Norfolk & Waveney Area Meeting will be the 48th organisation to join Lakenheath Alliance for Peace,(LAP) https://lakenheathallianceforpeace.org.uk/
Lakenheath is our local WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) base, 42 miles from Norwich, making East Anglia a potential target and/or perpetrator of nuclear genocide. Everything that happens, happens somewhere. If that somewhere is nearby, it is harder to ignore but easier to take action. I was very pleased that the EDP saw fit to print my article on this just before the 2024 peace camp, where I compared living near a nuclear base with living next to a concentration camp.
Joining LAP was raised at Area Meeting in spring, and agreed subject to there being no legal or other objections from British Yearly Meeting. In fact there is enthusiastic support from Quaker Peace and Social Witness, so our clerks are setting the formalities in motion.
Quakers and everyone else are invited to a protest camp at Lakenheath from 14th-26th April, and to attend some of the monthly vigils, which are 12-2pm on the last Saturday of each month.
LAP is taking action to prevent the return of US Nuclear weapons to ‘RAF‘ Lakenheath. RAF Lakenheath is in reality USAF Lakenheath and is the largest US airbase in Europe. It is assigned to United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa. Its
Air Force units maintain combat-ready wings that are pledged to NATO, which plans, conducts, controls, coordinates and supports air and space operations in Europe, parts of Asia and all of Africa with the exception of Egypt. USAF Lakenheath is a threat to us all with its conventional weapons that have been deployed in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Libya, Syria, the Middle East and East Africa. But with nuclear weapons coming back, under the control of President Trump, it becomes even more dangerous. LAP is committed to nonviolent direct action for a peaceful and non-threatening world.
We demand that military resources are instead directed towards global peace and justice and the prevention of human caused climate change and biodiversity loss.
With the nuclear expansionism of the US and NATO that is now leading to a global nuclear arms race, many of us in the peace, justice and environmental movements are organising demonstrations and resistance to show public abhorrence to the nuclear escalation and the forever wars that are bringing death and destruction, environmental degradation, and impoverishment to countless millions across the planet.
Lesley Grahame
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