Action closes two-week peace camp near base for US nuclear bombers
~ Helen Baczkowska ~
Saturday April 26th 2025 saw a blockade of the American military base at Lakenheath in Suffolk—the final action of a two-week long peace camp. The protests aimed to draw attention to the present or future storage of nuclear warheads at the base. A monthly vigil takes place there on the last Saturday of each month, and this April’s peace camp included a conference, gigs, symbolic protests highlighting the deaths of children in current wars around the world, and a topless FINT (Female, Intersex, Non-Binary & Trans) blockade, focusing on the impact of war and militarism across genders.
When I arrived at the blockade at noon, activists were trying to negotiate holding their space in front of the main gate until 3pm – something that would scarcely seem a problem given the at least seven other gates to the base. Organised by Lakenheath Alliance for Peace, the blockade had a distinctly XR feel to it, complete with Red Rebels and XR branded banners, along with banners from peace groups across the UK.
By 2.30, the police were getting bored, threatening arrests and moving people on – forming a linked line of them to move the mostly older people away from the base. In all there were seven arrests of those determined to stay, mostly for obstruction of the highway.
Lakenheath is technically an RAF base, but since World War 2 it has been home to the US Air Force’s 48th Fighter Wing. Their motto, displayed just inside the gates, reads “Always ready to own the skies”. It is believed that the last nuclear warheads at the site were removed in 2008 and at present the USAF will “neither confirm or deny” their presence. However, during the past year, facilities for storing the weapons have been constructed.
Protesters drew attention to the climate implications of war, the risks and pollution posed by even storing nuclear bombs, and how weaponry and war are funded better than nurses or schools.
Before the blockade, I had spent a couple of nights over the fortnight on the 24-hour vigil held at the gates. One morning I was woken by a blackbird, singing from the trees in the base, his voice joined by greenfinches, goldcrests and a robin. I’d set off for that all night stint unsure if there was much point – the rising tide of aggression and oppression seems so enormous right now. Listening to the birdsong, drinking coffee as the sky across the concrete and barbed wire grew lighter, I realised that there was no better place to be than holding the American empire and their British supporters to account.
Top image: Zoe Broughton
