BATH STOP WAR COALITION BULLETIN

2nd February 2010

WHAT’S ON

Wednesday 3rd February (tomorrow) – regular Bath SWC meeting at 8 pm, Friends Meeting House, York Street, Bath BA1 1NG

Saturday 7th February and every Saturday, 11.30 am to 12.30 pm: Vigil outside Bath Abbey. Current campaign focus: querying the logic of those who think that it is OK for a country with a known large quantity of weapons of mass destruction (say the UK or the USA) to bomb others in case they had WMDs. Or might have them one day. Or does not have them but is friendly with a country that does have them.

Monday 15th February: blockade of AWE Aldermaston starting at dawn. See note below.

Wednesday 10th March Public meeting at 7.30 pm at the Friends Meeting House, York Street, Bath BA1 1NG. Preparation for a May General Election.

"Peace, Justice and Environmental Protection - A Common Platform?" (note new date – was to be 25th Feb):

Chair: David Pearce
Speaker: Diana Francis
Diana will open the meeting by telling us about Conflict Transformation, a way to cover all the issues that concern us. "Peace cannot be separated from economic justice, or from human rights, including the right to participate in public affairs. And we recognise that the abuse of the planet that continues unabated will result in environmental and resource conflicts of increasing intensity and threaten the security of us all – indeed of all life."

Local supporters of other peace, justice, civil society and environment groups (Amnesty, WDM, FoE, Greenpeace ...) have been invited. All participants will have the chance to suggest ways of covering these issues in the forthcoming General Election campaign. We will ask: is there interest and enthusiasm for organising a special meeting to hear the party candidates' views on the issues? If so, Bath SWC is willing to sponsor it.

Please email back to postmaster@bathstopwar.org.uk if you would like a short paper on Conflict Transformation.

Please advertise this important meeting widely

MASS BLOCKADE OF AWE ALDERMASTON

One-day mass blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, from 7 am on Monday 15th February. More info on the Trident Ploughshares website. There is already a carload going from Bath (4 am start, ouch). Email postmaster@bathstopwar.org.uk if you can offer transport or need it; we’ll put you in touch.

OPENDEMOCRACY FORUM

Diana Francis has contributed three articles to the on-line forum “From War to Peace: Towards a Non-Violent Future” organised by OpenDemocracy.Net. Each illustrates a facet of her conviction that to build peace it is necessary to dismantle the entire institution of war, and replace the culture of domination with one of co-operation and kindness. The articles and the debate they open up are at the heart of our first public meeting of the year (now re-scheduled to Wednesday 10th March – see separate note), so you have time to read them before the meeting! The first article, in November 2009 was Conflict Transformed? The start of a debate, reviews aspirations and achievements of conflict transformers over the past twenty years, and argues that the only realistic response to the global phenomenon of war is to develop non-violence as a just and effective way forward. Beyond stalemate: Replacing the vicious with the virtuous circle explains the “challenging and delicate” process of Conflict Transformation., starting from where the warring parties are. And the most recent offering on 21st January is War: justifiable or simply catastrophic? tackling the assertion we hear so frequently that wars can be justified to avert a greater wrong. Comments in the Forum offer examples of peace-making in practice, make additional telling points, moving testimony and of course some counter-arguments, making the Forum fascinating and encouraging (or occasionally bracing) to read. It gives the lie to world-weary comments one sometimes hears about online debates: that they tend to degenerate into abuse or tiresome stereotypes. This one emphatically does not – it’s alive with commitment and expertise. Organisers and contributors would be glad of comments; you are welcome to submit a comment or a further article.

HOUSE OF COMMONS NUCLEAR POWER DISCUSSION DISRUPTED

A Select Committee meeting in the House of Commons was disrupted on Wed 27 January by a small group of anti-nuclear activists including a Bath SWC Supporter. The incident took place during a packed session of the Department of Energy and Climate Change Parliamentary Select Committee on the proposed nuclear and other energy National Policy Statements, as representatives from pro-nuclear energy giants EDF, E.ON and RWE n-power and the Association of Electricity Producers gave evidence. Around half an hour into proceedings, two of the activists rose from their seats, stepped into the centre of the room and unfurled a six-foot banner they had smuggled in that read: "Local Democracy Dumped!", featuring radiation symbols and images of pyramids of radioactive waste drums. Meanwhile, a third activist handed out detailed briefings to committee members and the energy industry representatives explaining why they believed nuclear power was an unacceptable and inappropriate technology for tackling climate. Read more

BATH SWC AFGHANISTAN PETITIONS HANDED INTO NUMBER TEN

What happens to those petitions you sign? Our Troops Out of Afghanistan petition went to the Prime Minister in the week of the 70-nation conference on the Future of Afghanistan. It merited a paragraph in the Chron! Read more

LOCAL SUPPORTER DAVID SKIDMORE WRITES …

The reality of the war in Afghanistan was brought home to me when I was on holiday in France over Christmas. I was on a group walking holiday, and the other people in the group included Jacqui, a woman from Eastbourne, and her grown-up son and daughter, Harry and Olivia. On the second night of our trip, they received a phone call from home with the news that Michael Pritchard, Olivia's former boyfriend and now a British soldier serving in Afghanistan, had been killed. To make matters worse, if that were possible, it was a suspected 'friendly fire' incident. He was 22. Although Olivia was no longer going out with him, she remained close to him and his family and was understandably shocked and upset by the news. She, Jacqui and Harry decided to return home early from the holiday so that they could spend Christmas quietly together. They also went to Wootton Bassett to be there when Michael's body was flown home. In the short time that we were together, I could see that they were a caring and supportive family who were also capable of sharing a lot of laughs together. They wanted the rest of us to carry on and enjoy our break, which we duly did, but we were all moved by their loss and sorry to see them leave in such sad circumstances. For myself, it brought home to me the terrible waste of (often very young) life that is the result of the decision of Obama and Brown to prolong this pointless and unwinnable war.”

CHILCOT ENQUIRY

The 38 Degrees campaign has been working hard, first to ensure that the Chilcot Inquiry on Iraq was held in public and now that witnesses face tough questions More info

ISLAMIC POSITION ON TERRORISM

“Muslims are often criticised for not being vociferous enough in condemning terrorism. I am sending you this email as a humble attempt to try and rectify this situation”: please click here to see a video hosted on You Tube. “Since 2005, IDC [the Islamic Diversity Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne] has been working in the Muslim Community and the wider community, liaising with the police and local authorities to clarify misconceptions about Islam and build bridges with people of other faiths.” More info

POWER 2010

We need you to tell us what you think the POWER2010 Pledge should be. To do that we need you to take the action that forms the cornerstone of any democracy: vote. http://www.power2010.org.uk/VoteForReform Together we'll make sure that every candidate at the next election signs up to our call for change.

MUSIC

Click here to hear the track and see the video by the Indi-Reggae band XOVA called R GENERATION which is about soldiers killed in our name in the unwanted wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. More info (e.g. how to download further tracks or hear DANCE, REGGAE DUB and DUBSTEP remixes.

NEWS FROM THE MINISTRY FOR PEACE

2010, UK election year: which party will be the more likely to work on issues relating to reducing violence in the UK and abroad? Which party will tackle one of the root causes of violence in the UK – inequality, as described by Richard Wilkinson (co-author with Kate Pickett of “The Spirit Level” - see summary). The Ministry has made two short You Tube films as part of its campaign Our Taxes, Our Lives: one on Trident and pensions and the other on tax havens and child poverty. If you haven’t yet, you can sign the Ministry petition on the No. 10 website asking Government to spend the £97 billion proposed for Trident renewal on increasing the state pension instead. “The Prime Minister does look at these and when the numbers reach a certain level he writes to the petitioners to say what he is going to do about their request.”

NEWS FROM HOUSMANS VERY WONDERFUL BOOKSHOP

“To secure the future of Housmans we have launched an online shop in conjunction with Gardner’s Books, which can rival the stock carried by Amazon. We see this as an ethical alternative to Amazon, whose business practice involves union-busting, poor work conditions, and the squeezing of publishers and authors alike (for more details please see our website). We really need your support in helping us to promote this new web shop. The power of the internet allows Housmans to interact with those outside the London area. If just one of your supporters from around the country were to regularly buy a book from us it would really make a significant difference.” So wherever you live, you can support independent and progressive bookselling from the comfort of your home.

THE SMALL PRINT

Other subscribers to this Bulletin do not see your name or address, so you should not receive any unwanted messages as a result of being on the mailing list. The Bulletin comes out about twice a month. If you no longer wish to receive the Bulletin, please email back the single word "UNSUBSCRIBE" and your name will be taken off. This option is open at any time and your wishes will be acted on immediately and without question.

Judith Eversley for Bath Stop War Coalition postmaster@bathstopwar.org.uk.

If you write to this address, please make sure you write something very clear and specific in the Subject line e.g. "Bath coach details" or "Next Bath SWC meeting". We get so much spam on this address that I delete any message without a subject or with a general subject such as “Hello” or “Please read this”.

Site by Lothlorien Design