News

US army deserters

The US army is facing strong criticism from within its own ranks over the war in Iraq. Around 5500 soldiers have deserted since coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003 with some seeking refuge in Canada. One of these is Jeremy Hinzman, a soldier in the Elite Infantry Division, 82nd Airborne, who fled to Canada seeking refugee protection after being refused status as a conscientious objector. Hinzman stated, “This is a criminal war and any act of violence in an unjustified…

On 22 March 2003, three coaches set off from London to protest against the bombing of Iraq by US B52s which were flying missions from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. Police stopped, searched, turned away, and detained the London coaches before they reached the demonstration. The police actions have consequently become the subject of an ongoing legal case which had a ruling at the Court of Appeal on the 8 of December 2004. The recent ruling was unsatisfactory to the protesters even though…

On 19 January, London’s Mayors For Peace reception provided the venue for the launch of the city’s contribution to the “protective wall of international law” initiative. The wall project was started in Heidelberg, Germany, by young people who have together built a wall made up of small individually decorated blocks of plywood. Every brick represents one person and demonstrates in a highly visible way the reality of the struggle for global peace: that no nation can support the Charter of the…

Here we give you a roundup of some of the good stuff that’s going on ... yes – it really does exist! Two recent US opinion polls have shown that most Americans think the Iraq war was a mistake. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll showed that 52% of Americans believed it was a mistake sending troops to Iraq and a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that 55% felt the Iraq war was not worth fighting. Meanwhile, a poll commissioned by the Campaign Against Arms Trade has blown away government myths…

Millions of people around the world have donated money to the major disaster relief networks such as the Disasters Emergency Committee (http://www.dec.org.uk/). DEC reports that more than two million people in Britain have collectively donated a total of more than £200 million to their appeal. But while immediate disaster relief is vital to responding to the initial consequences of the tsunami, Peace News would like to draw your attention to…

The documentary film A letter to the Prime Minister is nearly finished after over two years production. The film follows Jo Wilding as she challenges UN sanctions, experiences being in Iraq before the war and witnesses the destruction of lives of ordinary people. Funding is needed to finish the final edit and your money could make this happen by sending £100, which will give you a credit in the film and a copy of the DVD. Email juliaguest@…

Those pesky Euro bombspotters have been up to their naughty tricks again recently.

Kicking off a series of “Bombspotting small” actions, a group representing Flemish NGOs and individual activists, paid a visit to the Kleine Brogel nuclear weapons base in north-east Belgium on 11 October. After breaking into the base the group occupied its runway.

The “small” actions are the unannounced dimension of a wider Bombspotting campaign, which includes large public actions such as…

Even though Ireland remains officially a neutral state, military landings at Shannon Airport in County Clare have nearly tripled in 2004.

The bulk of these landings are US troops travelling in and out of occupied Iraq. It is estimated that a quarter of the US soldiers currently posted in Iraq have travelled via Shannon. In order to allow the US military use of the airport, the government often turned a blind eye to the military presence. It is not known what the contents or…

A young French activist was killed on Sunday 7 November as he attempted to blockade a train carrying 12 Castor caskets - 175 tonnes - of nuclear waste.

The blockade was part of a series of actions taking place along the train's route through France and Germany over the weekend, in opposition to the transport of nuclear waste and its eventual dumping in the village of Gorbelen in Germany.

Sébastien Briat had chained himself to the track along with three others,…

Delivering a clear message against war, members of the War Resisters League marched from Ground Zero to the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan on the morning of 3 November.

More than 70 people chose to mark the day after the “election” by voting with their bodies, not just their ballots, to end the war. The group called for the money spent on warfare - now approaching US$200 billion in addition to the annual $440 billion annual military budget - to be spent on schools, jobs…

Trident Ploughshares report that one of their pledgers - a Swedish national - was detained and questioned for three hours about next year's G8 actions

The woman, who had a warrant for non-payment of a fine from a previous Faslane protest, flew into Scotland in early November. In order to to ensure that she didn't get picked up unexpectedly on future visits, she waited to the back of the queue at immigration at Prestwick airport and then told the officers that there was a warrant…

A protest camp against the incinerating of ballistic missiles took place from the beginning of July to the end of August in the central Russian city of Perm.

The action aimed to stop the authorities' plan to burn the missiles in the open air, as the fuel contained into the rockets would release large amounts of the highly toxic dioxin which, even in small concentrations, can cause cancer and destroy the immune system.

Back in 2001, the Kirov Factory in Zamask was chosen for…

Israeli forces continue to put pressure on ISM activists through office raids and arrests.

On 9 May, Israeli forces raided the ISM media office in Beit Sahour, confiscating equipment and destroying the groups office space. The strong-arm operation was carried out by dozens of soldiers, border police and civilian police officers, who had surrounded the office with around 20 military vehicles.

Israeli forces also seized all the computers in the nearby office of the…

Over the past three months there have been growing protests at the ongoing violence in Darfur.

Thousands of people from the Sudanese diaspora, pan-Africanists, and the broader peace movement have taken to the streets - particularly in the US and Britain - including in London, New York, Glasgow and Washington.

In London, demonstrations have been attracting over 500 people and have been very mobile - visiting the embassies of several African countries and the British…

Every year, in the city of Hiroshima, Japan, people come from far and wide to float lanterns decorated with prayers, thoughts, and messages of peace down the rivers in commemoration of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Fifty-nine years have now passed since the event that opened the floodgates for the nuclear age, an era in which our survival as a species is continually under threat. August 6-9 were again days of remembrance and action for many activists from all over the world.…

An “anti-NATO” summit took place in Istanbul between 19 and 27 June as a response to the NATO summit being held in the city.

The alternative summit ended with a large demonstration, which around 40,000 people are reported to have attended. The main organisers of the summit were the Turkish trade unions KESK and DISK, and groups such as Global Peace and Justice Coalition, Unity against Bush and NATO, and the Chambers of Engineers and Doctors of Istanbul.

Seminars on Media…

A UN report released on 30 July found that economic and living conditions in all Palestinian areas had deteriorated, with 63% of Palestinians now living in poverty.

The UN report concluded, “The sustainable option for addressing the current economic and social deprivation lies in lifting the occupation of Palestinian territory.”

In July judges from the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel's separation wall is illegal under International…

On 19 July the historic peace vessel the Fri sank in a dock at the shipyard where she was built in 1912. According to custodian David Moodie Fri was “helpless, caught in a trap of bureaucracy, marriage troubles, lack of money and lack of interest”.

It had been five years since the boat's last voyage and, unfortunately, 30 years of projects' archives, personal correspondence, photo albums, videos, a comprehensive library, museum tools and machines, all went down too.

“If there is anything to be learnt we will learn it, because safety is our number one concern”, said energy secretary Chris Huhne on 14 March, after the horrendous nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

While this is being written, the worst has not happened, and hopefully it will not. It is highly likely that a partial meltdown of the reactor core is underway at one of the three reactors, and possibly at all three. But so far, the…

On Tuesday 21 April, Mordechai Vanunu was released after spending 18 years in prison. He had been jailed after divulging Israel's secret nuclear activities and capabilities to the British Sunday Times in 1986.

With one swift blow, he undid Israel's policy of “strategic ambiguity” whereby Israel neither accepted nor denied the existence of nuclear weapons. Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and does not allow inspections of its nuclear sites.