World Anti-militarism Newswire Archive

20 photos from Newport and Cardiff and the Tredegar Park peace camp in the build up to the 2014 NATO summit in Wales.

I recently toured the Armenian village of Kasab where the Free Syrian Army and their Al Nusra allies slaughtered 88 of the 2,000 inhabitants and publicly beheaded 13 of these defenceless civilians, deliberately destroying the fabric and harmony of Kasab in the process. Some of the residents I spoke to were inconsolable while others such as 86 year old Sougman Saghdhian and his 95 year old bed-ridden brother Joseph try to get on with life as best they can and to put the carnage and their cynical Turkish incarceration behind them as best they can

Dr Declan Hayes is currently on his third trip to Syria this year. He is helping organize a conference in Damascus for April 24th 2015, tentatively called: Syria: Between Destruction and Reconstruction to mark the murder of all Syria’s innocents and to help plot a way forward out of the morass. He may be reached at  londonhayes@gmail.com

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) called for a demonstration outside the offices of Raytheon in Glenrothes, Fife. Here are 20 photos of the day plus a video clip of the march through the town of Glenrothes.

20 photos from the march and rally for Gaza August 9th 2014 in Edinburgh.

The arrest of “The Butcher” Jovito Palparan is long overdue. The warrant for his arrest was issued in December 2011. Under the Aquino regime, justice for Palparan’s victims remains elusive.

On Sunday August 10th 2014 the annual Hiroshoma Day rememberance ceremony took place by (and on) the River Cam at dusk.

Another week another demo, this time a little smaller but nonetheless heartfelt by those who turned up to Cambridge Market Square last Saturday (09/08/2014).

How many Israelis does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: One. Actually three, one to demolish the house, another one to bomb the power station, and a third one to burn down the school. But with the latest advanced technology the three jobs can be merged into one. Yet even that is not the whole truth, since besides these getting their hands on it there are millions of them wallowing in fear of understanding the concept of (in-)appropriateness, and without this collective immaturity the aggression could not take that much room. Even though Hamas is as little a light bulb as Israel is a ball-bearing, there is a grain of truth in the image. When the big picture of the conflict that became a massacre is being scaled down to human proportions it becomes clear what needs to be changed: In a mixed community, an immigrant restaurant owner massacred his neighbours after some of them began talking to his customers, after he had for quite a while brushed aside their cautious but regular complaints about a low-intensity but stressful whistling noise from the facilities. After the rampage it turns out that the neighbours were right all along and all that was necessary was the replacement of a ball-bearing in the cooling system. Inside the military apparatus of Israel, there has been an element over the point of urgent exchange for quite a while. But now after it has responded to the analysis of its motivations (see Jul 28, 2014) with increased aggression a more drastic cut is to be made.

On Saturday night in Cambridge's Mill Road Cemetary some temporary artworks spelling out the word "Gaza" appeared - then disappeared again.

Last Saturday's Demo in the Market Square, Cambridge was even larger than last week's, showing the rising tide of opinion against Israel's ongong attck on Gaza.

On Friday night (August 1st 2014), Cambridge activists created an enormous artwork on Parkers Piece to creatively express their disdain at the massacre taking place in Gaza.

Report of a protest in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland against the continuing carnage in Gaza, one of many demonstrations taking part across the country and indeed across the world.

On Saturday 2nd August 2014 supporters of the Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign  http://sheffieldpsc.org.uk/ gathered outside the Town Hall and had a symbolic die-in to raise awareness of the ongoing colonial genocide in Gaza.

Report of the demonstration against Israeli Operation Protective Edge which took place in Newcastle on Saturday 26th July. 13 photos attached.

It often seems a special scourge involving seemingly yesterdays occupations under ruthless dynasties and dictatorships, great evil of the past without any current effects other than emotional irritations over substantial compensation. But outside the phoney narrative of co-prosperity in co-denial which proliferated from the defeated Asian brand of fascism after the atomic bombings, the foreign occupation legacy plays a forefront role in the sick ideology driving the current wars of imperialist hypocrisy. In the Praise of Dialectics, Bert Brecht describes the entire pattern of such a constellation, from the attitude of the exploitation, over the ensuing time anomaly in the communication, to the spirit of emancipation. The Japanese legacy is not merely a Japanese issue, it is an imperialist issue, as can easily be seen from the fact that entire regions of the world are stuck in associations of the past century instead of being up to the current issues and their resolution. These include first and foremost the Europeans and the North Americans,who accelerate this frenzy merely because they find little else to share in their political differences. One European regime has just recently discovered one of its spies apparently sold the construction plans of its headquarters to Washington. And obviously the latter was really interested in more than handing an unopened envelope back to an ally. Nevertheless they share with each other the political paralysis resulting from likewise organised crimes against human dignity, as do a number of reactionary regimes in the former Japanese sphere of influence. They are busy looking back at their past involvements because their current affairs are gravitating around the very same issue.

Today on Saturday July 26th 2014 at 12:00pm Cambridge joined the international protests being held today against the Isreali bombardment of Gaza.

It is internal Israeli issues, intimidations integrated into its ill intentions, or other omissions of originality, which use to be rendered as the explanation regarding Palestinian suffering under Israeli militarism. This is true as to the aspect that it defines a stringent edge against the reactionary propaganda the militarist terror was a plausible interaction with Palestinian patterns of behaviour. The steep ridge marking the line beyond which the imperialist war narrative unwinds into self-contradiction and emptiness, that in the subconscious panic of the occupier probably provided the inspiration for the distraction campaign of a militarism-driven expedition of terror, is indeed the most conspicuous element of what appears to be an attempt of collective suicide of an artificial satellite state. It is at that point where an international agreement failure turns into an occurrence of moronic lemmings, as symbolised by the Israeli war against Gaza, which Karl Marx, had he lived to experience it, might have described as a farcical reproduction of the German World War, with a mosquito of a street crime inflated to the proportions of an elephant of an international crisis. Of course this also makes every minor lack of transparency in the militarist narrative a huge affair, as already the Kaiser noticed once his war plan came to fail.

The second Gaza solidarity action in Wrexham this week was held outside Barclays Bank today to protest Barclays' investments in the arms trade and in Israel. See also this Indymedia report and photos from last Thursday. Barclays is the single largest global investor in the arms trade and the only high street bank with significant direct investments in Israeli companies. Based on the breadth of Barclays arms investments, it seems safe to assume that Barclays makes a financial profit for every death in Gaza. On that basis, we stood at the entrance to the bank and read out the entire list of names published by Al Jazeera of those killed by Israel in the Gaza strip since July 7th, adding after each one: "Barclays Bank profited from this death."

As Israel continues to shower death and destruction on the oppressed Palestinians in occupied Gaza, it's hard to know what to do, how to resist. My inbox is full of forwarded Stop the War Coalition emails advertising their disingenuously entitled Gaza Emergency Appeal, highlighted in red 'emergency' lettering at the top of their website. Clicking through reveals that the emergency in the StWC camp is funding their own activities and keeping their London office staffed.

Protesting at the Israeli Embassy is a great idea if you live within striking distance or feel motivated to make the journey, with or without the help of Stop the War's 'Gaza Emergency' fund. If not, how about something closer to home? Every High Street has a Barclays...