Laura Pidcock speaks about Declassified UK’s upcoming summit Challenging the War Machine

On Saturday 31 January, Declassified UK, an independent media organisation whose journalism exposes the UK’s role in the world, will hold a major summit – Challenging the War Machine at EartH Hackney in London.

Laura Pidcock, co-director of Declassified UK, said:

The global rules-based order has been blown apart and rendered meaningless by the genocide in Gaza. And to start 2026 the way US imperialism means to go on, an elected head of state was kidnapped from Venezuela by US special forces, with potentially catastrophic ramifications for the precedent this has set. We are in extremely worrying times, and we want this summit to start a national dialogue about how we challenge the war machine.

Speakers will include journalists Peter Oborne, Laura Webster, Lowkey and Ahmed Alnaouq as well as campaigner Andrew Feinstein – the former South African politician who stood against Keir Starmer and who is an arms industry expert – as well as other experts in their field like media professor Des Freedman and long-standing peace and anti-nuclear campaigner Kate Hudson.

Mark Curtis, co-director at Declassified UK, said:

We set up Declassified because we observed how the mainstream media operates to uphold the political status quo and how secrecy is endemic in the system. This means that there is very little challenge to the way the UK behaves in the world and this is a huge problem. We want our public
service journalism to change that. This summit could not have come at a more important time, we are proud to facilitate this important conversation.

Questions for the summit

Challenging the War Machine is open to anyone interested in understanding the structures and systems that underpin the drive to war, and how we challenge it. This full day summit will firstly assess the crisis we are in. Thereafter, it will ask speakers and participants to consider questions like:

How do we challenge the drive to war?

How do we challenge the propaganda machines of the legacy media & cultivate independent media?

How do we challenge UK support for Israel?

How do we build an active majority against war and militarism?

The summit will also include numerous independent media organisations and campaigning organisations exhibiting their work.

This is set to be an important event at the start of 2026. You can get tickets from the Declassified UK website. Prices start at £10.

Where: EartH Hackney, Stoke Newington Road, Dalston, London N16 8BH

What time: 9.15am-6pm

Speakers: Kate Hudson, Lowkey, Andrew Feinstein, Anna Stavrianakis, Jason Hussein, Shahd Abusalama, Ahmed Alnaouq, Des Freedman, Chris Kunzler, Laura Webster, Peter Oborne, Alex Gordon, Sophie Bolt, Hamza Yusuf, Lindsay German and Declassified team: Mark Curtis, Laura Pidcock, Vicki Thomas, Phil Miller, John McEvoy, Alex Morris, Dania Akkad, Martin Williams.

See here for a full list of attending organisations.

Featured image via Declassified UK