I've always liked Shelley's life: its passion, poetry and politics.
When he went to Oxford he and his friend Hogg immediately set about writing a pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism. Shelley noted that "my mother fancies me on the High Road to Pandemonium" and she was proved right. Their pamphlet duly set the Master of their university college by his devout ears and he summarily expelled the pair of them. Thus, at age 19,Percy Bysshe Shelley's life was launched upon the…
Many of us at 5 Caledonian Road - and many other groups working for a better and war-free world - enjoyed the real privilege, comradeship - and challenge - of working with our good friend Howard for the past forty years.
Not for him the public status and esteem that many lesser people sought. For all his experience, knowledge and wisdom, he was always self-effacing and unassuming.
Yet in his loyalty, commitment and caring for the world he was a truly great man. He was great in…
b>In the old Resistance office in Washington DC, there used to be a sign on the door describing the politics found within. The Resistance is an organisation of young men who have returned their draft cards to the federal government and thus “non-cooperate
You've been in the peace movement a long time - what got you started?
In the 1950s I became a chaplain for Pax Christi - the first priest to take an interest apparently! I was rather bored for the first year, until I heard about conscientious objection in Spain and Portugal and became active in CO issues.
Later I got involved in CND - it never stopped! There's not just one issue - they all interconnect.
You are the current Chair of the Movement for the Abolition of…
In September 1961, at the age o f89, Bertrand Russell was sent to prison. He had been prosecuted for his involvement in the demonstrations against nuclear weapons organised by the Committee of 100. If a sentence of one week (reduced from two months on health grounds) was scarcely sufficient to make him a martyr, it was enough to cement his international reputation as a crusader for peace.
That crusade had begun for him as early as the First World War, when he had been a conscientious…
