Afri Hedge School: Learning
the lessons of war
The Aftermath of war – Learning the Lessons is the title
of Afri’s Hedge School 2003 taking place on Saturday
1st November at the Mill, Kildare. The day runs from 11.00
through to 5.30 pm dinner followed by seisiún. The
programme includes Lara Marlowe talking to Barbara O’Shea
about her recent visit to Iraq, an analysis of the causes,
consequences and aftermath of war and Ireland’s place
in it by Colin Coulter, Nuria Mustafa on an exile’s
experience, and Donal Kelly and Sorcha Fox in ‘Alice
in Plunderland’ look to Lewis Carroll for some parallels
to today’s global realities. The fee for the day is
€30 including refreshments, light lunch and dinner. Afri,
134 Phibsborough Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7, ph 01 –
8827563 / 8827581, e-mail afri@iol.ie
PANA – Peace And
Neutrality Alliance
The AGM of the Peace & Neutrality Alliance will be held
on Saturday 18th October from 2 – 5 pm in the UCD Students
Union Hall, Belfield, University College Dublin. There will
be reports from the treasurer, secretary, international secretary
and chair, elections (restricted to PANA members) and an address
by Ulla Sandbaek MEP for the Danish June Movement who campaigned
against the Iraqi War. The AGM is open to the public and all
are welcome. Individual annual membership is €35 for
waged and €7 for unwaged.
PANA campaigned throughout 2003 against the
conquest of Iraq by the American Empire and the decision of
Ahern to destroy Irish neutrality and undermine the United
Nations by participating in the conquest and occupation of
Iraq by turning Shannon airport into a US airforce base. In
2003 PANA intends to continue to campaign against the war
as well as seeking a Protocol to the proposed EU Constitution
which would exclude Ireland from the militarisation of the
EU. See PANA’s website at www.pana.ie PANA, 113 Springhill
Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, e-mail pana@eircom.net or phone
01 – 2859111, 2808247, 2844765, 2894315, 2806700 or
mobile 087 – 2611597.
INCORE update
Prof Mari Fitzduff left INCORE in July to take up a new post
at Brandeis University in Boston. Prof Gillian Robinson was
appointed the new INCORE Director.
The INCORE Local International Learning Project
(LILP, funded by EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation)
started in July. The aim of the LILP project is to facilitate
both local and international policy-to-practice learning on
peace building and community relations issues. It focuses
on three main areas: peace building approaches, management
of diversity and interface conflict. LILP held a ‘Break
the Log-Jam’ conference in September, designed to bring
politicians and a wide cross section of the community together
to discuss the need to move forward. The response to this
was overwhelming and the conference itself as a success.
INCORE is also pleased to announce that it has
successfully tendered for a British Council Chevening Programme
on Peace and Conflict Resolution for South Asian participants
(SAARC); the programme will involve 20 participants from South
Asia and will run at the Magee campus for a 12-week period
beginning 12th January 2004. INCORE, University of Ulster,
Magee Campus, Aberfoyle House, Northland Road, Derry/Londonderry
BT48 7JA. Ph 028 – 7137 5500, fax 7137 5510, web www.incore.ulst.ac.uk
Getting Sustainable
The Sustainable Ireland Co-operative now produces a useful
monthly e-mail Sustainable Ireland Network Bulletin ‘providing
communication and networking for individuals and groups working
for a healthy, just and ecologically sustainable world’.
They also have a 32-page booklet covering 60 events October
– December for the price of a s.a.e., or it can be sent
by e-mail. Cultivate Sustainable Living centre, 15 –19
Essex Street West, Dublin 8, ph 01 – 6746396, e-mail
info@sustainable.ie and web www.sustainable.ie
Sustainable Northern Ireland is now based at
89 Loopland Drive, Belfast BT6 9DW, ph 028 – 9050 7850,
fax 9094 2154, e-mail info@sustainableNI.org and website www.sustainableNI.org
They have started a quarterly magazine entitled ‘3’
(available in paper and online versions).
Amnesty International
– North and South
Amnesty International Irish Section launched a new campaign,
entitled Imagine, a worldwide human rights education campaign,
back in May, and will begin a campaign on Violence Against
Women in March 2004. The September/Issue (No.121) of their
magazine Amnesty Ireland (free to members, 3 issues a year
or €2 where sold) includes a review of AI’s very
varied activities in the year to autumn 2003.
Local Amnesty groups in the Republic include
the following; Carlow – Carlow Town; Cork – Cork
City, Clonakilty, Schull, Youghal, Mallow; Donegal –
Letterkenny; Dublin – Dublin Central, Dublin West, Dundrum/Ballinteer,
Dun Laoghaire/Blackrock, Sandymount, Swords, Rathgar, Tallaght;
Galway – Galway City; Kerry – Tralee, Dingle,
Killarney; Kilkenny - Kilkenny City; Limerick – Limerick
City; Louth – Dundalk; Meath – Navan, Kells; Offaly
– Tullamore; Sligo – Sligo Town; Tipperary –
Nenagh, Cashel, Carrick-on-Suir; Waterford – Waterford
City; Wexford – Wexford Town, Enniscorthy. There are
also networks on the areas of Mental Health; Military, Security
and Police; Anti-Death Penalty; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender; Freedom Writers.
Subscriptions to AI Irish Section are €40
individual, €10 unwaged/student, household/couple €60,
unwaged household/couple €15. Amnesty International Irish
Section, 48 Fleet Street, Dublin 2, ph 01 – 677 6361,
fax 677 6392, e-mail info@amnesty.ie and web www.amnesty.ie
which gives more details on the very multi-faceted work of
Amnesty International.
Amnesty International in Northern Ireland is
establishing new groups in Armagh and East Antrim; existing
branches are Belfast, Foyle, Mid-Down, Mid Ulster, Newry,
North Atlantic and Omagh. For details contact as below.
The Northern Ireland Regional Conference, ‘Global
Issues. Local Action’ takes place in Belfast on Friday
10th evening and Saturday 11th October. AI-NI has their annual
lecture on Thursday 16th October with Xanana Gusmão,
President of East Timor speaking on Peace, Justice and Reconciliation;
it takes place at Queen’s University, G06 at 7pm, admission
free but by ticket only which are available from AI-NI. Also
upcoming is comedy benefit Stand Up For Justice at the Whitla
Hall, Belfast at 8pm on Tuesday 28th October as part of the
Belfast Festival.
AI-NI, 397 Ormeau Road, Belfast BT7 3GP, phone
90 64 30 00 or e-mail nireland@amnesty.org.uk or go to www.amnesty.org.uk/ni
WAVE Trauma Centre
We’re just too late going to press to usefully include
details on a WAVE conference, ‘Put Out’, looking
at ongoing and increasing levels of threat and intimidation
in places in Northern Ireland. However WAVE, established in
1991, provides care and support to people bereaved, injured
and/or traumatised as a result of the Troubles. WAVE has centres
in Belfast, Armagh, Omagh, Ballymoney, Ballymena and Derry/Londonderry,
and provides a comprehensive range of services. Contact locally
or WAVE Trauma Centre, 5 Chichester Park South, Belfast BT15
5DW, phone 028 – 9077 9922, fax 9078 1165, or see the
website www.wavetc.clara.net
Feasta: Land –
the claim of the community
A two-day conference takes place in Dublin on 9th and 10th
October entitled Land: The Claim of the Community, ‘an
international conference to explore initiatives in affordable
housing, infrastructure provision and local government finance’.
The privatisation of land and other natural resources continues
today on a global scale; it is both immoral and environmentally
unsustainable. What can be done about it? The conference is
organised by Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability,
and the Henry George Foundation. There are around twenty speakers
including Kevin Cahill, Pat Conaty, Fred Harrison, Alanna
Hartzog, Joshua Vincent and Dave Wetzel, plus workshops. It
takes place at the Tara Towers Hotel, Booterstown, Dublin.
The standard fee is €240, limited numbers for NGOs at
€120. Feasta, 159 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 2, ph
01 – 491 2773, fax 491 2203, e-mail feasta@anu.ie or
see more details on the Feasta website at www.feasta.org/events/landconf.htm
Peace News and Nonviolent
Action
The current issue of the excellent international English-language
quarterly publication Peace News is on the International Arms
Trade (produced in cooperation with CAAT, Campaign Against
Arms Trade in Britain). The cover include a multi-coloured
‘red’ carpet of flags – interesting to see
the Irish flag there with all the others; the magazine looks
at the situation in a worldwide context. For those wanting
to keep up to date with the peace movement in Britain, the
monthly Nonviolent Action, available also on joint subscription
with Peace News, does the trick. Peace News subscriptions
are £12 minimum in UK, €25 Europe; Nonviolent Action
is available at a minimum of £6 in the UK; a joint subscription
is available at £17 minimum in UK. Peace News / Nonviolent
Action, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DY, or see www.peacenews.info
NVDAG Sri Lanka –
25 years
NVDAG is the Sri Lankan section of the WRI/War Resisters International
and affiliated with IFOR/International Fellowship of Reconciliation
and the IPB/International Peace Bureau. It has worked since
February 1979 in a variety of fields including community development,
preschool education, relief and rehabilitation, income generation,
maintenance of refugee camps etc. It has assisted thousands
and thousands of families over this period in the Jaffna Peninsula.
However NVDAG suffered heavy losses and damage during the
war in 2000 and was displaced and unable to function for nearly
a year. It is now functioning again and trying to raise funds
to support pre-school programmes, nutritional programmes,
and it also needs furniture and equipment. Cheques can be
made out to NVDAG, CA 1763, People’s Bank, Chavakachcheri,
Sri Lanka; the postal address of NVDAG is PO Box 02, Chavakachcheri,
Sri Lanka (while the offices themselves are at 29 Kaithady
Nunavil, Kandy Road, Chavakachcheri). The phone number is
0777 – 111494, and e-mail nvdag@rediffmail.com
Justice Not Vengeance
Justice Not Vengeance (JNV) in Britain (see NN 112) is continuing
the useful anti-war briefings produced by Arrow on Afghanistan
and Iraq (etc); see www.justicenotvengeance.org for details.
In’it INNATE
The next INNATE Belfast networking meeting will include discussion
on (and showing of) Turning the Tide’s video, ‘Nonviolence
for a change’; there’ll also be a short business
session. 7.30 pm Monday 20th October at 7 University Avenue;
all welcome, enquiries to 90 64 71 06.
Nonviolent
News is usually produced 10 times a year (on
paper) and extended e-mail and web editions
Subscriptions for the printed edition
are; UK£5 or €8 minimum
(£3 or €5 unwaged or you
can have Nonviolent News e-mailed (suggested donation
£2 or €3 minimum).
Additional donations welcome and vital
to keep INNATE afloat. Submissions are welcome - the
deadline for the next issue is noted on the left.
You can browse through previous issues
from the menu on the left.
