Arrested peace campaigners return to Littleborough

Mrs Sanchez thumb-cuffed to a seven foot red squirrel, bearing a placard saying 'Nuts to Trident'!

Two Littleborough peace campaigners returned this week from the attempted blockade of the Trident nuclear submarine base, where both were arrested. 

Mai Chatham and Pat Sanchez went again to take part in the Faslane 365 year-long blockade of the base - the aim was to try to stop work on Trident submarines, which carry nuclear warheads. 

Mrs Sanchez said: "Many people think only the Koreans have such weapons, when in fact it is the US, the UK, Russia and Israel who harbour the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
 
"Hundreds of people of all ages (from 17 to 80 in our bus) and all walks of life were at the demonstration and 180 of them were arrested.  Some just sat down in front of the gates and refused to budge. Others superglued themselves to the tarmac or to each other.  Others attached themselves to each other with chains hidden inside stout tubing."

Mrs Sanchez was thumb-cuffed to a seven foot red squirrel, bearing a placard saying 'Nuts to Trident'!  Mrs Chatham is no stranger to the police cells having been arrested in the early sixties when she demonstrated as a girl againt Polaris. 

Mrs Sanchez added: "The atmosphere was like a carnival, with music, dancing, singing, clowning, but the purpose
was deadly serious: we aimed to stop work however we could on those weapons. They are immoral, illegal and a hideous misuse of public funds.

"It is supremely hypocritical of our government to claim we need these weapons for our defence and then deny other countries the right to defend themselves with similar weapons - not that the weapons could ever be used defensively: they are offensive weapons designed for a first strike.  Another example of blatant government 'spin'.

"To anyone concerned at the cost of policing these demonstrations, may we point out that it represents 0.01% of the cost of the replacement for Trident the government wants to foist on us.  Scrapping Trident would release vast sums for really useful purposes, such as combating climate change.

"We may only have stopped the work for a few hours, but this is not the end of our protests. We aim for nuclear disarmament: nothing less."