Get rid of the nukes!

Abolition 2000 delegates, including Ceasefire.ca campaigners, visit the Scottish parliament

The Basel Peace Office reports on the Faslane Declaration adopted at the recent Abolition 2000 Annual Meeting in Scotland (“Abolition 2000 at Faslane: Get Rid of the Nukes!,” Basel Peace Office, April 2013), which was attended by Kathleen Walsh and Steven Staples of Ceasefire.ca who represented Canada:

A delegation from the Abolition 2000 Global Network for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons visited the Clyde Naval Base in Faslane, Scotland [on April 19th] and released the Faslane Declaration, which calls on the UK to remove the nuclear weapons based in Scotland, abandon nuclear deterrence, and join negotiations for global nuclear abolition.The statement had been adopted at the Abolition 2000 Annual Meeting, which was held in Edinburgh over the previous two days, and was jointly released at Faslane and at a meeting in Edinburgh of the Scottish Nuclear Free Local Authorities. Abolition 2000, which promotes a global nuclear abolition treaty (a nuclear weapons convention) brought anti-nuclear activists from around the world [including Ceasefire.ca’s Steven Staples and Kathleen Walsh] to Scotland to support the efforts of Scottish citizens and legislators to establish Scotland as a nuclear-weapon-free zone, to reject the nuclear weapons based in its territory, and to codify this in legislation or constitution.

The Scottish parliament and the majority of Scottish people oppose the basing of nuclear weapons in Scotland. With a referendum on independence next year, there is a very real possibility that Scotland could acquire the authority to evict the nuclear weapons from Faslane — which is currently the only base for the UK nuclear fleet.

Ceasefire.ca's Kathleen Walsh and Steven Staples visit the Faslane Peace Camp in Scotland.

Tags: Abolition 2000, Basel Peace Office, Clyde Naval Base, Faslane, Faslane Declaration, Nuclear abolition, Nuclear disarmament, Nuclear weapons, Nuclear Weapons Convention, Scotland, Steven Staples, Trident, United Kingdom