PN staff
Donald Trump is being sworn in on 20th Jan. Does that make YOU nervous?
If so - don't just sit on your backside...gather together with like minded people all over the UK!
Colourful banners baring positive slogans will be hung from bridges across Britain, showing the world that this country stands defiant against populism & bigotry
Together we can create a unified voice, more direct and powerful than the negative messages we've…
On 23 September, Index on Censorship and English PEN, another freedom of expression group, held a vigil outside the Turkish embassy in London in support of art teacher Ayse Çelik and others currently persecuted for speaking out in Turkey.
As we went to press, Çelik was awaiting a new trial date, accused of ‘promoting terrorist organisation propaganda’ after she called in…
‘We’ve put up with noise and dust from the pits – we’re used to it. We shouldn’t grumble about a few turbines singing in the wind’. These words were spoken in 2000 and, 16 years later, the community wind farm turbines in Mynydd y Gwrhyd, 20 miles north of Swansea, are due to be commissioned by December.
Community benefit society Awel (Welsh for ‘wind’) is funding the scheme through shares (raising £1.27 million to date) and Welsh government loans of £4.…
Well there are various kinds of dirt, but I often think of something: when you’re planning to do some direct action, and when it’s going on, and then you’re arrested, you’re often very dirty because you can’t get washed.
There is another thing that’s occurred to me because that’s what you want! Twice I’ve been involved in digging a peace garden and that was good because you’re engaging with the dirt of the ground, the soil, and that makes you dirty. It’s a good kind of dirt.
…
On June 16, the New York Times reported :
'More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country’s five-year-old civil war.
The memo, a draft of which was provided to…
A Letter to the Prime Minister, Jo Wilding's Diary from Iraq - trailer from Julia Guest on Vimeo.
Jo Wilding’s Eye Witness account of the war and occupation of Iraq between 2002- 2004.
The film focuses on the effect of sanctions and war on civilians and where this breached Geneva conventions.
It is an eye…
In April, two dozen activists, facilitators and trainers from around the UK took part in two advanced workshops led by Erika Thorne and Nico Amador from the US group, Training for Change (TfC).
TfC’s ‘Training for Social Action Trainers’ and ‘Advanced Training of Trainers’ workshops finally took place in London after two years of hard work by Peace News, Turning the Tide and Campaign Bootcamp.
A comment…
In July of last year, 13 climate activists occupied Heathrow airport’s northern runway for six hours, causing around 25 flights to be cancelled. On 24 February, the Heathrow 13, who were found guilty of aggravated trespass and being unlawfully airside, were given suspended sentences of six weeks in prison. This means that if they commit another ‘offence’ in the next 12 months, they will be sent to prison for six weeks for the runway occupation, as well as being sentenced for any new ‘crime…
On 9 February, Greenpeace installed a realistic-looking 10-metre fracking rig and drill in Parliament Square, London, to ‘bring the local impacts of fracking to the heart of democracy’. The rig gave off a bio ethanol flame every hour, speakers broadcast the sounds of drilling and lorries, and a two-metre-high illuminated road sign gave drivers and passers-by anti-fracking messages (many of them sent in by Greenpeace supporters by social media).
On 28 January, 30 life-size cutouts of peacemaker Jerry Berrigan blockaded the main entrance of Hancock air national guard base outside Syracuse, New York. The 12 nonviolent drone resisters who supported the 30 Jerry Berrigans were arrested after blockading for 90 minutes. Jerry Berrigan dedicated his entire life – like his brothers Dan and Phil – to Jesus’ command to love one another. He came to the base for drone…
At 5.20pm, 10 March, Scottish Nukewatcher Brian Quail from Glasgow walked out onto a pedestrian crossing in Balloch, near Stirling, and stopped a nuclear warhead convoy on its way from AWE Burghfield to Coulport, where warheads are stored and loaded onto Trident submarines. More info: www.nukewatch.org.uk
More bad news for Manchester police over their handling of the Barton Moss anti-fracking ‘Community Protection Camp’, (November 2013 – April 2014).
In early February, the crown prosecution service (CPS) dropped charges against 20 anti-fracking ‘protectors’ following the acquittal of John Wasilewski and David Cohen on 22 January, according to Netpol, the police monitoring group. (20 more cases were under review.)
District judge Sanders said he was not sure that either…
Five Christian climate protestors arrested in Whitehall on 30 November for writing in whitewash and black paint on the wall of the DECC (department for energy and climate change) have had their trial date set for 31 May and 1 June.
On the first day of the Paris climate negotiations, the five painted ‘Dept for Extreme Climate Change’ in black letters on the DECC wall, which they had whitewashed. They…
2016 may be a big year for the Basic Income, a universal, unconditional, guaranteed income, regardless of people’s availability for work or other income.
There’s to be a national Basic Income referendum in Switzerland in November. Last year, the Swiss parliament overwhelmingly recommended a ‘no’ vote in the referendum.
Despite this, one poll showed 49…
On 15 January, Kate Wilson, who was deceived into a relationship with British undercover police officer Mark Kennedy for two years, won a high court battle against Scotland Yard.
The Metropolitan police withdrew its attempt to defend against her claims of deceit, assault/battery, misfeasance in public office and negligence.
The victory came two months after seven other women who were tricked into relationships with undercover police officers received…
