International solidarity

Human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to six months in prison on 20 January, for insulting the government of Bahrain on Twitter. He was arrested in October and detained for a month, after tweeting about reports that members of Bahrain’s security forces had joined Islamic State in Iraq. Rajab is free on bail as he appeals.

Rajab said that human rights defenders across the Gulf region ‘are not only the victims of the repression of our own governments but also the victims…

The school exercise books in Mozambique used to have an exhortation on the cover. In Portuguese, they said 'Let us study and make of our learning an instrument of the liberation of the people.' This was, in the years after independence and during the attacks by South African backed bandits, a stark reminder of the need for the young to put 'back' into society, to build the nation.

Tanja Müller has written a fascinating and moving book about one little known aspect of Mozambique's…

Speaking on the first day of a conference of grassroots antimilitarist campaigners, poet and indigenous Khoisan activist Zenzile Khoisan told us: ‘I was one of those people dodging bullets outside this building as a 13-year-old in 1976’. The building was the City Hall, an imposing colonial-era edifice on Cape Town’s grand parade.

Speaking 20 years after South Africa’s first democratic election, Khoisan told the War Resisters’ International (WRI) gathering stories of his…

London Mexico Solidarity are calling for action in the UK against architect Norman Foster and engineering consultant ARUP, involved in plans to build a six-runway international airport near Mexico City.

This was last tried in 2001 – and successfully resisted by the indigenous common landholders of San Salvador Atenco. The Atenco farmers were then punished for their resistance in May 2006, with an extremely brutal police attack. Two young people were killed, and 26 women raped by…

Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group and practical solidarity group Kiptik have published a Zapatista solidarity calendar for 2014, featuring 12 full-colour photos from the rebel lands of Chiapas, Mexico.

All proceeds go directly to support Zapatista autonomy in Chiapas.

Cheques for £6 for each calendar (plus £1.80 p&p) should be made payable to ‘Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group’ and sent to: ECSG, c/o 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA, Scotland. You can…

Despite a torrent of commentary in the British media to mark the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, there has been little or no reflection on what turned the largely-unopposed invasion in March 2003 into a guerrilla war that began two months later.

A double massacre in the largely Sunni town of Fallujah in central Iraq played a crucial role in galvanising the Sunni insurgency.

According to reports, during the US-led invasion in March, Iraqi troops…

Susan Clarkson in Afghanistan with an Afghan Peace Volunteer Photo: VCNV UK

In December 2012, four of us, Susan Clarkson, Mary Dobbing, Maya Evans and Beth Tichborne, went to Kabul, Afghanistan, to stay with the Afghan Peace Volunteers. We went as the first UK delegation of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. VCNV are based in the US and were formed by Kathy Kelly. Several years ago, Kathy wrote in Peace News (PN 2527) about the APV, whom she had met in Bamiyan, and…

The Peace News editorial comment on ‘Antisemitism, Zionism, BDS and PN’ (PN 2552-3) was thoughtful, informed and principled on the first two. That’s what makes its cack-footedness on boycott, divestment and sanctions so surprising. 

There are things the editorial simply got factually wrong. And then there are issues of political principle and practice. The incorrect facts are used to support the, in my view, wrong conclusions. Let’s start with the errors:

l The boycott…

The olive harvest, it’s not as romantic as it sounds, emailed my Aussie friend and fellow IWPSer before I set off for my second ‘tour’ volunteering with the International Women’s Peace Service, based in the village of Deir Istiya in the Salfit governate, in the West Bank.

And in a way my friend was right: gruelling sun, long hours in the sun, and a bit monotonous sometimes. Returning, eating and showering were all we were fit for, but there were clothes to hand-wash (olive-picking…

The VCNV UK delegation was hosted in Kabul by the Afghan Peace Volunteers, who have fought for the UN to enforce a ceasefire in Afghanistan, bringing a peaceful end to the war. 

The dialogues that VCNV UK has been holding with the Afghan Peace Volunteers and other similar groups has created a new discourse surrounding the war in Afghanistan, with VCNV UK writing on their blog: ‘Afghans are sick and tired of war and of living with fear and insecurity.… We heard from everyone that…

16 August: In the little red book, Advices and Queries, used by Quakers in Britain, no 27 urges us to ‘live adventurously’. Recently, for me, this has meant the possibility of travelling to Afghanistan.

Last year my friend Maya Evans went to Afghanistan with Voices for Creative Nonviolence US and on her return gave talks about her experiences.

I had always thought that my days of travel abroad were over, after time spent in the United States, Madagascar and Cameroon. Indeed, I…

21 October, Najaf: I had mixed emotions as I set out on this six-week trip. Excitement at the thought of seeing old friends; I have not been back to Iraq since late 2003. But also some apprehension as to what I will find after such a long time.

I am hopeful that I can meet with Iraqis whom I know from Syria but who have had to flee back to Iraq.

The twisted mass of electrical wires in the neighbourhood where I am staying evokes memories from post-invasion days in Baghdad, when…

They will be meeting officials, civil society groups and ordinary folk in different parts of the country. On their return they will be publishing a pamphlet about Iran, incorporating Emily’s art work from this trip and from her 2007 delegation to Iran.

The trip will cost over £2,000 each – donations to help cover the costs of travel and accommodation are very welcome.

This is a Justice Not Vengeance delegation.

TALKS

To contact Emily and Mil to book a talk in your…

In the last issue of PN, a Jewish reader wrote that she was ‘often very surprised and saddened at the extent of the anti-Jewish feeling and writing in the political Left, and in Peace News particularly’. We promised to reply this issue.

Jen asked whether there was ‘a visible and vocal place for Jews (or Arabs and Gentiles) in the peace movements in general, and in Peace News in particular, who believe in a Jewish…

On the long and extended train journey from Brighton to Liverpool I found the stomach to finally read the letter about my diary entry and I would like to support the editors in their response, primarily because the writer has specifically asked for a response.

On a very personal level, I feel more able to speak up at the moment because I am a really good jew, I go to synagogue every week, try to observe the Sabbath, love and am loved by a community that has been decimated. So, say…