Wales Newswire Archive

This is what we did for World Peace Day in our little corner of the planet - Wrexham, north Wales...

Report from Veteran for Peace Ben Griffin's talk on Thursday 19 September to follow

Schools Peace Day - Friday 20 September

Service for Peace - Saturday 21 September

Peace Day on the Library Field - Saturday 21 September

Ed Davey the Sec of State for Energy and Climate Change has argued that with a robust regulatory and planning system there will not be environmental damage from Fracking. Here, this view is challenged, by using an example of environmental damage caused by opencast mining at the Westfield site in Fife. This example demonstrates how impotent the planning system is when systems of control break down

This press release from The Loose Anti Opencast Network, about what is currently happening in Scotland, where company bankruptcies have left up to 25 un-restored opencast mines, including Westfield, the subject of a recently published LAON report

21 September is World Peace Day. The occasion has been marked in Wrexham for a number of years, starting in a small way with a service at the Catholic Cathedral and picnics for peace in town, and has grown year on year.

For 2013, there is a full programme of six events for peace over three days organised by various groups.

The other night, we sat in a hotel bar in Pembrokeshire with the Welsh family of U.S. military prisoner Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning) as the young soldier they last saw outside prison walls over three years ago starts a 35 year sentence at Ft. Leavenworth. Kansas, U.S.A.

DRONAU MILWROL ALLAN O GYMRU
DIWEDD I LADD GYDA DRONAU

Dewch i ymuno a ni ar 9 Medi - a dywedwch wrth eraill!

MILITARY DRONES OUT OF WALES
END DRONE TERROR KILLING

Please do come to join us on 9th September - and tell others!

Around a dozen people showed up in Queens Square, Wrexham this morning at short notice in visible opposition to the threat of western military action in Syria. The government may have lost the Commons vote last night but there's every chance it won't be able to resist getting involved in some way if the US goes ahead with an attack.

Among those protesting today were two enthusiastic children who made sure the placards were displayed to their best advantage throughout the morning and a Syrian friend who has alreadly lost five cousins and numerous acquaintances in the conflict.

Wednesday 4th September 2013
Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU. 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Free.
Similar events in Edinburgh, Manchester and Newport throughout the week. See website for details.

Eviction of Canton Police Station in Cardiff on August 23rd.

at: Canton Police Station (recently squatted -  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/08/511789.html)
194 Cowbridge Road East, Canton, Cardiff, CF5 1GW.

On August 5th cops in Greece continued their campaign of repression against squats by raiding three squatted spaces in Patras: Parartima, Maragopouleio and the Self-managed Hangout inside the Technological Educational Institute (TEI). 16 comrades were detained in total; 5 squatters and 11 supporters.

On Thursday 8th August, at approximately 10am, High Court bailiffs showed up to join United Welsh representatives, police and contractors booked to secure buildings, in an attempt to evict Rumpoles, Moira Terrace, Cardiff, CF24 0NE (aka: prison squat / 0ne squat). By 12pm, without even attempting to enter, they left the occupiers in possession of the building.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, we entered and occupied Canton Police Station. We did not ask for permission, as it is our legal right to do so. Given Cardiff Police abandoned the building over a year ago, kindly leaving twelve different open windows for us to choose our entrance from, permission seemed a bit of a formality anyway.

MP Ann Clwyd commented today on the verdict in the trial of Bradley Manning. She said:

"At this point I would throw out some questions... What about the people who sent Manning to Iraq? Let's hear some things about them..."

 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/bradley-manning-uk-supporters

Good idea!

Some news from Bradley Manning's ongoing trial, expected to continue into August, a report and photos from yesterday in Wrexham, and a call-out for solidarity everywhere on Saturday 27 July, which has been called by the Bradley Manning Support Network as an International Day of Action.

An article, in essence, asking autonomists to consider, as and when possible in their local area, to be a part of, what is in effect there's already - from the Zapatistas, to Los Indignados, to those in Greece, Istanbul, Iceland and Brazil - the People's Assembly movement is alive and we could make it something incredible here in the UK.

The Special Branch has been an integral part of Britain’s police since 1887. Early officers of it make claims, familiar justifications of the Special Branch today, the Special Branch being an, “essential guarantor of stability in Britain”. According to these early sources back then it single handedly prevented dynamite atrocities, protected royalty and forestalled revolutions.

A report of the rooftop occupation of the Shell petrol station in Pontprennau, Cardiff on 29th June 2013.

The Wrexham Peace Day Group has co-ordinated local peace days in September for the past few years. In 2012 the group worked with St Christopher's school to put together a day of peace education and activities that was attended by over 300 children aged 7-19 from ten different schools, followed by two days for peace in the middle of town. Another schools day is planned for this year on Friday 20 September with a day in town on Saturday 21.

Thanks to generous offers of time and skills, we've also been able to offer sessions on peace related themes in schools during the summer term this year. A couple of weeks ago, children in two primary and two high schools learned about nuclear weapons and the peace movement in sessions delivered by Julia Herzog from Faslane Peace Camp; over the next couple of weeks, Camilla Cancantata from Footloose will work with children from two schools to create music for peace, while Fiona Collins will tell peace stories from different cultures to children in three more schools. This week and next, however, the focus is on Palestine, with Ann Farr of EAPPI and Rod Cox of CAPE speaking to local children about their work.

This exhibition of children's artwork from Gaza has been in Wrexham since the end of April and is currently on display at St Christopher's Community School. It will be moving to Oswestry, Shropshire in July.

See it at Hermon arts space on Saturdays 13 and 20 July and hear Rod Cox speak about the artwork and the lives of the children who created it on Friday 19 July at the same venue.

Bristol Defendant Solidarity (BDS) was formed in the aftermath of the street resistance in Stokes Croft in late April 2011. That resistance occurred when the state acted to defend a newly opened Tesco shop on Cheltenham Rd which had been the focus of widespread community opposition.

Now after 2 years of active solidarity work since its formation, Bristol Defendant Solidarity, with a little help from Kebele Sound Collective, present a benefit night of international radical hip hop, rap and conscious beats.