On 26 June, Seifeddine Rezgui, a 23-year-old student, murdered 38 people at a beach resort in Sousse, Tunisia. 30 of the dead were British nationals. Subsequent news reports have noted Rezgui received training at an Islamic State (IS – also known as ISIS) base in western Libya.
Speaking to the BBC a few days later, David Cameron argued IS…
The real story of the Iran nuclear deal is that, after over a decade of denial, the United States finally gave up on its attempt to stop Iran enriching uranium. This isn’t how the mainstream media in the Global North portrayed the agreement, but it’s the heart of the matter.
We can see this clearly if we look back at the history of Iranian offers and US rejections over the last 13 years. The US could have had a deal in…
As one member of a popular committee in Silwan [on the outskirts of Jerusalem] observed: ‘A major challenge is the coordination of nonviolent activities. Some focus on the [Israeli Separation] Wall, others on checkpoints and others on settlements. There is no coordination like there was in the first intifada.’
Underpinning the different challenges organisers identified as obstacles was what many observed to be a pervasive lack of trust in leadership at any level, including…
Many people justify the destruction of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 70 years ago. Though brutal and indiscriminate, many people believe the atomic bombings shortened the Pacific war, and reduced the total number of lives lost.
In fact, there is a strong case that the US determination to use the bomb lengthened the war.
It is…
On 7 July, the Hastings anti-roads group Combe Haven Defenders received an urgent message on our Facebook page: a big tree was being chopped down in Hollington Valley. I immediately jumped in a taxi, headed to the site, and sat under the tree.
The tree-fellers had to stop work, the police were called, and thus began a five-hour standoff.
The planned fate of this particular tree – a large…
Within days of being elected, the new Conservative government made it clear that a new drive against ‘extremism’ will be a major part of its legislative programme. Universities were already legally obliged to monitor their students and report any suspicions of ‘people being drawn into terrorism’, under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act passed in January.
Conservative home secretary Theresa May introduced the act by declaring that, due to the rise of the terror group ISIS, the…
The overall majority gained by the Conservatives took a lot of us by surprise. Many were expecting a minority Labour win, with some support from the Scottish National Party. Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats had the worst election night since their formation.
There’ve been many attempts to analyse Labour’s failure to win the election – were they too left or too right? Is he ‘Red Ed’ and a ‘class war zealot’ or middle-of-the-road ‘austerity-lite’? Was it the media that ‘won it’? It…
Cameron remains in Downing Street, now with a majority (having successfully cannibalised his former LibDem partners). A lot of people are understandably depressed by this, and now to top it all off Nigel Farage hasn’t even resigned as leader of UKIP.
FFS politics, give us a break.
We don’t have much say in what policies they try to force upon us – after all we had ‘Vote Tory for capitalism and austerity’ and ‘Vote Labour for the same, only a bit less and our heart isn’t…
Abandoned power station in Charleroi, Belgium. Photo: Tom Redd
In December, the centre of Paris will be taken over by campaigners demanding that their governments make a legally-binding pledge to tackle climate change. ‘Coalition Climat 21’ will be organising actions in the run-up to, and during, the 21st United Nations climate change ‘conference of the parties’ (COP21) from 30 November – 11 December.
Hopes are high that the Paris negotiations will end with a universal, legally-…
Robb Johnson, singer, song writer
The big news is that our entertainment at this year’s Peace News Summer Camp features not one but two amazing performers. Robb Johnson, the brilliant radical folk singer-songwriter whose gig was a highlight, if not the highlight, of last year’s camp; and the sensational John Hegley, one of Britain’s most innovative and popular comic poets and songwriters.
Peace News Summer Camp gives grassroots activists a chance to come together…
Pregnant woman at a public Women
Infants and Children clinic, Virginia, USA.
photo: Ken Hammond (USDA)
I know what they say about poor girls.
Tryin’ to get pregnant to keep a boy around.
Havin’ babies to get a welfare cheque.
Trappin’ men by tellin’ ’em they’re on the pill when they’re not.
I don’t even recognize what people say about poor girls though.
Trying to get pregnant?
All my life I’ve been with girls and women doing everything…
30 April: ‘Came across these 4 young punks in charge of clearing out debris in their
own neighborhood today. This is an all ages show everyone.’ photo: Yuva Ekta
Nepal was hit by a long-predicted earthquake (7.8 on the Richter scale) on 25 April. Over 8,000 people were killed. There were over 100 aftershocks, including a 7.3 quake on 12 May. Yuva Ekta (Youth Unite), a Kathmandu punk band, used its Facebook page to communicate with like-minded folk inside and outside Nepal.…
Borras and Holt community protection camp. Photo: Kelvin Mason
The newly-elected Conservative government is set to follow through on David Cameron’s infamous 2014 pledge to go ‘all out for fracking’. They will also cancel subsidies for new onshore wind turbines. Allowing free-market dogma to dictate ecocide rather than plan a sustainable energy future, this government is contemptuous of the greatest moral challenge of our age, climate change.
So dire is the impact of human activity…
15 May: die-in outside the home office to protest against migrant deaths in the Mediterranean sea. Photo: CPT
Did you think that, as a British citizen, you would be allowed to live in Britain with whoever you chose to marry, however rich or poor you were?
Since 2012, the home office has required British passport holders married to, or in a civil partnership with, someone born outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to earn at least £18,600 a year before their foreign spouse can…
2008 photo of re-elected Conservative MP, and former Ecologist editor,
Zac Goldsmith, who was at the launch of COIN’s report on the centre-right in 2013. Photo: Annie Mole
The UK election results on 7 May have left many climate activists dejected as they had pinned their hopes on the Labour party championing climate action over the next five years. But what should they do now?
Climate activists have traditionally been radically-minded, focused on the transformations needed to…
The debate about why the Labour party lost the Westminster election matters to everyone struggling for social change in Britain. How this fiasco is understood affects our confidence and our strategies (more on this below) – whatever our attitudes to the Labour party.
If it was true that Ed Miliband’s pale blue austerity-lite Labourism was too radical…
New folk make up half the organising team for this year’s Peace News Summer Camp, bringing new energy and new ideas. We put on the camp, which has been going since 2009, to give grassroots activists a chance to come together and recharge batteries while sharing experiences, ideas and strategies – in a family-friendly, off-grid, low-impact way.
Summer Camp is designed to encourage the things that make for a better society: friendliness, connection and community;…
Climate Warriors blockade of Newcastle coal port in Australia, on 17 October 2014.
Photo: 350.org
Since international climate negotiations began a quarter of a century ago, annual greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 60 per cent.
As we approach yet another climate summit this November in Paris, the question for the climate protection movement is not just can some kind of agreement be reached, but how can we reverse the continuing climate catastrophe over the next quarter-…
