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80 LGBT+ rights defenders protested outside Westminster Abbey as the queen and the prime minister celebrated Commonwealth Day on 12 March, ahead of a Commonwealth summit in April. The Commonwealth Equality Network and 14 other groups demanded gay rights including the decriminalisation of same-sex relations in 37 of the 53 Commonwealth nations. Photo: Peter Tatchell Foundation

Peacebuilding ‘is about a longstanding partnership, not a series of one-off projects’, said Charlotte Morris, senior conflict adviser at the department for international development, on 21 March, at the launch of Building Peace Together, a new Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) resource book.

‘At its most effective, peacebuilding is a combination of historical knowledge, local expertise, and international experience,’ Morris added.

The launch, at…

Awel Irene writes: As the sun set on Caernarfon castle, a symbol of centuries of militarism and oppression, eight of us unpacked a van that arrived from faraway London to launch the CND Symbol tour. We put together the jigsawed symbol to celebrate 60 years of protest against nuclear weapons. We remembered the hundreds of people who have gathered in that square rallying and wearing CND badges, including Dilys O’Brien Owen who died in February shortly before her 103rd birthday after a life of…

Activists and curious members of the public gathered in the comfortable confines of Housmans Bookshop in central London on 5 February to discuss the indoctrination of young people into the military, and how to prevent it.

During the War Resisters’ International (WRI) forum, representatives from WRI-affiliated groups in Turkey, Finland, the Czech Republic and the UK shared their experiences in countering conscription, militarised culture, and media controlled by authoritarian…

On 5 February, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, visited Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi in an Israeli prison.

Ahed, then 16, was filmed slapping and kicking armed Israeli soldiers at the entrance to her home in the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank on 15 December. Just an hour earlier, she’d learned that her 14-year-old cousin, Mohammed Tamimi, had been shot in the face at close range by Israeli soldiers with a rubber-coated metal bullet.…

A new, aggressive US nuclear posture review was released on 2 February. The review advises removing restrictions on the use of nuclear weapons, as well as the development of new low-yield, or tactical, warheads.

The US is looking to add a number of long-range weapons to its arsenal, with accompanying sea/air-based delivery systems. One is a modified Trident D5 submarine-launched missile that can be equipped with either a conventional or a low-yield nuclear warhead. These less-powerful…

Ice-skaters Ryom Tae-ok and Kim Ju-sik competing in 2017; they are representing North Korea in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Photo: Garrett Wollman CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

There is one simple first step that can help the world to avoid a war between the United States and North Korea: extend the Olympic peace pause in US military exercises and North Korean nuclear/missile testing.

Possibly the most urgent task of the global peace movement is to…

On 25 January, Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, announced: ‘Because of the extraordinary danger of the current moment, the Science and Security Board [of the Bulletin] today moves the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to catastrophe. It is now two minutes to midnight – the closest the clock has ever been to Doomsday, and as close as it was in 1953, at the height of the Cold War.’

The central concern of the…

On 24 January, Peter Anderson and Jamie Watson were both found guilty of ‘breach of the peace’ at Dumbarton justice of the peace court for blockading the Coulport nuclear weapons store during the Trident Ploughshares summer disarmament camp last July.

Two Finns who were arrested and charged with them, Esa Noresvuo and Kaj Raninen, did not turn up. Peter and Jamie accepted prosecution evidence that none of the four who locked-on across an access road to Coulport had moved when asked to…

In January and early February, there were acquittals for 12 of the 102 people arrested during the set-up of the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair last September (PN 2610–2611).

Most of the 102 were charged with obstruction of the highway, some with aggravated trespass, and a few were released without…

On 6 October, the Norwegian Nobel committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Executive director Beatrice Fihn laughed in disbelief when the committee rang to inform her.

ICAN was awarded the prize for drawing attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, and for its work on a nuclear…

On 7 November, the first centenary of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and the 35th anniversary of Cymru Cuba’s foundation, Denbigh Town Hall was host to a historic first visit to Wales.

A full house of 400 people gathered to hear Dr Aleida Guevara, daughter of the Argentinian-born guerrilla fighter Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, passionately calling for unity among the left. She emphasised love as the heart of the revolution, evidenced by Cuba’s tradition of sending medical staff when…

On 10 November, a trial at Stratford magistrates court in London descended into farce when the prosecution declined to show police bodycam video evidence because it ‘showed nothing’ and dropped the case. This was the first trial arising from a week of action in September aimed at disrupting the DSEI arms fair held in London’s Docklands (PN 2610–2611).

Chris Maunder was facing the most serious charge brought against any of the 102 DSEI arrestees: assaulting a police…

Welsh language campaigners call on assembly member Alun Davies to bin his plans for the Welsh Language Bill, while blockading his office in Brynmawr on 26 October. The bill would abolish the Welsh language commissioner and weaken regulations that ensure organisations provide services in Welsh. Photo: Cymdeithas yr Iaith

Women made up more than half of the speakers at November’s high-profile ORGCon digital freedom conference, which in the world of ‘tech’ is refreshing. The conference organiser, Open Rights Group (ORG), should be praised for achieving such a balance. ORG is the UK’s only grassroots organisation working to protect our right to privacy and free speech online.

ORGCon drew a mix of activists, academics and digital professionals to Friends Meeting House, London to hear some of the world…

On 6 November, peace group British Pugwash, the Polish Heritage Society UK and the Polish embassy unveiled a plaque for Joseph Rotblat on the corner of Bury Place and Great Russell Street in London. The Polish nuclear scientist won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for campaigning against nuclear weapons. Photo: Polish Heritage Society

I sing with ‘Sanctuary of Song’ in Swansea, a singing group for women, forming bonds between local community and the marginalised ‘asylum-seeking’ and refugee community of Swansea.

Bright and early on 17 October we drove to London, en route practising the songs we’d sing in parliament that afternoon under the banner of Black History Month. A motorway services stop gave us a chance to practise ‘…

After two years, ‘Public Interest Case Against Trident’ (PICAT) finally received a decision from the UK attorney general in late November on whether it had permission to prosecute the prime minister and the defence secretary for war crimes in relation to Britain’s nuclear weapons. Britain’s only nuclear weapons are Trident missiles – which are carried on Trident nuclear submarines.

PICAT is an initiative of the Trident Ploughshares direct action network. The project was begun by…

Tim Deere-Jones has created quite a stir by researching a scheme by French power company EDF to dredge up more than 300,000 tonnes of mud from the Bristol Channel and dump it off Cardiff Bay.

The sediment in Bridgewater Bay is potentially contaminated by radionuclides and other toxins released from the nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point A and B. The mud is being dredged in preparation for the construction of another nuclear power station, Hinkley Point…

Members of Veterans for Peace UK line up in Whitehall, London, on 12 November for a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph. VfP UK lays a wreath of white poppies and remembers all those killed in war, including civilians and enemy soldiers. The banner at the front says: ‘Never Again’. Photo: Veterans for Peace UK