PN-related

This statement was first published on 31st August 2024

The staff of Peace News have printed an issue of PN which includes 8 pages under the headline “Peace News To Close”.

The pages are biased and false in so many ways that we are unable to rebut every misrepresentation, correct every inaccuracy, or fill in every omission. Much of it is so extreme and personal that it…

There’s not a lot of things that have been important to me throughout my life, since I was 16. That was in 1982, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, next to the Berlin Wall.

I first bought, and started selling, Peace News when I was at school. Its vision of revolutionary anarcha-feminist nonviolence has had a deep and lasting impact on me.

It has been an enormous honour to have been co-editor, with Emily Johns, and then the sole editor of PN. Emily, you’re…

In the past 17 years, the staff did these things to make PN a great paper and a great media and peace project:

Eve’s resignation letter above refers to an email which was sent to PNT on 31 July by a dissident PNT director. This email was forwarded to the editor by another PNT director. Because we are publishing this statement without the author’s knowledge or consent, to protect them from retaliation, we are withholding their name.

I’m glad you’ve brought this up, Glyn, as it gives me the chance to ask you…

With the help of a small, dedicated team of volunteers, PN has raised £15,500 for Medical Aid for Palestinians, by giving away badges for a donation, mostly at the national Gaza marches in London – including on 8 June and 6 July.

All three badges are available on the PN website.

Peace News is in a period of change. We’re dreaming big ambitious dreams as to how PN can make a bigger contribution to the peace movement and to other nonviolent grassroots movements for social change. That might still be as a radical media project; it might conceivably be something even better.

If you have a wild idea, a sensible idea, a cheap-to-put-into-practice idea, or a would-need-a-billionaire-to-fund-it idea, please do add your thoughts to the mix – for…

PN editor Milan Rai heard from Edinburgh peace activists on 9 May in the very wonderful ‘Words & Actions for Peace’ centre, the shopfront home of Peace & Justice Scotland and Secure Scotland at 58 Ratcliffe Terrace (open Mon – Fri, 10am – 4pm).

The folk who came put forward many thoughtful ideas about the future of the peace movement and what we need to do.

The PN ‘Big Picture’…

PN has raised £13,400 for Medical Aid for Palestinians, by giving away badges for a donation, mostly at the national Gaza marches in London – including on 30 March, 27 April and 18 May.

We’ve added two more designs, ‘Stop Arming Israel’ and ‘Stop Starving Gaza’, available along with the original ‘Ceasefire Now’ badge on the PN website.

…

In the next few months, we will be organising some readers’/activists’ chats as part of our ‘rethinking PN’ process. These conversations will be about what’s facing the peace movement in the UK, and how PN might be able to help.

Folk have already organised two events: 2pm, Wednesday 8 May in Manchester; and 7pm, Thursday 9 May in Edinburgh. There are limited places and they’re going fast. If you’d like to get on the waiting list, please phone or text us (see below…

PN has raised over £3,800 for Medical Aid for Palestinians, selling ‘Ceasefire Now’ badges for a donation at the national Gaza marches on 25 November, 9 December and 13 January. All proceeds went to MAP.

The black-and-white design was modelled on T-shirts worn by US Jewish peace activists who occupied Grand Central Station in New York City in October.

Badge designer Erica Smith said: ‘It was really heart-warming to realise how many people wanted to support MAP – from…

Every now and then, I get sent a book to review which is a sheer joy from start to finish. Peace! Books! Freedom! is such a book.

A short gallop through the history of 5 Caledonian Road, the Kings Cross home of Housmans Bookshop, Peace News and many other radical organisations, it’s a great story of activism, resistance and community.

It begins with the generous donation by pacifist curate, Tom Willis that enabled Peace News to buy a building in…

Tom Willis was a curate in Hull in 1958 when he inherited £10,000 (worth over £180,000 today), the money that would buy 5 Caledonian Road for Peace News and Housmans Bookshop. PN production worker Emily Johns interviewed reverend Willis at a 50th birthday event for Number 5 in 2009, five years before he passed away.

I was 28 when I inherited the money and I thought: ‘What am I going to do with this money because Jesus…

A new book, Peace! Books! Freedom!, brings together generations of campaigners and activists to share memories of 5 Caledonian Road in Central London, the base for Peace News and its sister project, Housmans Bookshop. It is a little-known history of sedition, resistance, solidarity, and the ongoing struggle for justice and liberation.

When 5 Cally Road opened in 1959 as a home for Peace News and Housmans Bookshop, Peace News was already two decades…

What a shock! It is hard for us to believe – and hard to forgive! – but our very own Claire Poyner is stepping down from her position as admin worker staffing the PN office, from the end of August. We will miss her very much. (For the next few months, from 1 September, Claire’s work will be covered by other staff members.)

Here is Claire’s statement on her departure:

‘It’s been 16 years since I started as PN admin worker. I think even if I wasn’t eligible for…

Just by Kings Cross in Central London, 5 Caledonian Road (also known as ‘Peace House’) was bought by Peace News in 1959 to be the home of the newspaper and its sister project, Housmans Bookshop. Since then, 5 Cally Road has housed many other groups and campaigns. It’s been a hub for social activism and a refuge for progressive ideas and people. A website and sound installation are going to be launched to tell the story of the building. The 5 Cally Road…