Nant Llesg opencast coalmine protest.
PHOTO: WALESONLINE
Desperate to stop the plans for the opencast coalmine development at Nant Llesg, campaigners staged a spectacular mock funeral ‘the death of the valley’ at Caerphilly County Borough Council’s headquarters on 22 April. The council decision is still pending.
Ray Davies (centre) and Gerald Williams (right)
at Hedd Wyn’s cottage. PHOTO: WENDY LEWIS
On our way through North Wales, we passed through Trawsfynydd and called on Hedd Wyn’s nephew, Gerald Williams. He led us over the threshold of the poet’s isolated farmhouse amidst the beautiful mountains of Snowdonia. Hedd Wyn’s mother had kept the cottage exactly as it had been – the books with his handwritten notes on the shelves by the fireplace, the photos on the walls, the small parlour…
International Women’s Day in Aberystwyth. Photo: Jaci Taylor
International Women’s Day Eve, 7 March 2014: an ominous crowd, women dressed overwhelmingly in black, gathers behind the Old College of Aberystwyth overlooking the sea and the setting sun. Such a gathering has never taken place here before: these women plan to Reclaim the Night.
Reclaim the Night marches are a tried-and-tested way of building solidarity and sisterhood. There is something oddly exhilarating about loudly…
Following the controversial Ffos-y-Fran open cast mining in Merthyr Tydfil, the mining conglomerate Miller Argent now push to extend their operations towards Rhymney to open cast at Nant Llesg for the next 15-20 years.
Residents Against Ffos-y-Fran, (RAFF), and the United Valleys Action Group are gearing up to protest against the planning application at Caerphilly Council offices in Pennallta on Tuesday 22 April. They are planning a full day of action, starting with a demonstration…
This year’s NATO summit will take place at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport on 4th-5th September. Earlier this year, local campaigns met to start planning events to coincide with the summit, using the occasion as a platform to publicise alternatives to endless war and austerity through mass meetings and protest.
Events will be organised under the banner of No NATO Newport, the coalition initiated by activists from Cardiff Stop the War Coalition, CND Cymru, Newport People’s Assembly…
Reading Police Station, 8 February.
Photo: Wendy Lewis
If Cameron thinks the campaign against nuclear weapons is over, he can think again. We set off in our minibus, full to bursting with singers eager to take part in the latest action against Trident: a mass crime reporting at Reading police station, near the sites at Burghfield and Aldermaston where nuclear warheads are developed and tested.
The sight of flooded fields and swollen…
2013 Street Choirs festival: Sheffield’s Outaloud in Aberystwyth.
Photo: Val Regan
A radical initiative with great potential, the Campaign Choirs network, was formed during the July 2013 Street Choirs Festival in Aberystwyth. Participants agreed that ‘the political urgency of our times means we want to alert each other to events, demonstrations, etc, and share our songs more often and more widely’.
Since then, Campaign Choirs network’s shared actions have included local and…
Get rid of Trident - Eat it! Photo: Lotte Reimer
Early on 3 October, a small but committed contingent from Wales and Bristol, along with an intrepid lone Glaswegian, blockaded the ministry of defence (MoD) road to the Burghfield atomic weapons establishment (AWE).
A ‘Mad Trident Tea-Party’ was set up and attended by three large red dragons and numerous small ones. With members of Côr Cochion and Côr Gobaith present, the singing rarely stopped for the six hours of the blockade. We…
The consortium Miller Argent have submitted a planning application to Caerphilly council for the Nant Llesg open-cast coal mine. If Miller Argent obtain planning permission, Nant Llesg near Rhymney will mine up to nine million tonnes of coal and be responsible for approximately 20 million tonnes of CO2.
Local opposition the United Valleys Action Group (UVAG) say this will be a disaster in terms of climate change. UVAG also know the impact of the dust and noise from mining on…
Military technology company QinetiQ has signed a contract to use Llanbedr, near Harlech, Gwynedd, for testing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or ‘drones’. Llanbedr airfield estates claimed its 2,300m runway can handle larger drones than are tested at Aberporth in Ceredigion.
Welsh government economic minister Edwina Hart said that she sees it as an important step forward as ‘Llanbedr Airfield has the capacity to significantly increase Wales’ capability in the [unmanned aerial…
14 September 2013 was a special day, marking 30 years of action by the legendary Côr Cochion Caerdydd, Cardiff Reds’ Choir. At a celebration in The Gate Arts Centre in Cardiff, singer song-writer, politician and activist Dafydd Iwan paid tribute to the choir’s long commitment to standing up for peace and justice: ‘If Côr Cochion are campaigning for a cause we all know it is worth campaigning for!’…
When Melanie Phillips, doyenne of the right, posed the question ‘drones – what’s not to like?’ on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Moral Maze’ programme, I was incensed at the sheer crassness of her words. Statements by politicians and ministry of defence (MoD) spokespersons justifying the use of drones for military and surveillance purposes need to be countered at every opportunity.
Bankrupt civil servants, politicians and warmongers never mention the civilian deaths and injuries, nor the invasion…
In July, the management group decided to wind up Cynefin y Werin (CyW), the all-Wales network promoting international peace, social justice, human rights and equality. After a successful period initially, CyW’s level of activity has diminished substantially in recent years.
Up until Spring 2006, the network held regular dayschools for activists. In 2007, the network set its priority as ‘championing a vision for civil society in Wales, with a view to moving towards a Civic Forum for…
The Street Choirs Festival (19-21 July) saw some 36 choirs with 700 choristers from across the UK descend excitedly on Aberystwyth. Local choir Côr Gobaith had been planning the festival for the best part of a year, taking as its theme ‘peace’.
A Friday welcome concert with local and national talent included Chocolat, Sianed Jones, and Tracey Curtis.
Saturday saw a Peace Parade from the Arts Centre to the seafront, where all the choristers took part in a massed sing. In the…
In May 2010, Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst in the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division, was arrested on suspicion of leaking nearly half a million government documents, including the infamous ‘Collateral Murder’ gunsight video and 260,000 State Department cables.
After nine months in solitary confinement, he awaits court-martial in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is 24 and from Crescent, Oklahoma. Bradley Manning’s mother, Susan, is from Wales and Bradley attended secondary…
