David Cameron has used a speech at the NATO summit in Warsaw to announce that the long-awaited vote on Trident replacement will take place on Monday 18th July. The vote will be on the replacement of all four submarines, to continue to operate on a so-called ‘continuous at-sea deterrence’ basis, at a lifetime cost of at least £205bn.                    Opposition to Trident is strong in Scotland with the majority of people and parliamentarians opposing it’s renewal. Only one Scottish MP, David Mundell, is expected to vote in favour of renewal. However our anti-nuclear parliamentarians need to know we are behind them. They may be facing great hostility in parliament.                                          Chair of Scottish CND, Arthur West, says,
‘It is really disappointing and depressing that the Tory Government have tabled a parliamentary vote on Trident replacement on July 18th. It would be highly irresponsible for a majority of MPs to vote for a very costly Trident replacement programme at this time of austerity and hardship for so many people in this country.’
Arthur West also said, ‘Trident is completely irrelevant to the key security threats we face today such as terrorism and climate change.’ The majority of Scots are against the renewal of Trident. Our position as a country which does not want nuclear weapons but had them imposed on us and placed on our soil is unique. We say, respect Scotland, don’t renew Trident.

Edinburgh CND and Scottish CND are calling on our members and supporters to take the following actions in the run up to the vote on July 18th-

1. Edinburgh CND is part of the Scrap Trident Coalition, an organisation which links together peace and anti war organisations in working together to make the case for Scrapping Trident. The Scrap Trident Coalition is calling for flash demos across Scotland on Saturday July 16th at 12 noon and we are asking our members and supporters to support this flash demo activity.You can check their website for activities in your area. The Edinburgh Flash demo will be at 12 noon at the Mound.

Other local CND groups or members and supporters to organise Flash Demos in their own area. <http://scraptrident.org/trident-no-more-demonstrations-across-scotland-saturday-16-july-12noon/&gt;

2.Contact your MP and ask them to ensure that they are in the House of Commons on July 18th to vote against Trident replacement.
Nearly every Scottish MP is against Trident replacement, so if your MP has previously taken a Scrap Trident position please acknowledge their past support when you contact them, and stress the importance of being in the House of Commons on July 18th for the vote. Contact your MP either by email, letter or phone. You can find their contact details using this website. On Wednesday 13th July a Scottish delegation will be taking part in the mass lobby of MPs in Westminster to make the case against trident replacement: more about this in our previous post. Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said:”Members of the public are travelling from constituencies across the UK to remind MPs that a majority opposes replacing Trident because it’s bad for our security, and it would be ridiculous to spend £205 billion on what is essentially a cold war relic.

3. Please use use every opportunity to raise this issue in social and national media.On the Saturday we need people to take – and tweet and post – photos and also to share them to the Scrap Trident Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Please Use the Hashtags #TridentNoMore and secondly #ScrapTrident.

We have support from The Proclaimers who wrote ‘A Letter To America’ … ‘ Bathgate no more, Linwood no more, Methil no more, Irvine no more.’ This time, it’s TRIDENT NO MORE
Labour is currently considering the party’s stance on Trident, which leader Jeremy Corbyn wants to scrap. Its internal review of Labour’s defence policy will keep open the possibility of retaining Trident, BBC Newsnight understands. It is expected to suggest five tests which nuclear weapons must satisfy.

Rebecca Johnson of acronym has done a Trident Briefing for The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom which was founded in 1915 and has consultative status with the UN. WILPF is a founding member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and works for peace and justice, against war. Available on request edinburghcnd@yahoo.com

UNFOLD ZERO and Basel Peace Office thank Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament for cosponsoring Chain Reaction 2016, a series of events and actions at nuclear-weapons and nuclear-disarmament related sites, political offices and symbolic locations around the world from July 8 – the 20th Anniversary of the historic World Court case against nuclear weapons – until October 2, the International Day for Nonviolence and Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. Chain Reaction 2016 will be launched on July 8 at the International Peoples Tribunal on the Nuclear Powers and the Destruction of Human Civilisation in Sydney, Australia. Nuclear disarmament actions and events between July 8 and October 2 are being posted on the Chain Reaction World Map and Events pages.
Chain Reaction 2016 includes a range of creative actions around the world from July 8 until October 2. During this period are a number of significant dates to commemorate:
July 8: 20th anniversary of the International Court of Justice historic case on nuclear weapons
July 16: 71st anniversary of the first nuclear test at Alamogordo, USA
August 6: 71st anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima
August 9: 71st anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki
August 9: International Day for Indigenous Peoples (Indigenous peoples’ lands have been used for nuclear testing, uranium mining and other activities in the nuclear weapons infrastructure)
August 12: International Day for Youth (nuclear weapons threaten youth and future generations)
August 29: International Day Against Nuclear Tests
September 21: International Day for Peace
September 26: International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
October 2: Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday and the International Day of Nonviolence

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On the 2015 Walkatjurra Walkabout a short documentary was made by Rez Nez Films.Come and join members of the Walkatjurra Walkabout team for a sneak, private viewing of the documentary “Walking for Country”, hear stories of the walks, and get updated on the curent status of the Anti-Uranium Mining campaign in Western Australia. Further details available from Edinburgh CND