nuclear free scotland magazine june 2010

Nuclear Free Scotland 1

October 2010 www.banthebomb.org

Nuclear Free Scotland

Delaying Trident will Exacerbate the Crisis l Exploding the Jobs Myth l Scotland’s Peace Walk l The Rebirth of Missile Defence l No to NATO

Drone Wars l CND Group Reports

nfs

Launched on 21 September 2010A SCOTTISH CAMPAIGN FOR A NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONVENTION

Nuclear Free Scotland2

Delaying Trident willExacerbate the CrisisThe rumour mongers are working overtime. Although the Strategic Defence and Security Review is not due to report until the end of October, there are daily ‘leaks’ and speculation is rife. Trident, you will recall, has been deliber-ately excluded from the defence review in order to ‘ring fence’ the project. That tactic has failed mis-erably and reports suggest that the very future of Trident is now being hotly debated in the corri-dors of power.

Chancellor George Osborne’s assertion that the money for the new system must come from the defence budget has changed the game. That defence budget is already overspent, overcommit-ted to other defence projects and faces cuts of up to 20% per year. If on top of that it has to find the £20bn plus for Trident replace-ment then it faces an impossible task to satisfy all the key players. The recent briefing from British

CND (Trident, Jobs and the UK Economy) suggests that going ahead with Trident will not only happen at the expense of jobs and services across all areas of public spending, it will come primarily at the expense of tens of thousands of jobs in shipbuild-ing and aircraft manufacturing (see John McAllion’s review of the new CND briefing on page 4). This is concentrating the minds of defence workers, their unions and many MPs.

The debate has opened new fault lines within the political establish-ment, within the Conservative Party, between the two partners in the Coalition Government and between the army and the navy. There are two possible ways for the government to fudge the deci-sion, but both will cause greater problems in the long term. The defence budget could be relative-ly spared the full force of the cuts

(like health and overseas aid) in order to ease its funding crisis. This would mean much greater cuts in other areas of public spending adding fuel to a trade union-led reaction of widespread strikes and demonstrations.

The other option, which seems to be gathering support according to insiders, would be to postpone the project. Any delay, of course, should be welcomed but if the reports are correct, it would be the Main Gate decision that would be postponed from 2014 to 2015. The Initial Gate decision has al-ready been delayed for over one year and is now still expected to be taken at the end of 2010. That will mean billions being spent on detailed design work and ordering long lead items like the reactors. Delaying the Main Gate deci-sion would really be adjusting the timeline to fit the new reality of a delayed project. It would be un-likely to save significant amounts of money. It could, however, give us more time to consolidate opposition to the future of the Trident project. There is good reason to believe that the current deflationary policy will condemn our economy to, at best, years of slow growth. Five years from now the pressure on the UK defence budget could be just as great as it is today.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox

‘Although Trident was supposed to be excluded from the re-view ... it is now clearly at the heart of it and the decision on Trident is determining what can be spent on all other parts of the defence budget’


Diary for 20106 October - Trident, Jobs and the Econo-my, STUC/SCND Trade Union Conference6.30pm, STUC, 333 Woodlands Rd, Glasgow.

9/10 October - British CND Annual Confer-ence, 5 Tavistock Place, London

17 October - SNP-CND Fringe Meeting, McGregor Room, Royal George Hotel, Perth. 12.30pm

23 October - STUC There Is a Better Way Assemble 11 am East Market St, Edinburgh

1 November - Trident Ploughshares Big Blockade Devonport - from 6am. You can sit, lie down, lock-on or just provide moral support. Bring banners, flags etc.Contact [email protected] or call0845 4588363.

13 November - Scottish CND Conference 1030am, STUC, 333 Woodlands Road.Speakers: Kate Hudson & Mike ArnottDeadline for resolutions: 23 OctoberDeadline for amendments: 6 November

20 November - ‘Afghanistan: Time to Go’ Demonstration Stop the War/CND12 noon Central London

Lack of ConsultationThe Defence Review process has been neither trans-parent nor democratic. The Commons Defence Com-mittee recently condemned the ‘startling rapidlity’ of the process and the lack of consultation by the MoD. Al-though the replacement for Trident was supposed to be excluded from the review (a ludicrous decision in itself), it is now clearly at the heart of it and the decision on Tri-dent is determining what can be spent on all other parts of the defence budget, and perhaps on other budgets.

While Trident is the central issue facing the defence review, this should have been an opportunity to ask more fundamental questions about what exactly we expect our armed forces to do. Most people want forces that can defend Britain’s land and coastal waters, not fight ‘expeditionary’ wars overseas and threaten nuclear Armageddon to people in other lands. Yet that kind of debate is not taking place.

Instead, the review is being conducted in great haste under the looming shadow of deep cuts in public spend-ing which are driven by ideology rather than economic necessity. If, as now seems likely, the government opts to postpone the Main Gate decision for a few months, it will save very little and it could reap a bitter harvest of social unrest as cuts in all areas of public spending begin to bite.

At the end of the day, a government which choses to spend over £20bn on new weapons of mass de-struction, is choosing not to spend that money on other things. Surprisingly, it was Nick Clegg who best summed up the choices we face:

‘It is going to be difficult for someone who is going to receive less housing benefit because of the changes we are introducing to understand why at the same time we should spend huge, huge sums of money in a hurry on replacing Trident in full.’

This issue of Nuclear Free Scotland deals with a num-ber of current campaigns. The front page picture is of the launch of a Scottish campaign for a Nuclear Weap-ons Convention on 21st September in the Scottish Parliament. Inside, Rae Street highlights the growing threat from NATO and its new Strategic Concept to be determined later this year. John McAllion reviews CND’s new briefing Trident, Jobs and the UK Economy. Dave Webb considers the growing use of drones for offensive as well as surveillance operations. And a piece on Star Wars brings to our attention the rapid expansion of mis-sile defence systems and the destabilising effect they can are having globally and regionally.

Alan Mackinnon


Death and destruction on an industrial scale has never been an easy sell for the supporters of nuclear weapons. After all, how can you manufacture democratic consent to weapons that burn human flesh with temperatures as hot as the centre of sun, and blow people apart with blast winds in excess of 2000 miles an hour?Contemporary Japanese and American newsreel footage that revealed these and other ter-rible effects of the atomic attack on Hiroshima, was unsurprisingly suppressed at the time on the or-ders of Allied commanders. The footage was then smuggled out of Japan and classified as an of-ficial secret for another 20 years. Allied Governments, then intent upon selling first atomic and then hydrogen bombs to their domestic populations, simply could not af-ford the truth about these weap-ons to be widely understood.

That truth has continued to be suppressed throughout the past 65 “nuclear” years during which successive governments have sought to acclimatise public opin-ion into accepting the possession and potential use of weapons that the vast majority of people natu-rally recoil from in horror. Instead, other arguments have been brought forward from the need to deter rogue nuclear states such as North Korea to Britain’s nucle-ar status enabling her to punch above her weight on the world’s political stage.

Perhaps the most effective of these ‘other’ arguments has been the employment consequences of not having nuclear weapons. When the Scottish Parliament debated Trident renewal, New Labour’s Jackie Baillie infamously warned that not replacing Tri-dent would mean ‘11,000 P45s...

issued to hard-working people in my area and to thousands more throughout Scotland’. More recently, Britain’s biggest union UNITE warned that 13,000 jobs would be at risk if Trident renewal did not go ahead on schedule.

Trident and JobsThe potential loss of thousands of highly skilled technological and design jobs is always a power-fully persuasive argument. In the middle of a recession, with looming cuts to public spend-ing threatening even greater job losses in the public and private sectors alike, that argument becomes even more telling. The recent Commons debate on the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) saw a succession of MPs arguing that failure to renew Trident would threaten the survival of the manu-facturing and engineering base of large swathes of the country.

CND’s latest briefing, Trident, Jobs and the UK Economy, is therefore a timely and cogently argued counterblast to these monstrous regiments of Trident apologists and WMD supporters. It is packed with well-researched detail of the employment conse-quences of both Trident renewal and of cancellation of Trident. It correctly places the debate around renewal in the context of both the SDR and the Coalition Government’s plans to slash pub-lic spending. It provides compre-hensive coverage of the implica-tions of both of these, not just for Trident renewal, but for the MoD’s entire capital equipment budget. It is a treasure trove of facts wait-ing to be mined by activists.

The chapter on the MoD’s budget crisis is especially opportune. When the Commons recently debated the Defence Select Committee report on the SDR, a range of MPs raised concerns over the implications for other areas of defence spending of the

Exploding the Trident Jobs MythJohn McAllion reviews CND’s latest briefing

‘The potential loss of thousands of highly skilled technological and design jobs is always a powerfully persuasive argument’


Chancellor’s decision that the Defence budget would now need to fully fund the £20 billion cost of Trident replacement. In reply, Coalition Defence Minister, Nick Har-vey, brushed aside their anxieties by telling the MPs that where Trident is accounted for is “completely semantic” and “largely academic”. No need for them to worry about other planned spending on defence was the clear message.

MoD Budget CrisisThe chapter dealing with the MoD’s bud-get crisis nails these bland Government assurances for the falsehoods that they clearly are. Using published material from reports by the Comptroller General and Auditor, the National Audit Office and the Defence Select Committee the pamphlet’s authors meticulously expose the truths about an already existing black hole in the defence equipment budget, a projected Coalition cut in that budget of up to 20% and the added burden of finding the £20 billion capital costs for Trident. They con-clude that over the next 10 years the MoD budget will now face a cut of up to £74 billion.

Trident renewal lies at the heart of this funding crisis. The pamphlet makes a powerful case that renewal will cost in excess of 10,000 jobs and the closure of major workplaces elsewhere in the de-fence sector. It will cost more jobs than it will create. In making this argument, the authors never fall into the trap of arguing for spending on other non-nuclear weap-ons of mass destruction. Being against Trident does not mean that you are for two giant aircraft carriers. They simply expose the employment consequences of going ahead with the madness of Trident renewal.

However, as the pamphlet’s conclusion argues, the real challenge we face today is to stop producing weapons of war and to change instead to socially useful produc-tion. They are right and this pamphlet is a powerful weapon in the armoury of those who continue to campaign against the Trident madness.

Copies of the full report and a 4 page summary can be downloaded at www.cnduk.org Hard copies are also available from the Scottish CND office.

Clockwise from top: Glasgow West CND listening to speakers in Kelv-ingrove Park, re-dedicating the Peace Tree at Rutherglen, Jill Saun-derson on the Peace Walk, MSPs and government ministers at the

launch of the NWC, Dundee CND march on Hiroshima Day, Alyn Ware of PNND speaking at the Scottish Parliament.


When President Obama an-nounced in September 2009 that he was canceling the missile defence plans for Poland and the Czech Republic, many of us breathed a sigh of relief. The project had already created huge opposition in both countries and was widely considered a direct threat to Russia. Subsequent events, however, have dashed that optimism. Missile defence is not being halted but greatly expanded. While the Bush-era missile defence system, intended to protect against incoming long range Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), will remain, the emphasis now shifts to tackling short and medium range missiles ‘from Iran’ rather than the longer range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

The new system comprises a ‘layered defensive shield’ and includes Patriot batter-ies for battlefield defence, sea-based SM-3 intercep-tors aboard Aegis ships and Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) intercep-tors. Detection of incoming missiles is provided by a whole range of ground and sea-based radars, early warning satellites and com-munications links all coordi-nated at the missile defence headquarters.

It is the first part of a ‘phased adaptive approach’ (PAA) which the United States will begin to deploy in 2011 in south eastern Europe. The system will be upgraded in phases with more advanced

interceptors being deployed on land (initially Romania) and sea by 2015 and again in 2018 (Ro-mania and Poland). By 2020 the system will involve hundreds of interceptor missiles based in the Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Seas and on land which, it is claimed, will be capable of defending the entire landmass of Europe from short and intermedi-ate range missiles.

These proposals will mean NATO and the US combining their mis-sile defence developments in Europe to form one large missile shield covering the entire territory of 28 nations with a combined population of up to 900 million. The decision about whether to go ahead with these plans will be taken at the NATO summit meeting in Lisbon in November

2010. At that summit NATO will be asked to adopt Missile Defence as a core part of its New Strategic Concept.

In addition to the plans for Eu-rope, missile defence systems are being exported around the world to the Middle East (Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates) and the Far East (Japan, South Korea and, most controversially, Taiwan) through a series of bilateral ar-rangements.

Transparent BluffThe rationale for this strategy is that missile defence systems have now been demonstrated to be so robust and reliable that they are best way to protect against emerging missile threats. Mis-sile defence is, however, far from proven. The Bush-era long range interceptors were notorious for failing to intercept their targets, even when supplied with detailed information about the target’s flight path. The newest Patriot and Aegis systems have claimed a high success rate, but an article by George Lewis and Theodore Postol in May 2010 issue of the

Arms Control magazine, found that they failed to hit their targets in 8 or 9 tests out of 10. They describe the Aegis SM-3 system as ‘unproven and unworkable’ and the US Defense Depart-ment’s strategy as a ‘trans-parent bluff’.

And even if they did work as claimed, missile defence interceptors can be eas-ily overwhelmed by decoys and countermeasures. Any potential adversary could deploy dozens of decoys and the defender would not know which target to attack. Despite these deficiencies, Russia and China are known to view these developments with concern and suspicion.

The Rebirth of Missile DefenceHow ‘Star Wars’ is alive and well and expanding far faster than we ever imagined

Launch of SM-3 interceptor aboard an Aegis ship


Surrounded by an array of missile defence batteries which are be-ing continuously upgraded, they would only have to believe that they might work one day for them to seek ways to circumvent the new system.

Why Missile Defence?Why, therefore, would President Obama want to steer his foreign policy in the uncertain and desta-bilising direction of missile de-fence when his oft stated intention is to move in the direction of a nuclear free world? And why has he followed in the footsteps of his predecessor George Bush and hyped up the threat from Iran and North Korea?

There are several reasons. By exaggerating the threat from Iran and North Korea the United States is able to create demand for its military hardware abroad but also to strengthen its regional alliances in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and east Asia and increase its involvement with the armed forces of other countries. It also helps to sustain the argu-ment for the growing US empire of over 900 military bases, many of which could now become mis-sile defence deployment sites.

But there is another reason which is linked to longer term US objec-tives. And the expression ‘phased adaptive approach’ gives the game away. This programme is not really about defence. It is the pursuit of global dominance. It is the first stage in a plan to weapo-nise space and use it to dominate and control the world below. US defence spending at $708 billion this year (over $1 trillion in real terms) continues to grow year on year, despite America’s growing national debt and the lack of any significant external threat.

And who are the real targets of this strategy? Not Iran or North Korea. They are the fall guys. It is

Russia, the new oil and gas giant that has reasserted national con-trol over its huge energy assets, and China, the world’s fastest growing economy which will over-take the US in output within 10 years if current trends continue. And it is the new alliances such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Asian Energy Security Grid which bind these countries together in a new strategic bloc and the looser alli-ance of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) which is challenging US control over the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the role of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

Strategic MaterialsWhat does the United States hope to achieve from this military dominance? It faces economic crisis and stagnation at home, growing economic competition from the economies of the east, ongoing resistance from the peo-ples of Iraq and Afghanistan and a growing challenge to its hege-mony in its own backyard - Latin America. It will use the one asset where it retains unchallenged su-premacy - its global war machine - to tackle all these challenges, to prize open the economy of every country in the interests of US business and to secure control of strategic materials such as oil.

No surprise, then, that the Gulf area where 70% of the world’s oil reserves are located remains a central focus of US foreign policy. But US strategy is not just about securing its own supply of oil and rare minerals. It is to control the supply and price of these materi-als, break the oil cartel OPEC and control access to these materials to its economic rivals like China in order to constrain their growth.

What is the UK role? The British government allows the United States to use two important sites as missile defence bases. Fyling-dales is a sophisticated radar base which serves as part of the US controlled Ballistic Missile Early Warning System. Men-with Hill is the largest electronic monitoring station in the world and is operated by the US Na-tional Security Agency (NSA). It is is highly secret, unaccountable, unlawful and undemocratic. Far from protecting us, these bases put the people of Britain at greater risk. This issue goes to the heart of our democracy and national independence.

Building ResistanceThat’s why we need to build a mass movement of opposition. Firstly we need to raise aware-

Continued on page 13


NATO has been expanding since its inception when the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in April 1949 by 12 countries. Now there are 28 member states and 22 Partners for Peace. In addi-tion the Mediterranean Dialogue was established in 1994 to make military links with Israel (many both inside and Israel and in the US would like Israel to be a NATO member) and countries in North Africa and the Alliance has links with Contact Countries around the world including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan. In Europe, NATO has reached Russia’s western borders. Its recent plans for expansion to include Georgia and the Ukraine, up to Russia’s southern borders, has caused more problems and was one of the factors in the con-flict in the Caucasus.

NATO’s policy continues to be ruled by the US and the UK gov-ernments.

The military industrial complex

plays a hugely important role in the expansion and policies of NATO. Looking back to the 90s, the Technical Director of Lock-heed Martin was chair of the Expand NATO Committee in the US. NATO works under a policy of ‘interoperability’ for the military equipment of the member states. So the more NATO expanded, the more sales improved for the US military contractors. For its nu-clear policies NATO has, among others, a Strategic Advisors’ Group (SAG) which is comprised mainly of members of the military manufacturing and extractive industries. SAG’s report on NATO policies concluded that a nuclear deterrent was needed.

Role of Nuclear WeaponsNATO has always had a nuclear weapons policy, but in 1999 this was reinforced. The Strategic Concept affirmed that nuclear weapons ‘preserve the peace’ and that nuclear weapons provide the ‘supreme guarantee’ of the

member states’ security. NATO also retained a policy of first use of nuclear weapons. This was supposed to be a ‘minimum nuclear deterrent’. When it is considered that the UK part of the US Trident arsenal, the four submarines at Faslane, equipped to carry over 1000 times the kill-ing power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, are ‘integrated’ into NATO, it can be seen what a nonsense word ‘minimum’ is.

Three NATO members – the UK, the USA and France - are nuclear weapon states, but five states that are technically non-nuclear, Bel-gium, Germany, Italy, The Neth-erlands and Turkey – maintain ‘a nuclear sharing’ agreement. This means that in time of war they could be given use of the 200 plus US ‘tactical’ nuclear weap-ons stored at the bases in their countries. During recent years, divisions have grown in NATO about these nuclear armed bases. Germany’s current position to work for the removal of the bases was formulated in an agreement in November 2009 that brought Germany’s ruling parties into a coalition. By February 2010 the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Luxembourg had joined Germany and debated the issue at the NATO meeting in Estonia. It will come as no surprise to Scot-tish campaigners that George Robertson, the former Secretary General of NATO, spoke out strongly against such plans. His position would be supported by other governments, especially say Poland who still fears Russia. For many the Cold War has not ended.

New Strategic ConceptA new Strategic Concept is to be formulated and presented to the NATO Summit in Lisbon in No-vember, this year. Will there be changes in the policies on nuclear weapons? Will there be moves by the US in line with Presi-

No to NATORae Street charts the growth of NATO from a local military alliance to a force for global military intervention


dent Obama’s ultimate goal of a nuclear free world?

Disappointingly, the portents are not good. The new US Nuclear Posture Review stated that the nuclear weapons deployed in Europe contributed to ‘Alliance cohesion’ and ‘provide reassur-ance’ to allies. So it hardly looks as if the Obama administration is going to go for withdrawal of its nuclear weapons from the Euro-pean bases.

There are also the bases for, so called, missile defence. It was NATO which agreed to the military bases in Poland and the Czech Republic for missile intercep-tors and tracking radar to sup-port US missile defence. The UK had already agreed to the use of the Fylingdales and Menwith Hill bases in North Yorkshire. If NATO expansion had angered the Russian administration, the US push for the missile defence bases in Europe angered them more. Meanwhile, the European members of NATO have pushed ahead with ‘theatre’ missile de-fence.

Missile DefenceDifferent arguments can be per-ceived on the US ballistic missile defence system and the pro-posed bases in Europe. Although Obama said in September 2009 the US were not going ahead with the bases in the Czech Repub-

lic and Poland, there are still negotiations continuing for bases in other eastern European countries. Many NATO governments would see strategic missile defence in Europe as a compensation for the closure of the five nuclear armed bases; a ‘defence’ against other perceived threats from hostile countries.

NATO’s nuclear policies are in breach of the principles of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty where the nuclear weapon states signed up to bring about nuclear disarmament in ‘good faith’. So how can they support NATO’s nuclear policies?

NATO continues to pursue its disastrous war in Afghanistan. Similarly it will pursue its nuclear armed policies, if we, the people, do not mount powerful pressure to change the militaristic drive. NATO is not acting in the interests of the mass of people. NATO itself has supposedly started a pub-lic debate on the new Strategic Concept, for which the Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmus-sen, has called for the widest possible participation - as far as ‘Town Halls’. But of course this is a myth. There is no wide consul-tation on NATO, especially on its nuclear weapons policies. There is a democratic deficit. These hugely important questions are very rarely men-tioned in any of the mainstream media.

From what can be gleaned from the meetings of the governmental representatives inside NATO, they claim to be widen-ing the issues to bargaining with

Russia on its nuclear weapons. What is never mentioned is the much wider global picture. There is complete acceptance now in the mainstream press and among the majority of politicians that NATO is a global military alliance and one that has a right to inter-vention and a right to retain vast world dominating technological weapons in air on the sea and in space. There is an underlying arrogance in the view that that the UK and its NATO allies are the responsible states and those outside are the irresponsible. However, in many regions of the world, from China from Latin America, a different perspective will be held.

There is a generally held belief, fostered by many politicians and press, that NATO’s wars, weaponry and military bases are keeping citizens safe and secure. They do not. I am writing this on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the USA. Did the US possession of 14 Trident nuclear armed submarines, or all the might of NATO, prevent this attack?

If we want to see a safer world, the NATO nuclear armed mili-tary will not be the answer. We need more public discussion. We need to keep lobbying. We need politicians to start thinking about what will bring about sustainable security.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen


CND Group ReportsStirlingOver the summer our attention has been focussed on the Tri-dent warhead convoys that pass through our area and on attempt-ing to persuade Stirling Council to play an active part in the global campaign against nuclear weap-ons. We had a little success in this, having arranged for Provost Fergus Wood to give a civic welcome to the Scotland’s Peace Walkers, which he graciously did during their stop day in Stirling. At that meeting there was general agreement that Scotland has a key part to play in the worldwide campaign, especially at a time when the Westminster perspec-tive is so bleak. We still have work to do with the Council in getting it aboard the Mayors for Peace initiative and in encouraging it to renew its membership of Nuclear Free Local Authorities. Mean-while the convoys are regular visitors and have taken to having a regulation stop within the town itself, lurking behind warehouses at the back of the Defence Sup-port Group depot at Riverside. Looking ahead, some of us are planning to take part in the Trident Ploughshares blockade of Devon-port (Plymouth), where the Trident boats are refitted.

HelensburghWe had a full programme over the Hiroshima and Nagasaki anniver-saries as the Footprints for Peace walk were visiting us around then too. On August 6th our group met at the cherry trees in Helensburgh for a Hiroshima ceremony fol-lowed by floating beautiful lan-terns on the Gareloch. On Sunday the 8th we met the walk as they came into town and provided lunch at Helensburgh pierhead. Some of our group

then walked with them to Faslane where they had a die-in at the North gate. On Monday 9th we joined them at Peaton Wood near to Coulport and floated more candles on Loch Long to remem-ber Nagasaki. Tuesday 10th saw the walk returning to Helensburgh for a social evening of eating and chatting in a church hall and after-wards we managed to find beds for 24 people in the town.

We are now planning for our stall at the Helensburgh 2010 Exhibi-tion in October organised by The Rotary Club when we will join 42 other groups for four days in the Victoria Halls.

EdinburghEdinburgh CND has been busy since the elections. Many of our activities are run jointly with other Peace Groups, including Edin-burgh Stop the War. Alan Mackin-non, chair of SCND, recently ad-

dressed a joint meeting of ECND and Scottish Wilpf.

On August 6th we held our annual commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima, with poems and readings. One of the readings was from the British CND festival magazine which we have found to be an invaluable resource. The following Saturday was the day of our monthly vigil (second Satur-day of the month) and we com-memorated the bombing of Na-gasaki. Our next regular monthly meeting will be held on October 4th in the Peace and Justice Cen-tre Edinburgh. We will be using it to plan for the Edinburgh World Justice Festival that month. Edin-burgh CND contributes to many aspects of this festival and will be having a dedicated meeting on Tuesday 19th October.

For further details of these events and our regular meetings, please see the web site. New people al-ways welcome, whether for a one off or more permanently.

Renfrewshire CND group gather at Paisley’s Peace Garden in Barshaw Park on 6th August. The group also had a stall along with Paisley Trades Union Council at the annual Sma’ Shot Day celebration in Pais-ley on 3rd July and participated in the Peace Walk and the Budget Day protests in Glasgow with a Cut Trident Not Jobs placard.


AberdeenFor the fouth year running Aberdeen CND organised a commemoration for the men, women and children who were killed by the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A crowd of around 85 people gathered by the side of the river for the memorial ceremony. Speeches were given by Unite regional organiser Tommy Campbell and Clive Kempe from the Scottish Green Party.The Scottish National Party sent a message of sup-port and a letter from Labour MP for Aberdeen North Frank Doran was read out. Faith groups and student representatives also spoke, and a poetry reading was given by veteran peace campaigner Hilda Meers. A minute’s silence was then held to remember those who died, before 200 lanterns were set afloat on the river. The youngest member of CND, Barry Black, 15, who is also an Aberdeen youth councillor, said: “It was a really successful night. We had a decent turnout and the speeches were really inspiring. The lantern cer-emony was beautiful. The aim was to raise awareness that nuclear weapons are still in our world. We need to start by making sure our own government cuts the Trident missile system.”

Ms Meers, 86, the oldest member, said: “The event is about remembering the people in Japan who suffered from the dropping of the bomb and making a resolve that we won’t let this happen again.”

The media coverage on the week of the event was good and included an interview with our youngest member and oldest member on both radio and STV. For the first time we used a P.A. system running off a car battery and this worked very well. The group will repeat the event next year but will broaden the pre-publicity and seek ways to involve the community in the lantern making.

Glasgow WestGlasgow West CND meets monthly in a local pub. We held a successful Hiroshima Day event at the peace tree in Kelvingrove Park on 6th August with around 50 in attendance. Speakers included Drew McFarlane from EQUITY, Martha Wardrop of the Green Party and a song from Arthur Johnston. We also provided an evening meal for the Peace Walkers on the same evening (see picture). We have a joint public meeting planned for 29th Sep-tember with the STUC entitled ‘There is a better Way’ which calls for spending money on providing jobs and meeting social need rather than Trident. We continue to maintain a presence on the streets with regular leafletting and a literature stall on Saturdays. We are currently working with students from Glasgow University to help create a local CND group on the campus.

RutherglenEarlier this year the area of ground around the Peace Tree on Rutherglen Main Street was replanted as a garden, much improved from the piece of rather scruffy grass that surrounded it in the past. Local CND members who planted the tree in 1987 had decided to rededicate it. A new plaque has been provided by the branch.

Many people over the years have used this space as a symbol of anti war protest and solidarity with people who have suffered the consequences of war. The plaque commemorates the victims of the first atomic bomb dropped on the people of Hiroshima in Japan. It also quotes the words of Robert Burns who wrote about the tree of liberty and his lines, in turn, are taken from a quotation in the bible where it says that one day weapons will be beaten into tools for sharing the resources of this world. Therefore the words on the plaque are

LIGHTS OF HOPE: Vivian Tu launches peace lanterns on the River Dee at the memorial event. Kevin Emslie

Glasgow West CND feeding the Peace Walkers on Hiroshima Day

continued on page 14


Drone Wars

Killer Drones are in widespread use by US forces in Afghanistan continued on page 14

I was one of the speakers at a recent conference on “Drone Wars” in London on 18 Septem-ber. Organised by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) this was the first of its kind in the coun-try and aimed to bring together academics, researchers and activists to discuss the issues associated with the increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) by the security forces and the military. Currently, some 45 countries are using and/or developing nearly 300 differ-ent kinds of drones for a variety of activities. Israel used them extensively for reconnaissance and armed attacks in Lebanon and Gaza and the US is deploy-ing thousands, of all shapes and sizes and for all kinds of purpos-es, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The US leads the development of this kind of military technology and their Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles are being controlled, via satellite technol-ogy, over Pakistan and Afghani-stan by young men and women from computer terminals 8,000 miles away in Nevada. UAVs have been receiving increasing attention in the media as they are

adding significantly to civilian death tolls in these regions.

The conference was opened and chaired by Chris Cole of FOR who have been waged a significant campaign to raise the profile of the use of drones in the UK. Their new booklet “Convenient Killing: Armed Drones and the ‘Playstation’ mentality” was launched at the conference. FOR discovered recently from a free-dom of information request that RAF pilots operating from the US have conducted over 400 drone missions in Afghanistan and, in the 17 months of first being deployed in 2008, have fired 84 missiles from Reaper drones. Noel Sharkey (Professor of Artifi-cial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield) gave an enlightening and somewhat worrying presentation on “Robotic Weapons: Where Next?”. There were workshops on the use of drones by Israel, the legality of drone use and the research and development of drone technology by BAE Systems.

Among the major issues ad-dressed at the conference were

the high number of civilian deaths associated with drone attacks, the illegal use of drones for target-ed killings by the US, the possibil-ity that removing the pilots from the battlefield makes warfare more like a computer game than reality and

the worrying developments of future robotic combat systems.The Israeli use of drones during the invasion of Gaza in 2008/ 2009 accounted for the deaths of at least 87 civilians, many of them children. The June 2009 Human Rights Watch report: “Precisely Wrong: Gaza Civilians Killed by Israeli Drone-Launched Missiles" highlighted the fact that frequently the killings had no combat or defensive role whatsoever. It de-clared that Israeli drone operators “failed to exercise proper cau-tion” in determining whether their targets were civilians.

Since 2004, over 1,500 people have been killed in Pakistan dur-ing 165 drone strikes. Most of these are claimed to have been militants but no official figures are released for the numbers of civil-ians killed and reports in news-papers are not entirely reliable and do not tell the whole story. In one attack in June last year a Predator airstrike killed at least 60 people at a funeral in South Wa-ziristan in Pakistan. Such attacks are serving to fuel anti-American sentiment and are interpreted as American cowardice and a will-ingness to fight without honour. Hence they are certainly good for recruiting terrorists.

Prof Dave Webb describes the increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles by the security forces and the military

‘Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles are being controlled over Pakistan and Afghanistan by young men and women from computer terminals 8,000 miles away in Nevada’


Aberdeen Sinde Astraea 07879046779 [email protected] Ayrshire Arthur West Tel: 01294 218215 [email protected] Kristen Barrett Tel: 01250 872634Clydebank Tommy Morrison Tel: 07986 706290Clydesdale Peace Group Janet Fenton Tel: 01899 229474 [email protected] Edith Constable Tel: 01382 452 547 [email protected] Eileen Cook Tel: 0131 669 6396 [email protected] Fort William Anne Rowan Tel: 01397 772625 Glasgow West Alan Mackinnon Tel: 0141 339 1102 [email protected] South Bill Ramsay Tel: 0141 422 1406 [email protected] University Mike McGarry [email protected] Strathclyde University Adam Beese [email protected] Jane Tallents Tel: 01436671845 [email protected] Highland CND John Jappy Tel: 01997 433418Hamilton Billy/Louise Moncrieff:01698 820 898Renfrewshire Duncan MacIntosh: 0141 887 2097 [email protected] Susan Martin Tel: 0141 647 4776Stirling David McKenzie Tel: 01259753815 [email protected] Lesley Morrison Tel: 01721 721703 [email protected] Jean Urquhart Tel: 01854 612103 [email protected] CND Jim Taggart Tel: 01436842242 [email protected] CND Bill Ramsay Tel: 0141 422 1406 [email protected] www.snpcnd.org

Scottish CND Local Groups & Contactsness about the nature of mis-sile defence and its far-reaching implications. During the Bush era opposition to the Star Wars project was strong, but with the introduction of new missile de-fence systems by stealth much of that opposition has melted away on both sides of the Atlantic. Most people simply do not know the scale and significance of the roll out of missile defence systems across the world and the destabi-lising effect they will have on the existing military balance. If these plans go unchecked the result will be a new round in the nuclear arms race. And the prospect for any radical cuts in global nuclear weapons will evaporate in a fog of mutual suspicion. And because it does not really work, selling mis-sile defence systems is fraudulent and destabilising. This is exactly the opposite of building confi-dence between nations.

Our message, therefore, is that ‘Star Wars’ is alive and well and expanding far faster than we ever imagined. It has nothing to do with global security but everything to do with US global dominance. It is the ‘shield’ that complements the nuclear sword. It makes Trident replacement more dan-gerous and irresponsible while creating the illusion of increased security. It is a first step in turning space into the next battleground. And the British Government is complicit.

We must work with peace activ-ists in Britain and across Europe to close Fylingdales and Menwith Hill, to ensure that NATO’s New Strategic Concept abandons its nuclear strategy and stop the adoption of missile defence as a new ‘mission’ of the Alliance. It can be done.

Alan Mackinnon

The Rebirth of Missile Defence - continued from page 7


For thirty summer days twenty-seven (sometimes more, sometimes less) peace walkers tramped the nuclear convoy routes across Scotland, promoting the message that it is time to get rid of Trident and support a nuclear weapons convention to ban nuclear weapons from the world..We saw the destructive effect of this over-priced entourage drag-ging its deadly cargo past crowded primary schools, close to under-staffed hospitals and closed down workplaces, and we know there is worse to come. This international group was well supported along the way with food, shelter and stimulating company as we practised peacebuilding. Contact the walkers at [email protected]

Janet Fenton

From Gretna’s wedding anvilTo Reekie’s royal mileOur footprints covered ScotlandIn rainbow single file.From Oz, from France, the USA, the East Neuk and Dundee,We walk in solidarity with those who would be free.Free from the toxic outfalls, the poison from the mines;The threat of more Hiroshima’s a litany of crimes.Our thirty days are over and we must now disperse,But more resolved to battle the radiation’s curse.

Mike Arnott

a deep reflection and worthy of conservation. The re-dedication of the peace tree took place on Hiroshima Day August 6th. The date coincided with Scotland’s Peace Walk which was campaigning for a world wide ban on all nuclear weapons. They were following the route of the British nuclear convoy which travels along roads near to our town and once the M74 extension is complete could actually pass right through our town. Members of Rutherglen CND joined the walkers for part of the way on 6th August. Following that there was a short ceremony at the peace tree to rededicate the plaque, the tree and the garden.

Anyone interested in taking part in future activities should contact Susan Martin 0141-647-4776 or e-mail [email protected].

AyrshireAyrshire CND organised a Peace Walk through Eglington Park Kilwinning on Sunday August 9 to mark Hiroshima Day. The group also held a Street Stall on August 8 in Irvine Town Centre which focussed on the case against Trident Replacement . The group continues to have regular meetings in Irvine at 7.30p.m. Members and supporters of CND in Ayrshire are very welcome to attend these meetings. Please contact Arthur West on 07803936228 or e-mail [email protected] for further details.

Drone Warscontinued from page 12 CND Group reports

continued from page 11

Drones are also being deployed in targeted killings by the CIA. In 2004 they secretly hired the infamous Blackwater to locate and assas-sinate top Al-Qaeda operatives from hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan. While this programme was initiated by the Bush admin-istration, it has increased under Obama and there have been around 50 known drone strikes in Pakistan since Obama became president. In October last year Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, warned the US that these “targeted killings” may violate inter-national law. He said that the CIA had to show accountability to inter-national laws which ban arbitrary executions.

One of the aims of the conference was to bring campaigners together and share information and ideas. Representatives from peace groups in Wales described their continuing campaign against drone testing and the expansion of permitted flight zones in Ceredigion. Parc Aberporth has been declared as a “centre of excellence” for drone development by QintetiQ and the maiden flight of the Watchkeeper UAV (a £899 mil-lion intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance system for the Army) was made from Aberporth in April this year (see Bro Emlyn for Peace and Justice: http://www.bepj.org.uk/ for more information on the campaign). The problems of getting media cover-age and of refuting claims that these technologies provide local jobs were discussed.

There are plans to follow up this extremely informative and valuable conference with further meetings and ideas for highlighting the issues and organising events and actions keep an eye on www.for.org.uk for future announcements.

Scotland’s Peace Walk


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nuclear free scotland magazine june 2010

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