Yet another trial of peace campaigners despite recent acquittals

A court in Reading is preparing to try five peace campaigners for taking nonviolent direct action, despite several recent cases in which peace activists have been acquitted after being arrested at similar protests.

The campaigners, who are all in their thirties, will be tried by a District Judge at Reading Magistrates' Court on Monday 23rd, Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th January.

They blocked an entrance to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Berkshire last June and are charged with 'wilful obstruction of the highway'.

However, another group of campaigners, who blocked a different entrance on the same day, have already been acquitted. The judge found that the police had failed to follow their own basic procedures. Last April, activists who had blocked an entrance to the London arms fair were found Not Guilty when a judge ruled that they had acted reasonably to prevent greater crimes.

The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) supports the defendants - who include PPU members - and says that recent trials show that more and more people are prepared to take nonviolent direct action against preparations for war.

The five activists in this case are all members of the Christian peace group Put Down the Sword. Some are also members of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), a longstanding pacifist network that includes people of several religions as well as atheists, agnostics and others.

The defence will tell the court that they were exercising religious liberty by acting on Christian principles of active nonviolence.

The five activists on trial in Reading next week are Nina Carter-Brown, 33; Nick Cooper, 34; Angela Ditchfield, 38; Joanna Frew, 37; and Alison Parker, 33. They live in various parts of the UK, including Leeds, London, Bedford and Cambridge.

Alison Parker, 33 from Bedford, one of the defendants and a member of the Peace Pledge Union, said:"Dropping a nuclear bomb on a city would kill hundreds of thousands of civilians and its impact would be felt for generations to come. As a pacifist, I'm proud that I played a part in stopping preparations for such an act if war, if only for a morning."

Symon Hill, Co-ordinator of the Peace Pledge Union, said:"The recent series of trials against peace activists are a reminder that pacifism is not passive. We reject both violence and passivity in favour of nonviolent resistance to war and injustice.

"The manufacture of weapons does not make us safer. It makes the world less safe for all of us, whatever country we live in. But it is not the ministers, the generals and the arms dealers facing trial. It is peaceful people who nonviolently interrupted their horrific activities."

The Peace Pledge Union is is a UK-based pacifist network. PPU members pledge not to support war and to work instead for the removal of the causes of war. The PPU's work includes challenging militarism, promoting active nonviolence, providing educational resources on peace, maintaining records on conscientious objection and encouraging remembrance for all victims of war. Founded in 1934,the PPU is the oldest secular pacifist organisation in the UK. See www.ppu.org.uk.?

Read also: Pope's Message for World Day of Peace: violence is no cure for broken world www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=31538