[JNV] Upcoming JNV talks, trial and JNV Iran Delegation Appeal

[JNV]

1) 4 April London Iran talk Milan Rai and Emily Johns
2) 12 April London trial and 7/7 book launch Milan Rai
3) Other 7/7 speaking tour dates
4) 1, 8, 15, 22 May Hastings Chomsky Course led by Milan Rai
5) APPEAL - JNV Iran delegation with Emily Johns

Dear friends

There are a few dates coming up which we can give you now. We also have a briefing about the Muhammad cartoons , and a short note about recent developments relating to 7/7, which will be up on the JNV website shortly.

Best wishes

Maya Evans and Milan Rai
JNV

***

1) 4 April London Iran talk Milan Rai and Emily Johns

Organised by Fellowship of Reconciliation and Pax Christi and supported by JNV

Iran: Secrets and Lies

The reporting of Iran to the UN Security council over its nuclear programme and the continued allegations of ‘interference’ in Iraq by the United States are fuelling suggestions that an armed attack against Iran is increasing likely.  To help the peace movement reflect on the situation and to consider what we can do, Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR), Pax Christi and Justice not Vengeance (JNV)  are organising a presentation and discussion on the situation

Tuesday 4th April,  7.30pm
St Vincent’s Centre, Carlisle Place, Victoria, SW1P 1NL
Entry free

Speakers:
Milan Rai co-founded Justice not Vengeance and his latest book ‘7/7: The London Bombings, Islam and the Iraq War’ has just been published.

Emily Johns is an artist and long-standing peace activist.  In May she will take part in a Fellowship of Reconciliation/Muslim Peace Fellowship delegation to Iran.

***

2) 12 April London Trial and 7/7 Book Launch Milan Rai

Trial features: Milan Rai
Book launch features: Nadje Al-Ali, Mark Curtis, Rachel North, Milan Rai - and Maya Evans as chair of the evening.

Milan Rai is to be sentenced at Bow St Magistrates Court, Bow St near Covent Garden, sometime after 10am. (It will probably take 15 minutes.) 

He is also due at his book launch that evening. There is a slim possibility that he will be unable to attend as a result of the trial and sentencing, in which case his brother Ro Rai will be reading from his book.

Book launch at Friends House is co-sponsored by Voices in the Wilderness, Quaker Peace & Social Witness, Justice Not Vengeance, and the publishers, Pluto Press.

7pm, Friends House, Euston Road, opposite Euston Station, London.

***

3) Other 7/7 book meetings with Milan Rai

Wednesday 5 April Belfast

Thursday 6 April Oswestry
7.30pm: Friends Meeting House, Oak St., Oswestry (opposite long stay car park)
info: 01691 650527

Monday 10 April Berwick upon Tweed
7.30pm: The William Elder Building (old Job Centre), Castlegate, Berwick
info: Berwick upon Tweed Justice not War 01289 308767

Tuesday 11 April Kendal 
7.30pm: The Castle Street Centre, Kendal
info: 01539 724 707 

Wednesday 12 April London
7pm: Friends House, Euston Road, London
info: 01424 719 570

Thursday 13 April, Lewes 
7.30pm: Newton Room at Southover Grange, Lewes
info: 01273 473 912

Friday 21 April Reading
6 for 6.30pm: RISC One World Shop, 35-39 London Street, Reading
info: 0118 958 6692  www.risc.org.uk

Sunday 23 April Hereford
7pm: Friends Meeting House, 21 King St. Access via a narrow passage adjacent to an estate agent.
info: rch@numeracy.freeserve.co.uk

Monday 24 April Hebden Bridge
7.00pm for 7.30pm: Hope Street Baptist Church Hall, Hebden Bridge
info: 01422 320139

Saturday 29 April Aberystwyth
4.30pm-5.30pm: (signing) Ottakars, 27 Great Darkgate Street, Aberystwyth
info: http://www.socialforumcymru.org.uk/ or Ottakars 01970 611222

There are other dates in the next few weeks which we hope to confirm details for in the next few days.

***

4) Chomsky Course Hastings

Milan Rai introduces the thought of Noam Chomsky on four successive Mondays, 7pm-9pm, the Electric Palace, High Street, Hastings. £2.50-£5 sliding scale each evening, or £8-£16 for all four nights.

For more details contact info@j-n-v.org

***

5) APPEAL - JNV Iran delegation

After two years of trying, Justice Not Vengeance has finally found a route to send artist Emily Johns to Iran as part of a peace delegation. She is travelling to Iran in May with the Fellowship of Reconciliation US and the Muslim Peace Fellowship US on a friendship delegation. She is the only European delegate to be selected for this trip. On her return she will be making images for an anti-war exhibition project to do with Iran.

Emily's work will be familiar to many people from Voices in the Wilderness UK postcards and posters (we will be posting some of her images onto the JNV website later this week). She has combined peace activism - during the 1990s with ARROW, and latterly with Hastings Against War - with passionately-engaged art, dealing with subjects as diverse as the sanctions on Iraq, genetic engineering (the 'Gene Genie' exhibition), and nuclear weapons ('Critical Mass'). 

Her work has featured in Peace News, the Housmans Peace Diary and a variety of magazines. She is also the illustrator of a number of books, including poetry books by John Heath-Stubbs and political books by Milan Rai (including 7/7: The London Bombings, Islam and the Iraq War).

With generous support from a number of funders including the Fellowship of Reconciliation (England), the Methodist Peace Fellowship and Pax Christi, we have nearly raised enough money for Emily's fare and expenses in Iran. 

We are now appealing for funds to help pay for the development of an exhibition, postcards and other anti-war materials we would like to create, based on her images, bolstered by the critical information we have been gathering during the last two years.

It is not enough for artists to be 'war artists' documenting conflict and commenting on its consequences. It is necessary for them also to observe and to challenge when conflict threatens.

We would be very grateful for any donations, however large or small, towards this project.

> If you are able to make a donation, please make it out to 'JNV' and send to us at:

29 Gensing Road, St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, TN38 0HE. 

> If you are able to make a standing order (of whatever size) to support our work, or prefer to transfer money directly, our bank details are: 

Justice Not Vengeance,
A/C 78520921
Nationwide Building Society,
40 London Road,
St Leonards-on-Sea
East Sussex
TN37 6AN
Sort code 07-00-55

For whatever support you are able to give, we are very grateful.

Yours for peace

Maya Evans and Milan Rai
Justice Not Vengeance

www.j-n-v.org
0845 458 9571
07980 748 555