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In 1999, the French government opened Sangatte, a disused storage warehouse, as a response to the migrants sleeping on the streets of Calais. Until its closure in 2002, the centre was accused of attracting migrants heading for the UK. Sangatte was the scene of mass breakthroughs of Eurotunnel fencing, violence between police and migrants, and grim conditions. But its closure did nothing to reduce the numbers of migrants. They were simply pushed back into the streets, squats and ‘jungles’ of…

On 20 October, after two days of evidence and legal argument, a judge in Lincoln magistrates court found four anti-drone protesters (Gary ‘Eagle Spits’ Eagling, Katha Karcher, Penny Walker and myself) guilty of criminal damage.

In January 2015, we entered RAF Waddington in order to disrupt ongoing British drone operations in Iraq and Syria. We knew that our presence would trigger a security alert that would put the base on ‘lockdown’ which (in the words of an RAF witness at our…

White and red poppy wreaths are laid together during Aberystwyth’s Remembrance Sunday ceremony, after 11 years of negotiations between the town council, the Royal British Legion, and Aberystwyth Peace & Justice Network. Photo: Alun Williams

Campaigners claimed complete victory over drone engine manufacturer UAV Engines at the end of October, when the company withdrew its application to the high court in London to continue an injunction taken out against protesters. Worse was to follow for the Israeli-owned company as justice Charles Purle agreed with campaigners that the injunction should never have been granted in the first place and the high court set the order aside ab initio (‘from the beginning’).

Purle…

On August bank holiday, over 80 cyclists set off from Barnehurst station in London with a mission: to deliver bikes to people living in the ‘jungle’ camp at Calais with the hope of making their lives just a little easier. We were a group of passionate and motivated riders of all ages and mixed ethnicities, including a contingent from Wales. Our goal was action in the face of apathy.

The recent rise of the migrant and refugee crisis has been a wake-up call to the European West,…

Hinkley Point C protest, 10 October: Welsh, French, English, Chinese and Indian activists call the scheme outdated, uneconomical and unreliable. They demand renewed support for renewables and a stop to dependency on nuclear power.

Photo: Wendy Lewis

On 22 September, 15 peace activists were arrested at the White House in Washington DC at the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance’s ‘Sowing Seeds of Hope’ event calling for policy changes to bring an end to war, poverty, and the climate crisis. This was one of 360 events in the US as part of the 20–27 September ‘Campaign Nonviolence’ week organised by Pace e Bene. 

Eight women, after a four-year struggle, have won an apology from the Metropolitan police, who finally conceded that undercover relationships were an abuse of power and violated women’s human rights. Seven of the women were present at a press conference on 20 November, and they presented their experiences and how the relationships have since affected their lives.

One of the women, Kate Wilson, did not accept any settlement with the police and is continuing her case. She will be…

On 11 November, Italian pacifist Turi Vaccaro carried out a Ploughshares action at a 400-acre US military base near Niscemi in Sicily.

He climbed to the top of one of the three huge radar dishes in the base that are part of the US navy’s MUOS satellite communications system. Once there, 40 metres in the air, he used a hammer to disarm the dish’s electrical systems, causing, it’s claimed, over £500,000 (nearly €800,000) worth of damage.

Local people in the ‘No MUOS’…

It will cost £167bn to replace and maintain Britain’s nuclear arsenal, Conservative MP Crispin Blunt calculated in October, using official figures, just as the Conservative government was hinting that a vote on Trident replacement could come before Christmas.

In a written parliamentary response to Blunt, the minister of state for defence procurement, Philip Dunne, said on 23 October that the acquisition of four new nuclear missile submarines would cost £25bn.

The in-…

On 16 November, a group of Scottish peace groups launched a campaign focusing on the links between banks and financial institutions and companies involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

According to ‘Don’t Bank on the Bomb’, a report published by the Dutch peace organisation PAX, 53 financial institutions in the world now prohibit or limit investments in nuclear weapon producers, a 50…

The British defence secretary has given up on ‘innocent until proven guilty by a jury of peers’, and introduced a new legal principle: ‘innocent until the government believes you are likely to commit a crime’.

In an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme on 8 September 2015, Michael Fallon justified the killing by a British drone of two British citizens (Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin), and another unidentified man, by referring three times to the risk of a ‘likely’ terrorist attack:…

Hastings anti-roads group Combe Haven Defenders (CHD) continues to campaign against a road planned for a ‘site of nature conservation interest’. During a pop-up camp (18–20 September) in threatened Hollington Valley, CHD re-planted trees on the planned route.

Local ‘development’ quango SeaChange cut down trees in the valley in preparation for the ‘Queensway Gateway’ road, but…

In South Wales, the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was marked with two vigils. A large crowd including members of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and CND Cymru gathered by Tredegar Park lake in Newport Gwent. They heard Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West, a message of solidarity from Hiroshima, readings, and songs from Frankie Armstrong and Côr Cochion.

Cardiff’s annual remembrance at Roath…

There were huge tailbacks during day-long blockades of both entrances to the ExCeL exhibition centre in East London on 12 September, as a day of mass action capped a week of creative disruption in the run-up to the huge biannual DSEI arms fair.

On Monday 7 September, the week of action was launched with a blockade in solidarity with Palestine. Activists stopped a military vehicle from entering…

Back in October 2007, George Monbiot published The New Coal Age. Expressing his absolute incomprehension and dismay, Monbiot wrote: ‘If this is allowed to happen, we might as well give up now.’ He was, of course, talking about Ffos y Fran opencast coalmine.

Well, our authorities in Wales, from the Labour-controlled government to Merthyr Tydfil council, did allow…

In the first four years of the coalition government, there was a 16 percent cut in real terms in children’s services in Britain (in terms of spending per child), as local government spending has been squeezed by national government.

Over 150,000 older people have lost access to care at home since 2010 because of government ‘austerity’ measures, amounting to a 28 percent cut.…

Austerity, exploitation and inequality go hand in hand and there is a rising anti-austerity movement throughout Wales, with numerous grassroots groups springing up across the country.

On 20 June, as more than 250,000 people protested in London, hundreds marched in Aberystwyth, led by the inimitable, battle-scarred red dragon Y Ddraig Goch of Faslane fame. Marching to singing and drumming, marchers demanded…

On 12 September, a group of readers, writers, volunteers, staff, trustees and all-round good people will be coming together in central London (11am - 4pm) to think about how Peace News can be even more useful to grassroots movements for social change.

We’re looking for folk new to activism, and people who’ve been hard at it for some time; we’re looking for old-timers steeped in the history and culture of Peace News and for campaigners just getting to know us.…

PN needs volunteers for a variety of jobs, including ‘web categorising’, which is to do with labelling things on our website (full training given). There are other computery jobs like this which can be done remotely.