Press release:

Trident Activists Arrested in Bid For
"Maximum Disarmament" of Nuke Sub in Plymouth

More information:   
Emma Bleach   07779-116-705             
Rowland Dye    07711-214-168

In the early hours of this morning, Councillor Ray Davies from Bedwas in South Wales, and Dr. Margaret Jones, a resident of Bristol, rowed up the River Tamar in a small dinghy, and entered Devonport dockyard in Plymouth. They intended to use hammers and bolt cutters to damage sensitive equipment aboard the nuclear powered submarine Tireless. Tireless forms part of the support system for Britain's Trident nuclear weapons. Davies and Jones hoped to do sufficient damage to delay the submarine's return to active service for some time.

After carrying out the disarmament, the two intended to give themselves up for arrest, in accordance with their pledge to act openly and accountably as members of the "Telesubbies" affinity group of the disarmament campaign, Trident Ploughshares. Unluckily for the disarmers, however, they were stopped and arrested before they could carry out their action.

"Trident represents a threat to us, as much as to the rest of the world," say Davies and Jones. "We undertook to disable part of the support system for this terrible weapon, because our government refuses to disarm it for us. There exists a real fear that our government could use nuclear weapons to attack Iraq. They are the terrorists." The pair carried with them a banner that read, END TERRORIST NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

Trident Ploughshares is an organisation dedicated to safely, non-violently and accountably disarming Britain's nuclear weapons, in accordance with international law.

The United States provides the weaponry for Trident submarines, and now wants Britain to start up a new bomb factory near the existing one at Aldermaston, for the production of "small" nuclear weapons. (As if making nuclear weapons smaller somehow makes them safer !)

Davies and Jones appeared before Plymouth magistrates on September 3, 2002.