WORDS & ACTIONS: Peace, sustainability & equality

The election in Scotland delivered surprises. A first impression that the Tories are back on the rise might dismay nuclear disarmament campaigners, but the reality is that our movement is rising in numbers and commitment.

The Scottish Labour Party is now agreed that scrapping Trident is the way to go, tossing an assurance about the jobs argument as a sop to the GMB Cerebus. Jackie Baillie, the Dumbarton guardian of Trident who managed a hundred vote majority to hang onto her seat, is a notable exception. Party leader Kezia Dugdale now accepts scrapping Trident, and is not the only Labour MSP who has formally signed up to support the 127 countries committed to negotiating a ban treaty.

Let’s not forget though, that it was the UK Labour Party that wrote the white paper for Trident replacement – and acquired nuclear weapons in the first place.

We know that the Scottish independence movement is not the same at the SNP. Greens want independence and have foreign policies that reject the UK’s ideas even more firmly than the SNP, Many Scots view party politics as anathema and seek independence as an internationalist ideal, contributing to world peace.

So the Tory revival? Hanging on to power (Trident) is at the core of the unionist case, and thus unionist voters abandoned the Labour Party at the polls in favour of the Tories. The overall rejection of Trident firmly rooted in support for the internationalist perspective continues to grow.

The turn-out was up a few points on the last Scottish Parliament election, but way below the referendum’s turn-out of the disaffected. Even without them, the pro-indy candidates took 48% with the pro-unionists at 50%, so support for independence is up since the referendum and way up on the last Scottish Parliamentary general election.

Horses for courses and tasks for days.

The SNP at Westminster represents the democratic deficit Scots so keenly feel on nuclear weapons and austerity. At home, the new Scottish Parliament can be more expansive, discussing affairs from different perspectives in the context of a clear and growing anti-Trident majority. In 2011 55% of the elected MSP’s belonged to parties opposing Trident. Now, 72% of MSP’s are in parties that oppose Trident. Lib Dems have more opinions on nuclear weapons than they have MSPs, and are even less consistent on other topics. Proportional Representation, albeit a limited version, delivers 35% gender balance compared to Westminster ‘s 29% and a wider view of the overlap between domestic and structural violence and its ultimate manifestation in nuclear weapons discourse.

What are the next steps political steps for Scotland? Down to us, Trident would be scrapped and Nicola would be at UN. Independence could disarm a UK with nowhere for Trident.

Meanwhile, can our new Parliament ensure our safety with nuclear convoys on our roads? What does Scots Law say abouti nuclear weapons? What part can the Scottish Government take in international negotiations for a nuclear weapons ban treaty? Ask your MSP!

 Testimony from SETSUKO THURLOW, HIBAKUSHA

Supporting THE GLOBAL NUCLEAR BAN

4.30pm Mon. May 9^th Quaker Meeting House 7 Victoria Terrace Edinburgh EH1 2JL

 

Press and interview enquiries to janetscotlands4peace 07795594573 in the first instance

 

Donald Dewar Statue, Buchanan St, Glasgow, 10 – 11 am, Friday 11 March.

Five years ago, on 11th March 2011 there was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. There were explosions in 3 of the reactors. Radiation was scattered across a vast area. 160,000 people were told to leave their homes

Akiko wants the the world to understand something of what the disaster has meant for her, her family and many others in the same situation.

“It is regretable, but my country didn’t consider it a priority to protect its people.”

Would ours?

At the end of last year, I visited Japan as the guest Yuki Fujime at Osaka University Peace and Gender Studies department. We attended the World Nuclear Victims Forum at the Hiroshima International Conference Centre, where I learned of the work of Akiko Morimatsu, a Fukushima evacuee mother and one of the most active leaders of the anti-nuclear movement in Japan.

Speaking to the UN Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015, she states that the Japanese Government has been unable to recover control over the nuclear power plants since the disaster and should apologise for the ongoing contamination of air seas and land. The number of registered evacuees reached 347,000 by the year 2012. The majority are families with little children, which is her situation, and many others are forced to remain in contaminated areas due to lack of financial support. Evacuation involves double payment of rent and utilities with no fixed term, as well as emotional anguish.

“Was it right that we separated our son who loves his father very much from him? My husband could come only once a month..”

and complete domestic responsibility of the mother. The evacuees are dislocated from the men in the family, and she sees them as ‘internally displaced’ according to Human Rights criteria, a principle not put into practice by the Japanese Government who, she says, have also ignored the lessons of Chernobyl and unnecessarily put people at risk of radiation poisoning in efforts to minimise the impact of the ongoing effects of the disaster on the world stage.

I heard of how the clean-up had started and stopped, with contaminated topsoil being scraped from field and then left in exposed piles, areas where the removal of top sol had been abandoned uncompleted, and how the financial support for evacuees being stopped, leaving women and children the impossible choice between remaining away without means or returning to risk radiation contamination.

“They are wasting resources and money on decontamination that looks unscientific.”

In Osaka, where many of the Fukushima women are presently living, they have been described as ‘damaged goods’ to be avoided as wives because of the risk of birth defects, and the tensions and arguments within families are recognised in the expression ‘atomic divorce’.

10 March 2016

http://www.preventionweb.net/publications/view/43444

http://www.fwrs.info/topics/2015/333

To All EU Parliamentarians

We started our meeting with a minute’s reflection on the terrible events in Paris last night, and our hopes for a future free from violence and hate.

We met today to discuss the use of wars to address political conflict, the acceleration of climate change and the ongoing environmental degradation which constitute the most profound challenges for our times.

We realize that these issues are inextricably linked. We may perish in the time to come, or we may flourish. Our work for human and planetary security is equally inextricably linked.

We recognised that women’s lack of human rights and the gendered perspective which equates strength and effectiveness with military spending and dominance excludes women and other people from authorative social and political roles in addressing these threats.

We recognise our own value, and the value and diversity of other people and consider that the right to life carries greater validity than that of borders, that peace is a human right, that our shared resources should be committed to meet human needs as a priority.

We are aware that these values are widely held, though not adequately represented in the fora where political decisions are made, and we ask European Parliamentarians to work together to ensure that these inextricably linked issues are responsibly addressed.

We ask you to consider some focus points identified in our discussions and respond.

Focus points

• Because millions of people are forcibly displaced by floods, windstorms, earthquakes or droughts, an intergovernmental process is required for their protection.

• Th control of borders currently involves a militarised response to these movements of people, which creates conflict.

• Military expenditure represents the greatest part of global expenditure and is rising beyond the point at which governments can meet the basic needs of the people they represent. This has a devastating impact on the resources available to tackle climate change.

• Competition within the military industrial complex excacerbates this problem and creates a culture of secrecy and threats which undermines responsible environmental co-operation and diverts resources away from human needs .

• There exists a severe lack of investment in open and accessible education for conflict resolution and resources to ensure human rights are met, which urgently needs to be tackled. This arises through lack of political will in the face of corporate interest.

• All security agenda must focus on the prevention of war and poverty and ensure that a a gender perspective and women’s participation, protection, and rights are included in disarmament conflict resolution and policy making settings. peacekeeping, policy-making, and reconstruction.

• Investment in the nuclear weapons industry, much of it hidden, diverts scarce monetary and skill resource away from human needs. This requires a commitment to immediate governmental action for global nuclear disarmament.
• Nuclear accident or deliberate detonation are likely to cause global famine and irreversible environmental degradation in non-nuclear-weapons states and across the world. It is essential for all governments to recognise that technology for nuclear weapons and power are interlinked and together pose an existential threat for the whole planet.

• Climate change is a major cause of resource shortages and conflict, in addition from tackling the causes, it is increasingly urgent that energy and food can be produced locally to minimise the effect of shortages.

• Corporate and commercial influence over health care, and dependence on fossil fuels prevent governments from applying criteria that are in the best interests of those receiving the care. Commercial data protction laws require a level of secrecy that is not compatable with democracy.

From The Autumn Seminar Participants,

WILPF Autumn Seminar,

Orpington, England 14 November 2015

 

Dear Mr Mundell,

In May’s general election the people of Scotland voted overwhelmingly for candidates whose anti-Trident stance was a key part of their platform. This was as clear a message as you can get. And it was not merely about getting the UK’s nuclear weapon launch-pad out of Scotland – it was underpinned by a realistic grasp of the horrific nature of these weapons and a longing to join the growing surge for a global ban.

The position taken by our representatives at Westminster on not replacing Trident is reflected by the whole of our elected representation. The Scottish Parliament has discussed and voted overwhelmingly to reject the continuation of nuclear weapons being deployed here, and supporting the 121 states who endorse a global ban . Our First Minister has signed a statement supporting this ban, and expressed a willingness for Scotland to be able to participate in the negotiations that will bring it about. Civic Scotland has also spoken through church leaders, the trade union movement local authorities and other highly respected leaders of civic and cultural society. In every arena the message is clear and we should need to do no more.

In response Westminster has shown a complete and cynical disregard. It is determined to develop a new version of the system that for a further generation will retain the UK’s status as a rogue state willing to deploy weapons of mass destruction. Use the current democratic structures to get your views across, we are told. Well, we have done so. Over the years we have painstakingly prepared the case against nuclear weapons and have presented it to a public which has overwhelmingly endorsed our stance through the ballot box. Yet you still pay absolutely no attention.

Any Scotland office that is fulfilling its stated function of representing the interests of the people of Scotland to Westminster must now address the UK government’s arrogant disregard by the for people in Scotland who carry the highest risk associated with the weapons and have made clear their abhorrence of the possibility of millions of deaths and the disruption of global bio-diversity.

A public and immediate response is required to explain how Trident could possibly be used in accordance with international humanitarian law. If the UK government does not have or will not provide an answer to this question will the Secretary of State agree to represent our demand that the UK disarms and dismantles these weapons.

Most recently the decision to bomb Syria has been taken with a similar a total disregard for the position taken by the Scottish MPs at Westminster. Given the possible consequences of these actions, this reflects badly on our democratic process and we need to know how the Scotland Office will communicate with the UK government on our behalf for an end to attacks on Syria.

We are waiting here until you are prepared to go on the record and discuss the matter in this public space.

Trident Ploughshares

Scotland opposes Trident, and the Scottish First Minister
has signed up to support a global ban on nuclear
weapons. Unfortunately she doesn’t have the powers to
enable Scotland to join the 121 countries who have signed
the Humanitarian Pledge to enter negotiations to fill the
legal gap needed to prohibit and eliminate nuclear
weapons.
Scottish people can still get involved, and work here to
add all nuclear bombs to the list of outlawed weapons, like
chemical and biological warfare. Australian Thomas Nash
has experience and expertise (he was instrumental in the
land mine and cluster bombs ban) for the task. On
Saturday, he’ll be in Scotland offering insights and
opportunities to be part of the campaign to abolish
nuclear weapons at this year’s Scottish CND Annual
Conference. He will be joined there by Scottish MSP and
anti-Trident campaigner Brendan O Hara.
This will be a chance to get answers to questions and
no doubt collect relevant information. Long-standing
CNDers and newbies are all needed to scrap Trident and
ban all nukes.
SCND Annual Conference Saturday 7 November 2015 in St Columba’s
by the Castle Church, 14 Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2PW.
Registration from 10.30 am. Meeting starts 11 am. Close 4 pm.

Womens International League for Peace and Freedom (Scottish Branch)

The Womens International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Scottish branch (1), is very pleased to announce that the Austrian Disarmament Ambassador will contribute to a special public meeting in the Scottish Parliament to look at how gender issues stand in the way of global nuclear disarmament,

Ambassador Alexander Kmentt is Austria’s Director for Arms Control, Nonproliferation and was elected 2014 “Arms Control Person of the Year”. (2) He initiated the Austrian Pledge to eliminate nuclear weapons which is now signed up to by 117 world states, and will be welcomed to Scotland by the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop MSP.

The meeting is the latest of several annual meetings supported by WILPF or Scottish CND at which civic society and parliamentarians can come together around the UN International Peace Day. It will be chaired by Bill Kidd MSP, and falls on the same day as the MSP will be leading a debate (2) on the UK’s responsibility for the nuclear genetic damage imposed on the people of the Marshall Islands.

Mia Gandenberger, Reaching Critical Will (RCW) (4) Associate Director from Geneva will also speak, along with Claire Duncanson, Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Claire’s background is in practical human rights NGO work and her research interests “lie at the intersection of international security, IR theory and gender politics, ” and include a recent critique of the Trident Replacement White paper. Mia hopes to “to increase the quality and quantity of civil society preparation and participation in UN disarmament processes” (3). Rebecca Sharkey, from the International Campaign to Abolish nuclear Weapons (ICAN) (4) UK will chair a participative discussion at the end of the meeting. (4)

Ambassador Kmentt said

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to be in Edinburgh to talk about the humanitarian consequences and risks of nuclear weapons and the strong international momentum that has been built in the past few years to engage in a different kind of discourse about this weaponry.

The conclusions are clear: the broad range of humanitarian and developmental consequences of nuclear weapons is significantly graver than previously understood, and so are the risks of accidents and technical or human errors. These conclusions should lead to an urgent reappraisal and change in the discourse about these weapons of mass destruction.More than three quarters of the international community have expressed their deep concern about the humanitarian consequences in cross-regional declarations in the United Nations. The “Humanitarian Pledge” to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons, initiated by Austrian last year, has also been formally endorsed by 117 States to date. I am aware, of course, that nuclear weapons are an issue that is intensely discussed in Scotland and I look forward to the opportunity to present the humanitarian initiative to a wider audience here in Scotland”

Contacts: Janet Fenton 07795594573

Notes:

1. WILPF is the world’s oldest women’s peace organisation and has been campaigning locally and globally against nuclear weapons since their inception. Reaching Critical Will (RCW) is the disarmament project at the WILPF United Nations offices in New York and Geneva, which has promoted and enabled NGO and civic participation at international high level diplomatic efforts. http://www.wilpf.org.uk/get-involved/scottish-branch/

2.SEE http://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/european-foreign-policy/disarmament/weapons-of-mass-destruction/nuclear-weapons-and-nuclear-terrorism/vienna-conference-on-the-humanitarian-impact-of-nuclear-weapons/

AND

https://www.armscontrol.org/pressroom/press-release/2014-Arms-Control-Person-of-the-Year-Announced

3.SEE Motion S4M-13558: Bill Kidd, Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 17/06/2015

4. SEE http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/

The ambassador from Austria who initiated the Humanitarian Pledge to ban all nuclear weapons is coming to Scotland

TOWARDS A NUCLEAR WEAPONS BAN

Bill Kidd MSP, as co chair of the nuclear disarmament cross party group will  host guests on Wednesday 23^rd September from 6.30 – 8.30pm at the Scottish Parliament, marking UN International Day of Peace and UN International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Earlier in the day he will be debating in the Parliament in support of the Marshall Island nuclear victims. The early evening discussion will highlight and support the Humanitarian Pledge, initiated by the Austrian Government, which aims to fill the legal gap in the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.

The event is organised by the Scottish Branch of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (S WILPF) with support from SCND and other members of the Scrap Trident Coalition.

The meeting will address humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, including the particular relevance for women and girls, and examine the ways in which gender structures stand in the way of disarmament.

Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs will contribute  introductory remarks.

Austrian Ambassador, Alexander Kmentt who was instrumental in initiating the Humanitarian Pledge which has now been signed by 116 states will speak at the event.

The panel will also include Dr Claire Duncanson Lecturer in International Relations University of Edinburgh, Mia Gandenberger  WILPF project Programme Manager with Reaching Critical Will in Geneva, Rebecca Sharkey UK Coordinator International Campaign for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), to offer academic, polititcal and activist perspectives.

Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome, although places are limited, and to comply with parliamentary security, details of all attendees will be submitted in advance.  If you would like to be added to the list of invitees, please email janetscotlands4peace@yahoo.co.uk directly.

Scottish branch,

Womens International League for Peace and Freedom

janetscotlands4peace@yahoo.co.uk

#ON THE WIRE

There is a tradition of decorating the barriers that represent oppression – the Berlin Wall, the Peace Wall in Belfast and separation walls and fences from Israel/Palestine to US/Mexico have all been subjected to people power and creativity. It is usually done by small groups of ordinary people, and it is usually a form of civil disobedience. As well as decorating, these acts have been known to bring walls down.

Maybe those Faslane and Coulport fences needs some symbols of the real human security the weapons can never provide.

At Coulport, one of our Scottish mountains is hollowed out to contain 160 warheads, each capable of delivering eight times the thermonuclear devastation of Hiroshima. The perimeter fence is very long, and very ugly, but the catastrophic consequences of any accident, let alone military action, could be a lot longer. The mind that contemplates the annihilation of millions of people as a way of resolving political conflict is far uglier. At Faslane, the perimeter fence contains a much smaller area, although it is better known and much more accessible.

So, a good place to start. At Faslane today, half a dozen of us started things off with some Tibetan prayer flags, silk scarves and baby clothes and shoes. We lablled our efforts with Bairns not Bombs posters, and accomplished a complete change of appearance in ten minutes, with lots of bemused police interest and no arrests.

Over to others. Come and decorate the fence with your symbols for peace and real security. We ask that your actions are non-violent and respectful to everyone. It may be that the flabbergasted police recover and take more action than they did today, and if you would like information about that or about the base itself, or if you need some support in finding a few pals to act with, please contact Trident Ploughshares tridentploughshares.org.or comment here.

The main thing is to take action, and we can have some fun and deliver Scotland’s message to the UK government. Join the real international powers and ban all nuclear weapons. Trident out!