On July 15th, Zimbabwean trade unionist Mike Sozinyu spoke to a meeting hosted by Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, at the Scottish TUC offices in the city.
Mike is part of the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions and is active in building a trade union movement independent of the Zimbabwean government. He stressed the importance of hearing voices of solidarity from British workers, as these could not be ignored by Mugabe, who dismisses criticism from the UK government as mere…
The Scotland Zimbabwe Group was founded in 1996: the group seeks to develop social, cultural and human rights awareness between Scotland and Zimbabwe. This is identified in its constitution as being done through education, networking and raising funds for particular projects (currently a Murambinda Hospital outreach programme in Buhera, and Nhimbe Trust, a Theatre for Development organisation in Bulawayo).
The SZG is independent of any government or political party and is keen to…
On 8 August, at Southwark Crown Court, I successfully challenged the use of section 44 of the Terrorism Act (2000), which enables a constable to “stop and search a person whom he reasonably suspects to be a terrorist”.
I was appealing against a conviction from Westminster magistrates’ court for “obstructing a police officer”. I had been observed on CCTV inserting a camera memory card into my mouth during a s44 search.
This happened outside Downing Street last September, during…
While much attention has been paid to the risk of a US attack on Iran, little notice has been taken of the escalating war in Afghanistan and the increasing danger of deeper US intervention in Pakistan. Britain is signalling the possible doubling of troop levels in Afghanistan, and is escalating aerial attacks, including with thermobaric weapons.
In mid-August the Taliban mounted “their most serious attacks in six years of fighting”, the New York Times noted, “including a coordinated…
At the beginning of August the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) succeeded in winning the return of eight oil union activists from the south of Iraq, who had been forcibly transferred to a dangerous part of Baghdad in June.
Britain’s Trades Union Congress, the AFL-CIO (US), and global union federations including the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions all exerted pressure, notably at an International Labour Organisation conference in…
July saw a major victory for opponents of the Iraq occupation. US plans to consolidate its long-term presence in Iraq were derailed by popular pressure within Iraq.
Instead of a semi-permanent “Status of Forces Agreement” (SOFA) granting US forces authority to establish more than 50 long-term bases and to conduct unilateral operations and detentions without fear of prosecution in the Iraqi justice system, the US has been forced to try to secure a scaled-down accord.
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On 22 August, Robin Long, an Iraq war resister deported from Canada into US military custody in July, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and a dishonourable discharge – for desertion “with intent to remain away permanently”.
Robin Long went absent without official leave in 2005 on grounds of conscience, after being ordered to Iraq. He sought sanctuary in Canada, home to an estimated 200 US soldiers refusing to serve in the Iraq war.
A month earlier, on 16 July, US war…
The US-Iran nuclear crisis continues, as the world’s great powers disagree on how to move forward, and the west snubs Iran’s proposal for an international consortium to control the enrichment of uranium on Iranian soil.
Iran’s consortium proposal was made on 13 May, but has been studiously ignored, not only by diplomats, but by the western mass media.
Public support
This is despite the fact that a majority of people in Britain, France and the US support Iran’s…
On Saturday 21 June, a toddler in a child-seat and twenty cyclists from the Welsh Youth Forum on Sustainable Development, Gwerin Y Coed (Woodcraft Folk) and Grwp Beic Aberystwyth completed the 157 miles from Machynlleth to Cardiff to publicise the need for cycle-lanes and provision for bikes on public transport.
At the Senedd, where they delivered a petition, cyclists were welcomed by Leanne Wood AM and Gordon James of FoE Cymru. Although cyclists endured some hostile motorists, they…
On 6 June, after an 18-week trial, the operator of a website criticising animal testing company Sequani, was found guilty under section 145 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA), “interfering with the contractual relationships of a laboratory”.
For allegedly conspiring to organise protests at Sequani Limited and associated companies, Sean Kirtley was jailed for four and a half years followed by a five-year ASBO (anti-social behaviour order). The main “proof”…
President Bush wants the Iraqi government to seal a “status of forces”agreement cementing the US military presence in Iraq without seeking the approval of the Iraqi parliament, unsurprising given that a majority of members of the Iraqi parliament have written to the US congress rejecting a long-term security deal with Washington if it is not linked to a requirement that US forces leave.
Deportations increaseForced deportations of Iraqi asylum seekers are accelerating under Brown; 60…
Young Czech activists Jan Tamas and Jan Bednar, who started a hunger strike on 13 May in protest against a US-Czech agreement siting a “Star Wars” base in their country, suspended their action on 2 June after three weeks on strike and in deteriorating health.
They opened up the protest into a “chain hunger strike,” with people in the Czech Republic and around the world fasting for 24 hours at a time. An international day of solidarity was called on 22 June, for which the CND organised…
Following months of talks, Hamas and Israel finally agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, which came into effect at dawn on 19 June.
Under the terms of the truce Hamas is to stop all attacks from Gaza, and Israel is to stop military strikes and gradually lift the debilitating blockade it has imposed on the impoverished territory. The ceasefire is supposed to hold for at least six months.
The agreement comes after a year that has seen the deaths of 400 Palestinians and…
On 28 May king Gyanendra became the last king of Nepal, bringing an end to the 239-year-old-monarchy. He was peacefully deposed as Nepal became a federal republic, following the recent election of the Maoists to government.
The ex-king left the Narayanhiti palace on 11 June. The palace will now become a state museum. Before leaving, Gyandendra called his first ever press conference, where journalists “heckled him with the rudest words in the Nepali language”, the Telegraph reported…
Faslane 365 – the year-long blockade of the Faslane nuclear weapons base finished on 1 Oct last year. However as the wheels of justice turn so exceedingly slowly, the resulting court cases are still trundling through the district court in Helensburgh.
It’s a good job that of the 1,150 arrests the Procurator Fiscal (PF) chose to take only 75 prosecutions.
Initially the PF, Andrew Miller, instructed the police to hold people overnight so that he could decide whether to bring…
On 7 May, I represented myself at Helensburgh District Court, facing a charge of “breach of the peace” at the Faslane 365 Big Blockade, 1 October 2007.
The Procurator Fiscal (PF) said, wrongly, that I was on the road, blocking traffic. Surprisingly, the two police witnesses confirmed I wasn’t on the road.
But the PF (equivalent to Crown Prosecution Service in England/Wales and the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland) was allowed to change the charge half-way through…
We don’t usually mark Memorial Day in Britain. Previously known as Decoration Day, the last Monday in May is a US holiday which originally remembered American men and women who have died in military service in the American Civil War. Following World War I, the memorial was expanded to include military casualties of any war. More recently, US peace and anti-war groups have reclaimed Memorial Day, holding ceremonies to remember all victims of war, military and civilian, and to call for an end…
On 24 July 2008, Binyam Mohamed will be 30 years old. Unlike most other people aged 30, on that day, Binyam will have spent one out of every five years of his life in illegal American detention.
Arrested in Pakistan in 2002, he was transferred to CIA custody. A victim of the “extraordinary rendition” programme, he was tortured in Morocco for 18 months, where the torture technique used involved making multiple incisions all over his body with a scalpel, including his penis. Binyam…
After a vigorous campaign to defend him, Nottingham University staff member and peace activist Hicham Yezza was freed from detention on 15 June and the threat of deportation lifted.
After a university staff member found the manual on his computer, Hicham, editor of the university peace magazine, Ceasefire, was arrested on campus on 21 May, along with 22-year old research student Rizwaan Sabir. Both were held under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading an al-Qa’eda training…
When US president George W. Bush said on 15 June that Iran had “rejected this generous offer out of hand”, you could assume that (a) the offer was not generous and (b) Iran had not rejected it. You wouldn’t go wrong, either, assuming that the media would assist Bush by erasing memories of the recent breakthrough Iranian offer.
The proposal Bush was referring to came from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (plus Germany), which was conveyed to Tehran by the European…
