‘Pay the Nurses! Stop paying for Trident!’

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group has responded to news that the government is refusing to give thousands of Britain’s nurses even a 1% pay increase, when the retail price index is increasing by almost 3% a year. Local campaigners were on the corner of Hare Hill Road and Church Street in Littleborough on Saturday (22 March 2014) asking people to join them in demanding that more of their taxes are spent on health, education and social services and not on the Trident nuclear weapons system.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Pat Sanchez said,

“We all benefit from the skills and commitment of our NHS nurses and we owe them a decent wage. We need the care and treatment they provide. Yet, the Government is refusing to give them and many others the pay increases they need. Meanwhile, Cameron and Clegg and their ministers seem determined to continue wasting £billions each and every year on the Trident nuclear weapons system. They seem happy to spend on nuclear weapons of mass destruction, but say they can find nothing for our nurses. We are telling the government and all those who support them in wasting our taxes on nuclear weapons that we want our county’s money spent on making lives better not on nuclear weapons which offer us nothing but death and destruction. We say ‘Pay the nurses! Stop paying for Trident!’”

Peace Group joins ‘Around the World in 90 Days’ Bike for Peace tour

                                                         Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined 8 Norwegian mayors and Kjell Magne Bondevik, the former Norwegian Prime Minister, as they started the Around the World in 90 Days Bike for Peace from Manchester on Saturday (15 March 2014).

From Manchester, the Norwegian Group plan to cycle back to Oslo via London, Paris, Nice, Rome, Tehran, New Dehli, Beijing, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Kansas, Indianapolis, Washington DC and New York. They will be hosting a reception with the mayor of Hiroshima to commemorate the tens of thousands of victims of the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945. They are travelling with a letter of support from the current Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg.

Philip Gilligan joined the 8 mayors with his own bike at the Lord Mayor’s reception in Manchester town hall, cycling with them to Platt Fields Park where they all rode the Sri Chinmoy Peace Mile.

Philip said “It was inspiring to meet a group so committed to spreading the message of peace across around the world. Their slogans and objectives are ones which I am sure many people in Rochdale would be eager to support. They include the immediate abolition of nuclear weapons and support for the casualties of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and of nuclear testing and disasters in Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, in Nevada and at Chernobyl in Belorus. The cyclists from Bike For Peace and Mayors for Peace are also promoting the integration of disabled persons, gender equality and cycling as a way to help the environment and to reduce global warming. We wish them well in their campaign”

See http://bikeforpeace.info/2014/BikeForPeaceAroundTheWorld.pdf for more information about the Bike For Peace ‘Around the World’ event.

See http://www.demotix.com/news/4192603/launch-bike-peace-tour-lord-mayor-manchester#media-4191776  for more (professional) photographs of the Bike For Peace events in Manchester on Saturday (15 March 2014)

See http://www.manchester.gov.uk/news/article/6830/bike_for_peace_set_to_depart_on_90_day_world_tour_from_manchester_town_hall for the Manchester City Council statement.