The nine activists who decommissioned the EDO arms factory in Brighton in January, in protest against the supply of British arms to Israel and the assault on Gaza, are now facing the much vaguer charge of “conspiracy to cause criminal damage” as well as the charge of criminal damage itself, following a court hearing on 16 February.
The charge of burglary was dropped against all nine. Because of this change, the three activists who were arrested outside the factory, and who caused…
British anti-war groups active in the first years of the new century, in the era of the “war on terror”, are united predominantly by opposition to particular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Protest events have been composed of a great array of activists, from feminists to Islamic patriarchs, the Liberal Democrats to Socialist Workers Party, from the deeply religious to the entirely secular, and from bereaved military families to supporters of the Palestinian cause.
So anti-war…
“Already a legend, this awesome creation has manifested itself at countless gatherings, events, festivals and protests the length and breadth of the UK. There are thousands upon thousands of hungry campaigners who have feasted on these top-notch meat-free burgers at all hours of the day, all points of the compass. Truly a legend.”Vegan Environmental Awards
Whilst there is a long way to go to catch up with Peace News, Veggies of Nottingham have covered a lot of history. From…
The most firmly held myth of our time is that no society can exist without a government and that we need the state to protect us – including from environmental destruction.
Let’s begin by not confusing two terms. Anarchy is the condition of a society without a ruler. Anarchism is a rich nineteenth-century political philosophy. Anarchists are not against democracy, they want to deepen it and make it our servant, not our master.
While it does reject the idea of governments…
As Israel commits brutal war crimes in Gaza, it also continues to covet the land of Palestinians living in the West Bank. The 790km-long apartheid wall snakes through the occupied West Bank annexing Palestinian land to Israel.
Israel is also progressing with the annexation of the entire eastern section of the West Bank, known as the Jordan Valley, the most fertile region of the West Bank, which constitutes a further 28.5% of the land inside the 1967 green line.
Israel already…
I thought this would be a vox pop bit in Peace News but as it goes, I am beginning to feel weirder and weirder about walking around with a pen and a little notebook in my hand asking people questions about their lives.
I had it all planned; I was to do what I generally like doing best anyway – wander around the village early in the morning, say my usual “namaste” to all, most of whom are small land holding farmers.
Last week I received some ripe cucumbers and pears from…
Over the past month or so, in the wake of Israel’s brutal bombardment of Gaza, the UK’s student population has witnessed a widespread political awakening. Campus occupations or sit-ins have been staged at some 20 universities around the country, by hundreds if not thousands of students, demanding action to help the people of Gaza and an end to the complicity of UK educational institutions in Israel’s crimes.
On the evening of 28 January, around 200 students had just finished…
The purpose of writing a letter is that it should be read. This may sound obvious but it’s important to consider your letter from the point of view of the recipient. Someone once rang the West Midlands CND office asking us to complain to the Birmingham Post because his letter hadn’t been printed. When he told us how long it was, we knew exactly why! Start positively, by thanking or praising, if you can (not always possible). Keep letters short, clear and concise – you want them to be read. Be…
Khoza’a is a small rural community in the south of the Gaza Strip which endured a brutal incursion by Israeli ground forces on 13 January, indicative of so many attacks elsewhere in Gaza during the three weeks of “Operation Cast Lead”.
Heavy missile strikes preceded the ground offensive, which destroyed 50 homes and razed farmland. Homes with families inside them were attacked by military D-9 bulldozers .
A group of women and children carrying white flags attempted to leave…
In 1963 a young Gene Stoltzfus, Mennonite conscientious objector, found himself working with International Voluntary Services in Saigon, Vietnam. Daily faced with the carnage of the Vietnam war, he had to ask himself “whether I was as willing to die for my convictions as the Vietnamese and American soldiers all around me were being asked to do.”
His answer led him to a 45 year career in peacemaking, first with a succession of Mennonite organisations, and latterly as co-founder of…
19 January 2009: Dr Atallah, a physician in Gaza, invited us to meet him in his home in Gaza City, just a few blocks away from the Shifaa Hospital.
Early this morning, he and his family returned to their home after having fled five days earlier when the bombing attacks on Gaza City had become so fierce that they feared for their lives.
“Believe me, when I would drive from the hospital to the place where my family was staying, I prayed all the way,” said Dr Atallah, “…
Twelve British companies produce components, many of them essential, for the F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters that attacked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip last month, according to the Stop Arming Israel website.
Several of these UK-based companies produce critical parts used in the Apache aircraft. Among these are Agusta Westland in Yeovil and Redmayne in Hampshire (“Jesus nuts”), Senior Aerospace Baxter Woodhouse & Taylor (air duct systems) and Meggitt Avionics (air…
One of the most powerful lies of the current Palestinian crisis is the claim that “there is no partner for peace” – and that Hamas in particular is an irreconcilable fundamentalist force of destruction. The reality, successfully suppressed throughout the British media, is that Hamas has long offered a long-term truce with Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders.
In other words, Hamas (while pursuing many other objectionable policies) has for many years been in close proximity to…
Gaza desperately needs aid, but more than that it needs Israel to lift the near-total closure of Gaza’s borders, according to aid experts. Palestinian estimates of the cost of the first fortnight of the Israeli assault range from $976m to $1.7bn.
Even before the latest attack, Gaza was reeling from the effects of the Israeli blockade. Unemployment was nearly 50%, almost all of Gaza’s 3,900 manufacturers had been forced to shut down, 80% of drinking water was substandard,…
The new crimes that the US and Israel have been committing in Gaza in the past weeks do not fit easily into any standard category – except for the category of familiarity. Literally, the crimes fall under the official US government definition of “terrorism,” but that designation does not capture their enormity. They cannot be called “aggression,” because they are being conducted in occupied territory, as the US tacitly concedes.
In their comprehensive scholarly history of Israeli…
All day I’ve been thinking about Gaza, listening to reports on NPR [National Public Radio], following the news on the internet when I can spare a moment. I’ve been thinking about the friends I made there four years ago, and wondering how they are faring, and imagining their terror as the bombs fall on that giant open-air prison.
The Israeli ambassador speaks movingly of the terror felt by Israeli children as Hamas rockets explode in the night. I agree with him – that no child should…
In line with a lot of the mainstream media coverage on both sides of the Atlantic, the New York Times editorial on 30 December argued: “Hamas must bear responsibility for ending a six-month cease-fire this month with a barrage of rocket attacks into Israeli territory.”
However, this not only contradicted earlier reportage by Israeli newspapers (including Ha’aretz and Yediot Ahronot) and Amnesty International, but also that of the NYT itself: on 12 November, the paper reported that: “…
Over two-thirds of the British public want all British troops withdrawn from Afghanistan within 12 months, according to a new BBC poll. Meanwhile, five million Afghans are facing a winter of starvation because of “donor fatigue”.
The BBC/ICM poll, published to coincide with a 13 November Radio 4 debate on withdrawal from Afghanistan, met with a resounding silence from the political establishment, and the barest of mentions within the mainstream media.
The Ministry of Defence…
To illuminate the credit crunch and to find a new way forward, Peace News has chosen four recently-published books about the financial crisis.
Charles R Morris, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown (Perseus Publishing, 2008; ISBN 9781586485634; pp224; £10.99)
By summer 2007, the American banking policy of lending to house buyers with fragile repaying prospects caught up with itself, leaving American banks with up to $400 billion in lending commitments. Morris predicts that over…
The credit crunch exposed many of the failures of the capitalist system and made us question where to go from here to be rid of the free market’s stranglehold: it seems as if the “invisible hand” of the free market has broken a few fingers. So what other options are being explored? The co-operative movement is one means by which, some argue, workers may find labour equality: being one’s own boss and having equal ownership of an organisation.
To explore the co-operative option, Peace…
