Rai first became politically active in the campaign against Pershing II and Ground Launched Cruise Missiles - nuclear weapons scheduled to be deployed in Western Europe in the late 1980s.
Also taken into account in his 2007 sentencing was a further fine of £100, imposed for organising and participating in protests during the "No More Fallujahs" tent city demonstration in Parliament Square.
Rai's primary organizational affiliations have been with the British Ploughshares movement (1988–1993); ARROW (Active Resistance to the Roots of War; 1990–2003); the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND; 1992–1997); Voices in the Wilderness UK (1998–2003) [4] and Justice Not Vengeance (2003–present).
ARROW was a London-based affinity group which organized mass actions and carried out a wide variety of campaigns, including a weekly vigil (1991–2003) against the economic sanctions - and then the impending war - on Iraq.
Justice Not Vengeance, which Rai co-founded in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is an anti-war campaigning group dealing with an array of issues around the "war on terror".