Ffos-y-fran is the biggest open-cast mine in the UK. Situated on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil, it is just 36 metres from some homes and near a nursery school. Legislation requiring a buffer zone of at least 500 metres for such schemes is pending but not set to be made retrospective.
Dust, smoke and noise from Ffos-y-fra will exacerbate health problems in a town that already has the lowest life expectancy in Wales. Mining is set to continue, 7am to 11pm, for 17 years.
“…On 5 February, I was one of ten Members of the European Parliament who broke through the Israeli siege and travelled to Gaza to see the situation for ourselves.
The anger I feel following the visit could drive me to write several books. Here, I have focussed on what the occupation means for the children.
In the Al-Shifa Hospital I visited the ward where thirty premature babies lay in incubators. These tiny children are completely dependent on the electricity supply.
…On 12 February, Rob Hopkinsm the “co-parent of the Transition Town movement”, spoke in Machynlleth about peak oil and climate change.
Although climate change gets press attention, if not meaningful political action, it's peak oil that will hit us soonest.
The age of plentiful oil and cheap transport is drawing to a close. Implications for our communities are enormous, especially with respect to food supply dependent on road haulage.
Rob noted that (west) “Wales is a…
Following the success of last summer's Victor Jara festival in Machynlleth, El Sueno Existe (“the dream lives on”) staged a winter festival entitled “Nicaragua: New Time, New Hope”, inspired by the visit to Machynlleth of veteran activist and visionary Paul Baker Hernandez.
Paul is a former Trappist monk who has lived and worked in Nicaragua for a number of years and is active in local and international campaigns against war, exploitation and the plunder of Nicaragua's natural wealth…
17 January was the anniversary of the announcement that the Metrix consortium had successfully bid to build a privately-run military academy in South Wales.
The announcement was celebrated by First Minister Rhodri Morgan with a champagne-popping photo-opportunity outside the Senedd in Cardiff.
A year on, the Grim Reaper scattered replica cluster bombs outside the Senned to highlight the core role of arms company Raytheon in the Metrix Consortium.
The people of…
On Monday 9 February a group of students from Aberystwyth University staged a lunchtime “die-in” in the busy Arts Centre plaza. The students, members of People & Planet and Amnesty, were highlighting University unit-trust investments in companies such as BAE Systems, Europe’s largest “defence manufacturer”.
The students are petitioning the University to adopt an ethical investment policy. Students’ Guild Environmental and Ethics Officer, Tom Marshall, stressed that the…
Saturday 12 January saw a brilliant number and diversity of protest and campaign slogans displayed in the centre of Aberystwyth.
Aberystwyth Peace and Justice Network invited the public, local organisations and political parties to join the nationwide day of response to the Government's consultation paper, “Managing Protest around Parliament”.
The paper proposes “harmonising” the conditions that can be imposed on marches and assemblies.
Harmonisation is widely believed…
"Sitting on my sleeping mat, nestling a cup of tea, dry and cosy in waterproofs and thermals, I erupted into giggles as my friend passed me a biscuit. What was so funny? It sounds like your average camping trip. Except that we were perched on top of a Komatsu 3000, one of the seven-metre-high, 250-tonne diggers being used to open-cast mine 10.8 million tonnes of coal at Ffos-y-Fran in Merthyr Tydfil."
This snippet of Cath's account comes from the 5 December 2007 occupation of Ffos-y-…
Not needless to say, Wales was well represented at the Big Blockade on 1 October. It is, let's admit it, quite an effort to get up to Scotland and lock-on, superglue yourself to the tarmac, or sing your heart out all day.
Ray Davies was arrested and pictured in the newspapers before some of us got out of bed, as usual: “Four burly policemen grabbed hold of a leg and arm each and I was carted away.”
Phil Steele of Bangor and Ynys Môn Peace and Justice Group…
The Natural History Museum's decision to accept the giant oil company Shell as a sponsor for the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” exhibition caused outrage recently, not least from the environmental campaigning group Rising Tide.
The NHM justified its position by claiming that Shell is taking steps to change its ways and address environmental issues.
Truth after liesWhen the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” exhibition came to Wales, it was hosted by Aberystwyth Arts…
Thanks to concerted efforts on a number of fronts, promoters of the St Athan Defence Training Academy have been on the back foot in recent weeks. At the end of October, the MoD announced it had decided not to hand over half of the proposed military training to the Metrix Con sortium - the group of arms and construction companies hoping to secure lucrative contracts as military training is centralised and privatised. This means that thousands of the proclaimed jobs will not now be moving to…
On 10 November, for the fourth year running, the Mayor of Aberystwyth, Lorrae Jones-Southgate, laid a white poppy wreath at the castle war memorial on behalf of the Town Council, in the presence of around 40 people.
Leading the ceremony, Pryderi Llwyd Jones said: “We have gathered here on the eve of Remembrance Sunday to remember, with those who will be here tomorrow, those who have lost their lives in two world wars and the families and communities that lost their loved ones. But we…
Aberystwyth Town Council, a town with a strong history of peace activism, particularly from Greens, Plaid Cymru and the Quakers, is in its fourth year of holding a white poppy ceremony recognising the non-combatants who die in wars.
The white poppy ceremony will be held at 11am on 10 November at the castle war memorial.
Relations with the British Legion, who the Town Council also supports, are thawing now our sincerity is being recognized, though they will not countenance a…
St Athan is an English mistranslation of the Welsh female saint Tathan. The Defence Training Academy to be built at St Athan will be a further corruption of a Welsh culture of peace.
Wales' First Minister Rhodri Morgan famously promised “clear red water between Cardiff and London”. This water it turns out isn't to be a political moat but rather a cultural river of blood that will flow courtesy of a warmongering New Labour brotherhood.
St Athan will be a privately operated “…
