On 4 June, two women peace activists went to prison in western Germany rather than pay fines for protesting at Germany’s Büchel air force base, which houses US nuclear weapons.
Susan Crane, 79, (of the Redwood City Catholic Worker House in California, USA) is serving 229 days, maybe getting out at the end of September. Susan van der Hijden, 54, (of the Catholic Worker in Amsterdam in the Netherlands) has a 115-day sentence, maybe getting out at the end of July.
Please send…
This book sets out to consider all aspects of incarceration, its purpose and consequent harms.
Using an approach he calls ‘Afro-analytical Marxism’ – a combination of philosophical and political traditions – Shelby explores the values that emerge from a utopian vision of a society without prisons.
An important feature of the discussion is a comparison of the radical proposal of prison abolition with the alternative of prison reform – the latter being seen by some as not going…
We’ve missed Peace Prisoners’ Day, 1 December, but if you’d like to write to someone imprisoned for their work for peace or a conscientious objector jailed for refusing to take up arms, War Resisters’ International (WRI) does have a long list of people you could write to.
This year, WRI is concentrating on activists in Russia and Ukraine – not just people in prison, but also people who’ve been fined or who’re facing sentencing.
The list of Russian peace activists is taken from…
Among the first books I read when I got involved in the peace movement in the late 1990s, three were by Michael Randle: Civil resistance (on the history, theory and practice of nonviolence), How to defend yourself in court (a useful instructional) and The Blake Escape (co-authored with Pat Pottle, their thrilling account of how and why they helped to break superspy George Blake out of Wormwood Scrubs prison and smuggle him out of the country).
Unhappily all…
On 1 December every year, War Resisters’ International (WRI) provides the names and addresses of people imprisoned for their nonviolent work for peace and justice. Most of the prisoners on the list in 2021 are Jehovah’s Witnesses (who refuse military service).
In 2019, WRI started featuring the details of campaigners from Ambazonia, the English-speaking territory within Cameroon.
The French-speaking authorities in Cameroon have been trying to take away the autonomy of Ambazonia…
1 December is Prisoners for Peace Day. For over 60 years, War Resisters’ International have publicised the names and stories – and prison addresses – of those imprisoned because of their actions for peace. This is a chance to write to someone whose freedom has been taken away because of their work for peace.
We can find the prison address for Julian Assange here – please do write to him as he is waiting for the verdict in…
Mark Ovland (36) was arrested during the XR actions in London in April, and again in October. He was one of those arrested for standing on a Tube train at Canning Town.
He refused bail, so Mark is being held at least until 16 December when he appears at the Inner London crown court for a different trial. You can write to Mark (your email will be passed on): writetomark.xr@protonmail.com
1 December is Prisoners for Peace Day, when activists are encouraged to write to people imprisoned around the world for refusing to fight or for campaigning against war.
This year, we have highlighted the imprisonment of US military whistleblower Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
At risk
As we went to press, there were reports that Julian Assange’s health was deteriorating rapidly.
More than 60 doctors wrote an open letter expressing their fear…
I must have passed through Reading station dozens of times in recent years on my way to Wales or the West Country. It always gives me a twinge when the train comes into the station from London.
Once one could see clearly the large red brick lump of Reading Gaol. Why a twinge? Because I always remember that it was the place of Oscar Wilde’s incarceration. The Ballad of Reading Gaol goes on for many verses but the first is quite enough to move me:
I know not…
Chelsea Manning, who bravely exposed atrocities committed by the US military, is again imprisoned in a US jail. On International Women’s Day, 8 March, she was incarcerated in the Alexandria, Virginia, federal detention centre for refusing to testify in front of a secretive grand jury. [In the US system of law, grand juries decide (in secret) whether someone should be charged with a major crime – ed.] Her imprisonment can extend through the term of the grand jury, possibly 18 months, and the…
‘June 11’ is the name of a US-based anarchist support group for long-term political prisoners around the world. Most of them have been imprisoned for violent crimes. While PN readers are likely to strongly disagree with their methods, this is an opportunity to offer comfort and solidarity to people in very difficult conditions.
If you do write, it’s suggested that you write about your day-to-day life, and what you are passionate about, and put your address on both the envelope and…
1 December is Prisoners for Peace Day. Please consider writing a cheerful, non-hero-worship postcard to someone on the WRI list:
www.tinyurl.com/peacenews2682
For example, a South Korean conscientious objector who was jailed in July and who will be freed on 30 September 2018:
Park Sang-wook #1315, Gosan-dong, Uijeongbu-si, Gyeonggi-do, 11797, Republic of Korea.
PHOTO: Emma Sangster
The Peace News/Housmans Bookshop ‘Chelsea Manning Freedom Party’ had people crowding into the bookshop on 17 May to eat cake and hear trans women Kirsten and Mika; Ben Griffin of Veterans for Peace; and others.
On 17 May, a British Muslim human rights campaigner was charged with a terrorism offence for refusing to give police the passwords to his laptop and his mobile phone.
Muhammad Rabbani, international director of the London-based human rights group CAGE, was detained and questioned at Heathrow airport in November under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
He refused to surrender his passwords on the grounds that his devices contained confidential testimony relating to torture.…
Please send a card (in an envelope) for 1 December Peace Prisoners Day! Please do include a return name and address on the envelope. Also: avoid writing anything that might get the prisoner into trouble.
You could write to Chelsea E Manning 89289, 1300 North Warehouse Road, Fort Leavenworth Kansas 66027-2304, USA.
War Resisters International have lots of addresses: 020 7278 4040;
www.wri-irg.org/node/4718
