2. The Edinburgh World Justice Festival, of which Edinburgh CND is a part, is organising or supporting a number of important meetings over the next three weeks. We hope to see you at some of them.
Saturday 30th September: Festival Launch 6-8pm Fig Tree Cafe EH1 1SU
Sunday 1st October; Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre: Campaign Non-Viloence. Bridgend Farmhouse EH16 4TD 1-5pm AND Opening of From Hiroshima to Faslane exhibition at Methodist Church. Runs 7pm 1st Oct to 1pm on 7th
Wednesday 4th October, at 50 George Square, Room G04, Screening of Shadow World (organized by CAAT and Take One Action), Panel Discussion includes Stop the War
Thursday 5th October 7pm at the Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace – The Shadow World – inside the global arms trade – with author and activist Andrew Feinstein (Edinburgh Stop the War and others) see https://www.facebook.com/events/142391576367622/
Monday 9th October 7pm at the Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace: International Peace – Women’s Campaigns organized by SWILPF https://www.facebook.com/events/1675467595806046/?
Wednesday 11th October 7pm at the Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace: Faslane Peace Camp – what can we learn – organized by Edinburgh CND https://www.facebook.com/events/1928856954056199/
Saturday 14th October Conference 10am to 6pm Kings Hall Community Church
Monday 16th October 7.30pm at the Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace: Learning from mass movements against war – organizing for the future – organized by Edinburgh Stop the War
++++for the full festival programme go to www.ewjf.org.uk
3. After President Donald Trump gave a terrifying speech at the United Nations threatening to destroy North Korea, Pyongyang this week accused the United States of declaring war. CND is alarmed by the threat of nuclear war in North East Asia and the wider Pacific region. North Korea continues to test nuclear weapons and missiles in defiance of the international community, while the US and its allies continue their provocative actions in the region. There is a real danger that these actions will lead to the use of nuclear weapons by intention or miscalculation. The UK government could have an important role in this conflict. CND is urging Prime Minister Theresa May to use all appropriate diplomatic, international and legal means to end the nuclear threat. The government should also be pushing for negotiations with North Korea and a return to the Six-Party Talks involving China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the US.
Confrontation or cooperation? Nuclear abolition in dangerous times: International Conference
Saturday, October 14th Register for your free ticket
Scrapping Trident: A New Generation of Anti-Nuclear Activists
Saturday, October 21st Aimed at Youth and Student CND supporters, this is a day of workshops and talks by anti-Trident groups, including Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Food not Bombs London and SNP Youth.
As well as planning the concrete next steps for the campaign against nuclear weapons, refreshments will be provided.
As the US-North Korea nuclear crisis worsens, protesters descended on Downing Street at on 28th September to call on the Prime Minister to rule out further British involvement in military drills over the Korean peninsula. Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said:
“Our government must do all it can to prevent nuclear war, but instead of that it has chosen to join in with Donald Trump’s preparations for war – participating in military drills over the Korean peninsula – and has remained silent about the US President’s increasingly belligerent approach to the conflict.
NB: in Scotland: Saturday 30th September 1pm – 4pm at Strathclyde University Student Union, 90 John Street, Glasgow G1 1JH, North Korea, Trump and War: Dissecting the Crisis in the Pacific As tensions mount in the Asia-Pacific we are pleased to announce that we will be joined by Dr Owen Miller, among others, to dissect the nature and history of North Korea – as well as the strategic objectives and ambitions of the United States in relation to Japan, China and South Korea. Organised by New Foreign Policy Booking on Eventbrite at www.northkoreatrump.eventbrite.com
Corbyn calls for ‘dialogue and negotiations’ in response to US-North Korea nuclear crisis Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said: “Jeremy Corbyn is right to call for the end to the dangerous war of words in the US-North Korea nuclear crisis and for the UN secretary general to kick-start negotiations – only through talks is there a possibility of de-escalating this crisis. “The world is on the precipice of catastrophic warfare. That’s why it’s outrageous that Theresa May has remained silent on the growing crisis and that her Foreign Secretary could neither confirm nor deny whether the British military is involved in military drills over the Korean Peninsula.” September 26th was the United Nations’ International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and CND has been spending the day at the Labour Party conference explaining why a Labour government should commit to signing the UN’s global nuclear weapons ban treaty. CND will be taking the same demand to the Tory party conference. You can also get involved by calling on your MP to support the ban treaty: Write to your MP
53 countries have already signed in less than a week, let’s get the UK to sign as well. In a new blog post, Kate Hudson has written on why Labour must support the nuclear ban treaty.
ALSO on the 30th:
Dr Fairlie is a radiation biologist, an expert on radiation doses and risks to human health. As a public intellectual, he speaks out plainly against human activities that add to radiation hazards. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 triggered his studies of the hazards of radiation releases from nuclear facilities. He contributes to the international debates about leukaemia clusters around nuclear plants. More recently, he has commented on the likely long-term health impact of Fukushima, the radioactive risks of fracking and the health hazards of shells hardened with depleted uranium. This is a unique opportunity to ask questions of an expert. These topics may not be close to your research interests but they may impact on your life. Nuclear accidents, like atmospheric nuclear tests, have a global impact but small local emissions also have health effects. Dr Fairlie will present some of his work and take questions about the radiation hazards on any of these issues. This is a rare opportunity to ask questions of an independent expert, as most radiation scientists tend to come from nuclear energy or nuclear weapons establishments.
There will also be an evening meeting part sponsored by Edinburgh CND
