Howard Clark

9 June 2014News

On 17 May, 100 friends and colleagues of the British pacifist author and activist Howard Clark gathered at a ceremony organised by Peace News Trustees in Conway Hall, London.

At the close of the event, Howard’s daughter Violeta said that when she was asked at school what work her father did, she hadn’t known what to say – he seemed to do some teaching, some writing, some peace work: ‘I thank you because now I know.’

During the preceding two hours, we heard from friends and collaborators, including April Carter, Diana Francis, Bob Overy and Michael Randle, who testified to Howard’s intellectual capabilities, dedication, and talent as an editor.…

18 March 2014News

On 1 February, over 300 people squeezed into an auditorium in southern Madrid designed for half that number, to remember and celebrate the life of Howard Clark, a key figure in Peace News and War Resisters’ International (WRI) for several decades.

The evening event, organised by WRI, was attended by peace activists from across Europe, as well as many folk from Madrid, where Howard has lived with his partner Yolanda Juarros Barcenilla since 1996. (Yolanda organised a weekend programme…

21 February 2014Comment

Howard Clark, reviews a Bradford University report by Nick Lewer and Oliver Ramsbotham on ‘humanitarian intervention’, written during the break-up of Yugoslavia.

What gives people – citizens or intergovernmental bodies – the right to intervene in a situation, and what considerations should govern this intervention?

... The first half [of the Lewer-Rambotham report] deals with non-coercive humanitarian intervention. While forms of civilian intervention aren’t likely to have the enormous consequences of military intervention, they too need to be assessed according to clear criteria. Marko Hren, commenting on ‘war tourism’ in former-Yugoslavia, talks…

21 February 2014Comment

Howard's proposal for a network of nonviolence study and action groups

It’s still unbelievable that he has gone. Howard Clark has been a key figure in Peace News for several decades – as a co-editor, collaborator, contributor, (re-)organiser, trustee, director, defender. His 1971 essay Making Nonviolent Revolution, which we re-published as a pamphlet two years ago – over his modest objections – with a new, very valuable afterword by Howard, remains one of the most important explanations published of the liberatory politics that PN aims to…

21 February 2014Feature

We revisit Howard Clark’s ideas on nonviolent strategy from 1978

Writing in the afterglow of a beautiful day of guerrilla nonviolence at Torness, I’m no longer daunted by the question with which I’ve been shadow-boxing these past few weeks: ‘exactly how do we intend to reverse the nuclear power programme?’

“The anti-nuclear movement already has its equivalents of the charka”

On that site, I saw for myself the achievement of the people who occupied Half Moon Cottage in creating a symbol for us to rally around, and also in…

19 December 2013Comment

Our dear friend and comrade Howard Clark was a mainstay of Peace News since the 1970s and of War Resisters' International (WRI) since the 1980s.

Howard's sudden death has left us shocked and bereaved, and with an irrational sense of outrage that he has left us so unexpectedly. He was only 63 and in the middle of helping organise next summer’s WRI conference in South Africa. He leaves a gap which others must strive to fill. It will be difficult, and the following overview and appreciation of his life as a peace activist, organiser and researcher will give some indication of the scale of the challenge.

But before reviewing his…

5 December 2013Feature

by Howard Clark. An updated edition of the classic 70s pamphlet. Published by Peace News, July 2012

“My vision of nonviolent revolution isn’t of a united mass movement sweeping away the institutions of the status quo, but of people acting in their own situations to take control of their own lives and asserting different values, values which have been systematically suppressed.” Howard Clark, from the introduction.

For this 2012 edition of Making Nonviolent Revolution, Howard Clark has added an afterword referring to the experience of the Spanish indignad@s (an inspiration…

5 December 2013Feature

Howard Clark and Penny Stone at the opening of the international seminar War starts in Luleå, Sweden, 2011.

5 December 2013Feature

For a photo archive of Howard see here. An online book of condolences is available at War Resisters International

29 November 2013News

29 Nov 2013: It is with deep sadness that we announce that last night Howard Clark, long-time collaborator and supporter of Peace News, passed away.

Howard worked for Peace News during the 1970s and 80s and remained a constant supporter, board member, and friend. In 2012, Peace News reprinted Howard's seminal text, Making Nonviolent Revolution.

He was also Coordinator for War Resisters International for many years and more lately WRI Chair, and committed to many other peace initiatives. Howard lived in Spain with his partner, Yolanda Juarros Barcenilla, and…

1 September 2005News

The G8 coincided with Spain's most famous fiestas at San Fermin in which youths dressed in white with red neckerchiefs run with bulls in the streets of Pamplona. Antimilitarists from KEMMOC (Movement of Conscientious Objectors) linked the two by launching a campaign against arms manufacture at a Sener factory on the outskirts of Bilbao.

Sener, who make missiles, guidance systems and turbojets, is one of 14 arms manufacturers supported by Basque government investment. Referring to…

1 June 2005News

If the headline news is of Spain withdrawing troops from Iraq and Bush giving premier Zapatero the cold shoulder, practical Spanish cooperation with the US and NATO remains firm.

While anti-militarists announced a series of actions - “hot May” - at military installations throughout the country, the month began with defence minister Jose' Bono meeting his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld, agreeing to send more Spanish troops to NATO's mission in Afghanistan, to offer training in Spain…

1 December 2004Feature

On 10 June, the fifth anniversary of UN Resolution 1244 establishing the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), protesters in Prishtina raised their red cards to tell UNMIK it was time to leave. Throughout the city their posters proclaimed six principles of nonviolence stated by Martin Luther King.

The demonstration was not very big: it had been pretty much kept out of the news in advance, and afterwards was to be downplayed by the powers-that-be--both local and…

1 December 2004Feature

After the NATO bombings, the world's most powerful intergovernmental organisations involved themselves in the administration of post-war Kosovo--not just UN and its subsidiaries or NATO, but the OSCE (for “democratisation”) and the EU and World Bank (for “economic regeneration”).Most of the major international humanitarians NGOs were also keen to be seen in post-war Kosovo. Per capita more money has been spent in Kosovothan in any other peace or humanitarian operation, and far more soldiers…

1 December 2004Feature

Howard Clark argues that preparing to intervene in an emergency is no substitute for addressing the roots of war, and that, ultimately, peace depends on the people.

“Post-intervention peace operations” is the theme for this section of Peace News; an apt topic for the final edition of the paper to be co-published with War Resisters' International.

Our focus is less on classical peace-keeping, where the UN deploys a lightly armed force with the consent of the conflicting parties. Rather, while providing information on the whole contemporary peace-keeping scene, we examine in more depth the latest generation of “peace operations”, where…