The entire workforce and board at longrunning anti-war paper Peace News (PN) have resigned en masse, citing a “tidal wave of intimidation, harassment, and threats” from the group’s trustees.

In an audacious move to get their story out, staff secretly wrote an entire eight-page supplement for the bi-monthly publication, explaining everything that’s happened from their perspective, and attached it to the paper before going to print. Published on Friday, it can be read online in full here.

The shutdown has left the future of Peace News and the linked Housmans Bookshop, both of which are based at Peace House near Kings Cross, in deep uncertainty with the former now closed and potentially remaining so permanently. However in what they labelled their “final issue” staff laid out various potential paths they are considering for the future.

The Peace News team singled out PNT chair Glyn Carter as the ringleader of hostilities against them, alongside three other members of the seven-strong trustee group. Tensions have steadily escalated since Carter became chair with his tenure, staff said, being marked by dubious decision-making and increasingly unreasonable demands, as well as accusations of aggressive behaviour, legal threats and sexism, in particular in addressing concerns over gender balance. 

As time went on the PNT allegedly showed an unwillingness to engage with the PN team’s concerns and relations deteriorated, with attempts at finding a mutually amicable solution falling through between the paper’s staff and trustees. The loss of £10,000 in annual funding in 2022 from the failure of a high-risk property development scheme PNT had invested in added significant financial pressure and with the prospect of closure on the horizon, staff said they felt the only option left was to down tools.

Highlighting an email sent in July by Carter, cutting off payments to the news team and demanding the paper’s liquidation, as sparking the resignations, editor Milan Rai noted in the paper’s introductory article:

‘The tidal wave of intimidation, harassment and threats that we have experienced over the last year has been extremely stressful and exhausting. We tried to create a more healthy relationship between PNT and PNL, based on consent and mutual respect, protecting a space for private conversation and discussion without PNT surveillance or micro-management. Unfortunately, that attempt has been unsuccessful.

‘The relentless bullying campaign we have experienced has been led by Glyn Carter and aided and abetted by Albert Beale, Ian Dixon and Andrew Rigby.’

The Peace News supplement includes several articles detailing the unfolding crisis, with accounts from staff members talking about a breakdown between the two groups featured alongside personal resignation letters. In a statement, PN staff stated they “expect to be fired immediately, without notice and without any form of redundancy, as a result of publishing this issue. We have given up the possibility of receiving these payments in order to be able to tell you, our readers, the truth as we see it about what has happened to PN”.

In their critiques of the Trustees’ leadership, the PN team described a deep-rooted organisational conflict and brought up various questions about how PNT structures and attempts to improve them have led to the situation. Given Peace News’ relatively politically diverse membership, the fact that all members of staff found such a uniting factor in the trustees’ behaviour and came to a consensus that mass resignation was their best option speaks to how bad things have become.

Responding to a request for comment from Freedom, Glyn Carter, Albert Beale and Andrew Rigby released a joint statement on behalf of the Trustees saying:

“We are not going to sink to their level of personal attacks and abuse.
…

“The staff have consistently overstepped their role as employees. To announce the “closure” of PN is the latest example. It is not theirs to close. 
…
“The individuals named – and abused – by PN staff have long-time commitments to PN and the peace movement. They have integrity and good sense. They have not suddenly turned into monsters.

“Peace News was in a long-term descent of ever-declining subscriptions, readership, and influence. It was locked-in to a paper publication in the age of digital media. PNT tried to institute structures to review its purpose, strategy, content, and marketing. At every turn these efforts were resisted by staff.”

[These notes are extracted from a longer PDF]

Pic: The final front cover of Peace News, with staff members pictured around the group banner (photo by Erica Smith)