At the time of going to press (and almost a month after she died) the exact cause of Pauline Campbell’s death remains unclear. At her funeral in Whitchurch a former work colleague said simply: “She died of a broken heart”.
Beyond the church and at the cemetery, fellow peace and prison campaigners Joan Meredith and Helen John stood silently holding a single banner. It read “Home Office Responsible for Pauline’s Death”. Helen John explained “Pauline’s life could have been turned…
After a vigorous campaign to defend him, Nottingham University staff member and peace activist Hicham Yezza was freed from detention on 15 June and the threat of deportation lifted.
After a university staff member found the manual on his computer, Hicham, editor of the university peace magazine, Ceasefire, was arrested on campus on 21 May, along with 22-year old research student Rizwaan Sabir. Both were held under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading an al-Qa’eda training…
On 18 March, Catholic Worker Fr. Martin Newell was sentenced by Stratford Magistrates Court to five days jail for refusal to pay £440 in fine, costs, compensation and victim support.
The penalty was imposed on him for “criminal damage” during a “Rivers of Blood” demonstration at the DSEi arms fair in East London in September 2007.
Fellow Catholic Worker Zelda Jeffries, appearing on the same charge for the same action, also refused to pay the £240 penalty.…
On 14 August, Marcus Armstrong, a 46-year-old anti-war protester who entered the cockpit of a US Air Force plane at Prestwick Airport, Scotland, a year ago was imprisoned for 28 days for “entering a restricted zone” and “trespassing” in a military aircraft.
Weapons inspectorsMarcus entered Prestwick with seven other Trident Ploughshares “weapons inspectors” to investigate claims that the airport was being used to refuel US aircraft supplying arms for the Israeli invasion of Lebanon…
On 2 July, former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu was sentenced to one year in prison (6 months suspended) for fourteen violations of a ban on talking to foreigners - actually, foreign reporters.
This ban was one of several imposed on Mordechai on his release in 2004 from a full 18-year prison sentence for telling the world about Israel's nuclear weapons. The Israeli justice ministry justified the sentence in terms of protecting national security. Mordechai insists that…
On 1 May Fr Martin Newell of the London Catholic Worker was sentenced to 14 days in prison in relation to an anti-war Christian service, wall-writing and symbolic grave-digging at the Ministry of Defence on 28 December 2004.
Martin had refused to pay compensation of £660 to the MoD, after he was found guilty of criminal damage at Horseferry Road Magistrates Court.
Before sentencing Martin said: “I work with refugees. I see the effects of wars daily. Jesus said `whatever you do…
Nukewatch US write ... A US Army veteran and member of a Minnesota Catholic Worker Community was releasedfrom the Duluth Federal Prison Camp on 16 February, after completing an eight-month sentence for damaging a nuclear missile silo in North Dakota.
Michael Walli, 57, was among a group of three pacifists who symbolically dis-armed a Minuteman III nuclear missile silo in June 2006 (see PN2475-6). The three, dressed as clowns, broke the lock off the fence…
The one-day strategy conference, organised by Barbed Wire Britain (BWB), an Oxford based network advocating an end to refugee and migrant detention, was held on 14 October at London's Human Rights Action Centre (Amnesty International UK). The event was well attended, and morning plenary session heard activists speak strongly on recent successes, and lessons learned from the ongoing campaigns.
Topical areas included lessons learnt from detainees' struggles,the children in detention…
On 18 October, prison welfare campaigner and retired schoolteacher Pauline Campbell was arrested at the gates of HMP Eastwood Park after refusing to move from the entrance road.
The women's prison, near Gloucester, was targeted following the death of 28-year-old Lisa Anne Woodhall on 8 October. Despite being identified as being at risk of self-harm she was found hanging in her cell. This was the thirteenth time Pauline Campbell has been arrested since the death of her 18-year old-…
Peace News contributor John La Forge (Nukewatch US) and 28 others have begun sentences of between one and six months in US Federal prisons.
This follows their conviction for “crossing the line” during a demonstration against the School of the Americas (WHISC) in November 2005. John and the others would welcome your letters and support. Write to him (include the number!):
John LaForge: 03213-090, FCI Duluth, PO Box 1000, Duluth, MN 55814, USA Details for all the other…23 March, London: After a two week hearing, Judge Justice Tugendhat at the High Court rejects claims by Louis Austin and Geoffrey Saxby for compensation for their “right to liberty” under the European Convention on Human Rights having been breached on May Day 2001 when police trapped them with thousands of protesters in Oxford Circus for seven hours without access to toilets, food or water. The judge found the police had been “duty bound” to impose an absolute cordon to prevent violence and…
Central Scotland MSP Carolyn Leckie was sentenced to seven days imprisonment for refusing to pay a £100 fine for taking part in a blockade of Faslane naval base back in February 2002. Jane Tallents from Trident Ploushshares, commented, “Sadly, while the vast majority of our politicians in Scotland are shamefully silent and inactive about Britain’s weapons of mass destruction at Faslane, there are brilliant exceptions like Carolyn.” A major blockade of Faslane will take place on 4…
On Tuesday 21 April, Mordechai Vanunu was released after spending 18 years in prison. He had been jailed after divulging Israel's secret nuclear activities and capabilities to the British Sunday Times in 1986.
With one swift blow, he undid Israel's policy of “strategic ambiguity” whereby Israel neither accepted nor denied the existence of nuclear weapons. Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and does not allow inspections of its nuclear sites.
Unbowed…In late January, 28 peace activists were sentenced to a cumulative five years and ten and a half months in prison, five years probation, and US$8,500 in fines as a result of a nonviolent protest at the School of the Americas - now officially called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation - in Fort Benning, Georgia, USA.
Defendands process to court.
The protesters were arrested for trespassing after walking onto Fort Benning…
