Network for Peace

Newly crowned RTS Television Journalist of the Year, Alex Thomson will be joining Vin Ray in conversation to reflect on a career that has seen him spend 22 years at the Channel 4 News covering 20 wars across the Gulf, the Balkans, Africa and Afghanistan, as well as presenting the programme.

Screening. In The World Before Her filmmaker Nisha Pahuja illustrates the tension between traditional and modern perspectives toward women in today’s India, through the Miss India contest and unprecedented access to the fundamentalist Hindu women’s training camps. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Nisha Pahuja. http://tinyurl.com/bm8bvrp

Vijay Mehta speaking on a book discussion event hosted by Southampton Hub, Southampton University.

Bromley Market Square by the Charles Darwin mural - 12 midday - 3.00 pm.

http://www.chernobyl-day.org/

Meet at 10am in Dick Sheppard Chapel, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London for a short service.
Leaving at 11am for three separate walks around the London Embassies of the Nuclear Weapons States, New Agenda Coalition and some more key countries involved in initiatives in nuclear disarmament.

Bruce Kent's Scrap Trident Tour come to Manchester. Join him for lunch at
The Saffron Restaurant. (www.saffronuk.com). 12 noon for 12.30pm followed by a talk by Bruce.

How do we build up a coalition to work together for a nuclear weapons free world? Nuclear Free Local Authorities Scotland, Mayors for Peace, PNND and Abolition 2000 Joint Seminar. This seminar is a free event which coincides with the conclusion of the Abolition 2000 Network AGM and a meeting of the NFLA Scotland Forum. It is open to NFLA members, Mayors for Peace members, Parliamentarians for Non-proliferation & Nuclear Disarmament members and supporters of the Abolition 2000 Network.

NFLA: http://www.nuclearpolicy.info
Mayors for Peace: http://www.mayorsforpeace.org

Action at the Drax AGM. Drax is planning to convert half of their coal power station (the UK’s biggest) to burning biomass – most of it imported wood.
See website for details.

JOIN US OUTSIDE BENTALLS CENTRE (
We will be there with our Cutometer to ask Kingston shoppers if they wish George Osborne to cut health, education, welfare services, or Trident nuclear
weapons and “defence” spending. You can leaflet, hold a banner, or speak to the shoppers. Last time a large majority agreed we should cut Trident nuclear
weapons.

Roland Schilling from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) will talk about curent trends in forced displacement which are challenges for the UNHCR - with hundreds of thousands of people around the world becoming internally and externally displaced because of war and chaos. How does the UN Agency cope with this? Do come along to the talk on Friday 15 March to find out.
The talk is at 1pm and will last about 30 minutes followed by questions.
Admission is free. You are welcome to bring a packed lunch any time from 12.15pm. A donation is invited for a hot drink and biscuits.

More than just books. Bristol Against Arms Trade have a stall. Medea Benjamin co-founder of CODEPINK and Clare Cochrane from AWE will be doing a workshop for BAAT. Check bristolanarchistbookfair.org for timings.

Disarmament for development, public services and positive investment in renewable energy.

On the Global Day of Action on Military Spending, take part in a public meeting to examine the social justice possibilities of redirecting military spending, chaired by Bruce Kent, Vice President of the Movement for the Abolition of War, with speakers Caroline Lucas MP, Kate Hudson of CND, John Hilary of War on Want, and Anne-Marie O’Reilly of Campaign Against Arms Trade, and the launch of Pax Christi’s new short film on the theme of the event.

A day of workshops for local community mediators. The two interactive workshops will explore participant roles in mediation and look at the use of linguistic concepts such as opposition, modality, naming and negation in exploring coded meanings in conflict and conflict resolution. The workshops will also be a great opportunity to meet and network with linguistic experts and fellow mediators. The workshops form part of a day of events marking the launch of the Language in Conflict website, and will be followed by the official website launch at 4pm.

The global capitalist crisis and new wave of resistance have put the question of radical political organisation and left unity, 'beyond the fragments', sharply into focus. This discussion will bring together those who share a concern for developing participatory forms of radical organisation.

An open forum with contributions from Preeti Paul (International Organization for a Participatory Society), Tom Walker (ex Socialist Worker journalist), James O'Nions (editor, Red Pepper magazine), Luke Cooper (Anticapitalist Initiative), and Laura Schwartz (Feminist Fightback).

This exhibition explores how artists with diverse practices and perspectives experienced the invasion and occupation of Iraq and how they responded to it by engaging with questions of space, place, landscape and territory. Bringing together artists from Iraq and Britain, it shows six works that give material form to the violence, anxiety and ruin of war but which also raise questions about resistance, survival and dreams of peace.

Public Meeting with speaker: Chris Nineham- from National StWC office.
Everyone is welcome, please come and get involve.

Facebook page:
Birmingham Stop The War Coalition (Official)
http://www.facebook.com/groups/390629434299332/

With Merlin Coverley.

Continuing our celebration of writer and mystic Arthur Machen’s 150th birthday Housmans are delighted to welcome back Merlin Coverley, author of ‘Psychogeography’ and the recently published ‘The Art of Wandering’.

With Andrew Whitehead, Sarah Wise and Jon Day.

An event to celebrate the publication of ‘London Fictions’ from Five Leaves Publishing. ‘London Fictions’ is a new collection of essays about the representation of London in fiction, with each contributor concentrating on a particular work.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of writer and mystic Arthur Machen, Housmans are proud to welcome Iain Sinclair to discuss this enigmatic literary figure.

Iain will be considering Machen in the context of London, Poe's stalking of the ‘Man in the Crowd’, the Northwest Passage, De Quincey and the Labyrinth.

This event is now sold out – please only come if your name is on the list.