Stroud will host its first-ever Peace Fair on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th October, a community-led event that aims to showcase alternatives to the global arms trade and celebrate local and national work for peace and justice.
The fair begins on Friday evening at St Laurence Church, with a concert of songs for peace from Eleanor Holliday and the Acapeeps community choir, followed by a keynote lecture from Professor Danny Dorling, Oxford University geographer and leading voice on inequality and social justice. Danny’s talk will explore the world of crises we find ourselves in, and how we can bring about a more peaceful and just society. He said: “Peace has never been maintained or won, or war avoided, by people sitting back and not engaging. Often those who seek peace are decades ahead of the warmongers. But in the past, it is peace that usually wins.”
On Saturday 18th October, the church will be open from 10.30am–3pm for a free family-friendly ‘Meet the Peace-Makers and Peace-Builders’ day. Visitors will be able to connect with representatives from Amnesty UK, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Campaign Against Arms Trade, Stroud Ceasefire Coalition and many more. The day will feature live music, children’s kite-making activities, storytelling and refreshments.
Throughout Saturday, The Exchange on nearby Brick Row will host expert-led workshops. Sessions include a talk by Oxfam on the arms trade and international law with a live interview with Oxfam worker Bushra in Gaza, a workshop with Radical Youth Space for Education (RYSE) on creating just peace, and contributions from Rethinking Security, the Organisation for Identity and Cultural Development, and Drone Wars UK. Workshops are free for under-21s and can be booked online.
The Peace Fair is being hosted by St Laurence Church: Stroud Centre for Peace and the Arts, and organised by volunteers from the Three Counties Campaign Against Arms Trade (3CCAAT) and Gloucestershire Quakers. Local organisers Martin Large and Mike Davis, long-time campaigners against the Malvern Arms Fair, conceived the idea of a peace fair as an “antidote to arms fairs”. Martin Large said: “We are fed up with arms fairs such as the recent DSEI in London, where equipment designed solely to kill, injure and maim is promoted enthusiastically to governments and corporations of every stripe, including ones with dismal human rights records. So we’re showcasing the work of organisations striving to build a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.”
“After local campaigners successfully saw off the Malvern Arms Fair, Stroud Peace Fair is an opportunity to celebrate the peace and social justice building efforts of many local people.”
Stroud’s MP, Dr Simon Opher, will also take part in the Friday evening programme, joining Professor Dorling for a Q&A. Dr Opher has campaigned for the treatment of injured Palestinians and an end to arms sales to Israel. He recently made national headlines when refused entry to the West Bank while on a parliamentary delegation to inspect the medical and humanitarian crisis faced by Palestinians.
He has said: “There is a tendency to see peace as being something that happens after a conflict. I prefer a more personal and proactive approach. We all have a part to play – from the smallest acts of kindness through to civil disobedience and direct action. As a community we can all learn from each other, and that is part of the joy and appeal of Stroud’s Peace Fair, and why I am looking forward to it so much.”
To find out more, book tickets and get involved, check out St Laurence: Stroud Centre for Peace and the Arts.
