http://wp.me/a5VxwQ-av
Edinburgh RIC 7pm Thursday 26 May Public Meeting as part of a series of discussions on the EU referendum Organised in partnership with Edinburgh STW and Scottish WILPF
The meeting focuses on the EU, NATO, the Middle East and War
With Frances Guy (former ambassador to Yemen & Lebanon) Jonathon Shafi (RISE),
Lindsay German (Stop the War) Heidi Meinzolt, WILPF Germany, European WILPF Co-ordinator Augustine Church 41 George 4th Bridge Edinburgh EH1 1EL
https://www.facebook.com/events/229254204119952/

Edinburgh Meadows Festival, 4 – 5 June Leith Festival, 11 June: there will be stalls and we are looking for help. Scottish CND will also be at T in the Park.

Celebrate Midsummer and support our good cause by coming along to The Stand Comedy Club, Edinburgh, on Tuesday 21st June from 7.30pm. See top acts while helping the campaign to stop the Westminster government’s insane plan to spend over £200bn on renewing Trident.
Here’s the line up so far: http://www.thestand.co.uk/show/27151/benefit_in_aid_of_edinburgh_cnd Tickets are £7/£5, bookable by phone from The Stand on 0131-558 7272, by emailing edinburghcnd@yahoo.com or malcbruce@yahoo.co.uk, or at the door, or Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/comedy-benefit-night-for-edinburgh-cnd-tickets-24908790864 More details at: https://edinburghcnd.org/events/ Yes, there will be a raffle. Great prizes!

The new UN working group on nuclear disarmament, the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG), completed its second and most substantive session in Geneva today. 100 governments participated over the course of two weeks at the United Nations and many more contributed their support through a joint working paper from the Humanitarian Pledge group (now numbering 127 States). You can read about it on the Reaching Critical Will website.                                                                                                                                                      Los Alamos Study Group Bulletin 218: UN Working Group builds momentum among large majority of world’s countries toward treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons
Trish and Greg are in the process of returning from Geneva after the very interesting eight-day May meeting of the 2016 “Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) Taking Forward Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations.” Before that they took part in a weekend campaign meeting of some 130 persons led by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), in which the Study Group is an active partner organization — one of 440 partner organizations in 98 countries in all. For them, and for others with whom they spoke, this meeting was far and away the most powerful, interesting, and important multilateral meeting of states on nuclear disarmament ever attended. A process leading to negotiation of a new disarmament treaty is now underway and will continue in the fall at the UN in New York.There is general agreement among a large majority of the world’s countries that the essential common ground in any new treaty, and the first thing thing that needs to be done, is to prohibit the possession, development, transfer, and use of nuclear weapons — that is, to fill the legal and normative gap that has prevented, and unless fixed will continue to prevent, successful disarmament diplomacy. Excellent daily summaries from this meeting can be found in the OEWG newsletters of Reaching Critical Will (RCW), which were handed to disarmament delegates each morning. In addition to straight reporting, Ray Acheson’s editorials captured very well, in our view, the import of each day’s discussions. RCW also maintains an index of documents and working papers submitted.

Where to from here?
The OEWG will hold its final session on August 16, 17 and 19. It will then adopt a report to present to the United Nations General Assembly. There is no consensus yet on what the OEWG will report on or recommend.

Ban Ki-moon will end his 10-year term as UN Secretary-General in December 2016. The campaign for the next UN Secretary-General has begun. Nine candidates have already come forward. For the first time ever the selection process is transparent. You can read the positions of candidates online. And governments and civil society can ask questions of the candidates – through social media and ‘candidate dialogue sessions’ in the UN General Assembly.

News from Trident Ploughshares: Please spread the word about the month of Action. Theres loads of information on the Trident Ploughshares website http://tridentploughshares.org/june-2016-a-month-of-daily-direct-action-against-trident-renewal-please-join-us/ Have a look at the groups who have their own day and think about who you know that might be interested in one of them and send the info. Even if you can’t come yourself you can help by encouraging others to join in. http://tridentploughshares.org/publicly-announced-actions-at-burghfield-during-june-2016/ For those of you who do Facebook we now have an event page. Please share it on your Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/events/1724532487784877/                          The UK section of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has pledged its support to the planned month of nonviolent disruption of the British nuclear weapon assembly plant at Burghfield in Berkshire.
For more on all these ask to see the new TP newsletter

In Australia?  Walkatjurra Walkabout 2016
August 7th – September 7th 2016. more info at http://www.walkingforcountry.com

In Glasgow? The Scottish Peace Network monthly vigil will take place this Wednesday, May 25, from 5 to 6pm at Dewar’s statue on Buchanan Street.  On the streets protesting the bombing of Iraq and Syria and opposing militarism in all its forms.

Syria: The Cooperative Institute for Transnational Studies in collaboration with the University of Aegean (Laboratory EKNEXA-Department of Sociology) have announced a conference on the refugee crisis, ‘Crossing Borders,’ in Lesvos, Greece, on 7-10th July.
Syria Solidarity UK are very concerned to note that the list of speakers includes Tim Anderson, a supporter of the Assad regime

To the participants and organisers of the ‘Crossing Borders’ Conference
http://www.syriauk.org/2016/05/to-participants-and-organisers-of.html