'Rochdale Palestine Solidarity Campaign urges shoppers to "Boycott Israeli Goods !" '

Rochdale Palestine Solidarity Campaign supported by Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group, today (Saturday 21 May 2011), urged Rochdale shoppers to "Boycott Israeli Goods!"

Rochdale PSC Branch Coordinator Jenny Turner said,

"For over 60 years successive United Nations' resolutions have not brought any respite for the suffering of Palestinian refugees or the people in territories occupied by Israel. The world's governments have done nothing, so ordinary people in Rochdale and elsewhere must take their own action. We are here today to raise awareness of the Palestinian struggle and to promote and support the international boycott of Israeli goods. The state of Israel has repeatedly shown through their words and deeds that they have no respect for the rights of the Palestinian people or those supporting them around the world. We need to bring global pressure to bear on Israel to respect human rights and international law."

"The Israeli military seeks to control every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967. We in Rochdale PSC and RLPG believe that it is a scandal that Israel profits from exporting fruit and vegetables grown on illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land and often misleadingly labelled 'West Bank'. People in Rochdale do not want to buy food grown on stolen land. Israel's siege of Gaza caused untold misery to it's people throughout 2007 and 2008 ; then Israel used overwhelming military force to kill 1,500 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children, at the start of 2010. We are calling on shoppers in Rochdale to show their solidarity with and support for the Palestinians against occupation, to join the boycott and help bring down Israeli apartheid in the same way the consumer boycott brought down South African apartheid. It has worked before and it will work again." , she concluded.

Andrew Wastling said,

"Today we are telling Rochdale shoppers to check the label ~ and asking them not to buy goods labelled 'Israel' or 'West Bank'. 'West Bank' means that this is produce from Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land. We are urging people to complain and challenge their supermarkets and to buy Palestinian goods wherever they can. Rochdale PSC has distributed cards for shoppers to hand to the manager of their local store. We urge anyone who wants to support the Boycott or who wants to join Rochdale PSC to contact us at 07787 575 570 at 07842 252639 or email us at rochdalepsc@gmail.com. We will be pleased to supply details of future,meetings , events and activities, especially our showing of the 'Iron War' film and Social Evening planned for 5 October 2011 in Rochdale."

No More Chernobyls. No New Nukes.

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined campaigners from across Greater Manchester on Monday evening (25 April 2011) to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl which resulted from the meltdown of the nuclear reactor there on 26 April 1986. Alongside the Chernobyl Children's Project, Greater Manchester and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities Association and the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Rochdale campaigners attended a concert in St Ann's Church, Manchester commemorating the deaths at Chernobyl and highlighting the ongoing consequences for those affected by the disaster. At 9 pm they joined the vigil in St Ann's Square where people holding candles spelt out a giant '25'.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said,

“It is 25 years since the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station had a such devastating effect on the country of Belarus and many other places in the world. Chernobyl continues to cast a shadow over the lives of thousands of people. It continues to impact on their physical and mental health, but, despite this, many governments, including our own, have not yet learned the lesson that nuclear power stations will always be a risk too far. We have to hope that the, still unresolved, crisis at the nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan will remind our politicians of the threats posed by nuclear power generation and, finally, persuade them to decommission plants at places like Heysham and Sellafield and to cancel all plans for building new nuclear power stations. We need no more Chernobyls. We need no more Fukushimas. We need to be rid of the dangers posed to us by Heysham and Sellafield. We need no new nukes.”

Warmonger Clegg welcomed to Milnrow - 12 April 2011

Peace group joins half a million on anti-cuts march

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined half a million protesters and many other groups from Rochdale in central London on Saturday (26 March 2011) demanding an end to cuts in public services which will seriously damage, not only Rochdale, but the whole country. We marched from Victoria Embankment to Hyde Park calling once again for the Government to cut war not welfare and to cease spending on the Trident nuclear weapons system and to save jobs, health and education services The march stretched for over four hours and for three miles through central London and culminated in a mass rally in Hyde Park, where the crowd applauded speakers who told the coalition Government to end its policies of cuts and privatisations, to introduce higher taxation on the banks and the super-rich and to ensure that corporations currently avoiding taxes are made to pay them.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said, “Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were in London on Saturday afternoon to tell politicians in Westminster that we will never accept their attacks on public services, jobs and pensions. We are united in resisting their cuts and privitisations. The peace group is pleased to be part of this mass movement and eager to remind people that money squandered on Trident and on wars is money that could be better spent on education, health and social services. We are confident that people in Rochdale would rather see their hospital and other services restored than to see their taxes being wasted on nuclear weapons of mass destruction and on continuing to send our young people to kill and be killed in NATO’s disastrous wars.”

March for the Alternative - Photo Gallery - 26 March 2011

Eve of Budget Message for Members of Parliament

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group is proud to be amongst the many organisations and individuals who contributed to the cost of the billboard currently displayed at Westminster underground station asking all our MPs, on the eve of the budget, 'How much are you spending on Trident?'

The answer, of course, is £2.2 billion and rising. This is what the present and the previous Government has squandered every year on a nuclear missile system we do not need, whilst at the same depriving Rochdale of its hospital services and forcing our Council to make drastic cuts in essential services throughout the borough.

The message is clear; we need Governments to stop spending on things we do not need and to transfer the money saved to spending on the services we do need.

March for the Alternative - CUT WAR NOT WELFARE - CUT TRIDENT NOT SERVICES

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group is calling on as many people as possible to join the TUC's 'March for the Alternative' in London next Saturday (26 March 2011). The peace campaigners were in Yorkshire Street on Saturday (19 March 2011) calling for people to join demonstrations against the Government's plans to cut health, education and welfare and to demand that resources are transferred to these services from spending on the Trident nuclear weapons system, NATO's war in Afghanistan and public subsidies to the nuclear power industry.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said,

“We live in dangerous and difficult times. We cannot afford to take risks with our own or our children's futures. It is essential that we defend and revive our public services with decent levels of funding. As a country, we cannot afford to squander £billions on nuclear weapons we do not need or on NATO's disastrous war in Afghanistan. Nor can we afford to see our Government subsidising a nuclear power industry that can never guarantee the safety of its power stations or remove the incalculable and ever-present risks from the nuclear waste their power stations produce. In Rochdale, we need our hospital services restored and we need the Council to reverse the cuts it has been forced to make in essential local services. We, also, need to remember that there are alternatives to the policies being pursued by Cameron, Clegg and Miliband. We need to demand that our taxes are spent on what we need, not on threats to our future."