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1 February 2018News in Brief

Here’s some nonviolent direct action news from the US from the very brilliant Nuclear Resister.

Protests against US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen led to 15 arrests at the US mission to the UN in New York on 11 December, and seven arrests at a congressperson’s office in Washington DC on 11 January.

On 28 December, seven people were arrested at a Christian anti-war protest at the Pentagon (during a Holy Innocents Faith and Resistance retreat), and four Catholic…

1 February 2018News in Brief

In February, radical British historian Mark Curtis launched a new online project, Declassified, which contains hundreds of declassified documents on British foreign policy.

Some documents are new to the web, the result of Curtis’ research. Other papers are provided via links to the National Security Archive, the Guardian or other websites.

Curtis, author of Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam is appealing for help from volunteer researchers…

1 February 2018News

Nuclear powers 'on cusp of new arms race

On 25 January, Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, announced: ‘Because of the extraordinary danger of the current moment, the Science and Security Board [of the Bulletin] today moves the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to catastrophe. It is now two minutes to midnight – the closest the clock has ever been to Doomsday, and as close as it was in 1953, at the height of the Cold War.’

The central concern of the…

1 February 2018News in Brief

Between 17–20 January, the Israeli army closed all three road entrances to Hizma, a village in the West Bank near Jerusalem, home to over 7,300 people, writes David Polden. They kept its main entrance closed for another eight days. The Israeli army stated that this was a response to stone- throwing from the village toward Israeli settler vehicles travelling past the village.

Restricting the freedom of movement of some 7,000 people constitutes collective punishment, which is…

1 December 2017News

Polish scientist & anti-nuke campaigner remembered

 

On 6 November, peace group British Pugwash, the Polish Heritage Society UK and the Polish embassy unveiled a plaque for Joseph Rotblat on the corner of Bury Place and Great Russell Street in London. The Polish nuclear scientist won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for campaigning against nuclear weapons. Photo: Polish Heritage Society

1 December 2017News

Calls for scrapping of Welsh Language Bill

Welsh language campaigners call on assembly member Alun Davies to bin his plans for the Welsh Language Bill, while blockading his office in Brynmawr on 26 October. The bill would abolish the Welsh language commissioner and weaken regulations that ensure organisations provide services in Welsh. Photo: Cymdeithas yr Iaith



1 December 2017News

Anti-war veterans remember all war deaths

Members of Veterans for Peace UK line up in Whitehall, London, on 12 November for a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph. VfP UK lays a wreath of white poppies and remembers all those killed in war, including civilians and enemy soldiers. The banner at the front says: ‘Never Again’. Photo: Veterans for Peace UK

1 December 2017Comment

Community print-making courses in Bristol

Diversity is Beautiful (right) is just one of the rich posters and prints to come out of the new Cato Press in Easton, Bristol. The community-run studio puts on courses for all in printmaking. It makes huge, collectively-cut prints and places itself firmly in the political printmaking tradition of José Guadalupe Posada and the Mexican Taller de Gráfica Popular (and also the…

1 October 2017News

Mayors threatened, offices raided and posters confiscated as Spain cracks down on independence referendum

As we went to press, it wasn’t clear whether the regional government of Catalonia would succeed in holding its 1 October independence referendum – which has been declared illegal by Spain’s constitutional court.

The independentistas are engaged in mass non-co-operation with the Spanish state. Dock workers in Barcelona and Tarragona refused to provide services to boats carrying over 5,000 armed police ordered to disrupt the referendum.

Spanish prime minister…

1 October 2017News

Activists arrested during backwards anti-nuke protest

On 8 August, French activist Rémi Filliau was arrested in Paris during a Clown Army action at the headquarters of En Marche (‘Forward!’), the political party of president Emmanuel Macron.

Rémi was one of 15 ‘clowns en marche arrière’ (‘backwards clowns’) who occupied the lobby of the building. The backwards 15 wanted to congratulate ‘the president of the clowns’ on his valiant opposition to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

‘We came to thank him,…

1 October 2017News

800 arrested during weekend of mass civil disobedience

PHOTO: Ende Gelände

At the end of August, 800 people were arrested as over 6,000 climate justice activists gathered in western Germany for the Rhineland Climate Camp, taking part in different protests against brown coal mining in the area. The arrests came during the Ende Gelände (‘Here and No Further’) weekend of mass civil disobedience involving 3,000 people. Affinity groups crossed fields (see above) to enter the Tagebau Garzweiler lignite coal mine or to block coal trains to the…

1 October 2017News

TUC backs conversion and divestment

On 12 September, the TUC (Trades Union Congress) passed two ground-breaking motions, one on the conversion of military industry to socially-useful production, and the other on climate action. Both proposals stressed the need to involve workers in making change.

The conversion motion was passed by a majority after being proposed by the brand-new Artists’ Union England (established 2016) and opposed by the huge GMB union (over 600,000 members).

The motion recalled the ‘…

1 October 2017News

Campaign Nonviolence plan 'Referendum for a nonviolent future' for 2018

Hundreds of peace and justice events took place in the Campaign Nonviolence Week of Actions in the US in late September. Sponsors Pace e Bene say they are already aiming at next year’s action week (15–23 September 2018) which will take place just before important US congressional elections.

Campaign Nonviolence wants to frame those mid-term elections as a ‘Referendum for a Nonviolent Future’: ‘Will we ratify the policies of violence and injustice – or will we set a new course for…

1 October 2017News

Anti-drones campaigners to stand trial on 24 November

‘Justice for the Elbit 5 — Stop Arming Israel’ demo at Aberporth test-flying site for UK-manufactured Israeli drones on 13 September. This action was in solidarity with five activists appearing before Cannock magistrates court, Staffordshire, charged under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 for their part in shutting down the Elbit drones factory in Shenstone on 6–7 July. Charges were dropped against three defendants, while the trial of the remaining two…

1 October 2017Feature

Conversations with working-class peace activists: Chris Cole

Chris Cole just before he disarmed, with this hammer, parts for the Eurofighter and Hawk aircraft at British Aerospace’s factory in Stevenage, on 6 January 1993.

We talked about class with Catholic peace activist Chris Cole during the DSEI week of action. He had been arrested a few days earlier (in his first lock-on) while blockading the set-up of the arms fair with other Christian peace activists. Chris has been involved in nonviolent direct action for almost 30 years. We met him at…