PN
On 7 May, activists gathered outside the former US air force base at Upper Heyford, 15 miles north of Oxford, to mark 30 years since the founding of the Upper Heyford peace camp.
In mid-1983, the peace camp organised a nonviolent blockade of the nuclear-weapons-enabled base that involved 752 arrests.
At a meeting in the village hall, activists shared memories and memorabilia and honoured the peace campers and the campaigners who are no longer with us.
The US air force…
The alleged terrorist threat to the London Olympics has been made the excuse for a military and security clampdown unprecedented in peace time.
Surface-to-air missiles are to be placed on residential blocks, without consultation with their occupants, to shoot down aircraft suspected of evil intent. An aircraft carrier is moored on the Thames, equipped with attack helicopters.
The Olympic Park itself is surrounded by a massive 11-mile-long high-voltage fence, and is to be…
On 6 July, academics and activists from all over the world will hold a seminar blockade as part of Faslane’s 30 Days of Action (see left), following similar actions at Faslane in 2005 and at the 2009 Copenhagen climate negotiations.
The theme of the seminar is ‘security’. Participants are invited to contribute papers from a range of perspectives on the complex issue of nuclear weapons. Contact Dr Kelvin Mason or Dr Kye Askins:
MasonK4 AT cardiff.ac.uk
kye.askins AT…
A new radical international project has been launched by Michael Albert, one of the main speakers at the Peace News-initiated Rebellious Media Conference last October, and coordinator of one of the world’s largest radical websites: ZCommunications.
Michael is also a co-founder of Parecon, a vision of how to organise society in the future – and how to organise radical projects today (…
Human Rights Watch published its findings today on civilian casualties resulting from NATO's air strikes against Libya in 2011 in a report entitled 'Unacknowledged Deaths: Civilian Casualties in NATO’s Air Campaign in Libya', concluding that at least seventy-two civilians were killed as a result of the strikes, of which a third were children.
The seventy-six page report is based on extensive field investigations…
The fourth annual camp at Sizewell nuclear power station took place between 20-22 April, the aim of which was to both oppose the building of two planned reactors and a dry fuel storage dump and to provide information about about nuclear power to local people.
The choice of the April date itself was to commemorate the Chernobyl disaster which occurred on April 26, 1986.
The weekend included a demonstration at the gates of the power station attended by between 80-100 people and…
see A SOCPA victory and the blanket ban and Parliament Square Peace Camp resists eviction
Maria has been protesting 24/…
Simon was served the Anti Social Behaviour Order after he was convicted for public order offences defending common land at Leyton Marsh against development for Olympic baseball courts.
The ASBO prohibits him from going within 100 yards of an Olympic venue or route, obstructing any Olympic participant - including officials and spectators, going onto any private land without permission of the owner, and from disrupting the Jubilee or Olympics events. (See more:…
If you ask who I feel has mentored me, the one obvious figure for me is the poet Waldo Williams, whose poetry is... how can I say it... Well, someone once asked me: ‘Which of his poems are the pacifist ones?’ And I answered: ‘They all are!’
They are all inspired by this notion that, as people, we can and must live in peace, and that is our natural state.
Some of the images he has are so…
Solidarity protest at Red Road flats on 12 April. photo: Duncan Brown
The asylum seekers have had their claims for asylum refused even though most of their countries are too dangerous to return to. Their home countries include Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia and Zimbabwe.
Some people have received letters saying the locks on their doors would be changed in the next two weeks.
…
The White Book, which can be signed by anyone, contains a simple declaration: ‘Yr wyf i, drwy dorry fy enw yn y Llyfr Gwyn, yn ymrwymo i weithio dros heddwch yn y byd.’
‘By signing my name in the Llyfr Gwyn, I commit myself to work for peace in the world.’
PN spoke to renowned poet Mererid Hopwood, the first woman ever to win the bardic Chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales (in…
Women’s resistance to Trident nuclear weapons continues at Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp (AWPC). All women are welcome to join us every second weekend of every month (see p16 ‘Regular events’). Fun, good food, great company! Not reliant on the sun! photo: Kay Tabernacle
Rare image of symposium co-organiser Andrew Rigby, 10 April. photo: Milan Rai
Over 50 activists and peace researchers from around the world assembled at Coventry University’s Technopark in mid-April for a highly-successful ‘International Symposium on Nonviolent Movements and the Barrier of Fear’.
Former navy medic and conscientious objector Michael Lyons – who spent seven months in prison for his opposition to the war in Afghanistan (see PN 2538) – addresses the launch of Veterans for Peace UK on 9 April. Other speakers included Iraq war vets Matthew Horne and Danny Martin, D-Day veteran Jim Radford, Catholic Worker Scott Albrecht (who served in the US air force during the cold war) and Vietnam war resister Gerry Condon. The new group aims to resist war through nonviolent…
On 11 March, anti-nuclear activists around the world mobilised against nuclear new-build and uranium-mining, marking the first anniversary of the start of the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Many people surrounded the Hinkley Point site in England, while in Wales these protesters gathered on the Menai Suspension Bridge, making the point that in the event of a major disaster at Wylfa, on the north coast of Anglesey, it would be virtually impossible to evacuate the island.
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