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Providing an example
David McKenzie
The dismantling of the model Trident submarine in Edinburgh on 10 March (see news item on p2) was a dramatic performance in which different elements, with varying degrees of willingness, played essential parts. The activists inside and around the sub had an ideal plot in mind but realised that it might have to be adjusted as circumstances changed. In the end it went almost entirely to script.
The late evening denouement put the police centre stage. Theyincreased the dramatic effect by moving supporters and specta -tors back behind steel barriers and then began to strip off theouter covering and expose the ribs of the vessel and its locked-on crew. A special touch was added by third floor residents inthe houses opposite the Parlia ment who put a loudspeaker outof their window and gave the police operation the accompani -ment of the T oreadors' March from Carmen, until warnedsharply to leave off.
Three hours and many hic -cups later there was no trace of the sub. Apart from a few keybits saved by the makers it was all crunched up by the cleans -ing department carts. The police had done what we asked--they had dismantled Trident.
Providing an example
The dramatic irony in that final scene was powerful. In T ridentPloughshares we recognise that the full and safe disarming ofthe Britain's WMD will in the end have to be done by thosewho at present maintain and protect them in all their deadlyalertness.
OK, we have and will contin-ue to put some fine spokes in the wheel. The best and most
direct instance of that was when Rosie James and Rachel Wenham knocked lumps out of testing equipment on HMS Vengeance (PN2434) and, byMoD admission, held up its entry into service by severalweeks. But we know we are mainly providing an example.
The Edinbur gh play alsoinvolved actors from the Scot tish Parliament. T ridentPloughshares pledger and MSP Rosie Kane was in the subma -rine and knew the script, but many other MSPs andresearchers buzzed around the portholes. The Parliament as awhole seemed quite relaxed and good humoured about theevent, even when submariners bursting for a pee were signedinto the MSP office suite. There seemed to be some acceptancethat what was going on outside in the street complemented theproceedings inside.
A downward slope?
The police delayed their cut ting-out and arrest operationuntil the Parliament was closed and the streets were relativelyquiet, and they released Rosie Kane from custody early , thusgiving us the implied compli ment that our action was havingpolitical effect.
To what extent these decisionswere in response to Executive pressure is anyone's guess, but itdoes offer encouragement to the view that there is potential forScotland to provide the initial skid on the downward slope for
Trident and many other mili -taristic ills.
Proportional representationhas made a great difference to the parliamentary climate--onone analysis only 25 switched votes would be needed at pres -ent to achieve an anti-T rident vote at Holyrood. On its ownthat would mean little, given that defence is a W estminstermatter, but if it were accompa nied by a big and sustainedpopular stushie it could have a real impact on W estminsterdecisions.
An ethical identity
It's not all good, of course. For example, it was painfullyinstructive that in Scotland during the lead up in 2000 tothe repeal of Section 28 (which banned the "promotion" ofhomosexuality by local authori ties) there was backing for itsretention by rich and powerful people in a strident campaignthat had some popular backing, making one wonder what furtherhorrors lie behind the skirting boards. And the performance ofthe Scottish courts over WMD has been sickeningly subservient.Nevertheless, the fact that many of the activists inside and outsidethat sub were non-Scots is testi mony to the good potential.
Now we hear that Gordon Brown is hitch ing a lift on theBritish identity and patriotism issue. The only identity worthspeaking about is an ethical identity. I want Scotland to beknown for its commitment to peace, sustainability and justice--the rest of it follows a good way behind.
And, of course, hope is the thing with feathers...
David McKenzie is press officer for Trident Ploughshares. He writes here in a personal capacity.
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