Archive Search Page

Peace march supporters arrive for the Burnley rally. It was the first-ever public meeting on the library forecourt.

Anti-nuclear demonstrators carried their banner for peace on to Burnley Central Library's forecourt on Thursday.
Council leader Mr Peter Pike, Burnley's prospective Labour candidate at the next general election, made a passionate platform plea, together with other disarmament supporters. The rally coincided with the four-day trans-Pennine march, which was passing through Burnley on its way to a mass rally in Manchester on Easter Saturday. Protestors from Colne met Burnley supporters and nearly 100 campaigners heard speeches outside the library. This was the first time a public demonstration had been held since the changes to the library forecourt.
Mr Phil Asquith, chairman of the joint shop stewards committee at Lucas Aerospace, spoke strongly about the alternative plan aimed at reversing commitment to arms production. He said: "North-East Lancashire is heavily dependent on arms production but it is totally wrong to use the jobs issue in justifying making weapons. Workers are given no choice of their own. They have to make weapons of mass destruction and this issue is used to terrify trade unions. We should be looking towards ways of changing production to things useful to the community. Instead of producing weapons of mass destruction, we should be looking at ways of bringing security to people and their families.
"The skilful design teams should not be done away with but re-channelled into projects that benefit everybody," he said.
Coun. Pike made it clear where he stood on the issue: "I cannot support the continued preservation of nuclear weapons. With the cutback in education and health services, it is nonsense that at the same time we are putting more and more money into the arms race.
"Let's stop spending all this money and start spending it on the things that really matter," he said.