aldermaston

Thousands joined hands to surround Aldermaston base on Easter Monday

On the Easter weekend of 1958 - a few weeks after the birth of CND - thousands of people braved the icy weather and marched from London to the nuclear weapons factory at Aldermaston in Berkshire to protest the building of nuclear bombs. The march marked the birth of the peace movement in Britain.

Sadly, 50 years on, the peace movement is needed as much as it ever was; last year, our government (which counts many former CND members among its numbers) voted to replace Trident, and to lock the world into at least another 50 years of nuclear bombs. Despite the rhetoric of Brown's recent national security strategy (he wants "to free the world from nuclear weapons", apparently), £5 billion is being poured into building new facilities at Aldermaston to design new nuclear bombs - most likely in contravention of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It seems a sad milestone to celebrate - 50 years of anti-nuclear protest. Not the protesting bit, but that 50 years later insanity still prevails in our governments and there are approximately 27,000 nuclear weapons in the world.

This Easter marks the 50th anniversary of the first legendary march on Aldermaston, the UK nuclear weapons laboratory. It was a four day march from London in snow and rain and one of the biggest protest movements ever to emerge in Britain.

Modelling the bomb - a supercomputer like the one planned for AWE Aldermaston simulates a nuclear explosion

Tony Blair revealed that he intends to build new nuclear weapons to replace the current Trident nuclear weapons system. He plans to spend £20bn on a new generation of submarines for Trident missiles while joining the US programme to extend the life of the current Trident missile system.

One of the hundreds of citizens inspecting Aldermaston earlier this week was the artist Kurt Jackson. He’s best known for his paintings of the Cornish landscape, but it turns out he’s also a dab hand at sketching nuclear weapons facilities. In the rain. Under the scrutiny of nosy police officers.

© Greenpeace

Hundreds of citizen weapons inspectors have just spent this morning patrolling through the muddy fields of England. They came from all over the UK, converging on the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) facility at Aldermaston. They arrived from all directions, by bus, train, bicycle and on foot.

It was a mucky, wet morning in Berkshire - but that didn't stopped hundreds of people from all over the country converging on the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) facility at Aldermaston. They arrived from all directions, by bus, train, bicycle and on foot. Their mission? To carry out the world's largest ever inspection of a nuclear weapons factory, following reports that Tony Blair is building a new nuclear weapon.