Reimer, Lotte

2013 Street Choirs festival: Sheffield’s Outaloud in Aberystwyth.
Photo: Val Regan

A radical initiative with great potential, the Campaign Choirs network, was formed during the July 2013 Street Choirs Festival in Aberystwyth. Participants agreed that ‘the political urgency of our times means we want to alert each other to events, demonstrations, etc, and share our songs more often and more widely’.

Since then, Campaign Choirs network’s shared actions have included local and…

Buzzy bees at Aberporth drone testing site Photo: Lotte Reimer

Initiated by Anonymous activists, who pulled out at the last minute because they forgot to ask their mums if they could have a party, the protest went ahead with local people, singers, Rebel Clowns and other busy bees, who buzzed in solidarity with drones trying to clear their name.

Said one local drone: ‘It’s tough enough that there are so few of us these days, with pesticides and whatnot, but tarnishing our…

Aberystwyth Women in Black Photo: Keith Morris

From a Machynlleth production of the Vagina Monologues, via flash-mob dancing in Lampeter, Carmarthen, Swansea and Cardiff, to Women in Black’s silent vigil in Aberystwyth, Wales was very much part of One Billion Rising. Two women die by the hands of their partners every week in the UK, say Women’s Aid, with one incident of domestic violence reported to the police every minute.

No wonder Aberystwyth Women in Black’s silent vigil…

The vigil recalled when two million people spoke up — and those in power in Westminster turned a deaf ear.

At the Cardiff vigil, Jill Gough, national secretary of CND Cymru, said: ‘Wales was in uproar in the weeks leading up to that demonstration. The phone rang continuously…. It did feel as if the whole world was on the streets for peace on 15 February’.

Adam Johannes of Cardiff Stop the War remembered: ‘I will never forget the hope we all felt that…

Following showings in Cardiff and Swansea, the internationally-acclaimed film Robert Mugabe... What Happened? was screened at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on
20 May.

Prior to the film, Côr Gobaith, the local activist choir, sang a selection of African freedom songs for the gathering audience.

The film is complex and compelling, interweaving the story of Zimbabwe’s first 30 years with the personal journey of Robert Mugabe.

From much-admired, bright young Turk of the…

Nelly Maes, president of the Flemish Peace Institute, spoke at the David Davies Memorial Institute (DDMI) in Aberystwyth on 24 February to an audience of students and local people.

Her talk was part of a visit to Wales in support of calls for a Wales Peace Institute. On 23 February, Maes and Tomas Baum, director of the Flemish Peace Institute, gave evidence to the national assembly in support of a 1,500 name petition urging the creation of such an institute.

In Aberystwyth,…

Once again, Aberystwyth led the way as the town council laid a white poppy wreath at the Cenotaph on 7 November. Despite the weather, the ceremony was well attended. Those present remembered the suffering caused by organised violence and “all the places where our humanity has been denied”, commented Jill Gough of CND Cymru.

Rhidian Griffiths chose the hymn “Let There be Peace on Earth” by Fred Kaan, “a lifelong pacifist, whose convictions grew out of his childhood in the Netherlands…

How wonderful to be part of this vibrant and vital International Women's Day march in London for something we all demand: the unconditional, non-negotiable end to violence against women.

As so well expressed by the speakers, such violence takes many forms: the direct violence of beatings, rape, mutilation; the fear of what may follow; governments denying equal status; withholding the right to an existence as an individual woman; war, poverty, trafficking, slavery, threats,…

On Monday 9 February a group of students from Aberystwyth University staged a lunchtime “die-in” in the busy Arts Centre plaza. The students, members of People & Planet and Amnesty, were highlighting University unit-trust investments in companies such as BAE Systems, Europe’s largest “defence manufacturer”.

The students are petitioning the University to adopt an ethical investment policy. Students’ Guild Environmental and Ethics Officer, Tom Marshall, stressed that the…

Saturday 12 January saw a brilliant number and diversity of protest and campaign slogans displayed in the centre of Aberystwyth.

Aberystwyth Peace and Justice Network invited the public, local organisations and political parties to join the nationwide day of response to the Government's consultation paper, “Managing Protest around Parliament”.

The paper proposes “harmonising” the conditions that can be imposed on marches and assemblies.

Harmonisation is widely believed…