Sitting on the Fence
So here I am, sitting on the fence. I mean not literally, although some of the seventy-odd peace activists have scrambled up the mesh fence that marks the outermost ring of AWEs formidable defenses (the police don’t take notice, they are standing by the entrance around the corner. The atmosphere is very laid back and laissez-faire).
John and I came to this Easter protest because we were curious. Easter protests at the base are tradition since the first ‘stop the H-bomb’ march from London to Aldermaston back in 1958. In addition to this, I was part of the peace movement in the early eighties when millions of people took to the streets in protest against the arms race. Faced with the very real threat of nuclear holocaust during the Cold War, even our conservative neighbours participated in sit-ins. But that was a long time ago. Since then, the nuclear threat has pretty much disappeared from my radar. AWE, so I thought, is primarily engaged in decommissioning and safeguarding the remaining nuclear warheads.
Not so. Between the site of the Women’s Peace Camp in Bluebell Wood and the A340 Gate, a laser facility is being built which will simulate test conditions for the next generation of nuclear weapons.
I do not approve. But I am mainly curious. So I’m taken a little by surprise when we find ourselves participating in a non-violent resistance workshop. That is a blast from the past! Soon we practise decision making processes in ‘affinity groups’ and I take my place in a sit-in role play. I am the first to be prized loose. The remaining three: two grandmothers—one of them with a bad hip— and a very slight looking woman, are impossible to separate and have to be moved as a unit. I doubt that the police will be as gentle as the people in the role play, but these are some tough ladies who clearly have done this before. John, who is doing the prizing, is having a blast. I suppose it’s ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’.
Soon we are talking about the peace movement and the present campaign to block the builders—to stop construction of the Orion laser facility, new IT centre and laboratories.
“You are local?” a scruffy young man exclaims: “I thought they were all reactionaries around here!”
Well, no. At least I don’t think so. For starters, we aren’t (not even John, 
who by now is sporting a ‘peace’ button on his collar). But on the other hand, AWE employs some 3000 people; it is by far the biggest local employer. Not all are nuclear weapons engineers—Heather just took a job as Chef de Partie. I saw the kitchen jobs advertised in the paper and thought about applying (it’d be handy as the establishment is in cycling distance); but of course I’d never get security clearance.
Of those who are not employed directly at the base, many work for sub-contractors or own businesses that depend on AWE personnel for their custom. Then there are the youth groups, sport clubs and school- and community projects. AWE pretty much runs this place. But this does not mean that all the locals are ‘reactionary’ or that they won’t have an opinion when it comes to the construction of New Generation atomic weapons. After all, not even the peace movement suggests that the base be dismantled—we need a place to decommission atomic warheads for a start. Also, not everybody minds that one or two new ones are built each year to maintain skills and capability, although opinions will be divided about that (I’d say do away with all of them; most of the locals and those who know about nuclear weapons maintenance probably say no). But I bet there are plenty of people who live locally who will have a problem with the notion that a new kind of weapon is being developed on the site—namely ‘mini nukes’, the deployment of which is much more likely in a situation such as Iraq.
This then is a battle to win hearts and minds. I do not believe for a minute that we can stop the project by ‘blocking the builders’; the government and the police are too powerful. But we can cause eyebrows to be raised. Which is why I am disturbed that in the context of the meeting we now find ourselves attending, some eager people suggest blockading a few of the sub-contractors before moving on to the base. As is the custom, every notion is heard and voted on. “OK then”, the facilitator asks: “Who is available and arrestable?” Only a few hands go up. After a bit of talking to and fro, the notion dies a quiet death. I do not have to speak up and come across as ‘reactionary’. But hang on a minute—’arrestable’?
As I know from experience (although I escaped arrest back then), participating in direct action carries a risk—no matter how non-violent the protest is. Demonstrators can be charged for a range of offenses from blocking public roads to ‘breach of the peace’—as ironic as that sounds. With my record (long story), I am not ‘arrestable’. It looks as if I have to remain sitting on the fence.
But I can observe, and write about, what is happening at our friendly neighbourhood Atomic Weapons Establishment. Maybe I can carry the argument to the people who live around here and to the local papers. After all the talk about ‘weapons of mass destruction’, can the government really get away with commissioning new nukes? Well, yes— but at least we can make our objections known
Denni