"Czechtek", the electronic music festival that takes place annually in the Czech Republic, was recently brought to a violent end when over 1000 heavily armed riot police moved in and attacked revellers.
At least one person has been confirmed dead, with reports of possibly two more, and scores of injuries. The music, video and arts festival - in its 12th year - was held on private land in full compliance with Czech law, despite official statements from Czech police claiming that the…
There were solidarity pickets outside Tesco stores up and down Britain on 4 August after two Polish agency workers were sacked. Zbyszek Bukala and Radek Sawicki were both dismissed from Greenhills Distribution Centre in Dublin by their respective employment agencies - they say at the behest of Tesco - after refusing to load boxes based on excessive quotas.
In a joint day of action, pickets took place in Dublin, Liverpool, Glasgow, Leeds, Nottingham, Oxford and London. The aim was to…
The G8 coincided with Spain's most famous fiestas at San Fermin in which youths dressed in white with red neckerchiefs run with bulls in the streets of Pamplona. Antimilitarists from KEMMOC (Movement of Conscientious Objectors) linked the two by launching a campaign against arms manufacture at a Sener factory on the outskirts of Bilbao.
Sener, who make missiles, guidance systems and turbojets, is one of 14 arms manufacturers supported by Basque government investment. Referring to…
The largest traveller dwelling in the UK is under threat following a decision by Basildon Council to evict all 220 caravans from the site.
On Tuesday 26 July during the eviction of an adjacent site, a bulldozer drove through a protected yard at Dale Farm causing extensive damage. Meanwhile notice had been served on the Dale Farm travellers with eviction due to take place on Sunday 31 July. At the last minute solicitor Keith Lomax successfully obtained a further injunction protecting…
On Saturday 13 August, shoppers in Brighton town centre witnessed the extent to which our right to protest is being curtailed, when a peaceful demonstration against arms manufacturer EDO was abruptly halted by police using heavy-handed tactics.
Around 50 peace campaigners - including the elderly and mothers with children - met at 12 noon in Churchill Square where they were greeted by police officers carrying surveillance equipment. Whilst some protesters had travelled from London,…
"When I pass protesters every day at Downing Street, and believe me, you name it, they protest against it, I may not like what they call me, but I thank God they can. That's called freedom." (Tony Blair, 7 April 2002.)
Eleven people charged with taking part in "unauthorised" demonstrations in the new anti-protest zone around Parliament (which came into effect on 1 August) intend to challenge the zone's legality when their case(s) come to trial later this year. Meanwhile, the courts…
International activists taking peaceful action against the Alcoa Dam in Iceland are at risk of being deported from the country following the passing of a new law which came into force on 13 August.
In a move which supresses the right to peaceful protest, Icelandic police are seeking to rearrest 21 protesters, who are mainly of British nationality, as well as some Spanish, Swedish and Polish, and serve deportation orders.
Activists from Iceland and around the world set up a…
For several years a consortium consisting of Shell, Statoil, and Marathon have attempted to build an unprecedented high-pressure up-stream raw gas pipeline going 9 kilometres inland to a refinery in Erris, Mayo, in the north-west of Ireland.
Since the middle of June, mass pickets have halted all work on this development, and Shell, the main party in the consortium, have recently announced a suspension of all work until next year. Effectively, people power has prevented them from…
Anti-war activists have called for solidarity as over 20 people face charges following the demonstration against George W Bush’s UK visit in June.
In recent weeks the Metropolitan Police have arrested several people identified from video footage taken on the day, house raids have taken place, and charges brought including for “violent disorder”. The police have a special operation dedicated to the demonstration called “Operation Spring Brook”.
A police appeal was printed in the…
As the problem of what to do with nuclear waste continues to grow, a small tribe of Native Americans in Utah may soon find that their home will be the dumping ground for a group of electricity companies to abandon their radioactive waste.
On 11 June, a demonstration against arms manufacturers EDO/MBM Technology was held by campaigners in Brighton. Smash EDO claim the company manufactures components for weapons used in the Iraq war.
In 2004 Raytheon s
On 13 June the Art Not Oil (ANO) exhibition kicked off outside the National Portrait Gallery in Central London. The gallery was hosting the annual presentation ceremony for the BP Portrait Award.
ANO organisers say
On 21 June, Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan ended his hunger strike: after 28 days, the prison authorities agreed to his conditions of equal treatment.
The gay CO began the drastic action partly in resp
Twenty-five years ago, on the green slope overlooking Willen Lake in Milton Keynes, the foundation stone was laid of the first Peace Pagoda in the Western Hemisphere.
It was laid by the Most Venerable Nichidatsu Fuj
It is now ten years since the Army of the Republic of Srpska, with the support of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, killed more than 8,000 Bosniaks in and around Srebrenica. All in the uniforms of the state we live in; therefore, in our name.
On 9 May, as the first BtB protester was being released from prison - after receiving a 14-day sentence for wanton vandalism in protest at new developments at AWE Aldermaston - Block the Builders (BtB) finally swung into action, with an early morning
On Sunday 15 May exiles from Sudan, along with supporters, gathered in London to demand that the British government take action to halt the genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
The protest was organised by Waging Peace and the Darfur Solidarity Campaign and drew 300 people from across Britain. Protesters gathered outside Downing Street and the Sudanese Embassy and staged a die-in, symbolising the genocide. They held up placards with “Peace keepers into Darfur” and “Sanctions…
Campaigners scored a partial victory in the courts at the end of April when an attempt by EDO/MBM Technologies - Brighton's resident arms manufacturer - to create an exclusion zone around its factory, was temporarily thwarted (see PN2461 cover story).
Recent weeks have been a peak period for big corporations' AGMs, many of which have been targeted by demonstrators and by (very) smallscale shareholders claiming their legal right to attend - and to embarrass the directors by raising issues they would rather weren't talked about.
BAE SystemsAnna Jones reports: More usually known by their former name, British Aerospace, BAES attracted activists from the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and elsewhere to their AGM - at…
A bigger court had to be made available to accommodate everyone when, on 17 May, supporters came to Harrogate Magistrates' Court to hear District Judge Roy Anderson sentence Lindis Percy following her five convictions - given on 14 April - for protest
