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May Day is workers' day

The struggle for the eight-hour day which began in the 19th century (and which goes on, even now) involved strikes and demonstrations throughout the world, and a coordinated day of action on 1 May 1886. In a related demonstration three days later, in the Haymarket in Chicago, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing eight. The anarchist organisers of the demonstration and the speakers were then arrested and prosecuted for the murders, on the grounds that the bomb…

Yes, we are facing daunting threats (as Noam Chomsky points out in his interview). At the same time, on an international scale there are social movements of a size and sophistication which have never been seen before, and in Britain there is a tangible restlessness and dissatisfaction with things as they are, and enormous opportunities for education and organising towards radical social change.

One part of making a better, stronger movement (along the lines sketched out in the last…

About: Shell to Sea is a grassroots campaign in County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland. The local community is pitted against a powerful consortium of oil companies, led by Shell, who want to build a high pressure gas pipeline and processing terminal in the area. The Irish government is totally in support of Shell and has treated its own people with contempt. Prime Minister Bertie Aherne specifically changed the law so that private companies can acquire land without the owner's permission…

What is Trident for? Launching the Trident debate on 14 March, former CND member and current foreign secretary Margaret Beckett said Britain needed nuclear weapons because we cannot be sure that “no power hostile to our vital national interests and in possession of nuclear weapons would emerge” over the next 50 years.

The crucial question then is what these “vital interests” are.

In November 1993, the then defence secretary Malcolm Rifkind said that in…

Just after Christmas, Audrey came by the Saturday morning peace vigil (where I sell PN) in Stroud High Street. It was the last time I saw her. As usual she was pushing her walker-shopper and immaculately turned- out: eyebrow pencil, a touch of lippy and clothes of indisputable style. As usual, she was apologetic about no longer being strong enough to stand in line with us and as usual, too, she appeared indomitable. In fact she was indomitable and her death was a shock to us vigilantes and…

The Home Office's spin doctors must be feeling pleased with themselves, given the way so much of the media fell for a lot of absolute nonsense just recently.

The government announced how many fraudulent passport applications had been found last year, and went on to say how many more-allegedly 10,000-hadn't been spotted. But there's no way at all for anyone to know how many false applications got through: by definition, they are unknown.

So what's going on? Well, this “…

Shank: With similar nuclear developments in North Korea and Iran, why has the United States pursued direct diplomacy with North Korea but refuses to do so with Iran?

Chomsky: To say that the United States has pursued diplomacy with North Korea is a little bit misleading. It did under the Clinton administration, though neither side completely lived up to their obligations. The Iranian issue I don't think has much to do with nuclear weapons frankly.

Nobody is saying Iran…

Aims and objectives:
Enough! is a major coalition effort to work for peace and freedom for Palestinians and Israelis alike. It begins this year, on the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War and the Israeli occupation of the rest of Palestine. Enough! is bringing together range of UK-based groups that value nonviolent campaigning.
Established: The Enough! coalition was launched on 30 January during a rally in central London. The coalition is 41 groups strong and growing: various…

In equal measures: hope and despair

This March marks the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and the start of the long-term military and economic occupation.

Tens of thousands of civilians and more than 3,000 coalition soldiers have been killed; thousands more have been horrifically wounded. Over the past four years people have lost their homes, their livelihoods, their families and their minds. Iraqi society is in ruins and the occupiers' political stability is on a…

The white poppy and red poppy debate continues here in Stroud but it's pointed me in an unexpected direction. The local Green Party (of which I'm not a member - or of any political party come to that) hosts occasional meetings/debates in a local cafe', and in January I was asked to talk about red and white poppies. This I was happy to do but was surprised to have been asked.

The subject of the evening was culture, identity, and difference and three Muslim women from Gloucester - and…

Many older readers will remember Len from his work from 1962 through to 1988 running the Film Van, a vehicle he drove around the UK during the summer months, appearing at showgrounds, market squares and many other locations around the country, where he would show anti-war films from the back of the van in the open air, campaigning for peace against war and violence. While showing the films, he would make peace books, leaflets and other material available, such as Peace News,…

It's taken some time to come to this conclusion, but The Mole is now totally convinced that there's a conspiracy to be uncovered about the story of the collapse of the two World Trade Centre towers in New York in September 2001.

There's a film going the rounds called Loose Change, explaining how the towers were brought down by previously placed explosives, not by the impact of the planes which people think hit them. In a Guardian article recently, Tim Sparke - the producer of that…

As US troops begin their “surge” into Baghdad, the Bush administration is preparing a scapegoat for the failure of this latest escalation: Iran.

After weeks of hints, a “dodgy dossier” accusing Tehran of supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents was finally presented in Baghdad on 11 February (but no paperwork was handed over, reporters weren't allowed cameras or tape recorders, and the three US presenters insisted on anonymity). On the one hand, the briefers said the “highest levels”…

Cassandra was working with Peace News on a spring semester internship via Ithaca College's London Center. She had just returned from a weekend trip with fellow students when, on 12 February, she died suddenly of natural causes. Peace News sends condolences to her friends and family.

Several years ago I was involved in an intensive period of peace campaigning. I protested at Faslane, blockaded an arms factory, disputed with directors at the BAE Systems shareholders' meeting, trespassed at the nuclear submarine base at Barrow, and vigilled outside the DSEi arms fair.

These were exciting and challenging experiences, but I came away from them with growing doubts about the peace groups I had worked with. How did the methods we adopted actually contribute towards…

London's 2012 Olympics have been taking a bit of a bashing in the mainstream press, but not being the type to jump on the bandwagon, PN attempts to take a rather more kindly look at this controversial project.

The modern Olympic Games began with the noble aim of promoting international understanding through sporting competition, and in the past the Games have seen country delegations as well as individual sportsmen and women promote understanding of some important political…

The big shopping splurge of the year is upon us. Are we buying war and injustice for gifts and ourselves? It is time to consider the implications of our shopping habits. Around the world people are speaking though their wallets: boycotts and ethical buying are powerful tools.

First of all, we can support international boycotts of corporations embedded in war and oppression. The global boycott of corporations that support the war in Iraq was launched in 2004 at the World Social Forum…

I spoke for the first time at the School of the Americas Watch protest at Fort Benning, Georgia, on Saturday 27 November, 2006. As a US Army veteran with 29 years of active and reserve duty who retired as a Colonel, I felt tremendous emotions addressing over 20,000 protesters from a stage in front of the gates of a major US military installation.

We were there as witnesses to a history of involvement in torture by graduates of the US military's School of the Americas (SOA), now known…

Tom Lehrer, the US scientist turned satirical singer-songwriter, gets “rediscovered” from time to time, delighting a new generation of admirers. But they have to discover his old material, rather than anything new, since he famously gave up writing satire in despair the day that Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. (Historical note: Kissinger was a warmongering US Secretary of State responsible for much of US policy in the Vietnam War era, winning the prize after the war stopped.)…

It might have been described in North Korea as a “happy” test, but North Korea's nuclear explosion on 9 October was deeply sad.

Sad for the people of North Korea who are oppressed while their preening “dear leader” Kim Jong Il beggars the economy and pours scarce resources into building plutonium weapons. Sad for the nuclear non-proliferation regime, widening its credibility gap and yet again showing how the “promise” of nuclear power can be diverted into nuclear weapons by…