This is May/June's edition of Nuclear Alert, GM & D CND's bi-monthly newsletter. For an up-to-date list of upcoming events and actions, click here

News:
The View From National CND
Tony Blair in the (Trident) Dock?
Write to Your MP
Now More Than Ever
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Report of CND Council, March 31st to April 1st
Scots Don't Want Trident Replacement

Power Watch:
RADIATION or relocation?
Audit Trail
Eeek!
British Energy Holds 'Secret' Talks with Centrica and SSE
A Mountain of Madness!

Obituaries
Bob Oliver 13th March 1928 - 25th November 2006
Mayor Itoh - Untimely Passing of Dedicated Worker for Peace


How much will the March 14th decision cost your borough?

The View From National CND

Dear CND Supporter,
I am writing to convey my sincere thanks for all of your support and hard work for the No Trident Replacement campaign over the past months. The vote in parliament on Wednesday (March 14th) was a significant step forward for our work. Although the government position was won, it was the largest rebellion on a domestic issue since Labour came to power in 1997. It is also the largest backbench revolt over defence policy since Labour first entered government in 1924.

Many MPs have shifted their positions to oppose nuclear weapons and more will do so in the months and years to come, as they realise the extent of the majority public opposition to new nuclear weapons. All the arguments are in our favour and more and more people are realising that. This is a key step in the process of winning the struggle for nuclear abolition. The tables are turning in our favour and sanity will ultimately prevail.

CND will continue to campaign tirelessly against Trident replacement and for initiatives, which will eliminate nuclear weapons from Britain and the entire world. Your continued support is vital to encourage our government to adopt policies of peace and true security.
Sincerely,

Kate Hudson
CND Chair
PS - We have several videos from last 14th March rally and other actions in Parliament Square. Please visit our You Tube site at http://youtube.com/CNDpress to see all of our latest videos.

Tony Blair in the (Trident) Dock?

The Nuclear Information Services (NIS) issued a claim in Judicial Review on March 30th. Together with Peacerights they are calling for governmental accountability on the questions of illegality and due process in the replacement of Trident in the Government's White Paper, 'The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent'. They refute the claim that retaining Trident is consistent with our obligations under the NPT, and say the failure to consult properly is illegal.


It's a fair cop guv...

Di McDonald of NIS said "In 200 years' time, nuclear weapons will be viewed with the abhorrence felt about slavery. As in 1807, the law is the means to redress unacceptable social practices, and Britain can take the international lead again - before it is too late."

Write to Your MP

Please write to your MP to thank them for voting against Trident replacement or asking why they voted for replacement. This is a vital part of the continuing campaign to reverse the decision made on the 14th March. Here are sample letters for you to use.

MP's who voted Against Trident Replacement

Dear...............MP
I am writing to thank you for voting on 14th March against the government's plans to replace Trident. Although the government's motion passed, opposition to Trident replacement remains very high throughout Britain.

A recent Populus / More 4 News poll shows that 72% of the public do not want Britain to replace Trident now.

I will continue campaigning against the government's hugely unpopular decision to replace Trident, and I ask that you continue in your principled opposition to the plan. The government has admitted that last week's decision is reversible, and I hope that you will do everything in your power to make sure that it is reversed.

I would also like you to raise the question of multilateral disarmament initiatives with the government. The NPT Preparatory Committee is meeting in Vienna in May, and I would like to know what initiatives the government is proposing to comply with its disarmament commitments. Please write back to let me know how you plan to proceed on this issue.

Thank you once again for saying 'no' to a nuclear future. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

MPs who Voted For Trident Replacement

Dear..............MP
I am writing to express my profound disappointment that you voted in favour of the government's plans to replace Trident. Although the government's motion passed, opposition to Trident replacement remains very high throughout Britain.

A recent Populus / More 4 News poll shows that 72% of the public do not want Britain to replace Trident now.

I will continue campaigning against the government's hugely unpopular decision to replace Trident, and I ask that you reconsider your position on this issue.

According to a recent legal opinion by Rabinder Singh QC and Christine Chinkin of Matrix Chambers, a renewal of Trident will likely constitute a material breach of Article VI of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It will also undermine Britain's efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world.

With the NHS in the midst of further cuts and numerous other beneficial programmes facing funding crises, it beggars belief that up to £76 billion will be spent to renew a Cold War-era weapons system which will not protect us against the most prominent threats we now face - climate change and terrorism.

I would also like you to raise the question of multilateral disarmament initiatives with the government. The NPT Preparatory Committee is meeting in Vienna in May, and I would like to know what initiatives the government is proposing to comply with its disarmament commitments.

The government has admitted that the decision to replace Trident is reversible, and I strongly encourage you to help lead Britain and the world to a nuclear-free future by taking a stand against Trident replacement. Please write back to let me know how you plan to proceed on this issue.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely

Now More Than Ever

Local CND groups have been a veritable powerhouse of campaigning against Trident replacement in the past few months. Without local groups many MP's would have gone to the parliamentary debate and vote on the 14th March with little knowledge of the subject and, probably, no idea how their constituents wanted them to vote.

Groups held weekly street stalls in town centres and public meetings across the region as a way of connecting with local people and giving them the chance to talk about Trident replacement and what it would mean to their local hospital, their local school, etc. Groups reported an almost unanimously positive response and hundreds of postcards to MP's were signed and hundreds of signatures were collected on the 'Yes to Healthcare, No to Trident' petition.

As a follow up to these activities, the CND groups, some supported by local Stop the War groups, arranged meetings with MP's across the region and lobbied them in their surgeries. This fantastic campaigning resulted in 7 local Labour MP's rebelling and another 4 MP's from the other parties voting against Trident replacement.

Local groups are an essential part of CND's campaigning so if you and your friends, family or work colleagues are reading Nuclear Alert wondering what you can do why not consider organising a CND meeting in your local area? We would provide a speaker and all the materials you will need to set up a CND campaigning group. Give Jacqui or Doug a call at the GM&D CND office on 0161 273 8283 or email us at gmdcnd@gn.apc.org
We need you, 'Now More Than Ever'

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons


Click on the logo to visit their lovely website

On Monday 23rd April medical professionals in 60 countries launched the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican). Landmines and chemical and biological weapons have already been outlawed through treaties. Nuclear weapons can be similarly abolished through a nuclear-weapons convention. At a review of the non-proliferation treaty in 2000, the five original nuclear weapon states made an "unequivocal undertaking" to "accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals, leading to nuclear disarmament". Despite this, the UK parliament has voted to replace the Trident submarine-based nuclear-weapon system after announcing its intention in 2006 to spend just over £1bn over the next three years on refurbishing key facilities at its nuclear-weapons complex at Aldermaston.

Today there are 27,000 nuclear weapons in the world, owned by nine countries, all of which have stated their preparedness to use them. Nuclear weapons have no legitimate purpose; not only are they illegal (civilian casualties are unavoidable), they are also genocidal and utterly immoral. Nuclear weapons are futile against any of today's real security threats: they cannot address climate change, poverty, hunger, overpopulation, non-state armed groups or terrorists, and they are useless against pandemics such as Aids or avian flu. Immediate survivors in the vicinity of any nuclear exchange face devastating long-term ill effects or death.

The hypocritical claim that nuclear weapons are valuable instruments in some hands, but intolerable threats when owned by others, must be abandoned. The government should support a nuclear-weapons convention as part of the non-proliferation treaty process. We will be lobbying for the convention at an NPT meeting in Vienna starting on April 30.

Frank Boulton
Chair, Medact
Kate Hudson
Chair, CND

Report of CND Council, March 31st to April 1st

In opening, Jeremy Corbyn and Kate Hudson referred to the successful achievement of the Staff and all concerned in the campaign to get a substantial vote against Trident replacement. Kate urged that we press home our advantage, with 72% of the British electorate against deciding now to replace Trident. The international issues are 1) the US still attempts to control the Middle East, with its policies on NATO, Iran and the missile defence system, which may lead to an arms race with China, and 2) increasing opposition to nuclear weapons from all quarters.

There was a discussion about the reported police figure of 10,000 at the London demo when Westminster Council made it 80,000. It was agreed that it is very difficult to get an exact figure, but CND had taken the matter up with the police, who denied giving the low figure. The media must be refuted when their information is so clearly wrong.

CND's Chair Kate Hudson told us that CND will have a presence to lobby at the Non Proliferation Prep Com in May. We should write to the Foreign Office "asking what steps the UK is taking to fulfill its NPT obligation to pursue - in good faith - nuclear disarmament"?

In workshops there were many good suggestions for our future campaigning against replacing Trident, including a new film, and writing to all who changed their view during the campaign for the debate to ask what made them decide.

The good news was reported that CND now has charitable status for its education work. The new 'Nuclear Education' pack is a collection of the latest activities produced by CND for use in schools and sixth form colleges as well as some youth and community settings. The pack aims to provide a balanced, accessible approach to the history, facts and debates surrounding nuclear weapons and based on the belief that young people should be empowered with accessible knowledge of the current debates facing our society and supported in reaching their own opinions.

CND is the biggest single issue organisation in the country, with 32,000 members in Britain. This is a good number but if each of the 32,000 recruited one new member CND would be bolstered to the tune of at least £384,000 (based on minum £12 part/low-waged rate).

Action: Request the Now More Than Ever leaflet from the GM&D CND office and encourage a friend, family member or work colleague to join CND.

CND National Council. Guest speaker: Jon Trickett MP (Hemsworth, W. Yorks)

Jon gave resounding congratulations to the staff and officers of CND and said we should be proud of them. Council agreed and applauded everyone involved in the No Trident Replacement campaign.

He said the arguments have shifted about nuclear disarmament. We had undoubtedly won the moral argument but had failed to convince the UK public about disarmament because they feared the threat from the East. But it is the warmongers who are still living in the 80s and 90s - it is CND who is in tune with the times. The UK faces no nuclear threat.

Tony Blair and Des Browne have admitted that there is no nuclear threat from anywhere. It is global warming and individual acts of terrorism that are the real threats and as such there is no case for rearmament. What is needed is a war on poverty and deprivation, both in the UK and abroad.

In the run up to the debate on the 14th March MPs were told that we 'were facing an uncertain future' or that the decision to replace Trident needed to be taken after the debate. Yet the first submarine will not need to be taken out of commission until 2024. (And the US are getting even longer lives from theirs.)

Jon made an interesting point when he said the only unilateralists are those wanting nuclear rearmament. No technical case has been made for the early replacement of the submarines and the real reason for the haste was Tony Blair's wish for his 'legacy'.

This early decision to rearm means that we have unilaterally pre-empted the talks due to take place at the Non Proliferation Treaty Preparation Committee in May.

In the next phase of campaigning against Trident replacement coalitions are going to be key, with CND at their core. Faith leaders have said that the use and even possession of nuclear weapons is immoral. Other coalitions are with the green movement, such as FoE and Greenpeace and with intellectual and cultural communities.

He congratulated CND for the successful motivation of thousands of constituents to lobby their MPs. Only 34/35 rebels were needed for a majority. Yet all together 100 MPs voted against replacement now and MPs from every party voted for the amendment. 12 Labour MPs abstained. This was the largest rebellion on domestic issues ever, thanks to CND.

The government were obviously concerned and major concessions were won: they said that approximately 2 years would be needed to work on the concept, 7 years on the design and a further 9 -10 years to build the submarines. The major spending of tens of billions will only begin when the design is completed. The government also agreed to hold another vote at the end of the concept period. This gives us the chance to challenge them again to build exponentially on what we have gained. This will coincide with the NPT talks, so we need to start mobilising now!


Scots Don't Want Trident Replacement

Following the endorsement of the SNP by veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent, where he stated in his address to the SNP's spring conference that the decision to replace Trident was "foolish and dangerous", SNP Deputy Leader Nicola Sturgeon MSP said that it was time for all of Scotland to stand up for peace and prosperity, by standing up for a nuclear free Scotland.

Ms Sturgeon published the latest YouGov polling figures, which showed that 65 per cent of Scots think that if a majority of Scottish MPs vote in Parliament against the replacement of Britain's Trident nuclear missiles, a replacement nuclear missile system should not be sited in Scotland. The polling also showed that 72 per cent of Scots think that the replacement of the Trident nuclear missile system is a bad use of public money.

Power Watch

RADIATION or relocation?

A study of birds around Chernobyl suggests that nuclear fallout, rather than stress and deteriorating living conditions, may be responsible for human birth defects in the region.

People living around the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster in Ukraine have unusually high levels of physical abnormalities and birth defects. The International Atomic Energy Agency has suggested that the abnormalities are caused by the impact of relocation and stress on the population, and Timothy Mousseau, at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, wanted to put this to the test.


Barn swallows: even flying halfway round the world fails to give them cancer...

Mousseau and his colleagues examined 7700 barn swallows from Chernobyl and compared them with birds from elsewhere. They found that Chernobyl's swallows were more likely to have tumours, misshapen toes and feather deformities than swallows from uncontaminated parts of Europe (/Biology Letters/, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0136).

"We don't fully understand the consequences of low doses of radiation," says Mousseau. "We should be more concerned about the human population."

Audit Trail!

A deceptively neutral piece of jargon surfaced at least three times in Alistair Darling's remarks to the House of Commons on postmortem examinations of former workers at the Sellafield nuclear power station. The term was "audit trail". There was no audit trail, Mr Darling acknowledged, in the available documents on 65 deceased Sellafield employees to indicate whether organs taken from their bodies were removed with their families' consent. Stripped of euphemism, this means that key records on post mortems carried out on dozens of people who had worked for a highly secretive nuclear power utility at a time of intense controversy over the effects of radiation on the human body, have been lost, hidden, or were never made at all.

As a result, potentially thousands of relatives have been left wondering if organs were removed from their loved ones' bodies before burial or cremation. For many, longstanding suspicions have been rekindled. For one, the distressing memory of her dead husband's chest collapsing as if empty never went away. Meanwhile, mutual mistrust between the nuclear industry and the general public is at risk of slumping once again, just as a new generation of nuclear power stations is being planned.

For all its macabre qualities, this affair does not appear to involve illegality. In at least 61 of the 65 Sellafield cases, organs were removed on the authority of a coroner or family solicitor. Consent from the deceased's next of kin was not required by law until after an official report on the scandal of misuse of children's organs from Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool in 2001. Furthermore, the scientific case for examining the Sellafield workers' organs was strong, even if coroners and the nuclear industry failed for too long to make their findings public: the long-term effects on human tissues of radionuclides produced by nuclear power generation, even in the absence of accidents such as the infamous 1957 Windscale fire, are still poorly understood. In particular, alpha radiation particles that can barely penetrate the body from outside may be able to cause grave and even fatal damage if somehow lodged inside it, as appears to have been the case with the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko (and as is the case with DU).

Kate Hudson, Chair of CND, said:
'The unauthorised removal of body parts over a 30 year period reveal another deadly aspect of Britain's nuclear weapons programme: the severe health risks faced by nuclear weapons manufacturers. The families of those workers irradiated at Sellafield, Aldermaston and other nuclear facilities, as well as the public who funded such work, deserve answers about why the body parts were removed and what medical examiners found as a result.'

'Nuclear weapons not only threaten the lives of millions of people if used in combat, but also have grave effects on the health and lives of those who construct them.'

Eeek!

A Japanese power company admitted on Thursday that it had covered up a 1999 incident in which mishandling of nuclear fuel rods led to an unintended self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction for 15 minutes.

Hokuriku Electric Power Co said that there had been no radiation leak as a result of the mistake, which caused the company's Shiga No. 1 nuclear unit in central Japan to go into a "critical state" for 15 minutes. The unit was shut down manually after an automatic shut-down function failed.

The company apologised at a briefing for not reporting the incident, which occurred during a test while the unit was off line for a planned inspection.

As more countries are sold nuclear power plants by irresponsible companies in the United States the likelihood of such dangerous incidents, and worse, is going to increase. We must wonder when and where will be the next Chernobyl? Remember (lest we forget!) that the devastating accident at Chernobyl occurred during a 'test' and 'they' said it could never happen again!

British Energy Holds 'Secret' Talks with Centrica and SSE

A mere matter of weeks after the UK government announced that it was preparing to spend over £76 billion on replacing Trident British Energy is reportedly holding secret talks with Scottish and Southern Energy and Centrica regarding plans to invest £30 billion to build new nuclear power stations in the UK. How much money is earmarked for investment in alternative energy?

This is in complete disregard of a statement from the non-nuclear countries of Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Austria stating "It is our collective view that the current debate seeks to downplay the environmental, waste, proliferation, nuclear liability and safety issues and seeks to portray nuclear energy as a clean, safe and problem free reponse to climate change." They added "after 50 years of nuclear power, waste remains the most intractable issue. The inherent risks and problems associated with the nuclear energy option remain and it cannot therefore claim to be a clean alternative to fossil fuel use."

A Mountain of Madness!

Indonesia is forging ahead with plans to build its first nuclear power plant in the shadow of a dormant volcano, despite mounting opposition from environmental groups who fear a catastrophe in a country beset by earthquakes and natural disasters.

One of Indonesia's spectacularly explosive volcanoes

The favoured site on the north coast of Java is overlooked by the brooding presence of 5,250ft (1,600-metre) Mount Muria. Critics are concerned that the slightest tremor could trigger a fresh eruption and spell disaster for any nuclear reactor in its path. The consequences of a radioactive leak, through earthquake or eruption, could prove disastrous for Java - home to 100 million Indonesians

Action: Write to your MP demanding that no more nuclear waste be created. Already the de-commissioning of 20 nuclear power stations and the relocation of waste from sea-side nuclear stations (global warming = rising sea levels!) will mean tons of nuclear waste shipped around. No More!

Bob Oliver 13th March 1928 - 25th November 2006

Bob, a long-time keen member and more recently treasurer, of Salford CND, was for several years a member of the Co-ordinating Committee of Greater Manchester & District CND.

A well-known and respected figure at Eccles Quaker meetings, he played an important role at the monthly meetings of the Quaker Peace Group in Manchester.

On occasions for leafleting, and also in the vicinity of peace vigils, he loved to find his own pitch and hand out an incredible number of leaflets in spite of chatting with passers-by. At his flat one could, quite literally, scarcely move for books; moreover he'd actually read them as most were littered with his annotations.

In the aftermath of the Second World War Bob was called up for National service, in the course of which he became an objector, and served some months in prison. In recent years he was a prominent figure at events at Manchester Peace Garden marking International Conscientious Objectors' Day. This year's ceremony will be on Sunday 13th May (see Diary for details).

His close friend Rita Grundy, membership secretary at Salford CND, has written an appreciation, or as she calls it, a CELEBRATION of Bob's astonishingly varied life and activities. This 'celebration' is available from the GM&D CND office.
Basil Landau, Salford CND

Untimely Passing of Dedicated Worker for Peace

On Wednesday 18th April, one of the leading voices against nuclear proliferation was silenced when Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Itoh died from gunshot wounds. He was 61. Here is a remembrance from Mayor Itoh's friend and fellow peace acivist, Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima.

I prayed wholeheartedly for his recovery, but just received the report of his passing. I am filled with profound sorrow and outrage. The use of violence to suppress political activities is an obvious threat to democracy and cannot be tolerated.

For 12 years, since taking office as the mayor of Nagasaki in 1995, Mayor Itoh served as vice president of Mayors for Peace. As mayors of A-bombed cities, we worked together to persuade the world to abolish nuclear weapons and build genuine and lasting peace. At the NPT Review Conference in New York in 2000, Mayor Itoh represented Mayors for Peace with an eloquent speech at UN headquarters, then met with many government representatives to defend the absolute necessity of total nuclear weapons abolition. In part because of his efforts, the final document from that conference included an unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear weapon States to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals.

Five years later, at the NPT Review Conference in 2005, he participated in a Mayors for Peace delegation that included the representatives of 80 cities. He helped to lead 40,000 people gathered from around the world on a march through the streets of New York. He again rose before world leaders to forcefully present the expectations of the A-bombed cities. I will never forget the bold resolve with which he worked to abolish nuclear weapons, and I find it extremely painful to imagine about how he must feel about having been cut down before the
job was done.

I vow to inherit his passion and, working with the 1,608 members of Mayors for Peace, do everything in my power to bring about the truly peaceful, nuclear-weapon-free world he so strongly desired.

I hereby express my great respect and admiration for Mayor Itoh's achievements and offer my heartfelt condolences and prayers for his peaceful repose.

April 18, 2007

Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor of Hiroshima
President, Mayors for Peace

Interesting Reading

CND - NOW MORE THAN EVER
The Story of A Peace Movement by Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson has done us all a great service by bringing the history of CND up to date. It is the record of nearly 50 years of struggle by British people of every background, and political and religious tradition, for genuine international security and a world free from the ever-present perils of nuclear weapons’ Bruce Kent
Available from CND 162 Holloway Road, London N7 8DQ and/ or ask your local library to order one.

WARFARE OR WELFARE DISARMAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY
A Human Security Approach by Colin Archer published by IPB (International Peace Bureau). This interesting booklet is available from the CND office or from MAW (Movement Against War), 11 Venetia Road, London N4 1EJ £5 each + £1 p&p 5 copies or more £3 each + 15% p&p

DEPLETED URANIUM - The Full Picture, - Anne Gut & Bruno Vitale. Published by Cadu & The Spokesman. Available at a discounted rate of from the GM CND office