Milan Rai
Reading the recently-published memoirs of George W Bush and Tony Blair is a strange experience – seeing recent history refracted through the eyes of our war leaders, and seeing more deeply into the former US president and British prime minister. The books present justifications for their crimes against humanity; and for the invasion of Iraq in particular.
Bush’s Decision Points was published at the beginning of November, two months after Blair’s A Journey. (Their shared publisher…
There have been strong reactions to the student protests at Millbank on 10 November (see p8). Overwhelmingly, mainstream figures have condemned the “despicable” behaviour of the protesters – the word used by Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students.
From the left, in contrast, came a statement signed by Hilary Wainwright, Billy Bragg, Naomi Klein and a number of student activists saying: “We reject any attempt to characterise the Millbank protest as small, “…
The overwhelming majority of people in Britain support the idea of a one-off 20% wealth tax on the richest 10% of the population that could pay off the national debt. The coalition government claims that the only way to start dealing with £800bn of national debt is through cuts in government spending (£64bn over the next five years).
Hitting the poor
Conservative prime minister David Cameron claimed on 21 October that the tax and benefit changes were fair, being hardest on the…
Back in June, the prime minister said that in resolving the country’s financial crisis, the coalition government would act “in a way that protects the poorest and most vulnerable in our society; in a way that unites our country rather than divides it; in a way that demonstrates that we’re all in this together.”
David Cameron said: “We are all in this together, and we will get through this together.” A noble sentiment shared no doubt by the other millionaires in the cabinet. The…
You can’t fault David Cameron for honesty. The prime minister was blunt in his statement launching the strategic defence and security review (SDSR) on 19 October (12 years after the last such review).
Cameron said: “this review is about how we project power and influence in a rapidly changing world.” He went on: “Britain has punched above its weight in the world. And we should have no less ambition for our country in the decades to come.”
Missing: the public
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There is one detail in Tony Blair’s A Journey that seems to have been missed. One of the few times that Blair was forced to withdraw an untruth was in a forceful interview by Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight on 6 February 2003.
Blair claimed that UN weapons inspectors had been “put out of Iraq” in December 1998. Under pressure from Paxman, Blair admitted that, in fact: “They were withdrawn”. Chief UN weapons inspector Richard Butler revealed in his memoirs that he withdrew his…
A careful new report from CND demonstrates that replacing the Trident nuclear weapons submarine system will actually cost more jobs than it generates, and that cancelling the project gives Britain a golden opportunity to use its industrial skills for a green economy.
Recent weeks have seen a furious struggle within the military establishment, as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has struggled to plan for the 10%-20% cuts being demanded. Because the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition…
A peaceful society can only be based on a peaceful economy. In this light, the recent deaths of Ken Coates and Jimmy Reid brought back memories of the 1960s and 1970s, and the high tide of workers’ control.
The first thing that sceptics say when they hear the phrase “workers’ control” is that most workers aren’t capable of managing their workplaces. They need specially-trained and educated people – more intelligent people, to put it bluntly – to direct them, regulate them.…
The Nation, the United States’ leading left-liberal magazine, once said: “Not to have read Chomsky is to court genuine ignorance”. Rarely has this been more true than today.
With Hopes and Prospects, academic and activist Noam Chomsky has produced another indispensable critique, explaining the inner workings of world affairs.
The first half of the book is largely focused on Latin America, with updated and revised versions of lectures Chomsky gave in Chile and Venezuela in 2006…
In this bumper summer issue of Peace News, we bring you good news from all around the world – from Australia where Ploughshares activists (pictured above) who pleaded guilty to breaking into a top secret spy base were nevertheless found not guilty by their judge, to Serbia, where charges were dismissed against six anarchists initially charged with international terrorism for protesting at the Greek embassy.
In Washington DC, in the US, there were acquittals for 24 human rights…
Peace News pays tribute to the Gaza flotilla martyrs: Cengiz Akyüz (42), Ali Heyder Bengi (39), Ibrahim Bilgen (60), Furkan Dogan (19), Cevdet Kiliçlar (38), Cengiz Songür (47), Çetin Topçuoglu (54), Fahri Yaldiz (43), and Necdet Yildirim (32), killed by the Israeli Defence Forces on 31 May. Let us not mince words. The Israeli assault on the Gaza aid flotilla was an act of terrorism, of state terrorism. The killings of these Turkish solidarity activists was merely the latest chapter in the…
On 16 June, acquittals were handed out to four Australians who broke into a top secret spy base on Swan Island, Victoria, and disrupted satellite communications with Australian troops operating in Afghanistan.
Christian peace activists Jacob Bolton, Jessica Morrison, Simon Moyle, and Simon Reeves told Geelong court that they were pleading guilty, not out of a sense of emotional guilt, but because they wanted to take full responsibility for their actions.
Having heard…
The EDO Decommissioners (see PN 2506) spent the first week of their trial grilling the head of EDO/MBM, Paul Hills, on the firm’s supply of vital components to Israeli F-16 fighter jets (which Hills denied).
After nine days, on 16 June, Brighton peace activist Rosa Bellamy was cleared of conspiracy to participate in the property destruction inside the EDO/MBM arms factory in January 2009. The action took place as Israeli F-16s were bombing Gaza, killing hundreds of civilians.…
The US is doing its best, once again, to prevent a negotiated solution to the Iran crisis. On 17 May, Brazil and Turkey pulled off a major diplomatic coup by reaching agreement with Iran on swapping Iranian uranium fuel for more highly-enriched fuel for a medical reactor, designed to produce medical isotopes used in diagnosing cancers.
Iran accepted conditions it had previously rejected as humiliating (see PN 2522 for details). It agreed to deliver 1,200kg of low-enriched uranium to…
US president Barack Obama has rejected new concessions from Iran over its nuclear programme, instead demanding a tightening of economic and financial sanctions, leading to growing fears of confrontation. This is the fourth major peace initiative from Iran since 2003 – all have been rejected by the US.
A TRR-ific deal?
The latest breakthrough came in relation to Iran’s stock of low-enriched uranium (LEU), the product of its controversial uranium enrichment programme. Last…
