Fig Tree is a new initiative to engage the Christian community in Britain on peace and security issues. It aims to preach the gospel of peace in word and deed, and to build and support the Christian peace community here in the UK.
Biblically, the fig tree is a symbol of peace, security and prosperity with Micah’s vision of “everyone beneath their own vine and fig tree” perhaps being the best known example.
However, in Mark’s gospel, just before he overturns the tables,…
38 Degrees started in May 2009, named after the angle at which an avalanche occurs. It’s modelled after other international social-avalanche attempts such as MoveOn.org in the US, the Australian GetUp.org.au, and worldwide Avaaz.org. Recently it’s gained attention for its work (with others) on voting reform in the UK.
38 Degrees is a non-partisan people mobiliser: mostly by using technology (online petitions, emails to MPs and corporate executives) and sometimes through more…
Sometimes I’ve been working with people, friends, who have very different ideas. For example, people who might say, sort of jokingly, but maybe they’re serious, that it would be fine if all people who worked in corporations disappeared. Angry anarchists; people who identify themselves as anarchists, I mean.
For me it’s not about the people, it’s about the systemic influences on people.
When I was abroad last, I worked together with people and we could agree on what had to be…
The formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government as the result of the UK general election signals changes on several fronts, but no change on the war and peace agenda.
Afghanistan was barely mentioned by the major political parties during the election campaign because, despite overwhelming public opposition to current policies, the war is a consensus position. While Trident replacement was mentioned in the election campaign, it was as a financial and not…
Are you looking for out-of-print books relating to the peace movement? If so send your wants list to Housmans Bookshop (5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London N1 9DX) or email mo@housmans.com
Oxford University Press have just published a massive four volume International Encyclopaedia of Peace.
Below you can see one of the co-editors of the encyclopedia, Peter van den Dungen, in conversation with contributor Hisashi Nakamura of York…
Challenging military recruitment practices in the UK and contributing to a wider understanding of peaceful alternatives to conflict, Forces Watch is a new network set up to:
Increase public awareness of, and challenge to, unethical military recruitment practices Work to improve recruitment policy/practice so that the moral rights of potential recruits are better protected Make potential recruits and their families more aware of the risks, difficulties and legal obligations of an armed…Two issues ago, in the run-up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference taking place this month in New York, we ran an article called: “The very, very least we should demand of the NPT”.
That article raised the issue of “negative security assurances” (NSAs), guarantees that nuclear weapons will not be used on non-nuclear-weapon states: “It is an absolute scandal that this is not part of the NPT. It is an absolute scandal that the nuclear disarmament…
This column purports to be a review of PVT West’s poetry but it requires confession. Pat was a friend and poet/performer with whom I worked from time to time for over 30 years. Take this into account.
When Pat died I wrote of her here. Two years on, a new book of her poems has, to my chagrin, made me realise I hadn’t appreciated how significant she was – and is. I knew she felt under-valued and I realise that I under-valued her too.
In her beautiful poem, “Lament”,…
“This era saw PN publishing an anti-election manifesto in September 1974. ‘Don’t vote, it only encourages them,’ was the paper’s advice at the time of the earlier, February, election that year. PN’s disenchantment with electoral politics wasn’t new however.
“Back in the 1970 General Election, for instance, PNer Roger Moody has stood against Labour Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart in Fulham, as a protest against the government’s support for the Federal Nigerian government’s genocide…
Hello everyone! This article here is supposed to be about how Peace News is getting on as a member of the 10:10 initiative to cut carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. For us, that mainly means using less electricity, switching off appliances and so on.
Anyhow, this month we respond to a criticism we’ve received of the 10:10 organisation. We’ve had a letter criticising 10:10 for accepting the carbon-cutting pledge of MBDA Missile Systems.
MBDA produces more than 3,000…
On 10 March, Gene Stoltzfus died in Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada when his heart stopped while he was bicycling near his home on the first spring-like day of the year. He is survived by his wife Dorothy Friesen and many peacemakers who stand on the broad shoulders of his 70 years of creative action.
Gene was the founding director of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an international faith-based organisation that sends teams of four to eight peacemakers to partner with local…
We had a reunion recently after 20 years.
What was interesting was on two levels: people reflecting on what brought them into the action, into activism, the spark that brought us together; and then, 20 years later, seeing the different arcs those sparks drew in different directions and dimensions.
We were all drawn together for a moment from different paths and we all worked together, were active together, and then people went off in very different directions.
There were…
Founded in 1969, Survival is the only international organisation supporting tribal peoples worldwide. It works closely with local indigenous organisations, and focus on tribal peoples who have the most to lose.
As educators, Survival promotes respect for tribal peoples’ cultures. As advocates, they provide a platform for tribal representatives to talk directly to the companies that are invading their land. As campaigners, they were the first in this field to use mass letter-…
Kate Hudson’s generous tribute and Pat Arrowsmith’s more critical remarks in this issue, capture different parts of Michael Foot’s legacy, a legacy which is entangled with the history of a broad section of the British peace movement.
On the question of war, Michael Foot distinguished himself in his middle years with his resolute opposition to “Suez” – the Anglo-French assault on Egypt in 1956. 26 years later, having become leader of the Labour party, Foot took a less…
It may seem a strange preoccupation for a pacifist, but I am very concerned about the injustices suffered by members of the armed forces.
I sometimes despair about the ignorance of the civilian public, particularly the peace movement, about the situation faced by soldiers. Their contracts of employment resemble those of eighteenth-century apprentices.
On 5 March, there was a Stop the War Coalition “Free Joe Glenton” demonstration in Colchester. Some soldiers ran past…
Five years ago, I went to visit [the former Labour Party leader] Michael Foot, when I was writing a history of CND. He was kind, witty and utterly committed to nuclear disarmament. His vision for nuclear abolition, here and internationally, was far-sighted.
It cannot have been lost on him that many of his views, for which he had been so pilloried in the past, are now common currency at the highest levels and across the political spectrum.
We talked about his role in…
Howard Zinn, US historian and activist, died in January of a heart attack at the age of 87. Perhaps best known as the author who challenged the status quo with A People’s History of the United States, Zinn was at the forefront of the early civil rights movement and anti-war protests against the Vietnam War.
“He was fearless,” Noam Chomsky said. “He said the right things, said them eloquently, and inspired others to move forward in ways they wouldn’t have done, and…
