Mikhail Saakashvili might be the darling of the west, George Bush’s beacon of democracy in the darkness of the Caucasus, but he is not subtle. Which is a shame, because the current game requires a degree of caution, a smidgen of wisdom, and above all, the experience to understand the peculiar fragility of the moment.
Much of the English-language media rushed to explain the recent violence in the Caucasus in terms of big, nasty Russia threatening small democratic Georgia.
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On 26 July, over a hundred environmental activists and local residents met in a small church on the edge of Heathrow to discuss future action against the proposed third runway.
Predictably, the Evening Standard, reported that “hardcore activists” were preparing “a new wave of non-violent ‘attacks’ on the airport which could culminate in an invasion of Heathrow’s runways”, while the Hounslow Chronicle claimed that a “new breed of ‘grey haired, middle-aged’ protesters are gearing up…
Court support.
Showing up at court to help people through a court case is really important. Just by being there you make a difference. However, from feedback it seems that direct action campaigns keep people actively involved after going through the courts if they help make that experience more empowering than intimidating.
To do that you need to provide information that helps people plot some kind of course through the court proceedings.
Briefings sent out to people…
I’ve been to the last two camps for climate action, and both were transformative experiences. At Drax in North Yorkshire in 2006, the sense of building a politically, socially, technologically, environmentally and educationally viable community in and for a week shifted my whole gut-feeling about the difficulty of changing society: it can be done, it can be fun, and it’s immensely fulfilling to be part of. Instead of policing our society, we had the irresistible Tranquillity Team in pink…
It is customary to mark significant dates in a scholar’s life with a festschrift – a publication containing original work in fields that the honoured academic has been involved in.
I think we can be sure that Noam Chomsky has little interest in such honours, but it seems churlish to allow his 80th birthday to pass on 7 December without some public marking of the value of his work and example to several generations of activists around the world. (I note with alarm that German historian…
There was always a sense that the third incarnation of the Climate Camp had to push the boundaries of what we, and the authorities, thought possible and avoid “another year, another camp” mentality. People have always walked for change – Gandhi’s salt march, the Jarrow crusade, the Aldermaston marches… and so the idea emerged of a Climate Caravan, a physical movement of people connecting together the history and geography of popular resistance and environmental protest.
It all…
Presenter: And to be clear, you would be in favour of saying to E.ON: “If you want to build this station, you have got to provide carbon capture and storage for it, for the emissions.”
Brown: There’s work to be done, to scale up carbon capture to the level you would be able to use it on a power generation plant. We don’t want to stop building the Kingsnorth station until everything is ready. We build Kingsnorth, and then, at the earliest possible date, we’d retrofit it with carbon…
The third and biggest British Camp for Climate Action fed, watered and educated perhaps 3,000 people from 3-11 August, sparked actions around the country, triggered 100 arrests and two prison sentences and culminated in a massive day of action against the proposed new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Essex.
Climate Camp highlighted the importance of the Kingsnorth decision as a key indicator of whether or not Britain is serious about avoiding catastrophic climate change (see…
At the time of going to press (and almost a month after she died) the exact cause of Pauline Campbell’s death remains unclear. At her funeral in Whitchurch a former work colleague said simply: “She died of a broken heart”.
Beyond the church and at the cemetery, fellow peace and prison campaigners Joan Meredith and Helen John stood silently holding a single banner. It read “Home Office Responsible for Pauline’s Death”. Helen John explained “Pauline’s life could have been turned…
The facts are fairly straightforward, although whenever I recount the tale, my listener’s jaw drops. “They did what?” But the authorities are deadly serious. This is what happened:
2 May. While doing my recycling at my local household “recycling” centre, I spot four good plastic garden chairs in the skip destined for landfill and remove them so that they can be re-used.
When challenged by Waste Recycling Group (WRG) skip worker and his supervisor, I refuse to put them back…
This picture by Milein Cosman, Flight, shows her concern for peace. The refugee: the universal victim; her uptilted chin shows the determination to overcome her plight and to retain dignity. This drawing was chosen by the artist for Peace News, coinciding with Refugee Week. She herself came to England in 1939 from Germany.
There is a chance to see the works of one of our best emigre painters, exhibited at Burgh House, London (until 29 June). They show two things, firstly this is what…
I had known about the climate camp for quite a while but hadn’t decided I was going to go until the last minute. I was nervous as I have never been involved in any protests and wondered if it would be really clique-y or maybe I didn’t understand enough about politics to really join in.
From the moment I arrived with my partner Chris we were met by an enthusiastic couple who already been working for 13 hours that day and were more than happy to welcome us to the camp and explain how…
If you were suffering from asthma, would breathing car fumes be a good treatment? If you were suffering from climate change would you choose to build six new power stations fired by coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel we have found?
The greed and short sightedness of government and business knows no bounds. As climate chaos bites, their answer is to go full steam ahead with fossil fuel expansion.
Whatever happens to oil supplies, we know for sure that there is enough coal in the…
The trial of the group known as the Raytheon Nine began in Belfast on 20 May . (Actually, only six of the defendants are in the dock. Three others are currently on remand in the Republic of Ireland on charges relating to dissident republican activity.) The trial began at the Crown Court on 21 May with about 50 people participating in a solidarity demonstration.
The basic facts about the incident at the Raytheon offices in Derry are clear. On 6 August 2006, a group of nine men, part…
Though I am one of the more prominent critics within the US academic left of US interventions and hegemonic aspirations, my research has found no evidence that the United States (nor any other government) was responsible for the “colour revolutions” that toppled the corrupt and semi-autocratic regimes in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine.
Nor did the US (or any other government) ever provide training, advice or strategic support for the kind of mass nonviolent action which could threaten…
Controversial plans to radically expand military cadet corps in English state secondary schools are being pushed forward by Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, apparently backed by No 10. The plans were the idea of Quentin Davies, a Labour MP who defected from the Tories last year, and come on the back of a government-commissioned review of “civil and military relations”.
Learning military drill and shooting are two of the core elements of the cadet programme. But anti-gun…
Rarely is involvement with the military associated with nonviolence training and the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King. However, as Peace News recently reported, this is the case in Dimona, Israel, where the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are not only sending their youth to fight in the Israeli Defense Force but also running the Dr. Martin Luther King/SCLC-Ben Ammi Institute for a New Humanity.
Brother Gamariyahu, the interim director at the Institute, confirmed to Peace News…
The events of May ’68 began in the universities. At Nanterre (just outside Paris) and the Sorbonne, students had become increasingly vocal against the US war in Vietnam. When police force was used to stamp out these early protests, more protests and strikes began to form.
By early May, courses at both the Sorbonne and Nanterre had been suspended. Students took their protests to the streets, and the Latin Quarter of Paris became the epicentre of clashes between students and police.…
Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman, a co-founder of the Youth International Party, or YIPPIES, led the October 1967 attempt by over 50,000 people to levitate the Pentagon using psychic energy. In 1968, he was one of the leaders of anti-war protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which led to his prosecution for conspiracy to cause riots as one of the Chicago Eight (he was sentenced to five years in prison, but the sentence was overturned on appeal). After a period…
The Easter 1968 issue of Peace News had the following content... Obituary of Martin Luther King. A translation by Ronald Sampson of Leo Tolstoy’s Waging Peace Against Our Governments. Stan Scott’s review of Wilhelm Reich’s The Function Of The Orgasm. Bernard Power-Canavan’s powerful cartoon “one dollar” and John Arden’s “Personal Column” which reminds us “The best wheeze ever pulled was the ‘Spies For Peace’ over that RSG [Regional Seat of Government] ... 1963 ...…
