- America's largest annual gathering of peace and human rights activists took place last month when over 20,000 people demonstrated at Fort Benning - the US Army's training school for Latin American military and security personnel. Formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA), it has been renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) although its role remains the same: providing training for the military officers who have gone on to commit human rights abuses in Latin America. Organisations from around the world, have repeatedly called for its closure since copies of torture manuals used at the school were discovered. In June this year, 203 members of the US House of Representatives voted to close the scandal-ridden school - just six votes shy of the margin of victory.
- Meanwhile on 11 November around 120,000 people participated in demonstrations across Australia calling for action on climate change by the Australian government - which, like the US, refused to sign the Kyoto treaty. Organised by “Walk Against Warming”, the event took place in sixty different locations with 50,000 marching in Melbourne alone.
- And the really good news.... Campaign Against Arms Trade can claim yet another victory after Liverpool City Council voted unanimously to take its pension fund out of arms investments. The Council has written to the Merseyside Pension Fund asking for a clean investment policy that excludes arms companies. Liverpool is the first council in the UK to have made the move but we reckon it could be just the tip of the iceberg... See http://www.caat.org.uk for information on how to get your local council to disinvest.
Topics: Anti-war action, Arms trade
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