Taken singly, each presentation at the Peace Festival in Caernarfon was very good. Taken together, they were truly remarkable.
Mabon Ap Gwynfor spoke from the heart, recalling a tradition of peace in Wales that has a real political and cultural impact and which we must remake everyday; invoking famous names like Henri Richard but also ordinary people and processes - “meetings, writing letters, conferences...”
Nicholas Wheeler from the David Davies Memorial Institute of…
In July, twenty European young people met to represent their nations at Faslane 365. Joining them at the blockade were twenty Japanese students from the Global University, a programme organised by the Japanese NGO Peace Boat.
Following the blockade, five of the young women from Europe joined the Global University on board Peace Boat, which makes four voyages each year. Naomi Proszynska (15) from Narberth, told her new-found Japanese friends, “The reason young people don't get…
Fresh from a speaking tour that included a warm welcome in Wales, US peace activist Bruce Gagnon was extended the full hospitality of the British state at Faslane nuclear submarine base in Scotland. Joining the year-round blockade for a day, he was arrested.
Bruce is Coordinator of the Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. His speaking tour highlighted the hypocrisy of the US as it lectures the rest of the world about the evils of WMD while at the same time…
It's Sisyphean, this peace and justice task. No matter how many of us protest by every means possible, the British government just goes ahead and plunges us into war, just goes ahead and replaces Trident, just goes ahead... Hopeless.
Not according to Susie Ennals from Aberystwyth who decided to make her voice heard - in song. When the going gets tough, the tough get Gregorian! So last year Susie started Côr Gobaith (Choir of Hope). Within months the choir was…
On 8 June two women from mid- Wales were arrested at a cocktail party. Drunk and disorderly? How very dare you!
The party was to celebrate 22 years of the Women's Peace Camp at the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment.
The MoD are, however, evidently not happy about the attention the peace camp and its sister campaign Block the Builders have focused on the nuclear weapons factory. Recent actions called for an end to expansion of the base in preparation for Trident…
On 26 July, Shambo, a temple bull from Skanda Vale Hindu community near Carmarthen, was taken for slaughter by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), after testing positive for tuberculosis.
Sanjay Mistry from the Hindu Forum of Britain explains that the case was not a clash between western scientific and eastern mystical worlds.
The slaughter of Shambo high- lights a number of ethical dilemmas around nonviolence, veganism and animal rights as…
On 22 September, from noon till midnight, the Galeri in Caernarfon hosts Gwyl Heddwch Cymr (the All Wales Peace Festival).
Nick Wheeler of the University of Wales Aberystwyth speaks on “Building Trust Between Enemies in a Nuclear Age”, Jo Berry and Patrick Magee talk about their own journey of reconciliation after the 1984 Brighton bombing, and Mabon ap Gwynfor address peace activism in Wales.
There are workshops on climate change, human trafficking, mediation, nuclear…
This National Eisteddfod of Wales took place in Flintshire from 4 to 11 August. As usual, among the hundreds of stands was Pabell Heddwch - the Peace Tent.
Inside were displays, information, petitions and workshops from CND Cymru, the Welsh Centre for International Affairs and others.
Cymdeithas y Cymod, the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales, launched its new website www.cymdeithasycymod.org.uk.
Hiroshima Day, which…
The Welsh International Sector Network, which works for peace, justice and global citizenship, funded 8 people to attend the anti-G8 demonstrations in Germany. WISeN Coordinator James Maiden ponders his experience:
“Some of the people we funded helped Oxfam International pull off a successful media stunt. This involved the now famous `Big Heads' - fantastic caricatures of the G8. At a specially constructed card table the Big Heads played with a campaigner from Ghana. “The message was…
At 25, Bethan Jenkins may be our youngest Assembly Member but she is a seasoned peace and justice activist. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, her activism began when she joined with her parents in the anti apartheid movement.
At university in Aberystwyth, Bethan was elected President of the Guild of Students and was energetic in the network of “town and gown” groups opposing the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Committed to citizen activism and sceptical of party politics, she was so…
On Saturday 23 June, more than forty people gathered to repent the use of Epynt Mountain as a military training ground prior to the Falklands war.
Arranged by the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales, the service took place in the ruins of the Babell Chapel. The Reverend Guto Prys ap Gwynfor said: “Every war is started with lies... the Falklands and the illegal Iraq war.” Tecwyn Ifan then sang a satirical farewell to Tony Blair. People who lost their homes on Epynt to the British…
Members of a new group “Wrexham Women for Peace” and their supporters held a “funeral procession”, carrying coffins and a peace flag through the town centre on 19 May in memory of those whose lives have been lost in conflict worldwide.
The women, accompanied by several children and babies, began by holding a silent 15-minute vigil at the war memorial, and then laying a wreath on the steps of the army recruitment offices where they observed a further minute's silence.
As the…
On 17 February, around 100 people marched through Aberystwyth in protest against the proposed issuing of DTI licences to explore for oil in conservation areas off the Welsh coast.
Local campaigners SOS called the march, hot on the heels of handing in a 2400-signature petition to Downing Street on 6 February. According to the campaign's website, the petition was presented to tell the government that the people of mid and west Wales will not take the granting of licences to explore…
