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CND in the News CND in the News: 23-30 September 2004……………………………………………..1 Thom Yorke Confirms CND Demo Speech A new statement from CND has confirmed that Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke will be speaking at their anti nuclear weapons demonstration at US base Fylingdales in Yorkshire on Saturday (September 23). As previously reported on Xfm, in an online message Yorke had said he was attending the campaign for nuclear disarmament’s 'No to Star Wars, Keep Space for Peace' demonstration. Now in a new CND statement confirms that the Radiohead singer will be speaking alongside the chair of CND, Kate Hudson and Dave Knight (from the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space) at the event. Yorke’s message on the Radiohead website urged people to join the protest by saying: “im planning a trip to fylingdales anybody want to come? its a nice place. they have big domes and stuff. its up north. and im down south. bring a sandwich. i think they are planning world domination there or something. “its the 25th. thats also a saturday. what should i say. i dont want to be rude. but they are about to announce star wars..” The demo is taking place at Fylingdales air base, in protest to George Bush's planned announcement - expected this Autumn - that the first phase of his ‘Star Wars’ Missile Defence System is up and running. The base itself is regarded as an essential part of the US Star Wars system and is the one official Star Wars base in the UK so far. The event starts at 12.00pm this Saturday (September 23) at Eller Beck, close to the main gate of Fylingdales on the A169 between Pickering and Whitby. …………………………………………….. 2 'Star Wars' Project Could Spark New Arms Race Activating the “Star Wars” programme could trigger a new arms race, Green Euro MP and peace campaigner Caroline Lucas warned today. She urged US President George Bush to abandon plans to switch on the missile defence system, which could be as soon – or risk a terrorist backlash and a new arms race. The Star Wars programme, which could be launched as soon as next week, will do nothing to prevent terrorism or increase security, insisted the South East MEP. She went on: “It will have the opposite effect, creating a terrorist target at Fylingdales in Yorkshire and heightening global insecurity by firing the starting gun on a new arms race.” CND council member Ms Lucas was speaking as preparations went on for a major CND-organised demonstration against the Star Wars project on Saturday. Thousands are expected to descend on the Fylingdales RAF base to hear speakers including CND’s Kate Hudson and musician Thom Yorke, of Radiohead. The demonstration will mark the first in a series of events to mark ’Keep Space for Peace Week’, involves live music, games, a Star Wars exhibition, a drumming workshop and food stalls. In her “message of support” Ms Lucas said: “At this time of increasing global insecurity it is ever more urgent that we stand up to plans for a National Missile Defence programme. “There’s nothing defensive about this programme – it is a deeply offensive weapons system, specifically designed to bring about fear and instability, which will trigger a major new arms race. The MEP added: “True security doesn’t lie in National Missile Defence Systems, or ever greater military hardware, or ever increasing defence budgets. “We will only be more secure when poverty and injustice are eradicated. “Until we understand the violence of our economic policies, our military policies, and our foreign policies, we will continue to foster the conditions that make terrorism possible. …………………………………………….. 3 Come Clean with Gorbachev LONDON, Sep 24 (IPS) - Mikhail Gorbachev is an ex-president going after weapons of mass destruction. But not the way U.S. President George Bush thought he was going after them in Iraq. That war on Iraq was a mistake, Gorbachev said in London this week. ''It not only undermined international law, it undermined democracy. Millions spoke out, but the war was launched in spite of their democratic views,'' he told media representatives. Gorbachev was in London to launch an offensive against weapons of mass destruction (WMD) of quite another kind; he came to launch a Come Clean campaign put together by several NGOs including Greenpeace, the Campaign of Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in Britain and Medact, a group supporting health issues in conflict areas. Mikhail Gorbachev became President of the Soviet Union in 1990, and stepped down as head of state at the end of 1991. He was earlier one of the key Soviet leaders as a member of the Soviet presidium. Since 1992 he has been president of the International Nongovernmental Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies, better known as The Gorbachev Foundation. The leader of the former Soviet Union seemed at peace with his new role. A naïve attempt? ''I have been suspected of being naïve many times,'' he said. He had been called naïve in 1986, he said, when he appealed for elimination of nuclear weapons by 2000. ''There were two reactions to that,'' he said. ''One, that it was all propaganda. Two, that it was an illusion. But we were able to eliminate whole classes of nuclear weapons.'' Gorbachev was emphatic about his campaign against WMD. ''If they exist, sooner or later there will be disastrous consequences. They can fall into the hands of terrorists. It is not enough to safeguard them, they must be abolished.'' Anyone who supports the existence of weapons of mass destruction should not be allowed to run for the post of president or prime minister, Gorbachev said. ''You may again think I'm naïve. But I'm not stupid, I know what I'm saying.'' As Soviet leader Gorbachev knew what he was sitting on. His initiative led to a joint declaration with former U.S. president Ronald Reagan that a nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought. Gorbachev, who won the Nobel peace prize in 1990 for helping bring the Cold War to an end, now sees new cause for alarm. ''In recent years we are seeing a tendency to change military doctrines to declare use of nuclear weapons more acceptable and perhaps pre-emptive strikes with nuclear weapons more conceivable.'' The new campaign launched in London Thursday seeks to counter new dangers. The campaign is being led in London by 96-year-old Prof Sir Joseph Rotblat, who won the Nobel peace award in 1995. Prof Rotblat, who is Polish by birth worked on building the atom bomb in Britain during the Second World War. He abandoned the project when it became clear that Germany was not building the bomb. He turned instead to a peace mission to avert the danger posed by nuclear weapons. As someone who almost built the atom bomb, he too knows just what he is talking about. But as a former president Gorbachev knows that peace does not mean pacifism. Terrorism has to be countered. He believes ''in traditional methods like police methods, use of commandos against terrorist structures, and this too with the approval of the United Nations Security Council.'' There are financial flows that need to be stopped. ''There are many well-known things happening in the financial system, and these channels need to be cut, there needs to be a better central financial system.'' And with terrorism arising from fundamentalism, ''religious leaders need to speak out against the actions of their followers''. Finally he said there is a need to fight terrorism by fighting poverty. ''Where billions are deprived of hope and a decent life, it becomes possible to recruit followers for terrorism.'' But was all this being naïve too? What about pragmatic solutions?
The agreement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bush on reduction
of weapons should be implemented. ''And other members of the nuclear club
should join in the process. Otherwise there are about 30 threshold countries
that can start testing and acquiring nuclear weapons.'' The results of perestroika as he had planned it would have taken 20 to
30 years to attain. He blamed his successor Boris Yeltsin for offering
what he could never have delivered. "'They (the Russian people) believed
the promise of a quick fix and they felt that if Gorbachev was not delivering
on a better life quickly let's support Yeltsin,'' Gorbachev told the girl,
according to a local news agency. "The result was the disintegration
of the country, shock therapy in the army and chaos,'' he said. ''We are
still feeling the consequences of this.'' 4 Anti-war groups renew call for peace PEACE activists in Leeds are to launch a renewed anti-war campaign in
response to Tony Blair's declaration of a "second war for Iraq."
Leeds Coalition Against the War, which organised an anti-war protest in
the city in March last year, says it is now launching its "second
anti-war campaign" following the statement by the Prime Minister. 5 US Plans Hi-Tech Future for Monitoring Base Rock star Thom Yorke will join a demonstration today outside a US military base to warn of the dangers to world peace of the American Star Wars defence system. RAF Fylingdales, high on the North Yorkshire Moors near Whitby, was first opened in 1962 to give early warning of ballistic missiles bound for the West. The land is owned by the Ministry of Defence, but the equipment is owned by the US Defence Department. As well as looking out for missiles, the base also monitors satellites and watches for meteors and other space objects. The US hopes Fylingdales will soon play a fourth function, as part of its so-called “Son of Star Wars” missile defence system. The planned multi-billion dollar system is intended to shoot ballistic missiles out of the air before they reach their target, protecting the West from potential attack. Fylingdales, as well as other bases including in Greenland, would track hostile objects and possibly relay information to interceptor missiles while in flight. However, the plans have drawn international opposition, and at Fylingdales a series of protests have been held over Britain’s involvement. Opponents such as CND argue that missile defence will restart the arms race, and say Fylingdales’ role in the project could make Britain a target for any rogue states whose missile attacks on the US it is designed to help foil. Fears have also been expressed over the possible ill-effects of radiation
from Fylingdales’ Phased Array Radar System, although the government
has insisted the base poses no threat to the health of local people. Prime
Minister Tony Blair has insisted Britain has “everything to gain”
from its involvement in the missile defence system, and opposition to
the project has been criticised by a Yorkshire MP as “alarmist scaremongering". Thom Yorke, lead singer of rock group Radiohead, joined hundreds of campaigners at a US defence base on the North York Moors on Saturday. The CND protest highlighted the group's opposition to the US 'Star Wars' missile defence system, of which the Fylingdales base is part. Campaigners say President Bush is expected to announce that phase one of the project is up and running. The chair of CND, Kate Hudson, was also among 350 participants. Among the crowd were supporters from Japan who travelled to the UK specifically for the event. 'Pleasant and peaceful' 'Nuclear proliferation' 7 THOM YORKE LEADS 'STAR WARS' PROTEST RADIOHEAD star THOM YORKE led the protests at the CND rally in YORKSHIRE this weekend (September 25), claiming that TONY BLAIR’s support for GEORGE W BUSH had been giving him "sleepless nights". Yorke was billed as the one of the key speakers at the ‘No to Star Wars’ CND rally which took place outside the RAF Fylingdales Warning Base in Yorkshire, near Whitby. Fylingdales is an essential part of the new US ‘Star Wars’ missile defence system, and is the sole official 'Star Wars' base in the UK so far. The rare public appearance from Yorke guaranteed a larger-than-usual turn out, with travellers both young and old coming from as far as Japan and America for the protest. Yorke chatted candidly to Radiohead fans before stepping up to the podium to deliver a brief speech. He told the crowd of nearly 400: "Neil (Kingsworth of Yorkshire CND) has given me stuff to read about this that’s kept me asleep at night. How dare Tony Blair sign us up to 'Star Wars' without even giving it a really serious thought…without even consulting us? It’s sickening. It’s important that people like us can get off our backsides and come to these events. We need to make it clear that we will not let America govern the world we live in. Let’s make this a good, positive day." The 'Star Wars' protest centres around Tony Blair’s support for the 'Star Wars' missile defence system which George Bush is set to launch this autumn. The planned multi-billion dollar system is intended to shoot ballistic missiles out of the air before they reach their target, therefore protecting the West from potential attack. CND and its supporters claim that missile defence is an offensive rather than defensive system and will only serve to heighten global insecurity. The 'Star Wars' protest marks Thom Yorke’s second public appearance in as many weeks. The week prior he had joined REM on stage at a secret fanclub show at London St James Church (September 15). For the full story, see next week’s NME, issue dated October 2. …………………………………………….. 8 'We are storing a legacy of terror for our children' A ROCK star led a march of 250 CND protesters in North Yorkshire along a route where no activist had gone before. Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke was at the head of the marchers who
had found a moorland footpath on an Ordnance Survey map that led to the
perimeter fence of RAF Fylingdales, the early warning station. They exercised
their right to walk the path and got within 400 yards of the pyramid-shaped
structure. "There has never been a big protest so close to it before,"
said Yorkshire CND spokesman Neil Kingsnorth. …………………………………………….. 9 U.K. Needs Nuclear Power to Meet Demand Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K., Western Europe's third- largest energy consumer, needs to build nuclear reactors to meet government emissions limits and rising demand, the head of General Electric Co.'s nuclear unit said in an interview. Prime Minister Tony Blair's government is deliberating whether nuclear plants should replace 30-year-old reactors that generate a percent fifth of the U.K.'s supply. Britain will miss a goal for 10 of power to come from wind and renewable sources by 2010, a House of Lords committee said in July. The target was set to help meet emissions guidelines agreed to in Kyoto, Japan. ``It's vital for the U.K. to support nuclear energy,'' said Andrew White, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric's global nuclear unit, in London. ``I don't see a good energy policy in the U.K. to meet Kyoto and secure supplies.'' Nuclear plants may be needed soon to avoid blackouts because half of Britain's reactors will shut by 2010, according to the Adam Smith Institute, a London-based think-tank. New plants would reduce dependence on Russian and Norwegian imports as U.K. natural gas reserves dwindle, an Adam Smith report said last year. Blair, 51, said Sept. 14 that while the government hasn't ruled out nuclear power, ministers aren't pushing for it. He said then the government won't make a decision until a report about nuclear waste is finished, expected in 2006. Environmental groups including Greenpeace oppose its use. A delegation of Finnish politicians and industry officials are visiting London this week to advise the U.K. government on how to gain popular support for nuclear energy and for a waste dump. They are scheduled to speak at the Labour Party conference in Brighton, England, today. Anti-Nuclear Activists Nuclear energy is opposed by some members of Blair's party who started their political careers as protesters with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Margaret Beckett, secretary for the environment, and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott are some of the opponents, The Guardian newspaper said last year. ``I challenged the new energy minister in the House of Commons, he was sitting on the fence'' about nuclear power, said Robert Key, a Conservative party member of parliament for Salisbury, in an interview. Military Legacy Finland has dug a cavern at Olkiluoto some 500 meters beneath the earth's surface to store nuclear waste. The U.S. is developing a similar site in the Yucca Mountain in Nevada. ``Bury is the best option, because there's no chance of anybody attacking, stealing the material,'' said John Clarke, director of commercial operation at Sellafield, in an interview. ``The problem the government has is to find a site, because nobody wants a site near them.'' Britons mostly oppose nuclear power because the technology was first developed to build an atomic bomb, said Timo Seppala, communications manager at Posiva Oyj, Finland's nuclear waste- management company, which is building the Olkiluoto underground site. `Finland doesn't have the military legacy, that makes things easier'' to win support for nuclear, Seppala said. `Dirty and Dangerous' Nuclear stations have to store the spent uranium and plutonium fuels under water for months because they are radioactive. Any spillage of the waste could lead to cancer if absorbed by humans, the Greenpeace Web site says. Blair doesn't have to wait for the report on waste before deciding on nuclear energy, said Gordon Campbell, chairman of British Nuclear Fuels Plc, which owns the nuclear reprocessing plant in Sellafield. ``Psychologically you may need a waste decision to decide on build-up, but not technically, the two aren't necessarily related,'' he said in an interview. ``It's quite a difficult political decision. The government, from whichever party, is going to see people who oppose to it.'' Waiting for the report on disposing of nuclear waste also risks causing a shortage of engineers in the 5 billion-pound ($8.9 billion) industry, which employs 60,000 people in Britain, mostly at British Energy Plc and BNFL. ``The longer we wait, the more skills you lose, the harder it will be
to get new build,'' said Clarke at his office in Sellafield, Cumbria.
``The U.K. indigenous skills are getting fewer and fewer.'' | ||||||||||||||||||