• BATH MEETINGS - ALL WELCOME.
  
  EVERY SATURDAY . Vigil outside Bath Abbey from 11.30 am to 12.30 pm. The "baseline" slogans remain "Troops Out of Iraq and Afghanistan", "No Replacement for Trident". 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.

  BATH STOP WAR MEETINGS
  Next Meeting Wednesday 10th March 7:30pm Friends Meeting House, York Street, Bath BA1 1NG
  
  Preparation for a May General Election
  
  Peace, Justice and Environmental Protection - A Common Platform?
  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 postmaster@bathstopwar.org.uk if you would like a short paper on Conflict Transformation.
  
  Diana is a local Bath Stop the War peace activist who, for many years, has been actively involved in the debate both Nationally and Internationally as how we move towards a safer world in the abscence of war. Recently she 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.
  
  If you would like to receive regular bulletins from Bath Stop the War by email, send a message with the single word SUBSCRIBE in the subject to:- postmaster@bathstopwar.org.uk.

• Is Nuclear Power the Answer? A talk By Johnathon Porritt, chaired by Graham Watson Lib-Dem MEP for the South West. March 16th 7:30pm at Temple Methodist Church Upper High Street Taunton.
  
  

• NEED TO CONTACT YOUR MP/MEP?
  Go to http://www.writetothem.com/
  

• BRISTOL NEWS
  DAILY PEACE VIGIL - MON-FRI 5:30-6:30pm & SAT 3:00-4:00pm – on The Centre, opposite the Hippodrome. Every day since September 2001!
  Bristol Indymedia
  Bristol North South Forum
  Bristol Campaign Against the Arms Trade
  Bristol Weekly Vigil

• ALDERMASTON BIG BLOCKADE 15th Feb 2010 7:00am onwards. CND and Trident Ploughshares invite everyone to come and blockade Britain's Nuclear Bomb Factory at Aldermaston.
  

• STOP THE WAR COALITION NATIONAL MEETINGS AND EVENTS
  
  
• CND CAMPAIGN TO REVERSE TRIDENT REPLACEMENT see links above for details of latest Aldermaston action.

• The Conservative Shadow Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, gave a speech on 7 September where he promised that a Conservative government would increase government support for arms exports. Take action now by signing the CAAT petition to David Cameron to urge him to end the disproportionate government support given to arms exports, and stopping the corporate influence over the UK's foreign policy agenda
  
  
• WAR ON WANT have produced a new report Banking on Bloodshed which highlights the role of the five major British high street banks in financing the global arms trade. The arms trade provides the destructive hardware used in conflicts across the world. It undermines development, contributing to the poverty and suffering of millions. The report can be downloaded from the link above. Let Peter Mandelson, UK Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise, & Regulatory Reform, know that this is not acceptable in a so-called civilised society.
  
  

• The Campaign Against the Arms Trade's (CAAT) major campaign "Control BAE: reopen the Saudi corruption inquiry" - aims to do exactly what it says. We want to stop BAE from being put above the law. As well as turning a blind eye to corruption allegations, the dropping of the Serious Fraud Office inquiry raises issues fundamental to the arms trade that need highlighting: BAE's disproportionate political influence and the unrivalled government support that the company receives. The CAAT/Corner House legal challenge to the decision has resulted in unprecedented parliamentary, media and public interest in CAAT, and we now need to build on the outrage being expressed from so many quarters and deepen public understanding of the issues and move more people to action. Through action across the country, we hope CAAT supporters will convince friends, neighbours and colleagues that BAE is out of control and should be reigned in. Read here what you can do. http://www.caat.org.uk
  
  

• CONTROL ARMS WEBSITE Since 2003, the Control Arms campaign has been calling for a global Arms Trade Treaty. More than 1 million people worldwide support us. We are now at a critical stage: The United Nations General Assembly is meeting in October 2008 and we want to say to all governments that the "The world is watching" and monitoring the work they do to support an Arms Trade Treaty with human rights at its heart. Without stronger international controls, arms will continue to fuel violence, perpetuate war, human rights abuses and poverty worldwide. In 2006, the Control Arms campaign secured a huge victory when 153 governments voted at the United Nations to begin work towards an historic, legally-binding international Arms Trade Treaty. This process needs to progress at a much faster pace. Help to push it along by checking the websites above. To see how far the arms dealers tentacles have spread play Catch the Bomb.

• OPPOSE ARMS FAIRS
  Defence Systems and Equipment International, or DSEi one of the world's biggest arms fairs has been sold by Elsevier Press to Clarion Events who organiseThe Betting Show, The Caravan and Motorhome Show and The Baby Show (four a year). CAAT is now putting pressure on this new owner and will continue to call on the government to end its support for DSEi. Please sign the new petition to the Chief Exec of Clarion to get out of this dirty business which is directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent children every year.
  
  
  
• DO YOU WANT YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS TO BE GIVEN TO A US ARMS DEALER? This will happen, unless the Government is stopped from using Lockheed Martin to collect the 2011UK Census information. Census Alert is therefore campaigning to stop Lockheed Martin from being given the contract. The campaign is supported by the Green Party, politicians from Plaid Cymru, Labour and the Scottish National Party, and others opposed to the arms trade and concerned about personal privacy.
  What can I do? There is still time to stop this happening and we are not calling for a boycott of the Census at this stage. Before the final decisions on the contract are made, we are asking you to do the following: Sign the petition opposing arms company involvement in the Census. Contact your MP and ask them to raise the issue in Parliament.
  
  
• MAKING A KILLING: Corporations, Conflict & Poverty
  
  
• INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS (ICAN)
  ICAN is a campaign from the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. It's main aim is to achieve a Nuclear Weapons Convention to ban the development, possession and use of nuclear weapons.
  
  
• UK INVOLVEMENT IN IRAQI OIL RIP-OFF
  
  

• SIGN THE ON-LINE PETITION TO GET BLAIR CHARGED AT THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
  Go to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/WarCriminalBlair/ to sign up to the petition: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stand charged at the International Criminal Court with War Crimes committed in the illegal war on Iraq."

• ENOUGH A campaign started in 2007 to end the occupation of Palestine, and uphold international humanitarian law and over 60 UN resolutions which have been ignored by Israel and it's allies.
  
  

• CAAT have published figures for arms company shares held by UK universities. Check your institution's investments.
  Why is it that students have to pay for their training, while soldiers get their's for free, and are these university tuition fees being invested in arms companies?

• ALDERMASTON BLOCK THE BUILDERS
  Block the Builders uses non-violent means to prevent the building of a new laser facility at AWE Aldermaston, the first stage of a series of proposed developments which would enable AWE Aldermaston to build the next generation of nuclear weapons. If and when construction starts on site (and we believe this is now imminent) they plan to block the builders through a non-violent blockade of the site. For more information about the campaign, and how you can pledge to join in, or get regular alerts, go to http://www.aldermaston.net/campaigns/ and http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk

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