Linked with Trident Ploughshares TP.
Angie Zelter is a British peace activist who founded Trident Ploughshares, which seeks to disarm nuclear submarines in Great Britain through nonviolent means. Since the mid-1990s she has been arrested more than 100 times and more than 2200 arrests have occurred all around the world after Trident Ploughshares actions. These arrests help to bring media attention to the cause of nuclear disarmament in order to raise public awareness about the issue. Trident Ploughshares has also presented legal actions to show that nuclear weapons and nuclear armed submarines are a violation of many international laws. Angie Zelter is the author of the 2001 book, « Trident on Trial: the case for people’s disarmament » and that year her organization received the Right Livelihood Award (often referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize) “… for providing a practical model of principled, transparent and non-violent direct action dedicated to ridding the world of nuclear weapons”. She is a Betterworld-heroe.
She says: « I had people in the village who would cross the road rather than speak to me and others who would tell me to go back to Russia ». (edp24).
Trident Ploughshares campaigner Angie Zelter said: « These women are very long-standing campaigners who have devoted a huge amount of their lives to protesting all over the UK, at huge cost to themselves. They command a huge amount of respect ». (full text, January 10, 2008.
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Angie Zelter – England
She founded the group Trident Ploughshares to challenge Britain’s deployment of nuclear weapons (and she) describes her work as a peace activist in Britain and the Palestinian territories. (the 12 principles).
She quotes: « Our planet is dying – both spiritually and physically. Fear, aggression and greed, narrow-minded national interests and immature dominance and control over others is a common theme in most countries. However, there are more and more people who define themselves as global citizens, who know that life is intimately interconnected, and that we can never be fully human whilst others continue to suffer, and who know that love, justice and nonviolence is the very essence of life. And what gives me hope is the very many different ways in which ordinary people are taking responsibility. They are creating the changes needed to pass beyond war and injustice, control and dominance and towards a free, just, loving, and diverse world ». (Betterworld heroe).
One stop shop for justice – JUSTICE in Inverclyde is set to undergo its biggest overhaul in decades, with extra court room, extra powers and the return of the High Court, Jan. 7, 2008.
After all, for 25 years she has been confronting the structures of power and the law. Nuclear weapons, destruction of rain- forests, the taking away of indigenous people’s land rights, road developments, the poll tax – all have been causes for Angie to fight. A quarter of a century, including numerous arrests, many months’ imprisonment and personal struggles, is a long time to keep battling. Yet Angie is unbowed and is, perhaps a little surprisingly, quite good fun. This woman who has chosen to devote her adult life to campaigning for peace and the environment has a wicked sparkle in her hazel eyes as she reads out the message posted on her front door that urges the bailiff to consider taking a new job with more soul. “It has to be fun. It is much more than just making a protest about something, it is a lifestyle,” she explained as she pours tea in the kitchen that is covered with postcards and pictures from around the world (full text).
WORLD COURT PROJECT UK NEWSLETTER, Autumn 2000.
She remembers: « In 1996 I was one of a group of ten women who disabled a Hawk jet that was earmarked for sale to the Indonesian military ». (the 12 principles).
All eight accused were facing a charge of trespass, or in the case of Olivia, a charge of aiding and abetting a trespass. At the end of the prosecution case, a defence submission that there was no case to answer on that charge was accepted by Sheriff Montgomery. This left Angie, Marcus and Chris facing the other charge, that of being on an aircraft without permission. The Crown had already accepted that in the case of Angie there was lack of identification and the Sheriff decided this was also true for Chris. He was however persuaded by the prosecution argument that given the circumstances it could be inferred that Marcus did not have the required permission … (full text).
She says also: « It is up to us to say that you are our leaders and we want you to do this. We have to decide what sort of society we believe in ». (edp24).
On a beautiful summer’s evening in 1999, three women – Ellen Moxley, Ulla Roder, and Angie Zelter – boarded a barge moored on a Scottish loch and threw some computer equipment overboard. Sheriff Margaret Gimblett acquitted ‘The Trident Three’ on the basis that they were acting as global citizens preventing nuclear crime. This led to what is thought to be the world’s first High Court examination of the legality of an individual state’s deployment of nuclear weapons. (full text).
Angie Zelter: on Google Book-search; on Google Blog-search; on Google Groups-search; on Google Scholar-search.
She quotes also: « This is our message – killing is wrong. Mass killing is wrong. Threatening mass destruction is a denial of our own humanity and is suicidal. When something is wrong we have to stop it. Dismantling the machinery of destruction is thus a practical act of love that we can all join in. Please join us – together we are unstoppable ». (Betterworld heroe).
links:
Nobel Peace Laureate Arrested at Faslane, Scotland;
Lord Advocate’s Reference: Court Sketches;
Turning missiles into ploughshares, 16 February 2007;
preface to challenge to nonviolence;