Introducing Peace News London

Created in 2002 to produce a fundraising anti-war CD for grassroots peace groups, Peace Not War has expanded to become a non-profit co-operative of autonomous artists, creatives, peace activists, promoters and techies, committed to creating a world that values community over commercial self-interest, seeking to achieve this via creative expression, through music, film, art and poetry.

In 2007 Peace Not War will undergo a redesign of its website and a re-structuring of its organisation, setting up as a co-operative organisation. Free from commercial and institutional expectations, Peace Not War collects and disseminates music and art and communicates information on environmental and peace actions around the world, offering content on CD and DVD, as well as on its website, Peace.fm

It hosts regular live events throughout London, and has plans in the summer of 2007 to tour the UK, bringing to the country the best of local, independent peace-inspired music. It operates out of its London base, the community arts project, The Synergy Centre, 220 Farmer's Road, Camberwell, SE5

The Peace Jukebox on the Peace Not War website plays hours of peace music for free, featuring songs of peace, love and freedom by well-known artists (who have kindly donated use of individual tracks) such as Faithless, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Sonic Youth, Jurassic 5, Public Enemy, Jane’s Addiction, Ani DiFranco, Asian Dub Foundation, Fun>Da>Mental, System of a Down, Banco de Gaia, Zach de la Rocha, and the words of Noam Chomsky, among many other well known artists and speakers.

Also featured on the jukebox and the CDs produced are less well-known but equally influential artists on the UK underground music scene, including Seize the Day (Glastonbury-based folk band notoriously disqualified from the BBC World Music Awards 2003, Planetman and the Internationalz, The Rub, Excentral Tempest and United Vibrations, Subsource, Opaque, Gravy Train and the Unpeople, music with an outspoken message of peace through creative expression.

This is the most prolific period of peace music songwriting in history, brought on by a period of bloody and senseless conflict and the seeming unwillingness of our political leaders to respond to public calls for an end to needless conflict. Home-studio technology now makes it possible for the world to hear these radical songs in a matter of days, if not minutes!

The Peace Not War co-operative has received hundreds of submissions over the last four years from every style of musician, and continues to do so, being committed to providing all the best of these songs online over the next few months as the website undergoes a radical overhaul.

So far the mainstream media has been reluctant to highlight the wealth of independent talent, protest songs, words and slogans of peace now reaching into mainstream culture and affecting the very fabric of our society (for an example of the underground now becoming mainstream, the graffiti artist Banksy “took over” a store on Oxford Street in December 2006, complete with bouncers, giving his own artistic impression of the commercialisation of the traditional Christian message).

Perhaps the mainstream has simply been unaware of the scope and depth of this radical voice of dissent, this peace message arising on both sides of the Atlantic (and indeed throughout the world), having mistakenly associated Peace Not War with political groups of the left, rather than its more relevant antecedents, the music and art of the 1960's so-called "counter-culture", from John Lennon to Bob Dylan and into the early-1970s, from Marvin Gaye to James Brown. Though Peace Not War was initially involved with raising funds for the Stop the War Coalition, and is committed to the cause of peace groups throughout the world, it has no political affiliations.

The story of Peace Not War since 2002 as an organisation, as well as the individual stories of the unsigned and major-label artists involved and their personal involvement in the project, is a narrative of such breadth and depth that it should be of great interest to music journalists and cultural commentators, who are continually on the look-out for the latest authentic musical and cultural trends. It is likely that this sub-culture of peace music will emerge seemingly fully-formed into the mainstream with its own narrative and ready-made internet audience in 2007.

Peace Not War represents just one musical and art-based co-operative organisation in a sea of creative expression, in a media world that is re-structuring before our very eyes. It is certainly one of the best known in the London undergound music scene and retains a peculiarly British and London feel, though it has already established roots in Birmingham, as well as further afield in Japan and New Zealand.

2007 will see many developments, including a third official Peace Not War compilation album, the new website launch, promotion of Peace Not War Japan and an extending of the collective into an international network of peace activists dedicated to bringing into the public domain the most inspiring creative multimedia to help create the positive change in our world that we know is possible.