last night

I have finished my 14 nights of sleeping outside to raise awareness about homelessness. Last night Peter joined me in the Friends Meeting House garden and I managed to persuade Sarah and Belinda to sleep inside. It was a stormy night and without the protection of the overhang I needed my bivvy bag for the first time.

After breakfast 12 of us sat round the table to see what we could do about homelessness, particularly for those without recourse to public funds. Bho talked about the Hope Destitution fund and plans for some Hope houses. We discussed the enormous problem of changing public perception of migrants as takers instead of givers and of the issue of homeless families. We talked about the reluctance of much of the 'third sector' to remember their core values and challenge their funders. It was a good meeting but sadly know one new to the issue was there. No-one new who had seen me sleeping outside or had read about me in the paper or heard me on the radio. They were all good people already concerned about homelessness. Perhaps next week others will come forward.

At lunch time we performed our final Peace Festival action when a large group of us in mysterious white overalls with the Pax thumb print on the back stood in the Upper Precinct and looked up to Antonio from the walkway above delivering a speech inspired by the 'I have a dream' speech of Martin Luther King. Afterwards we unfolded huge banners which said 'In our hearts we all dream of peace. Together we can make it happen.' It was magnificent and a moving end to the festival.

I have put the speech below as a final message of this blog. However it was sad and slightly unnerving that when a group of us in our white overalls went to the shop in the Arcade which we had been using as a base for festival activities, to pick up the loud speaker system for the speech, we discovered that some one had superglued the shutter lock and we could not get in. It may well have been the person who had glued yet another racist paper cutting on the door. It was too late at that stage - 15 minutes before the performance - to come up with an alternative. But Antonio has a fantastic voice and excellent delivery. He was heard. We must not be silenced because our questions and our messages are too important. We must continue to find creative ways to be heard.

The speech

I am very humbled to join with you today, to mark the end of Coventry Peace Festival

My name is Antonio de Jesus Nunes. I am from Cabinda, Angola, Africa and I am a refugee in Britain. I have the privilege of standing here today, inspired by the great African American Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King who famously said ‘I have a dream’.

Sixty years ago, to end all wars and for the maintenance of peace, the world produced a Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

But sixty years later, the world is still not at peace. Sixties years later, people still suffer the chains of discrimination.

In a sense we've come here to cash a cheque. When the architects of Peace and Justice wrote the magnificent words of the Universal Declaration of Human rights, they were signing a promissory note to which every Human was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men and women, yes all human beings would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

It is clear today, that Britain and Europe, most African States, most of the world in fact, have defaulted on this promissory note. But we refuse to believe that the banks of peace and justice are bankrupt. We refuse to be to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults within the human hearts. And so, we've come to cash this cheque, a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of peace and the security of justice.

We come also to remind the world of the fierce urgency of now. Now is the time to make real the promises of peace. Now is the time for total nuclear disarmament and universal cease fire all over the world. Now is the time to make justice and peace a reality for everyone. The world must understand the urgency of the moment and that our lives are inextricably linked with everyone on the planet. We have to realize that our well being is bound with the well being of the other.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. We can never rest as long as the Human is still victim of the unspeakable horrors of war whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur or Palestine. We cannot rest as long as the world's major powers possess nuclear weapons capable of destroying the world many times over.

We can never rest while Africa, a very rich continent is still engulfed in poverty, civil wars and famine. We cannot rest while its leaders have enormous bank accounts and continue to buy weapons to further oppress their own people and while the West sell them those weapons and still milks Africa of its natural resources.

We can never rest while Africans, and other oppressed people who try to escape terror in their own countries are made to sink on boats or languish in detention centres right here in Britain and are subjected to draconian immigration laws.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still share that dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Human HEART. I too have a dream that one day the world will rise up and “hold these truths to be self evident, that all humankind is one family."

I too have a dream that we will one day soon, live in a world where there will be harmony, universal and perpetual peace, true brotherhood and sisterhood among all nations, all peoples and across every area of human endeavour.

I dream that all across Europe and right here in Britain, political parties like the BNP, with its racist policies will apologise to the world.

We need hope. With this hope, we will be able to reduce the mountain of despair to rubble. . With this hope, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood. With this hope, we will be able to work together, to sing together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will one day soon live in a free and peaceful world, where everyone is valued and respected.

And if the world is to be at peace, this must become true.

And so let peace ring from the cold mountains of Afghanistan.

Let freedom and security prevail right here on the streets of Britain .

Let freedom and security roll through the deserts of Iraq.

Let peace and prosperity be a reality in the whole of Africa.

Let peace and freedom ring all over the world, from every hill and from every mountainside, from every city and village, from every country and continent.

We will then be able to sing in the words of the old Negro Spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!