. Meanwhile, the Gilligan family attempted to fly a paper lantern with the message “No More Hiroshimas!” from the beach at Criccieth, only to be frustrated by very strong winds. They returned, later, on a much calmer evening to commemorate the dead of Nagasaki and successfully launched the lantern out across Cardigan Bay.

Philip Gilligan said,

“Remembering the horror of Hiroshima and the death and destruction
wrought on Nagasaki a few days brings home the importance of striving for a
global ban on nuclear weapons and campaigning against the government’s
plans to upgrade the Trident nuclear weapons system. Britain’s existing
nuclear weapons of mass destruction threaten the world with many times the
destructive force of the Hiroshima bomb. They would kill 50,000,000 people
and destroy our planet. They are dangerous, costly and unnecessary. It is
time to scrap Trident and to strive seriously for a safer world in which the
£billions squandered on the potential for nuclear devastation is spent, instead,
on the things we need. We need education, health and social services, not
nuclear missiles.”

Nuclear Threat to 2012 Olympics

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined anti-nuclear campaigners in East London on Saturday (10 July 2010) to highlight the fact that trains carrying highly-radioactive nuclear cargoes such as fuel rods are being taken through the 2012 Olympic site and other densely populated areas of the country on a weekly basis. Rae Street, Pat Sanchez and Philip Gilligan walked around the Olympic stadium to Stratford railway station where they joined fellow protesters in a symbolic ‘die-in’ in front of the Olympic Clock.

Pat Sanchez said,

“We were there because we need to highlight the devastating consequences of any accident to or terrorist attack on one of these nuclear trains, and we were there from Rochdale because this is a danger that affects the whole country. The trains passing the Olympic stadium each week are carrying highly dangerous radioactive waste from the nuclear power stations at Sizewell in Essex and Dungeness in Kent. They go all the way to Sellafield in Cumbria via the Midlands and the North West. Any accident or attack could have devastating consequences in Rochdale as well as East London. The potentially deadly cargoes on these trains are an inevitable by-product of the nuclear power industry. The fact that they are being transported from one end of the country to the other shows that the nuclear power industry doesn’t know what to do with its existing radioactive waste, let alone the even greater quantities of waste that would result from an increased in the number of nuclear plants. We need to stop these nuclear trains running through our towns and cities and we need to end our use of nuclear energy. We need to transfer the money currently wasted on hidden and not-so-hidden subsidies to the nuclear industry to funding insulation of our homes and developing safe and sustainable energy sources such as wind, wave, solar and geothermal sources. Nuclear power is not worth the risk.”

Peace Group remembers all those killed in Afghanistan

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group held an hour's vigil at the cenotaph opposite Rochdale Town Hall on Tuesday 22 June 2010. They were mourning the deaths of British soldiers in Afghanistan, including, Richard Hollington aged 23 years, the 300th British soldier to be killed there and the deaths of the thousands of Afghan civilians killed, since the invasion by NATO forces in October 2001. Members of the group read the names of all 300 British troops killed in Afghanistan since NATO's invasion and the names of 300 of the Afghan civilians. They also laid two wreaths, one with the number '300' and one with the name 'Sayed Rahman', a two year old child killed in a US airstrike during the night of April 8/9, 2003 in a village in Paktika Province near the Pakistan border.

The group observed periods of silence for all the dead and called for British troops to be brought home from Afghanistan.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said,

"This is a day which we hoped would never come, but while the government continues to send our young men and women to kill and be killed in Afghanistan, it was inevitable that it would arrive. Saturday 26 June 2010 is 'Armed Forces Day' and David Cameron is telling us that we should show greater appreciation for our military. Bringing them home from NATO's disastrous and futile war would be a very good start. We need to remember all the dead and to demand that British troops are allowed to return home to their families. The killing must stop."

Budget Day message - “Cut Trident Save Services”

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group took its ‘Cut Trident Save Services’ message to the Budget Day demonstration outside Rochdale town hall on Tuesday evening, 22 June 2010.

Philip Gilligan carried the group’s mock Trident nuclear missile on his back, displaying a price tag of £97bn (£97,000,000,000). He said,

“Today’s budget is a major assault on local jobs and services. The coalition government says that they need to ‘reduce the deficit’, but they are ignoring the cost of the unnecessary and dangerous Trident nuclear missile system and refuse to even include Trident in their review of defence spending. Greenpeace estimates that the cost of ‘Trident Replacement’ will total £97billion. Based on population, Rochdale’s share of this would amount to a staggering £300million; six times the £50million cuts, now, threatened in next year’s Rochdale Council budget. This is money that could and should be spent on the jobs and services which the government is now cutting. Trident “is a system we simply cannot afford”. We need to cut nuclear weapons of mass destruction, not the public services we need.”

Rae Street addresses Free Palestine rally - 13 June 2010

Rae Street from Littleborough was one the main speakers at a rally organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Greater Manchester and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Stop the War Coalition and Viva Palestina in Manchester on Sunday afternoon (13 June 2010). She joined thousands of demonstrators from across the region, including several members of Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group, in condemning Israel’s deadly attack on the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ aid convoy on 31May 2010 and in welcoming home Babu Adam Zanghar from Bolton and Paveen Yaqub from Huddersfield who are survivors of the attacks which left at least 9 people dead. The demonstrators called for freedom for the people of Palestine and, in particular for an independent international investigation into Israel’s attack on the boats which had been attempting to take aid to the besieged people of Gaza.

Rae Street said,

“I very much want to thank Paveen and Babu for telling us the truth about what happened to people on the flotilla. I also want to remind you of some other truths. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons, but our government maintains a hypocritical silence about the dangers which their upwards of 200 nuclear warheads pose to the peace and stability of the world. Meanwhile, Mordechai Vanunu who has already suffered 18 years of imprisonment for revealing the truth about Israeli nuclear weapons has, now, again been imprisoned for daring to talk to reporters; for simply telling the truth. We all need to stand together to expose the truth about Israel and to tell our government to end its hypocrisy and to, immediately, stop selling arms to a state which has broken international law again and again.”

To view a copy of Rae's speech, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuEVmnOtUv0

Peace Group calls for immediate cuts in “a system we simply cannot afford”

‘Cut Trident not Treatment!’, ‘Cut Nukes not Nurses!’ ‘Fund Welfare not Warfare!’ These were amongst the messages that Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group shared with shoppers in Yorkshire Street on Saturday (12 June 2010).

They displayed a mock Trident nuclear missile with a very large price label of £97bn (£97,000,000,000) and asked people to join them in calling on the new coalition government to immediately decommission the current Trident nuclear missile system, abandon all plans to replace ‘Trident’ and to spend all monies saved on improving the country’s education, health and social care services.

Philip Gilligan, on behalf of the Peace Group said,

“On 6 May 2010, an overwhelming majority of voters in Rochdale and in Heywood and Middleton voted for parliamentary candidates who had clearly declared their opposition to so-called ‘Trident Replacement. This came as no surprise. These unnecessary and dangerous nuclear weapons of mass destruction already costs British taxpayers £2,000,000,000 per year, and the plans to upgrade them will cost our country tens of £billions more. Based on population, Rochdale’s share of the current costs already amounts to £7,000,000 per year. Greenpeace estimates that the true cost of ‘Trident Replacement’ will total £97,000,000,000. Rochdale’s share of this would amount to a staggering £300,000,000. This is money that could and should be spent on essential health, education and social care services. The new coalition government tells us that it needs to ‘reduce the deficit’ and has already announced over £6bn (£6,000,000,000) in swingeing cuts, but it still refuses to even include Trident in the review of defence spending. In the election campaign, Nick Clegg and his colleagues claimed that they “oppose like-for-like replacement of Trident.” They told us that “It is not suited to today’s security threats and, with a £100bn price tag, it is a system we simply cannot afford”. We agree and, now, they are in government, we want to see them cut what we cannot afford, not the services we need.”