“The sand of the desert is sodden red The gatling' s jammed and the colonel dead The river of death has brimmed its banks...This they all with a joyful mind Bear through life like a torch in flame And, falling, fling to the hosts behind `Play up! play up! and play the game!'"
Henry Newbolt (1862-1938) Vitai Lampada.
"Sport is an unfailing cause ofill-will [and] international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred"
George Orwell (1945) The…
Founded in 2004 in response to the Government's intended introduction of compulsory registration, fingerprinting and lifelong tracking of all UK residents by means of a centralised biometric database, NO2ID brings together individuals and organisations from all sections of the community and seeks to ensure that an informed case against state identity control is put forward in the media, in the corridors of power and at grassroots level.
NO2ID is supported by a growing number of…
Name: Women in Black
Aims and objectives: Women in Black (WiB) is a worldwide network of women committed to peace with justice, which actively opposes, and makes the links between, male violence, militarism and war.
What is WiB: WiB has a feminist understanding that male violence against women in domestic life and in war are related. WiB aims to bring a feminist perspective to the opposition to war and other forms of violence, focussing on the effects of war on women, and to…
Having worked as Editorial Assistant at Peace News for a year now, I've witnessed the hard work and dedication that goes into every issue. I've also observed the quiet way in which one or two ideas for stories will transform into a whole paper full of news. With Ippy taking a well deserved break this month, I fretted over where I would find stories to fill the pages of PN. Like others, I had underestimated the peace movement. Every week, groups of concerned citizens are taking…
Robin Cook's death has brought forth many tales, and the peace movement has some to tell about him too. For instance, he first entered parliament at the time the Campaign Against Arms Trade was founded in 1974, and showed that he was clearly starting out with a properly disrespectful attitude to the place. When the then CAAT staffer tried to contact likely MPs to generate some interest in the new campaign, the first response was Robin Cook's - maybe the CAAT archives still have the…
I must love the questions themselves, as Rilke said, like locked rooms full of treasure, to which my blind, and groping key, does not yet fit. (Alice Walker from "Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful")
Some years ago former UK government minister Chris Smith wrote in the New Statesman about the joys of hill-walking in Scotland as an escape from politics. My first reaction to the article was to share in his pleasure -- but soon enough the question hit me: How in the…
Many of us at 5 Caledonian Road - and many other groups working for a better and war-free world - enjoyed the real privilege, comradeship - and challenge - of working with our good friend Howard for the past forty years.
Not for him the public status and esteem that many lesser people sought. For all his experience, knowledge and wisdom, he was always self-effacing and unassuming.
Yet in his loyalty, commitment and caring for the world he was a truly great man. He was great in…
It is one of the ironies ofmodern history that some one looking for a safe place to live in the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" might today choose the capital of Northern Ireland over the capital of England (and perhaps even more ironic that the British government looks set to make some of the same mistakes it made in Northern Ireland thirty-odd years ago). However a quick glimpse at recent newspapers in Northern Ireland will show you that life has not been transformed…
A number of groups offered training for G8 actions. This is the perspective of one trainer from one group: the Action Trainers Group - a loose collective of trainers from around the UK working since DSEi 2003 to provide training for mass actions and to develop direct action training in the long term in the UK.
Aims Offering good relevant training to contribute to individual, group and mass actions being as empowering, effective and safe as possible. Training new trainers. Demonstrating…b>In the old Resistance office in Washington DC, there used to be a sign on the door describing the politics found within. The Resistance is an organisation of young men who have returned their draft cards to the federal government and thus “non-cooperate
Possibly the best thing that can be said for travel as an educational experience is that it can give you added clarity about the state of your own corner when you return to it. Due to surface strangeness and increased alertness, things that go relatively u
Terrorist atrocities are a daily occurrence around the world. Bizarrely, a cutting from the 6 July Times was lying on the floor of the meeting room at Caledonian Road; found on 7 July, the headline read “The 28,000 victims of terrorism” and was a report o
Do you remember Mr Major's now infamous vision of British (English, surely) life? Spinsters on bicycles pedalling to evensong, warm beer and cricket matches. Claptrap of course; but if he'd gone the whole sentimental hog he'd surely have included county shows, annual carnivals and village fetes. He might even have mentioned their recruiting displays by pyramids of army dispatch riders on motorbikes or even fly-pasts by the Red Arrows. All indicators of a "nation at ease with itself".
…
There was a Parisian campaign to say “non” to the Olympics - which, surprisingly, got no coverage over here - as well as the (slightly reported) campaign by sensible people in London who oppose this corporate-promoting festival of nationalism and trib
April 29: It's less than a week before the General Election, the legality of the Iraq war is looking shakier than ever after the Attorney General's original advice to the Prime Minister has been leaked to the media, so what story does then lead on that
Sandwiched between International Conscientious Objectors' Day (15 May), and International Day for Children as Victims of War (4 June), is another opportunity for action: 24 May, International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament (IWDPD).
This day began in Europe in the early 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of women organised against nuclear weapons and the arms race. Activists in the then-numerous women's peace groups declared the day in order to stimulate even more women's…
On 15 May -- International Conscientious Objectors' Day -- activists from more than 10 countries (Bosnia-Hercegovina, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Israel,Macedonia, Spain, Serbia, Montenegro, USA) demonstrated in Thessaloniki against the treatment of conscientious objectors in Greece.
The demonstration started atthe monument of Grigoris Lambrakis -- a Greek anti-nuclear campaigner who was murdered by fascists linked tothe military at that precise location in 1963 (…
Ceremonies to mark International COs' Day on 15 May are becoming more widespread in Britain, having taken place in at least seven cities this year. The day was established by War Resisters' International in 1982, and has since been a focus of anti-militarist events worldwide each year.
In Edinburgh, a ceremony involving both Green and Scottish Socialist MSPs included reading a list of Scottish COs who had suffered for their principles in the last two World Wars.
In the…
The Mole has another tale to tell of the exploits of indefatigable peace campaigner Gwyn Gwyntopher.
If you've forgotten the last time Gwyn's name featured in this column, just think back: army tanks at Heathrow Airport in an officially convenient “security scare”; buckets of wallpaper paste hastily transported on the Piccadilly Line tube. Remember now?
The latest tale relates to a group called East London Against the Arms Fair, of which Gwyn is a key member. The…
Hello my lovely ones, are you feeling full of vernal passion?
I hope so, cos this month's target for all your cupid's arrows is Dr John Reid. Bless `im. He's our beloved new defence secretary.
He knows a rogue elephant [shurely “element” ed?] when he sees one. They were in the intelligence services, briefing against Government in the “Iraq weapons row” apparently. As health secretary he was “a man on a mission”, although he is said to have greeted news of that appointment with…
