News

Anyone heard of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC)? No, neither had we until recently. It’s a Whitehall quango created to fast-track planning applications for projects “of national importance”. So what? Well, incinerators – dirty, environmentally unfriendly monstrosities that risk the health of surrounding communities – are not deemed “of national importance”. But airports, ports, and “energy from waste” (EfW) power plants are.

An EfW is essentially an incinerator –…

On 8 March, Aberystwyth Students Against Cuts celebrated a fortnight of occupying university premises. Moving into two of the main university lecture halls, we have been living, sleeping and operating a campaign of resistance against devastating changes to funding in our higher education institutions.

The challenges associated with living in lecture halls have formed strong bonds and nurtured an ever-growing community of student and staff activists. From this platform we are…

It was in January 2003 that Mary entered Shannon airport in Ireland and took an axe to a US warplane bound for Iraq. She was arrested and held in Limerick prison before being charged with $1 million criminal damage and released on bail.

A few days later, the same warplane was disarmed by the Pit Stop Ploughshares after being repaired. They were charged with $2.5m criminal damage, but were unanimously acquitted after four trials. In Mary’s case, after two trials, one resulting in…

Departing in May, a boat carrying a contingent from Britain will join a convoy from 20 countries to the besieged people of Gaza.

This will be largest sea-borne mission yet to break the Israeli siege of Gaza and will mark the first anniversary of the Israeli attack on a six-ship aid convoy in international waters which resulted in the deaths of nine people and injuries to 54 others on the Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in the convoy.

Israel refused to permit a UN…

On 10 March, in the teeth of mass political opposition, Wisconsin’s Republican-dominated state assembly passed the governor’s bill to repeal most collective bargaining by public employee unions, after police carried demonstrators who had been occupying the assembly ante-chamber.

The grounds given for the measure were that it would help the state to balance its budget There had been daily demonstrations at the state capitol building in Madison, often very large, since 15 February…

The involvement of US arms giant Lockheed Martin (LM) in this year’s census – due to take place on 27 March – has spurred calls for both a boycott and creative obstruction. One of the world’s largest arms companies, LM makes cluster bombs and Trident nuclear missiles, and is involved in surveillance for both the CIA and the Pentagon.

That its UK subsidiary has been awarded a £150m contract to process the census questionnaires for England and Wales has therefore angered many peace…

An attempt to discover more about the circumstances of British drone strikes in Afghanistan has been blocked on the grounds that disclosing this information “would prejudice the capability, effectiveness and security of the armed forces in Afghanistan”.

Peace activist Chris Cole, who co-ordinates the Christian peace group Fig Tree and maintains the invaluable blog Drone Wars UK, first filed a Freedom of Information Act request about the strikes in November 2009.
The ministry of…

CND has never and will never advocate military spending.

What we have done is explain the impact that replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system will have on jobs in the defence sector.

Why have we done this? To explode the myth that Trident is good for jobs. As the controversial briefing Trident, jobs and the UK economy was aimed at a trade union audience, which is understandably most concerned about the jobs issue, we thought it was right to spell out in full…

Britain’s participation in the US-led war on Libya, which began on 19 March, followed the passing of United Nations security council resolution 1973, which calls for an end to attacks on civilians in Libya and authorizes member states to “take all necessary measures” to protect civilians and end the “gross and systematic violation of human rights” perpetrated by colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The resolution also calls for the implementation of a no-fly zone except for humanitarian…

Aborigine Tent Embassy, Canberra, 39 years White House Peace Camp, 30 years Faslane Peace Camp, 28 years l Falun Gong protest, Chinese Embassy, London, 8 years Brian Haw Peace Camp, Parliament Square, 10 years

These are just a few examples of an established tradition of symbolic round-the-clock vigils outside government establishments worldwide. In a true democracy, people wouldn't need to resort to such extremes to have their voices heard, but the existence of these vigils is often regarded…

A new book, Trident and International Law: Scotland’s Obligations was launched on 1 February. The launch took place at the Scottish parliament and was hosted by Bill Kidd MSP. Edited by Rebecca Johnson and Angie Zelter, the book is a project of the Acronym Institute, Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre and Trident Ploughshares. The eminent judges and lawyers writing in the book, review the arguments for the illegality of nuclear weapons and support Scotland’s right to demand the disarmament…

The first bombing raid of the Gulf War was launched on Iraq 20 years ago. On 15 January members of Wrexham Peace & Justice Forum and supporters organised a stall in the town centre with a display of information about the effects of war and sanctions on Iraqi children.

Children’s shoes were displayed alongside the information to remind us of all the lost children of Iraq. Well over a million Iraqi children have died either as a direct result of warfare or indirectly,…

Within four days of a campaign launch, over a hundred people have signed up to withhold their television licence fee in protest over threats to the Welsh language channel S4C. Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) are campaigning for the UK government to guarantee independence and sufficient funding for the channel.

Amongst those who have said they won’t be paying the tax that funds the BBC are the singers Dafydd Iwan, Gai Toms and Bryn Fôn and the academic Dr…

An All-Wales Palestine Network has been set up following a meeting with Jill Evans, MEP. It is thought that an all-Wales group can provide more “clout” than local groups. The purpose of this Network is action. No meetings, no chat, no structure. Concerted action only. Contact Pippa Bartolotti pippa@pippa-bartolotti.co.uk

CND Cymru is working flat out on making the links between public spending cuts and the atrocity of a Trident replacement that is going ahead…

In the counter-terrorism review announced on 25 January, the British government proposes replacing “control orders”, found by the courts to contravene human rights legislation, with a modified system.

This system will still allow electronic tagging, enforced overnight residence and restrictions on freedom of association and movement, including foreign travel bans. It will limit control orders, presently unlimited, to two years. But if it is possible to make a new order as soon…

Even as the current US-led escalation in Afghanistan continues to shut-down the still-live option of a negotiated end to the war, a new report has confirmed that the US blocked Taliban efforts to reconcile with the Afghan government in the wake of the 2001 invasion – efforts that could have ended the current war eight years ago.

According to a recent paper for New York University’s Centre for International Cooperation, written by Kandahar-based researchers Felix Kuehn and Alex Strick…

Peace activist Chris Cole was released from prison on 2 February after serving 15 days for an act of civil disobedience.

Cole was sentenced to 30 days in HMP Wandsworth after refusing to pay a £2,000 fine resulting from nonviolent direct action at the Defence and Security Equipment International 2009 arms fair in which he spray-painted “Stop this bloody business” and “Make peace, not war machines” on the door and pavement at the convention centre.

Cole said that his…

“It’s about getting people excited about their bikes.” That’s how Julian Wilmot describes Cranks, a do-it-yourself bike workshop in Brighton. The shop doesn’t just fix bikes; it also teaches people how to fix their own bikes. The all-volunteer staff give customers access to tools and teach them bicycle maintenance for all skill levels.

Cranks got its start three years ago. Its inspiration came from a similar bike workshop in Berlin. There are DIY bike workshops all over the…

US private Bradley Manning has been in a maximum-security prison in Virginia, USA, since May 2010 after being accused of leaking classified information to the whistleblower site WikiLeaks. Manning faces up to 52 years in prison if convicted of leaking the classified information. His trial date had not been set at the time of going to press.

Manning spends every day in a 12’ x 6’ cell and he is only allowed out for one hour a day, which he spends exercising by walking around another…

Stop Nuclear Power protesters, disguised as fish, locked themselves together across the entrance to Sizewell nuclear power station on 2 February. They were graphically illustrating their concern that nuclear operators and the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate have not taken the possibility of flooding and coastal erosion at Sizewell into account when considering plans for the site, particularly those for building a new nuclear reactor and storing radioactive waste there until at least 2130.…