A number of polls have been conducted in Iraq to mark the fourth anniversary of the invasion, demonstrating enormous and growing hostility to the occupation.
An ORB poll found 53% of Iraqis think things would improve immediately after US/UK withdrawal, and only 26% fear conditions would get worse.
The BBC found that 76% think the occupation forces are doing a “bad job” (up from 59% just last year); and 78% oppose the US-led forces (up from 65% in 2005). The proportion of…
To mark the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, groups worldwide engaged in anti-war actions between 17 and 20 March - from mass marches and vigils naming the dead, to protests outside military recruitment centres. According to US network United for Peace and Justice, up to 1,000 local events were planned across the States. In Spain an estimated 400,000 took to the streets of Madrid, and protests also took place in Australia, New Zealand, Hungary and Canada.
In Britain,…
Protests were held in Seville, Spain, to coincide with an informal summit held by NATO defence ministers.
Thousands of anti-war demonstrators turned out between 9 and 11 February, angry at NATO plans to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan and Kosovo. The protests culminated with a citywide march on Sunday 11 February with protesters voicing their opposition to imperialist aggression and the creeping militarisation of everyday life.
Against the “war meeting”Another…
For the third time, a trial stemming from direct action at “RAF” Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2003 - when activists tried to impede US bombing of Iraqis at the start of the attacks in March that year - has ended with a hung jury.
Josh Richards was charged with attempted arson, having being arrested while breaking into the base. He said he wanted to set fire to the tyres of planes so they could not be used to drop cluster bombs on Iraqi civilians, which would be a war crime. He also…
Nukewatch US write ... A US Army veteran and member of a Minnesota Catholic Worker Community was releasedfrom the Duluth Federal Prison Camp on 16 February, after completing an eight-month sentence for damaging a nuclear missile silo in North Dakota.
Michael Walli, 57, was among a group of three pacifists who symbolically dis-armed a Minuteman III nuclear missile silo in June 2006 (see PN2475-6). The three, dressed as clowns, broke the lock off the fence…
A new exhibition by the Peace Museum in Bradford, which challenges existing thinking, has been opened in the Royal Armouries in Leeds.
Entitled Farewell to Arms?, it is the result of the two museums working together. The Armouries - a national museum showing swords, guns and armour in history - wanted to go beyond the display of weapons of war. The Peace Museum in Bradford wanted to take the opportunity of challenging a wider audience on the place of such weapons in the world. The…
Campaigners have been in Antarctic waters in recent weeks, monitoring - and attempting to disrupt - the activities of the Japanese whaling fleet.
While they will not actively cooperate - due, publicly at least, to tactical differences in relation to interpretations of nonviolence - Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd have both had vessels in the area, and both campaigners and whalers took a few physical and verbal knocks in mid-February.
Search and rescueThe drama began on 8…
Our corruption correspondent writes: Britain's biggest contributor to the global death trade - BAE Systems - is fighting attempts by campaigners to expose its dirty tricks campaign against its opponents.
As reported in the last PN, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) wants a judicial review of the government's decision to drop legal action against BAES over alleged corruption relating to its sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. The preliminary court case referred to…
The latest skirmish in the 30-months-old campaign to drive arms company EDO-MBM out of Brighton, and out of existence, took place on Monday 19 February.
Eight students from Sussex University (conveniently situated just up the road from the factory) - including the current student union president, Dan Glass - continued a great tradition of Sussex students' pre-dawn anti-militarist activities when they locked themselves to the factory entrance soon after 5am. Banners saying “Books not…
In Denmark, a group of citizens are preparing to challenge the legality of their country's participation in the invasion of Iraq.
In a historic case to be heard by the High Court of Eastern Denmark on 29 January,a group will argue that Denmark's decision to join the war was in breach of the constitution. Mean-while, in the US, where a recent poll found that only 54% of serving army personnel support the Iraq war, 1,000 active duty soldiers and sailors have joined peace activists in…
The Serious Fraud Office's dropping of one of its corruption cases against BAE Systems on government “advice” had led to widespread national and international condemnation, the threat of legal action against the government by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and Corner House ... and more BAE dirty tricks.
BAE Systems - British Aerospace as was - is Britain's largest armaments manufacturer, and faces accusations of bribery and corruption in connection with a whole string of…
No doubt, this World Social Forum is different. Africa - Kenya & - makes its presence felt. Kenyan and African culture and music are present everywhere at the forum, to the extent that the drums and music do not always have a positive impact on discussions.
But Africa also makes its presence felt in terms of participation and content: on the one hand negatively , as participation from European and Latin American social movements is poor , compared to previous World Social Forums…
Waste disposal and pipeline developments seem to be the bane of environmentalists the world over. Permanent damage and destruction of the land follow wherever dumps and terminals are sited.
So far, 2007 has seen the development of two relatively new campaigns: to save Radley Lakes in Oxfordshire from toxic ash, and the Brecon Beacons in south Wales from a high-pressure pipeline.
Save Radley Lakes Two lakes, Thrupp and Bullfield, in Radley near Abingdon in south Oxfordshire are…
There is no conscription in the United States: people in the military who become conscientious objectors have to show they oppose all war and that they took this view only after joining the military, having had a change of heart.
Most resisters in the US are selective and not public about their objection. Many are denied reasonable requests for compassionate reassignment or discharge in spite of family problems, or emotional or physical after effects from their time in the military.…
On 11 January, the fifth anniversary of the opening of the notorious detention camps Delta, Iguana and X-Ray at the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, was marked by protests and actions in Britain and abroad. Despite near universal condemnation, and ongoing legal battles, the camps continue to operate and hold inmates without charge. Nik Gorecki reports...
An international delegation of former prisoners, families of current detainees, US lawyers and human…
Mark Wallinger's “State Britain” installation, a loving recreation of the whole forty metres of Brian Haw's Parliament Square anti-war protest site in all its former glory, opened on 15 January at Tate Britain.
One week on, Brian was at Westminster Magistrates' Court to hear whether he had a case to answer for allegedly breaching conditions imposed on his demonstration last May.
Masterclass of absurdityHis defence had asked for the case to be thrown out on two grounds, and…
Later in the month, groups from Ireland, Leicester, Staffordshire and Stoke all blockaded successfully. Trident Ploughshares blockaded with the help of Faslane Peace Camp, who used nine-year old concrete barrel lock-ons to great effect. One group from TP attempted to use bikes to blockade. These tactics are part of the continuing effort to overcome the large numbers of police officers and resources.
Christmas crackers Scottish Students blockaded the week before Christmas with steel…
Let's start with the good news: currently, the British armed forces are under-staffed. They are 5,170 soldiers short, which is equivalent to 2.7%. However, this isn't much of a shortfall, and does not endanger the military's ability to wage war. My question is: why is this so, and what can we do to change that?
An understanding of the way the armed forces recruit is crucial to the development of a successful counter-recruitment strategy. There are several key factors in armed forces…
November saw 16 different groups covering 20 days at Faslane, clocking up a mighty 148 arrests. The total number of arrests since 1 October 2006 stands at 330, but still only one prosecution so far.
Cumbria and North Lancashire started the month on a Halloween theme, handing over to the Iona community and the Clergy Action Group. By all accounts the police found it a surreal experience to be arresting so many church ministers. CND and Stop The War were next in line, with small but…
Five of the 17 Prestwick weapons inspectors were acquitted on 1 December after the Crown failed to prove that they did not have permission from the US Air Force to be on their plane!
The five had entered Prestwick Airport on 7 August this year looking for evidence of bomb shipments from the US to Israel. Prestwick is an apparently civilian airport near Glasgow, but it also has military traffic. At the height of the bombing of Lebanon it became clear that the UK authorities would not…
