The keynote speaker at ‘Drones and Forever War: Sharing information, building the campaign’ on 11 July was Chris Woods, author of Sudden Justice: America’s Secret Drone Wars.
The gathering, organised by the Drone Campaign Network, was a great opportunity for campaigners to update themselves on drone issues, to network and to plan campaigns.
Chris Woods charted the increase in the use of drones by the US, aided by US president Barack Obama’s enthusiasm for them…
News
1 August 2015
Campaign Choirs stall at the street choirs festival PHOTO: Kelvin Mason
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 the north runway, Heathrow, 13 July. Photo: Plane Stupid
On 13 July, 12 climate change activists from anti-airport expansion direct action group, Plane Stupid, broke into Heathrow airport in west London at 3.30am. They locked-on to fencing on the north runway, disrupting flights for eight hours, leading to 22 flights being cancelled.
The protesters said that going ahead with the recent Airports Commission recommendation of a third Heathrow runway would make it impossible…
Bargains protest in Aberystwyth. PHOTO: Kelvin Mason
More than 6,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the Welsh government call in a planning application for a new opencast coal mine, Nant Llesg, in the Rhymney Valley. If the government called in the application they would take over the decision-making power from the local authority, Caerphilly council.
The petition followed an historic vote in the Welsh assembly on 22 April in favour of a moratorium on opencast…
1 August 2015
Khader Adnan, a 37-year-old baker and father of six, was released from an Israeli prison on 12 July, after a 55-day hunger strike that left him near death.
Khader launched his hunger strike on 7 May to protest at the renewal of his ‘administrative detention’ (indefinite detention without charge) after six years in and out of administrative detention.
Khader was re-arrested on 13 July. The Israeli political police, the Shin Beit, said he had been arrested for trying to…
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.…
Demonstrators navigate a rising tide of anger against cuts in Whitehall, London, 20 June. Photo: PN
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.…
The ‘Fighter, not Killer’ app for Apple and Android smartphones, launched on 19 May, is the latest effort by Swiss group ‘Geneva Call’ to educate armed groups on the humanitarian laws of war.
Available in Arabic, English and French, the free downloadable quiz works through 28 scenarios to explain the legal principles that should guide armed action.
This follows Geneva Call’s use of online and broadcast video, and a booklet of cartoons, to spread the same key points to…
1 June 2015
On 18 May, William McNeilly, 25, an able seaman who had served on patrol on Trident submarine HMS Victorious from January to April this year, handed himself in to police after publishing online an 18-page exposé of safety and security flaws on Britain’s Trident submarine fleet.
McNeilly said that the faults on Victorious were so severe as to question the UK’s ability to successfully launch a Trident nuclear weapon strike (which may of course be seen as a good…
The British ministry of defence has concealed the details of one in five UK drone strikes in Iraq over the last six months, and held back all location information for two out of five drone strikes there.
Responding to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request from Drone Wars UK, the MoD reported that 202 British air strikes (by drones and by Tornado aircraft) targeted the ISIS insurgency in Iraq up until the end of March 2015. At least a further 32 strikes have taken place in April…
On 13 April, 34 protesters were arrested as they blockaded Faslane naval base near Glasgow, where Britain’s Trident nuclear submarines are kept. The Scrap Trident coalition’s ‘Bairns Not Bombs’ action (which kept the base closed from 7am until workers were sent home at 1.30pm) brought together 250 trade unionists, party activists, religious groups, environmental campaigners and community members, on the Global Day of Action on Military Spending. The blockade followed the 4,000-strong…
1 June 2015
Co-ordinated protests against nuclear weapons stretched around the world at the end of April, including a global ‘wave’ of demonstrations.
On 28 April, the second day of the UN-sponsored Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference in New York, 22 protesters were arrested after nonviolently blockading the two main entrances to the US mission to the UN in the city.
The blockaders, from a variety of US peace organisations, called on the US to abolish its…
1 June 2015
Anti-Trident activists occupied a ruined church in Plymouth for the day on 28 April. The Tamarians affinity group put up banners (including ‘Vote Out Trident’) in Charles church, which was bombed in the Second World War and is now a war memorial.
The local Conservative candidate said: ‘People gave so much for the freedom of this country…. Charles Church is symbolic of those sacrifices and I object to it being politicised in this way.’
31 March 2015
Elements of a campaign by Frack Free Wales came together in January when Ceredigion council voted to become the first ‘frack-free’ local authority in Wales.
Fracking is shorthand for ‘hydraulic fracturing’ for oil or gas, underground coal gasification, and coal-bed methane, all of which threaten Wales.
None of these fuels exist in Ceredigion, however. The council’s decision reflected its commitment to moving away from all fossil fuels, which drive climate change.…
31 March 2015
At the end of January, the prosecution dropped criminal charges against against nine London Palestine Action (LPA) activists who shut down a drones factory for two days last summer (see PN 2574–2575).
The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (‘drone’) engine factory in Shenstone near Birmingham is owned by Israeli military technology firm Elbit Systems.
Lawyers for the defendants told Electronic Intifada that either Elbit or the UK government decided to withdraw…
31 March 2015
Jean Oliver, Janet Fenton and David MacKenzie from the ‘Peaton Peace Pirate’ (PPP) wing of Trident Ploughshares were arrested on 2 February after committing the dastardly deed of pinning a set of ‘Pirate Peace Articles’ to the fence around the Faslane naval base where Britain’s Trident nuclear missile submarines are housed.
The articles stated that the PPPs were committed to disarming the UK nuclear fleet by nonviolent methods, and cited international law in support.
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On 11 March, 14 singers from Wales, London and Corby sang Trident – A British War Crime: An Oratorio in the lobby hall of the house of commons in London, writes Angie Zelter. The singers used the right to lobby MPs by singing for 15 minutes rather than speaking. The sergeant at arms told us that we could possibly get official permission to perform the oratorio in the houses of parliament. Photo: Action AWE www.actionawe.org
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The best bit of the Nuclear Information Service ‘Trident Strategy Day’ in London on 5 February (above), writes Milan Rai, was probably hearing Janet Fenton (Scotland for Peace) and Brian Larkin (Trident Ploughshares/Scrap Trident Coalition) on what’s happening in Scotland and how it might stop Trident being replaced. There were over 40 activists, analysts and lobbyists sharing ideas and activities. Photo: PN
Generally, prime ministers and presidents are the last to admit they got something wrong. The sound of Tony Blair saying sorry is the sound of silence. So credit to Naoto Kan, Japanese PM at the time of the (ongoing) Fukushima disaster.
Formerly pro-nuclear, Kan makes no bones about getting it wrong. He came to Wales to warn that Wylfa B, Horizon Nuclear’s proposed plant in Anglesey, would be a terrible mistake.
During the last few years members of anti-nuclear group PAWB (…
On 24 January, as part of a UK-wide protest at the cost of Trident, CND Cymru and radical choir Côr Cochion were joined at the Royal Gwent Hospital by activists from across Wales. Patients and visitors joined in, and choir singing was accompanied by toots of support from passing motorists.
As part of a month of action against Trident in the lead up to the election, Côr Cochion were in action again at Burghfield in March.
The choir blockaded the South gate of the nuclear bomb…