Action Briefing Feb 2005 - Mar 2005
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Warehouse Focus

We are delighted to welcome a new tenant to the Warehouse, a new political party called 'Peace and Progress'.

Peace and Progress: a party for human rights
Peace and Progress was founded as a political party on November 27th 2004, but it began life as a voluntary association of individuals and organisations in early 2003, at a time of huge anti-war demonstrations.

From the outset our aim was to form a political party because, as our manifesto 'A Manifesto for Peace and Progress' states, "The more our government, and the opposition, continue in the belief that human rights are expendable in the interests of security, the more human rights are politicised. Once it was possible for non-governmental organisations to promote human rights non-politically, advocating them to whichever party was in power and opposing those actions by governments which endangered them. Now, human rights require an advocate within the political arena. We need a party of human rights."

As a party we will do everything we can to uphold and promote the letter and spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and work with organisations and individuals who share this aim. Our most urgent aims are:

• Withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and an end to the occupation;
  
• Enforcement of all UN resolutions on Palestine
• Cancellation of all debts from the world’s poorest countries;
  
• Disarmament and destruction of all weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological, and a ban on all commercial exports of conventional weapons;
  
• Repeal of all anti-asylum legislation;
  
• Repeal of all existing Anti-Terrorism legislation;
  
• Repatriation of the five British residents detained in Guantanamo and the release of the remaining foreign nationals held without trial in Belmarsh and Woodhill.
  

We oppose the anti-terrorist measures recently announced by Secretary of State Charles Clarke and we intend to present a 'Stop Detention Without Trial' petition to the Home Office on 2nd March, just days before the Asylum, Immigration and Anti-Terrorism Act comes up for review in the House of Commons. Visitors to our website www.peaceandprogress.org will soon be able to sign the petition online.

As the general election approaches our task is to put human rights as high on the political agenda as we can. We will be putting up our own candidates, most probably one in Birmingham and one in London, and wherever possible we will advise voters on the human rights record of existing MPs and other candidates.

There will be a chance to find out what stance MPs are taking on human rights and civil liberties issues on 11th and 12th March when a mass lobby of MPs in their constituencies will take place, coordinated by the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPAC) with support from Peace and Progress.

For more info visit www.peaceandprogress.org or call 0121 643 3122.

Vivian Yates