In May and June, five people were up on charges arising from the April 2008 “Carnival Against the Arms Trade” at the EDO-MBM arms factory in Brighton. At the carnival, 800 people marched through police cordons into the factory car park and smashed windows and the managing director’s car.
Four people were found guilty by Brighton magistrates of aggravated trespass for entering the premises, though the case for this was flimsy: no business was going on as the factory was shut, and…
RAF pilots in Afghanistan are firing an increasing number of brutal “enhanced blast” thermobaric weapons, the Ministry of Defence admitted in May. Since the modified Hellfire AGM-114N weapons were bought from the US in May 2008, over 40 are known to have been fired. 20 were fired in 2008 (in seven months), while over 20 had been fired up to May this year (in five months).
Thermobaric weapons, known earlier as “fuel-air explosives”, cast a fine mist of fuel throughout a wide area,…
Opinion polls in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last few months have reinforced the message that the people of the region want a negotiated solution to the conflicts currently raging. Such a solution is more attainable, given recent progress in the Afghan national reconciliation process. In Afghanistan, the International Republican Institute (IRI) carried out a poll in mid-May, published in June, that showed 68% of Afghans think “the government should hold talks and reconcile with the…
On 15 June, Trident Ploughshares activists working with Bikes Block Bombs, Scrap Cars–Scrap Trident, Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp (AWPC) and Eastern Region CND blockaded four gates at the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston, protesting at the building of new nuclear weapons facilities and the lack of democratic accountability.
The surprise blockades caused massive road blockages, preventing construction vehicles from entering Aldermaston. Activists were locked onto concrete…
Plaid Cymru assembly member Bethan Jenkins has tabled a statement of opinion at the National Assembly to honour the memory of conscientious objectors in Wales: “I call upon all Assembly members to sign this statement of opinion. We rightly remember our war dead annually and recognise the huge sacrifice that many people have made, and Wales also has a strong tradition of supporting the right not to kill and I look forward to events to mark this important element of our national life.”…
Russian social movements are struggling with Putin's repression and economic “liberalisation”, the war in Chechnya, neonazis and the mafia. (Organised crime apparently now controls over 20% of Russia's gross domestic product.)
On 14 and 15 April, unauthorised “Dissenters' Marches” in Moscow and St Petersburg by the new liberal-led coalition “The Other Russia”, were met with arrests and police beatings.
Veteran radical Boris Kagarlitsky observes that, “As things stand today, the…
PN last interviewed Tilly Giffin following her arrest at Aberdeen Airport during a Plane Stupid action (PN 2508). On 22 March, she was arrested again, outside a derelict building in Glasgow, which her group were considering for use as an exhibition venue. She was charged with “intention to commit theft” and her personal possessions were confiscated.
It was a few days later, when she went to pick up her belongings from Partick police station, that she was persuaded to enter a…
On 1 May, former Prisme workers re-launched themselves as Discovery Packaging and Design (DPD) after the “long hard slog” of a seven-week occupation (see PN 2508). A week later, David Taylor from DPD told me how business was looking promising for the new company, which employs half of the original workforce of 12. There are potential customers in the pipeline and an open day was planned, aiming at small- to medium-sized clients from the engineering, confectionery and whisky industries.…
On 25 April, Ceredigion Council conferred the freedom of the county on the Royal Welsh Regiment. With much pomp and circumstance, cadres of the regiment, their band and mascot goat marched into Aberystwyth. The ceremony was attended by, among others, councillor JTO Davies, chairman of Ceredigion Council, Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat MP), Elin Jones (Plaid Cymru AM), and mayor of Aberystwyth Sue Jones Davies (Plaid Cymru).
One invitee who declined to participate, though, was Cen…
The second People’s Peace Convoy to Gaza looks set to leave London on Sunday 4 October. The Convoy is organised by Viva Palestina, a network of volunteers. (The documentary Lifeline to Gaza about the first Viva Palestina convoy will be shown in two parts on Press TV on 13 and 14 May.)
In Wales, the Local Economic Action Forum (LEAF) is campaigning for support for the convoy. Help is needed with many things, from the financial to the musical. LEAF was founded in 1990 and is…
As death and destruction continue in Gaza under the ongoing Israeli siege of the Strip (see p6), the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) continues to plan siege-breaking journeys, despite splintering into two, as announced on 22 May. The FGM was established in 2006 to break the siege of Gaza by means of humanitarian and awareness-raising boat missions from Cyprus.
The following year, Greta Berlin and Mary Hughes, two of the FGM founders, were involved in the establishment of a Californian non…
Hamid Karzai has selected Mohammad Qasim Fahim – “one of the most notorious warlords in [Afghanistan], with the blood of many Afghans on his hands from the civil war” (according to Human Rights Watch) – as one of his two vice-presidential candidates in the August elections.
Human Rights Watch identified Fahim as a key commander in the February 1993 Afshar massacre, when about 800 members of the Shia Hazara minority were killed in Kabul. An international official in Kabul has…
On 3 May, more than 100 Afghan civilians were killed during airstrikes on the villages of Gerani, Gangabad and Koujaha in Farah province, western Afghanistan.
The US/NATO have confirmed that they use white phosphorus in Afghanistan, but when accused of particular white phosphorus attacks, they suggest (without providing any evidence) that the Taliban may have fired the rounds.
Meanwhile, on 19 May, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that 1.5m Pakistanis had been…
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) welcomed the ruling on 21 May, by the court of appeal, that the Metropolitan police broke the law in its routine surveillance of lawful and peaceful activity, including storing photographs on police computers.
On 27 April 2005, police officers openly photographed and followed CAAT staff and supporters after they had attended an AGM of a public company, Reed Elsevier, in their capacity as shareholders, to question directors about the acquisition of…
As the financial crisis continues to rage throughout the world, and unemployment rates climb ever higher, workers came together for this year’s May Day in a spirit of discontent rather than celebration. Although most demonstrations were peaceful, some violence was seen in Turkey, Greece and Germany.
Clashes with police broke out throughout Istanbul, as protestors threw rocks and were combated with teargas. Though the Turkish government had finally conceded to unions and declared…
When Fred Goodwin’s house was vandalised on 25 March, the media portrayed this action against the former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland as political opposition to the financial crisis. The Telegraph claimed that anti-G20 activists had responded “gleefully” to the news of windows being broken at Sir Fred’s £3 million home.
What failed to get onto the news channels was the authentic and coordinated activity of an Edinburgh campaign that has adopted an assertive approach to…
Midday, 1 April. Our group from Wales joined a mass swoop on Bishopsgate in the financial district of London. We were there to highlight our concerns about the financial system and carbon trading on the eve of the G20 summit. Despite the disastrous effects of free-market economics on people, our beloved leaders seem set on applying the same system to the planet. At Bishopsgate there was a moment of suspense before someone shouted: “Put up your tents!”
In what felt like no time at…
I’m at a loss finding the right idiom for this story: Throwing good money after bad? A fool and his money are easily parted? A leopard can’t change his spots…? You decide.
A joint report by the National Audit Office and the Wales Audit Office concluded that the Red Dragon project to build a super-hangar at RAF St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan cost the public £113m and created only 45 jobs instead of a forecast 4,500. It now stands virtually empty.
The problem arose…
On 10 April 2009, Pakistan’s second-largest English-language newspaper (circulation 140,000), the News International, cited figures on US drone attacks “compiled by the Pakistani authorities”. According to these figures, of the 60 cross-border Predator drone strikes into Pakistan between 14 January 2006 and 8 April 2009, only 10 hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders. These 60 strikes also killed a reported 687 Pakistani civilians.
Of the 14 drone attacks…
While newspapers and politicians fulminate against the terrorist threat to Britain that supposedly emanates from Pakistan, few British commentators have even noticed the large-scale state terrorism being practised in Pakistan by the US and Britain – and the Pakistani government (under pressure from Washington).
When referred to at all – usually in passing – Pakistani government actions in the border Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) are usually referred to, euphemistically…
