Sarah Swift of the Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign in Britain says: “Now is the time to call for Independence From America.”
What prompted this call? You can see it in this video clip about the U.S. spy base Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire. Featuring the chair of Yorkshire CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), Quakers and others, it’s a scene filmed by Jane of Bradford City of Climate Culture. It explains how the base connects to military oppression in Gaza and in Iran. 
Declaration Day Demonstration
Yorkshire CND and the Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign will meet at 3 pm on 4 July at Kettlesing Village Hall, near Harrogate, for an information session.
Those who can visit the base are invited to participate in a reading of the Declaration of Independence From America.
Back at Kettlesing, participants will hear from:
+Dave Webb, chair of Yorkshire CND, with a visual presentation: “What is happening now at Menwith Hill?”
+Dr Carla Ibled of Durham University, covering “What is happening in Space?” Dr Ibled’s research into the networks involved in lobbying to commodify outer space is encapsulated in the report Star Wars: Why the Left Should Protect the Status of Space as Humanity’s Commons (2025).
+Jim Scott of PARC Against DARC (Deepspace Advanced Radar Capability), opposing the U.S. military’s plans for augmenting its control in space with a 27-dish radar array in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
+Dr Martin Schweiger, retired public health consultant, discussing Surveillance Matters.
The Commoners Choir and Konrad Kinard will perform.
The Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign: Backstory
RAF Menwith Hill, run by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), is the largest overseas base for U.S. surveillance activities. That array of giant “golf balls” in the Yorkshire Dales? Those are radomes – eavesdropping equipment that enables international spying from this base. Thousands of U.S. citizens and some 300 British employees work at Menwith Hill.
U.S. surveillance operations in Britain were established by Winston Churchill and Harry Truman. At the time, the U.S. was building a nuclear arsenal in Britain for possible use against the Soviet Union. (U.S. nuclear weapons may have been brought back recently to another base, RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk – after being removed in 2008.)
From the start, when the U.S. Army came in 1951, local people raised their concerns about Menwith Hill. Peace camps and demonstrations arose, with thousands attending in the early 1980s.
The Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) was created in 1992. The group found out that Menwith Hill was to be a crucial part of Ronald Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ (now called the national missile defense system).
During the Clinton years, CAAB went to the High Court to try to stop the building of two Space Based Infra-Red System Radomes. The Campaign achieved a series of civil rights wins and in 2017 the group’s work was picked up by The Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign.
“Power Projection Platform”
The 15 key U.S. bases (and a few smaller offices) in Britain are operated through the work of more than 12,000 U.S. personnel. Critical to U.S. military and intelligence operations, most are camouflaged by the words “Royal Air Force” in their names.
RAF Mildenhall in west Suffolk, with thousands of U.S. military personnel, has been described by the U.S. Air Force as a power projection platform. It supplies fuel deliveries to bombing missions over Iran.
Another site is RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, used for CIA eavesdropping operations and the legally questionable drone missions in the Middle East and Africa.
More than 6,000 U.S. military personnel work within the high border fence of RAF Lakenheath, a station for F-35s and F-15Es deployed to the Middle East. And at the Fairford base in Gloucestershire, bombs have been spotted being loaded onto U.S. jets bound for Iran. Fairford’s runway is fortified to support heavy jets such as B-1 and B-52 bombers.
All these and many more belong to a global network of hundreds of U.S. military sites worldwide.
The Spanish government has denied permission for U.S. military activities against Iran from Spain. Italy said no to the similar use of a base in Sicily. Meanwhile, the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales Zack Polanski is suggesting that arms deals, U.S. bases, and the relationship with U.S. security data firm Palantir are all endangering Britain.
The Achilles’ heel of overseas U.S. surveillance networks? Their existence depends on diplomatic ties with the United States. Seen in this light, mass protests could conceivably have significant effects.
Pushing Back, in the Name of the World’s Well-Being
A May 2026 poll found strong international opposition to US bases. And no wonder! This government talked of liberating Iran’s people and now ruthlessly bombs their country. With the Trump commentary on Gaza’s future as the Riviera of the Middle East and similar grotesque statements, people of conscience must make our opposition clear.
As the July protest approaches, Donald Trump wants to double the Space Force’s budget. Major expenses involve fortifying the Golden Dome shield against space missiles. (Space, too, has become all about the military.)
At Menwith Hill, notes Sarah Swift, it’s the Space Force that controls the Space-Based Infrared System Radomes, designed to give early missile warnings to the U.S. military. This puts Menwith Hill in the spotlight as the U.S. continues to flout international humanitarian law in the Middle East. It’s likely a key target should current or future wars escalate to a nuclear level.
Since 7 October 2023, more than ten percent of the population of Gaza has been killed or injured by Israeli military actions–and counting. Mass death, injury, and displacement continue in the West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon as well. At Menwith Hill, meanwhile, operatives supply U.S. intelligence services with information, some of which will be used to help the Israeli Defence Forces target populations, according to Dave Webb of Yorkshire CND.
We call on the people of Britain and the United States to insist on a shift away from the disastrous war drive, and into actions that address clear and present dangers: increasing inequality, biodiversity loss, and climate breakdown.
The post The Declaration of Independence From America appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Patricia Fairey – Lee Hall.