Stop the War/Stop Trident March

Rethink Trident

I’ve talked about this before – nuclear weapons are a nonsense. In the UK we have an opportunity again to call a halt to this madness. Let’s not replace Trident.

Today the Compass Parliamentary Group launched RETHINK TRIDENT with a front page story in the Independent.

This is what they have to say on the matter and how you can help:

"The Government is proposing to replace the UK’s fleet of Trident nuclear submarines and extend the life of existing missiles in plans that carry an estimated cost of £20bn. But they have given MP’s, scientists and campaigners just three months to weigh up the proposals, due to come before Parliament in mid-March.

Jon Trickett MP, Chair of the Compass Parliamentary Group, has been working to construct an umbrella group of organisations who believe that the case for the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent has not been sufficiently made, and that the timeframe for parliamentary approval of the decision is premature and insufficient.

The initiative - RETHINK TRIDENT – is supported by the following organisations: United Nations Association of Great Britain, One World Trust, Friends of the Earth, Scientists for Global Responsibility, War on Want, National Union of Students, British American Security Information Council (BASIC), SERA, MEDACT, People and Planet, Greenpeace, Oxford Research Group, CND, UNISON and CWU.

Today RETHINK TRIDENT released a statement endorsed by a Committee of 100 including faith leaders; academics; prominent politicians from all parties; leading authors and poets; musicians; and celebrities.

The full statement reads: We believe that:

- Britain should not be rushed into a premature decision to replace its “Trident” nuclear weapons system;
- More time should be taken for Parliamentary and public scrutiny and debate;
- The urgent need is both to halt the spread of nuclear weapons to new countries, and for all states which possess them to move more rapidly and substantially towards nuclear disarmament;
- Therefore the priority for the UK government should be launching a renewed diplomatic initiative to seek a breakthrough in disarmament and non-proliferation negotiations, as it has taken a lead in relation to such global challenges as climate change and acute poverty.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams; Professor Stephen Hawking; Bianca Jagger and Vivienne Westwood are amongst those who put their names to the statement. (view the full list).

The statement and the broad-base of support that we have worked to secure are intended to encourage MPs to support an amendment along the same lines as the statement. The Compass Parliamentary Group will work cross-party to ensure the amendment gets the necessary support.

This is our only chance to mobilise in the Commons to prevent Trident being renewed – calculations are that we will not win on an outright ‘no’ vote but have much more chance on a ‘the case hasn’t yet been made’ vote. If the Bill goes through as the Government proposes it will be the end of the matter for the foreseeable future."


Please lobby your MP to support the RETHINK TRIDENT initiative! For details on how to contact your MP click on to http://www.upmystreet.com/commons/l/

If you’re not already, please become a member of Compass and help support our work including this important campaign, join at http://www.compassonline.org.uk/join.asp

Sign up to the RETHINK TRIDENT public debate taking place at 7pm in Parliament on Tuesday 27 February 2007, full details at: http://www.compassonline.org.uk/events.asp

Sign the petition against TRIDENT at the 10 Downing Street website:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/trident/

March against TRIDENT on 24th February assemble 12 noon at Speakers Corner then proceed to rally in Trafalgar Square. Flyer here: http://www.cnduk.org/pages/24feb.pdf

The Whole of our Efforts

I got into an interesting debate this week in the comments section of Transition Culture. Rob posted a short entry on Wednesday titled “The Idiocy of Renewing Trident” where he reflects on how the £20 billion being pledged for renewal of the Trident nuclear missile system could be better spent on energy descent preparations.

Jason Cole writing in response to Rob’s piece presents his belief that altering the UK’s policy in regards to nuclear weapons would be extremely difficult if not impossible. In the subsequent exchange between Jason and myself, he indicates that the issues of Peak Oil and Climate Change are where we should be directing the “whole of our efforts”, and that campaigning simultaneously for issues like nuclear disarmament is “pointless” and a “distraction”. I believe Jason means that these other issues will distract people from focussing on the most important issues, he also says: “speeches made about Nuclear Weapons during a Climate Change march only serves to dilute the message”.

In the course of the exchange between Jason and myself I argued both that these issues were intertwined and that it was worthwhile campaigning for nuclear disarmament, that we could effect change in this area.

I do believe that Jason’s position is one that we must consider however. Should we just focus on the most important issues to the exclusion of all others, however worthy? We have limited amounts of personal energy – how can we best use that to effect change? Should we be using some kind of personal EROEI equation, where we consider the ‘energy return’ as positive change effected in the system? – on this basis we only would only campaign on the issues where we could effect most change.

This could be related to the idea I first encountered in Permaculture of your personal ‘circle of influence’ and your ‘circle of concern’ (I believe that this idea originates from Stephen R. Covey’s book 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People'). Covey writes:

"In looking at ways to influence and change our surroundings it is helpful to notice where we focus our time and energy. We each have a wide range of concerns--our health, our family, problems at work, the national debt, etc., and it is these things in our lives that make up our Circle of Concern.”

“As we look at those things within our Circle of Concern, it becomes apparent that there are some things over which we have no real control and others that we can do something about. We could identify those concerns in the latter group by circumscribing them in a smaller Circle of Influence.”

Covey continues that effective people focus on their Circle of Influence because they “are smart, they are value driven, they read reality, and they know what's needed” and because “[t]hey work on the things they can do something about”. By focusing their energies in this way “The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging, and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase.”

When we consider these big issues which concern us like Peak Oil, Climate Change, Nuclear Weapons we are liable initially to feel dwarfed by their enormity. However, when we consider what we can influence and act on that we empower ourselves. It may be easier to see how our circle of influence could include elements related to Peak Oil and Climate Change – we can reduce our personal energy use in a number of ways, we can inform ourselves about the issues, we can shop locally, we can learn how to live more sustainable lives. It may be harder to see how our circle of influence extends to nuclear disarmament, and many like Jason might suggest it does not. Here however are some examples of what you might do:

1) Sign the E-Petition at the 10 Downing Street website:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to champion the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, by not replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system.”

This is one of the most popular e-petitions on the site and has 5,300 signatories to date.

2) Join the Big Trident Debate pressing the government for a full debate on the issue of replacing the Trident system by adding your name to the Big Trident Debate Statement.

3) Contact your MP and express your opinion on the issue, ask them to support the Alternative White Paper ‘Safer Britain, Safer World: The decision not to replace Trident’.

4) Join the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

5) If you feeling active join the blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston next Monday (11^th December).

Got Democracy?

As the dust begins to settle, and I reconnect with the news media after a period of ignoring it – I decided this morning to see what’s up with the US mid terms.

Well it appears that the Republicans took a beating, and that Bush is now a ‘lame duck’ president as they say. My initial feeling about this was, great – now violent action against Iran will have to come off the timetable. I don't see any solutions to the Iraq debacle coming out of Democrats taking some power though.

Anyway, that was about as far as it went, I don’t understand enough about US politics to really make much more sense of the whole affair. Then I thought – well let’s look at this a little harder and see if we can learn anything else from this election.

Only 40 % of the electorate bothered to vote, another great success for Western democracy! Is anybody asking how we can try and engage the USA with the idea of democratic politics? Not that UK/Europe is much better - everyone is sick with professional politicians.

I was intrigued by the ‘independents’ who achieved success, who are these people? what do they represent? It’s so below the radar of news coverage here – it’s very difficult to get much sense. Today’s Guardian reveals some interesting facts in its Election Roundup. Not least that this election sees a socialist voted into Senate – heaven forefend! Bernie Sanders seems to have the right kind of campaigning issues, if only there was more of this in the USA.

There have been some successes for the Green Party of the United States in municipal and mayoral elections. The first Green president, or indeed Green revisioning of governance, still seems a way off.

Ralph Nader’s comments on the election are available in an interview on the Democracy Now site – which, whether you like Nader or not, gives some insights to the US political process that I otherwise would have missed.

I couldn’t find much of interest in US Indymedia’s coverage of the elections, but it’s worth checking the site for a feel of what else is going on stateside.

Ran Prieur expresses the deep cynicism about the whole affair which I imagine is much more representative of grass roots feeling than these 'democratic' charades generally reveal.

What's Chosŏnmal for "Nein Danke"?

So while the west continues to piss about in the desert, chanting "it's not about the oil" like some mediaeval penitent making a prayer between each strike on the head with a plank of wood, mumbling between times about the "weapons of mass destruction" etc. etc. - North Korea just goes and does it.

North Korea has announced that its made its first nuclear test, an underground explosion in Gilju in the Hamgyong province. The more nuclear we have, the more nuclear will spread. The more this shit will end up in the hands of people who go "You say mutually assured destruction like it's a bad thing". It really doesn't help when ichiban superpower is high on rapture rhetoric too.

Saw Keith and Helen on Saturday and got an early birthday present, cd single of Roy Harper's "The Death of God". One could quote so many of its lines, but how about for today:

Hoping and praying
And praying and hoping
Praying and hoping to die
Blowing my life away
Taking some others
A new kind of old passer-by
But I won't be passing you by
'Cos I'm the Samaritan
With a bomb in my eye
And my finger on the trigger
Of goodbye

What's Farsi for "Nein Danke"?

I'm against pretty much all the nuclear industry - weapons, energy the whole lot. I just don't think we have the right to go on producing poisons that will last millennia after our deaths, or that it can ever be right. It's not essentially a spiritual point of view, or a personal philosophical point of view - it's a pragmatic acceptance that creating elements, not seen before on Earth, that have the power to kill for hundreds of centuries is likely to be a bad idea.

That said, I don't really see that the "West" has come up with any reasons good enough to stop Iran from developing nuclear technology. If the rest of the world was retreating from nuclear energy and nuclear weapons there would be a clear global moral argument against any new development. Also there would be fewer atomic scientists, less atomic material, less nuclear expertise and technology to "go astray".

In fact the opposite is the case - the "west" and other countries in the favour of the "west" are gung-ho for new nuclear energy developments. It is increasingly seen as a solution for avoiding global warming, and for assisting in energy security (i.e. dealing with all the oil running out, and what's left mostly being owned by people who don't like us). Now if you were a country whose whole economy depended on fossil fuel exports and you had already passed your own peak oil production point wouldn't you want to join this new energy bandwagon before it was too late?

In terms of nuclear weapons, the "west" similarly shows no sign of retreat. The US military pushes for the development of "tactical" nuclear weapons, atomic bunker busters et al. The UK government gets ready to spend billions on a new nuclear weapons system to replace Trident. Meanwhile countries like Israel, India and Pakistan are allowed nuclear weapons without censure. Iran looks on and sees that while a country without any evidence of WMD (Iraq) is invaded and turned into a pit of chaos, a country that clearly does have WMD (North Korea) is pussyfooted around. Doesn't this indicate that you bloody well better actually have WMD if you want to avoid the USA coming a shit kicking?

So we have an opportunity to stop Nuclear madness here and now, stop nuclear development in the first world and export the moral argument (and the supporting details on peak uranium). Simultaneously we restrict the number of people who possibly could create nuclear industries, and the technology to allow us to do so. Our Atomic scientists will have plenty of exciting work left to do, working out how to make all the crap 50 years of nuclear activity have generated safer for the unborn generations who will share the planet with it.

Driven by Oil

The BBC is back on the case of oil with a new four part series on Radio 4 “Driven by Oil”.

The first episode “When will the Tap Run Dry?” was broadcast on Monday September 4th, and is currently still available via the listen again feature. This episode focuses on the peak oil issue.

The second episode “The China Syndrome” to be broadcast on September 11th looks at the new demand for oil and the impact of emerging economies such as China and India.

IMAGE: For Your Oil Only lifted from Tropical Boy

I-man satta at the mountain top Watching Babylon burning red hot, red hot

One night a feast was held in the palace, and there came a man and prostrated himself before the prince, and all the feasters looked upon him; and they saw that one of his eyes was out and that the empty socket bled. And the prince inquired of him, “What has befallen you?” And the man replied, “O prince, I am by profession a thief, and this night, because there was no moon, I went to rob the money-changer's shop, and as I climbed in through the window I made a mistake and entered the weaver's shop, and in the dark I ran into the weaver's loom and my eye was plucked out. And now, O prince, I ask for justice upon the weaver.” Then the prince sent for the weaver and he came, and it was decreed that one of his eyes should be plucked out. “O prince,” said the weaver, “the decree is just. It is right that one of my eyes be taken. And yet, alas! both are necessary to me in order that I may see the two sides of the cloth that I weave. But I have a neighbour, a cobbler, who has also two eyes, and in his trade both eyes are not necessary.” Then the prince sent for the cobbler. And he came. And they took out one of the cobbler's two eyes. And justice was satisfied.

“War” from The Madman; His Parables and Poems (A.A. Knopf, 1918) by Kahlil Gibran.


Without comment or critique, here are words and image from two Lebanese artists in these dangerous times. This post is mirrored at Rubedo.


IMAGE: after 19 says i started to cry (2006) by Mazen Kerbaj taken from his Kerblog entry for Sunday July 30th 2006.

Iraq

It's all too easy to become bored or complacent about Iraq these days. We know it's a mess, we know we were lied to, we know it's all got something to do with oil... But you just start to let it fade from your consciousness.

Everyday has more Iraq news, and it's pretty much always casualty figures of one kind or another. You might not be counting but these guys are. Let's not forget that everyone of those numbers was a living breathing human being with hopes and fears just like us, and that everyone of those numbers has other living human beings weeping and mourning over the friends and families and lovers they have lost.

I honestly don't know whether pulling troops out now would make things better or worse. But I do know that there are options we have that don't involve war, that don't involve murder, that don't involve torture.

I found the Iraq Pledge of Resistance on the net, it's a nationwide network of activists and organizations committed to ending the war in Iraq through nonviolent, Gandhian and Kingian resistance. A heartening reminder that in the midst of this bloody mess, some of those on the frontline still put their faith in peace, still put their faith in Love.

O Shamash, hear me, hear me, Shamash, let my voice be heard. Here in the city man dies oppressed at heart, man perishes with despair in his heart. I have looked over the wall and I see the bodies floating on the river, and that will be my lot also. Indeed I know it is so, for whoever is tallest among men cannot reach the heavens, and the greatest cannot encompass the earth.

[The Epic of Gilgamesh]