A US state has begun examining the conversion of military industry to socially-useful production. On 14 May, the Connecticut legislature created a ‘futures commission’ which will draw up a strategy for ‘the diversification or conversion of defense-related industries with an emphasis on encouraging environmentally-sustainable and civilian product manufacturing’.
This follows the success of a ballot in November, in New Haven, Connecticut, on the question: ‘Shall…
Day of action outside Houses of Parliament Photo: Edurne Aginaga
The campaigners dramatised the idea of wasting money on the military while making cuts to welfare in a ‘Play the Budget Right’ game show: a student needing tuition fees instead received military hardware; and an injured man received an aircraft carrier instead of medical treatment.
The protest was followed by a lively meeting inside parliament, where Green MP Caroline Lucas articulated the consensus that ‘the…
The Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales are petitioning the Welsh national assembly to stop army recruitment in schools. See Petition P-04-432 on the national assembly website and respond to the consultation letter by 16 April.
Taking its cue from Martin Luther King’s famous 1967 speech denouncing the war in Vietnam, We Have Not Been Moved focuses on the resistance to both racism and militarism in the United States.
The three editors — all experienced activists — have collated 90 contributions looking at the connections and cleavages between the two issues, including the over-representation of ethnic minorities fighting in the armed forces, government money funding aggressive wars overseas rather than…
Newport made history on Remembrance Day, when a white poppy wreath was laid alongside red poppy wreaths on the invitation of the local British Legion branch, after being approached by Wales Green Party leader, Pippa Bartolotti.
In Aberystwyth, the town council laid a white poppy wreath for the ninth year running, and the town of Narberth held a remembrance service for all victims of war, laying a white-and-red poppy wreath.
So David Cameron is in 2014 going to spend millions on British celebrations of the First World War. Let’s get our hands on some of that dosh.
15 May, International Conscientious Objectors’ Day, could do with some publicity and celebration in places large and small around the country. We locally are already planning a Peace Festival in London’s Finsbury Park on Sunday 3 August — the day before that barbaric war started. It will be a focus of anti-war protest .
Football matches…
‘a tremendous networking opportunity’ – Lt General Sir John Kiszley’s comment on the Festival of Remembrance. He subsequently resigned as president of the British Legion.
How true it is, when each year, come November,
we gather here at Whitehall to remember
those gallant fellows we sent out to die,
whose sacrifice we’re here to glorify.
Other Ranks, yes, but subalterns as well
who, and the nation mourns their passing, fell.
Yet there’s…
The Conservative-led government is committing billions to military spending while forcing through massive cuts in jobs and services, and reducing support for badly-needed green technologies.
The government has already spent £2bn on developing and deploying pilotless drone aircraft over the past five years, using some of them to kill an unknown number of Afghan civilians…
It is not enough for the anti-cuts movement to be a defensive, responsive movement. It is not enough to point out the flaws in the arguments for austerity (as the False Economy website does so brilliantly).
If we are going to have a world worth living in, we are going to have to merge together the agendas of the anti-cuts movement, the green movement, the labour movement and the peace movement.
We are already arguing for…
On 23 August, two Smash EDO activists were found guilty by Brighton magistrates court of aggravated trespass at the EDO MBM arms factory in Moulsecoomb.
Jessica Nero and Gavin Pidwell used superglue to lock themselves to the gates of the factory on 26 April, causing 100 lost hours of work, according to EDO managing director Paul Hills.
After several days of legal argument and evidence-giving about EDO’s breach of the Cluster Munitions Act (2010), magistrates fined the…
We’re guessing that PN readers divide roughly 50/50 on the Olympics. Half of us are blissfully ignorant of the whole thing. Half of us know varying amounts about what happened. (At a UK level, 90% of the population watched at least 15 minutes of coverage, according to the BBC.)
If you want to take the most positive, Colin Ward-ish perspective, you can cherish the fact that ‘the British nation’ has taken a black man (an immigrant from Somaliland) and a mixed-race woman to its heart, as…
A diverse group of Scottish organisations and individuals has set up a coalition to resist the notion that an independent Scotland should become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
The Scottish National Party (SNP) has long held the position that it would insist on the removal of Trident if Scotland should achieve independence and that a future Scotland would not be a member of NATO. While the SNP says it will remain firm in opposing Trident, the SNP leadership…
