Manchester, the first European city to formally support the TPNW
Manchester City Council has passed a resolution to support the International Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on the 28th of November 2018 and became the first European city to formally support the Treaty. 122 countries agreed on TPNW at the UN in 2017, including the Republic of Ireland, and the Treaty is being ratified currently. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the organisation that promotes and campaigns for the TPNW, has received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its work. ICAN encourages cities to speak up against nuclear weapons and calling on the national governments to join TPNW. Los Angeles, Baltimore, Sydney, Melbourne, Fremantle and Toronto have also made resolutions to support TPNW earlier this year. Multilateral nuclear disarmament is a concerted attempt of the Treaty, but it is opposed by nuclear weapon states, including the UK.
Source: http://www.nuclearpolicy.info/
North and South Korean soldiers shook hands after crossing over the world’s most heavily armed border
On Wednesday, 12th of December, dozens of North and South Korean soldiers exchanged cigarettes and chatted after crossing the border. The troops were inspecting the sites of their rival’s frontline guard posts to verify they had been removed, as part of inter-Korean engagement efforts that come amid stalled US-North Korea nuclear disarmament talks.
increasingly powerful weapons and threatened Seoul and Washington with war. https://www.abc.net.au/news/
Extinction Rebellion Drop Banner from the Scott Monument warning the seasonal shoppers there are only Twelve Years Left
Echoing the recent UN IPCC report published in November that warned the world that we have just twelve years to reverse climate change activists in 35 countries are coming uniting and taking direct action under the banner of Extinction Rebellion.
Extinction Rebellion is calling on governments to tell the truth about climate change and and the wider ecological emergency, reverse inconsistent policies and work alongside the media to communicate with citizens, enact legally binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025 and to reduce consumption levels and convene a national Citizen’s Assembly to oversee the changes, as part of creating a democracy fit for purpose.
4,000 activists block German coal trains for 24 hours
On 27 October, 6,500 people took part in the action at Tagebau Hambach, a large open cast coal mine near Cologne, Germany, where highly-polluting brown coal (lignite) is extracted by German energy company RWE. The coalmine occupies some 80 percent of the ancient Hambach Forest and RWE are intending to clear half the remaining forest for their operations. For more than 24 hours, 4,000 activists blockaded the tracks that take coal from the mine to nearby RWE power plants. Some activists chained themselves to the tracks and thus prolonged the occupation until 4.30pm on Sunday. Climate activist group Ende Gelände described its occupation in late October as the ‘largest action of civil disobedience for climate justice that Germany has ever seen’. Source: https://www.ende-gelaende.org/en/
Remembrance and peace: UK peace groups mark 100th anniversary of First World War armistice
Over 200 people assembled to remember all victims of war, laying wreaths of white flowers, and committing themselves to the objective: ‘No More War: let’s make peace happen.’ Representing the First World War Peace Forum coalition, which organised the day, Marigold Bentley reminded the gathering that in every conflict ‘there are always people working for peace – whatever the media tells you – remember that humanity may be capable of the most terrible things but there are always people who are protesting, challenging and engaging in policy to make the world a better place. And those people are probably you.’
Source:https://peacenews.info/
Carols Not Barrels Protest at National Portrait Gallery
Climate activists occupied the lobby of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery urging people to tell the gallery that we don’t want oil in our art. You can contact the gallery.at: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/content/contact-us
White Poppy sales break records
Sales of white poppies are higher this year than they’ve ever been
– since the Co-operative Women’s Guild created the symbol in 1933 to remember all those killed in war. The Peace Pledge Union – the pacifist organisation that supplies and distributes white poppies in Britain – has sold 119,555 white poppies this year, as of the end of Wednesday 7 November. The previous record was 110,000 white poppies in 2015. Until 2014, the record was around 80,000 in 1938. Last year, the figure was 101,000. Source: https://ppu.org.uk/
World summit brings surge of new commitments to protect human rights defenders
In Paris, Human rights defenders from across all corners of the world gathered for the Human Rights Defenders World Summit, to develop a plan of action for how to protect and promote the work of activists fighting for rights, 20 years on from the first UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Speakers included UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. Source: http://cpnn-world.org/
In Berlin, hundreds of thousands march against racism
Last October, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched through Berlin in protest against the far right, racism, and xenophobia. Organisers said 242,000 people across Germany took part in the rally, making it one of the biggest in recent years. Source: http://cpnn-world.org/
Interfaith Leaders Arrested at the US-Mexico Border for bearing prophetic witness against the mistreatment of refugees and asylum seekers
On the 70th anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10th of December, interfaith leaders went to the US-Mexico border by the hundreds. They flew in from around the country and intentionally trespassed the highly fortified southern border, bearing what they called “prophetic witness” to the mistreatment of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
They sat, they sang, they prayed. They carried banners saying “El Amor No Conoce Fronteras,” or “Love Knows No Borders.” And they patiently waited to be arrested. Their support crew, about 500 volunteers from churches, mosques, and synagogues around the country, stood on the other side of the federal no-trespass signs. Each time a military moved to make arrests, frog-marching the non-resisting arrestees, including a blind woman, up the hill to waiting vehicles, the crowd cheered for the person taking the arrest, while also civil-rights spirituals. Roughly 30 people were arrested. They have all been later been released.
Source: www.thenation.com/
