On 27 October, Britain’s nuclear bomb factory at Aldermaston was blockaded by hundreds of peace activists in the largest nonviolent direct action at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) for a decade.
After withholding 10% of my income tax for the last five years because I refuse to pay for war, I received a letter from Caernarfon County Court, saying there would be a case to decide whether £2,333.52 should be taken from my bank accoun
The threatened Iraqi oil rip-off was highlighted in central London on 11 October in a lively demonstration. The demo, organised by Hands Off Iraqi Oil, featured a huge puppet of Dick Cheney trying to grasp an oil well.
On 13 October, at a meeting in London, Iraq’s oil minister, Hussein Shahristani, put eight oil and gas fields, representing about 40% of Iraq’s known oil reserves, up for grabs.
While the war in Afghanistan continues to escalate, a British diplomat and a British military commander have made headlines with their outspoken realism about the conflict.
Shireen Shah has written a compact account, published recently by the Movement for the Abolition of War, of the amazing man known as “the Frontier Gandhi”. Peace News publishes an extract below.
On 16 October, five Swedish activists (pictured above) broke into factories owned by arms manufacturers BAE Systems and Saab and used household hammer to protest against the Swedish arms trade.
At the end of September, the Observer revealed that Britain has been supporting Afghan peace negotiations with the leadership of the Taliban, despite official denials – opening up the prospect of division with the US.
Britain’s military presence in Basra is “not necessary for maintaining security and control”, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, told The Times in an interview that appeared on 13 October.
On 4 October, in terrible weather, demonstrators arrived at Menwith Hill spy station, Yorkshire, for the annual “Keep Space for Peace” demo, part of an international protest against Star Wars “missile defence”.
Noam Chomsky, one of the world’s leading radical commentators, was interviewed about the financial crisis, Obama and Palin by Simone Bruno for ZNet on 13 October.
The Unity Centre is tiny – the opposite of a Tardis – a corner shop space crammed with people, computers, filing systems, sofas, chocolates and a whole lot more.
