PNblogeditor's blog

    19 Apr 2013

    Natalia Grana

    Report back from Natalia Grana’s recent trip to the Faslane Peace Camp

    ImageEver since Peace News Summer camp 2012 I had been hankering after getting up to visit Faslane Peace camp, in fact to be totally honest I had wanted to visit and support the peace camp since I heard about it many years previously, and had driven past it during the…

    18 Mar 2013

    Matt Barr

    REPORT FROM IRAQ: Non-violent protests by the people of Halabja at the 25th anniversary commemorations of the town's gassing help highlight the political misuse of the massacre.

    ImageSaturday was the 25th anniversary of the March 16, 1988 gassing of the town of Halabja, which is north-east of Baghdad and whose backdrop is the mountains that make up part of the Iran-Iraq border. This attack killed upwards of 5000 civilians, mostly women and children, injuring thousands…

    15 Mar 2013

    Matt Barr

    REPORT FROM IRAQ: Cross-border Turkish bombings continue to claim civilian lives and disrupt livelihoods in northern Iraq.

    24 Jan 2013

    Natalia Grana

    Following a brutal arrest and an IPCC complaint being upheld, Mani Hamid is seeking a movement to support victims of miscarriages of justice.

    ImageThe Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) have upheld Mani Hamid's complaint – “the police had wrongfully arrested him, assaulted him and violated his human right to protest.” (please see back history below (1)). He is currently pursuing prosecution of the police…

    15 Jan 2013

    Gill Knight

    Is 'the Gate of the Sun' tent camp the beginning of a new form of non-violent resitence?

    ImageThe jubilant celebrations I witnessed in Palestine when the UN General Assembly voted for an observer state status are in direct conflict with the grim reality on the ground.  All non-violent demonstrations that resist the occupation of Palestine are deemed illegal and suppressed by the…

    12 Jan 2013

    Matt Barr

    Three years on from 2010's earthquake and still little is written about how the social causes of the disaster relate to Haiti's history of external exploitation.

    Today is the third anniversary of the earthquake that struck just outside of Port-au-Prince, the densely populated capital of Haiti.(1) The UN estimated that in the wake of this earthquake more than 220,000 people died and over 300,000 people were injured, fracturing families which directly affected 750,000 children…

    01 Jan 2013

    Matt Barr

    Although widely unknown and uncelebrated Haiti's history actually “played an inordinately important role in the articulation of a version of human rights” that promotes universality.

    Whilst today is the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation it is also the anniversary of another historic event, although one that is little known by comparison, that actually saw the end to slavery, Haitian independence.

    It is widely accepted that the signing of the Emancipation…

    29 Dec 2012

    PN

    Poland's decision leaves US as only NATO country not to have ratified the Landmine Ban Treaty

    On 27 December Poland finally ratified the landmine ban treaty and in doing so brought the whole of the European Union into the treaty with all 27 nations now committed to the international treaty. Having doing so, Poland has also left the United States as the only NATO country not to have ratified the treaty.

    Poland signed the treaty in December 1997 but had resisted ratifying it and bringing it…

    28 Dec 2012

    Josh Brollier

    Report from the recent Voices for Creative Nonviolence emergency delegation to the Gaza Strip.

    Image“The problems started for me at eighteen,” Madleen Kulab said quietly, sitting just meters from the shore of the Mediterranean. “The police and port authorities did not want me to sail as a woman.” Though Madleen has emerged from this recent challenge, receiving a permanent permission to fish from the Gazan…

    26 Nov 2012

    Matt Barr

    On-going cross-border military actions in northern Iraq are killing civilians and being underreported.

    ImageOmission is a key part of the propaganda model proposed by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in their classic text on the subject and it can also be used to ascertain bias within the media. Whilst recent media attention has rightly been focusing on military actions in the Middle East in relation to both Syria and to Israel there has been a virtual blackout on…

    23 Aug 2012

    Keith Hodgson

    Reflections on a Merseyside documentary film screening commemorating the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

    Having recently rejoined Merseyside CND, and believing that membership of an organisation necessarily entails participation in its activities, I decided to attend this year’s Hiroshima commemoration in Liverpool, part of which was a film screening at our local social centre. The documentary had originally been shown on BBC4 and concerned the attack on Hiroshima itself, particularly the logistics of…

    18 May 2012

    Emily Johns

    A play written and performed by Tayo Aluko. 

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    Piano accompaniment by Michael Conliffe. Directed by Olusola Oyelele. Designed by Phil Newman. 4th-20th May 2012. Warehouse Theatre, Dingwall Road, Croydon CR0 2NF. £12/£11. Box office 020 8680 4060. Further performances: 26, 27 August, Greenbelt…

    14 May 2012

    PN

    Review of Human Rights Watch's report 'Unacknowledged Deaths: Civilian Casualties in NATO’s Air Campaign in Libya', published May 14, 2012.

    ImageHuman Rights Watch published its findings today on civilian casualties resulting from NATO's air strikes against Libya in 2011 in a report entitled 'Unacknowledged Deaths: Civilian Casualties in NATO’s Air Campaign in Libya', concluding that at least seventy-two civilians were…

    13 May 2012

    Genny Bove

    Review of 'Three Weeks in Wales', a tour in solidarity with the Bradley Manning who lived and went to school in Wales.

    ImageWISE Up for Bradley Manning is a loose network of groups and individuals in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England (WISE) taking action for Bradley Manning, the young US military intel. analyst with Welsh roots who has been held for almost two years without trial accused of blowing the…

    13 May 2012

    CAAB

    Synopses of the work of Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB).

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    An Orwellian moment at a CAAB demo. PHOTO: CAAB

    The Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) is a bit of a mouthful! A campaign with the word FOR in the title instead of AGAINST was important and the word ‘ACCOUNTABILITY’ was…