News

At 5.20pm, 10 March, Scottish Nukewatcher Brian Quail from Glasgow walked out onto a pedestrian crossing in Balloch, near Stirling, and stopped a nuclear warhead convoy on its way from AWE Burghfield to Coulport, where warheads are stored and loaded onto Trident submarines. More info: www.nukewatch.org.uk 

More bad news for Manchester police over their handling of the Barton Moss anti-fracking ‘Community Protection Camp’, (November 2013 – April 2014).

In early February, the crown prosecution service (CPS) dropped charges against 20 anti-fracking ‘protectors’ following the acquittal of John Wasilewski and David Cohen on 22 January, according to Netpol, the police monitoring group. (20 more cases were under review.)

District judge Sanders said he was not sure that either…

Thousands of sci-fi fans queuing around the block at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, to get into the Film and Comic Convention on 5 March met with a musical protest against the arms trade. The prestigious venue was due to host an arms fair, including exhibitions from BAE Systems, the company that provides logistical support to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, sells arms to Turkey’s military to bomb the Kurdish people, and profits from death around the world.

Côr Cochion sang…

On 16 March, Hammersmith magistrates found Zelda Jeffers guilty of criminal damage to the Lockheed Martin London offices during a protest organised by the Muriel Lesters affinity group of Trident Ploughshares.

This arose from last September’s Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair held at the ExCeL centre in East London. Zelda had sprayed the pillars beside the offices’ front door with a blood-like substance and was charged with ‘criminal damage below £5,…

Around 30 people plus a red dragon, with musical accompaniment by Côr Cochion, Côr Gobaith and a trombone, demonstrated outside Merthyr Tydfil magistrates court on 3 February. What was it all about?

A group of Knighton residents are aiming to initiate a private prosecution against the UK secretary of state for defence for conspiring to commit a war crime. They are alleging that the deployment of Trident, the UK’s nuclear weapon system, is a crime.…

Three of us pensioners set off from Aberbanc at 5.15 in the morning of 27 March to meet up with a coach full of fellow protesters in Swansea for the Anti-Trident demo in London.

We made new contacts and shared networks on the journey up and back from London, always an important part of the overall occasion.

Luckily, the rain held off and, even though a cold wind blew, the people, old and young together,…

On 26 February, the Israel authorities agreed to release Palestinian journalist Mohammad Al-Qiq on 21 May, a month early, in return for him agreeing to give up his hunger strike and not renew it. Al-Qiq, who works for a Saudi Arabian TV network, was arrested in November at his Ramallah home.

He was placed in administrative detention – without charge, evidence or trial – on suspicion of involvement in terrorism.

Some 700 Palestinians are currently in administrative…

In July of last year, 13 climate activists occupied Heathrow airport’s northern runway for six hours, causing around 25 flights to be cancelled. On 24 February, the Heathrow 13, who were found guilty of aggravated trespass and being unlawfully airside, were given suspended sentences of six weeks in prison. This means that if they commit another ‘offence’ in the next 12 months, they will be sent to prison for six weeks for the runway occupation, as well as being sentenced for any new ‘crime…

On 28 January, 30 life-size cutouts of peacemaker Jerry Berrigan blockaded the main entrance of Hancock air national guard base outside Syracuse, New York. The 12 nonviolent drone resisters who supported the 30 Jerry Berrigans were arrested after blockading for 90 minutes. Jerry Berrigan dedicated his entire life – like his brothers Dan and Phil – to Jesus’ command to love one another. He came to the base for drone…

Not surprisingly for many of us in Wales, two ‘Machtivists’ are among the ‘Heathrow 13’ climate activists who are on trial as we go to press.

The Machynlleth area in mid-Wales has a proud environmental and climate activist record. Machtivists organised the first Camp against Climate Change in Merthyr in 2009, in support of the residents struggling against Ffos-y-Fran opencast coalmine, and they are involved in the ongoing battle against further mining described elsewhere on this…

After the consortium Miller Argent had their proposal for a six-million-tonne open-cast coal mine, Nant Llesg near Rhymney, rejected by Caerphilly council last summer you would have been forgiven for assuming that, after years of the scheme being hotly contested, that was the end of the matter. Not a bit of it.

Despite the strength of resistance to the proposal locally as well as across Wales and…

Five Christian climate protestors arrested in Whitehall on 30 November for writing in whitewash and black paint on the wall of the DECC (department for energy and climate change) have had their trial date set for 31 May and 1 June.

On the first day of the Paris climate negotiations, the five painted ‘Dept for Extreme Climate Change’ in black letters on the DECC wall, which they had whitewashed. They…

A new space, ‘The Vaults’, has opened in the basement of Housmans Bookshop at 5 Caledonian Road, London.

Partly funded by an online crowdfunding campaign, the Vaults had a launch party on 3 December. Visitors will find an expanded selection of fiction, poetry, graphic novels, art and art theory titles, childrens’ books, and more. Upstairs, the shop’s core political stock has also grown, with newly-expanded sections for black politics and anti-racism, health and disability politics…

On 15 January, Kate Wilson, who was deceived into a relationship with British undercover police officer Mark Kennedy for two years, won a high court battle against Scotland Yard.

The Metropolitan police withdrew its attempt to defend against her claims of deceit, assault/battery, misfeasance in public office and negligence.

The victory came two months after seven other women who were tricked into relationships with undercover police officers received…

I was charged with assaulting police officer in the execution of his duty on 12 September in the run-up to the DSEI arms fair in East London.

The officer had grabbed me without warning when I was climbing a pillar to reinforce a banner which I had stuck up there a little earlier, and I had swung my arm out to try and make him let of me. The gaffer tape in my hand had hit his face.

There were two lines of defence: firstly, that the police officer was not acting in the…

On 9 January, police in Stirling detained two lots of activists monitoring nuclear weapons convoys passing through the Scottish town.

Veronika Tudhope, assistant coordinator of Scottish CND, was approached by two police officers while she parked by Stirling Castle. The officers said her car had been reported for ‘erratic driving’ and asked to see under the bonnet.

They then detained her until 10 minutes after the convoy had passed. Veronika commented that she’d been driving…

On 9 December, Janet, Douglas, David, Brian and Jean, members of the ‘Peaton Pirates’ nuclear disarmament affinity group on arrived at the door of the Scotland Office, Edinburgh, as representing the UK government in Scotland.

Someone calling themselves the ‘deputy policy officer’ agreed to read their letter (which asked the secretary of state for Scotland to explain how Trident could be used in accordance with international humanitarian law) and return to discuss it with them.…

The British government must end arms sales to Saudi Arabia because of the Saudi naval blockade of, and air strikes in, Yemen that are breaching international law, according to Amnesty International and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). An arms cut-off is supported by most people in the UK, a recent poll has found.

On 10 January, a law firm acting for CAAT began taking legal action against the government, issuing a ‘pre-action protocol letter for judicial review’. Leigh Day cited…

2016 may be a big year for the Basic Income, a universal, unconditional, guaranteed income, regardless of people’s availability for work or other income.

There’s to be a national Basic Income referendum in Switzerland in November. Last year, the Swiss parliament overwhelmingly recommended a ‘no’ vote in the referendum.

Despite this, one poll showed 49…

In September last year, Anna Jane Evans, Awel Irene, Angharad Tomos and Sian ap Gwynfor were convicted of criminal damage for painting ‘DIM ADAR ANGAU – NO DEATH DRONES’ on Llanbedr Airfield runway and ordered to pay £565 for cleaning the runway.

By the time of the deadline for the payment, contributions had poured in, as explained by Evans: ‘It is with great reluctance I am paying my share of what it cost to clean the runway. I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who…