Gabriel Carlyle
Developments since the publication of the March issue of PN have, I fear, only served to confirm my analysis there of the Afghan ‘peace talks’ process (PN 2543).
In particular, the Taliban’s announcement that it is ‘suspending’ its proto-talks with the Americans should reinforce the crucial need for the international peace movement to mobilise public pressure to force the US to take the ‘peace process’ seriously and commit to a full withdrawal.
The suspension is due, in…
Up betimes at 5.30am, to catch the 6.08am tube to Vauxhall and thence the 6.32am overland train, arriving at Ashford (Surrey) station at 7.03am. From there, a short walk brought me to Her Majesty’s Prison Bronzefield.
I’d been there once before - to see Susan Clarkson out of jail - and the reception assured me that Maya would be released shortly. They…
Despite a ‘game changing’ move by the Taliban towards peace talks, the US looks committed to continuing its war in Afghanistan far into the future – albeit retooled to place more emphasis on drones, special forces and local proxies. The consequences for ordinary Afghans are likely to be disastrous.
In January – in a what the New York Times described as ‘a first major public sign that they may be ready for formal talks with the American-led coalition’ – the Taliban declared that it had…
Bongo-player, brilliant raconteur and Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Richard Feynman was also one of the scientists who helped to build the first atomic bombs at Los Alamos.
After the first successful test Feynman was elated, playing an improvised drum on the hood of a jeep, but later sank into a deep depression, convinced that global nuclear war was inevitable. To his credit he later came to regret at least part of his role, and decided never to work on classified projects again.…
At 9.15am, I was the first one to arrive at the Court.
Maya had told us that she'd been asked to get there for 9.30am. At 9.35am there was still no sign of her, though veteran peace activist John Lynes showed up with some home-made "rollable" banners, which we proceeded to display outside the court, much to the bemusement of the local citizenry.
"Thank you Maya for speaking out bravely…
PN: What do you mean by capitalism, if you use the term, and what are the changes to our economic system that we should be demanding both now and in the medium term?
MB: In the context of the US it’s really not useful, and I would say detrimental, to speak in terms of capitalism, because it turns the majority of people off right away. We have such a reactionary population and such a lack of a broad spectrum of dialogue that even talking about socialism in the context of the United…
“The question,” Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty memorably asserted about words “is which is to be master – that’s all.” And the same goes for the digital technologies that now play an increasingly important role in our lives.
“Like the participants of media revolutions before our own,” Rushkoff notes “we have embraced the new technologies and literacies of our age without actually learning how they work and work on us…
Medea Benjamin. PHOTO: Code Pink
PN: What have been the main achievements of the US peace movement since 11 September 2001?
MB: Successes? We moved public opinion from being radically pro-war in the beginning – both in terms of attacking Afghanistan and Iraq – to being overwhelmingly anti-war within the first couple of years and made the war an issue during the presidential elections.
Building an anti-war movement that became…
While a new poll in Afghanistan shows overwhelming support for negotiations with the Taliban, and a majority favouring a coalition government including the Taliban, future British strategy in the country is hard to judge.
Though UK officials have reportedly concluded that the Taliban are “too deep-rooted to be eradicated by military means”, they are still preparing to escalate the war next spring.
Afghans demand talksIn a cross-country poll of 1,578 Afghans, conducted in mid-…
On 15 November, Afghan president Hamid Karzai demanded that NATO stop carrying out night raids on Afghan homes as a condition for a long-term US military presence.
As the following list of headlines makes clear, Karzai is powerless to control the occupation.
“Karzai: Stop the Air Strikes”, CBS News, 28 October 2007
“Afghan official says US-led air raid kills 22 civilians”, Reuters, 4 July 2008
“Afghanistan demands end to Nato air strikes on villagers”, Guardian,…
US Special Forces in Afghanistan killed as many as 1,500 civilians in night raids by ground forces during nine months spanning 2010 and early 2011, according to an estimate produced by Gareth Porter, a US journalist for Inter Press Services (IPS).
Porter’s estimate is of especial interest as accurate information about civilians killed by NATO forces is hard to come by, not least because NATO rarely admits to killing any civilians, unless forced to do so by independent media coverage (…
Hundreds of US citizens – including an 84-year-old pensioner, a pregnant woman, and a retired New York supreme court judge – have been threatened, beaten, pepper-sprayed or arrested, in a wave of government repression against the US Occupy movement.
On 25 October, over 100 were arrested during the clearing of the encampment in Frank Ogawa Park, Oakland – an operation that left Iraq war vet Scott Olson in a coma after he was struck on the head by a tear gas canister – though activists…
PN: Judged by its impact on events, the anti-war movement played a fairly marginal role in the course of the First World War. Why have you chosen to foreground it in your history?
AH: I think traditionally people like to write books about movements that succeed, for example, the British anti-slavery movement which was the subject of my last book, but it seems to me that most movements that really matter fail a number…
The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) analysed 3,771 NATO press releases over nearly two years (1 December 2009–30 September 2011). They concluded: “violence and disruptive incidents [at the hands of NATO forces] remain a constant presence in the lives of many [Afghans], particularly in provinces or districts with largely rural populations.”
Moreover, “[g]iven the tendency towards non-specificity of numbers, the actual total of those killed or captured is likely to be higher” than…
The UN assistance mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) interviewed 379 randomly-chosen detainees in 47 facilities around the country between October 2010 and August 2011. Of these 324 were being held regarding offences related to the war. UNAMA found compelling evidence that:
46% of interviewees being held at NDS facilities had been tortured during interrogation; officials at the provincial NDS facilities in Herat, Kandahar, Khost, and Laghman, as well as at the national facility of NDS…
