News

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

Five students and one graduate are facing “aggravated trespass” charges after taking part in a demonstration outside the Lancaster University's “George Fox” building in September 2004 during a convention attended by BAE Systems and other defence technology groups. Although the police did not intervene at the time, six months later they decided to bring charges against the group, possibly at the request of the university. The six are due for trial in September.

As Peace News went to press, hundreds of protesters remained on the streets of Uzbekistan, following mid-May's unrest and subsequent massacre by government troops. Sian Glaessner has been talking with the founder of the Uzbek organisation

Many Peace News readers will have heard the news of the massacre of eight civilians, including three children, in the Colombian Peace Community of San Jose' de Apartad in February 2005 (see PN2460).

Assassinated with his family and five others was Luis Eduardo Guerra, a founder of the community and a speaker at the November 2002 Vigil to Close the School of the Americas (SOA).

SOA Watch has learned that the commander of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian…

On 1 April a special party took place: the celebration of the demise of various international conventions on pillage. Ahoy Me Hearties! Iraq has set the standard: we can now happily invade, pillage and privatise - no one will complain, they all want their share!

The party took place outside the offices of Windrush Communications, the British company responsible for organising the “Iraq Procurement Conferences”, conferences where fellow pirates meet up to share the spoils, or - as…

Mehmet Tarhan, a gay activist, anarchist, and declared conscientious objector, was arrested on 8 April and taken to “his” military unit in Tokat in eastern Turkey by force.

Tarhan declared his objection to military service on 27 October 2001, and has never hidden.

On 20 April 2005 he was transferred to a military hospital after the prosecutor ordered an “examination of his homosexuality” - something which the Turkish military considers an illness, and “rotten”. A positive…

At least 500 international activists were arrested on 16 April after a thousand gathered in Belgium to carry out a “citizens' nuclear weapons inspection”.

A massive police presence greeted the simultaneous actions at NATO HQ in Brussels, SHAPE NATO military HQ) in Mons, and Kleine Brogel airbase where 20 US nuclear weapons are stored. There was also an unannounced inspection of a NATO satellite base in Gooik, which is involved in communication between these bases.

Activists were…

23 March, London: After a two week hearing, Judge Justice Tugendhat at the High Court rejects claims by Louis Austin and Geoffrey Saxby for compensation for their “right to liberty” under the European Convention on Human Rights having been breached on May Day 2001 when police trapped them with thousands of protesters in Oxford Circus for seven hours without access to toilets, food or water. The judge found the police had been “duty bound” to impose an absolute cordon to prevent violence and…

Caterpillar equipment sold to the Israeli army destroys Palestinian homes, schools and agricultural land in the occupied territories. It has also been employed in the construction of the separation wall, which has been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice.

The day of action was called to coincide…

While most shareholders, hypnotised by the surfeit of friendly green BP logos, by the thought of ever-greater dividends, and by the prospect of a free lunch, brushed aside warnings (both personal and planetary) and marched into the meeting, at least two shareholders…

Why hello there voters! You've heard his slogans - you've read his posters, you've burnt his manifesto... Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Yip. This month's man is Anthony Michael Howard-Blair. He is going to be Our Glorious Leader. Democracy is coming to the UK... but only for a day. After that, it's stay off the streets or you'll get an ASBO, stay outta the meetings cos their pigged to high heaven, and most importantly - stay in line cos it's forward to the…

You've been in the peace movement a long time - what got you started?

In the 1950s I became a chaplain for Pax Christi - the first priest to take an interest apparently! I was rather bored for the first year, until I heard about conscientious objection in Spain and Portugal and became active in CO issues.

Later I got involved in CND - it never stopped! There's not just one issue - they all interconnect.

You are the current Chair of the Movement for the Abolition of…

May is the month of the review of the NPT in New York and we are calling all those activists with a wish for social justice to join the protests in Plymouth. Plymouth contains one of the most deprived wards in Europe and isthe city with the most “looked after” children in the country. May 2005 is the time to point out that Trident weapons do not grow good communities.

Many of you are working towards events at the G8 in Scotland. We invite you to a vivid practice run in Plymouth at the…

In Russia, 23 February is traditionally the “Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland” — converted from the Soviet “Red Army Day”.

But for the Chechens and Ingush it is the anniversary of the deportation of their entire people from the Caucasus to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzistan by Stalin back in 1944. They were only allowed to return in 1956, to a country which was then populated by Russians and neighbouring people — one of the sources of today's conflicts in the North…

Early on 11 March officers from Lothian and Borders Police dismantled a large model Trident nuclear weapon submarine which had blocked the street outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh for 14 hours in a challenge to the Parliament to take a stand against Britain's weapons of mass destruction.

At 10am on 10 March the submarine had approached the Parliament building and, as it crossed the Canongate, peace activists on the inside, from Trident Ploughshares and the Theatre of War…

On Saturday 11 June, Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the camp with a women-only party to which all women who have ever been to the camp- and those who have never been before - are invited.

On Monday 21 March, the second anniversary of the war on Iraq, activists all over the world took part in a day of direct action against the arms trade.

Companies that profit from war, death and destruction through the unscrupulous trading of weapons were targeted.

Reed International are the organisers of the world's largest arms fair, Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEI). The activist collective Onkruit glued locks and threw paint at Reed's head office in the…

On Monday 15 March a shipment of US weapons grade plutonium fuel (MOX) set out on the first leg of its journey from the Areva plutonium factory in France to the US port of Charleston, South Carolina.

The shipment travelled overland to Normandy where it was repackaged and taken to Cherbourg for onward transport by sea to Charleston. Greenpeace condemned the operation as an extreme safety and security risk, and a major setback to global non-proliferation efforts.

“The summer time is coming and the leaves are sweetly blowing” - and in Iraq the slaughter goes on. And the plundering of Iraq's resources by the occupying powers.

What can a few idealists setting up a peace camp hope to do about it? Even if it is set up at RAF Brize Norton - largest UK air base and gateway to Iraq for thousands of British soldiers?

Clearly, the four-day presence of a peace camp, even though its events do include a march led by veterans opposed to the…

“The two stacks of hay there had been burnt; the apricot and cherry trees he had planted and reared were broken and scorched; and, worse still, all the beehives and bees were burnt. The wailing of the women, and of the little children who cried with their mothers, mingled with the lowing of the hungry cattle, for whom there was no food. The bigger children did not play, but followed their elders with frightened eyes. The fountain was polluted, evidently on purpose, so that the water…