PN

Edinburgh Campaign Against Poverty blockade Tesco on 3 March, a national day of action against workfare. They also met with the manager of a British Heart Foundation shop to complain about the treatment of unemployed people on so-called work experience placements organised by A4E.  photo: Mike, ECAP

Accomplice Janet Fenton, who is secretary of Scottish CND, was given 120 hours community service.

In 2010, the women had appeared at the court accused of a breach of the peace during a blockade of Faslane naval base.

During their trial, the pair were barred from arguing the case that they had a right to disrupt the illegal work at Faslane under international humanitarian law. In response they painted slogans indicating the failure of the court to uphold international…

I was really frightened of going to prison. I’d had a really bad experience of being in a boys-only boarding school, and I thought prison would be like that except worse.

To be honest, I think quite a lot of it was classism. Being a middle-class person from a privileged background, the thing that I thought would be ‘worse’ was that it would be a working-class men-only environment.

I don’t know whether that meant I was frightened of it being violent (my upper-middle-class…

Jeju was named an ‘Island of World Peace’ by the South Korean government in 2005. Opponents have raised concerns over the environmental destruction of Jeju, which contains several UNESCO World Heritage sites, and its potential to escalate military tensions in the region.

Gangjeong villagers have been engaged in a five-year struggle, and 94% of Jeju islanders voted against construction of the base.

A popular protest slogan is: ‘Touch not one stone, not one flower’.…

The festival will involve music, comedy, poetry, performance, benefit gigs, presentations, visual arts, talks, discussions, debates, workshops, vigils and social events throughout Wales.

The festival takes place alongside the National Theatre of Wales production The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning by Tim Price which will be performed in three locations: Pembrokeshire, 12-14 April; Cardiff, 17-21 April; Flintshire, 25-28 April.

All performances will take place in schools,…

George Lakey gets arrested ...

George has stood up for radical nonviolence for decades. He persuaded PN to adopt the slogan ‘for nonviolent revolution’ in 1969. George was a co-founder of two important US radical institutions, the Movement for a New Society and Training for Change, he has led 1,500 workshops around the world.

George will be touring the UK and attending the entire five days of Peace News Summer Camp (26-30 July), where he will lead several sessions.

To be kept…

It’s not really something I ever think about. I’ve never done a women-only action, but I’ve been involved in a few women-only spaces, and that’s been an interesting experience. They’ve generally involved women plus something else though, for example, spaces set up for migrant women.

I do quite a lot of work in very male-dominated groups, so I really feel the difference when I’m in a women-only space. That said, it’s not something I feel particularly strongly about, or that I need or…

We’ve tried to be honest about what we actually use rather than just telling you about the most politically-correct Open Source software out there. If you have suggestions to share, please drop us an email or put a comment on the blog (www.peacenewslog.info). Peace News is interested in improving the online services available to activists.

Phone conferencing: Skype
Meetings by phone for freeish

We organised the Rebellious…

Well, I’ve had my bedroom used as an office, and I’ve used my bedroom as an office. I’ve also used an office as my bedroom. I’ve also had an office which was previously the archive room for another organisation before I used it. It was small and cramped. I was there six years, maybe. I look back on it and I feel... I’m glad I’m not still there! There were lots of good points about it, but it was quite isolating. It probably fed into my strain of messiness.

I proposed a definition of…

Please help an Afghan family survive this winter, by giving a donation to the Peace News Kabul Winter Appeal.

Please make your donation before Friday 23 December to enable us to send your contribution directly to the refugee camp, with nothing deducted for administration, on 1 January.

The camp

Three hundred families live on a derelict site in District 2 of Kabul. They have no access to electricity or clean water. Most of them returned to Afghanistan in early 2002 having…

Peace News was honoured to sponsor Guy Smallman ís stunning exhibition of photographs from Afghanistan for the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. "Afghanistan: Ten Years On", which was on display at the Amnesty International Human Rights Centre in London in October. It is now available for groups to host (it is appearing in Derry at the end of January).

Please note that while the exhibition is about Afghanistan, it does not feature soldiers or warfare, and it does not…

I suppose for me as a Christian activist Christmas is a particularly important time of the year. After all, the Christmas story focuses on the birth of a baby who was born into poverty, and whose parents were fleeing a repressive regime - lots of resonance there with stuff I'm concerned with.

When I first began to connect my activism with my faith, it gave Advent and Christmas a new meaning. Itís now a time when I take stock and really think about the meaning of the season.

I…

Peace News is hosting a clown army training weekend 3-4 March in London. It will culminate in waddling off to do an action. Welsh hero of the nation, Capten Cyboli will be present.

To cover venue hire and train fare for recruiting sergeants a suggested contribution is £15-£40 depending on pocket. If anyone knows a free venue the cost will be enormously less.

The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) has reclaimed the art of Rebel Clowning: its combatants don’t…

The problem was, as the head teacher explained in his letter, that I had convictions for criminal damage and therefore was not a suitable person to be working in a school. The details of the matter – that I had told the school about my criminal record months ago and that my most recent conviction was over twelve years ago – were of no interest to him. The fact that I’m a governor at another school also left him unimpressed.

He had never met me but had formed this impression of me as…

Joining in

If you’re going along to an Occupy event, you may not know a lot about it before you get there (and none of the Occupy groups seem to put up information on their websites for people interested in attending), but the basic idea is that it is an open political space that anyone can join, and be heard in, aiming to challenge economic injustice.

As you’ve probably heard, a lot of what goes on at an Occupy event is the work needed for the camp to maintain itself: food,…