EDINBURGH PEACE & JUSTICE CENTRE
St John’s Terrace
Princes Street
Tel: 229 0993
Email:
peace-justice@btconnect.com
White poppies for sale: 40p
New additions to our LIBRARY:
Bernard Crick has sent us David Blunkett’s proposal for a citizenship test and details of the government’s multi-ethnic advisory committee on Citizenship. You can also find them on http://fpc.org.uk/hotnews
“What team Bush doesn’t want you to know” by ex-UNSCOM Inspector in Iraq William ‘Scott’ Ritter.
Scottish Refugee Integration Forum: draft action plan from the Scottish Executive
Dimensions: details of 500 top funders from the Charities Aid Foundation (cost £20 if you want to get it from them direct, online or hard copy). COME & READ
Video of John Pilger in Palestine, small groups can view at the centre or borrow.
Monday 21 October - Friday 8 November: “Sharing will save the world”. Photo exhibition running at Craigmillar Community Arts Centre, Newcraighall Road, Edinburgh until November 8 (perhaps longer).
Saturday 2 November all month: “New Scots” Photo exhibition at the Ocean Terminal by Indian photographer Herman Rodrigues, commissioned by the P&J Centre. 2nd floor shopping gallery.
Saturday 2nd Nov: “Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament”. Annual General Meeting. STUC, Woodlands Road, Glasgow. 10.30am – 4pm. Speakers: Lloyd Quinan MSP and David Mackenzie.
Sunday 3rd Nov: “Sacred Journeys”: Islam. First in a series of sessions exploring the fundamentals of world religions. Every Sunday until 8th December. 2.30pm – 4.30pm. Royal Museum, Chambers Street.
Monday 4th Nov: “The Iraq Situation – A Community Perspective”. At Colinton Parish Church 7.30 pm Speaker: Tim Duffy, Church & Nation Committee.
All Welcome.
Monday 4th – Sunday 10th Nov: Landmine Action Week
Tuesday 5th Nov: “Scotland: A Voice of Welcome? Asylum-seekers and the media”. 2nd Open Forum at St George’s West Church, Stafford Street entrance, 7.30-9.00pm. Margo Macdonald MSP, Rory MacLeod (ex president Scottish Union of Journalists); John Busbie, Scottish Refugee Council; Joyce Macmillan; Sarah Baker, IslamOnline.
Tuesday 5th Nov: “Star Wars: Watch and Discuss CND’s video on US’s latest ‘Star Wars’ Project”. WDM. 14 Forth Street. 8.30. pm. Business meeting from 7.30 pm. Contact: Mary Gillie on (0131) 667 1334 / 0141 548 2407 or Cameron Smith 07980 240 697.
Wednesday 6th Nov: “The Future of Postal Services”. Bob King, Scottish Affairs Manager, Royal Mail. Morningside Peace and Justice Group. (MP&JG) 10.30 am. At Open Door, 420 Morningside Road.
Thursday 7th Nov: “Bananas” Lunchtime talk at P&J Centre by James Harrison of Edinburgh University. 1.00-2.00pm All Welcome
Thursday 7th Nov: “Frae Reekie tae Rio, Global City – Local Action”. Free public seminar. Speakers: John Watson (WDM), Eurig Scandrett (FOE) and Rona Brown (Gorgie/DalryCC). Chair: John McAllion MSP. Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh, 7pm – 9pm. further info phone 469 3048 Jane.Meagher@educ.edin.gov. or niall.hermiston@civicforum.org.uk
Saturday 9th Nov: Fundraising day for Scottish Medical Aid for Palestinians. At Christ Church Hall, Holy Corner. 10 am – 3 pm. Talk at 12 noon, Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta just back from Jabaliya Refugee Camp Hospital.
Tuesday 12th Nov: “Scotland: A land of opportunity? The contribution of new Scots to Scottish life.”3rd Open Forum at St George’s West Church (details above): Mukami McCrum, Central Scotland Racial Equality Council; Richard Demarco, Demarco European Art Foundation; Iain Auchencloss, Director of International School, Glasgow.
Wednesday 13th Nov: “A Moslem in a Christian Land”. Dr. Yasim Dutton, Head of Dept., Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, MP&JG 10.30 am
Thursday 14th Nov – Tuesday 19th Nov: “International Disarmament Camp”. Trident Ploughshares Autumn Camp in Devonport. Call 0845 458 8363, email devonport@tridentploughshares.org
Friday 15th Nov: “Ceilidh”. Amnesty International Edinburgh, St Brides Centre, Orwell Terrace, 8 pm - 12 pm. The Lismore Ceilidh Band. Tickets: Amnesty International shop 0131 557 2957. £7/£5
Friday 15th Nov– Sunday 17th Nov: “Netting Citizens: exploring citizenship in an Internet age”. Residential conference, organised by The Centre for Theology and Public Issues: Rev Professor William Storrar, at Heriot Watt Conference Centre. Registration: CTPI, New College, Mound Place, EH1 2LX. Tel. 650 7991, email ctpi@ed.ac.uk or visit: www.div.ed.ac.uk/research
Sunday 17th Nov: “European Day of Remembrance for Road Victims”.
For further information contact The RoadPeace Office, tel 020 8838 5102.
Tuesday 19th Nov: Introduction to Nonviolence. At Quaker Meeting House, Glasgow. Contact: Scottish Centre for Nonviolence. 01786 824730
Wednesday 20th Nov: “Shortage of Care Homes”. Leslie McEwan, Director of Social Work, MP&JG. 10.30 am
Friday 22nd Nov: Talk on Slow Activism by Wallace Heim at Centre for Human Ecology, 12 Roseneath Place, Edinburgh. At 6 pm. Tel: 0131 624 1972
Saturday 23rd Nov: “Justice and Peace Day”, at St Margaret’s Church, Main Street, Davidson’s Mains, Edinburgh. Jesuit Community.
Wednesday 27th Nov: “Excluded pupils”. Colin Finlayson, Headmaster, James Gillespie High School. MP&JG. 10.30 am at the Open Door.
Wednesday 27th Nov: CAAT meeting. Speaker: Jeff Hocker, Ethical Investment. At Friends Meeting House, Victoria Terrace, 7.30 pm. All Welcome.
Friday 29th Nov: Buy Nothing Day.
DECEMBER:
Tuesday 3rd Dec: “End Debt on Our Doorstep” Lobby & Action - Westminster and Edinburgh. Contact: 0207 932 1266, debt-on-our-doorstep.com
Thursday 5th Dec: Workshop on Fundraising: 10.00am – 12.30 at the
P&J Centre. Call 229 0993 by 30 November to register.
1st – 7th Dec: Lobby your MP on the Arms Trade.
Insiders met in the City Chambers on 23 September to discuss what powers Europe should have and if the EU needs a constitution, in an NGO consultation organised by the Scottish Civic Forum that will feed into EU planning in spring.
As often when Europeans talk about themselves, participants became dreamy about the values we offer the world. Most vocal were federalists wanting a stronger EU with a common defence policy and European army. Even those quailing at European call-up, wanted the EU to counterbalance the USA. “Dubya” set the tone for the day and so the impact of our European fortress on the developing world was not discussed. Nor was our new neighbour from 2004: Russia.
Outsiders gave their view on Europe at the Open Forum on Asylum-Seekers, organised by the P&J Centre and St George’s West Church on 3 October. The UNHCR wants to improve refugee protection here, by starting a ‘hub’ of concerned people in Scotland in spring 2003, to influence London policy. The first ‘hub’ begins now in Wales.
Welsh opposition to the voucher system apparently led to it’s scrapping. Open Forum participants wanted asylum-seekers’ children integrated into normal schools and the UN – not Home Office - to assess claims of people seeking asylum in the UK. They felt Scotland should administer claims of asylum-seekers dispersed here, to spare people based in Glasgow trekking to Leeds.
The aim of the forum was to learn about government plans for dispersal in Scotland, but no speakers from the Home Office or Scottish Executive were available. Bernard Crick, government advisor on ‘citizenship’ chaired and will support other forums in the series. To follow the UNHCR ‘hub’ in Scotland, please keep in contact with the P&J.
Marjorie Farquharson
In an article in Scotland on Sunday 6th Oct. Sir Bernard Crick claimed that the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) was failing the vulnerable refugees it was created to help. NASS was set up by the government two years ago to deal with claims for asylum seekers and dispersion of refugees in the UK. In Scotland, around 150 refugees are being housed in the former prison at Dungavel in Lanarkshire because of a lack of suitable accommodation in Glasgow.
“A Crying Shame: Pregnant asylum seekers and their babies in immigration detention”. This report describes the experiences of women and mothers who have been detained, and makes recommendations for action by the Home Office and the Immigration Service. It illustrates the daily reality of their lives in detention as one of isolation, fear and depression, with inadequate provision of food and gratuitously petty rules on access to basic necessities such as baby milk and nappies. Prolonged detention for children has been condemned by the UN High Commission on Refugees. The Report is on line: www.ncadc.org.uk/ Yes the controversial £340,000 lottery grant awardees! According to Newsnight this award has lost the Lottery fund £500,000 per week.
In the USA a Gallup poll released on 7th October found a bare majority of Americans – 53% - favoured a ground invasion of Iraq; down from 61% in June and 74% last November. An ABC News poll, also 7th October, found that 50% agreed with the proposition that diplomacy does not work with Iraq and the time for military action is near; 44% favoured holding off on military action and pursuing diplomacy. (Washington Post)
Canadian Christian Leaders Oppose War Against Iraq. Bishop Jacques Berthelet, president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Canada, is among the signers of a letter sent to Prime Minister Jean Chritien, in which the Canadian Council of Churches call for negotiation before undertaking a military campaign against Iraq. ( Zenit.org)
On October 12th 6,000 people demonstrated in Paris opposing military action against Iraq. France is home to 4 – 5 million Muslims, mostly of North African descent, making it the second largest community in France. France also has a long history of commercial ties with Iraq, dating back to the early 1970’s, when Hussein travelled to Paris, his first trip to a Western capital, and Chirac, a rising political star, returned the favour two years later by visiting Baghdad.
The Sunday Herald reported 15,000 demonstrated against the war in Glasgow on Saturday 19th October.
US Department of Peace.
Democratic US Congressman Dennis Kucinich has been overwhelmed by support following a major speech questioning the war on terrorism. He has already gained the support of 43 fellow congressmen for his bill proposing the creation of a US Department of Peace. He also wants a ban on weapons in space. “ The purpose of the new Bill HR2459 is to create a Department of Peace in the US. It envisions new structures to help create peace … It aspires to create conditions for peace within and to create conditions for peace worldwide. It considers the conditions which cause people to become the terrorists of the future: issues of poverty, scarcity and exploitation”. An extract from his speech can be found in the Nov/Dec issue of ‘Resurgence’ and Dennis Kucinich invites feedback on his speech. Dkucinich@aol.com www.thespiritoffreedom.com
Belgium’s environment minister Magda Aelvoet resigned in September in protest over a Belgian weapons sale to Nepal. Her resignation followed approval of a shipment of 5,500 submachine guns to Nepal, where a civil war is raging. This resulted in a no confidence vote in Belgium’s government and a shift in policy. The arms deal was suspended and shipments will be delayed at least until after Nepal’s elections in November. (CAAT News Oct/Nov)
Arms Trade – Ethics and Jobs.
This One World Week event, organised by Edinburgh Group of Campaign Against the Arms Trade had two excellent presentations. Dr. Michael Northcott, Reader in Divinity, gave an ethical perspective on a trade like no other, in that death and destruction is its intended product. Present Government policy is marked by double standards – aggressive arms sales promotion alongside rhetoric on conflict prevention, poverty reduction and environmental protection.
Tracy White, STUC, gave a clear down to earth account of the trade union approach, which recognises the character of the arms trade, but is concerned with the interests of workers, possibly 30.000 of which are directly or indirectly involved in the defence industry in Scotland. About 3,000 jobs directly relate to arms exports. The Defence Diversification Agency set up by the Government is not what the unions advocated, nor what the politicians now in power supported while in opposition – it is really about a more efficient and flexible industry for competing in the global market, and has little to do with arms conversion.
‘The employment consequences of a ban on Arms Exports’ by Ian Goudie (Arms Conversion Project) is available from CAAT 11 Goodwin St, London N4 3HQ or David Turner- 0131 669 1308. A copy will be available to read at the P&J Centre.
The Debt on our Doorstep network, including advice agencies, anti-poverty groups and churches held a “debt hearing” in September. Politicians heard stories of those directly effected by debt as Parliament prepares to replace warrant sales with “exceptional attachment orders”. The Social Justice Committee is about to assess the proposals which are a long way yet from filtering those who will not pay from those who cannot. In fact, it is many of those who simply can’t pay their debts who will be left open to the threat of an exceptional attachment order which sheriff officers described to a Parliamentary Committee as “draconian” and “harsher for debtors than the present legislation”.
UK ‘should ban nuclear arms’
A report published on 3rd Oct. by the Pugwash Group, to mark the 50th anniversary of the first British nuclear test, urged the Government not to replace Trident. The report’s authors include a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, two scientists with experience of the government’s nuclear research programmes and a former senior military figure.
Decommissioning of the UK’s Trident submarines will start soon after 2020, and a decision on whether or not to replace them would have to be taken by about 2010. The authors of the report say the government should set up a public inquiry into Britain’s nuclear weapons policy, they say abandoning nuclear weapons would not jeopardise the country’s security but would put pressure on other nuclear states to disarm. The annual cost of maintaining Britain’s nuclear weapons is estimated to be about £2bn. (Guardian 3rd Oct)
Protest for Palestine
General Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli military leader until June this year, was a guest at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow on 26th Oct. Over 500 protestors struggled with police and successfully closed the Hotel down for two hours.