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Anti-war activists have always pondered the irony of boxing champion Muhammad Ali having claimed conscientious objector status when he was drafted for the Vietnam War.

As one of the world's best and most highly paid-fighters, it was boldly hypocritical for Ali to simultaneously declare qualms of conscience about the government's brand of sanctioned, bloody violence but not about his personally favourite sort. The irony was not lost on Ali's draft board, which rejected his CO claim…

We all like to be entertained don't we? And isn't it great that the hero gets the girl, the poor get rich and the good guys (us) always win?

Yes. The enemy this time is the sweetest of all - Hollywood. After all, how could anyone criticise that which gives pleasure to millions? Well. Hollywood might have been making us laugh and cry for generations but beyond the glitz and glamour there's the reality. A reality of oppression, exploitation and propaganda. So go on - add your pennies…

The recent case of the Aubonne Bridge Two - the trial of Swiss police officers who cut two activists' climbing ropes during a blockade of the Evian G8 and caused incredible injuries - ended, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the acquittal of the police officers involved.

In the run-up to the trial, in a statement published by their support group, they acknowledged the contradictions in initiating a case against the police, calling it “reformist”, but went on to explain why, in this instance…

This occasional column is a continuation of the one I wrote for Nonviolent Action and it's timely to revisit an issue that arose at NvA.

I'm still smarting from the spiking of one of my columns because (as I recall) “it would cause offence to our American staff”. During the build-up to the invasion of Iraq I submitted a poem in place of prose. I hoped A hymn of hate to America might provoke a response. It did.

The poem was…

Readers - we have a tough one this issue, but I know you're all up to the task... The man we love to hate, the man we need to love to love... is that famous man of straw, the Rt Hon Jack (John Whitaker) Straw.

He was born on 3 August 1946 at Buckhurst Hill, Essex, and found his political voice early on. Lesser trots scattered as he shot to the top - becoming NUS president in 1969. He was called to the bar and briefly practised as a barrister, but soon he heard a higher calling, to…

This column feels honoured that Harry Mister - whose death (and life) are, rightly, marked at greater length elsewhere in this PN - was provoked into making his final contribution to the paper by something here to which he took exception. What was published was sent as part of a chatty, personal, longer letter, full of his usual mixture of warmth, exasperation, and bits of 5 Cally Road business.

He would have been amused that the issue he addressed - religiously-based and…

The crisis over the Muhammad cartoons is not, despite appearances, primarily about free speech, or the prohibition on depicting the Prophet. The damage to community relations is enormous, but there is a real opportunity before us to try to strengthen connections between Muslims and non-Muslims.

How do we know that the non-Muslim European uproar is not really about free speech? Look at the differing reactions to the two big decisions of Flemming Rose, culture editor of the Danish…

No Sweat is an activist,campaigning organisation, fighting sweatshop bosses, in solidarity with workers, worldwide. Sweatshop labour is modern global capitalism stripped bare. From the small, back-street sweat-shop to some of the biggest corporations in the world - child labour, forced overtime, poverty wages, unsafe conditions, harassment of women workers and intimidation of trade unionists are commonplace.

No Sweat stands for workers' solidarity. We are for:

In another life I was a teacher, and I recall that in the early nineties we used the tag Design Model to explain how injustice was embedded in formal educational institutions.

In the Scottish case the well-intentioned move to universal public education in the nineteenth century was underpinned by assumptions which gave us an institution (and buildings) designed for the a favoured group, which had the obvious characteristics of being white, male, middle class, able-bodied, straight,…

As the government opened the public phase of its energy review at the end of January, ministers were busy warning that “doing nothing is not an option”. They are right (for once!), although there are fears that the doom-mongering may also be an attempt to soften us up for a new generation of nuclear power stations, posed as a solution for meeting Britain's future energy needs.

However, in a comprehensive research study published earlier in the month, the Tyndall Centre for Climate…

Doors continue to swing open for Faslane 365, the ambitious plan to blockade Faslane naval base continuously for a year. It seems to be catching the imagination.

Perhaps one of the reasons for this lively response is the fact that these days people working for social change are showing an increased readiness to express solidarity across a wide range of connected problems and injustices, such as war, debt, poverty, abuse of asylum seekers, arms sales, drugs, corporate scams,…

Well gather round me people there's a story I'm gonna tell, about a brave young prophet, you should remember well.

Our man of the month is the alternative man of the moment, say his supporters. He goes by the name of George. Some call him “gorgeous”. And we can surely see why, his skin - taut and flushed like an orange, begging to be peeled... his balding pate - lending him a gravitas (or is that veritas) that is undercut by his wry humour, and his moustache - seemingly grown in…

Jerry Hartigan, peace activist extraordinaire, died on 9 January after months of treatment for Hodgkin's disease. Buddhists from the Milton Keynes Nipponzan Myohoji Peace Pagoda and people from many walks of life spoke at the funeral mass at his church, St Gregory's in Northampton.

Jerry was valued as a most hard-working, supportive member of Milton Keynes Peace Campaign, Milton Keynes Peace and Justice Centre and Milton Keynes Interfaith. He was unfailingly cheerful and generous…

Back in December, The Mole surfaced at London's City Hall - the glass monstrosity near Tower Bridge, home of ex-red Ken Livingstone. It was a “peace reception”, and guest of honour was US “peace mom” Cindy Sheehan - who's become a peace campaigner since her son was killed whilst taking part in the US military occupation of Iraq.

Her sincerity is not in doubt. But The Mole couldn't forget the strictures of Jeff Cloves in his column in the final issue of Nonviolent Action a…

The Activist Trauma Network is organising a day of discussion and networking on 4 February for all those involved in promoting practical mutual support in activist, campaigning and community groups.

We are planning to discuss our own chosen work in these areas and expand on ideas for projects, make new contacts and give/receive constructive feedback. For too long we have ignored the psychological impact of violence inflicted on activists in the course of their actions. We need to be…

It is a sad indictment of our so-called liberal democracy, and the ultimate irony of Tony Blair's constitutional reform agenda, that it is the unelected House of Lords who must stand up time and again protect our civil liberties, and the very foundations of British society. On the first day of the Report Stage, that's precisely what they did (again) with a triple salvo of amendments to the government's identity cards bill.

After months of campaigning and lobbying on this issue,…

There is strong public demand for debate about the future of Britain's nuclear weapons system, to which the government has recently appeared to acquiesce. But there are serious problems about the way in which it is trying to frame the debate.

The recent Greenpeace-commissioned MORI poll results show a popular preference for non-replacement, particularly when it is made clear how much taxpayers' money is actually spent on these weapons of mass destruction and what could be bought…

In October, the US marked the return of the remains of the 2,000th soldier killed in Iraq (a further 16,000 are reported wounded). Later in the month, and during November, campaigners marked the deaths of the Lancet-estimated 100,000 Iraqis; and at the end of November the British forces bodycount reached 98.

Almost three years after the invasion of Iraq began, homes and infrastructure continue to be damaged and vital services such as basic healthcare remain woefully…

I first met my dear friend Stuart “Mitch” Mitchel in 1965 when he was teaching at St Albans College of Further Education. Now, 40 years later, Mitch has died in his sleep (I'd guess he was in his early 80s but he regarded age as an irrelevance) and Beryl and their four children and seven grandchildren have lost a strikingly original, handsome and intelligent companion.

Mitch taught at the College until he retired and never ceased to be a polite, determined, constant irritant to the…

One of the most disturbing features of the recent commemoration for the people who were killed in the London bombings on 7 July was that the event was specifically a religious service.

It's bad enough that public events of that sort are so frequently sectarian in this way, hence excluding so many people - including many of those affected, whom the event is allegedly for. But in this case, it was even more inappropriate: here was an example of mass murder, with the perpetrators…