UNITY between anti-war campaigners is crucial to fighting increased militarisation, Welsh peace groups were told at a Cardiff conference on Saturday.

Stop The War Cymru convener Dominic MacAskill said the key theme from the day was the common work between peace groups and progressive organisations and that unity must be taken forward into campaigning work within communities across Wales.

Co-chairman David McKnight told the conference it was “a privilege to be a part of the movement at such a critical and dangerous moment.”

Mr McKnight chaired the panel discussion on imperialism’s drive to war, saying: “Western governments, including our own, are manufacturing consent for an arms race that will see billions taken away from essential public services.”

STW national deputy president Andrew Murray focused on Gaza, “the single most critical issue that we are facing as an anti-war and solidarity movement — our main mobilisation has to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

Turning to the war in Ukraine, Mr Murray said: “We don’t regard it as our job to write a peace settlement, but we do say there needs to be a ceasefire and part of that must be based on no extension of Nato’s boundaries.”

Pro-Palestine campaigner Bethan Sayed said that it was important, on International Women’s Day, for “women, not only in Wales, but internationally, to recognise how strong our voices are.”

The conference also heard from leading Welsh poet and Morning Star poetry co-editor Patrick Jones, who recited some of his latest work from A Constellation of Sorrows inspired by a visit to the West Bank, reviewed in the Morning Star on January 7.

Local Palestine activist Kwabena Devonish urged Welsh peace groups to take part in the Summit of Resistance on March 29 in London, with delegates agreeing to contribute £200 for a coach.

Members were also reminded about the upcoming Swansea protest at the meeting of the Wales Pension Partnership, which has over £1.1 billion invested in companies complicit in Israeli war crimes and illegal settlements.

The protest is on March 12 starting at 9.30am outside the Guildhall, Swansea SA1 4PE.