The new 'we'

Just back from British Quakers annual conference / gathering and buzzing in my mind is a quote from Tariq Ramadam, who I had the pleasure of hearing speak earlier this year. He talks about a 'new "we"' ... thus: (From Manifesto for a new "WE")

Our societies are awaiting the emergence of a new “We”. A “We” that would bring together men and women, citizens of all religion-and those without religion-who would undertake together to resolve the contradictions of their society: the right to work, to housing, to respect, against racism and all forms of discrimination, all offenses against human dignity.

Lots more good stuff in his writings, and I think a fitting note on which to mark the 1st anniversary of this blog.

Glimmers of hope

A few things to be less pessimistic about... (perhaps)

- The latest IPCC report ... according to the BBC: (Climate change 'can be tackled') The growth in greenhouse gas emissions can be curbed at reasonable cost, experts at a major UN climate change conference in Bangkok have agreed. Boosting renewable energy, reducing deforestation and improving energy efficiency can all help, they said.

- The election results: The BNP have been a lot less successful in the local elections than they had hoped and many had feard (although they seem to have done worryingly well - percentage-wise) in North Wales (see Guardian report) , which states: "A coordinated effort by the main parties to minimise the electoral threat from the party seemed to have paid off after the BNP was forced to concede "a mixed result"."

- Change of mindset: Paul Rogers, on OpenDemocracy, speculates that the change of Prime Minister (presumably Gordon Brown) opens up the opportunity for a change of thinking at the heart of power on foreign and security policy - we shall see.

- Reith Lectures: Jeffrey Sachs, in the latest Reith Lecture, "Economic Solidarity for a Crowded Planet".... "Let us resolve to honor our commitments in the fight against poverty, hunger, and disease. Our commitments are small compared with our vast wealth, and the benefits will be vast. We have the power to save millions of lives each year, to help slow a burgeoning population growth in the poorest countries, and to reduce, if not end, the conflicts and wars caused by extreme poverty, which threaten peace everywhere. This, truly, is the work of our generation. "

Mind shift?

One of the arguments used by anti-Trident replacement camaigners over the past several months has been that nuclear weapons are irrelevant in considering the real threats to security on this planet. I was interested today, therefore, to hear that none other than the UK goverment has initiated a debate at the UN on the security implications of climate change. Paul Rogers and others have been raising these concerns for many years, and todays debate coincides with the publication of a book (Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World- Oxford Research Group) written by him with Chris Abbott and John Sloboda - from their publicity material:
"This important book shows why this approach has been such a failure, and how it distracts us from other, much greater, threats:
* Climate change
* Competition over resources
* Marginalisation of the majority world
* Global militarisation"

And in The Guardian John Gittings helpfully (I think) makes the connection between these issues, the tensions with Iran and US plans to site Missile Defence infrastructure in Central Europe. And on the same day, AC Grayling reflects on Hilary Benn's appeal to desist from using the terms 'War on Terror' - again focussing on the deeper causes of resentment and insecurity; this seems to back up this thinking. The fact that these different issues are so interlinked could be seen as a problem - how do you tackle one without dealing with the other? Alternatively, it could be the best reason yet for the massive change of thinking that many are seeking. Janet Bloomfield will be remembered in future editions of the new book from ORG, I gather (as one closely linked with the publication project), and a fitting memorial to her would for strenuous energies to be expended to promote this agenda in whatever ways possible.

Tackling racism, building peace

I've today added to the NFPB website some resources arising from our conference in Bolton on 10th March...

• Notes from Ian McHugh's presentation on the theme
  
  
• Pointers for further information and action

Hoping these are useful.

More about Janet

Back from a week away, I was pleased to see a number of web-based tributes to Janet Bloomfield.

• A website recently set up in her memory
• Comments and memories on the Abolition 2000 website
• A tribute on the Oxford Research Group website

Continuing to hold her family and friends in the light, particularly in the lead up to her funeral on Thursday this week.

Janet Bloomfield

I have been deeply saddened to hear at the beginning of the week of the unexpected death of Janet Bloomfield at the age of 53. I got to know Janet through our joint work on the QPSW Peace Campaigning and Networking group and in the work she did with us in running workshops on Dialogue with Decision Makers. I also greatly valued her contributions to peace events as a speaker and to peace and disarmament work as a writer, networker, visionary and friend to many. Her immediate family must be devastated. Heartfelt thoughts and prayers to them. Janet will be missed by so many. On the website of Atomic Mirror, for whom she worked, is the phrase: "creativity is the antidote to destruction". Thank you, Janet, for all the creative energy, the humanity, the commitment and the friendship you gave to this world.

Surging for peace

Came across an interesting website recently on Spirituality and Practice, one item on which Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat call for a Peace Surge, writing:
"in our view, we are living in the scariest moment since the Cuban missile crisis when the world was carried to the brink of nuclear war in a confrontation between the United States and Russia. The difference is that there is still time for citizens and their representatives to stop this descent into violence and destructiveness. So this week we are asking you to read, practice, and act to create a peace surge. We'll explore the other part of this process, creating inner peace to enable you to keep up your activism, in the weeks ahead."

Another type approach to spirituality and peace comes from the World Council of Churches' 'Decade to Overcome Violence', which announced in the last week details of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, taking place in May 2011. Leading up to that they envisage "a major worldwide moblization of churches for peace". This will all be fed into a Declaration on Just Peace which will be "an act of public witness and an affirmation of enduring hope ina world torn apart by violence". The press release about this also mentions the need for the declaration to acknowledge the wrongs that Christian churches have committed over the centuries, and - encouragingly - will seek to learn from insights from other faiths.

After the Trident vote...

Now the UK parliament have voted on Trident, where next? Those who were particularly involved in effort to engage the public and politicians and genuine debate on the issue will meet soon and no doubt developing strategies for further opposition to the decision to renew. CND, for instance, are encouraging people to write to their MPs to continue the conversation about the importance of pursuing multilateral disarmamant, amongst other things. And more than that, they say 'we will be working tirelessly to ensure that this dangerous, immoral decision is reversed at the earliest date.' Watch that space.

QPSW, on the Peace Exchange website, meanwhile writes: "Despite the disappointing outcome of the vote, this is not the end of this story: it will take years to build the new submarines and the argument for doing so is rusting away as inexorably as the current fleet. We will keep you informed of future Trident-related events and actions as they come up. In the meantime, you can still make use of the QPSW "Don't Replace Trident!" resources, and take action at Faslane naval base and Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment."

Interesting issues arising with the ongoing Faslane 365 blockades. Local residents are objecting to the disruption to their lives by people blockading the main road outside the base, and have recently had their own protest event (see the article in The Scotsman). The Faslane 365 core team is encouraging blockaders to be aware of this and to bear it in mind when planning actions - for instance, taking into account school exams coming up etc. But the blockades continue, with both groups of people trying to do what they must do whilst not trampling on each others' toes unnecessarily.

Leeds Quakers say it with .... brollies

A few links showing Quakers from Leeds and beyond before and during their blockade at Faslane at the beginning of the month. It was a tough going weather-wise, I gather, with cold wet wind and rain. The umbrellas served at least two useful purposes, I imagine, and the various rainbow-coloured banners etc must have helped brighten dampened spirits. Pictures and reports ... at Indymedia, Hull Campaigns for Change and Leeds Coalition Against War

Trident vote next Wednesday

Most readers will probably know that the vote in the UK parliament on whether to replace the Trident Nuclear Weapons system with more of the nasty things is to take place next week. Much lobbying and demonstrating has been going on for the last few months and Wednesday will be no exception. So here's an un-ashamed plug for the event in London in which Quakers are going to be involved....
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Inter-Faith Vigil
on Wednesday 14th March: Trident Vote Day 5 – 6 pm in Parliament Square Central London
Faith-based communities are invited to join together in silent witness on the day of the House of Commons vote on the future of Britain’s nuclear weapons.
There will also be other events and actions taking place on the day of the vote. For more information on these, please visit: www.tridentvoteday.org.uk

The vigil is supported by: Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, Christian CND, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi and Quaker Peace & Social Witness.

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We are urged not to give up if the vote does go in favour of replacement, however. The tide of public opinion seems to be changing and the actual implementation of policy is a long-term issue that can be challenged every step of the way.

And don't forget to get your copy of the QPSW poster at the beginning of this blog, available to download from here and to get in hard copy from here.

Books

I went to the radical bookshop in Liverpool ' News from Nowhere' yesterday, to collect a selection of books for a stall at the conference we're running this weekend. It was a delight to find the shop in such good health, apparently, when so many others of its type around the country have not survived. I can heartily recommend a visit in person, or to their website if you can't get there. Very nice atmosphere, good selection of materials and easily accessible in the city centre.

Growing challenges, many opportunities

This last week or so has seen a range of reports that envisage a different way forward, but these are all fairly grand sweep kind of visions, beyond the capacity of the 'ordinary person' to do much about. They are important, nonetheless, and we should continue to promote these alternatives.

In ' Britain’s 21st-century defence' Paul Rogers on the openDemocracy website focuses on two crucial bits of majory military hardware spending the UK government might be making a commitment to shortly - including of course, Trident.
He concludes: "Instead of a restricted outlook that sees matter purely in terms of defence of the realm, a review could embrace a much more global perspective, recognising that entirely new security thinking will be needed to face 21st-century challenges. With worldwide socio-economic marginalisation and environmental constraints such as climate change likely to be the real global-security issues over the next decades, this key decision might just open up space for some fresh approaches to sustainable security"

Similary, Steve Schofield in Oceans of Work: Arms Conversion Revisited, a BASIC report , he writes of the UK in general and Barrow in Furness in particular - also the place where Trident subs were built and apparently hoping for orders for their replacements... "The UK can make a difference through disarmament and through an arms conversion programme that addresses the a broader security framework on peacekeeping, climate change and sustainable development. Or it can continue on its present course as a major appendage to the US miilitary. A small town in Cumbria may well symbolise those future paths to peace or to war."

Tomorrow an interfaith group, including someone from American Friends Service Committee, will be on a delegation to talk to Iranian religious and political leaders to try to develop a more fruitful dialogue than the US government seems to want at the moment.

And in "Time to Talk", a report from 'Crisis Action', we read: "The UK has an important role to play in fostering a climate of pragmatism. It is recommended that the UK government continue to give full backing to the diplomatic process whilst directly addressing the need for full and direct negotiations between Iran and the US administration. The time available should be used to build confidence on both sides and the UK has a crucial role to play in supporting that process..."

Meanwhile, whilst we get to grips with the UNICEF report that's labelled the UK the worst for child-wellbeing, and struggle to understand the killing of teenagers in south London, we are reminded that paying attention to the detail of human relationships, valuing each human for the positive potential they have, is the basis of a peaceful society.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation in England has produced a poster with QPSW simply called 'Build Peace' with snapshots of - mostly - young people holding a white board on which they have written their own thoughts about building peace. FoR say "Far too often we feel helpless or even hopeless in the face of the amount of violence and injustice in the world. Yet there are millions of people all around the world who are working to build peace locally, nationally & internationally.
All of us need encouragement and ideas to help us build peace
How do you think we should build peace…?" and they invite contributions.
Photos from the poster and others can be viewed in a slide show on FoR's website at:
http://www.for.org.uk/buildpeace
Here is just a tiny sample:

Build Peace - Share your toys
Build peace - forgiveness, not revenge
Build peace - Build community

News from Birmingham

Whilst most of the nation's press is focussing on the arrest of 9 people in Birmingham in connection with some sort of terrorist plot, The Independent carries an interesting and hopeful piece about a school in the same city:
The Jewish school where half the pupils are Muslim

Yours anxiously...

'Yours anxiously', one correspondent signed themselves in a letter expressing concerns about the apparent drift by the US towards military action against Iran. A number of journalist and commentators seem to share that anxiety...

In The Guardian today. Simon Tisdall writes:
"US officials in Baghdad and Washington are expected to unveil a secret intelligence "dossier" this week detailing evidence of Iran's alleged complicity in attacks on American troops in Iraq. The move, uncomfortably echoing Downing Street's dossier debacle in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, is one more sign that the Bush administration is building a case for war."

and on the same Guardian website, Ian Traynor and Jonathan Steele report a growing rift between Europe and the US on the issue:
"... diplomats in Brussels and those dealing with the dispute in Vienna say a fissure has opened up between the US and western Europe on three crucial aspects - the military option; how and how quickly to hit Iran with economic sanctions already decreed by the UN security council; and how to deal with Russian opposition to action against Iran through the security council.

"There's anxiety everywhere you turn," said a diplomat familiar with the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. "The Europeans are very concerned the shit could hit the fan."

What to do?

Kathy Kelly, writing on Common Dreams ...:
Now another engagement looms. The Bush administration may try to wed U.S. people to yet another war, this time against Iran. If so, that would be joyful news for the controlling interests of large corporations that benefit from U.S. warfare and U.S. dominance over oil resources in this part of the world. We who claim the right to free speech, far beyond the imprisoning borders of Iraq, should join our strengths and wills to visit every congressional and senate office over the coming weeks, exercising nonviolent civil disobedience to cut funding for the wasteful, cruel, illegal and immoral U.S. addiction to war. (See www.vcnv.org to learn more about joining such a campaign.)

and Joe Volk, writing for the US Friends Committee on National Legislation:
"Peace is possible, if we work for it. Fortunately, we may have help. Some Members of Congress from both major political parties have begun to speak out against the Bush administration´s new march to war. At last count, FCNL has located four pieces of legislation introduced in the last few weeks that would require the president to obtain congressional approval before using force against Iran. (We hope but cannot assume that Congress would not vote for the use of force against Iran.) Passage of such a measure would be an important step toward preventing an expansion of the war. A second important step would be for the president to authorize direct diplomatic contacts between the U.S. and Iran and name a special envoy capable of the task.
As the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report noted, Iran could play an important role in the stabilization and rebuilding of Iraq.
...Intensive diplomacy and smart politics, not threats of war and war, are the tools to repair the damaged relations between Iran and the U.S. Peaceful prevention of a war with Iran could advance U.S. national interests and global security."

From the UK perspective, a CND briefing [pdf file] includes the following:
"CND calls for all of the nuclear weapons states to immediately undertake tangible steps towards eliminating their nuclear arsenals, as agreed by the signatories of the NPT. Such a confidence-building measure would demonstrate to Iran that the demands of the international community are not one-sided and that all countries are dedicated to the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
The international community and the IAEA must act even-handedly. It is not enough to sound the alarm on so-called rogue states while existing nuclear states defy NPT requirements and are not taken to task.
Attack or threat of attack can only increase the likelihood of nuclear proliferation, as states that feel under threat may come to the conclusion that they have a ‘deterrent’ need for nuclear weapons."

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Let's hope another way can yet be found, otherwise we may be writing and watching anxiously for some time to come.

Sad loss

News from the Ekklesia website:
Noted Iraqi scholar and peacemaker assassinated
-26/01/07

The Church World Service has expressed its sadness at the apparently targeted killing of noted Iraqi peace and reconciliation advocate and trauma-healing specialist Dr. Alharith Abdulhameed Hassan.
Colleagues at humanitarian agency Church World Service called his death a 'tragic loss'.
Dr. Alharith, a 56-year-old Iraqi Muslim and professor of psychiatry at the University of Baghdad, was shot while travelling to work.
..... Alharith's widow wrote: "Please, my friends remember Alharith in your prayers as a man of love, who continuously called for "love, peace, forgiveness and the power of knowledge."

Global Peace march - coming soon and open to all

News from AVAAZ.org:

... "Hundreds of thousands of Americans will march to their capital city Washington DC on Saturday 27 January. It could be the rebirth of the US peace movement. People round the world - let’s join the march with our own global internet protest! Last week, our ad told decision-makers in Congress how strong world opposition is to Bush’s escalation in Iraq."
This Saturday, Avaaz supporters at the US march will carry banners and country placards announcing how many of us from each nation are joining the marching. Every signature will be counted on the banners! Let’s raise a global voice for a real plan to end this war. Let’s make those numbers big. Time is short. Join the global peace march and tell your friends today!"

... consider yourselves told!

Web site updates and conference information

I've been spending a bit of time during the week trying to tidy up our main website, and in particular the calendar, news and action and links pages. Hope these are helpful - we seem to get plenty of visits still.

Also added a page advertising the conference we're putting on in March on Tackling Racism: Building Peace. This should be a very stimulating event - please register if you're planning to attend and pass the information onto others.

Matrix of peace building

Just come across information about a collaborative competition being co-ordinated by 'Changemakers', who say of themselves:

Changemakers is an initiative of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public that focuses on the rapidly growing world of social innovation. It provides solutions and resources needed to help everyone become a changemaker and presents compelling stories that explore the fundamental principles of successful social innovation around the world.

The competition is entitled : Entrepreneuring Peace On-the-ground innovations for managing conflict

A matrix of peace building has been set up as the entries (158 to date) have been coming in and voting for three prize winners will be possible online from 31 January to 14 February. The matrix itself makes interesting reading, with much food for thought about how peace can be built.

Westminster MPs to focus on conflict

The ministry for peace group reports:

"After many months of quiet effort, ministry for peace has secured enough support in Parliament to set up an official All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues. The purpose of the APPG, as formally stated in the Parliamentary Register, is 'To encourage dialogue, on the basis of expert information and opinion from across the political spectrum, on issues relating to conflict; especially on the practical means to prevent, transform and resolve violent conflict.'"

They obviously see this as a significant achievment and I hope indeed that it might be so. Read more at: http://www.ministryforpeace.org/content/view/90/20/, including the list of MPs on the group.

New age?

This week I am attending two funerals of Quakers who have died in their mid 80s and 90s respectively, and was at another one a fortnight ago.

From my perspective (mid 40s), it's unusual to go to one funeral a year, let alone three in a month. The three Friends (Bob Oliver - Eccles, Alun Williams - Bolton, and John Hamilton - Liverpool) had all been conscientious objectors in their time and all three had continued to support peace initiatives right to the end. What also inspired me about them all was the fact that they continued to challenge with their incisive and independent thinking. Thanks to all three for their persistence.

I was also inspired to read about the GOATs (Golden Oldies Against Trident) contribution to Faslane 365. The statistics....
39 Blockading Groups
55 days of presence
408 arrests
4 prosecutions
285 days left

Has anyone seen the debate about Trident that the government is supposed to be organising?