PN staff
‘A fascinating book – a moving and nostalgic piece of oral history. It is an honest, warts and all, account of that historic February 2003 demonstration against Tony Blair’s oncoming war, of the run up to the march and of the differing views about what it achieved.’ Bruce Kent, Vice President CND ‘A powerful and important memoir of an unforgettable moment in our country’s history. ’ Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion
Pre-order a copy by for £10 post-free – it will be delivered in…
Dear friends,
Like many other radical organisations, Peace News runs on a shoe-string. Despite this scarcity of resources, we’re proud of the projects we’ve put on (one-offs like the mighty Rebellious Media Conference in 2011, and regular events like Peace News Summer Camp), and we’re proud of having kept the newspaper afloat.
You can help us keep going in a number of ways. You could give a gift of a 12-month…The Israeli-initiated conflict over Gaza in mid-November, which left 105 Palestinian civilians and four Israeli civilians dead, began with the assassination of a hard-line Hamas military leader who was contemplating a long truce with Israel, according to a leading Israeli peace activist.
‘The assassination of Jaabari was a pre-emptive strike against the possibility of a long-term…
On 19 November, following the Trident Ploughshares (TP) annual meeting in London, 15 TP members headed to the UK headquarters of arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin: Cunard House, 15 Lower Regent St. Two people climbed up beside the doors, others leafleted and held banners across the entrance: ‘Lockheed Martin Maker of Weapons of Mass Murder’ and ‘Use Your Skills For Peace’.
Lockheed Martin has a £3.5bn contract from the British government to design and build a new generation of…
In late September, Spanish solidarity activists persuaded Spanish canning company Jealsa to stop using sardines from the waters of Western Sahara, which has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.
Jealsa was profiting from the occupation by operating a sardine cannery in Laayoune.
After years of protests at outlets of the Spanish Mercadona supermarket chain and at the company itself, Jealsa has moved the cannery to A Coruña in…
Nepali politics, after six years of 'peace process', seems to be well and truly stuck. The country is without a parliament as the supreme court ruled in May that the constituent assembly elected in 2008 (which also functioned as a parliament) could not extend its term any further.
There is no agreement between the major parties on whether or how to hold new elections, and no agreement on the shape of the constitution.
There is enormous pressure for a new constitution to…
On 19 September, Italy's supreme criminal court, the 'court of cassation', upheld abduction and 'rendition to torture' convictions against 23 Americans, all but one CIA officers. The charges related to an Egyptian imam, Osama Mustapha Nasr, abducted from Italy to Egypt in 2003 and held for four years before being released. The court also ordered €1.5m in damages to be paid to Nasr and his wife. The Italian government may now seek extradition of the 23.
The US government is still allowed legally to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely, after a ruling by the US court of appeals on 2 October. A lower court order had earlier barred indefinite detention under the National Defense Authorization Act.
The court of appeals has allowed the US president to continue detaining indefinitely anyone 'who was a part of or substantially supported' al-Qa'eda, the Taliban or 'associated forces'.
On 20 September, four Palestinian youth, Taka Mohammad, 17, Mohammad Amir, 16, Yosouf Shtaiwi, 20, and Nadir Amer, 23, were arrested by the Israeli security forces ahead of the weekly demonstrations at the Palestinian village of Kufr Qaddoum in the West Bank.
On 21 September, four international human rights defenders were…
On 21 September, the US justice department released the names of 55 men held at the Guantánamo detention centre on Cuba, who have been cleared for release.
On the list were British residents Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha. A previous request for this was rejected in 2009, so the disclosure, while not signalling any imminent releases, is being seen as a positive step.
On 27 September, Alex Haigh, 21, became the first person to be sentenced under a new law that bans squatting in residential properties. Alex was arrested by police on 2 September, the day after section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 came into force. Police battered down the door without first informing the housing association who owned the flat, which had reportedly been empty for a year.
A postgraduate course in peacemaking through sport starts this month in Spain at the Open University of Catalonia, supported by the UN cultural body, UNESCO, and FC Barcelona Foundation.
The master's degree in 'Sport as a Tool for Social Coexistence and Conflict Resolution' is designed to be useful in contexts with 'high levels of conflict'.
Back in the UK, a group called 'The Intruders' managed to gatecrash two high society events, first giving the former head of the government tax body HMRC a 'lifetime achievement award for services to corporate tax avoidance' on 27 September. Dave Hartnett was accused of being…
Over 700 boats laid 'siege' to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, India on 8 October, in the latest demonstration by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE; for background, see PN 2550).
PMANE is demanding the withdrawal of police from local villages (police killed one protester in September), the…
