PN Staff

On 15 May, Haringey First World War Peace Forum unveiled a hand-carved plaque to remember the North London borough’s 350 First World War conscientious objectors. The plaque was installed where outdoor anti-war meetings were held during the war, outside the Salisbury pub (back then, the Salisbury hotel) on Green Lanes. Actor Jim Broadbent, historian Cyril Pearce and local councillors Mark Blake and Emine Ibrahim joined 150 people for the ceremony. The plaque was funded by a…

An independent Scotland should give the UK government a strict deadline for removing the Trident from Scottish soil.

That’s the message of a motion going to the 27–28 April party conference of the Scottish National Party (SNP). The motion calls on the party to develop a detailed ‘roadmap’, ‘a practical description of the process and timescale to safely remove nuclear weapons at the very earliest opportunity on Scotland regaining our independence’.

Faslane, just north of…

Indians and Pakistanis used social media to try to prevent war at the end of February.

After a Pakistan-based Kashmiri insurgent group blew up an army convoy in Indian-occupied Kashmir on 14 February, Indian fighter jets crossed into Pakistani airspace on 27 February, prompting a retaliatory strike later the same day by Pakistani jets.

Two Indian planes were shot down and the situation was very tense.

US news agency CNN analysed the response to these events…

On 1 February, the US government announced that it was no longer bound by the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, and that it would withdraw completely in August.

On 4 March, the Russian government officially suspended its participation in the treaty as well.

Kate Hudson, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, described the US action as ‘a reckless move’.

The INF treaty banned all US and Soviet ground-launched missiles…

On 16 February, more than 300 activists (using 200 metres of black cloth) took over the British Museum in London in a performance protest against the sponsorship of an exhibition by BP, the oil and gas company. Protestors drew attention to BP’s role in the 2003 Iraq war and its contribution to climate change, holding a banner: ‘The British Museum – proudly sponsored by climate change.’

On 30 January, 14 members of queer activist group, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSMigrants) handed out 200 sick bags to executives at an airline industry dinner in a central London hotel.

Four campaigners took to the stage, made a speech, and unfurled a banner saying: ‘BA: deportation contracts make us sick’ (see above). The Airlines UK 2019 gala dinner was attended by the head of…

On 14 March, charity Medical Justice persuaded the high court to order a halt to ‘no warning’ deportations.

The home office has a policy of giving targets just three days’ notice that they will be deported – and that the removal could happen at any time after that. This denies people the chance to prepare evidence or appeals.

The Medical Justice victory followed courtroom success for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) on 1 March.

The high…

On 20 February, seven peace activists climbed over the fence of the US military base of Kleine Brogel in the north-east of Belgium. Four were activists from Belgium’s Agir Pour La Paix (Act for Peace). Three were Green MEPs (Michèle Rivasi from France, Molly Scott Cato from the UK, and Tilly Metz from Luxembourg).

The seven symbolically blocked the F-16 runway to demand the withdrawal of around 20 US…

The first trials for people arrested on Extinction Rebellion (XR) actions were discontinued at the beginning of March. Christian Climate Action members Ruth Jarman (55) and Margriet were due to appear at Hendon magistrates’ court on 1 and 4 March after having been arrested many times during XR protests in London last autumn. (PN 2624–2625)

XR has held dozens of events in the last two months, and spread internationally, claiming more than 200 XR chapters worldwide.
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Two major flashpoints on International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March came in Turkey and in Spain.

In contrast to previous years, the Turkish government announced beforehand that no IWD demonstration would be allowed on Istanbul’s central shopping street, Istiklal Avenue.

Thousands of women gathered in Taksim Square anyway and faced riot police firing tear gas and using dogs to break up the protest.

In Spain, the two largest unions, the CCOO and the UGT,…

Britain must hand the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean back to Mauritius – and that includes the largest island, Diego Garcia, where the US has built a massive military base. That is the non-binding advisory opinion of the world court, delivered on 25 February, as requested by the UN general assembly.

In the 1960s, Britain detached the Chagos archipelago from Mauritius and deported 2,000 Chagossians in order to hang onto the islands when Mauritius became independent in 1968, and…

Let’s face it. We’re divided.

People who share progressive or radical values in lots of ways – who oppose the same wars, who are equally passionate about stopping climate change, who would all unilaterally ditch British nuclear weapons, and so on – are divided on the hottest topic in British politics: our relationship with the European Union.

Opinion polls have shown that since the EU referendum in June 2016, people in Britain generally have become more and more attached to…

Over 200 people have signed a petition calling on Pride in Surrey to drop arms manufacturer BAE Systems as a sponsor of its 10 August parade in Woking.

The petition asks the organisers of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) event to apologise and to ‘commit never to accept money from any who benefit from arming oppressive governments’.

One government named is Saudi Arabia, which is targeting civilians and causing a famine in Yemen – and which also…

On 27 February, Bike for Peace launched its 2019 ride from Westminster Hall in the houses of parliament, London.

The tour will go onto France, India, China, Australia, New Zealand and the US. It will promote the need for a nuclear-weapons-free world, the value of cycling as a mode of transport, and the importance of the UN for nuclear disarmament.

A Norwegian group, Bike for Peace was established in 1978 by Tore Naerland, a 90 percent blind peace campaigner who rides on…

On 26 February, bailiffs seized buildings in the front half of Grow Heathrow, the squatted community garden in the village of Sipson.

The project was set up in 2010 to support the residents of Sipson in resisting the expansion of Heathrow airport to build a third runway.

At the time of going to press (19 March), Grow Heathrow members had moved to the back of the plot and were intending to stay ‘indefinitely’. They had relocated ‘plants, books, tools, bikes, solar panels…