Nov 282014
 

ChristmasBy Bob Smith.

Christmas means a lot o things
Ti some it is present buyin
Ti ither fowk a time o hope
Ti the lonely it can bi tryin

“Gweed King Wenceslas leuk’t oot”
An aa the malls war  heavin
Fowk rinnin aboot like reid ersed bees
Fae bank balances cash wis leavin

Christmas time I like it fine
If aa ignore the retail farce
Fin some drink ower the score
An lan up on their arse

Christmas means bonnie music
Na nae the ringin o the tills
Bit brass bands an joyfu singin
As choirs show aff their skills

On the wireless tunes are played
Ti ma lugs es brings great joy
They bring oot aa the classics
A’ve kent sin a wis a boy

Christmas shud be a time o peace
As wi leuk up ti the stars
If onybody’s up ‘ere leukin doon
Aa they’ll see is bliddy wars

An yet in the midst o the Great War
Ae Christmas ‘ere wis brief respite
Fin Tommies an Jerries played fitba
An baith sides sang “Silent Night”

© Bob Smith “The Poetry Mannie” 2014
Picture Credit: Ian Britton. Freefoto.com
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Nov 072014
 

Jonathan Russell will be giving a talk on the arms trade this Monday 10th November at 7.30pm at UNITE the Union, 42-44 King Street, Aberdeen

arms sales graph“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

“The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

— Former U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953

We live in a world that faces huge challenges due to climate change, natural disasters and with the majority of the world’s population struggling to get enough resources to survive. Yet a much bigger priority for many governments is promoting their arms sales or buying arms. In times of recession selling arms becomes a greater priority and it can be argued that acquiring resources, in particular oil, has been a major reason for starting conflicts.

The arms trade is the main beneficiary of this. At a time when the world economy is stagnating, arms shares are rising rapidly with shares of the top 12 publicly listed firms – based on a list by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute – rising by almost 30 per cent on average in the last year.

Stock price data on the 12 companies reveal most have benefitted in a year in which the number of conflict zones in Europe, the Middle East and Africa has risen. 2011 saw a massive rise in sales by the US and the UK to Saudi Arabia who in turn where arming ISIS.

Through our investments and pension funds we can unwittingly also be beneficiaries. For instance, our very own North East Pension fund for Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire invests in the Arms trade. The end of the cold war led to a decline in arms sales but new enemies were soon found to allow business to continue as usual. New arms technologies such as drones and security technology open up new markets

The 5 UN Security Council permanent members are generally the largest arms dealers (though others such as Germany and Italy often feature quite high and Israel is rapidly expanding its exports with its expertise in drone warfare and surveillance

World’s largest arms exporters

The units in this table are so-called trend indicator values expressed in millions of U.S. dollars at 1990s prices. These values do not represent real financial flows but are a crude instrument to estimate volumes of arms transfers, regardless of the contracted prices, which can be as low as zero in the case of military aid. Ordered by descending 2013 values. The information is from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

2013 rank Supplier Arms exports
1  Russia 8283
2  United States 6153
3  China 1837
4  France 1489
5  United Kingdom 1394
6  Germany 972
7  Italy 807
8  Israel 773
9  Spain 605
10  Ukraine 589
11  Sweden 505
12  Belarus 338
13  South Korea 307
14  Netherlands 302
15   Switzerland 205

 

Global Spending on Arms

List by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (2013)[1]
Rank Country Spending ($ bn.) % of GDP World share (%)
World total 1747.0 2.4 100
1 United States 640.0 3.8 36.6
2 People’s Republic of China[a] 188.0 2.0 10.8
3 Russia[a] 87.8 4.1 5.0
4 Saudi Arabia[b] 67.0 9.3 3.8
5 France 61.2 2.2 3.5
6 United Kingdom 57.9 2.3 3.3
7 Germany[a] 48.8 1.4 2.8
8 Japan 48.6 1.0 2.8
9 India 47.4 2.5 2.7
10 South Korea 33.9 2.8 1.9
11 Italy[a] 32.7 1.6 1.9
12 Brazil 31.5 1.4 1.8
13 Australia 24.0 1.6 1.4
14 Turkey 19.1 2.3 1.1
15 United Arab Emirates 19.0 4.7 1.1

China has increased its spending on arms by 12.2% this year. A major reason for this is Obamas strategic decision to move the majority of the US military complex to Asia Pacific. This was done to try and contain China’s rising power and has inevitably led to the beginnings of an arms race similar to the one that took place in the cold war between the Soviet Union and the US and its allies.

India and Japan are also rapidly increasing arms spending which in turn ratchets up the amount of arms spending by China. Who benefits most from this is the arms trade.

The arms industry is not an industry like any other its products aim to maim or kill human beings or destroy infrastructure. A buy product of the later is also killing and maiming human beings. War has changed dramatically since the beginning of the 20th Century when only 5% of casualties were civilians now 90% of people killed are civilians.

The aim increasingly with the use of drones etc is to limit to a minimum casualties from the country which is firing the weapon. War is a major contributor to instability and poverty. Of the 30 least developed countries in the world half have been involved in conflicts. The Lancet estimated from household data that 654,965 Iraqis died as a direct effect of the conflict from 2003-2006 and of course there have been daily killings since then.

The UN has estimated that 93,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict. Trade and food production are badly effected and countries are left with lack of power supplies. Shortages always lead to corruption and joining militias can become a way of surviving.

On top of this many people are displaced from their own countries living at best in refugee camps. This puts huge burdens on surrounding countries and money that could be spent on helping refugees is rather spent on more weapons.

Vietnam, where over two million deaths took place, is still recovering from the use of ancient orange and napalm. Mines laid and left behind in conflicts have been another source of human tragedy. In more recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya depleted uranium has been used in bombs and this has led to horrific birth defects.

 Every year, the US Congressional Research service releases an  report looking at arms sales transfers to the developing word.

The report released on August 24th 2012 entitled ‘Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations 2004-2011′ known as the Grimmett report after its author Richard F Grimmett.

The Grimmett Report also notes that,

  • Developing nations continue to be the primary focus of foreign arms sales activity by weapons suppliers though most arms are supplied by just 2 or 3 major suppliers.
  • Despite the global economic climate, major purchases continue to be made by a select few developing nations in these regions, principally India in Asia and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.
  • For arms suppliers, despite the impact the global economic situation has had on sales, a number of weapon-exporting nations have increased competition for sales going into areas and regions where they have may not have previously been prominent competition for sales will only intensify due to limits for growth.
  • Although recent years have shown a decline in sales, 2011 saw a massive jump, almost solely by an extraordinary increase in massive sales by the US, whose massive sales to Saudi Arabia distorted an otherwise downward trend in arms sales.
  • In 2011, the United States ranked first in arms transfer agreements with developing nations with over $56.3 billion or 78.7% of these agreements, an extraordinary increase in market share from 2010, when the United States held a 43.6% market share. In second place was Russia with $4.1 billion or 5.7% of such agreements.
  • Saudi Arabian imports are even set to increase with additional deliveries of the Typhoon, and deliveries of 154 American F-15 jets, scheduled for 2015.
  • In 2013, according to SIPRI, Saudi Arabia also bought armoured vehicles from Canada worth $10 billion. Further orders may soon be placed for armoured personal carriers from Serbia and tanks from Germany
  • Between 2009 and 2013, Saudi Arabia and the UAE each received thousands of guided bombs from the USA. Saudi Arabia also received hundreds of air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles (with a range of approximately 300 kilometres) from the UK. Mounted on combat aircraft, and combined with refuelling airplanes acquired from Spain, the range of these cruise missiles could cover most of Iran.
  • In 2013 the USA was, for the first time, willing to negotiate the sale of hundreds of AGM-84H missiles to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Bahrain and the UAE also received surface-to-surface missiles from the US.

Arms sales also increased during this period from the UK from Mid 2008 until End-2010 arms sales to Saudi Arabia were 2,096m, Oman 377m and UAE 42m. From start of 2011 – mid 2013 they had increased dramatically sales to Saudi Arabia £3,436m, Oman £377m and UAE £139m- source Campaign Against Arms Trade – export liscences.

Largest arms industry companies.

This is a list of the world’s top 10 arms manufacturers and other military service companies. The information is based on a list published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute for 2012.[14] The list provided by the SIPRI excludes companies based in China.

Rank Company Country Arms sales (US$ m.) Total company employment
1 Lockheed Martin  United States 36,000 120,000
2 Boeing  United States 27,610 174,400
3 BAE Systems  United Kingdom 26,850 88,200
4 Raytheon  United States 22,500 67,800
5 General Dynamics  United States 20,940 92,200
6 Northrop Grumman  United States 19,400 68,100
7 Airbus Group  European Union 15,400 140,000
8 United Technologies Corporation  United States 13,460 218,300
9 Finmeccanica  Italy 12,530 67,408
10 L-3 Communications  United States 10,840 51,000

Corruption and the arms trade

For a really good read on the arms trade I would suggest you read ‘The Shadow World Inside the Global arms trade’ by Andrew Feinstein (available in Aberdeen Central Library) where he reveals the corruption and cover-ups between the British and Saudi Governments to BAE’S controversial transactions in South Africa, Tanzania and Eastern Europe and the revolving door relationships that characterizes the Congressional-Military Industrial Complex.

He exposes in forensic detail both the formal government to Government trade in arms and the shadow world of illicit weapons and the links between the two. What I will concentrate on however will be the largest corruption scandal of them all between BAE systems and Saudi Arabia where Tony Blair blocked the enquiry in his final days of office.

The suspicion of bribery began even before the details of the deal were negotiated. Concerns were reported in the Arabic newsletter ‘Gourakia’ in October 21 1985 and picked up by the Guardian newspaper which had headlined on its front page:

“Bribes of £600 million in jets deal”

Denzil Davies then Labour’s Defense Spokesman raised concerns in parliament. The accusations were denied by Conservative Ministers.

Later the Conservative Defense Minister, Jonathan Aitken was charged with perjury. The Al Yamah deal worth 43bn to BAE was clinched by a meeting between Prince Banda bin Sultan and Margaret Thatcher. Much of the payment came in the form of oil and was as such of balance sheet transactions and as such particularly susceptible to corruption.

Richard Evans, later to become CEO and then Chair of BAE was later involved. Mark Thatcher who was also involved in dodgy deals in Africa was also claimed to be involved. An enquiry into the whole deal was quashed on grounds of higher British interests as one of his last acts as Prime Minister.

Prince Banda bin Sultan was head of Saudi Intelligence from 2012 until February 2014 and was responsible for funding and arming ISIS.

There is so much more to say since the second world war millions have died in Korea. Vietnam., numerous African States, Indonesia , South America and now the Middle East and Ukraine and many more conflicts.

The Merchants of Death and Corruption need to be stopped.

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Nov 052014
 

On Saturday 8th November at 11.30am there will be a rally outside Marks and Spencer’s in Aberdeen to raise concerns about the bombing campaign taking place in Iraq/Syria. With thanks to Jonathan Russell.

SyriaIraqdemoAll those speaking at and attending the rally from across the political divide are horrified by the rise of ISIS and do see the need for action to deal with the rise of ISIS.

We are united in that we consider that the bombing will, in the long term, make the situation worse as more people get killed and much needed infrastructure is destroyed.

There is one thing many people in the Middle East hate more than ISIS and that is Western Involvement.

Aberdeen and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament will be hosting the event.

The group’s chair, Jonathan Russell said:

“Interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria have all been disastrous leading to  broken countries with hundreds of thousands dead and millions in refugee camps.

“Over the past three years there has been a massive increase in arms sales to the Middle East in particular Saudi Arabia but also Oman and Turkey it is these very countries allies of the West that have funded and armed ISIS and through whom oil has been sold. We need to be starving ISIS of resources, supporting the Iraqi government and Kurds, giving many more resources to refugees and toward rebuilding these failed countries.

“Bombing by West just feeds this wild frenzy of blood. We need a long term solution to the area this requires negotiation not more bloodshed”

Those speaking at the Rally will be Dame Anne Begg MP, Christian Allard MSP, Dr Jill Austin , Brian Carroll Aberdeen Trade Union Council and Sean McVeigh Radical Independence Campaign.

For further information contact Jonathan Russell
Tel 01224 586435
mobile 07582456233
or email jhamiltonrussell@hotmail.co.uk

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Oct 242014
 

By Jonathan Russell Chair of Aberdeen and District CND

640The first of a series of Rallies aimed at raising awareness of the folly of the bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria will take place this Saturday 25th October at 11.30am outside Marks and Spencer hosted by Radical Independence Campaign, Aberdeen.

CND plans to hold a similar event in the near future.

My first reaction concerning ISIS was that something had to be done about this appalling organisation.

I still feel this but consider that the Wests bombing leading as it always does to the killing of civilians and the destruction of infrastructure was not a viable solution.

We have witnessed an ever increasing spiral of violence in the Middle East. Michael Portillo said last week on the Moral Maze on radio 4 that given this background it is not totally surprising that such a monster of an organisation has arisen. Violence I would assert leads to violence and division. Western policy in my eyes has been stark starring bonkers.

  • We arm Islamic tribal groups in Afghanistan and then we bomb them.
  • We arm Iraq to beat Iran and then we bomb them.
  • We bomb Libya to get rid of Qaddafi and leave behind a failed state where Al Qaida’s flag flies over many towns and cities.
  • We arm rebels mostly Sunni Islamists to beat Assad and now we bomb them.

Nobody gains from this but the arms companies who in a time of general economic meltdown see the value of their shares rise.

ISIS is barbaric but so are we in are use of drones and bombing often leaving behind not only death and appalling injuries but also un-depleted uranium. We also have brutal allies in the area such as Saudi Arabia who have beheaded over 79 people this year and the Egyptian Government who have hanged hundreds of Moslem Brotherhood supporters.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Oman the Wests allies have armed ISIS and helped in their training.

ISIS are not alone they have allies in trained Sunni Ba’ath party soldiers who have considerable military experience and Sunni tribal groups who hate both the West and the Iraq and Syrian Governments.

By bombing, we have acted as ISIS’s recruiting agency. Many people in the Middle East in particular the Sunni population from surrounding countries as well as Iraq and Syria hate the West and will fall in behind ISIS as the lesser of the two evils from their perspective. In my mind the West and Al Qaida and its affiliates feed off each other in this endless spiral of blood.

So here are some alternative solutions.

  • Stop selling and sending arms to the Middle East
  • Make sure arms are not still reaching ISIS
  • Stop buying oil from ISIS
  • Start negotiating seriously for a Middle East settlement which includes Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Palestinian reps, Kurdish reps, Sunnis and Shia,  Russia and China as well as the West and Israel
  • Rather than spending money on bombing massively increase aid to support people who have led their countries due to the conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

If we do not do this we will be getting into an ever deeper mess with exculpating brutality on all sides.

I salute the those Labour MP’s including are very own Anne Begg MP who along with the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Caroline Lucas from the Greens for their opposition to the intervention to the UK  getting involved. In particular I would commend John Barron, Conservative MP who has led the opposition to interventions in Iraq, Libya, Syria and now this latest calamity he has consistently got it right.

It is now up to us the citizens of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire and across Scotland and the wider UK to start getting active and make our voices heard.

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Oct 102014
 

With thanks to Jonathan Russell.

OneWorldDoveAberdeen and District CND will be hosting a Peace and Justice Concert at the Blue Lamp on Sunday afternoon 2-5.30pm on 19th October as part of a number of events for One World Week. There will be Music, Poetry and Dance performed by local artists from Scotland, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Germany, China, Japan, Spain and South America.

One World Week aims to bring people together across the world in the cause of Peace and Justice.  The event is dedicated to all people suffering injustice worldwide.

Artists playing will be Dave Davies and friends, Colin Edwards, Nigel and Mark Lammas, Precious Few from Köln in Germany, Nabin Chhetri Nepalese poetry, Rev Dr Isaac Poobalan and Dr Amudha Poobalan Indian music,

Mukal Dahal Nepalese poetry, Fuji Toyonobu and friends  Japanese music, Colin Edwards poetry,  Minh Tri Tran Vietnamese guitar, Yoleah You Li Chinese violin, Imagine ensemble, Tommy Campbell reading Hilda Meer’s poetry / Simon Gall sings Hilda Meers followed by Simon Gall and Xavier Ortiz sing Latin- Columbian music, Nepalese Dance, Javier Dominguez and friends Flamenco and Dance.

There will be a finale of Bob Marley’s One Love and Stand up for your Rights with everyone either playing instruments dancing or singing

The event is free but donations will be welcome for the Local CND group and the World Development Movement

Please come along and join in the fun

For further information please contact Jonathan Russell

E-mail: jhamiltonrussell@hotmail.co.uk
Mobile: 0758-245-6233

Oct 032014
 

StopwarfeatWith thanks to Jonathan Russell.

The Wests policy again and again in the Middle East has been to use military action. In the case of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria firstly we arm groups to fight what we see as enemies.

Then when they go much further than we had planned we demonise them whether this is the Taliban, Sadam Hussein, Qaddafi, Assad or ISIS. We use this demonisation to get the public on our side and then we attack them.

We have seen the results of action by the West in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya which include the killing of innocents, the destruction of infrastructure, fragmented broken societies and the creation of bitterness and violence.

We fail to learn from previous experience and keep doing the same again like a stuck record. We have failed to understand the Middle East and its religious and ethnic complexity and have turned different sections in societies against each other and made lots of money by arming all sides and in the taking of military action ourselves.

In the case of Syria, Western Governments were quite happy in letting Saudi Arabia, Quatar and Turkey give military and financial support to Islamic groups.  The enemy was seen as Assad and his Iranian, Hezbollah and Russian backers. Assad was painted as black and his opposition were angels fighting the just cause. No wonder young impressionable muslims have gone to fight with this appalling ISIS.

The beheadings by ISIS were barbaric and made worse by the fact that those they beheaded were aid workers and in the case of James Folley a strong critique  of NATO intervention. However the Israelis killed 2,100 people in Gaza including hitting schools with children in them so why have there been no airstrikes on Israel.

Saudi Arabia who have been the main funders and suppliers to ISIS have beheaded 59 people so far this year why not bomb them—oh no they are our allies and we make lots of money out of them by selling them arms. One Shia militia selected rounded up 40 Sunnis in Baghdad so why do we not bomb them?

Over 2,400 people have been killed by US drones with people having their heads blown off. why don’t we bomb the White House?

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan and we have almost totally destroyed the infrastructure of these countries yet our leaders walk around with immunity. Since the bombing has begun ISIS has it says gained 6,000 recruits.

Phylis Bennis in The Progressive gives four reasons why ISIS has grown and goes onto suggest six alternative steps to deal with ISIS.

A demonstration against the bombing of Iraq and Syria is to take place on Saturday 4th October in Glasgow. A demonstration is also planned for London on Saturday where protesters will march to Downing Street.

Stop Bombing Iraq! Stop Bombing Syria! Don’t Fuel the Growth of ISIS! Scottish National Stop the War Demonstration 
Saturday at 13:00, Buchanan Street at the steps of Royal Concert Hall (Donald Dewar statue), Glasgow.

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Sep 122014
 

lamb2ed_edited-1By Duncan Harley

It’s not often that I wonder if the prospect of Scottish Independence is a good idea.

Indeed being rid of the past spectre of the likes of the Darien disaster and the libdem idea-ocracy seems like a step to be taken lightly.

Not that us Scots are kind to ourselves. Check out the quite brutal “Herschip of Buchaine” by the Bruce and his nasty brother Edward to get a taste of what we northern folks get up to behind closed doors.

A mythical spokesperson for the Faslane Peace Camp today spoke out in support of the Better Together campaign.

Sited alongside Faslane Naval base in Argyll and Bute the camp has been occupied continuously since 12 June 1982 but Scotland’s voters may just decide to get rid of it on referendum day leading activists to question the future.

“If Scotland does vote yes, Trident could leave the Clyde remarkably quickly”, claimed Angus McPhee (not his real name of course) a long time resident of the Faslane community.

“It’s not like I wouldn’t hate it to be off Scottish soil” he continued “but where will I live and what work is there for an ageing peace campaigner in this day and age?”

He continued:

“I need a job and those folk in Westminster often forget that Trident has not only provided jobs for sailors, soldiers and factory workers but in a strange way also us peace campaigners.”

“We’ve been here on the Clyde for decades. We are in the main unskilled. Not many of us even have even basic IT skills. If Scotland is to become independent then we need at the very least a re-assurance that the likes of us will be taken care of.”

David Cameron recently told voters that the tax payers in the UK would be foolish to abandon Trident in the face of the potential threat of nuclear attack from North Korea and Iran.

“Could Korean nukes hit the UK?” said the mythical Angus. “That would be really brilliant, I could go on living here if that was the case.”

When confronted with the reality of Korea invading Scotland, Angus relented.

“Ach” he said, “I may have been a wee bit misguided actually, can you pass me a sick bag.”

David Cameron’s office today and indeed yesterday, declined to comment on the issue but inside sources indicate that there is trouble in store for those who support the Better Together movement.

Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was similarly unable to comment on the Faslane issue but recently commented that it

“is possible I suppose in 50 years that hordes of people are going to come across in ships to invade us. I suppose we should keep hold of old dreadnought ships in case the Germans come out of the mists of Jutland.”

Puzzling indeed.

Given a yes vote on the 18th of the month Trident has until 2016 to find a new home. The new hosts in Portsmouth, or wherever are bound to wonder why they should have the right to live right next to a radioactive arms dump built to defend Englandshire from the threat of a North Korean invasion of Brighton

Clegg, for all his politically incorrect posturing did at least admit that:

“Trident was designed very explicitly for a completely different cold war world, where the main strategic threat was an unannounced, overwhelming and unpredicted nuclear strike from Moscow.”

For just the once, but just the once, I suspect that he might just have a point.

Most rights reserved © Duncan Harley

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Sep 052014
 

Big SandyWith thanks to Jonathan Russell, Aberdeen CND.

Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s giant, Big Sandy, will be visiting Aberdeen to encourage people to vote Yes between 2-4pm this Saturday 6th September in the square outside Marks and Spencer’s.
Big Sandy is a ten feet tall puppet. He first appeared at the West End Festival in Glasgow in June.

Since then he has helped the Yes campaign on the streets and at major public events all across Scotland.

Jonathan Russell Chair of Aberdeen and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament stated:

“Central to the Independence debate is the getting rid of Nuclear Weapons from Scottish Soil. A non-nuclear Scotland will also be enshrined in a Scottish Constitution Getting rid of Nuclear weapons from Scotland will make it exceedingly difficult for the remaining UK to place the existing or new era missiles anywhere in the remaining UK “

Also attending on Saturday, North East MSP Christian Allard said:

“Weapons of mass destruction have no place in a modern Scotland. Labour and the coalition parties at Westminster are committed to the irrational and costly renewal of the UK’s nuclear weapons system – only a Yes vote in September will guarantee Scottish waters are Trident free.  I urge any undecided voters to come along to the St Nicholas Centre on Saturday and learn about the opportunities for an independent Scotland.”

For more information contact:

John Ainslie, Coordinator, Scottish CND,
john.ainslie@banthebomb.org
0141 357 1529 07442 500476

or Jonathan Russell, Aberdeen CND
jhamiltonrussell@hotmail.co.uk
tel 01224 586435
Mobile 07582456233

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Jul 312014
 

CND 2 futuresWith thanks to Gavin Mowat, Constituency Assistant to Christian Allard MSP.

North East MSP Christian Allard will be speaking at a Hiroshima Memorial Event in Aberdeen on Wednesday 6 August to mark the moment an American bomber dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over Hiroshima City, Japan in 1945.

Mr Allard will be joining speakers from a variety of political, community and faith groups to commemorate the catastrophic event and to warn against the renewal of the UK’s own weapons of mass destruction.

200 peace lanterns will be released on the River Dee to commemorate the 200,000 men, women and children who died.

SNP MSP Christian Allard is a member of the international group Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) and a member of Aberdeen and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

The Hiroshima Memorial Event is on Wednesday 6th August starts at 8.30pm and takes place at the Fisherman’s hut down by the River Dee in Aberdeen – all are welcome to attend.

Mr Allard commented:

“As ever the Hiroshima Memorial held in Aberdeen will be a timely reminder of the senseless devastation that is caused by weapons of mass distraction.

“With this memorial ceremony we will remember the 200,000 who died when bombs were dropped first on Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki . It is also an opportunity to remind people that weapons such as those used in Japan have no place in here modern Scotland.

“With a Yes vote in September we can be sure that Scotland gets rid of these obscene weapons and our country can set an example to others around the world.”

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North East MSP Christian Allard with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s sign that outlines the two futures for Scotland.

Jul 312014
 

With Thanks to Jonathan Russell  and Aberdeen CND.

Wednesday 6th August sees the 69th anniversary of the first ever explosion of a nuclear weapon when the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This was followed on the 9th August by the detonation of a further nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki

Aberdeen and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) have organised an event to mark the occasion and remind people of the potential horror of the use of nuclear weapons.

200 peace lanterns will be released onto the river Dee to commemorate the 200,000 men, women and children who died following the nuclear explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many more died later from injuries or prematurely from the horrendous health effects that followed.

We are delighted to have Yu Aoki who lives and works in Aberdeen but who was born in Hiroshima as one of our speakers. Yu Aoki has said:

“I grew up listening to the stories of my grandparents and other atomic bomb survivors about their experiences of the 6th August 1945. Most survivors have passed away by now and I feel that people from the younger generation like myself have to pass on the stories to the next generation so that we learn from the history and never repeat it again.”

We will have songs from local singers Dave Davies and Simon Gall as well as poems by the local poet and peace activist, Hilda Meers, which will be read by Tommy Campbell from Unite the Union.

We also have a wide variety of Speakers from Civic, Faith and Community Action Groups. These include Christian Allard MSP, local Councillor Barney Crockett, Iman Ibrahim from the Aberdeen Mosque and Islamic Centre, Clive Potter from the Quakers, Doug Haywood from the Radical Independence Campaign, Brian Carrol a representative from Aberdeen trade union Council and Jill Austin from Aberdeen Against Austerity

The memorial event which is open to all the public to attend will take place on Wednesday 6th August at 8.30pm by the side of the River Dee at the Fisherman’s hut off Riverside Drive (between the Bridge of Dee and Duthie Park –  see map below)

Jonathan Russell, Chair of Aberdeen and District CND, stated “For most of us nuclear weapons have been a part of the world we live in for all of our lives.

“We can as such often put into the back of our minds just how horrific these weapons would be if used.  The Independence Referendum has highlighted the fact that the UK’s nuclear weapons are based in Scotland and the United Kingdom Government are intent on building a new generation of Atomic weapons at a cost of £20 billion.

“As a result of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty and the New START treaty of December 2010 nearly 50% of these monstrous weapons have been destroyed. There are still however 19,500 Nuclear Weapons in the world – enough to destroy our world several times over. Building new atomic weapons makes the likelihood of getting rid of the remaining weapons less likely.”

For further information please contact Jonathan Russell, Chair of Aberdeen and District CND,
Tel 01224- 586435,
Mob 0758-245-6233
E-mail  jhamiltonrussell@hotmail.co.uk

Date: Wednesday 6th August 2014, at 8.30pm
Venue:  the Fisherman’s Hut on the River Dee
(by Riverside drive )

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