After mingling with the crowd and meeting friends, WILPF members took their places on the pink scarf. We walked around the block housing the Ministry of Defence building in order to encircle it with the pink peace scarf that was first rolled out in its seven-mile entirety on Nagasaki Day (9 August) last year between the nuclear weapons sites of Burghfield and Aldermaston.
At about 1.45pm we then marched down to Parliament Square and listened to speeches from Rebecca Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, Bruce Kent, Lindsay German, Kate Hudson and others. The message was clear – health, housing, jobs, education and the environment all have a greater claim to taxpayers’ money than Trident nuclear weapons or indeed any nuclear weapons.
There was a good turnout by a diverse range of people and groups including CND and Quakers groups, the Occupy Movement, Veterans for Peace, the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, WILPF and more. People came from as far afield as Bristol, Salisbury and Reading to join those from all over Greater London.
A seven-mile knitted pink peace scarf was the idea of Jaine Rose of Wool Against Weapons who, aided by CND, turned the idea into a reality. Knitted and crocheted contributions to the scarf came from all over the world.