Nuclear weapons

Nuclear arms and the replacement of Trident

Trident: take the fight into unions and Labour

On Saturday 27 February, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will be among the speakers at the demonstration calling Britain's Trident nuclear weapon system to be scrapped and not replaced. This demonstration should be the biggest nuclear disarmament protest for many years. The Tory government will try to get a definite decision through Parliament this year to start construction of the hugely expensive Trident replacement programme. But the Labour Party now has a leader, and hundreds of thousands of new members, committed to nuclear disarmament. The PCS civil service workers' union is calling on its...

Abolish Trident! Welfare and jobs, not warfare and mass murder

Nuclear weapons — and especially those nuclear weapons whose use would incinerate tens of millions of civilians — are an obscenity. A future Labour government must abolish Trident. In the first instance, this is a moral question: Ban the Bomb! Imagine, if you can, the worst case: a nuclear attack on the UK in which London and other big cities were destroyed and millions were murdered by a foreign power. Perhaps the attack came from a rogue state run by a strange and insecure freak, perhaps it came from a resurgent Russia run by a ex-secret policeman gangster. What then? We are told by those...

Scottish Labour Conference: Scrap Trident!

The Scottish Labour Party conference on 31 October-1 November voted overwhelmingly (70/30) against Trident renewal. Support for Trident renewal was spearheaded by the Community and GMB leaderships. Both argued that nuclear weapons were good for the nation’s defence, and good for jobs. According to Community strategy and policy director John Park: “We are supportive of the nuclear deterrent and of the conventional defence industry.” Trident renewal was presented by Community as the answer to the crisis in the steel industry! But Community’s stance bordered on pacifism in comparison to...

Scrap Trident replacement!

The government — continuing decisions made by the previous Blair-Brown New Labour government — is already spending hundreds of millions of pounds on a British nuclear weapons system to replace Trident. The final decision on the system, and the start of construction of submarines to carry the new weapons, is due by late 2016. The first submarine would then be scheduled to enter service in 2028. The total cost of this programme is understated by the government. It would be huge, £100 billion or more. The same money would build 200 big new hospitals, or employ 150,000 additional nurses...

The Last Time the Labour MPs Revolted Against Party Democracy

At its Scarborough conference in 1960, the Labour Party voted in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament by Britain. This decision had tremendous implications for British politics, for it opened a fundamental breach in Labour-Tory foreign and 'defence' policy bipartisanship, one of the pillars on which class collaboration rests and on which depends the possibility of orderly changes in party government at Westminster. British unilateral nuclear disarmament implied the disruption of NATO and probably British withdrawal from the western military alliances all of which relied on nuclear weapons...

Iran deal

The agreement between Iran and western governments, on Iran freezing its nuclear programme, in return for some relief from economic sanctions, is a good thing. The Geneva deal eases political tensions and reduces the possibility of military action against Iran. Political friction may still ratchet up if either side fails to deliver, if further investigation of Iranian nuclear capability shows military development, or if Israel kicks up enough fuss to undermine the agreement. Lifting sanctions means the Iranian state and bourgeoisie will be able to claw back billions of dollars from frozen bank...

Three days of action against Trident

Trident nuclear submarines, each carrying about 120 nuclear warheads capable of mass destruction, have been held on the deep loch of Coulport, near the military town of Helensborough, Scotland for over 30 years. A peace camp of many caravans and buses, was built 31 years ago near the base. Life can be tough there, some want to leave and there are discussions about keeping the peace camp open. It will close unless enough people willing to live there come forward. Although Britain has signed a nuclear non-proliferation treaty the Tories want to renew Trident and spend around £100 billion on...

No Trident replacement!

£83.5 billion to buy a like-for-like replacement for Britain’s Trident nuclear-armed submarines — the Tories say they still want to spend it, despite saying there is no money for hospitals, schools and benefits! The Lib-Dems say there could be a cheaper option. The government coalition plans no decision this side of a 2015 election. The media report hints that Ed Miliband and Labour will go for the cheaper-nuclear-weapons option. Yet nuclear weapons, even cheaper, can only “defend” by threatening mass murder of civilians. Labour should oppose them outright. 93 MPs have signed an Early Day...

Don't delay replacing Trident - scrap it!

Rumours and hints are circulating in the press that the government may delay replacing Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system until after the next general election in 2015. The original plan was to begin the replacement in 2014, but the government is under pressure to stave off costs (at least £20 billion and perhaps much more) and avoid a political row just before the election. This hesitation is despite the complete lack of a campaign from the labour movement - and certainly from the Labour leadership candidates, all of whom except Diane Abbott support Trident replacement. Ed Miliband has...

North Korea tests bomb

On 25 April, North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in three years. It followed this up by restarting its main nuclear reactor, threatening to attack South Korea if it joins US-led inspections of ships suspected of carrying nuclear weapons, and firing five short range missile tests to show its teeth. The regime walked away from talks last month after the UN Security Council condemned its test-launch of a long-range ballistic missile. Now the Security Council is threatening to strengthen the economic sanctions already in place against North Korea. North Korea says it no longer considers...

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