PNblogeditor's blog

    15 Jul 2014

    Jonathan Doering

    Thirty years on, the anti-nuclear war drama Threads has lost none of its power to shock. Its message of making connections has inspired many, including one of its producers, Richard Levitt.

    Ruth and Jimmy kiss in their car on the Moors. A fighter jet roars ominously overhead. Potential violence erupts into the everyday. Some of the images in Threads - a mushroom cloud rising over Sheffield, a middle-aged woman urinating in fear - are etched forever into my mind’s eye. Watching the film again, the same cold fear washes through my guts at the thought that such destruction is still within the reach of several world leaders…

    27 May 2014

    Marc Morgan

    International fast to be held between Hiroshima and Nagasaki days (6th-9th August) in Burghfield, Paris, and Büchel.

    Every year an International fast is held between Hiroshima and Nagasaki days (6th-9th August) in Burghfield, Paris, and Büchel, the last Nato base in Germany at which nuclear weapons are stationed. PN has covered the fast in both Paris and Burghfield with several articles in the past (see PN September 2012, June 2013 and September 2013).…

    07 May 2014

    Jill Gibbon

    Report and images from Trident Protest at Rolls Royce AGM.

    Trident KillsRolls-Royce directors were confronted with the harrowing testimony of a Hiroshima survivor, Setsuko Thurlow, at their AGM on 1 May. Although the quote was lengthy, the chair was too disorientated to interrupt, and the board responded with nervous laughter.

    Rolls-Royce provides power systems for Britain's Trident nuclear-powered, nuclear…

    09 Apr 2014

    Maya Evans

    This content has been removed from the website on request of the author.

    09 Apr 2014

    Hakim

    Afghan Peace Volunteers

    On the 28th of March, 2014, at about 4 p.m., the Afghan Peace Volunteers heard a loud explosion nearby. For the rest of the evening and night, they anxiously waited for the sound of rocket fire and firing to stop.  It was reported that a 10 year old girl, and the four assailants, were killed.

    Four days later, they circulated a video, poem and photos prefaced by this note:  “We had been thinking about an appropriate response to the violence perpetrated by the Taliban, other militia…

    12 Mar 2014

    PN

    Published since 1886 the print of edition of Freedom is to be discontinued.

    The Freedom Collective, publishers of Freedom, the anarchist periodical founded in 1886, decided at a meeting on 3 March 2014 to discontinue printing and concentrate on online publication.  After the second printed edition of 2014, the intention is to publish a special edition for the anarchist bookfair in October, and after that to print only occasional free sheets.

    Peace News and Freedom have much in common. Donald Rooum, who has contributed cartoons to Peace News since 1962, has…

    09 Mar 2014

    Ali Tamlit

    Opting to do something can lead to various forms of activism and that in turn can lead to the difficult area of politics. Saying 'no' to what we oppose is one approach.

    How many of us are in some way dissatisfied with the way things are in the world? Perhaps you've witnessed some grave injustice or you're even the victim of a social ill? Maybe you've spent years in academic settings trying to understand what's wrong with the world, but isn't the point to change it? Maybe you just know, things aren't meant to be like this.

    Chances are you can relate to most if not all of the above and if so you might have been drawn to do something about it. Making…

    22 Feb 2014

    PN

    The recent attacks on the community of 10 de Abril is followed by a week of National and International Solidarity.

    Following recent attacks in Chiapas, a Week of National and International Solidarity “If they touch the Zapatistas, they touch all of us” has been called, to be held from 16th to 23rd February, 2014, to “denounce the counterinsurgency war” and emphasise that “the Zapatista communities are not alone.”

    The new aggressions were made against the iconic Zapatista community of 10 de Abril, by government supporters from the group CIOAC democratic who live in a nearby community, and who have…

    05 Feb 2014

    Kathy Kelly

    Kathy Kelly reports from Afghanistan.

    Two weeks ago in a room in Kabul, Afghanistan, I joined several dozen people, working seamstresses, some college students, socially engaged teenagers and a few visiting internationals like myself, to discuss world hunger. Our emphasis was not exclusively on their own country’s worsening hunger problems.  The Afghan Peace Volunteers (AVP), in whose home we were meeting, draw strength from looking beyond their own very real struggles.

    With us was…

    28 Jan 2014

    Jill Gibbon

    Drawing undercover at arms fairs.

    ImageThere is a long tradition of official war art where artists are commissioned to draw in war zones. My work reverses this tradition. Instead of drawing war zones to commission, I draw the arms trade uninvited.  My drawings are made undercover in arms fairs, arms company dinners, and AGMs. I draw in A6 concertina sketchbooks -…

    26 Jan 2014

    Shannonwatch

    From opposing Ireland allowing the US military to use Shannon Airport to Limerick Prison

    ImageOn Saturday 25 January, Zoe Lawlor and John Lannon of Shannonwatch visited Margaretta D'Arcy in Limerick Prison. She has been there now for 10 days, as a result of her conscientious refusal to sign an undertaking that she would stay away from the restricted areas of Shannon…

    26 Jan 2014

    Emily Masters

    US perspective on Emily John's arrest, trial and recent sentencing following protests against the Bexhill Link Road.

    ImageEmily Johns, Peace News co-editor and Hastings-based activist, was arrested last spring and sentenced last week after protesting for government transparency.

    Her trial is part of a larger issue. With the Combe Haven Defenders, she is…

    06 Jan 2014

    Kathy Kelly

    Kathy Kelly reports from Chaman e Babrak in Afghanistan.

    Image

    Refugees in the Chaman e Babrak camp stand amid the rubble

     

    Kabul: The fire in the Chaman e Babrak camp began in Nadiai’s home shortly after noon. She had rushed her son, who had a severe chest infection, to the hospital. She did not know that a gas bottle…

    02 Jan 2014

    Sherif

    From Egypt and Afghanistan two outlooks on who are our emenies.

    Image

    Najib, his grandma and Hakim

     

    From Sherif in Egypt

    My dear enemy, I kill you with love…

    As my mind was growing, by reading and opening my eyes, my enemy took different shapes. At first, I thought he was the guy who beat the teenager pride out of me in a train fight over a girl, but that went…

    01 Jan 2014

    Matt Barr

    As condemnations of Haiti's minimum wage increase are ringing out the long and disturbing history of external interference leading to a race down to the bottom needs to be remembered.

    Apart from being Haitian Independence day whereby former slaves successfully removed the cruel grasp of colonial slavery 210 years ago in 1804, today is also supposed to see a much needed increase in the minimum wage in Haiti but has sparked controversy.

    Protests have broken out in Haiti demanding a greater increase than has been proposed whilst a somewhat inevitable a race down to the bottom backlash from industry and the international community has argued against even the modest…