Here’s a piece of news you might have missed if you were watching CNN: a week ago today, a Scottish judge, Margaret Gimblett, acquitted three anti-nuclear protesters on charges of sabotaging a floating laboratory which supports British Trident nuclear submarines.
In June, the protesters – Ellen Moxley, Ulla Roder and Angie Zelter – boarded the laboratory and threw any number of computers into the waters of Loch Goil and destroyed testing equipment for operating model nuclear submarines. The damage came to about $100,000.
No one contested that the women had actually done this; they sat on top of the barge for three hours, having a picnic while they waited for police to come and arrest them. When they got to court, they admitted what they had done and further admitted that, in one sense, their action was illegal. They defended themselves, however, by stating that Trident submarines, and the nuclear missiles they carry, are even more illegal. Therefore, the protesters argued, they had to commit a minor offense to prevent the commission of a crime against humanity, or at least call attention to it.
Sheriff Gimblett, as she is called in her court, agreed and acquitted the women. Not that they got off scot-free. The three have been in jail since June. They refused bail because one of the bail conditions was that they not commit the same offense again. Agreeing to this would imply that an offense had occurred in the first place and the women could not abide by that, so they spent five months locked up.
Now, before you write all this off as a case of Scottish madness, think about this: Sheriff Gimblett based her ruling on a 1996 decision by the International Court of Justice. In that decision, the court ruled that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is contrary to international law. The nuclear weapons carried by Trident subs are capable of a first strike and are often targeted at cities – civilian, non-military populations. The Scottish protesters also cited the Hague Convention, the Nuremberg Principles, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention and on and on.
The protesters’ defense points out that while the dominant military powers have been proficient in this century at capturing the moral phrase condemning inhumanity, they are equally good at engraving that moral phrase on the head of a cruise missile and launching that missile at real or perceived rogue nations. What the dominant military powers are not good at is applying these high standards to their own conduct.
The UK and the U.S. are all for bowing to international consensus when it comes to removing barriers to global trade. They’ll even go so far as to manufacture consensus on removing barriers to global trade. When it comes to international consensus on war and genocide, they don’t move so quickly.
But here and there is reason for hope. As Sheriff Gimblett acquitted nuclear protesters in Scotland, a judge in Spain issued a warrant for the arrest for Augusto Pinochet.
The Trident protesters themselves are no naive, starry-eyed kids. They range in age from 44 to 63 and have been peace activists for years. Their resumes include working for the environment, with the homeless, among the refugees and orphans of war.
It’s sad this story wasn’t on CNN and the front page of the Washington Post, where it could shame every member of the U.S. Senate who refused to ratify the comprehensive test ban treaty for the sake of political posturing.
It should have been printed and broadcast everywhere, to remind us not to lose heart. When the people lead, the leaders will follow.
The Hammer of Justice
Here’s a piece of news you might have missed if you were watching CNN: a week ago today, a Scottish judge, Margaret Gimblett, acquitted three anti-nuclear protesters on charges of sabotaging a floating laboratory which supports British Trident nuclear submarines.
In June, the protesters – Ellen Moxley, Ulla Roder and Angie Zelter – boarded the laboratory and threw any number of computers into the waters of Loch Goil and destroyed testing equipment for operating model nuclear submarines. The damage came to about $100,000.
No one contested that the women had actually done this; they sat on top of the barge for three hours, having a picnic while they waited for police to come and arrest them. When they got to court, they admitted what they had done and further admitted that, in one sense, their action was illegal. They defended themselves, however, by stating that Trident submarines, and the nuclear missiles they carry, are even more illegal. Therefore, the protesters argued, they had to commit a minor offense to prevent the commission of a crime against humanity, or at least call attention to it.
Sheriff Gimblett, as she is called in her court, agreed and acquitted the women. Not that they got off scot-free. The three have been in jail since June. They refused bail because one of the bail conditions was that they not commit the same offense again. Agreeing to this would imply that an offense had occurred in the first place and the women could not abide by that, so they spent five months locked up.
Now, before you write all this off as a case of Scottish madness, think about this: Sheriff Gimblett based her ruling on a 1996 decision by the International Court of Justice. In that decision, the court ruled that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is contrary to international law. The nuclear weapons carried by Trident subs are capable of a first strike and are often targeted at cities – civilian, non-military populations. The Scottish protesters also cited the Hague Convention, the Nuremberg Principles, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention and on and on.
The protesters’ defense points out that while the dominant military powers have been proficient in this century at capturing the moral phrase condemning inhumanity, they are equally good at engraving that moral phrase on the head of a cruise missile and launching that missile at real or perceived rogue nations. What the dominant military powers are not good at is applying these high standards to their own conduct.
The UK and the U.S. are all for bowing to international consensus when it comes to removing barriers to global trade. They’ll even go so far as to manufacture consensus on removing barriers to global trade. When it comes to international consensus on war and genocide, they don’t move so quickly.
But here and there is reason for hope. As Sheriff Gimblett acquitted nuclear protesters in Scotland, a judge in Spain issued a warrant for the arrest for Augusto Pinochet.
The Trident protesters themselves are no naive, starry-eyed kids. They range in age from 44 to 63 and have been peace activists for years. Their resumes include working for the environment, with the homeless, among the refugees and orphans of war.
It’s sad this story wasn’t on CNN and the front page of the Washington Post, where it could shame every member of the U.S. Senate who refused to ratify the comprehensive test ban treaty for the sake of political posturing.
It should have been printed and broadcast everywhere, to remind us not to lose heart. When the people lead, the leaders will follow.