Buzzy bees at Aberporth drone testing site Photo: Lotte Reimer
Initiated by Anonymous activists, who pulled out at the last minute because they forgot to ask their mums if they could have a party, the protest went ahead with local people, singers, Rebel Clowns and other busy bees, who buzzed in solidarity with drones trying to clear their name.
Said one local drone: ‘It’s tough enough that there are so few of us these days, with pesticides and whatnot, but tarnishing our…
The ‘By the Waters’ performance in Chapter Gallery, Cardiff was conceived by Cardiff-based British-Iraqi artist Rabab Ghazoul to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the second Gulf War. Unsure how to mark the day, Ghazoul decided to create an event that would offer a contemplative space that addressed mourning and remembrance while allowing people to consider and experience in a different way.
Written specifically for the event, the text of Ghazoul’s six-part…
Wales in Scotland Photo: twitter user @ScrapTrident
At the Wales Peace Institute conference in Aberystwyth on 23 March, she said: ‘Wales has a close affinity with Flanders where so many young Welsh men were killed. The Flemish government has made the spreading of peace one of the most important aims of the 1914 remembrance project. The overwhelming majority considered it a government duty to inform people of the horrors and madness of the First World War,…
Street choirs Photo: Ieuan Ellis
The Institute
On 23 March in the Morlan Centre, Aberystwyth, there will be a conference of the ongoing campaign for setting up a Wales Peace Institute, ‘Academi Heddwch Cymru’. Speakers will include Jill Evans MEP, Dr Robin Gwyndaf (vice-president of the Fellowship of Reconciliation) and professor Jenny Pearce of the department of peace studies in Bradford University.
In October 2009, a…
Aberystwyth Women in Black Photo: Keith Morris
From a Machynlleth production of the Vagina Monologues, via flash-mob dancing in Lampeter, Carmarthen, Swansea and Cardiff, to Women in Black’s silent vigil in Aberystwyth, Wales was very much part of One Billion Rising. Two women die by the hands of their partners every week in the UK, say Women’s Aid, with one incident of domestic violence reported to the police every minute.
No wonder Aberystwyth Women in Black’s silent vigil…
The vigil recalled when two million people spoke up — and those in power in Westminster turned a deaf ear.
At the Cardiff vigil, Jill Gough, national secretary of CND Cymru, said: ‘Wales was in uproar in the weeks leading up to that demonstration. The phone rang continuously…. It did feel as if the whole world was on the streets for peace on 15 February’.
Adam Johannes of Cardiff Stop the War remembered: ‘I will never forget the hope we all felt that…
CND Cymru urges supporters and all who care about peace and justice in the world to put the date of the next Academi Heddwch Cymru/Wales Peace Institute conference in their diaries: 10am – 4.30pm, 23 March (Y Morlan, Aberystwyth).
Chaired by Mererid Hopwood and Stephen Thomas, speakers will include Jill Evans MEP, Dr. Robin Gwyndaf (vice-president of Cymdeithas y Cymod) and professor Jenny Pearce of the department of peace studies in Bradford University.
Over 1,500…
I wish I could find the words to express my anger and frustration at this Tory government’s headlong rush to establish nuclear power stations. Now they are spending £300m on a study to build a new fleet of nuclear submarines which would eventually cost the taxpayer £10bn. They have declared their intention to build five new nuclear power stations which directly affect Wales: Wylfa poses a threat to North Wales and the Irish Sea, and Hinkley and Oldbury menace the South Wales coastline.…
On 11 December 2012, as MPs in London prepared to debate British involvement in drone warfare, Wrexham Peace & Justice Forum (WPJF) held an information stall about drones – unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Hundreds of leaflets were handed out to passing shoppers, workers and Yale College students.
Two leaflets focused on Welsh concerns over drones, which are being developed and tested at Parc Aberporth. The airspace above 40,000 people living in 500 square miles of West Wales…
‘The state is not a person, it is all of us,
And we all have to choose the way it goes.
Do we choose life?
Do we choose death?
Do we collude in murder?’
(From Trident: a British War Crime by Camilla Cancantata)
On 16 October, on the steps of the Senedd in Cardiff, people came and sang, other people came and spoke out, and a gaggle of Rebel Clowns and three great big red dragons staged the downfall of a nuclear…
It’s 5am. In Parc y Llyn, post-apocalyptic ghost-town of Aberystwyth’s questionable retail expectations, a coach-load of demonstrators clutches banners and sandwich boxes. A motley crew of students and trade unionists right enough, but united in our determination to speak back to an unfeeling government.
It’s 20 October, and we’re heading for ‘A future that works’, the TUC March in London. It’s a 12-hour round-trip but we have to express our feelings of frustration in the face of the…
Newport made history on Remembrance Day, when a white poppy wreath was laid alongside red poppy wreaths on the invitation of the local British Legion branch, after being approached by Wales Green Party leader, Pippa Bartolotti.
In Aberystwyth, the town council laid a white poppy wreath for the ninth year running, and the town of Narberth held a remembrance service for all victims of war, laying a white-and-red poppy wreath.
In late September, more than 300 children from 10 schools in and around Wrexham took part in locally-organised 'World Peace Days' focused on peace, conflict resolution and nonviolent resistance.
Signing singing lesson during Wrexham Peace Days 2012 Photo: Paul LowndesThe three-day event (20-22 September) took place in a school on one day and then on the library green. Grassroots activists, musicians, poets, artists, cooks, holistic therapists, photographers and film-makers…
The 'China syndrome' is a 1970s term for a catastrophic reactor meltdown into the earth's crust – 'all the way to China'. As the new Chinese bid for the proposed Wylfa B nuclear power station is considered, the phrase may bring to mind another scenario – a catastrophic meltdown of democratic accountability, because democracy and transparency are the first casualties of the drive for 'new nuclear'.
The sudden departure of the previous operators, Horizon, from the troubled project…
In the Senedd on 19 June, Wales’ first minister, Labour’s Carwyn Jones, said he would welcome Britain’s Trident nuclear missile submarines if an SNP government kicks the fleet out of an independent Scotland. Come to Pembroke, Carwyn said, Milford Haven awaits. Oh boy, if he did....
The peace movement in Wales reacted in outrage across its diverse and formidable range. Peace activist Mabon ap Gwynfor instigated an online petition urging the national assembly to oppose the idea of…
