FOR veteran anti-nuclear campaigners, the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima highlights how hard they have fought, and how far they still have to go.
Yesterday activists in Edinburgh and Glasgow began a three-day fast to commemorate the anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ellen Moxley, a member of the “Trident Three” acquitted for damaging a nuclear submarine at Faslane in 1999, is among those taking part.
The 80-year-old will camp out in the city centre to further highlight her protest, with 68-year-old Janet Fenton also fasting from her home in the capital. But, although stunned by Hiroshima from an early age, Fenton did not expect she would become a life-long activist, saying: “I joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament 55 years ago when I was 13. I imagined it would be a matter of a few months.
“I grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War. I understood that the Edinburgh International Festival was set up as a cultural reference to ensure that people lived in harmony together and a European war would never happen again.
“I was also aware of the Nuremberg trials. My reaction on learning what happened in Hiroshima was that the American government would be taken to Nuremberg for what they did. I had an expectation that I had to go and speak to representatives of all the political parties and explain what these weapons did and that would be it. I’m still determined and I’m still hopeful. We haven’t achieved our goal because we don’t have democratic accountability for foreign policy.
“I hope that’s something that in an independent Scotland will be enshrined in our constitution. It’s part of the democratic deficit and nowhere is it more keenly seen and felt than by putting 200 warheads 40 miles from Glasgow. In Hiroshima, 140,000 people were killed in an instant. These weapons that they have in the mountain at Coulport, each one is capable of delivering seven or eight times that.”
Last night peace campaigner Brian Quail, who is also fasting, was at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow for the premiere of a film based on his work.
Made by artist Lin Li, Above Us, the Sky shows the retired teacher in conversation and footage of his direct action, questioning how individuals can influence state policy.
Brian, who is also an independence advocate, said: “Our nuclear addiction is insidious. It is a form of idolatry and it is not susceptible to reason. It’s not intelligent and it’s not rational to contemplate global suicide.
“Violence begets violence and bombs beget bombs. Trident is not about deterrent, it’s a first-strike system. The sine qua non of independence is control of war and peace. On September 19 last year I felt like a dead man walking, everything I had fought for had turned to ashes.
“Scotland could have broken the deadlock and got rid of Trident. But 45 per cent [in the independence referendum] is within fighting distance of victory. We lost the vote but we won the narrative.”
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