NUCLEAR war has never been closer as Nato and Russia fight a proxy war in Ukraine and Gaza remains under siege, peace campaigners warned yesterday as they began a 10-day encampment outside a US airforce base believed to be preparing for an “ongoing nuclear mission.”
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) activists told of how history was repeating itself as they rallied near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.
They spoke to the Morning Star as they gathered in nearby Brandon town centre following a three-day walk from Norwich.
Angie Zelter, author of Activism for Life, who took part in the RAF Greenham Common protests four decades ago, said: “It’s the same struggle — trying to get the US out of the UK, trying to get the British public to think about what the special relationship means.
“It feels depressing, a little bit despairing, but I’ve been involved in this kind of campaigning all of these years.
“If you give into these feelings we have let the forces of capitalism and exploitation win, if you like, and therefore we have to be hopeful and the hope is with the people.
“We are nearer nuclear holocaust than ever. But there are more young activist people in prison now than there have ever been.”
She said having nuclear weapons at the base only ups the ante with Nato’s enemies.
“If you want to protect yourself from nuclear weapons, you make sure you obey international law yourself,” she added. “You don’t threaten mass destruction.”
Fellow Greenham Common activist Sheila Thornton, 73, from Milton Keynes said: “I feel like we’ve not learnt anything, but then it gives me hope because if you went to Greenham Common now you would see a wonderful common, with animals and dogs enjoying the space where there were once US missiles and many dreadful weapons.
“We are determined to do our bit, what we are finding is a huge amount of lack of awareness … the misunderstanding that it’s a defence system: when you have got nuclear weapons the only way [to use them] is attack.”
A&E junior doctor and Medact member Bimal Khadka, 30, from Birmingham said: “It is a very much a noble cause. Nuclear weapons are horrific.
“We as medical professionals have a duty and moral responsibilities to get people aware of the consequences of nuclear war.
“Even here in Lakenheath, if modern nuclear weapons are brought here, accidents could occur and have huge consequences.”
