[syfaslane365] Press release and Hiroshima peace flame

Fri Sep 29 16:23:27 BST 2006

woops! -
If anyone does use it - please change the typo !

Bob

	-----Original Message-----
	From: River Wolton [mailto:rwolton at phonecoop.coop] 
	Sent: 29 September 2006 16:15
	To: Bob Banks
	Subject: Re: [syfaslane365] Press release and Hiroshima peace
flame

	Bob
	press release looks good, thanks for doing it - but i think
there's a typo in the third sentence - should it be international law
not 'war' ?

	River

		----- Original Message ----- 
		From: Bob Banks <mailto:bob.banks at tribalgroup.co.uk>  
		To: syfaslane365 at lists.aktivix.org 
		Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 2:59 PM
		Subject: [syfaslane365] Press release and Hiroshima
peace flame

		1 - people probably have this sorted for sheffield - but
I've sent this press release to our derbyshire press. (Such as it is.)
If anyone wanted to use it for sheffiled (I think it would be really
good to contact the star and telegraph and radio sheffield at least) -
would just need "derbyshire" replacing with sheffield and (preferably)
the contact numbers changing. (And I'm sure it could be imporved in
loads of ways if anyone had energy!!)  But - as I say - this may well be
covered - I'm just being a bit forgetful about who's doing local press -
but Ankie / Simon will know.

		2 - On the hiroshima peace flame - explained below - be
great if people back home in sheffield etc. wanted to burn it too.
		If anyone wants to pcik it up (from grindleford) -
contact me by email or phone (07799 470898) before end of  Monday .

			Press Release: Derbyshire people take direct
action against Britain's nuclear weapons.

			                        Also lighting Hiroshima
Peace Flame at Faslane base.

			A group of people from Derbyshire are going up
to Faslane, near Glasgow - the home of Britain's submarine - based
nuclear weapons, over 5th and 6th October.   They intend to blockade the
base, using non-violent direct action to prevent access to it.   Their
belief is that it is immoral and illegal, in international war to
maintain weapons of mass destruction. Since the government refuses to
respect this, it is important that people act to stop this irresponsible
activity.

			The action will be part of "Faslane 365", an
action to blockade the base continuously for 100 days. Groups from all
over Britain will be taking part.

			The group will also be taking up the Hiroshima
Peace Flame, to light and maintain outside the Faslane nuclear weapons
base.

			The Hiroshima peace flame was originally lit
from the fire ignited by the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
Originally, Mr. Tatsuo Yamamoto, who took it, regarded it with anger as
the fire which killed his uncle. However, his grandmother transferred it
to her Buddhist shrine, where it developed into a symbol of
reconciliation, and the transformation of war into peace. 

			The fire has been burning ever since as an
appeal from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in support of nuclear weapons
abolition activities. 

			We are taking it to Faslane, and also burning it
back home in Derbyshire, in the hope that the energy that has gone into
building Britain's weapons of mass destruction will similarly be
transformed to peaceful ends, and that the nuclear weapons will be
dismantled.

			For more information, Contact Bob Banks - 07799
470898

Jill Gibbon - 07891 380819

			More about Faslane 365 - see also
www.faslane365.org/

			50 different groups have now signed up to taking
part in Faslane 365, the year-long peaceful blockade of the Faslane
nuclear submarine base on the Clyde, starting October 1, 2006.  This
civil resistance movement, launched at a civic reception hosted by
Edinburgh City Council on September 9, calls for Britain to fulfil its
treaty obligations and get rid of the Trident nuclear weapons instead of
replacing them.

			The groups will each bring at least 100 people
to blockade and demonstrate at the Faslane nuclear base for up to two
days at a time. In preventing nuclear 'business as usual' these groups
will also be making connections with issues such as climate change,
poverty and resource allocation, to highlight the real, human security
priorities.

			The list includes groups organised locally
(Assynt, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Leicester, Sheffield etc), by
political parties (SNP and Greens), by organisations (CND, Quakers, Stop
the War, etc.) and by groups sharing a common interest or profession
(Cyclists, Parliamentarians, Writers, Health Professionals etc.). The
blockades will be launched with on October 1 by women commemorating 25
years of Greenham.

			The government has put Trident back on the
political agenda, with its announcement of a decision in this Parliament
on replacing the UK's nuclear weapons, at a likely cost of some 25 to 40
billion.  With the strong opposition in Scotland especially in mind,
Faslane 365 aims to mobilise public opinion and action to get rid of
Trident and prevent any commitment to further nuclear weapons.  The
strategy is to combine persistent, non-violent opposition at the site of
deployment with political pressure at every level. 

			With these blockades, Faslane 365 plans to
highlight the political and financial costs of deploying Trident, while
raising questions about the relevance of any kind of nuclear weapons for
our security in the 21st century.

			More about the Hiroshima Peace Flame:

~ A story of a flame of slaughter that became a light of Peace ~ 

The twentieth century saw decades of wars. What we have started is a
movement to change the flame of war into a "peace light" with a view to
spreading the "wish for peace" to all over the world.

In 1945 the fire from the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima was
taken by Mr. Tatsuo Yamamoto. He then took that flame back to his home
in Hoshino village. His thought was "this fire killed my uncle." He
directed his hatred toward the fire because it slaughtered many citizens
and the uncle he loved. "I want to show this bloody fire to my
grandmother."

However, when he showed her the fire, she transferred it to the candle
on the family's Buddhist alter:  "To me it was a fire of hatred of
America but to my grandmother it was the fire of love for her husband." 

The fire of the atomic bomb illuminated the uncle's funeral and his
grandmother kept the fire burning for twelve years until she passed
away. Seeing the way she cherished the fire transformed Yamamoto's own
mind from hatred to love. He came to harbour a sincere wish for peace.
Later on, an editor happened to hear about the fire and wrote a story
about the "Love Fire" in a newspaper. Then in 1968, the fire was used to
light a "Peace Tower Light" in Hoshino village.

The fire has been burning ever since as an appeal from Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in support of nuclear weapons abolition activities. 

In 2002, a Japanese Buddhist nun, Jun Yasuda, initiated the Hiroshima
Flame Walk in the US. Her and walkers walked to different military bases
and other related sites of Bush's Space Wars program. The walk took the
flame to Native American communities, the US military facilities and
communities along the way and shared the prayer for a peaceful world
with thousands of people. Around the same time, it came to Britain.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

			Dr. Bob Banks
			Senior Consultant
			Tribal 
			St Mary's Court,
			55 St. Mary's Road
			Sheffield, S2 4AN

			Tel: 0114 281 6100 Fax: 0114 2816021 
			Email: bob.banks at tribalgroup.co.uk
			Web: www.tribaltechnology.co.uk

			A member of Tribal Group plc

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