Barton, Kat

On 19 January, London’s Mayors For Peace reception provided the venue for the launch of the city’s contribution to the “protective wall of international law” initiative. The wall project was started in Heidelberg, Germany, by young people who have together built a wall made up of small individually decorated blocks of plywood. Every brick represents one person and demonstrates in a highly visible way the reality of the struggle for global peace: that no nation can support the Charter of the…

Imagine Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Microsoft and Nike as real people. This is how The Corporation – the latest political documentary to hit our cinema screens – begins. In taking a look at the psychological profile of a modern day corporation – its self-interested nature, its inability to feel guilt and its uncaring stance – the film reveals that our favourite brands fit precisely the medical definition of a psychopath. Unfortunately, as the documentary explains, under today’s laws, a corporation…

In his report to the 2000 General Assembly, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged the international community to forge consensus around the so-called “right of humanitarian intervention”: the question of when, if ever, it is appropriate for states to take coercive - in particular military - action, against other states for the purpose of protecting people at risk in that other state. It was in response to that challenge that the International Commission…

A young French activist was killed on Sunday 7 November as he attempted to blockade a train carrying 12 Castor caskets - 175 tonnes - of nuclear waste.

The blockade was part of a series of actions taking place along the train's route through France and Germany over the weekend, in opposition to the transport of nuclear waste and its eventual dumping in the village of Gorbelen in Germany.

Sébastien Briat had chained himself to the track along with three others,…