PNedit's blog

    20 Nov 2011

    PN

    Background info on PN's Clown Training Workshop in March 2012.

    ImagePeace News is hosting a clown army training weekend 3-4 March in London. It will culminate in waddling off to do an action. Welsh hero of the nation, Capten Cyboli will be present.

    To cover venue hire and train fare for recruiting sergeants a suggested contribution is £15-£40 depending on pocket. If anyone…

    30 Oct 2011

    Natalia Grana

    <p>Natalia Grana writes from the occupation in the city centre.</p>

    ImageSince 2 October, a group of around 30-40 people have made an Occupy camp in Manchester city centre which is still growing. Its conception started at the same time as the TUC march against the Tory conference (which was held in Manchester from 2-5 October).

    The…

    26 Oct 2011

    Jill Gibbon

    <p>Jill Gibbon reports from Britain's biggest arms fair.</p>

    Image
    Appropriate clothing for selling weapons

    A sign at the entrance to the Defense and Security Equipment International arms fair warns that visitors must wear business dress. The pinstriped suits, school ties and polished shoes shroud the event in sham respectability. However, the dress code…

    16 Oct 2011

    PN

    Photos and video from the start of Occupy London Stock Exchange.

    At 12 noon, outside St Pauls Cathedral and the London Stock Exchange, 15 October 2011.

    For more info see www.occupylondon.org.uk

     

    07 Oct 2011

    PN

    Six activists arrested marking the 10th anniversary of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

    Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the war against Afghanistan. This morning peace activists gathered outside Downing Street in a protest organised by the London Catholic Worker. Red paint was poured on the pavement outside the gates to symbolise the blood of the 25,000 civilians and 2,500 soldiers who have been killed or wounded in the last decade. 6 people then blockaded the entrance to Downing Street for an hour before they were arrested. The 6 are John Lynes, Ciaron O’Reilly, Maya Evans…

    24 Sep 2011

    Patrick Nicholson

    Patrick Nicholson gives a view behind the barricades of organising resistance to the Dale Farm eviction

    After much dithering, we ended up driving North on Sunday night heading for Dale Farm, ducking under the Thames at Dartford, and emerging in Essex, new and alien ground for us. Breaking right towards Basildon and then onto back roads, we were anticipating blocked roads and searches, and parked discreetly some distance from the site. We needn’t have worried. Walking in, there was an extraordinary air of calm, with a few quiet words of welcome and thanks from Travellers as we walked in the…

    22 Sep 2011

    Jill Gibbon

    This is the first of a series of drawings from DSEi 2011.

    As the world’s largest arms fair, DSEi is part of a wider shift in the commercialisation of war. Although arms companies have always profited from conflict, military production was previously linked to the perceived needs of the state.

    In the 1990s this changed. Arms companies responded to the reduction of military budgets at the end of the Cold War by expanding beyond state boundaries, merging into…

    18 Sep 2011

    Milan Rai, Taesun Kwon

    <p>Milan Rai interviews a key speaker at the 2011 Rebellious Media Conference.</p>

    Taesun Kwon was a co-founder of South Korea’s only non-corporate national daily newspaper, the Hankyoreh, born of South Korea’s democracy movement in 1988. She is now executive editor of the paper, which has a circulation of 300,000 (South Korea has a population of 49 million). Taesun Kwon will be speaking at the Rebellious Media Conference organised by Peace News, Ceasefire, the National Union of…

    07 Sep 2011

    Tony Telford

    Tony Telford writes on brain structures and western thinking

    All is one

    All is one

    Back in July, Le Monde Diplomatique carried a fascinating article by Guillaume Pitron. It was, of all things, about gum arabic, the resin of the acacia tree. Gum arabic is mentioned in the Qu’ran and the Bible. These days, labelled as…

    01 Sep 2011

    Sarah Lasenby

    <p>A report from the anti-militarist gathering in Sweden</p>

    ImageFor the last week of July along with other pink clothing we took a dayglow pink dustpan and brush to help sweep up the militarisation in the north of Sweden and make it NEAT. We went to join the ‘War Starts Here’ peace camp to protest against the development of this into part of an ‘Arctic NATO of the Baltic Countries’. This…

    29 Aug 2011

    Charlotte Potter-Powell

    Charlotte Potter-Powell reports on the solidarity day at Dale Farm on 27 August

    Dale Farm in Essex is the UK’s largest Travellers’ community. The residents have been fighting for ten years to remain there but now 90 families of 500 people, many of them children, face eviction from 31 August. The Conservative-led Basildon Council has set aside £18 million for an eviction which could take weeks, while supporters have set up a solidarity camp at the site.

    The community at Dale Farm are predominantly Irish Travellers and many have lived there for 30 years. They own…

    29 Aug 2011

    Leslie Barson

    I was very intrigued when I first heard about the Piccadilly Community Centre. To someone who works in community centres, knows what value they provide to individuals and communities, often fights to keep them open and despairs at how many are now closing, the opening of a new community centre in central London was very exciting.

    When visiting it on opening day it was obvious that money had been spent on the project. For example the signage outside the building was brand new and…

    28 Aug 2011

    John Linsie

    <p>John Linsie reflects on the media's simplistic response to the 2011 "riots".</p>

    The present state of affairs on English streets is bad enough but the situation is exacerbated by the platitudinous responses made by most politicians who seem both to have no idea of what is going on or how to respond to the situation without making it worse. The platitudes come out thick and fast: “pure criminality”; “only a minority of the population” (has Cameron any conception of what it would be like to face even a small mob of youths?); “nothing justifies such lawless behaviour”; “…

    28 Aug 2011

    Pippa Bartolotti

    <p>Pippa Bartolotti writes about her experience of the Gaza "Flytilla" on 7 July when solidarity activists flew to Israel to attempt to openly visit Palestine.</p>

    The grating sound of metal on metal as the reverberating CLANNGGG of the heavy prison doors closing on you for the first time cannot be forgotten. The smell of prison; the malicious looks of the guards; the claustrophobic feeling of a cell which distorts your intestines and bleaches your thoughts bare before you even see it.

    “I am here for no reason. I have not been charged with anything. Does anyone know I am here?”

    My crime was to say I was going to Bethlehem. There were 11…

    28 Aug 2011

    Russ McPherson

    Russ McPherson responds to an article on Metalkova social centre in Slovenia in PN 2535 with his own experiences in Australia

    Spread across 10 acres of land in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, is the Ceres Community Environment Park. Pronounced “series” the name has several connotations, the most appropriate perhaps being with the Roman goddess of agriculture.

    Dotted with wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels, Ceres certainly lives up to its founding principle to “initiate and support environmental sustainability and social equity.” The 4 hectare park includes a farm, community gardens, a café…