The fourth annual camp at Sizewell nuclear power station took place between 20-22 April, the aim of which was to both oppose the building of two planned reactors and a dry fuel storage dump and to provide information about about nuclear power to local people.The ‘Arab Spring’ revived and broadened interest in the power of nonviolent popular action to challenge tyranny. However, the level of positive outcome promised by events in Tunisia has not been replicated elsewhere, and the slide of nonviolence into unequal violence in the face of violent repression, or civil war backed by foreign military intervention, has led to disillusion and soul-searching.
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I haven’t seen a lot of my house recently. For most of the last four months I’ve been on the road (or rather the rails) visiting different towns and cities to run workshops and seminars looking at the methods adopted by movements for change. I tend to begin by asking people to shout out the tactics they see as central to why the movement succeeded in ousting Mubarak in Egypt. The differences in the responses have been remarkable.
For a group of students in Manchester, social…
This month I want to promote an event coming up in Manchester next month that Maggie Fox and I and the Manchester and Warrington Local Area Quaker Peace group have been organising. Maya Anne Evans is coming to our Central Manchester Meeting house at Mount Street on 20th May as part of her National speaker tour and we are very excited to be welcoming her. We are billing her talk into our Conscientious Objector's day testimony for peace.…
Every one knows the environmental damage that cars cause, but the response is usually to make them greener and cleaner... but why not try to get rid of them altogether? Because that…
I haven't written for a month or two due to personal circumstances but now I'm back in the land of the living I'd like you all to hear about a Manchester peace protester and his court cases. Usman Hamid (affectionately known as Mani) has protested for a long time often as a single protester with hand-written placards as well as in groups, and always, always peacefully. The Manchester Evening News (M.E.N.) covered his story recently, on…
The Bomb: a partial history, in two parts. Directed by Nicholas Kent. Tricycle Theatre, London, 9th February – 1st April 2012. www.tricycle.…
The jubilant celebrations I witnessed in Palestine when the UN General Assembly voted for an observer state status are in direct conflict with the grim reality on the ground. All non-violent demonstrations that resist the occupation of Palestine are deemed illegal and suppressed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) – relabelled to reflect…
