Sunday and Monday at Strident

Over 90 students have participated in the Strident Tent State over the past week, exploring nuclear non-proliferation through discussions, workshops and speaker sessions. Following the incident in Glasgow on Saturday, our blockading plans were thrown off course. Having liaised with the police, the Strident students agreed not to take direct action on either Coulport or Faslane for the duration of Sunday, to prevent Strathclyde police from being overstretched while pursuing their investigations. This decision was made in order to maintain an open dialogue with the police and local residents. Both police and residents had already voiced their gratitude for the way in which we had approached the organisation of Strident and our cooperation when the police asked us to leave our lawful protest outside the North Gate of Faslane as soon as they heard about what happened in Glasgow on Saturday. On Sunday we continued to have a presence at the gate of Coulport, with an assurance to the police that we would not require arrest. A tea party with delicious scones was accompanied by samba, acro and queer politics workshops, with more workshops including Plane Stupid and a vital and exciting direct action project aimed at preventing the destruction of Europe's largest wilderness in Iceland (www.savingiceland.org).

With affinity groups formed and legal support teams established, plans were laid to blockade both the North and South gates of Faslane base on Monday morning simultaneous with blockades of all three roads leading to Coulport. This was so as to enable the large number of groups from around the country to undertake creative direct action. The blockades severely impeded the flow of base traffic at North gate and South gate was completely closed. The shore road and construction roads were also blocked and 37 students were arrested. We decided to continue with direct action after Sunday since this was the assurance we had given the police and both M.O.D.and Strathclyde police had indicated that this would give them ample time to distribute resources appropriately. Clear in our minds was the intrinsic connection between the continued presence of Trident and global instability, the likes of which is highlighted by terrorist attacks