PART OF THE ACTION

Since November 2022, the shop at Ratcliffe Terrace has offered resources for individuals and organisations here in Scotland to build peace, sustainability and equality together. This page reports on Actions that can challenge inequality and violence and promote sustainable change, here and elsewhere.

Please email us and let us know about actions you think we might want to share here, pictures as well as the story are welcomed!

Activists 'blockaded entrance' to the Leonardo factory as police deployed to scene

Vehicles allegedly blocked the building 'for hours' on the morning of 5th January and red paint was seen splashed across the window of the Leonardo Edinburgh site on Crewe Road North

At around 6.30am on Tuesday, activists allegedly secured to each other on top of the vehicles, closing both entry gates to the plant as protestors say they are 'preventing the manufacture of parts for Israel's F-35 fighter jets'.

The vehicles allegedly blocked access to the building on Crewe Road North 'for hours'.Red paint was seen splashed across the window.

Two activists from campaign group Palestinian Action were also sitting on top of a van with a Palestinian flag draped around them.

A spokesperson for Palestine Action said: “While the British and Scottish governments continue to support the Israeli war industry, Palestine Action refuse to permit complicity. By shutting down Leonardo, Edinburgh, these activists are preventing the production of Palestinian slaughter."

Arrests were made and a number of activists appeared at the sherif court in Edinburgh on Thursday 9th January but a fire alarm resulted in their pleading diet being postponed for four weeks.

GARELOCH HORTIES AT FASLANE

On Saturday 5th October ten members of the Gareloch Horties Women’s Peace Group gathered at the north gate of Faslane Naval Base. Horties member Margaret Bremner said:

“Our ages totalled over 650 years and we chose to stand there in silence together to mourn the casualties of war. We continue to call for the decommissioning of nuclear weapons, our core campaign for 40 years, and an end to the sale of arms, particularly those to Israel at present. No one should profit from death and destruction. We support the ongoing work of SCND standing firm in the work to promote peace and disarmament. We must highlight the military carbon footprint and must continue to call on the Scottish and UK government to support the U.N Treaty on the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

Decades of drip-feeding by the government, UK politicians, the nuclear weapon industry and its consorts in think tanks, academia and the popular media have desensitised the populace to the extent that folk can take the bus past Faslane and Coulport and dreamily think of them as ordinary and legitimate. Huge thanks to those who break that spell by their witness at the these grim sites in the shape of vigils, demonstrations and acts of peaceful disruption. We desperately need more spell-breaking, If you want to know more about how to, write to contact@wordsandactions.scot.