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In 1795... there were treason trials and transportations, while the threat of execution was stayed only by juries who refused to condemn their countrymen for their opinions. ...the actual London populace - faced with unemployment and shortages of bread as the French war continued - were far less amenable to the usual state slogans. “On the day the King went to open the parliament... the crowd which was immense, Hissed and groaned and called out No Pitt - No War - Peace Peace, Bread Bread.”…

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Peter Cadogan was once called “the England”. He campaigned most expelled socialist in effectively on many fronts for peace, justice and human rights. His most important mentors were William Blake, Gandhi and John MacMurray.

Peter Cadogan was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1921 where he witnessed the poverty and humiliation of workers during the Depression - something that drove him all his life.

After working as an insurance clerk, he served in the Air Sea Rescue Service from…

The tireless campaigner for peace and justice, Peggie Preston, died suddenly just after her 84th birthday. Peggie will be fondly remembered across the many campaigns and communities of which she was a part; she committed her life to finding political and personal solutions to poverty and oppression.

Born in India, Peggie grew up in Scotland, and travelled south to work in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, but, horrified by the merciless bombing, she later joined the Quakers. By the…

Here are a couple of books of interest to PN readers; seasonal gifts perhaps? Both are doorstoppers of around 500 pages and both are by blokes who are, to quote 1066 and All That, “a good thing”.

In the 1970s I wrote for Pete Frame's celebrated music mag Zigzag but Pete has since become more widely known for his series of superbly researched and drawn Rock Family Trees. These are the product of his meticulous research and obsessive interest in the minutiae of popular music in…

You may or may not have noticed that since 10 June - for over five months - the people of Belgium have struggled on without a government.

Well, we say “struggled on”. The political deadlock in the country has been a factor in declining “consumer confidence” apparently (does this mean people are spending less on things they don't need, and borrowing less money that they can't pay back?), but otherwise the people of Belgium have managed to keep breathing, eating, feeding themselves…

Chapter 7 is the planning arm of The Land Is Ours, which campaigns to provide access to land and its resources for all citizens.

We take our name from Chapter 7 of Agenda 21 (the 1992 Earth Summit Declaration) which states that countries should strive for “access to land for all households... through environmentally sound planning”.

The English planning system is structured (probably deliberately) so as to create scarcities of farmhouses and building land, which mean that…

Throughout the court case the people of Liverpool came up trumps, a higgledy-piggledy tapestry of different characters and communities and politics: the Catholics with their rituals of remembrance, the ravers with their repetitive antimilitarist beats, the Quakers with their silence, the local pagans with their reverence and mischief, the local socialists and feminists, the Buddhist nuns and monks and punks from further afield. All were present to support four women on trial for disarming a…

A great deal of ink is being spilled across Britain over “gun and knife crime”. As Kate MacIntosh, vice-chair of Scientists for Global Responsibility and former chair of Architects for Peace, points out in her lucid essay in this issue, anti-social behaviour is in part a response to the built environment, and the degree to which communities are permitted self-government and participatory democracy in the formation and use of the built environment.

This is about sensitive…

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In November we are all reminded of past wars. I think that, in the midst of this remembrance, we also need to think of those who suffer now for opposing present and future wars.

Many years ago, I was acquitted, along with 13 other people, after a trial under a silly law called the Incitement to Disaffection Act.

The acquittal came on 10 December, and ever since then I've celebrated with a party on or near Human Rights Day (10 December).

One year a couple came to the…

The British National Party came to have their annual meeting in our patch last November.

I got stopped by the police for having a scarf round my face and was held down an alley way, shouted at and pushed and threatened until I took it off and gave my details - right by the BNP security men.

I felt the police put my life in danger by asking me to unmask in front of the BNP while the fascists took photos. And the police made me shout out my name and address.

Over the 40…

The Camp for Climate Action at Heathrow has been hailed, rightly, as one of the most important protests of our time.

Climate change is not simply one of the greatest threats facing future generations of humanity, it is one of the greatest threats facing the people of the Global South, whose homes and livelihoods are being destroyed today - as a consequence of the power and greed of Western corporations and states, and the apathy and irresponsibility of Western consumers.

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I have been asked to write this column alternating with Jeff Cloves who lives in the lovely town of Stroud. I live in the London Borough of Newham. Anyone who knows both areas will be aware of the contrast.

Newham - home of DSEi

One distinction of Newham is that every two years we are the unwilling hosts of the DSEi Arms Fair at the ExCel Exhibition Centre, at Custom House E16. Despite unceasing opposition all year round, it is due to come back again this year starting on 11…

The British legal system has begun finally to re-consider the conviction of the two Libyans jailed for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which came down over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, causing the deaths of 270 civilians in all.

The suspicion at the time of the bombing was that the Lockerbie bombing might have been retaliation for the destruction of an Iranian civilian airliner, a year earlier, on 3 July 1987, by US sea-to-air missiles, causing the deaths of 290 civilians…

Over 20 years ago I came down from St Albans by hired coach to take part in a demonstration at the US bomber base at Fairford. Now we live 15 miles from the base which became the focus of concerted anti-war protests after Iraq was attacked by “the allies” in 2003. Plus ca change eh?

Stroud lay/lies under the flight path of the US bombers bound for Iraq and local protesters were quick off the mark to set up camp at Fairford and The Powers That Be equally quick to bring the full force…

Since Wrexham Against War(now Wrexham Peace & Justice Forum) came into being in 2002, we've made a conscious effort to document what we do - through photographs, saved press releases, a website and our newsletter. Wrexham Peace and Justice News has now been going for four years, and the next issue will be our 21st.

We haven't always succeeded in our documentation project; for instance, keeping the photos up to date on the website in the days before photo-sharing…

My name is Sonia, I am 12 years old and I am a Muslim. 5 years ago I formed a group called children against the war. When I was eight years old, I wrote a letter to Mr Bush and Mr Blair pleading for them not to start a war in Iraq because it would destroy Children's lives.

Today I feel angry and sad because the war has caused nothing but misery for Iraqi children. Thousands and thousands of children have lost their lives; Thousands have fled to neighbouring countries with their…

This was an interesting assignment as my local group Hastings Against War just found a volunteer website maker to update our web page and needed to clarify what we wanted changed. We felt that an easy-to-remember domain address, an uncluttered home page with up-to-date contact information and notes on how to join in our events would help recruit new supporters, especially young people. So how have some other local groups fared with web sites? Bangor Peace and Justice…

“Our aim is to support activists in educating themselves in the issues which confront those struggling for peace and justice”.

Based in Brighton, the site is a worldwide news compilation service with the latest breaking news, archives and information sheets. This is an invaluable time-saving service for activists. Let these people do the trawling for you! Admittedly you are relying on their choice, but it would be hard to fault them so far: for example follow the Haditha hearings…