Rochdale campaigners call for freedom for Palestine

 

On Sunday night (25 November 2012) around forty people gathered opposite Rochdale town hall to remember the victims of Israel’s latest bombing and bombardment of Gaza and to call for justice and freedom for Palestine. They heard speeches from Linda Clair, chair of Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk.

During the candlelit vigil, members of the crowd read out the names of more than 30 Palestinian children known to have been killed during Israel’s most recent attacks and kept a minute’s silence in their memory.

Philip Gilligan from Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group reported that he and other local campaigners had also joined thousands of protesters from across the country outside the Israeli embassy in London on the previous day (Saturday 24 November 2012). They had marched from Downing Street and heard speakers like the mayor of Jenin, Hadem Rida, and Jeremy Corbyn, MP who had called for an end to arms sales to Israel, a boycott of all Israeli goods and the return of illegally occupied land.

 

Rochdale Palestine Solidarity Campaign Coordinator, Jenny Turner said:

“It is time for the international community to put an end to Israel’s war crimes. Too many people and too many children have died in Netanyahu’s ruthless attacks. It is time for ordinary people in Rochdale and throughout the world to demand an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people. Enough is enough; there will be no peace until Palestinians have justice. We shall continue to demand an end to the occupation, an end to the siege of Gaza, an end to house demolitions, an end to illegal seizures of Palestinian land. We demand an end to arms sales to Israel and immediate international inspection and control of Israel’s huge arsenal of nuclear weapons.”     

Stop Bombing Gaza

Friday 16 November 2012 - Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester

Rochdale wants hospitals, jobs and services, not nuclear weapons

More than a hundred people stopped at the Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group stall on Saturday morning (3 November 2012) to share ideas for spending the £100 billion which the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament calculates would be saved by scrapping the Trident nuclear weapons system.

 

Rochdale's shoppers showed strong support for the idea of scrapping Trident and had many thoughts about how the money saved could be better spent. 40% suggested increased spending on health; 28% wanted more resources for education and services for children; 19%  wanted better services specifically for older people; 18% suggested increased benefits and pensions;17% wanted jobs and regeneration while 10% sought better services especially for the disabled. 7% advocated increased spending on improving services in general, while others wanted more spending on renewable energy, culture and music, roads, countryside services and MacMillan nurses. One person suggested "Anything that will do people good not harm!"

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said,

“Once again, people in  Rochdale have said very clearly how they would spend the £100billion our country could save by cutting Trident. They know that Trident is a dangerous waste of public money and that a nuclear- free Britain would be £billions better off.  They want their taxes spent on health, education and social care not on deadly and illegal nuclear missiles. They want our country's resources to be spent on the services we need not squandered on nuclear  weapons which threaten nothing but death and destruction. Many were particularly  shocked to hear that Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has recently announced yet more new spending on upgrading the Trident nuclear weapons system, before parliament has even made a decision about whether Trident should ever be renewed. They are right to be shocked. By announcing that they plan to squander another £350,000,000 in addition to the £billions already wasted each year to maintain the Trident system, the government is showing its contempt for both the democratic process and for the thousands of people in Rochdale and elsewhere who are suffering because of cuts in essential services, to benefits and to jobs."


"Our town has now been on the sharp end of cuts in essential local services for several years. We have lost acute inpatient services across the board at the Infirmary, and our Council has been forced to slash tens of £millions from its planned spending on services for some of the most vulnerable groups in our communities. Based on population, Rochdale’s share of the current costs of Britain’s unnecessary nuclear arsenal already amounts to £7million per year, but the staggering cost to Rochdale of so-called ’Trident Replacement’ totals over £300million. This is more than the Council would need to restore and maintain all local services at their previous uncut levels. It is time to tell the government and all those who support retention of any nuclear weapons that we want our taxes spent on decent local services not Trident.”, he added.

CND National Conference supports call for cuts in military spending

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) unanimously supported the resolution from Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group at its annual conference on Sunday (14 October 2012).

The conference noted that the government is maintaining high levels of military spending, while making swingeing cuts to essential public services, like adult social care. The conference resolved to “continue to campaign for the immediate decommissioning of all UK nuclear weapons”, to “campaign for the conversion of jobs in both the nuclear and so-called 'conventional' defence sectors to jobs in peaceful and productive sectors of the economy, such as green technology and renewable energy” and to “campaign for the transfer of at least 50% of current government spending on so-called 'defence' to fund proportionate increases in spending on health, education and social care.”

Pat Sanchez who spoke in favour of the motion said,

“While, children’s social care spending is being decimated and adult social care is being cut by 28%, Cameron and Clegg admit, in their introduction to the Strategic Defence and Security Review, that the so-called “defence budget” will rise in cash terms; that, as demanded by NATO, it will cost at least 2% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product throughout each of the next four years and that they expect the UK to continue to have the fourth highest level of military spending of any country in the world. When the government is forcing local authorities like Rochdale to slash essential public services, these levels of spending on the means to kill, destroy, maim and injure are entirely unacceptable. Britain does not need military spending which is higher than any other EU country and does not need to be spending twelve times more per head of population on warfare than the Chinese government. This money should be spent on the services we need, not squandered on armaments, war and nuclear weapons.”

Pat urged people in Rochdale to support the TUC’s A Future That Works rally on Saturday 20 October 2012 and to join the ‘Cut Trident contingent on the march.

The CND conference also re-elected Pat Sanchez as an individual delegate to its National Council, while Philip Gilligan remains the representative from Greater Manchester and District CND.

For the full text of the resolution, please see http://www.cnduk.org/images/stories/conf12.pdf  (pp17-18).

The Strategic Defence and Security Review is available at http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_191634.pdf

For details of UK military spending see figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook 2012 available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

Greenham veterans celebrate 30th anniversary of surrounding the base

Maxine Peake, star of BBC1 series Silk, joined Rochdale peace campaigners Rae Street and Pat Sanchez and other veterans of the Greenham Common Peace camp on Saturday (22 September 2012) at one of the opening events of the two week long Manchester Peace Festival which continues until 6 October 2012. The Carry Greenham Home event at the People's History Museum in Spinning Fields, Manchester marked the 30th anniversary of the 'Embrace the Base' demonstration, when, in 1982, 35,000 women encircled the military base to protest against the imminent arrival of Cruise nuclear missiles from the USA.

On Saturday, the Greenham veterans shared memories and songs from their years of campaigning at the base  and  recalled events such as the protest on 1 April 1983, when 70,000 protesters formed a 14 miles (23 km) human chain from Greenham to the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment.  The Cruise nuclear missiles were finally removed from Greenham in 1991 and the common restored to the people of Newbury in 1993. The area is now designated public parkland which includes memorials marking the success of the Greenham women.

Rae Street from Littleborough who spent many nights at the peace camp and helped to organise support in Rochdale said,

"We all learned a lot from our time at Greenham. In particular, we learned that we must never give up our struggle against the evil of nuclear weapons and the evils of war. After many years, we succeeded in removing Reagan's and Thatcher's nuclear weapons of mass destruction from Britain, but in 2012, we face the same struggle to rid our country of the Trident nuclear weapons system, of US spy bases and of the NATO alliance which has sent so many of our young men and women to kill and be killed in its disastrous wars."

Dr Mona brings love from Gaza to Rochdale

Dr Mona Elfarra, author of the blog (http://fromgaza.blogspot.co.uk/  ) and the book FROM GAZA, WITH LOVE, was in Rochdale on Thursday (23 August 2012) meeting members of Rochdale Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group.

Dr Elfarra describes herself as “a physician by training, a human rights and women's rights activist by practice”. She was born and raised in Khan Yunis in Southern Gaza and has lived most of her life in Gaza City. She trained as a physician in Egypt and in Cardiff and is a co-founder of the Al Awda Hospital in Jabalia refugee camp. She is also  deputy chair of the Red Crescent Society of the Gaza Strip, Palestine and, since 2005, has been director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance (http://www.mecaforpeace.org/ ).

She was in Rochdale visiting Pat Sanchez and other members of the Rochdale branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Dr Elfarra said,

“Gaza is a difficult place to live. We Palestinians and especially our children continue to suffer the impact of war and of occupation and siege. The vicious attacks by the Israeli Defence Force in recent years have left our children without regular schooling, without adequate medical care and often without food or clean water. Some have lost their parents and many are still traumatised by the brutal attacks and bombardment of their homes by the Israelis which they witnessed during operation ‘Cast Lead’. 20% of children under 15 are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. But Gaza is also history and civilization, the third largest city in Palestine. It has survived many upheavals and will continue to do so. The children of Gaza still have strength and resilience, despite all that they have suffered and continue to suffer.  Even if their schools have been reduced to rubble by Israeli bombs and bulldozers, they still want to learn. They still want to play and they are still proud to be Palestinians. However, they also need food, medicines and many other resources. The Middle East Children’s Alliance ships medicines, medical supplies, powdered milk, fortified children’s cereal and art and school supplies to Gaza. We have also supplied wheelchairs and an ambulance. We have provided clean drinking water to children in Palestine and water purification and desalination units for 38 schools and kindergartens in Gaza where very few people have regular access to clean water and some areas have no water supply at all.

We know that many people in Rochdale and throughout Britain are keen to help in such work and we very much welcome the support we receive from groups such as Rochdale Palestine Solidarity Campaign. It is important that Palestinian children know that people in Rochdale have heard about their situation and will support them in their struggles for shelter, nutrition, education and a national identity. It is important that people across the world know that children in Gaza cannot yet rely on most of the things that others can take for granted, and it is essential that we maintain solidarity across countries and across communities in our common struggle against injustice and oppression.”

Pat Sanchez said

“It was a joy to meet Mona and to learn more about her work. Rochdale PSC will continue to support the work of the Middle East Children’s Alliance. Anyone who wants to hear more about this and our campaigning in Rochdale should contact Rochdale PSC coordinator Jenny Turner on 07787 575 570 or jennyturner@phonecoop.coop or join us at Crescent Radio for our monthly meeting at 7.15pm on the second Monday of each month.

For more information about Dr Elfarra’s blog from Gaza, please see http://fromgaza.blogspot.co.uk/     

For more information about the Middle East Children’s Alliance, please see http://www.mecaforpeace.org/

For more information about the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), please see http://www.palestinecampaign.org/ 

For more information about Rochdale PSC, please contact Jenny Turner on 07787575 570 or jennyturner@phonecoop.coop

Peace Group condemns nuclear weapons on 67th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group members gathered beside Hollingworth Lake on Sunday night (5 August 2012) to mark the 67^th anniversary of the dropping of the first Atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and to commemorate all who have died or been injured in war. They shared readings and floated lanterns with a variety of messages, including “Scrap Trident Now”, “No More Hiroshimas”, “No More War” and “No More Nagasakis”.

The readings included extracts from speeches made survivors of the bombing of Nagasaki at the 3rd Nagasaki Global Citizens’ Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in 2006. Sakue Shimohira who was 10 years old at the time of the bombing said then, “To tell the truth, I’d like to lock away that painful and sorrowful scar at the bottom of my heart, and not talk about it. But 61 years after that unforgettable day, I feel that I must pass the story on. … All I could do was scream, “Mummy, help me!” My younger sister had been sent flying by the blast, and I had no idea what had happened to my friends. … The shelter stank of charred corpses, and we vomited as we waited for help. … My foster father had come to rescue us. He helped us outside, and again I was shocked: not a single house was left standing. There was nothing but a mountain of charred corpses and rubble.” Meanwhile Koichi Wada reports that “The streets and neighbourhoods were like replicas of a hell on Earth … It was not until 30 years later, when my first grandchild was born, that I began to recall the corpses of infants in the rubble after the atomic bombing and to feel a pressing duty to ensure that the atrocities of that day are never repeated.”

Philip Gilligan, on behalf of the Peace Group, said,

“More than 100,000 people were killed by the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Remembering this horrific loss of life highlights the dangers we all face because of the huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons held by Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States.  Between them, these nine countries possess more than 20,000 nuclear weapons. The USA and Russia alone maintain around 2,000 of their nuclear weapons on high-alert status; ready to be launched within minutes of a command. Most of them are individually many times more destructive than the bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. A single nuclear warhead detonated on a large city could kill millions of people. The continued failure of the nuclear powers to disarm heightens the risk that other countries will acquire these weapons and leaves the spectre of nuclear destruction hanging over us all.”

Newsletter - July 2012