Edinburgh Peace and Justice Resource Centre

The European Court of Human Rights has moved to criminalise support for Palestinian human rights. The EU has consistently rewarded an Israel sinking ever deeper into crime, with open ethnic cleansers as Foreign Minister and Prime Minister. Now the judiciary joins the executive in aligning with Israel and criminalising those who support the call from Palestine for BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against the bloody violence of the Israeli state. Hardly suprising when the British Government is involved in an equally bloody military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Birds of a blood-stained feather flock together.

This ruling is a response to the growing support for BDS following Israel's most recent massacres in Gaza in January. It criminalises the entire Scottish, Irish and South African trade union movements.

It might soon become illegal to stand up to the violence of Israel with the non-violent weapon of boycott. The courts, then, will leave supporters of Palestine with no choice but to challenge these laws in every way possible, including civil disobedience and non-violent direct action. This ruling is designed to protect those carrying out the ethnic cleansing of Palestine: according to the Jerusalem Post (see below), the European court of Human Rights 'ruled that interference with...freedom of expression was needed to protect the rights of Israeli producers.' Producing goods on ethnically cleansed land while working to destroy Palestinian producers.

The growing BDS movement will not be deterred by this latest ruling. After all, the British Government defied the ICJ (International Court of Justice) 2004 ruling that Israel's apartheid Wall is illegal and must come down. The people of Gaza are being crushed by an open alliance of Israel, the US, the EU and the Arab regimes. They have no allies but a slowly awakening world civil society. They have paid many times over in mountains of corpses for their refusal to accept Israeli/Western plans for them to disappear. Compared to their heroism and suffering, the cost of standing up for human rights against the European Court of Human Rights remains very modest. Here in Scotland, we do not face Israeli death squads, the murder of our children, bulldozed homes, burning farms, prison walls, the kidnapping of our finest sons and daughters into dungeons, routine torture, expulsion or daily humiliation by a murderous soldiery.

Five Scottish PSC members will appear in court on Friday August 7 charged with 'racially aggravated' crime for disrupting a musical performance by official 'Cultural Ambassadors' of Israel when they came to Scotland last year. The charges are no more absurd than the defence of 'Israeli producers' by the European Court of Human Rights while Gaza lives with Israeli-induced hunger and misery. The five are privileged to stand alongside so many others fighting for justice, and with the people of Palestine whose resistance to Zionist crime has inspired the world, but has long been criminalised by Israel's Western allies.

Trident Ploughshares activists working with Bikes Block Bombs, Scrap Cars-Scrap Trident, Aldermaston Women, and Eastern-region CND blockaded 4 gates at AWE Aldermaston on Monday 15th of June. They were protesting at the building of new nuclear weapons facilities and the lack of democratic accountability.

Locked on at the North gate, the surprise blockades have caused massive road blockages and construction vehicles have been prevented from getting into Aldermaston.

Four gates are being blockaded by activists locked on two concrete (Home Office gate), a caravan (Boilerhouse gate), cars (Tadley gate) or plain lock-ons.

Angie Zelter, one of the organisers of the blockade today, said, 'When our Government refuses to comply with the fundamental principles of law and undermines the whole Non-Proliferation process then it is up to us, ordinary people, to prevent 'business as usual' at Aldermaston. The blockades today are responsible nonviolent attempts to prevent nuclear state terrorism.'

Janet Kilburn of the Aldermaston Womens' Peace Camp, said, 'The government is due to take fundamental decisions on the replacement of Trident this autumn. They wanted to do it in secret, behind closed doors. Given the current economic situation, blowing £76bn on a useless weapon of mass destruction should surely be a matter for public scrutiny and debate. Our action today is part of the process of bringing this issue out into the open'.

For pictures of the event you can contact press@aldermaston.net or you can download pictures direct from http://aldermaston.net/media

TRIDENT PLOUGHSHARES BLOCKADE AT ALDERMASTON ON 15TH JUNE 2009

It was a glorious morning as 5 separate groups made their way towards Aldermaston. At 6.30a.m. the Muriel Lesters arrived at North Gate to find it had not been opened yet for the park and ride coaches so they further locked it with their own chains and some super-glue and arranged themselves as comfortably as possible in their lock-ons and hung their peace banners.
It was a glorious morning as 5 separate groups made their way towards Aldermaston. At 6.30a.m. the Muriel Lesters arrived at North Gate to find it had not been opened yet for the park and ride coaches so they further locked it with their own chains and some super-glue and arranged themselves as comfortably as possible in their lock-ons and hung their peace banners. There were 5 of them locked on, including one in a wheel chair plus a lone supporter. A policeman soon arrived and asked them, in amazement, why they had chosen that particular gate (it being rather out of the way and not a usual target for demonstrators). They ingeniously replied that they had never blocked that gate before! They were then told that they were doing nothing illegal and could stay there all day if they wished! Well we know we are doing nothing illegal and that the real criminals are those building illegal weapons of mass destruction inside the fences. And the Muriel Lesters also knew, unlike the police, that they were an essential part of an overall blockade and that other gates were being blockaded. They remained where they were.
At 7a.m. women from the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp pushed their heavy lock-ons into place at Home Office Gate, and three women locked on, slowing traffic down whilst the East Anglian group drove two cars into Tadley Gate completely blocking it. The two cars had been carefully provided with lock-on tubes fixed to the back-seat floors so that when the cars were positioned the supporters in the front could get out fast and the two in the back seat just opened their doors and then sat in the road and put their arms in the tube. Thus 2 people locked-on to each car and the rest of the supporting group spray painted CND signs on the cars and hung banners saying ’Nuclear Weapons are State Terrorism’.
Meanwhile, two intrepid cyclists managed to padlock shut both sets of gates at the Main Gate and then rush off without getting arrested in order to support the other groups. They were soon joined by 2 other cyclists and throughout the morning not only gave good support but also got lots of ideas about how to do some bicycle blockades another time. They put up their banner that said ’Bikes Block Bombs - No Trident’ at the Tadley Gate.
At 7.30a.m. two combined TP affinity groups calling themselves the ’Birthday Group’ (it was Alison’s 60th birthday) manoeuvred a caravan into the Boilerhouse Gate stopping the line of traffic that had been directed around to that gate. There were 4 locked to each corner of the caravan sitting on the ground with their arms in concrete lock-ons that were fixed inside each corner of the caravan. One other blockader locked himself to the side of the caravan. Then the banner went up saying ’No Trident Replacement’ and the birthday cake came around.
Streams of traffic were trying to get into the various gates and having to move slowly around the base trying to find a way to get in. The base had been successfully blocked at 5 gates and although the locks were broken within minutes at the main gates and traffic trickled in past the concrete blocks at Home Office Gate nevertheless 3 gates were blocked for between 2 to 3 hours. The hardest to move were the two cars as it was difficult for the cutting teams to remove the tubes within the restricted space inside the cars. Once everyone was removed the cars and the caravan then had to be towed away.
Eleven people were arrested and taken along to Loddon Valley Police Station. The 5 at North Gate had been released last of all, cut out and then plonked on the grass and instead of being arrested they were left free to join the supporters from the other blockading groups. We all sat down and shared food and drink and our experiences of the day. We had had a kind dedicated press person who got out the press releases for us as he cycled round collecting people’s pictures and another support person who had driven me around to take pictures and to get an overall picture of what was going on. We were able to do a couple of interviews including one for the local radio. You can find local press accounts here at http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=10297 and at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8101261.stm
You can also find pictures of the blockades at http://aldermaston.net/media
In all eleven people were arrested and taken along to Loddon Valley Police Station. They were not kept inside too long and we were all re-united at around 4p.m. After more chatting and de-briefs we all set off home - tired but happy.
The 11 arrested were all charged with wilful obstruction of the highway either with or without a motor vehicle and were given rather stiff bail conditions to stay well away from Aldermaston and Burghfield that some of them may challenge in court. They have to appear at Newbury Magistrates Court on the following dates:- 7 on the 25th June, 2 on the 26th June, 1 on the 30th June and 1 on 2nd July. If anyone lives near the court then some court support would be welcome for the actual court cases. You can contact me if you want to do this and I will let you know the dates.
Any groups reading this who want to be involved in the next hidden blockade do contact me........we need to keep the pressure on Aldermaston and try to persuade our Government to fulfil its promise to the world community to disarm its nuclear weapons not make new ones.
Love and peace and hope, Angie Zelter.

GUDE CAUSE BULLETIN & UPDATE May 2009

What’s been happening…….

VISITS AND TALKS

- Glasgow
Special trains, finding the Glasgow banner, making a new Glasgow banner, looking at granny's suffagette teacups .... just some of the issues discussed at a scintillating meeting in Glasgow last Wednesday. The Women's Library provided a welcoming atmosphere for some very enthusiastic women who have decided to set up a Glasgow group - the date and place to be announced in the next week.

- Dundee
As I write this, women are planning to meet on Monday evening, 11 May in Dundee ....more news about their planned activities in the next ebulletin.

- Edinburgh
Lesley Orr will be giving a talk about Gude Cause for the Young at Heart group on Friday 5 June at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre.

Helen Kay will be speaking about Gude Cause to the Jubilee Group on Monday 8 June, 1-2.30pm at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre.

WELCOME TO OUR NEW ADMINISTRATOR
Fiona Skillen joined us in April and is already proving a valuable asset to Gude Cause. Fiona’s main task will be working on registration for the procession and getting to grips with our mushrooming database to ensure everyone is updated on developments.

PROCESSION ROUTE CONFIRMED
Finally, after much negotiation, we have finalised the route the procession will take. Gathering at Bruntsfield links we will head down Middle Meadow Walk, Forrest Road, George IV Bridge, High Street, North Bridge, Waterloo Place and finishing with a rally at Calton Hill.

BANNERMAKING WORKSHOPS
Starting 20th May,
New Committee member Marylou is co-ordinating our Bannermaking sub group and will be setting up a Bannermaking group to meet regularly. The first meeting of the group is on 20th May times and venue to be confirmed please email marylou anderson for further information. Everyone welcome, please bring your own scissors.

- Bannermaking Workshop with Iyaah Warren
30th May, 1.00 – 5.00 pm, McDonald Road Library, Edinburgh
Gude Cause will be running a special ‘no sewing’ Bannermaking workshop to design a Gude Cause Banner for the procession. Please bring your own scissors (dressmaking preferably) and any bits of cotton materials you may have. To book a place please contact gudecause@peaceandjustice.org.uk 0131 229 0993

- Rosette-making Workshop at the Africa Centre
16th & 23rd May 2009, 1-5 pm, McDonald Road Library
book your place in advance Contact 0131 557 6145
Aimed at women from all ethnic backgrounds. Get ready for the procession by making rosettes using the colours of the suffragette movement – Purple, White and Green with an image of a woman who inspires you in the centre. The Rosettes can be attached to sashes or pinned to your clothing for the procession

QUILTING
Quilting squares continue to arrive almost daily. Visit our website to view a couple of examples and if you feel inspired full instructions on how to get started on creating your own.

MUSIC
To see words and hear parts for songs to be sung on the procession see forthcoming link on Gude Cause website or go directly to www.protestinharmony.org.uk The songs will be on the website very soon!

Coming Soon………….

GUDE CAUSE FILM

In the pipeline…..
Mary Keegan’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ Group will be filmed as they look into suffragism and women's history. The film will be screened at the Royal Museum of Scotland in the run up to the event.
A triple bill of films of Scottish heroines is planned for October.
Choose a particular female historical character, or period, dress up & star in the film which will be made of The Gude Cause Procession – details on all will follow

PLAY
In the making…..
Liz Hare of WEA is leading a group of playwriters in making a new play 'What women Want'. This play will be presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 17-22 August 2009 at Diverse Attractions, Riddles Court. More details from Liz (lizhare@blueyonder.co.uk)

GET IN TOUCH……….
Tell us about your events and activities and we will highlight them in our ebulletin and on our website. For further information on any of the above, or to make a donation or discuss your ideas email gudecause@peaceandjustice.org.uk or call 0131 229 0993 or visit our website www.gudecause.co.uk

GUDE CAUSE
e-bulletin & Update
March 2009

GUDE CAUSE QUILTING PROJECT – Our first Squares
Need some inspiration or support to get started or want to meet up with other quilters – join the quilting bee from 6-9pm at Engender, on one of the following dates. All welcome! There are "instructional sheets" to get you started available on our website www.gudecause.org.uk
Mon 6 April
Mon 4 May
Mon 1 June

What’s been happening ………..
 
Gude Cause Fundraising Concert
Gude Cause celebrated International Women’s Day with a fundraising concert on Sunday 8 March. A wonderful night packed full of inspiring women singers and musicians. Many thanks to all who took part and gave their time and talents freely. Special thanks to the organizers who pulled together what was an inspirational evening.  Not only was the event successful in bringing women together, it also raised £400.

Visits and talks
March was a busy month with Gude Cause being invited to take part in events and hold stalls at International Women’s Day events.
Helen Kay attended North Edinburgh Arts IWD event where women took an interest in the display of suffrage posters and photographs of the Edinburgh Suffrage Procession of 1909.   There were several inspiring and worthwhile workshops but Helen was particularly pleased to see so many women taking an interest in the quilt-making project.  
Susan Moffat attended the East Lothian’s IWD event remembering the Women Suffragettes of East Lothian with a full programme of speakers, banner making, and conversations with East Lothian Women activists, a sing a long and Victorian style café.
Lesley Orr attended the Kirkcaldy for IWD celebration organised by Kirkcaldy & District TUC.

Support
Gude Cause have received a grant to produce a 'Toolkit' of information and ideas to inspire women and groups to get started and set up their own local Gude Cause activities. We welcome any suggestions and examples of good work to include in the toolkit.

We were also successful in being awarded £3,005 from Women’s Fund for Scotland which allows us to appoint a much needed freelance part-time administrator.

Our first booking
A group of around thirty from the Communication Worker's Union HQ in Wimbledon have booked their place on the process. They will be in attending a union meeting in Edinburgh on the Friday and are staying on for the procession on Saturday. They will be coming with banners!

……………….. apart from that discussions continue with CEC on the proposed route for the procession ………………..

SONGS FOR THE PROCESSION
Protest in Harmony are working on a collection of songs and music to be sung on the procession. You will be able to download words and music from Gude Cause and Protest in Harmony websites in May and they will be circulated to community/political choirs throughout the UK. A songbook is also being printed and song workshops in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow are in the planning, details to follow.

The songs are:
1.The Right to Vote and a’ That - from time of 1909
2.Rosa’s Lovely Daughters - Rob Johnson
3.We are Remembering – Penny Stone
4.Bella Ciao – Greenham version
5.Gude Cause – Jane Lewis
6.Nana was a Suffragette – Jules Gibb
7.The Wimmin o’ Dundee – Sheena Wellington
8.Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round - ?

Workshops and events coming up
WEA Edinburgh have organised three arts based courses:
'Get Involved in Gude Cause through the Arts '.
Jewellery Making with Leah Bastiani- Mondays 7- 9pm - Drummond Community High School from 27th April for 6 weeks (£10 contribution for materials)
Banner Making with Iyaah Warren -Tuesdays 7-9pm Riddles Court 6 weeks from 28th April - aim is to make a wall hanging as a centre piece for the Museum of Edinburgh Suffrage Exhibition . (free).
Theatre Costume Workshop with Rebecca Roosman - Thursdays 10am to 12noon from 30th April for 10 weeks at Riddle’s Court. To research & design costume for the play WEA are preparing. (free)
To book a place contact: k.turner@weascotland.org.uk

VOTES FOR WOMEN
The Women's Suffrage Movement in Edinburgh
31 July 1909 to January 9th 2010 Museum of Edinburgh 142 Canongate EH8 8DD
Votes for Women will look at the contribution Women in Edinburgh made to the Suffrage Movement, it will also include a display of Suffrage Jewellery.

LAURISTON LECTURES 2009
Tuesday 6th October 10.30 am,
Laurieston Castle
Lesley Orr, Women’s History Scotland will give an illustrated talk that will recall the 1909 procession and the stories of some eminent suffrage campaigners in Edinburgh featured in the Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women. Among them were pioneer doctors, educationalists, churchwomen and campaigners for social justice.
The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women is a very good resource and basis for information and potential talks about women involved in the suffrage movement in Scotland.

Get in touch……….
For further information on any of the above, or to make a donation or discuss your ideas email gudecause@peaceandjustice.org.uk or call 0131 229 0993 and ask for Gude Cause

Pass it on …………

Please help us to widen our network by passing on this ebulletin to your own contacts

Decreasing the operational readiness of nuclear weapons systems. Read the letter here.
Dear Presidents Obama and Medvedev, Vice-President Joseph Biden, Prime Minister Putin, Secretary of State Clinton, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Congressional and Duma Committees on Foreign Affairs and Defense/Armed Services:
The authors of this letter write as the joint coordinators of an appeal to lower nuclear weapons operating status/operational readiness that was signed by 44 Nobel Prize - winners and which helped lead to resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly in October 2007 and 2008. (see appendix)
This letter is signed by NGOs and distinguished individuals from around the world who believe that nuclear disarmament is a matter of urgency, and that taking nuclear weapons off quick-launch capability is a vital first step toward nuclear disarmament.
We suggest that the current negotiations between the US and Russia over a successor to START be also used as forum in which the US and Russia negotiate an agreement to cease maintaining their large nuclear forces in quick-launch status.
We are very much encouraged by the repeated committments made by President Obama to negotiate with Russia to lower the operational status of nuclear weapons systems, as well as by the statements to that effect to which Dr. Henry Kissinger has lent his name, as well as by his involvement in a successor to START.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in a September, 2008 article entitled 'Avoiding Human Extinction', placed the lowering of the operational status of nuclear weapon systems, the reductions in warhead numbers and the abolition of nuclear weapons among the top of measures needed to be taken to protect humankind.
U.S. scientists now predict, with a high level of certainty, that:
1) the detonation in urban areas of as little as a half of one percent of the explosive power contained in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals could cause major disruptions in global climate leading to the starvation of hundreds of millions of the already hungry, and
(2) A war fought with even a few thousand strategic nuclear weapons, such as the U.S.-Russian weapons now maintained at high-alert status, would cause such cataclysmic changes in global climate and environment that growing seasons would be completely eliminated for years, thus dooming most of humanity to perish from famine.
It is unrealistic to assume that nuclear deterrence will work perfectly forever. With the passage of time, the use of nuclear weaponry, due to madness, malice, miscalculation, or malfunction becomes an inevitability. Thus it is imperative that as a first step towards reducing the immense danger these weapons pose to all nations and peoples, that the U.S. and Russia agree to remove their nuclear weapons from high-alert status.
We urge the US and Russian governments, Presidents Obama and Medvedev, Secretary of State Clinton and Foreign Minister Ivanov, to use the opportunity of the renegotiation/replacement of START to negotiate to immediately lower the operational readiness of U.S. and Russian nuclear weapon systems. This single act will do more than any other immediately available measure to make humanity and civilization secure in accordance with our shared objective of progress towards the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Sincerely,
John Loretz, Program Director, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) - 1985 Nobel Peace Prize)
Aaron Tovish, Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign
Steven Starr, Senior Scientist, Physicians for Social Responsibility, USA,
Dave Krieger, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, Calif, USA
Kate Hudson, Convenor, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), London, UK,
Paul Ingram, Director, British-American Security Council (BASIC)
Decreasing the operational readiness of nuclear weapons systems
Douglas Mattern, President, Association of World Citizens, USA (Joint Coordinator 2004 Appeal on Operating Status by 44 Nobels)

Hi everybody,
This is Arantxa and Estibaliz, the new Edinburgh Peace and Justice Resource Centre interns. We have just arrived from the Basque Country, in the north of Spain, full of energy and willing to learn and help as much as possible.
Hopefully we will meet you at the Resource Centre! Come and have a look!

Geoffrey Carnall writes in relation to the Antrim shootings..."Responsibility for the shooting of two British soldiers in a barracks in Northern Ireland has been claimed by the ‘Real IRA’, one of the Irish Republican groups which has never accepted the Good Friday Agreement. Politicians of all the mainstream political parties have condemned this attempt to keep alive the traditional scenario of Irish resistance to a British military occupation. And the hope is that the benefits of abandoning this scenario will be apparent enough to prevent a revival of the centuries-old commitment to heroic warfare.
In an interview on the BBC’s ‘World Tonight’ programme, Eamon McCann, a veteran left-wing journalist now associated with the Socialist Environmental Alliance, expressed the view that the shooting was unlikely to re-kindle sectarian conflict, but that there was potential for such conflict because of the continuing separation of the Protestant and Catholic communities in the province. His own party makes the erosion of this separation an issue at the top of its agenda, but it is hardly a significant player in Northern Irish politics.
When I worked in Belfast through the 1950s, while the separation of the communities was taken for granted, there were many small-scale efforts to bridge the gap. Such efforts persisted through the troubles later on, usually with the proviso ‘No publicity, please’. I remember attending the Quaker Yearly Meeting in Dublin some time in the 1970s and hearing about a variety of peacemaking initiatives – but nothing could be said about them in public, or that would be the end of them. People also deplored the fact that the media only showed interest in the bad news. I pointed out that, well, they weren’t allowed to get the good news, but my observation made no impression. However, I don’t doubt that these initiatives were crucial to the eventual achievement of the Good Friday Agreement, and that if the apparently insignificant activities of the Socialist Environmental Alliance are part of an inconspicuous effort to build bridges, then the peace process will continue.
As always, war makes a good story, has a strong narrative outline. Peace is apt to be a muddle, a bit ridiculous, the result of a variety of very mixed motives. We have to learn to shrug this off. There is life in the muddle."

The Pleasance Cabaret bar was the venue for a packed and lively celebration for International Womens Day, organised by Gude Cause as part of the lead up to the re-enactment of the Women's walk for suffrage which took place along Edinburgh's Princes Street in 1909. The programme was compered by the P & J's first co-ordinator, Kathy Galloway, the present leader of the Iona Community, who made no bones about the links between the struggle for universal suffrage and equality, and women's desire for peace and justice, with the continuing importance of direct action in that struggle high on the agenda.
The concert opened with Penny Stone leading an irresistible African women's call (and response) to work, leading into an evening of songs and music as eclectic as the assembled audience, with soulful Klezma, assembled choirs, with material freshly written for the occasion as well as songs and tunes drawn from far away or long ago.
The organisation, numbers and the enthusiasm augur well for Gude Cause which was launched in the Scottish Parliament on the 9th October 2008, at an event hosted by Marlyn Glen and chaired by Joyce Macmillan. Gude Cause are organising the re-enactment of the 1909 procession on the 10th October this year, which was supported in a motion made by the City of Edinburgh Council on 15th April 2008.
Gude Cause Committee members meet with the Edinburgh Council transport chiefs today to continue discussion of the route in the context of the tramworks in Edinburgh.
The concert line up included Wildfire,Eileen Penman, Mae Shaw, Stairheid Gossip, Protest in Harmony, Alison McMorland, Gica Loening, Raise Yer Hem, Mhaire Campbell.... and many more.

A new series of papers by the Henry L. Stimson Center aims to show nuclear powers that the "elimination of nuclear weapons [is] a realistic and viable option." The papers, by the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to international peace and security, are assessing the disarmament question as it relates to a dozen countries, including the nuclear powers of Russia, the United States, and Israel; aspirants, such as North Korea; and those that could be future weapons states, such as Japan and Brazil. The first set of papers looks at Britain and France. The assessment finds that Britain is "best placed to abandon its nuclear status," while such a move by France "would require extraordinary circumstances." However, the papers "make clear that if the US and Russia make significant progress toward deep reductions in their own arsenals . . . the two West European nuclear powers are likely to come to the table, as well."