It is never pleasant to think that one of the people you are working with, possibly very closely, who you go drinking with, who is sleeping with one of your friends, who seems so full of life and passion is actually trying to undermine everything you are doing.
It does not matter if your group is very open rather than closed and covert. There is still much that a skilled operative can do to cause disruption to make you ineffective. For example, planting false information such as at…
Medellín is a city of contrasts, where you find many ways of life. But in parallel, in different neighbourhoods, people live and wage a war that, besides death and prolonged absences, leaves an odd feeling of normality - as if, here, nothing will happen. But it does happen, and increasingly proposals that people should arm themselves to defend life and institutional normality gain strength, proposals that divide the world between goodies and baddies.
Youths tend to see themselves in…
Friends of South Asia (FOSA), a California organisation working for peace between India and Pakistan, came into existence when, in December 2001, nine of us, the founding members, came to the chilling realisation that the place we call home was full of war cries and that South Asia was on the brink of a war.
In our frustration we came out on the streets - literally. We arranged peace vigils; attendance at those vigils varied depending on how bad the India-Pakistan situation was…
Peace Brigades International (PBI)'s work in conflicts around the world involves intensive interaction with the local police and military. On one notorious route in Colombia there are 60 military checkpoints. How can a small organisation committed to nonviolence affect the outcome of their encounters with government forces?
PBI's objective is to create the political space for local human rights defenders to do their work in countries where disappearances are commonplace. PBI does…
Is a group whose objective is to raise awareness in British Columbia, Canada, about the Colombian humanitarian crisis and the nonviolent social movements that mobilise for the construction of peace and the defence of human rights.
We have made a collective presentation which shows the profound impact that long-lasting armed violence - from the army, right-wing paramilitaries, leftist guerrillas, narco-traffickers and urban militias - is having on the civilian population and the…
The Free Gaza expeditions, designed to break the Israeli siege, have been unable to reach Gaza since November. Twice, on 30 December and 15 January, the Israeli navy forced the boats to turn back. The SS Dignity embarked on its journey from Cyprus on 29 December, carrying 16 people and over three tons of badly needed medical supplies.
In the early hours the next morning, two Israeli gunboats began shadowing the 20-metre yacht. One of them opened fire without warning 30 minutes…
Despite press speculation, the Government has continued to repeat its official position that, although the nuclear option cannot be ruled out, there are no proposals to build more reactors.
Former Energy Minister Mi
PN How are Habiba International Women and Youth Affairs struggling for women's rights?
HI By building Somali women's capacity to know and understand their human as well as legal rights, thereby promoting their self-determination and effective involvement in community affairs.
By awakening, stimulating and empowering the Somali women to systematically and effectively assert, claim and defend their legal and human rights and address, monitor and effectively respond to abuses and…
Something is stirring on the hillsides and in the valleys. The whisper of Climate Camp Cymru 2009 is becoming a buzz.
For the first time at Kingsnorth there was a Wales Neighbourhood at a UK Climate Camp. Previously, Wales activists had joined with either our friends from the West Midlands or, together with Bristol, all formed the “Westside Hood”.
Now environmental justice activists are reaching out to a wider peace and justice movement in Wales, and extending an…
Following the 1999 assembly and council elections, Dafydd Wigley said a “political earthquake” had struck Wales. In 2008, a suitable geographical metaphor is more elusive.
British media recorded a large swing from Labour to Conservative. In Wales, the results were ambiguous. Although the Conservatives gained 66 seats and control of a second council (Vale of Glamorgan), they only swapped positions on the leaderboard with the Lib Dems.
Labour’s support fell to the Conservatives…
Before I am tempted to say I am just tired; activist-burn-out would be the technical term. But I feel that there is something more deep-seated at work undermining my ability to bounce back. We have less than a week to go until climate camp, and I had been wondering whether to go at all.
The intensity of stress experienced before Fossil Fools Day and the ongoing grind of the Ffos-y-Frân open-cast coal-mine campaign has made me nervous. The classic frustration of whether I should be…
This autumn, South Wales activist Babi Badalov was deported on a BMI flight to Azerbaijan despite having experienced physical abuse and state persecution there. An artist and poet, Babi was “guilty” of mocking the ruling elite. Hundreds of telephone calls, emails and faxes to BMI objecting to the airline’s role in Babi’s removal were ignored.
In 2007 the UK government deported 63,140 migrants. People deported are often handcuffed on the flight, and there have been a number reports…
The Wales Peace Festival takes place in Bangor over the weekend of 18-19 October. An annual event, the Festival has become the main opportunity for people from all over Wales to take stock, exchange information, participate in lively debate, and look to the future.
Organised this year by Bangor and Ynys Môn Peace and Justice Group, the festival programme includes Dylan Morgan on the campaign to stop Wylfa B nuclear power station, and former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg talking…
The phone never stopped ringing. There were coaches to be booked, of course, but many callers simply wished to talk, to share their feelings and concerns and to discuss this rush to war in Iraq. Even ex-servicemen called in to express their support.
February 2003 was a remarkable period in British political history, when progressive public opinion was raw, even desperate, and contempt for UK and US government policies was at an unprecedented level.
Labour’s drive to an illegal…
About 200 local trade unionists and anti-fascist campaigners marched behind the Cambria Drum Band through Wrexham town centre on 12 April in a lively and good-natured protest against the presence of the British National Party (BNP).
The BNP has targeted the town, which has seen an influx of migrant workers in recent years. The far-right party has seven candidates in the 1 May local elections.
After the march, which was well received through the town, the Miners’ Institute was…
The ‘Wales Peace Festival 08’ took place in Bangor over the weekend 18 – 19 October. Organised by Bangor and Ynys Môn Peace and Justice Group, the event produced inspiring proposals for an enhanced culture of peace. Speakers included former Guantanamo kidnap victim Moazzam Begg, MEP Jill Evans, Peace News editor Milan Rai, Greg Muttitt from the Hands off Iraqi Oil Campaign, and Dr Ambrose-Oji discussing the effects of climate change on Africa. Stephen Thomas of the Welsh Centre for…
“Fossil Fools Day”, 1 April, began an international week of action against the fossil fuel industry, mobilising the Rising Tide network of people dedicated to building a movement against climate change.
In Wales, groups shut down Ffos-y-Frân, an open-cast coalmine in Merthyr Tydfil operated by the Miller Argent Consortium. Later in the week, the target was Aberthaw power station which burns coal from the mine.
These spectacular actions were the result of weeks of planning…
At the beginning of April protestors from Wales were out in force in Brussels. Supported by Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans and AM Bethan Jenkins, environmental groups petitioned the European Parliament against the National Grid’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline.
The European Commission has been looking into possible breaches of EU law relating to the pipeline, which stretches 150 miles from Milford Haven to Gloucestershire.
Meanwhile, residents opposed to the Hafod landfill…
Supporters of the People Before Profit Charter (PBPC) held a protest on Queen Street in Cardiff on Halloween. Protesters called on the government to bail-out people, not just banks.
“The protest aimed to shine at least a lantern of light on what the banks have been doing with our money!” said Adam Johannes, one of organisers.
“Since the start of the credit crunch,” he continued, “British banks have been given or loaned almost £500 billion pounds of our money. We are told this…
On 8 September, the Fellowship of Reconciliation commemorated “the burning of the bombing school” with a protest against the proposed St Athan military training academy.
The burning of the bombing school took place at Penyberth near Pwllheli in 1936. Ignoring the objections of the people of Wales, the British government developed an RAF bombing school on a site of particular importance in Welsh literary culture.
When the bombing school was set on fire, Plaid Cymru members…
