PN staff
This winter, Afghanistan faces a humanitarian catastrophe, largely due to the collapse of the economy because of the freezing of the country’s foreign reserves by the United States and other Western countries.
On 16 November, 12 countries in the region called on the US to unfreeze billions of dollars of assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank. They were meeting in Russia as ‘the Moscow format of consultations on Afghanistan’, first set up in 2017. The 12 included Saudi Arabia…
‘Although it is difficult to evaluate it precisely, the nonviolent civil resistance has contributed to stopping the invasion in the north’ of Ukraine.
That’s one of the conclusions of Ukrainian Nonviolent Civil Resistance in the Face of War, published in October by the International Catalan Institute for Peace and Novact – International Institute for Nonviolent Action.
The author, Felip Daza, studied 235 nonviolent actions between 24 February – 30 June.
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Zombies visited the Home Office on 29 November with a gravestone saying: ‘Public Order Bill – Stay Dead’. They were there to hand in a petition (organised by Greenpeace and Liberty) signed by over 300,000 people, calling on the home secretary to stop attacking the basic human right to peaceful protest.
That day, the Public Order bill was having its second reading in the House of Lords. It contains restrictions on protest that had been removed from the Police, Crime, Sentencing and…
US peace group CODEPINK is calling on the US to respond to the wave of women-led protests in Iran by lifting ‘the brutal sanctions that harm millions of Iranian women every day’.
At least 448 people have been killed by Iranian security forces during the nationwide protests which began with the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September, the NGO Iran Human Rights reported on 29 November.
In late September, Palestinian-Indian-American journalist Samaa Khullar wrote in Salon…
Hundreds of people gathered outside Lakenheath, the US air force (USAF) base in Suffolk, at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) demonstration on 19 November.
They were protesting against the return of US nuclear weapons to the UK.
Originally scheduled for spring 2023, the arrival of the new B61-12 free-fall/glide nuclear bomb at USAF Lakenheath seems to have been brought forward to December.
Speakers at the demo included CND chair Tom Unterrainer, Trident…
The British embassy in Israel will not be moving to Jerusalem.
During the Conservative party leadership contest in the summer, both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak expressed support for the move.
While prime minister, Truss ordered a review, but, on 2 November, a spokesperson for Rishi Sunak told the London-based New Arab news site: ‘There are no plans to move the UK embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv.’
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians had warned in…
On 10 September, some extra captions and exhibits were added to the Shell-sponsored carbon capture exhibition at the Science Museum, London.
Artist Darren Cullen (AKA Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives) ‘thought it was weird that an exhibition about carbon capture, paid for by an oil company, didn’t once mention that 81% of all the carbon ever captured by this technology has been used by oil companies and pumped back into oil wells to help extract more oil’.
He decided to correct…
Anti-war campaigners took to Russia’s streets on 21 September after the government there announced that it would be calling up 300,000 reservists to fight in its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. Brutal repression had put a stop to mass protests earlier in the year (see PN 2659), but the new announcement led to a new surge in protests.
It was reported that, in the hours after president Vladimir Putin’s speech on television launching the new policy, at least 300 people…
Western Sahara, which has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975, saw a long ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario liberation front, from 1991 until 2020, when Morocco moved forces into a UN-patrolled buffer zone (PN 2648 – 2649). Scattered fighting is continuing in border areas.
Recently, Moroccan security forces mounted a brutal campaign against a Sahrawi human rights activist, Sultana Khaya, including beatings and sexual assault (PN 2661).
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Most people in the US support their government pursuing diplomatic negotiations as soon as possible to end the war in Ukraine, ‘even if it means Ukraine making some compromises with Russia’ (see graphic above).
When Data for Progress asked the question in a slightly different way, an even larger majority of…
White poppies are now plastic-free and recyclable! The poppies are now being made for the Peace Pledge Union by Calverts, a workers’ co-op in London. White poppies represent remembrance for all victims of war of all nationalities, a commitment to peace and a rejection of militarism. (A pack of five costs £5 plus £3 p&p.) More info and orders: PPU, 020 7424 9444, www.ppu.org.uk
1 October saw huge protests against the cost of living crisis: national strikes by three rail unions – and by postal workers – involving tens of thousands; the blocking of four bridges in London by the Just Stop Oil climate and social justice coalition; and rallies and marches in 50 towns and cities across the UK by the new union-backed social justice coalition Enough is Enough.
1 October also saw the burning of energy bills in 20 towns and cities by local Don’t Pay groups. (Don’t Pay…
Activists are exploring the possibility of setting up an Unarmed Civilian Protection team at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine ‘to prevent a nuclear explosion that would impact Ukraine – and the world’. A deliberate attack or an accident at Zaporizhzhia could create a Chernobyl-like disaster.
On 30 September, it was reported that 30 people were killed when a Russian missile struck a civilian convoy waiting to go into Zaporizhzhya. According to the authorities, there were…
The humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan can only be ended by allowing the Afghan central bank ‘immediate access to its foreign reserves in full’. Those are the words of Andrés Arauz, former general director of the Central Bank of Ecuador (see PN 2661), reflecting the views of many other financial and aid experts.
All $9bn of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves have been ‘frozen’ – stolen – by five governments. Of the $9bn held overseas, $7bn is held in the US, leaving $2bn in the…
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Withdean Park, Brighton, 21 August.
A Wisdom In Nature in-person outing for Muslims and friends to walk, listen, talk and eat together – and to hear the reading of a text by the 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic, Rumi. The event was open to Muslims and adults of any faith and belief with whom…
