Nik Gorecki
This year, Peace House – the building on Caledonian Road which is home to Peace News, Housmans Bookshop, War Resisters International, Network for Peace, Campaign Against Climate Change, and many others – is celebrating its 60th anniversary.
To mark the occasion, we are organising a conference on 28 March.
‘Our Power Is Real: A Festival of Grassroots Social Change’ is a one-day event bringing together a wide range of community and grassroots campaign groups.
In…
Peace News contacted folk around Britain to ask their opinions on the 12 December general election – people who’ve contributed to PN or helped organise Peace News Summer Camp. These are the eight campaigners who managed to meet our very tight deadline, giving their varied views on tactical voting, the Trident nuclear weapon system, climate, the arms trade and much else. (Unusually, we don’t have someone urging people not to vote, which has been a theme in past election…
50 years after the reverend Tom Willis proudly opened the doors of Peace House at 5 Caledonian Road, creating a home for the peace movement in London, activists, supporters, residents old and new – and Tom Willis himself – came together to celebrate their collective achievements.
An afternoon of reminiscence and reflection was accompanied by the inspirational voices of London-based political choir Raised Voices, and the poetry of long-time friends of the building, Pat Arrowsmith, Jeff…
Hundreds of thousands of people in the world engage in nonviolent struggle. Be it a labour strike, a boycott of a business, or an attempt to overthrow an oppressive state, people are practicing nonviolent methods to resolve their disputes. Considering the extent to which the technique is used, it is surprising how little literature exists to help activists to go about their campaigns.
Few have done more to help demystify nonviolent action and make it a practicable activity than Gene…
The Chagos Islanders
The right of Chagos islanders to return to their homeland has been once again thwarted by the British government. On November 6th the government declared that it was going ahead with its decision to appeal to the House of Lords to seek clarification about the status of its overseas territories. The appeal will be heard in 2008.
Darfur
The conflict in Darfur has escalated in recent months with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.
The…
Award-winning BBC business correspondent Paul Mason has set out on an important task in this, his first book: to keep alive the epic and inspirational stories of workers' struggles of days gone by and pass them on to the growing ranks of exploited working classes being created by the current expansion of global capitalism. Mason picks an international selection of key historical moments from the era of the first Industrial Revolution, and pairs them with examples of present day struggles in…
Palestinian refugees living in the Baddawi and Nahr al-Bared camps of North Lebanon have organised die-ins, demonstrations and illegal press conferences in order to expose the systematic use of torture by the Lebanese Army against them, and the way in which they are caught in the crossfire between the army and the Sunni group Fatah al-Islam.
On 11 January, the fifth anniversary of the opening of the notorious detention camps Delta, Iguana and X-Ray at the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, was marked by protests and actions in Britain and abroad. Despite near universal condemnation, and ongoing legal battles, the camps continue to operate and hold inmates without charge. Nik Gorecki reports...
An international delegation of former prisoners, families of current detainees, US lawyers and human…
Campaigners in more than 50 cities across Europe have taken part in a month-long action protesting against the nuclear capacity of NATO member states. Concerned citizens have been filing official complaints with relevant authorities on the grounds that NATO's nuclear capacity is contrary to international humanitarian law, as the weapons' indiscriminate nature is certain to cause unnecessary suffering.
The series of complaints, organised by Greenpeace and the Belgium peace…
With this manifesto, Gorbachev adds his voice to the growing roar of those calling for universal and lasting social justice, and does so in a manner that is both diplomatic and urgent. He describes with passion how poverty, environmental destruction and war are the inseparable consequences of endemic political failure, and laments the opportunity squandered by consecutive US governments to implement a new era of peace and disarmament following the end of the Cold War.
He finds…
