Stealth – the new nuclear threat
Brian Parkin explains how, 38 years since the Greenham Common peace camps, American nuclear weapons are scheduled to return to Britain by stealth, in the shape of the nuclear-certified F35A strike fighter aircraft.
Alchemy and imperial delusion: the ideological spell of nuclear power. Part 2
The uncounted costs of nuclear power
Alchemy and imperial delusion: the ideological spell of nuclear power. Part 1
Brian Parkin explores why nuclear power remains so important for Britain’s rulers, in the first part of a two-part article.
Chernobyl 1986 – when nuclear power came of age
A lethal combination of technical arrogance, corporate and state deceit and human fallibility that will forever lie at the heart of nuclear power.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the future of Trident
On the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Eileen Cook highlights the danger of Trident remaining in Scotland.
Not an atom of truth
It is a dangerous fantasy to think that nuclear energy can be part of a ‘green’ recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic or any form of solution to the climate catastrophe.
Goodbye and good riddance to Gavin Williamson
It’s worth re-visiting some of Gavin Williamson’s most unpleasant politics, just so we can briefly celebrate his political demise.
The nuclear crisis and North Korea
Owen Miller offers a historical and geopolitical analysis of the situation on the Korean peninsula So far 2017 has been one of the most dangerous periods in northeast Asia since the end of the Korean War in 1953. While there have been a number of acute crises on the Korean peninsula since 2010, including a ‘war panic’ in 2013, this is the most […]
Petrocide: Hydrocarbons, Conflict and Climate Chaos
What lies at the deadly intersection of further imperialist carbon wars and the inexorable threat of catastrophic climate change?
The wrong red line: why Unite needs a change on Trident
A Unite rep argues that Unite members should support Ian Allinson’s anti-Trident, pro-diversification candidacy for the post of General Secretary. On Monday (27 March) Unite members start to vote on who will be their next General Secretary – the centrist incumbent, Len McCluskey; the right-winger, Gerard Coyne; or the socialist, rank-and-file candidate, Ian Allinson. Over the next few […]
Critical Mess: Tories approve Hinkley Point C nuclear disaster
Brian Parkin unravels the web of stupidity, dogma, secrecy and privatisation failure that has resulted in Theresa May consenting to the Hinkley Point C nuclear station.
Delegates put argument for scrapping Trident at Unite conference
A delegate reports from the Unite Policy Conference 2016 on Trident, Corbyn and the Trade Union Act Len McCluskey’s opening speech This year’s Unite policy conference takes place against a backdrop of unprecedented political crisis. Following the Brexit vote, the establishment are directly intervening in the Labour leadership crisis. In his opening speech, Len McCluskey […]
Unite Against Trident
Brian Parkin and Raymond M have written a new rs21 pamphlet taking on the arguments about Trident, the arms industry and diversification into socially useful production. The issue of Trident has proved to be massively divisive within the UK labour movement and beyond. Undoubtedly Trident was one of the issues around which the right of […]
Chernobyl 1986: when nuclear power came of age
30 years ago, at 1.23 am on the morning of 26 April 1986 the number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear generating site near Pripyat in Ukraine went on SCRAM alert. Within 3 seconds all of the reactors safety systems had failed and with control rods jamming the reactor core, the temperature rose by 10 […]
Voices against Trident – video from CND demonstration in London
On Saturday tens of thousands of people protested in central London to oppose the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system.
We can defend jobs without supporting nuclear weapons
We reprint this article from last September in solidarity with everyone marching today for a missile free future In the wake of recent statements by Len McCluskey, an Aerospace Unite rep argues that unions should support those arguing for a future beyond nuclear weapons. The destruction of the world is not a job creation scheme Len […]
Nuclear nightmare, gas fracking free-for-all and fuel poverty: Tories unveil UK energy policy
As the world COP21 Paris summit on climate change nears, governments internationally are burnishing their environmental credentials for what will evidently be yet another failure in really getting to grips with global warming. Demonstrators around the world, including in London, on 29 November, and during the COP itself, will be holding governments to account for […]
We can defend jobs without supporting nuclear weapons
We reprint this article from last September in solidarity with everyone marching today for a missile free future In the wake of recent statements by Len McCluskey, a Unite rep, argues that unions should support those arguing for a future beyond nuclear weapons. The destruction of the world is not a job creation scheme Len McCluskey’s […]
As Middle East goes nuclear, climate change goes critical. Part 2: Saudi Arabia
Here we publish the second part of Brian Parkin’s article, where he looks at Saudi Arabia’s own nuclear ambitions, and an emerging reconfiguration of imperial alliances in the Middle East. (See part one here.) The regional nuclear domino effect: Saudi Arabia and ‘friends’. To a large extent eclipsed by Iran’s more controversial bid for nuclear […]
As Middle East goes nuclear, global warming goes critical. Part 1: Iran
Over the next three days we will be publishing a major new article by Brian Parkin exploring the inextricable links between climate catastrophe, capitalist crisis and imperial competition. The three parts taken together form a single argument with serious ramifications for our approach to the international climate talks this autumn, and to the continuing bloody […]
Seventy years after Hiroshima
On 6 August 1945 the first nuclear weapon destroyed Hiroshima. Amy Gilligan recalls travelling to Japan ten years ago to mark sixty years since the horror of the atomic bombs. This week marks the 70th anniversary of the devastation of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US. In 1945 two atomic bombs were dropped, three […]
Now More Than Ever: The Story of Greater Manchester CND
As the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches, Philip Gilligan reports on the inaugural screening of a film celebrating decades of anti-nuclear campaigning. Now More Than Ever: The Story of Greater Manchester CND by Hannah Ellul and Leanne Green (approx. 33 mins) had its inaugural screening at the Three Minute Theatre in Manchester’s Affleck’s […]
Celebrations on the streets of Tehran
Hanif Leylabi analyses what the nuclear deal means for politics inside Iran. After two years of nuclear negotiations, the US, European powers, Russia, China and Iran have finally reached an agreement. At the heart of the agreement lies a trade-off between limits on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the abolition of sanctions. Key points […]
Remember Fukushima – no to nuclear power
Just over 70 protesters on Saturday’s CND “Remember Fukushima – No to nuclear power” march in London. Near half the protesters were Japanese and there were a wide range of ages. We had a long march from Hyde park corner to Parliament. We stopped briefly at the Japanese embassy and had a noisy protest at […]
Peace scarf “wraps up” MoD at anti-nuke protest
Amy Gilligan reports Thousands of people encircled the Ministry of Defence in London yesterday with a giant, pink knitted peace scarf. The “Wrap up Trident” protest was called by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) to send a message that Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system, must be scrapped, not replaced. MPs are set to vote on […]
Thrown into another world – experiencing Hiroshima
69 years ago today the US dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. 40,000 people were killed instantly, and many others died soon after. Three days earlier they had also bombed Hiroshima. Colin Wilson remembers meeting a survivor of that bombing. When I visited Hiroshima in 2003 what initially struck me was […]