Trident beleaguered from all sides
Trident renewal faces opposition
A Quaker is facing imprisonment in Scotland for her protest against what she regards as an unfair trial. Janet Fenton was found guilty of criminal damage on Friday along with fellow peace activist Barbara Dowling. They had sprayed slogans on the walls of a court building in Dumbarton in 2010 after being convicted of a breach of the peace at the Faslane naval base. The base is home to the Trident nuclear weapons system.
Despite her conviction, Janet Fenton said she had ‘no regrets’ over her action. She continued: ‘As a Quaker, I believe that in every case, negotiation, conciliation and other nonviolent intervention must be substituted for violence and coercion in the settlement of conflict.’
The two campaigners, who are members of Trident Ploughshares, were accused of damaging the court’s walls without a ‘reasonable’ cause. They accepted they had damaged them, but insisted that the public had a right ‘to know that the court did not uphold international law’.
During their original trial, the justice of the peace had refused to hear the defence’s argument that they have a right to disrupt Trident under humanitarian law. Trident Ploughshares claim that she ‘appeared to have made up her mind before all the evidence was put before the court’. The defendants painted the walls immediately afterwards.
‘This was not vandalism,’ insisted Barbara Dowling last week. She said: ‘The proper reaction to moral wrong is indignation, outrage and action.’
Janet Fenton was earlier involved in arranging a visit to Britain by the former president of the International Court of Justice, who met with lawyers for Trident Ploughshares to hear the argument that Trident is illegal. She said it was ‘shocking’ that the court in Dumbarton was ‘not even willing to listen to a properly prepared legal defence’.
Janet Fenton and Barbara Dowling will be sentenced on 19 March. Their conviction last week came only two days after members of Trident Ploughshares met with representatives of the Scottish government to make their case that Trident is illegal. The organisation exists ‘to disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapons system in a nonviolent, open, peaceful and fully accountable manner’.
The Ministry of Defence admitted last month that they did not know where they would locate the UK’s nuclear weapons if Scotland were to become independent. Nuclear arms are currently based at Faslane and Coulport, both in Scotland. On Sunday, the publication of internal safety reports from the bases, released under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that inspectors had found them to be unsatisfactory in eleven out of their thirteen activities.
Last week also saw the launch of a united campaign against Trident by three of Britain’s biggest churches. The Baptist Union of Great Britain, Methodist Church and United Reformed Church said that the renewal of Trident would cost £3.7bn each year for fifteen years. They calculate that for the same sum the government could invest in 15,000 health visitors, 15,000 teachers, 300 Sure Start centres, 12,500 new council houses, solar energy for 345,000 homes – and still have £1bn left over for the armed forces.
Estimates of the cost of Trident renewal have varied widely, from the government’s prediction of around £15-20bn to Greenpeace’s calculation of £94bn.
‘We are being told that we must accept cutbacks in public services,’ said Leo Osborn, president of the Methodist Conference. ‘At a time when the protection for the poorest in our society is under pressure, it is surely wrong to tie up so much public money in nuclear missiles and their delivery systems.’
The renewal of Trident is also opposed by the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Wales, the Union of Welsh Independents and a number of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops.
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