Issue 9 – Tuesday 8 August
Welcome to Conflict & Peace!
Edward Maltby
The emphasis at the Conflict & Peace Centre is on the need to fight for peace. Just sitting around blandly mooing that “we want peace” isn't going to change anything. You've always got to take matters into your own hands, and into the streets. Educate yourself, find out who or what is causing a conflict, and get out there and change it. We've been teaching people how to think critically about the lies the bosses and their representatives in parliament tell us; how to organise themselves democratically and efficiently; how to chain themselves to things; how to take on the cops and win; and how to choose their tactics to design a effective campaign.
We've also been telling the stories that the warmongers and capitalists don't want people to hear: about the oppression of the peoples of Palestine and Western Sahara; about the wars the West fights for oil; and the story of how Coca-Cola crushes trade unions in Colombia and steals water in India. Our radio play Captain Swing tells the story of how the workers of Kent discovered their power as a class, and took up the fight against their oppressors the rich and the Church.
Peace is not just an absence of war. If you are living under oppression, that's not peace.
If you want peace, keep fighting.