Block and Roll, baby.

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday February 11, 2002 18:59 by Amanda

Trident nuclear submarine base blockaded by 300 to 400 people. 50 arrests. 9 from irish contingent. Police offer biscuits to protestors. 2 people breach fence.

6.30am this morning 11feb'02 hundreds of people began protesting at the four gates of trident. I was at the north gate where 250 people gathered. By 7.30am roughly 50 'arrestibles' had locked down. Plastic/metal pipes were used to lock small groups of people together, some of the locks wrapped in boxes, styrofoam and wrapping paper (some CND wrapping paper) to make it more difficult for the police to get at the locks. By this stage all four gates were blocked and no traffic could move in or out of trident.
After shouting warnings for people to get off the road, some police met protestors they knew and said 'oh hi, i haven't seen you for ages' etc. Also police were sharing biscuits, snacks etc with protestors. Gradually the police unlocked the arrestibles and arrested them, including nine people who travelled from ireland, 4 or 5 clergy, and Tommy Sheridan from the Scottish National Party (his 6th time getting arrested at trident). The rest of the crowd were dancing, drumming, stilt walking, juggling, singing etc. Two people made it over the fence and stayed inside the grounds for at least 30 mins, one locked onto a gate and the other climbed a pole and stayed there for half an hour, in view of the crowd who rightly cheered him on, which he loved. By 10.30am all arrestibles were arrested, the north gate was open and trucks started to move in. Non-arrested people started to leave. The last two people to get arrested were one irish person for crossing the road, and someone else for jumping in front of and trying to lock onto a moving truck.