THE BOMB STOPS HERE

Surrounding the Base at Aldermaston, Easter Monday.

Several members of Kingston Peace Council assembled at Twickenham Station (and others joined along the way), to catch the train to Reading, where we boarded coaches which took us to the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. We were celebrating the formation of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the first Aldermaston march 50 years ago, but also protesting at the new laser facility is being built at the base which, experts believe, will be used to test and develop a new generation of nuclear weapons. Amongst our number was Brian Downs, who took part in the original march in 1958.

Campaigners carried ‘lollipop style’ placards of the CND symbol, similar to those used on the original march, which was the first time that the universally recognized symbol was used. Speakers addressed each gate in turn, many from a travelling float, before the crowd of thousands spread out along the fence-line to surround the four and a half mile perimeter fence. Once surrounded, the gates to the base were symbolically sealed, and a 'moment of noise' rang out. Anti-nuclear messages and banners were attached to the fence, a form of protest upheld after the High Court recently ruled that byelaws banning such activity should be quashed. (Other byelaws banning the long-standing peace camp from being held next to the base perimeter were upheld, in a new restriction on the right to protest.)

Someone located the Weapons of Mass Destruction!