Lucy Edkins’ paintings are naked, painful suffering images of our fellow men.
They are hanging high up on the walls of Housmans Bookshop – in traditional art jargon they have been “skied” by the primacy of books. But this very inaccessibility that me think of church paintings and then of mediaeval images of “The Passion”.
Lucy Edkins has created a series of paintings of Guantanamo, of men crouching and twisting from their torturers; flinching from the soldiers with their guns…
A US State Department lawyer once explained the goal of kidnapping, “extraordinary rendition” and imprisonment of “terrorist suspects”: to “find the legal equivalent of outer space”. That this goal has been largely achieved is illustrated by Clive Stafford-Smith, in a first-hand account of his legal visits to Guantanamo Bay. He describes the torture suffered by his clients, the conditions they endure, and the risible legal process offered to them.
This book, whilst deadly serious and…
On 11 January, the fifth anniversary of the opening of the notorious detention camps Delta, Iguana and X-Ray at the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, was marked by protests and actions in Britain and abroad. Despite near universal condemnation, and ongoing legal battles, the camps continue to operate and hold inmates without charge. Nik Gorecki reports...
An international delegation of former prisoners, families of current detainees, US lawyers and human…
I spoke for the first time at the School of the Americas Watch protest at Fort Benning, Georgia, on Saturday 27 November, 2006. As a US Army veteran with 29 years of active and reserve duty who retired as a Colonel, I felt tremendous emotions addressing over 20,000 protesters from a stage in front of the gates of a major US military installation.
We were there as witnesses to a history of involvement in torture by graduates of the US military's School of the Americas (SOA), now known…
At the end of the 18th century well over three-quarters of humanity lived in bondage of one form or another, in a world in which, in the words of one historian, “freedom, not slavery, was the peculiar institution”. This amazing book - packed full of unforgettable heroes and villains - tells the story of the pivotal role played by popular campaigning in the termination of two of the worst manifestations of this global system: the British slave trade and Britain's West Indian slave plantations…
A pensioner like myself, an elderly man accosted me outside the railway station: “Hey, Mr Gypsy - you. You're a lot of land-grabbers! We don't want you in Crays Hill.” “If you mean Dale Farm,” I said, hiding my anger, “Travellers bought that land.” “Come off it,” he said, coming up closer. “Fucking thieves the lot of you. You should be put off there.”
In the exchange that followed, he said he was voting for the British National Party and wanted Gypsies deported or dead. It was two…
It is now almost 40 years since the Chagos islanders were secretly thrown off their Britishowned* islands to make way for a US military base. On 11 May, they celebrated winning the right to return.
It is the second time the High Court has had to give them this right, and their experience shows just what the British Government is capable of when it is determined to trample on people's rights.
Secrets and liesThe depopulation of the Chagos islands is a story of secrets, lies…
The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (www.un.org/right) was read daily at a “War & Peace” exhibition in the Friends' Meeting House in Nailsworth, Glos, during the last week of April.
The Declaration was drafted in 1947 by John Powers Humphrey (a Canadian who later helped establish Amnesty International Canada) and was adopted by the UN in 1948. Since then, some of the world's most unpleasant and dangerous regimes have paid lip…
On 17 March, student activist and former political prisoner Thet Naing Oo was allegedly beaten to death on the streets of Rangoon by police, firefighters and members of the Union and Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).
Official news sources report that he was a violent drunk who resisted arrest, while local eyewitnesses suggest that, immediately prior to his murder he had merely been drinking tea. His lawyer stated that his body showed injuries to the face, head, body, and…
Winterbottom's gripping film charts the “incredible journey” of the Tipton Three - from a planned wedding in Pakistan to their imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay: at times surreal and constantly disturbing. Shown on Channel Four in March, this film can now be watched online (for a streaming/rental fee). Visit http://www.tiscali.co.uk/guantanamo
On 23 January, around 500 people turned out for a demonstration calling for justice for the British detainees held in Guantanamo Bay.
Organised by a coalition of the Save Omar, Birmingham Guantanamo, Manchester Guantanamo and Belmarsh campaigns, the aim of the day was to highlight the continuing detention without trial of nine British residents, the credible allegations of routine torture tactics used against detainees, and the ongoing hunger strike at the military prison. One of…
The issue of repressive legislation is becoming a regular feature in PN's editorial and comment section. However, we make no apology for banging on about it, when current and proposed measures have such a profound impact, not just on how protest is viewed and policed, but also on how the wider public - and we ourselves - perceive our identity, power and actions in opposition to the inherent violence of government and corporations.
Real concernsOctober saw the government…
Political folk band Seize the Day, comedian Mark Thomas, and human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith descend on Hiatt's in early September to perform the Shackle Shuffle and to give the shackle-making company the message that their continued involvement with Guantanamo Bay must cease.
The factory is tucked away in suburbia. There is nothing to indicate that the nondescript buildings are linked to an international conspiracy of torture and confinement. Not far from the centre of…
The largest traveller dwelling in the UK is under threat following a decision by Basildon Council to evict all 220 caravans from the site.
On Tuesday 26 July during the eviction of an adjacent site, a bulldozer drove through a protected yard at Dale Farm causing extensive damage. Meanwhile notice had been served on the Dale Farm travellers with eviction due to take place on Sunday 31 July. At the last minute solicitor Keith Lomax successfully obtained a further injunction protecting…
On 4 July Gareth Crossman, Policy Director of Liberty spoke at a cross-party meeting held in the House of Commons aimed at highlighting concerns over the 2003 UK-US Extradition Treaty. Of particular concern is the proposed extradition of Babar Ahmad to
