Activism

17 October 2012Comment

There are converging agendas for different movements - anti-cuts, climate, disarmament, labour movement...

It is not enough for the anti-cuts movement to be a defensive, responsive movement. It is not enough to point out the flaws in the arguments for austerity (as the False Economy website does so brilliantly).
If we are going to have a world worth living in, we are going to have to merge together the agendas of the anti-cuts movement, the green movement, the labour movement and the peace movement.

We are already arguing for…

17 October 2012News in Brief

Back in the UK, a group called 'The Intruders' managed to gatecrash two high society events, first giving the former head of the government tax body HMRC a 'lifetime achievement award for services to corporate tax avoidance' on 27 September. Dave Hartnett was accused of being…

17 October 2012News in Brief

Over 700 boats laid 'siege' to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, India on 8 October, in the latest demonstration by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE; for background, see PN 2550).

PMANE is demanding the withdrawal of police from local villages (police killed one protester in September), the…

17 October 2012News

The highlight of the Drones Week of Action 2012 was an eight-day, 90-mile peace walk.

On 13 October, the eight-day 90-mile Drones Peace Walk reached RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, to be met by campaigners from around the UK, all protesting against the opening of the first armed drone base on British soil.

The RAF's pilotless killer drones in Afghanistan are currently operated from a base in Nevada, USA – they will soon be operated from RAF Waddington.

The walk, which was…

17 October 2012News

The Campaign Against Arms Trade celebrates a double victory

On 10 October, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) celebrated a victory in helping to break sponsorship links between arms manufacturer Finmeccanica and London's National Gallery. The news came just days after CAAT heard that it had won a Right Livelihood Award, known as the 'alternative Nobel Prize', given by a Stockholm-based foundation.

The National Gallery ended its long-standing…

16 October 2012News

Conscientious objectors to the 2011 Census in the UK continue their courtroom struggles.

Two census resisters had their trials continued in early October, with Andy Manifold due to return to court on 19 October and Sarah Ledsom hoping to finish her trial on 23 November. Both are at Dale St magistrates' court in Liverpool.

400 people in Britain have been or are being prosecuted for failing to fill out the 2011 census. 

Among them are a number of peace activists who objected to the involvement in the census of military firms Lockheed Martin (processing the data for…

26 September 2012Comment

The early days...

Well the first I'd say is that when I started going to protests as such, I wouldn't have considered myself to be 'an activist'.
The first protest I went on was on the night of the student fees vote in parliament. I'd never been on a protest before and I thought it'd be quite peaceful and quite orderly.

It didn't turnout that way – we got kettled by the police. It was not a pleasant experience, but I met great people and I wanted to get more involved.

There was a moment…

26 September 2012Feature

A survey of current French campaigns against nuclear weapons.

Questioning France's nuclear arsenal is not quite taboo, but the myth that it enables the country to retain great power status is accepted slavishly by most politicians, and with resigned passivity by the majority of the press and population.

Nevertheless, there is a strong and diverse protest movement.

One strand, closest to the Green party, opposes nuclear weapons as an extension of its opposition to nuclear energy. Just as nuclear weaponry is supposed to guarantee military…

26 September 2012Feature

The practical advantages of nonviolent strategies in mobilising for revolution. 

In July, I participated in a Peace News Summer Camp workshop which discussed 'diversity of tactics' — the idea of including violent tactics in our actions and strategies for change. I was a little surprised when my fellow panellists wanted to turn it into a conversation about pacifism and whether violence can ever be justified.

Although I'm a pacifist, I didn't get their point. Most people who participate in nonviolent campaigns aren't pacifists; they choose nonviolent action…

25 September 2012Feature

A secular tool for sustainability.

Every time I tell someone about 'anarchist sabbath', they're intrigued, curious, sometimes envious – the conversations start exploring lifestyle, family, personal decisions, community, spirituality, emotional support, political strategy.

This is rather gratifying. So what is it?

Most Sundays, my friend, whom let's call 'Jack', and I meet up in my kitchen and pour ourselves a cup of tea. We take our tea down to the garden pond and sit next to each other without talking for…

25 September 2012News

Two leading members of the Respect party have stood down from high-profile positions in the party over remarks on the nature of rape by Respect MP George Galloway.

On 11 September, leading Muslim anti-war activist Salma Yaqoob announced her resignation from the left-wing Respect party which she had helped to found, and of which she was the leader. Yaqoob made it clear that ‘necessary relations of trust and collaborative working’ had broken down over remarks made by Respect MP George Galloway in relation to the rape allegations against Wikileaks leader Julian Assange.

On 4 September, CND general secretary Kate Hudson had stood down as a…

25 September 2012News

A partial victory for Runnymede Eco-Village

On 13 September, a group calling itself the Diggers 2012 community won a partial victory in its struggle with the National Trust, which has been trying to evict the group from its ‘Runnymede Eco-Village’, set up in June on land near the Runnymede memorial in Surrey. The memorial commemorates the signing of the Magna Carta there in 1215, by king John.

Rather than regarding the Diggers camp as something of historical interest worth preserving, the National Trust had sought a possession…

28 August 2012News

Armpits 4 August ...

PHOTO: Hannah Daisy

At the end of July, women restored missing hair to statues of women in central London to promote a month-long campaign of body-hair-growing. Armpits4August aims to combat ‘a physically-, socially-, and mentally-damaging image of what is “natural”’. The group said: ‘by growing our body hair we are working towards having pride in our body hair, not shame.’ The group also raised money for Verity, the charity for women with polycystic ovarian syndrome.  

28 August 2012Letter

All the crucial and active social centres that I can think of are: ‘1 in 12’ in Bradford; ‘Blackrose’ in Sheffield; ‘Autonomous Centre Edinburgh’; ‘Cowley Club’ in Brighton; and the ‘Sumac Centre’ in Nottingham.

And how about the invaluable community centres throughout the UK too? As it really shouldn’t be a case of us and them!

28 August 2012Comment

There had been an ‘issue’ in our group, so I had to talk face-to-face with someone. We figured out the best chance of us meeting was when he came to Aldermaston for an action camp (against nuclear weapons).

I showed up; he’d volunteered to be a decoy, so we walked around the base, talking about who said what and who did what and why he felt the way he did.

At the main entrance, he said he was going to walk straight in –as a decoy. I joined him – we were both expecting to be…