TRIDENT NO MORE : Flash-demos across Scotland 16th July, 2016
David Cameron has announced MPs will vote on whether to renew the Trident nuclear weapons system on Monday 18th July. This in spite of the fact that he has resigned and a new Prime Minister is yet to be elected and that the country is still reeling from the Brexit decision. No doubt these things have lead to this rush to squeeze a vote on Trident in before the summer recess but a selfish desire to unite the Tories and split Labour is no reason to take such an important and expensive decision in haste.
People across Scotland will be braced for yet another decision by Westminster politicians to be imposed on us. But it must be challenged and not swept away from public scrutiny or media attention. We won’t be silenced!
The Scrap Trident Coalition message is TRIDENT NO MORE so help to send it out from every town & city across Scotland on Saturday July 16th. Gather together at noon for an hour or longer to say it loudly and clearly. Local action everywhere can speak louder than mass demos in cites (they can be good too!)
Some locations have already decided on a place to meet. Check the Scrap Trident.org website as we add more. If your community is not on the list please contact us and suggest a location. We need everyone working together, from local CND, SNP, Green, Scottish Labour, SSP, Yes groups, Radical Independence, Women for Independence, faith communities and trade unions, not forgetting MPs, MSPs and Councillors to have a huge turnout across the country.
Saturday 27 February 2016
UK national CND demonstration, starting at noon. Bus available. All are welcome (subsidised places available). Book here.
Wednesday 23 September 2015
SCOTLAND: Towards a Global Nuclear Weapons Ban
Marking UN International Day of Peace and UN International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
The event is organised by the Scottish Branch of WILPF with support from SCND and other members of the Scrap Trident Coalition.
Venue: Scottish Parliament, 6.30 – 8.30pm
The early evening discussion will highlight and support the Humanitarian Pledge, initiated by the Austrian Government, which aims to fill the legal gap in the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. Names of speakers and more information at here
Light refreshments will be served.
All are welcome, although places are limited, and to comply with parliamentary security, details of all attendees will be submitted in advance. If you would like to be added to the list of invitees, please email janetscotlands4peace@yahoo.co.uk
4–23 September 2015
100 Years of Women Campaigning for Peace
Hosted by: Scottish Branch and Wool Against Weapons, Scotland
Venue: Out of the Blue Drill Hall
36 Dalmery Street, Leith, Edinburgh
Poster for this event here
Images from 100 Years of Women Campaigning for Peace (below)
7–31 August 2015
Edinburgh Festival
‘Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Bomb’
Weapons of Mass Destruction Awareness
Kiosk, Gayfield Creative Spaces,
11, Gayfield Square,
Edinburgh EH1 3NT
Thursday 6 August 2015
70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima
Scottish WILPF members joined in the ceremony outside the Scottish Parliament. Flowers and petals were scattered on the pond to commemorate those who died.
Saturday 27 June 2015
Armed Forces Day
Scottish WILPF is a member of Scottish Peace Network (SPN) and will be joining join SPN and the Quakers Quakers for a peaceful presence during Armed Forces Day.
Meet 11am outside Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace before moving on to Upper Bow for the 11:30am start of the parade. After the main parade moves off, we will go down Victoria Steps and along to Grassmarket to be there as the parade arrives about 12 noon.
In the Grassmarket look out for our banners: ‘NO MORE WARS’ and ‘Let Our Love for Humanity Speak Louder than the Drums of War’. We will also have an SPN leaflet to hand out. Please bring your own banners too.
Based on experience last year it seems a good idea to try to stay together in case we meet with any antagonism. Please let’s all remember our nonviolence and respect for others throughout.
Saturday 20 June 2015
Scotland United Against Austerity
12.00 noon – Rally George Square Glasgow
Look for the ‘Bairns not Bombs Banners’
More information here
Scottish WILPF will take part in the blockade action at the Faslane Naval Base
More information here
Saturday 7th March 2015
Singathon to mark International Women’s Day
The following is a message from Penny Stone about a singathon she is organising to mark International Women’s Day on Saturday 7th March St. John’s Church Hall Princes Street, Edinburgh 15.00 to 23.59.
Dear friends,
I am organising a singathon for International Women’s Day 2015. The event will commemorate the centenary of the founding of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the oldest international women’s peace organisation in the world. The story of the founding of WILPF is quite amazing, and you will hear about it if you come to the singathon! 🙂 we will sing 100 songs in honour of this centenary celebration.
This email is asking you to save he date, Saturday 7th March, St. John’s Church Hall Princes Street, Edinburgh 15.00 to 23.59. (or some of that time!) to come and sing a song or two with us. Penny Stone will lead most of the singing, most of which will be singalong songs, or at least singalong choruses. The themes for the song choices will be women, international, peace and freedom – a pretty broad lot of songs!
I would also like to extend the invitation to anyone who wants to come and sing a song or lead a song to do that. I will need to know by February 18th if you would like to do this, and what songs you will be singing as I need to make sure no one is doubling songs. I will also be projecting the lyrics for many songs to be sung along to, so will need time to prepare this. There will be a strict 5 minutes per song allowed, including any talking before hand to tell the story or teaching of parts to enable us to finish by midnight.
Song suggestions are very welcome also, even if you don’t want to lead the song and I’ll need these by February 18 as well.
The singathon will be free to attend and donations will be collected and split between two funds: A fund to enable women from poorer Countries to travel to The Hague for the women stop war conference in April and Penny’s ongoing activism fund, which this year is supporting her to travel to the Wilpf conference at The Hague to get everyone singing and to work with children in Palestine with music as a form of resistance.
All singers will be invited to bring cake and nibbley things to share. Tea and coffee will be provided. This worked well for the Pete Seeger singathon we had last year, and it was honestly one of the most enjoyable days of my year, so do make it along for an hour or five this year if you can! 🙂
I look forward to hearing from you (if you’d like to share a song or two). I hope to have the same hall at St. John’s on Princes Street but am waiting for confirmation, so more info and a flyer to share will be circulated in due course. For now, save the date if you can! 🙂 oh, and please do pass onto anyone else who might be interested.
Love, Penny
Wednesday 11 March 2015
Women Who Worked for Peace in WW1
National Library of Scotland 6pm. Helen Kay will speak about the Women Who Worked for Peace in WW1.
Monday 13 April 2015
Global Day of Action against Military Spending, blockade of Faslane Nuclear Submarine base. Transport will be arranged. More details to follow.
Monday 8 December
Male Violence Aganst Women: Links between peace and war
Scottish Women’s Aid, in association with Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the School of Political and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh, are pleased to invite you to our 16 days lecture, “Male Violence Against Women: Links between peace and war”.
Renowned academic, Cynthia Cockburn is a visiting professor in the Department of Sociology at City University London and an honorary Professor in the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick. She is involved in the international feminist antimilitarist networks Women in Black against War and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
Join us on the 8th December, 6pm-8pm at the University of Edinburgh, Teviot Lecutre Theatre. Please reserve your free place at: peaceandwar.eventbrite.com
Sunday 30 November
YES or NO, Trident still has to go – NOW!
Following the result of the Scottish independence referendum we believe that the issue of Trident nuclear weapons in Scotland is still not settled.
Scrapping Trident was a central part of the Yes campaign, which attracted 45% of the vote, and a significant percentage of No voters also believe passionately that there is no place for Trident in Scotland. This means that a clear majority of the people in Scotland want to see Trident scrapped.
The next intake of MPs to Westminster will be taking the decision in 2016 of whether to go ahead with replacing the current Trident system at a cost of £100 Billion. With spending on health, education, pensions and disability benefits being slashed we believe that squandering such a sum on nuclear weapons is immoral and unreasonable and call for Trident to be scrapped and human needs funded.
In order to demonstrate the size, strength and passion of the popular opposition to Trident, the Scrap Trident Coalition Scotland of which WILPF Scottish Branch is a member intends to hold a mass public demonstration at Faslane at 12 Noon on Sunday 30 November. We would like as many people as possible to attend,
particularly those people who have never attended a demonstration at Faslane before but feel that now is the time for them to make their voice heard. We want the people of Scotland to unite and to make a call for peace that will be clearly heard by all of the political parties, both in Holyrood and Westminster.
Our message is clear – YES or NO, Trident still has to go – NOW!
Website http://scraptrident.org/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ScrapTrident
Monday 3rd to Friday 7th November
White Poppies
Stall in the Scottish Parliament where white poppies were given out to MSPs, workers and guests.
Scottish Branch member, Anne Scott, with Christine Grahame MSP, SNP, Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale . At the White Poppies exhibition in the Scottish Parliament November 4th to 6th. Exhibition sponsored by Jean Urquhart MSP, Independent, Highlands and Islands. Photo taken by Simon Ritchie.
Monday 3rd November
Engage the Military and Young people
A joint event with ‘Forceswatch’ showing their new video .
Forest Cafe, Lauriston Place, Monday 3rd November evening – time to be confirmed.
Monday October 13th
Rape and your mobile phone
We may know about sexual violence in the DRC, but do we understand how our own consumption of mobile phones, computers and cars fuels the conflict? This event will examine the trade in conflict minerals to manufacture Western consumer goods, and how we can we pressure for more effective regulation of “conflict minerals”.
Keynote speaker Debora Kayembe
Quaker Meeting House, Monday October 13th 7.30 pm – All welcome
Part of the Edinburgh World Justice Festival