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"Peace News has compiled an exemplary record... its tasks have never been more critically important than they are today." Noam Chomsky

Issue 2542 | February 2012

Editorial: The trauma of “justified” killing

by Milan Rai and Emily Johns | Comment | February 2012

Is there a "universal human phobia" against killing?

Jill's Defence Weekly: An insider's guide to DSEi, the world's largest arms fair: At DSEi, missiles, warheads, bombs and shells are lined up in gleaming rows. There are no signs about their actual use.

News in Brief

Census resisted· King misquoted· Nepal crisis· Western Sahara· Drones news· Guantanamo 10· While a soul· Death in Palestine· 30 November· Occupy UK update ...read

Letters

CND slippage· More war?· Two wings bad· John Hyatt· Occupy PN!· Libya· Census COs· Pacifist poppy ...read

Reviews

Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

Michael Kaufman and Michael Kimmel, The Guy’s Guide to Feminism

Sarah Irving, Palestine

Douglas Rushkoff, Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age

PN in Afghanistan

Maya Evans returns from the first British peace delegation to Afghanistan

by Maya Evans | News | February 2012

“If a Talib was in this room now, I know there is only one way forward to resolve the situation… forgiveness”.

PN Winter Appeal aid delivered in Kabul

News | February 2012

PN helps get over £2,000 worth of aid to internally displaced Afghans

Maya's speaking tour

News | February 2012

Times, dates and venues for Maya's UK speaking tour

PN in Practice: Software

by PN | | February 2012

PN looks at some of the free/cheap software tools that are actually used by the PN staff to do their work, in addition to complicated and expensive things like Photoshop and InDesign.

News from Wales and Scotland

Climate activists tell Scottish govt: “Get on yer bike!”

by Gail Wilson | News | February 2012

Scots call for increased funding for walking and cycling

An Uncut Christmas Carol

by Kelvin Mason | News | February 2012

Welsh activists subvert seasonal songs

UK at the heart of EU! Selling out renewable energy

by Jill Evans | News | February 2012

Jill Evans MEP questions the EU's support for nuclear power

Plaid Cymru leadership contest: good for Wood

by Kelvin Mason | News | February 2012

Is Plaid Cymru about to elect "the Caroline Lucas of Wales" as its leader?

Re-planting trees in Palestine

by Dave Black | News | February 2012

Scottish activists help resist racist land policies

News

Parliament Square peace camp resists eviction

by David Polden | Feature | February 2012

PN talks to peace activist Maria Gallastegui following her recent victory in the high court.

Northwood blockaded for two hours

by David Polden | News | February 2012

Christian peace activists block entrance to UK's military nerve centre

Occupy LSX appeals

by John M Lindsay | News | February 2012

High court rules on St Paul's occupation

Free Maikel

by John M Lindsay | News | February 2012

Egyptian pacifist now in sixth month of hunger strike

Arms fair protester facing trial

by PN staff | News | February 2012

Chris Cole's DSEi trial postponed to March 2012

US Occupy remembers Martin Luther King

by John M Lindsay | News | February 2012

"Shut Down the Corporations Day" planned for 29 February

Comment

Conflict 1

by Marilyn Edwards | Comment | February 2012

Silk screen by Marilyn Edwards. "This image expresses my feelings of despair about the many conflicts in the world. It was made in 2009: Gaza was neing bombed. The "pieta" emerges from it, an iconic symbol of "suffering."

A new design! A new website!

by PN staff | Comment | February 2012

The new PN design: on paper and on-line.

The Personal Column: Counting the Cost

by Jeff Cloves | Comment | February 2012

Jeff Cloves ponders the arms trade, the census, and the perils of not being on the electoral register

PN in Practice: Software

by PN | | February 2012

PN looks at some of the free/cheap software tools that are actually used by the PN staff to do their work, in addition to complicated and expensive things like Photoshop and InDesign.

PN interviews US activists

War dead

by John Tirman | Feature | February 2012

John Tirman, executive director of the Center for International Studies at MIT commissioned what is generally known as the 2006 Lancet Study, which found 655,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the 2003 US/UK invasion and subsequent occupation. Tirman spoke to Peace News about his new book "The Death of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars".

In the pink

by Gabriel Carlyle and Medea Benjamin | Feature | February 2012

Medea Benjamin is probably best known outside the US for her disruption of a series of high-profile events with then-defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others. She is co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace. Gabriel Carlyle spoke to her at a meeting of the Drones Campaign Network in Birmingham.

Medea Benjamin on Capitalism

by Gabriel Carlyle and Medea Benjamin | Feature | February 2012

"I have yet to see the society that I would like to live in but I see pieces of it, bits and pieces of it here and there. Rather than labelling it I would rather help create it and not give it a label.