PN
On 14 May, 18-year-old Israeli Noam Gur was exempted from further military service, soon after she finished her second 10-day prison sentence this year for her conscientious objection.
Noam said in April: ‘I refuse to join an army that has, since it was established, been engaged in dominating another nation, in plundering and terrorising.... the Palestinian people have been increasingly choosing the path of nonviolent…
In mid-May, the government of Morocco said that it had ‘decided to withdraw its confidence’ from UN envoy Christopher Ross, who it accused of giving ‘biased and unbalanced guidance’ on the issue of Western Sahara. Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975 and has illegally occupied the territory since then.
Morocco also criticised a UN report, published in April (see PN 2545), which suggested Morocco had been spying on MINURSO, the UN monitoring body for Western Sahara.
In response,…
PN went to press just after the six-year Nepali peace process was meant to have been finally resolved. It wasn’t.
As widely predicted, Nepali political parties failed to meet the 27 May deadline for agreeing a new constitution. The original deadline set in the interim constitution of 2007 was 28 May 2010 – there have been four extensions, even though the first was judged unconstitutional by the supreme court. The supreme court ruled just before the deadline that extending the…
On 7 May, activists gathered outside the former US air force base at Upper Heyford, 15 miles north of Oxford, to mark 30 years since the founding of the Upper Heyford peace camp.
In mid-1983, the peace camp organised a nonviolent blockade of the nuclear-weapons-enabled base that involved 752 arrests.
At a meeting in the village hall, activists shared memories and memorabilia and honoured the peace campers and the campaigners who are no longer with us.
The US air force…
The alleged terrorist threat to the London Olympics has been made the excuse for a military and security clampdown unprecedented in peace time.
Surface-to-air missiles are to be placed on residential blocks, without consultation with their occupants, to shoot down aircraft suspected of evil intent. An aircraft carrier is moored on the Thames, equipped with attack helicopters.
The Olympic Park itself is surrounded by a massive 11-mile-long high-voltage fence, and is to be…
On 6 July, academics and activists from all over the world will hold a seminar blockade as part of Faslane’s 30 Days of Action (see left), following similar actions at Faslane in 2005 and at the 2009 Copenhagen climate negotiations.
The theme of the seminar is ‘security’. Participants are invited to contribute papers from a range of perspectives on the complex issue of nuclear weapons. Contact Dr Kelvin Mason or Dr Kye Askins:
MasonK4 AT cardiff.ac.uk
kye.askins AT…
A new radical international project has been launched by Michael Albert, one of the main speakers at the Peace News-initiated Rebellious Media Conference last October, and coordinator of one of the world’s largest radical websites: ZCommunications.
Michael is also a co-founder of Parecon, a vision of how to organise society in the future – and how to organise radical projects today (…
Human 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 killed as a result of the strikes, of which a third were children.
The seventy-six page report is based on extensive field investigations…
The fourth annual camp at Sizewell nuclear power station took place between 20-22 April, the aim of which was to both oppose the building of two planned reactors and a dry fuel storage dump and to provide information about about nuclear power to local people.
The choice of the April date itself was to commemorate the Chernobyl disaster which occurred on April 26, 1986.
The weekend included a demonstration at the gates of the power station attended by between 80-100 people and…
see A SOCPA victory and the blanket ban and Parliament Square Peace Camp resists eviction
Maria has been protesting 24/…
Simon was served the Anti Social Behaviour Order after he was convicted for public order offences defending common land at Leyton Marsh against development for Olympic baseball courts.
The ASBO prohibits him from going within 100 yards of an Olympic venue or route, obstructing any Olympic participant - including officials and spectators, going onto any private land without permission of the owner, and from disrupting the Jubilee or Olympics events. (See more:…
Solidarity protest at Red Road flats on 12 April. photo: Duncan Brown
The asylum seekers have had their claims for asylum refused even though most of their countries are too dangerous to return to. Their home countries include Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia and Zimbabwe.
Some people have received letters saying the locks on their doors would be changed in the next two weeks.
…
The White Book, which can be signed by anyone, contains a simple declaration: ‘Yr wyf i, drwy dorry fy enw yn y Llyfr Gwyn, yn ymrwymo i weithio dros heddwch yn y byd.’
‘By signing my name in the Llyfr Gwyn, I commit myself to work for peace in the world.’
PN spoke to renowned poet Mererid Hopwood, the first woman ever to win the bardic Chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales (in…
Women’s resistance to Trident nuclear weapons continues at Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp (AWPC). All women are welcome to join us every second weekend of every month (see p16 ‘Regular events’). Fun, good food, great company! Not reliant on the sun! photo: Kay Tabernacle
Rare image of symposium co-organiser Andrew Rigby, 10 April. photo: Milan Rai
Over 50 activists and peace researchers from around the world assembled at Coventry University’s Technopark in mid-April for a highly-successful ‘International Symposium on Nonviolent Movements and the Barrier of Fear’.
