Month: February 2018

edinburghcnd

Edinburgh CND News 22nd February UPDATED!

STOP PRESS: See the (whole) video of our meeting on Nuclear Convoys:
(also see 6 below)
Dates for your diary
1. Monday 26 February: 7.30pm Upstairs room, Beehive Inn, Grassmarket EH1 2JU Planning for the 2018 Edinburgh World Justice Festival. All invited.  Also: Demo for Syria: Stop airstrikes on Eastern Ghouta Monday 26 February, 4.30pm at the Russian Consulate General in Edinburgh
++2. Monday 26 to Thursday 1st , CAAT are going to have a stall in the Scottish Parliament where they can talk to MSPs and their staff about the arms trade in Scotland. They are going to have a particular focus on how Scotland can convert jobs in arms manufacturing into jobs in renewable energy, and highlighting the amount of public funds going to arms manufacturers through Scottish Enterprise, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Please email your MSPs to let them know that they will be there, and enourage them to come and talk. 
3. Tuesday 6 March: ECND regular organising meeting, 6pm, Peace and Justice Centre, 5 Upper Bow, Edinburgh.
4. Friday 9 March:  Next full working group meeting for the big Faslane demonstration on the 22nd September (note new date) at the SCND office in Glasgow at 5.30pm (77 Southpark Ave G12 8LE).
Edinburgh CND are running a bus to the demo ‘The Sheila Skinner Faslane Bus’ in memory of Sheila who died in January.
5. Saturday 10 March: monthly leafleting, 12.30 pm at the East End of Princes Street. Followed by 140,000 Origami Cranes Workshop  2 – 4pm at the Peace and Justice Centre. 
6. Saturday 17 March: Scotland Endangered Helensburgh Parish Church Halls, Colquhoun St, 10.30 – 6 pm, organised by Helensburgh CND.
Join Helensburgh CND and their conference to hear about the hazards associated with nuclear weapons regardless of whether or not anyone ever actually pushes the button.Radioactive materials are transported on our roads, from our airports and on our railways, and our air and water are contaminated by radioactive elements and processes. This follows Edinburgh’s successful meeting on the 21st. If you missed it you can see and hear a recording on our Facebook page.
7. Saturday 24th March: 2.30pm – Public Meeting at the Augustine Church, George 4thBridge – ‘Why we need a new foreign policy’ – for more details check out the Facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/194554104619155/
8. Thursday 26th April: 7.30pm – venue to be confirmed – Public Meeting with Tim Coles author of “Fire and Fury: How the US Isolates North Korea, Encircles China and Risks Nuclear War in Asia” Organised by EdinburghCND and Edinburgh Stop the War.
8. Sunday 1st April: 1- 4 pm. Fly Kites Not (Armed) Drones & Refugee Community Kitchen Fundraiser. Pavilion Café, The Meadows.
Kite Making, Decorating, Flying, live music, soup & more. Family friendly fun day. 
ON THE SAME DAY (1st April)
Join Local and National CND to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first Aldermaston march. This was a march that changed the face of politics and protest, putting CND at the cutting edge of radical social change, mobilising and inspiring generations in the struggle for nuclear disarmament.
It’s time to celebrate our history and look to our future: there are big challenges ahead – Trumpism for example, but also big opportunities – like the global ban. Assemble at 12 noon • AWE Aldermaston, West Berkshire RG7 4PR
For speeches, music, memories, fence decorating and forward planning. The event will conclude with an inter-faith vigil.
As part of the lead up to this: a giant 3D CND symbol installation is to tour Britain. Visit cnduk.org/CNDtour to discover when it will visit your area. “The iconic CND symbol is instantly recognisable to millions across the globe. 

To mark 60 years, . CND’s greatest strength has always been its members. Incredible people have shaped our history, our present and will continue to inspire in the future. 60 Faces of CNDtells the stories of 60 people who represent all the millions of people who have campaigned for nuclear disarmament over the decades and have made our organisation so remarkable.Visit the 60 Faces of CND exhibition online

Two Jobs:

1. Scottish CND is looking for a part time Campaign Assistant to join the team (Glasgow office). See http://www.banthebomb.org                                                                   2. The Peace & Justice Centre is hiring a new Administrator. 12.5 hrs / wk flexible schedule. Closing: 14th March 2018. Click HEREfor the Job Description and application pack.  See more in their new newsletter http://peaceandjustice.org.uk

Other News:
1. UNFOLD ZERO members and partners will be in New York for the UN High-Level Conference from May 14-16, and key side-events including the public action Count the Nuclear Weapons Money from May 10-16 and the annual meeting of the Abolition 2000 global network to eliminate nuclear weapons on May 11 or 13 (to be finalised). The Abolition 2000 Youth Network will be organising youth engagement in these events.                                                                  2. Conscientious Objectors Day Vigil Tues 15 May.   5 – 6pm.Foot of the Mound, By the National Gallery. Reading the Names. Singing. CO Descendants & other speakers.

3. Next Meeting of ICAN Scottish Working Group This will be hosted by UN House and will take place WB 7th May after a Doodle Poll. Edinburgh CND attended the first and a report is available.                                                                     4. nuClear News No.104 February 2018 is now on-line here:
www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/NuClearNews_No104.pdf 

5. Last month it was announced that the infamous Doomsday Clock has been moved nearer to midnight, meaning that we’re closer to nuclear war than at any point since 1953. Read about this in the latest edition of Campaign magazine.  Read Campaign: February edition
Download Campaign: February edition
6. See Los Alamos for updates on US government spending on Nuclear weapons and their ‘nuclear posturing’ plus Bulletins 243 and 244:  http://www.lasg.org/
7.Australia Walkatjurra Walkabout updates available on request.
edinburghcnd

Edinburgh CND News 6th February 2018

EVENTS

  1. Saturday 10 February 2018: monthly leafleting, 12.30 pm at the East End of Princes Street.
  2. Thursday 15 February 2018: oganising meeting for Scotland’s Don’t Bank on the Bomb Network, 7 pm, Peace and Justice Centre, 5 Upper Bow, Edinburgh.
  3. Wednesday 21 February 2018: Open meeting on nuclear convoys
    7 pm, Peace and Justice Centre, 5 Upper Bow, Edinburgh
    Did you know that nuclear warheads are regularly transported in lorries for hundreds of miles along UK roads? Any accident involving an explosion or fire could lead to a radioactive plume spreading for miles, poisoning a huge area for thousands of years.
    This meeting will give you the opportunity to hear from David Mackenzie of Nukewatch about its recent report, “Unready Scotland”, which raises sharp questions about the preparedness of the civil authorities in Scotland to respond to a serious incident involving the transport by road of UK nuclear warheads.

convoy-with-Unready-Scotland-and-subtitle-text-box

  1. Tuesday 6 March 2018: ECND regular organising meeting, 7 pm, Peace and Justice Centre, 5 Upper Bow, Edinburgh.
  2. Thursday 26 April 2018: Public Meeting with Tim Coles author of “Fire and Fury: How the US Isolates North Korea, Encircles China and Risks Nuclear War in Asia”, 7.30 pm – 9 pm; Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh.

UK NEWS

  1. It was revealed that the government has spent £100 million deciding whether to replace or refurbish Britain’s nuclear warheads. This money could have been used to pay the salaries of more than 300 nurses for 10 years. In London, CND joined a rally for the NHS on 3 February to demand funding for healthcare not Trident.

trident demo

  1. A National Audit Office report on the Ministry of Defence’s Equipment Plan confirmed that nuclear-related projects, including Trident renewal, are crippling the MoD’s budget. The report warned that that projected costs will increase even more and “[n]uclear-related projects could destabilise the Plan because of their size and complexity”.
  2. The Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berskshire has applied for a licence to raise the radiation levels released from the site so it can run “more realistic” tests in preparation for potential nuclear terrorist attacks. CND chair, Dave Webb, said that if it really wants to stop nuclear terrorism, the British government should scrap Trident and sign the nuclear ban treaty:

“The reason given for the increase in radiation is to carry out tests to prepare for nuclear terrorism, but the root cause of nuclear terrorism is being side-stepped by the British government. Dangerous nuclear materials, that could fall into the hands of terrorists, are being transferred around the world because of our own nuclear weapons system and the nuclear power industry.”

  1. A petition has been launched to stop the transfer of nuclear waste from the UK to Australia, where it could be dumped on sacred Aboriginal land. Please click here to sign.
  2. A new report by Chatham House found that the threat of cyber attacks, such as data manipulation, digital jamming and cyber spoofing, on nuclear weapons systems like Trident is increasing, and could lead to nuclear weapons being used.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

  1. Norway’s government pension fund announced that it was divesting from BAE Systems and other companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons. Susi Snyder of divestment campaigning group Don’t Bank on the Bomb welcomed the decision, saying “this is an excellent move in the right direction, demonstrating that any type of investment in any type of nuclear weapons associated company is an investment against the survival of humanity”.
  2. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board moved the hand of the Doomsday Clock to two minutes to midnight “because of perilous nuclear situation“. This is the closest the clock has been to doomsday since 1953.
  3. The US nuclear posture review was released, lowering the threshold for US use of nuclear weapons and calling for the development smaller “more usable” nuclear weapons. Beatrice Fihn, Director of ICAN, described the NPR as “an all-out attempt to take nuclear weapons out of the silos and onto the battlefield. This policy shift from one where the use of nuclear weapons is possible to one where the use of nuclear weapons is likely”.