On 6 September, as part of a Trident Ploughshares Summer Gathering in Reading, the Aldermaston atomic weapons’ factory was symbolically disarmed.
During the morning rush hour, around 20 supporters of Trident Ploughshares blockaded one gate of the factory to protest at plans to build a new multi-million pound warhead testing facility there. Four chained themselves together inside arm tubes (lock-ons) and lay in front of the gate for two hours, releasing themselves without being…
In their first ever vote on the issue, Britain’s MPs have overwhelmingly backed Britain’s continued involvement in the war in Afghanistan. Over 300 MPs voted in favour of the motion “That this House supports the continued deployment of UK armed forces in Afghanistan”, with only 14 voting against, following a poorly-attended five-hour debate on 9 September (reportedly, less than 100 MPs showed up).
Perhaps recognising that the motion appeared to have been deliberately couched in terms…
“The lawyers tell me there are no prohibitions against robots making life-or-death decisions” - Gordon Johnson, leader of robotics efforts at the Pentagon’s Joint Forces Command Research Center in Virginina
In “the most intense period of US [drone] strikes in Pakistan since they began in 2004” (Washington Post), the judge trying 14 peace activists charged with breaking into Creech air force base in Nevada announced that he will take four months to consider his verdict.
…On 12 September, 40 climate activists occupied a new site in Happendon Wood, South Lanarkshire, Scotland to set up the Happendon Wood Action Camp (THWAC), to help defend the wood from destruction by Scottish Coal.
The Scottish Resources Group (SRG), which owns Scottish Coal, have applied for planning permission for a mixed-use development on this land (which is in an area of Great Landscape Value) in the Douglas Valley, but they intend to mine the area first.
It is…
On 14 August, South Wales Police prevented a national disaster by the skin of their teeth. Against all odds, a force of just a few hundred officers, supported only by riot vans, helicopters, horses and dogs, broke up a camp of some 25 hardened environmentalists, many (one) sporting dreadlocks.
A spokesman for South Wales Police, chief constable “Nick-Nick” Crafty, said: “It is unbelievable what these enviro-MENTALISTS were up to. They had driven tent-pegs into the ground on the site…
Henry Morton Stanley’s popular fame is based on the words which he claims to have uttered on finding the long-lost explorer: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume”. As with much of what Stanley wrote, the veracity of this claim is questionable.
For five years Stanley was king Leopold II of Belgium’s main man in the Congo. The colonisation, pillaging of ivory and rubber, atrocities and genocide under Leopold amount to Africa’s “hidden holocaust” (see King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild…
On 8 July, home secretary Teresa May announced the suspension of “stop and search” powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Section 44 allows police to stop and search anyone in a designated area without needing reasonable suspicion of their being engaged in illegal, let alone terrorist, activity.
According to ministry of justice statistics, in 2008 less than 0.1% of those stopped under the section were even arrested for terrorism offences; and black and…
On the evening of 30 July, two dozen peace activists from around the world gathered in Gretna to begin Scotland’s month-long “Footprints for Peace” walk. Participants came from Scotland, England, France, Switzerland, South Africa, Poland and Australia to follow the various routes taken by the nuclear weapons convoys travelling between Burghfield /Aldermaston in the south of England and Faslane/Coulport on the west coast of Scotland.
Many were veterans of either the 2006 “Long…
The highlight of the Edinburgh festival for me was John Holloway launching his latest book Crack Capitalism (Pluto Press) in the city that was his home before he moved to work at the Autonomous University of Mexico.
John has spent recent years theorising about the meaning of revolution today. His earlier book Change the World Without Taking Power has stimulated discussion amongst activists the world over who, like John, reject the antics of revolutionary…
On 26 June, members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales (Cymdeithas Y Cymod) held a service of repentance outside the drones centre at Parc Aberporth.
The Reverend Guto Prys ap Gwynfor, president of the Fellowship, led the meeting. He said: “The MoD is spending £899 million on developing the unmanned aircraft through contracts with private companies, including Thales and Qinetiq. The only airspace in Europe where unmanned aircraft are allowed to be tested is in Wales,…
On 24 July, the Independent reported the results of a questionnaire survey conducted in Fallujah in January and February. These included a twelve-fold increase in the risk of cancer for under-14s (compared to rates in the Middle East Cancer Registry), and an anomalous birth sex-ratio (the ratio of girls to boys) in children under five (Patrick Cockburn, “Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah ‘worse than Hiroshima’”).
The Iraqi city has been the site of some of the worst…
On 2 August, the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space learned that its upcoming annual international organising conference in Nagpur, India, had been blocked by the Indian government, the first time in 17 years that any country has banned the network from meeting. The gathering, planned for 9-11 October, has been cancelled, but all events for “Keep Space for Peace Week” (2-9 October) are going ahead.
Global Network coordinator Bruce Gagnon said: “It is good…
US army whistleblower Bradley Manning has now been charged with “communicating, transmitting and delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source”. Manning, an army intelligence analyst, was arrested in May over the leaking of the so-called “Collateral Murder” video, which shows a US helicopter gunning down civilians during a July 2007 raid in Iraq.
Manning now faces a possible 52-year jail sentence if convicted. Manning, 22, who sat his GCSEs in Wales after his…
On 3 August, a fire broke out in the explosives area at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Aldermaston. Despite there officially being “no radiological implications” to the fire, a number of local residents were evacuated from their homes.
The Nuclear Information Service (NIS) warned of the risk of a “domino effect” of explosives igniting each other, and raised questions about regulatory standards at AWE, where a number of operations are not regulated by the Health and…
A British soldier who spent four months in jail for refusing to return to Afghanistan has spoken of the “unbelievable support” that he received from fellow soldiers during his imprisonment at the Military Corrective Training Centre in Colchester.
Jailed in March and released on 12 July, Joe Glenton told left-wing website Counterfire that “there was a period they went through when they’d all chant ‘Free Joe Glenton’ on parade – half to probably annoy the staff, and half-joking…
On 18 May, UK immigration minister Damian Green announced there would be no more child detainees at Dungavel, Scotland’s immigration removal centre.
Good news you might think? Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister has welcomed the announcement, allowing him to make the high moral claim that no children are imprisoned in Scotland. But the consequence for refugee families is a traumatic removal to England in sealed vans. Families will be isolated from their friends, and personal…
On 4 June, a jury at Belfast crown court found nine women not guilty of charges including breaking and entering into the Derry offices of arms manufacturer Raytheon during the 2009 Israeli assault on Gaza.
On 12 January 2009, Roisin Barton, Roisin Bryce, Elizabeth Doherty, Goretti Horgan, Diana King, Jackie McKenna, Sharron Meenan, Helen Reynolds and Julia Torrojo had intended to bring down Raytheon’s computer to highlight Raytheon’s supplying missile software to the Israeli Defence…
London mayor Boris Johnson displayed his dedication to free speech on 3 June, by asking the high court to order the immediate eviction of Democracy Village, established on Parliament Square on 1 May. He also asked for the clearance of at least one tent from Brian Haw’s peace campaign, established over nine years ago, from the grassy area of the square, managed by the Greater London Authority.
The campaigners put forward arguments based on the free speech and assembly provisions…
On 16 June, acquittals were handed out to four Australians who broke into a top secret spy base on Swan Island, Victoria, and disrupted satellite communications with Australian troops operating in Afghanistan.
Christian peace activists Jacob Bolton, Jessica Morrison, Simon Moyle, and Simon Reeves told Geelong court that they were pleading guilty, not out of a sense of emotional guilt, but because they wanted to take full responsibility for their actions.
Having heard…
The EDO Decommissioners (see PN 2506) spent the first week of their trial grilling the head of EDO/MBM, Paul Hills, on the firm’s supply of vital components to Israeli F-16 fighter jets (which Hills denied).
After nine days, on 16 June, Brighton peace activist Rosa Bellamy was cleared of conspiracy to participate in the property destruction inside the EDO/MBM arms factory in January 2009. The action took place as Israeli F-16s were bombing Gaza, killing hundreds of civilians.…
