Protesters bring peace mission to York Minster (From York Press)
Get in touch: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting YORK to 80360 or send an email»
Protesters bring peace mission to York Minster
8:12am Wednesday 10th October 2012 in News
The chairman of CND, Professor Dave Webb, centre, with members Yorkshire CND call at York Minster on their three-day 100-mile bike ride from Whitby to Menwith Hill, Harrogate. They were greeted by members of York Green Party and York Quakers
ACTIVISTS protesting against the “militarisation of space” stopped off in York during a 100-mile bike ride as part of their campaign.
The journey between Whitby and Harrogate, which was due to finish yesterday, was organised by Yorkshire CND and designed to raise awareness of the role two North Yorkshire bases, Fylingdales and Menwith Hill, play in the US defence programme.
The group fears the expansion of this system increases the risk of “a new Cold War” with Russia and China and has called for the bases to be “recycled for peaceful means”.
The group held public meetings in Pickering and York during the three-day ride, which joined up with a demonstration against US drone strikes at Menwith Hill organised by the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, as part of Keep Space for Peace Week.
Among those taking part were CND chair Professor Dave Webb, who also chairs Yorkshire CND, while Coun Andy D’Agorne, who leads City of York Council’s Green group, joined the cyclists to pedal between Malton and York.
More information is available at yorkshirecnd.org.uk or by e-mailing info@yorkshirecnd.org.uk
Comments(10)
pedalling paul
says...
8:47am Wed 10 Oct 12
powerwatt
says...
8:49am Wed 10 Oct 12
baileyuk
says...
9:26am Wed 10 Oct 12
i came across them riding from malton towards stamford bridge, riding 4 and 5 abreast, i gave a blast of my horn to let them know i was there and the fact i wanted to get past, the reply being a few coffee bean hand shakes, 2 fingered salutes,
DorothyD
says...
10:11am Wed 10 Oct 12
.uk
MilkandTwo
says...
6:01pm Wed 10 Oct 12
DorothyD wrote:This assumes the USA is evil and CND, good.
Pete the Brickie is right to say that facing up to the global military industrial complex is not an easy thing to do and change doesn't come from a single action. But as the quote goes 'evil only happens when good people do nothing'. It seems to me that one point of this protest was to draw attention to facts such as that when pilotless drone aircraft kill civilians in Afghanistan, the biggest US spy base in the world outside the States, on our doorstep at Menwith Hill near Harrogate, has most likely played a part in setting it up. This is indeed a complex issue hard to cover in a few words but maybe Pete and others should read a bit more on the website link given at www.yorkshirecnd.org
.uk
As in the 80s CND is more anti-American than pro-peace. A few bike rides round Moscow or Beijing would be a good start.
Christopher1913
says...
11:51pm Wed 10 Oct 12
they may have mistaken your good intentions when blasting your horn, cyclists do come in for a lot of abuse on the roads these days. Anyway, there's probably no need to blast your horn as they are able to hear the roar of your engine (I hope you don't do that when
stuck behind horses!)
Though not a cyclist, I imagine it is quite difficult for a dozen cyclists to stay in single file for 30 miles.
Christopher1913
says...
12:26am Thu 11 Oct 12
DorothyD does not assume "the USA is evil and CND, good." In fact she explicitly states, "this is indeed a complex issue..." Nevertheless, if there is a scale, surely the charitable organisation campaigning against the use of weapons of mass destruction, which threaten us all, is nearer the 'good' side, than the vast, military state responsible for the murder of children abroad. Just sayin'
Oh, and what good would starting the bike rides in Moscow or Beijing do? It is surely elementary morality to begin by demanding accountability for the crimes and goings on of ones own state, before condemning the same of states in which you are not a citizen and therefore can exert no influence.
baileyuk
says...
6:25pm Thu 11 Oct 12
MilkandTwo
says...
7:29pm Thu 11 Oct 12
Christopher1913 wrote:Fair enough, clean up your own back yard and all that. So how about protesting about the Russian government which sends it's agents to murder dissidents on the streets of London?
MilkandTwo,
DorothyD does not assume "the USA is evil and CND, good." In fact she explicitly states, "this is indeed a complex issue..." Nevertheless, if there is a scale, surely the charitable organisation campaigning against the use of weapons of mass destruction, which threaten us all, is nearer the 'good' side, than the vast, military state responsible for the murder of children abroad. Just sayin'
Oh, and what good would starting the bike rides in Moscow or Beijing do? It is surely elementary morality to begin by demanding accountability for the crimes and goings on of ones own state, before condemning the same of states in which you are not a citizen and therefore can exert no influence.
Or the Chinese who pressure the UK government to ban demonstrations and free speech every time one of their politburo visits the UK
If you are going to claim 'peace in space' as your cause you've got to apply it to the Russian Military as well as the Chinese People's Liberation Army, both of whom are busy militarising space as well.
If you just go on about America you reduce your credibility
Pete the Brickie says...
8:27am Wed 10 Oct 12
I'm not surprised people are unhappy about this, what on earth do the Americans hope to achieve by attacking their own airbase with pilotless flying machines.
On a more serious note though I can't somehow see the Yanks or the Eastern nations dismantling their entire space defence system and taking it down to Clancy's because a few bearded academics decided to bike a few miles through Yorkshire in fancy dress even given the fact there are some steep hills en route.