Month: October 2019

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Scottish CND AGM -Responding to nuclear weapons and the climate emergency

Janet Fenton

This year’s Scottish CND AGM (Quaker Meeting House, Edinburgh 16th Nov.) will be a chance to meet the members who will take on new roles on our executive committee, and also to debate the resolutions that will move our activity forward in the year to come.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has declared that the threat of nuclear war and the climate emergency are why their Doomsday Clock stands at 2 minutes to midnight. David Attenborough’s stark warning is waking up the armchair generation to the dangers of environmental irresponsibility. Along with Trident Ploughshares, CND UK and WILPF, to name a few, SCND agreed to join XRPeace as part of the wider XR movement – and closed Whitehall in London (briefly). Many SCND members also came out to support the school students’ Strike for the Climate. It’s time to explore nuclear disarmament and climate change together if we are to have a human future. SCND has invited a small panel to our AGM to help us to see where our disarmament activity can contribute to the debate.

The AGM will be opened (10 a.m.) with a presentation from Grace Quinn, Kenneth McIvor and Rachel Sermanni, followed by a discussion on Nuclear Weapons in the Climate Emergency

Grace and Kenneth are two of the articulate and passionate school students who work to build the school climate strike movement locally (sycs.org.uk). They do a terrific job of sharing information and mobilising students in becoming active and adults to support them.

Rachel is one of Scotland’s most distinctive folk singers and a songwriter of ‘astonishing folk-noir, it’s meditative sensibility both calming and somehow unnerving’ (The Skinny). Rachel is a young mother, who cares about and considers her own responsibility for the future of her daughter’s world. She has agreed to take part in this discussion with SCND, and her newest album aims to raise funds as part of her contribution to the Extinction Rebellion in Scotland. https://tinyurl.com/yxz695on

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23 Arrests as XR Peace Blockades Victoria Embankment outside MoD

Janet Fenton

23 people have been arrested this morning after blocking Victoria Embankment in London outside the UK Ministry of Defence complex, amid calls for UK to redirect resources from military to address Climate Crisis, and as part of the XR London Rebellion beginning today. Theprotesters, from the XR Peace group, blocked the Embankment with a car and by attaching themselves to a mock Trident missile. Among the protesters were Rewilding North, a group from Wales, a group from Cornwall, a group from Yorkshire, people from Scotland and other parts of the country.

Among those arrested is Quaker Sarah Lasenby, 81, a retired social worker from Oxford. She said:“For twenty-one years my main concern has been to help get rid on UK nuclear weapons. I am still keen to do this but once I came across XR I was so relieved to have something I could do about the ghastly state we have got our planet in. The directness of the students with statements ‘There is no planet B’ and ‘it is our futures’ has driven me on.. The whole thing is so urgent that it is imperative the Government should take serious actions and put pressure on other states and Global Powers to radically reduce the use of fossil fuel seven if this means we need to reduce our comfort at home and so much flying. The future life of the planet is so important. So I protest with XR Peace.”

Also arrested is Angie Zelter, founder of the nonviolent direct action nuclear disarmament campaign group Trident Ploughshares, who said“Climate change causes war and war causes climate change. About 6% of global carbon emissions are from military activity. As the climate crisis gains pace there will be increasing tension. If countries continue to resort to war as a means of solving conflict wewill not be able to avert climate crisis.”

Another of those arrested is Trident Ploughshares activist Jane Tallents, who lived for six years at Faslane Peace Camp in the 1980s said “All people of the earth face the twin existential threats of nuclear weapons and the climate emergency. To avert catastrophe we must find new ways of thinking and work together to save our shared home.”