Peace parliamentarian
Jill Evans MEP has been typically busy in the European Parliament, campaigning for peace. On 27 September, the parliament voted on rules governing the export of dual-use items – goods and technology with both civilian and military uses.
Jill criticised the outcome: “The rules won’t provide necessary safeguards to prevent the misuse of exports with a potential military use.”
On 28 September, Jill called on the EU member states to support international…
Along with, I’m sure, everyone in Wales and many people beyond our borders, I would like to pay tribute to the four miners who died in a flood at Gleision colliery near Pontardawe: Charles Breslin, Phillip Hill, Garry Jenkins and David Powell. My heart goes out to their families, friends and community.
Bethan Jenkins, Plaid Cymru AM for South Wales West, said: “The very real and cruel way in which the families were robbed of these men is something that I think it will take the local…
On 9 July, 17 enthusiastic young cyclists from Dyfodol (The Welsh Youth Forum for Sustainable Development) set off from Corris in Gwynedd on a five-day, 160-mile bike ride to Cardiff.
Funded by The Co-operative, this is the fourth consecutive year for the Carbon Cycle, and numbers continue to grow. The ride was to increase awareness and call for better cycling provisions in Wales and raise sponsorship money for Project Mongolia, a collaborative venture between young climate activists…
My father was a coal miner in the Llynfi / Maesteg valley from 14 to 26; both my grandfathers were colliers in that valley; and a great grandfather was a miners’ agent and founding committee member of the South Wales Miners Federation which preceded the NUM.
People of my generation greatly admired the mining traditions of our Welsh communities. It was a particular privilege for me to have been trained as a journalist in the Heads of the Valleys and to have become editor of the weekly…
On 26 June, about 100 people went on a pilgrimage to the military training ground on Epynt mountain in mid-Wales. On “Armed Forces Day” they showed their objection to the militarisation of Wales and in particular to the testing of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs or drones.
A service was held in the remains of Babell chapel led by the reverend Guto Prys ap Gwynfor, chair of Cymdeithas y Cymod (the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales). He said that the authorities wanted us to remember…
Something is stirring on the hillsides and in the valleys. The whisper of Climate Camp Cymru 2009 is becoming a buzz.
For the first time at Kingsnorth there was a Wales Neighbourhood at a UK Climate Camp. Previously, Wales activists had joined with either our friends from the West Midlands or, together with Bristol, all formed the “Westside Hood”.
Now environmental justice activists are reaching out to a wider peace and justice movement in Wales, and extending an…
Following the 1999 assembly and council elections, Dafydd Wigley said a “political earthquake” had struck Wales. In 2008, a suitable geographical metaphor is more elusive.
British media recorded a large swing from Labour to Conservative. In Wales, the results were ambiguous. Although the Conservatives gained 66 seats and control of a second council (Vale of Glamorgan), they only swapped positions on the leaderboard with the Lib Dems.
Labour’s support fell to the Conservatives…
Before I am tempted to say I am just tired; activist-burn-out would be the technical term. But I feel that there is something more deep-seated at work undermining my ability to bounce back. We have less than a week to go until climate camp, and I had been wondering whether to go at all.
The intensity of stress experienced before Fossil Fools Day and the ongoing grind of the Ffos-y-Frân open-cast coal-mine campaign has made me nervous. The classic frustration of whether I should be…
The Wales Peace Festival takes place in Bangor over the weekend of 18-19 October. An annual event, the Festival has become the main opportunity for people from all over Wales to take stock, exchange information, participate in lively debate, and look to the future.
Organised this year by Bangor and Ynys Môn Peace and Justice Group, the festival programme includes Dylan Morgan on the campaign to stop Wylfa B nuclear power station, and former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg talking…
Greg Muttitt’s presentation about the politics of Iraqi oil at the Peace Festival produced both righteous anger and inspiration.
The Iraqi people are embroiled in an intense struggle against the privatisation of oil reserves and production. The fight put up by trade unionists and the Iraqi people to maintain ownership of their oil has so far been a surprising success and a cause for hope.
A law banning trade unions, which dates back to the days of Saddam Hussein, has never…
About 200 local trade unionists and anti-fascist campaigners marched behind the Cambria Drum Band through Wrexham town centre on 12 April in a lively and good-natured protest against the presence of the British National Party (BNP).
The BNP has targeted the town, which has seen an influx of migrant workers in recent years. The far-right party has seven candidates in the 1 May local elections.
After the march, which was well received through the town, the Miners’ Institute was…
This autumn, South Wales activist Babi Badalov was deported on a BMI flight to Azerbaijan despite having experienced physical abuse and state persecution there. An artist and poet, Babi was “guilty” of mocking the ruling elite. Hundreds of telephone calls, emails and faxes to BMI objecting to the airline’s role in Babi’s removal were ignored.
In 2007 the UK government deported 63,140 migrants. People deported are often handcuffed on the flight, and there have been a number reports…
The phone never stopped ringing. There were coaches to be booked, of course, but many callers simply wished to talk, to share their feelings and concerns and to discuss this rush to war in Iraq. Even ex-servicemen called in to express their support.
February 2003 was a remarkable period in British political history, when progressive public opinion was raw, even desperate, and contempt for UK and US government policies was at an unprecedented level.
Labour’s drive to an illegal…
“Fossil Fools Day”, 1 April, began an international week of action against the fossil fuel industry, mobilising the Rising Tide network of people dedicated to building a movement against climate change.
In Wales, groups shut down Ffos-y-Frân, an open-cast coalmine in Merthyr Tydfil operated by the Miller Argent Consortium. Later in the week, the target was Aberthaw power station which burns coal from the mine.
These spectacular actions were the result of weeks of planning…
At the beginning of April protestors from Wales were out in force in Brussels. Supported by Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans and AM Bethan Jenkins, environmental groups petitioned the European Parliament against the National Grid’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline.
The European Commission has been looking into possible breaches of EU law relating to the pipeline, which stretches 150 miles from Milford Haven to Gloucestershire.
Meanwhile, residents opposed to the Hafod landfill…
