A Blockade on Nuclear Weapons

ePulse: Describe the group that went up.

Alex Rosen: We were 27 MedAct doctors - mostly from Scotland and England and three medical students from Sweden, England and Ireland. Most doctors run their own GP practices in the area, but there were also hospital doctors present. The medical students are all involved in the Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project (NWIP), one of the major international student projects of IPPNW.

ePulse: How did the public react to you in Glasgow?

Alex Rosen: We first had a public demonstration in Glasgow's Buchanan Street, where we offered a free health check up to passers-by and talked to them about the possible effects Trident Replacement could have on their health. Under the motto "Treatment not Trident", we pushed the point across that 20 billion pounds are better spent on health care, education or development than on unsafe, indiscriminate and illegal weapons of mass destruction stationed in Scotland.

The general public, which we approached with our "Prescription for the Prevention of Nuclear War" seemed aware of the current debate about Trident and some were really eager to find out more. A few people said that they were for Trident Replacement and shrugged off any attempt to start a dialogue. The ones that were already convinced stayed the longest in order to talk with us about possible ways out of the quagmire. Many people, both young and old, reacted with comments like "You won't be able to change anything anyways" or "They will go ahead with it, no matter what we say or do".

Positive examples of the public's power to influence big politics seemed unable to convince them, but we are still convinced that with enough pressure form the public and institutions like the Royal Society of Medicine, unions, the church and others, we can really make a difference.