Sunday 7 October 2007

Back to the Campaigns, and Another

I picked up another campaign posted on BritNat WATCH blog to keep everyone fired up for the real issues in Welsh politics.


Stop the St Athan Military Academy

Next Meeting at Temple of Peace / Y Deml Heddwch
2pm Saturday October 6th Cathays Park / Parc Cathays
Cardiff / Caerdydd CF10 3AP

The campaign against the mega military training academy at St Athan for Cynefin y Werin
www.cynefinywerin.org.uk For more information see also
http://metrixconsortium.blogspot.com/
http://www.nomurderacademyatstathans.com/

St Athan Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4156619706

6:47 PM

Saint Tathan would have turned in his grave if he knew what is going on there.

Here is what I would consider as thoughtful and refreshingly valid comment :

heddwch has left a new comment on your post "Back to the Campaigns, and Another":

Wales should not be part of NATO. We have an aspiration to be nuclear free and NATO is a US run nuclear military alliance.

Yes Wales should have a non violent army, expert in conflict solution and prevention.

No country and certainly not Wales should be involved in the devising 'better' and more sophisticated ways of killing people. Sain Tathen is propsed as an educational facility for teaching young people methods of 'remote killing'.

Wales is not imperialistic and has a long tradition of peace making and building - work done by Henry Richard helped to bring about the League of Nations (although of course we know the UN needs reforming to take it from the grips of the US and other would be superpowers) and strove in the 1830s for international arbitration not violent solutions to conflict, George M Ll Davies is famous for his pacifism and work in Northern Ireland, David Davies gave us the Temple of Peace as a space where a way forward without wars could end...the Greenham Women left from Cardiff to set up camp at the nuclear weapons base...

Besides, in this instance the Sain Tathan development would be a 'little England' set up in Wales, it is not to train a 'Welsh Army/navy/Airforce, it is to train British military forces - as well as private security frims, and the armies of any regime in the world as long as they have the ready cash to pay. As someone pointed out at the campaign October 6th meeting (promoted here)the project would actually lock Wales in to the British Generation for at least 2 more generations (it's a public private finance initiative between the Westminster government and a consortium of companies including Raytheon - one of the biggest multinational arms companies that makes parts for Trident nuclear warheads, cluster bombs and tomahawk missiles amongst other dirty hardware).

The state of the environment will not support war, in fact it will make wars more likely. How about a Cymru which becomes a leading light in non-violent conflict resolution? A Cymru which is way up front in researching and developing low carbon not oil-based means of generating energy, or even a Cymru which has a centre of training and excellence in emergency rescue?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

So do you think Wales should have an army? Should Wales be part of Nato?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous. Why do you bother?

Anonymous said...

Wales should not be part of NATO. We have an aspiration to be nuclear free and NATO is a US run nuclear military alliance.

Yes Wales should have a non violent army, expert in conflict solution and prevention.

No country and certainly not Wales should be involved in the devising 'better' and more sophisticated ways of killing people. Sain Tathen is propsed as an educational facility for teaching young people methods of 'remote killing'.

Wales is not imperialistic and has a long tradition of peace making and building - work done by Henry Richard helped to bring about the League of Nations (although of course we know the UN needs reforming to take it from the grips of the US and other would be superpowers) and strove in the 1830s for international arbitration not violent solutions to conflict, George M Ll Davies is famous for his pacifism and work in Northern Ireland, David Davies gave us the Temple of Peace as a space where a way forward without wars could end...the Greenham Women left from Cardiff to set up camp at the nuclear weapons base...

Besides, in this instance the Sain Tathan development would be a 'little England' set up in Wales, it is not to train a 'Welsh Army/navy/Airforce, it is to train British military forces - as well as private security frims, and the armies of any regime in the world as long as they have the ready cash to pay. As someone pointed out at the campaign October 6th meeting (promoted here)the project would actually lock Wales in to the British Generation for at least 2 more generations (it's a public private finance initiative between the Westminster government and a consortium of companies including Raytheon - one of the biggest multinational arms companies that makes parts for Trident nuclear warheads, cluster bombs and tomahawk missiles amongst other dirty hardware).

The state of the environment will not support war, in fact it will make wars more likely. How about a Cymru which becomes a leading light in non-violent conflict resolution? A Cymru which is way up front in researching and developing low carbon not oil-based means of generating energy, or even a Cymru which has a centre of training and excellence in emergency rescue?

Anonymous said...

A non-violent army? This reminds me of why the new states of the Baltic deserve their independence while Wales, sadly, doesn't.

It also reminds me that Belsen was liberated by the 11th Armoured Division in a war where the pacifists of the Peace Pledge Union disgraced themselves with their association with Mosley and assorted Jew-haters.

womensvoice said...

Plonk St Athan military privitised academy in Wales - no Welsh independance then? Promise the locals jobs?
Hi Have you heard about the campaign against the military academy at st athan to be run by the metrix consortium = mc mercenaries - arms dealers like Raytheon - even the Clintons have got rid of their shares in this company see

http://metrixconsortium.blogspot.com/search?q=clinton

The noerwegain government won't invest their pension funds in unethical companies like raytheon

http://www.nomurderacademyatstathans.com/search?q=norwegian yet we are begging them to come to Wales and teach our children! What will they tech them!

Private military corporations become a way [for government officials] to distance themselves and create `plausible deniability.'

Jobs??? Where so these figures come from? 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 000,000 How many real new jobs for local people??

Do we really ANY sort of jobs?
The new military academy will train personnel from all over the world.Aside from the threat posed by having nuclear weapons on our soil, the conventional weapons involved at St Athans raise serious moral issues .Between 2001 and 2004 the Ministry of Defence provided military training for over 12,000 personnel from 137 countries, many with poor human rights records. Matrix is already travelling the world promoting itself at arms fairs, drumming up business for St. Athens.

All of this raises the prospect of Wales being used as a training ground for any corrupt dictator who happens to have a million pounds to spare.Unions representing military training staff are threatening strike action over the privatisation of the military.



Sign our petition against the St Athan Murder Academy
http://metrixconsortium.blogspot.com/
http://www.nomurderacademyatstathans.com/

St Athan Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4156619706
email no2militaryacademy@inbox.com

www.cynefinywerin.org.uk

http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk/fileserve.php?medi...

Introductory booklet explaining why the Academy is a bad idea (welsh version, pdf)
www.cynefinywerin.org.uk
http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk/fileserve.php?medi...
Introductory booklet explaining why the academy is a bad idea (English version, pdf)

Unknown said...

I very much doubt whether there would be any military academies in Wales in the event of independence and a responsible government.
Wales would have no need of them and would hopefully promote peace across the world. What about:
Academy for the Propagation of Peace?

Anonymous said...

OK you've convinced me, I'm against it.

What could we have in it's place though? I guess a Labour Camp for Trotskyites is out of the question.

Unknown said...

How about a concentration camp for anonymouses on the lines of Guantanamo Bay?

Anonymous said...

It's quite a pertinent comment that Alan, as one of the companies in the Metrix Consortium building the institution is Sodexho - who are involved in the practical running of the detention centre (sic) at Guantanamo Bay.

Unknown said...

There you are....