LL:ART: (GLW) Government lies again - Tiwi islanders
http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2003/562/ Government lies again - Tiwi islanders: We're all non-Australians by Green Left Weekly 2:02am Wed Nov 19 '03 article#36516 address: PO Box 394, Broadway, Sydney, NSW 2007, AUSTRALIA phone: Free Call in Oz (+61) 1800 634 206 - (+61 2) 9690 1230 Fax: (+61 2) 9690 1381 eMail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] MILIKAPITI, Melville Island. On November 4, a small boat approached through the waters of Snake Bay on Melville Island. [..] Within hours of the landing, the boatload of asylum seekers was at the centre of a government storm, which resulted in the excision of the Tiwi Islands from Australia's migration zone. [See article on the back cover.] One week later, I had the opportunity to speak to some Milikapiti residents, [..] http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2003/562/ Tiwi islanders: We're all non-Australians BY MICHAEL HODSON MILIKAPITI, Melville Island - On November 4, a small boat approached through the waters of Snake Bay on Melville Island. Tiwi people knew it wasn't from around there, because it didn't use the main channel in the bay, but instead made straight for the beach across numerous shallow bars. It was low tide and the boat bottomed out in shallow water, just off the beach. Locals say that between four and six people got off the boat and came onto the beach. Nervous locals urged the strangers back onto the boat and then immediately pushed it off. It then sat some distance off the beach until police and customs arrived. Within hours of the landing, the boatload of asylum seekers was at the centre of a government storm, which resulted in the excision of the Tiwi Islands from Australia's migration zone. [See article on the back cover.] One week later, I had the opportunity to speak to some Milikapiti residents, although none wanted their names printed in the media. The media speculation and comments from federal politicians seemed to have made a greater impression on the Tiwi Islanders than the actual boat arrival. But there was some sympathy for the asylum seekers. Everyone was feeling sorry for those people. Maybe God put them this way someone said to me. Another comment was, They towed the boat away in the middle of the night. We felt sorry for them, poor things. They were asylum seekers weren't they? The islanders pointed out that government ministers had lied about the landing. They said that [the asylum seekers] didn't land here, but six men were on the beach. [Immigration minister] Amanda Vanstone said Tiwi people have boats like that [fishing boat]. We don't have those sort of boats, we have speedboats, aluminium boats and outboards, was another comment, and that Amanda Vanstone doesn't know what she is talking about But it was the decision to excise the Tiwi Islands from Australia's migration zone that has touched a raw nerve with the mostly Indigenous islanders. Not surprising perhaps, given Aboriginal peoples' past experience of discrimination and exclusion. We watch the news and read the paper. We're not stupid people, we're educated. We know what it means to be non-Australians. If that boat comes back, we'll welcome them and give them food and water. You know why? Because we're all one group - non-Australians. We don't like the government to talk about us like this, one person said. Government mob they don't come and see us here. They closed the airport straight away. We don't want to see that on the news anymore. What they say on the TV is not true. If they want to talk about this, they have to come out here and see this place. Some people indicated that their anger would change the way they would vote at the next election. We're a Labor Party island here, but they didn't do anything for us. Only that Democrats [politician], he spoke up for us. Next time an election comes around, Labor Party, Liberal Party, they'll be out here asking us to vote for them. We'll say, Sorry we're asylum seekers, we can't vote'. If the Greens or Democrats come out, we'll vote for them When asked what people's general feeling in Milikapiti was about the whole affair, one Tiwi woman replied, They think it's all bullshit. Not an unreasonable summary of another farcical episode in Australia's treatment of asylum seekers. -- Kurdish asylum seekers: Government lies again BY SARAH STEPHEN John Howard's government has been caught lying once again about asylum seekers. On November 12, the government's people-smuggling task force was forced to admit that, contrary to explicit claims by government ministers, 14 Kurdish men who landed on Melville Island, near Darwin, on November 4 had sought sanctuary in Australia. [ Rest on http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2003/562/ ] From Green Left Weekly, November 19, 2003. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at
LL:ART: SA's Nov/Dez Socialist Campaigner now online
http://www.socialist-alliance.org/ -- http://www.socialist-alliance.org/newsletter/ Welcome to the Socialist Campaigner homepage Socialist Campaigner is the Alliance's monthly newsletter, reporting on its activities and initiatives around the country. Socialist Campaigner is one of many outcomes of the Socialist Alliances very successful Second National Conference in Melbourne on May 10-11. Full report here. Click here to submit an article for the next edition of Socialist Campaigner. All issues of Socialist Campaigner are available to read on the web or as a downloadable PDF just click on the appropriate link on the right of the page -- NOVEMBER 2003 LEAD STORY Re-building the anti-war movement By Luke Deer and Pip Hinman, National anti-war steering committee Between October 22 and 25, more than 10,000 people demonstrated across the country against the visit to Australia by President George Bush. In Sydney, 5000 people protested; in Canberra 4000; in Melbourne 1200; in Perth 400; in Adelaide 300; in Brisbane 200; in Hobart 200; in Darwin 50; in Geelong 50; and in Lismore 60. Socialist Alliance played a critical role in making sure that these protests went ahead. While the Greens did well inside parliament on October 23, credit should go to Socialist Alliance and those it worked with from local peace groups, Palestinian and other migrant communities, and some left trade unions for taking on the lion's share of organisation for the extra-parliamentary protests. Socialist Alliance's approach was to use the opportunity provided by the US President's visit to kick-start the anti-war movement after its relative lull since March. The main demands at the protests were for the occupying troops get out of Iraq, and for justice for Palestine. In some cities, they also included opposition to the Free Trade Agreement and an end to the Bush-Howard alliance. The protests everywhere - but particularly in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne - were lively, colourful and broad. They were marked by a mix of generations and many new faces. Protesters included secondary students, office workers in their suits (some of whom eagerly helped out as peace monitors in Sydney), older peace activists and families with children. In all cities, Socialist Alliance's profile at the rallies was arguably the best its been throughout this extraordinary year of anti-war protests. This, and a new Socialist Alliance leaflet, made it much easier to join new members, and the SA merchandise, including the new Medicare not Warfare T-shirts and anti-war stickers, were easy to sell. Alliance members around the country report that many people made a point of thanking SA for organising the rallies. Socialist Alliance was either represented directly on many of the rally platforms (Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, Lismore and Geelong), or SA activists represented other organisations (in Sydney, Rihab Charida spoke for Sawiyan: Coalition for Palestine, Kylie Moon for Books not Bombs and Jim Casey for the Fire Brigades Employees Union, and in Perth Sam Wainwright spoke for the Maritime Union of Australia). In many cities, Socialist Alliance members chaired the protests. Everywhere, the rally platforms were broad, reflecting the spectrum of public opinion which still opposes the war on Iraq and wants the troops out. The platforms included Green, Democrat and ALP MPs, religious leaders, refugee and anti-war activists, academics, unionists and international guests. In Sydney, the lively and militant 5000-strong protest was the first event to be organised by the new Stop the War Coalition, formed by Socialist Alliance, local peace group activists, some veteran peace activists, left Greens and Friends of the Earth members after the conservatives split from the Sydney Walk Against War coalition in August. If not for Socialist Alliance and its allies, Bush's visit would have gone unchallenged in the streets. The protests have helped kick-start the movement again after its high point before the war, and have also re-ignited the important discussion about building the movement. This is a key lesson from the Bush protest. Revitalising, sustaining and building broadly based anti-war networks and groupings is a primary task for the left. The role of Socialist Alliance is not to substitute for the movement locally, but to project a bigger, broad, common socialist profile within the movement as a whole. This is what we did with considerable success during the Bush visit. -- -- http://www.socialist-alliance.org/newsletter/2003_november.pdf [ or click on the headlines in the right column for wwwebpages ] [ also get all the back issues from the right column ] -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:INFO: [Oceania] Social Forum Aotearoa Agenda DRAFT PROGRAMME
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0311/S00043.htm Social Forum Aotearoa Agenda - DRAFT PROGRAMME Thursday, 6 November 2003, 2:41 pm Press Release: Oceania Social Forum Anyone interested in group travel (ie minivan) contact me urgently: Mike Treen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Social Forum Aotearoa 'another world is possible' 21-23 November 2003 Porirua - Te Wananga o Aotearoa Todd Park Campus 1 Heriot Drive, Porirua DRAFT PROGRAMME --- Friday, November 21 --- 1:00 Powhiri 2:30 Introducing The World Social Forum and Social Forum Aotearoa 3:00 Empowering Local Communities and Whanau Tangata Whenua Presentation Roger Blakely, CEO, Porirua City Council Local democracy under the new Local Government Act Panel discussion : Meg Williams, Paekakariki, Kane Forbes Residents Action Movement, Auckland, Porirua Representative 5:00 Open Space opportunity for participants to propose and organize additional workshops 7:30 Te Wananga O Aotearoa Performances - Saturday, November 22 - 9:00 Opening Speakers Dr. Jane Kelsey, The global agenda after Cancun Deborah Manning The Ahmed Zaoui case, implications for Human Rights Colin Fox, MP Scotland : European perspective on the Global Agenda Dr. Ralph Petterman Making sense of the world Panel Discussions The GE Debate after the lifting of the moratorium Lessons from the Peace Movement Economic Rights and sustainability Workshops · ARENA (Action Research and Education Network Aotearoa) Globalisation, Colonisation and Militarism · Universal Income Trust · Mobilising and organizing in Aotearoa :Peace Movement Aotearoa, Global Peace and Justice Coalition, Auckland, Peace Action Wellington, Peace Action Network Christchurch · Human Rights Network National Plan of Action 8:00 Gig local bands and performers --- Sunday, November 23 --- 9:00 Opening Speakers Sandy Morrison: Maori educational leader John Roughan : Solomon Islands Civil Society Network Maxine Gay: Trade Unionist Susan Hawthorne: Australian feminist Clifford Wallace: ³America¹s foremost anti-drug war African- American activist² Edwina Hughes: Peace Movement Aotearoa Workshops Universal Income Trust Social Civic Policy Institute: engaging communities through deliberation and sustained dialogue East Side Porirua local perspectives on economic development Paul Bruce, Latin American Committee participatory democracy Marian Mc Donald: Teaching Social Justice Social Change an adult learning perspective 3:00 Plenary Session 4:00 Close -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: UNITE AGAINST BUSH'S WAR DRIVE GLW Annual Dinner
UNITE AGAINST BUSH'S WAR DRIVE Green Left Weekly Annual Solidarity Dinner 6.30pm Saturday November 29 Leichhardt Town Hall 107 Norton St, Leichhardt Green Left Weekly is not just a newspaper - it is an important part of a movement for social change. Come and support Australia's best radical newsweekly with good company and enjoy a three course South American meal. A fully stocked bar will be available. The event will be chaired by Books not Bombs national coordinator and Socialist Alliance Senate candidate KYLIE MOON, who will be launching 'Friends of Green Left Weekly'. Greetings will be presented by RIHAB CHARIDA, from the Sawiyan Coalition for Palestine, and AUSTIN WHITTEN, a long time peace and social justice campaigner and Socialist Alliance member. Film footage from the recent protests against US President George Bush will also be screened. Entertainment will be provided by JOHNNY G the E TYPES (playing classic Memphis Soul and New Orleans Funk) and singer/songwriter ELLIOT WESTERN (from the Sydney band WELTER). A DJ will play the finest oldschool Funk, Soul, Motown and Rhythm and Blues ever recorded to get you dancin' on the good foot. Cost: $30 / $20 conc / $15 high school, or $50 solidarity price. Bookings essential! Ph 9690 1977 or 9687 5134. All proceeds to Green Left Weekly. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: Regime change begins at home: Unite for socialism!
*** Please forward to all who may be interested *** Regime change begins at home: Unite for socialism! Socialist Alliance NSW State Conference Sat Nov 8, 10am-6pm University of Technology, Sydney Level 16, Lecture Theatre 22, Tower Building, Broadway Feature speakers include Humphrey McQueen, radical author, historian and Socialist Alliance member; Dick Nichols, former national convenor of Socialist Alliance, recently returned from Venezuela and other parts of Latin America, plus visits with left parties in Europe, including the Scottish Socialist Party. The conference will involve discussion and workshops on socialist ideas; perspectives for anti-war and trade union campaigns; driving out Howard and building Socialist Alliance as an alternative to Labor. The conference is open to all Socialist Alliance members, supporters, and all those interested in finding out more about what SA does and what we stand for. Come along! The full agenda is below. For info or to register, Phone: 0410 629 088, 0425 347 634, 9690 1977 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Socialist Alliance NSW State Conference Regime change begins at home: unite for socialism! Sat Nov 8, 10am-6:30pm. UTS, Broadway 10am-11:30am: What future? The case for socialism Our world is a dangerous place: Bush Howards permanent war; the environment trashed for quick profits; billions in poverty while the rich have never been richer. What future is there for humanity? How can we win a world without war and which puts people before profit? Where does the Socialist Alliance fit, and what is the socialist vision? Humphrey McQueen, renowned radical author, historian and Socialist Alliance member. Dick Nichols, former Socialist Alliance national convenor, just returned from Venezuela Europe. 11:30-1:00: Capitalism, war and resistance The Howard government has been horrendous - sickeningly pro-war, disgracefully racist with its incarceration of asylum seekers, and blatantly supporting corporations over working people. However, the Labor party offers only a pale imitation of the Coalition. At state level, the Carr Labor government is attacking workers and public services across the board. But there is resistance. The anti-war movement saw the largest demonstrations in Australias history. There are some initial fight backs in the unions. Brian Webb, from the SA State Campaign Committee Eastern Sydney SA, will report on the political situation we face, and SAs campaign work, particularly in the anti-war movement. Melanie Sjoberg, SAs NSW Trade union coordinator, will report on the potential resistance within the union movement, and SAs tasks to build militant unions and raise socialist ideas amongst workers. 1-2 Lunch 2-3:30 Workshops including * Defending public education: staff/student unity * How to start a new SA branch * Revolution and regroupment in Latin America * Debate: What paper for Socialist Alliance? * The role of socialists in the unions * Socialists, elections and parliament * Struggles for women's liberation in Australia * Refugees and racism: a socialist response 3:30-4 Afternoon tea 4-5:30 Building the alternative - Building Socialist Alliance Socialist Alliance now has ten branches in NSW with several more planned, has achieved electoral registration, is playing a leading role in the anti-war movement, and has grouped some militant, socialist unionists. How can we build a stronger, more united, more active Socialist Alliance capable of improving our work and strengthening the fight for socialism? What kind of election campaign is needed to build the socialist vision? Paul Benedek, from the SA State Campaign Committee and Central Sydney SA branch, will report on the building work for Socialist Alliance. 5:30-6:30 Elections Election of State Campaign Committee, plus preliminary candidates for NSW Senate ticket 7pm Drinks relaxation at Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, King St (opposite Newtown station) -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:PR: (SA) Turn your backs and walk out on Bush, MPs urged
http://www.Socialist-Alliance.org/ SOCIALIST ALLIANCE - for the millions, not the millionaires MEDIA RELEASE - October 9, 2003 Turn your backs and walk out on Bush, MPs urged Socialist Alliance today called on all anti-war MPs to turn their backs on US President George Bush and stage a walk out when he addresses a joint sitting of the federal parliament on October 23. This would send a clear message to President Bush and PM John Howard that their illegal invasion of Iraq and subsequent invasion is not in our name, Pip Hinman, a spokesperson for Socialist Alliance, said today. The million or so Australians who protested in February against the attack on Iraq represented an overwhelming majority of those in this country who said we should not launch a war on Iraq. Now, Bush is in Australia to thank John Howard for ignoring the majority and, perhaps, to ask for more help. We oppose that, and demand that Howard bring the 1000 Australian troops home now. All the foreign troops should get out of Iraq now. Bush, Blair and Howard's pre-war talk has been shown to be lies. The war on Iraq was about getting access to the second highest known reserves of oil , continued Ms Hinman. Now, Washington and its proxies in the Iraq are overseeing the corporate carve-up of Iraq - selling off public enterprises and infrastructure to companies such as Halliburton and Bechtel, which have a close association with the Republican Party. How is this going to help the Iraqi people get their country back on its feet? Bush is also visiting Australia to promote the US' free trade agenda. According to Luke Deer, also from Socialist Alliance, Such an agreement will not only give large corporations greater rights, as happened in North America, a FTA will threaten Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, quarantine laws, GM labeling and public assets. Socialist Alliance calls on all anti-war MPs to join the protest outside Parliament House on October 23 at 9am which is being organised by ACT Network Opposing War and supported by Stop the War Coalition in Sydney, the Queensland Network for Peace, the Victorian Peace Network, and a range of other anti-war coalitions across Australia. Pip Hinman 0412 139 968 Luke Deer 0419 135 019 For your information Stop the War Coalition - e-list ARCHIVE @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stop_the_War/ To subscribe (in case you got this forwarded), send an(y) email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To visit the interim Sydney STOP THE WAR COALITION website, click on: http://www.StopDubya.org/ RALLY on Wednesday, OCT 22!!! 5pm @ SYDNEY Town Hall !!! -- March to the US Consulate in Martin Place NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION on Thursday, OCT 23 morning!!! -- Get on our BUSES TO CANBERRA @ 5am from Central Station -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: Dr Vandana Shiva on Beyond Corporate Globalisation
http://www.active.org.au/sydney/calendar/?display=zoomevent=1419 Dr Vandana Shiva lecture on Beyond Corporate Globalisation 6:30pm Monday 20 October @ EASTERN AVENUE AUDITORIUM, Sydney Uni Contact: Matt Hall, Centre for Human Aspects of Science and Technology (CHAST) http://www.scifac.usyd.edu.au/chast/ Dr. Vandana Shiva is physicist, feminist, philosopher of science, writer and science policy advocate, activist for biodiversity conservation and farmers' rights, and Alternative Nobel Prize winner 1993. http://www.VShiva.net/ [Supra-postgrad] Re: Templeton Lecture 2003 announcement Dear All, Some more details about the Templeton Lecture: I have heard this morning that Dr Vandana Shiva's title is: Beyond Corporate Globalisation, towards Earth Democracy. The Lecture will take place in the EASTERN AVENUE AUDITORIUM, Sydney Uni at 6.30pm on Monday, 20 October. Thank you for publiicising it. Regards, Michael Thomas -- Each year, the Centre for Human Aspects of Science and Technology (CHAST) awards the prestigious Templeton Lecture. This years awardee is Dr. Vandana Shiva. The lecture will be held in the Eastern Avenue lecture theatre from 6:30 pm, on Monday 20th October. Dr. Vandana Shiva ( http://www.vshiva.net/ ), physicist, feminist, philosopher of science, writer and science policy advocate, is founder and Director of The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers' rights. She serves as an ecology advisor to organisations including the Third World Network and the Asia Pacific People's Environment Network. In 1993 she was the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the Alternative Nobel Prize for her pioneering insights into the social and environmental costs of the dominant development process, and her ability to work with and for local people and communities. A contributing editor to the People-Centered Development Forum, she has also authored a number of books, including Water Wars (2001), Patents, Myths and Reality (2001) and Tomorrow's Biodiversity (2000). Please distribute this announcement. All are welcome! Matt Hall Centre for Human Aspects of Science and Technology (CHAST) http://www.scifac.usyd.edu.au/chast/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: Sydney Social Forum Workshop Rego - Deadline Mon
From: Amanda Tattersall [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Sydney Social Forum is coming up, and anyone interested in presenting anything at all is welcome to do so. There will be several hundred, if not 1000 at this event and it provides a good opportunity to get activist messages out, raise interesting debate, raise strategic questions for movements you are involved in If you want to register a presentation please have a look at the information below. For further info, contact the organisers at [CORRECTED by N.] [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Hi All, There have been a number of workshop topics come through so far - regarding oil and power (see below e.g. from Chris R at New Internationalist), community unionism, the situation in Latin American, affordable housing in Sydney, Indigenous rights, the financial markets and institutions, as well as sessions with our keynote speakers on the media, behind the scenes at the WTO, situation in the Philippines. The first deadline for registered workshops is Monday 29th September, so please pass on to people through your networks that they should try to get submissions in before then for the next round of publicity. Rego can be done via the website at: http://www.sydneysocialforum.org/workshops/register.html [Vince] -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: Syd VENUES for 5* VENEZUELA: The revolution unfolding
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 05:31:19 - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] A fundamental social transformation is unfolding in Venezuela. A real life and death struggle for power is taking place. Alvaro Guzman is the first leader of this unfolding revolutionary process to visit Australia. Do not miss this opportunity to see how real social change is being made by working people and youth. Alvaro Guzman is the national director of the federation of Bolivarian Students in Venezuela. His tour will be a fantastic opportunity to hear from, and question, a young person involved in a fundamental transformation of society. It is certainly a stark contrast when a relatively poor country like Venezuela builds 3000 new schools and has 100,000 volunteers waging a national literacy campaign, while a rich country like Australia closes schools and privatises education! The national tour is being organised by RESISTANCE and Committees in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean (CISLAC). Below are Sydney tour details: ** SYDNEY PUBLIC MEETING ** Friday September 19, 6.30pm Trades Hall Auditorium, 4 Goulburn St (cnr Dixon St), City Entry by donation $8/5 concession recommended Ring Roberto or Jorge (02) 9687 5134, 0428 190 276, 0425 237 285 -- http://active.org.au/sydney/calendar/?display=zoomevent=1289 ** CAMPUS MEETINGS ** MACQUARIE UNI Monday Sep 22, 1pm Function Room 1, Sam Bldg Call Walter on 0413 958 371 for more info. -- http://active.org.au/sydney/calendar/?display=zoomevent=1315 UNSW Monday Sep 21, 4pm Room 101, Civil Engineering Bld Call Chris on 0401 260 439 for more info. -- http://active.org.au/sydney/calendar/?display=zoomevent=1316 SYDNEY UNI Tuesday Sep 23, 1pm Room 175, Carslaw Bldg Call Karol on 0410 544 396 for more info. -- http://active.org.au/sydney/calendar/?display=zoomevent=1318 UWS BANKSTOWN Tuesday Sep 23, 4pm Bldg 1, Lecture Room 39 Call Megan on 0419 117 606 for more info. -- http://active.org.au/sydney/calendar/?display=zoomevent=1317 For general info, call Resistance @ (02) 9690 1977. . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:INFO: Truck 'Sunshine' to Bougainville - PLEASE HELP !!!
[ PLEASE PASS ON TO YOUR NSW + QLD CONTACTS !!! ] http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=34620group=webcast Truck 'Sunshine' to Bougainville - PLEASE DONATE !!! by Mathew Davis 5:16pm Sat Sep 6 '03 article#34620 phone: 0418 335 864 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.wetlandecosystems.com.au/index.php?page=82 Wednesday night, a big yellow truck named Sunshine rolled into Sydney, at the end of the second day of a long journey to Bougainville. [..] You can help in a number of ways... [ PHOTO 1: This truck will soon be shipped to Bougainville. Workers from the RACV put in over 150 hours restoring it. ] (article 1) MEDIA STATEMENT, 4 September 2003 Bougainville Truck Last night, a big yellow truck named ‘Sunshine’ rolled into Sydney, at the end of the second day of a long journey to Bougainville. After 25 years of a quiet life pottering around the paddocks of a family farm in South Gippsland, 'Sunshine' has been restored and is on its way to a new life in the jungles of Bougainville, carrying with it a load of donated tools, clothing, school books and medical supplies. After a decade of war, the Bougainvillean people have returned to their villages, their gardens and their lives. But for a generation of young people, peace is new experience. They enter it having missed out on an education, on a chance to develop practical skills in areas such as building and agriculture, and without the ability to support themselves and participate as full members of the community. Many of these young people took part in the fighting. An hour south of the town of Arawa, in the Daantanai valley, the elders of ten different villages have come together to build a new school for these young people. It will be a place where they can gain new skills and opportunities, a new basis for self-esteem and standing in their community. Under the supervision of local elders, the young people are building the school themselves, logging and milling the timbers from trees near the school site and raising money to equip the school by growing cocoa in the valley's rich volcanic soil. Before the war, Bougainville was famed for its quality cocoa which commanded high prices on the world market. But these young cocoa farmers do not have a vehicle to transport their produce down to the wharf, from where they could ship it directly to overseas customers. Instead they must sell it at a low price to agents who travel out to the villages. The world price for cocoa has climbed over the last few years, and with a suitable vehicle they would be able to fund the school and pay themselves a reasonable income. So 'Sunshine' is on its way to Townsville to catch a boat to Bougainville and start a new life as the village cocoa truck, where it has the potential to transform peoples lives. Over the next month, as 'Sunshine' is driven up the east coast of Australia we would like help in raising $5000 to cover shipping costs and to give some money to the new Daantanai Open Learning Centre on Bougainville. Wetland Ecosystems, an environmental restoration company, will match any contributions. If you would like to donate to this worthy cause, please deposit monies into the Bougainville Freedom Movement cheque account - Account No. 2212-1002-9038 at any Commonwealth Bank. For more information about 'Sunshine' the Truck and the Daantanai Open Learning Centre please visit http://www.wetlandecosystems.com.au/ or contact: Mathew Davis phone: 0418 335 864 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks. You can help in a number of ways: - By making a donation towards the $3500 we still need to raise. By contacting local media about our trip and arranging interviews with newspapers, or television and radio stations along our route up the east coast of Australia from Sydney to Townsville. By finding local businesses or organisations in your area who would like to sponsor us, even for a small amount. Shipping the truck is expensive. Because we are charged by volume rather than by weight, we want to fill the back of the truck up with useful items that are needed in Bougainville these include: Clothing: particularly shorts and t-shirts Tools: hand tools, rechargeable power tools Medical supplies: bandages, sutures, things with no expiry date, not pharmaceuticals. You could collect these items in your area and arrange for them to be somewhere on the Princes Highway for us to collect. --- For more info on Bougainville and the Bougainville Freedom Movement, check out http://www.eco-action.org/bougainville/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: Public Forum on Hicks Habib: Sat, 20 Sept
From: Marlene Obeid [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear Friends, On behalf of the Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group, I would like to invite you to endorse a Public Forum on David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib: When: Saturday 20 September 2003 Time: 6.00pm Where: Sydney Trades Hall, 4 Goulburn St., Sydney. Confirmed guest-speakers thus far are: Terry Hicks (David Hicks' father); Stephen Hopper (Mamdouh Habib's Solicitor); and Maha Habib (Mamdouh's wife); and still to be confirmed: Steven Kenny (David's Solicitor), and a guest from the NSW Council for Civil Liberties. As you are aware these two men, along hundreds of others, have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, by the US administration for over 20 months now. The Australian government has done nothing thus far to seek their release or repatriation of these two Australian citizens so they can be tried in Australia under Australian law. This is a great opportunity for you to hear a panel of legal experts and guests linked to David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib's campaign. This is also a great opportunity to link your name to an event which seeks justice for two of our own who have been left in inhumane conditions languishing at Guantanamo Bay. Your comments and suggestions are more than welcome. For further information, please contact me, Marlene Obeid, on 0401 758 871 or at [EMAIL PROTECTED] For Justice Peace, Marlene Obeid Forum Coordinator Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDV: Aust/ Iraqi worker solidarity, Melbourne
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 06:25:10 - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [workersliberty] Aust/ Iraqi worker solidarity, Melbourne End US/UK/Australian occupation of Iraq Build Union Support for Iraqi workers 6.30 pm Thursday 4 September John Curtin Hotel (upstairs) Melbourne Speaker Surma Hamid The Iraqi labour movement is taking the first vital steps to re-establishing itself after years of repression. Iraqi workers are organising unions and unemployed organisation are challenging the occupying forces to provide jobs or unemployment benefits. Surma will provide an up-to-date account of the struggles underway in Iraq. Help plan out how Australian unionists can work to support the rebuilding of their labour movement. Contact: Riki Lane 0400877819, Surma Hamid 98869650 Sponsored by Socialist Alliance, Worker Communist Party of Iraq. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: PUBLIC FORUM: ABC IN CRISIS + (GLW) Save the ABC!
The Eastern Suburbs Friends of the ABC presents: A PUBLIC FORUM ABC IN CRISIS Sunday 28th of September, 1:30pm - 4 pm Waverley Library Theatrette 32-48 Denison Street, Bondi Junction Introduction: Gary Cook, President, FABC NSW Chair: Tina Bursill, Actor Speakers: Quentin Dempster, ABC Presenter Cameron Murphy, NSW Council for Civil Liberties Louise Southalan, AFTINET Contact Alison Rahill 0438 601 497 for further information -- from http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2003/550/ Save the ABC! BY ADAM MACLEAN After the much-publicised $26.1 million cuts the Australian Broadcasting Corporation management made on August 5, federal communications minister Richard Alston has hinted at allowing it to raise funds through things like telethons and allowing subscriber-only services. This year, the government cut, in real money terms, at least $5 million from the ABCs triennial budget, rendering it incapable of giving modest wage rises to its workforce, producing locally made programs or obtaining quality programming from overseas. Alston disputes that his government cut at all, claiming that he kept the ABC budget at the same level as last time, in real terms. Going even further, Queensland Liberal senator Santo Santoro said on August 15 that government funding to the ABC has actually increased 17.31% in real terms between 1995-96 and 2003-04. Many commentators have now come forward to call for the ABC to accept paid advertising on its radio stations, TV channels and web sites to make up the shortfall in public funding. All these claims and suggestions conveniently ignore the facts. The Coalition government has been slashing away unrelentingly at the ABC for more than seven years. In 1996, the first year of the Coalitions current reign, $55 million was taken from the ABC. Any claim that this government is maintaining funding in any shape or form, is a plain lie. If you go back further, the picture worsens. Bob Hawke's and Paul Keating's Labor governments did much damage to the ABC. Since the early 1990s, a cumulative total of $120 million has been cut from the ABC. Thirty-four per cent of ABC funding has been cut in 15 years. There were 300 ABC redundancies under former managing director Jonathan Shier, leaving a $37 million debt by the end of 2001. Highly paid managers were hired to replace those ousted, and the organisation today is paying for a failed government experiment in not-so-subtle political interference, which is itself continuing on other battlegrounds today. The real operational funding of the ABC has declined 23.2% from 1985's $613 million. Australian National University professor Glenn Withers has cited research showing the ABC is very efficient at what it does. It spends about $140,000 per employee, compared with $313,000 per employee at commercial networks. The cost of the ABC is less than half that of the average commercial network and it gets programs to air at half the price. Alston has offered up an idea [he] read about the other day. It was the US public broadcasters model, which uses telethons for funding. Alston told ABC Radio National he rejected any prospect of a licence fee levied on each television set, as done in Britain now and Australia before 1972. He said, Lets just assume the ABC has 20% [of the television] audience, and the bulk of that comes from one particular part of the demographic lets say they are middle-class viewers, right? That means that if everyones paying a licence fee, because everyones got a television set, it means lower-income people are actually subsidising or cross-subsidising middle-income people. Alston takes everyone for a fool if he thinks they will believe that by watching TV or listening to the radio you are subsidising the rich. He makes no mention of abolishing the real subsidies, like the GST, surely one of the biggest forms of welfare for the wealthy ever implemented in this country. Taxpayers already fund the broadcaster. But its the government of the day that decides how much. Clearly, governments find budget cuts the most effective weapon in their battles to turn the ABC into their voice. Now more than ever, the ABC needs better and wider sources of funding, while still remaining 100% in public hands. Ads on the ABC will threaten the independence of the network as much as government interference and budget cuts do. Allowing commercial interests to affect programming decisions, no matter how minor, will put the ABCs obligation to provide fair and balanced coverage for all Australians under threat. We are facing a situation, as exists on Channel 10, where the Commonwealth Bank presents the finance news. Ads for breakfast cereals and lollies between childrens TV shows may appear lucrative for the broadcaster, but are they in the best interests of the audience? Sponsorship, like that used at SBS, comes with strings attached. What guarantees will keep advertisers away from
LL:DDN: Chiapas Media Project in Australia Aug25-Sept24
Chiapas Media Project Alexandra Halkin, Video Producer/Founder and Director, of Chiapas Media Project will be visiting Australia from August 25 to September 24, 2003. Alexandra is an independent documentary video producer, who has been producing documentaries for the last 20 years. In March 1995 she made her first visit to Chiapas, Mexico, when hired to produce a documentary about a joint US-Mexican humanitarian aid caravan to a Zapatista region in the 'zone of conflict'. During this trip community members told Alexandra they had a great interest in having access to video and computer technology. In late 1997, the Chiapas Media Project (CMP) received its first grant from the US-Mexico Fund for Culture and held its first video workshop in Ejido Morelia in February 1998. In 2000, Alexandra co-Directed Defending the Forests: The Struggle of the Campesino Environmentalists of Guerrero with Oaxacan indigenous video maker, Carlos Efrain Perez. This was an integral part of an international campaign to free two imprisoned OCE members, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabreara and raise awareness of the deforestation of Guerrero's virgin forests. About the Chiapas Media Project The Chiapas Media Project (CMP) is a binational partnership that provides video equipment, computers and training, enabling marginalised indigenous communities in Southern Mexico to create their own media. Since 1998, CMP instructors have worked in close collaboration with autonomous Zapatista communities. Indigenous youth, with little formal education and often working without reliable electricity, have produced videos on agricultural collectives, fair trade organic coffee, autonomous education, traditional healing and the history of their struggle for land. Films You are invited to the screening of some of these amazing documentaries. Alexandra will introduce them with a brief history. She will also be available for questions after their screening. 1st Screening Indigenous Film Making in Mexico Tuesday 26 August 2003, at 6.30pm. The Chocolate Factory 144 Cleveland Street, Chippendale. Entry $5.00 2nd Screening Silence of the Zapatistas; Weavers Resistance; and The Sacred Land Thursday 28 August 2003, 6.30pm University of Technology, Broadway. Entry $5.00 3rd Screening Reclaiming Justice; Zapatas' Garden; and We Speak Against Injustice Monday 1 September 2003, at 6.30pm Valhalla Cinema, Glebe Entry $8.00 or $6.00 concession. Alexandra is looking forward to have these films shown at other venues. For more information, please email me, Marlene Obeid, at [EMAIL PROTECTED] , or phone me on 0401 758 871. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: A-US FTA: Sick and poor will lose out
From http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/549/ Australia-US FTA: Sick and poor will lose out BY ALISON DELLIT Playing Deputy Dawg to US President George Bush has its rewards, and the big bone that Prime Minister John Howard anticipates being tossed as a reward for sending Australian troops to Bush's war in Iraq is a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. Like all of Howards enthusiasms, however, this is a gift for big business not for the rest of us. [.. read on ..] WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION: EU-US trade war heating up BY EVA CHENG Bilateral trade conflicts between the world's two biggest economic blocs the US and the European Union are escalating, threatening to undermine their collective ability to screw the Third World, especially within the framework of the ongoing Doha Round of global trade talks under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). [.. read on ..] Both from Green Left Weekly, August 13, 2003. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page @ http://www.greenleft.org.au/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: Resistance Conference + Launch
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=33160group=webcast Resistance Conference + Launch: Building a united struggle for socialism by Resistance + Scottish Socialist Youth 6:22pm Wed Jul 9 '03 (Modified on 7:48pm Wed Jul 9 '03)article#33160address: PO Box 515, Broadway, NSW 2007, AUSTRALIA - phone: (+61 2) 9690 1230 or 9690 1977 [EMAIL PROTECTED] The conference will be launched on Thursday, 7pm, at the Gaelic Club with a feature talk by KEEF TOMKINSON, former national organiser of the SCOTTISH SOCIALIST YOUTH, the youth organisation of the recently so successful SSParty. Greetings will be given from ALVARO GUZMAN, director of Federation of BOLIVARIAN STUDENTS in VENEZUELA, and DANI BARLEY, ex-national organiser of SOLIDARITY, US. Also speaking and holding workshops at the 32nd Resistance National Conference will be WARATAH (ROSEMARIE GILLESPIE), recently returned human shield in Iraq, and founder of the Bougainville Freedom Movement who risked her life evading the military blockade via the Solomon Islands. Read on... Our World, Our Future: Globalise Resistance Thousands of young people took part in their first political action this year, protesting the war on Iraq. We didn't stop that war, the world is still full of injustice and we want to try to change that. We've got a lot to discuss and plan for, says Katherine Bradstreet, organiser of the 32nd Resistance national conference, which will be held at the Glebe Neighbourhood Centre here in Sydney on July 11-13, 2003, with the launch on July 10 at the Gaelic Club (see below). Get all the details, including the full conference agenda, and info on the accompanying art exhibition, from http://active.org.au/sydney/news/front.php3?article_id=2485group=webcast For even more information and to register online, go to http://www.Resistance.org.au/conf2003.shtml -- FRIDAY (day night) - CONFERENCE DEMONSTRATION AND PUBLIC MEETING: Asia Pacific Under Fire Waratah (Rosemarie Gillespie) will be holding workshops and speaking on her first-hand experience as a human shield during the assault (war) on Iraq at the Resistance Conference. Having been jailed in the Solomon Islands on her brave journeys into blockaded Bougainville, she will also feature a public meeting on Friday night, which will be co-organised by Action in Solidarity with Asia the Pacific (ASAP), and which is titled Asia Pacific Under Fire. All details and background information on Australia's decision to invade the Solomon Islands, as well as the call for a CONFERENCE DEMONSTRATION in SOLIDARITY WITH ACEH on Friday, 4.30pm, at Town Hall, can be found at http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=33145group=webcast -- THURSDAY NIGHT - CONFERENCE LAUNCH: Building a united struggle for socialism - the Scottish example Thursday, 10 July, 7:00pm @ Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire St, Surry Hills ( 30 seconds from Central Station pedestrian tunnel, eastern exit ) Featuring Keef Tomkinson (Scottish Socialist Youth) and other international socialist leaders. An interview with Keef - as well as his article about the recent union backing of the Scottish Socialist Party - can be found below [not in this copypaste mail] or in the latest Green Left Weekly @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2003/545/ SCOTLAND: SSY: giving voice to young socialists Keef Tomkinson is a member, and former national organiser, of the Scottish Socialist Youth, the youth organisation of the Scottish Socialist Party. He will be speaking in Sydney at the Resistance national conference, July 11-13 at the Glebe neighbourhood centre. Green Left Weekly's Chris Atkinson spoke to him about the success of socialists in Scotland. [..] Taking to the streets - the students ... by KATHERINE BRADSTREET for GLW 7:48pm Wed Jul 9 '03comment#33166address: PO Box 394, Broadway, Sydney, NSW 2007, AUSTRALIA - phone: Free Call in Oz (+61) 1800 634 206 - (+61 2) 9690 1230 - Fax: (+61 2) 9690 1381 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Taking to the streetsBY KATHERINE BRADSTREET SYDNEY Where were the students?, asked the June 20 Sydney Daily Telegraph, in an article by Rachel Morris bemoaning the small numbers of young people that attended the welcome home parade of troops who served in Afghanistan and in the Gulf. [..] also @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2003/545/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: [ASAP] No troops to Solomon Islands!
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [This is a sneak preview of the Green Left Weekly editoral for next week. There will also be an article on the background to the current crisis in the Solomones. Go to http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/ for more information.] No troops to Solomon Islands! On June 25, Prime Minister John Howard announced that the cabinet's National Security Committee had decided to send 1200 troops - 200 of the combat soldiers - and 300 Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers to the Solomon Islands for at least three months. It will be the largest Australian armed intervention in the South Pacific since World War II. Since 1998 there has been an often violent civil conflict in the Solomon Islands. This conflit is in large part due to a big rise of youth unemployment resulting from cuts in public spending implemented by the government at the behest of the International Monetary Fund in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial'' crisis. As unemployed young people returned to the countryside, pressure for scare land led to an explosion of ethnic tensions between indigenous Guadalcanalan youth and young people of Malaitan descent - their ancestors had been brought to Guadalcanal in the early years of the 20th century from the neighbouring island of Malaita to work as plantation labourers. The conflict led to violent clashes between rival ethnically based militias which disrupted the economy and government services such as health care and education. Government services and employment collapsed when Canberra cut off nearly all foreign aid, insisting that the Solomon Islands government continue to implement drastic cuts in the public service and social programs. Howard presented the decision to send in Australian troops on the grounds that the Solomon Islands was in danger of becoming a failed state and that, if Canberra did not act now, this could lead to challenges in the future of potential exploitation of that situation by international drug dealers, money launderers [and] international terrorism''. Thus Howard justified the Solomon Islands intervention with the same sort of argument he used to justify sending Australian troops to participate in the US-led war on Iraq - a hypothetical future threat to Australia's national security'' requires immediate pre-emptive military action. According to the June 26 Sydney Morning Herald, government officials claim the troop intervention is necessary to back up an AFP operation to disarm a violent militia hiding in remote jungle areas of the main island of Guadalcanal. It is no coincidence, however, that the biggest single Australian business investment in the Solomon Islands - the Gold Ridge gold mine - is located on Guadalcanal, and has not been operational since June 2000, when it was raided for its vehicles by one of the two main private militia groups on the island. This points toward the real reasons for Canberra's decision to militarily intervene in the Solomon Islands were spelt out in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Our Failing Neighbour report, launched on June 10 by foreign minister Alexander Downer: The collapse of Solomon Islands is depriving Australia of business and investment opportunities that, though not huge, are potentially valuable... Australia's interests are also engaged in other ways. In a subtle but important sense, state failure in the SouthwestPacific reflects badly on Australia... Australia's standing in the wider world - including with the United States - is therefore at stake.'' In other words, Australian troops are being sent to the Solomon Islands to protect Australian business interests and to demonstrate to Washington that Canberra can be a reliable deputy sheriff in the South Pacific. Howard described the intervention into the Solomon Islands as marking a significant change in Australia's regional policy''. In February, a foreign affairs department White Paper had ruled out such interventions. Australia cannot presume to fix the problems of the South Pacific countries'', it declared. Australia is not a neo-colonial power. The island countries are independent sovereign states.'' Now, Canberra has decided it will militarily intervene whenever the island states of the South Pacific fail'' to provide a secure environment for the exploitation of their people and natural resources by First World corporations. Australia's military intervention will do nothing to solve the root cause of the civil conflict in the Solomn Islands. If Canberra really wanted to help the people of the Solomon Islands, rather than send troops to enable Australian banks and businesses to continue exploiting them, it would provide the necessary financial assistance to enable them to restore public services and eliminate the islands' massive unemployment. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: Rally on American Independence Day (Fri, July 4)
[ please circulate - apologies for cross postings ] Rally on American Independence Day Demonstrate for: Independence for Iraq! End US occupation! - Troops out of Iraq! Stop the corporate looting! Free Palestine! Friday 4th July, 5.30pm Sydney Town Hall Bring candles and torches to remember the victims of war Endorsed by: Canterbury-Bankstown, Chippendale-Darlington, Marrickville Newtown Peace Groups, Anti-bases Coalition, Books not Bombs Coalition, Resistance, Sawiyan - Coalition for Palestine, Socialist Alliance The Greens NSW To add you endorsment, or obtain leaflets and posters, ph: Nick 0409 762 081, Rebecca 0407 990 272, Bashir 0413 859 060 or Raul 0403 373 376 JUSTICE FOR IRAQ AND PALESTINE! You should demonstrate on July 4 (American independence day) because: Iraq is under military occupation The US-led invasion of Iraq was a crime against humanity waged in defiance of world opinion. Thousands of Iraqi people were killed and injured. War has brought a US-British military occupation, not liberation. Since the fall of Baghdad, the US appointed administrations led by Jay Garner and Paul Bremmer have faced demonstrations throughout the country demanding that US troops leave and that the Iraqi people be able to elect their own representatives. Oil workers have protested to demand that members of the Baath Party reappointed by US officials, be sacked. The US, British and Australian governments must withdraw their troops now and pay reparations to be used by the Iraqi people to rebuild an independent Iraq. This was a war for oil and profits, not disarmament Bushs war drive to invade Iraq has been a grab for oil. Iraq has the worlds second largest oil reserves. A May 22 UN Security Council resolution places this oil wealth under the control of US and Britain. Billion-dollar oil and construction contracts have been given to the Halliburton and Bechtel corporations, both of which have close ties to the Bush administration. US Vice-President Dick Cheney is a former CEO of Halliburton, and continues to receive $1 million a year from the company. Bechtel's senior Vice-President Jack Sheehan, a retired Marine Corps general, sits on the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board and Bechtel board member George Shultz was the US Secretary of State under the Reagan administration immediately after retiring as director and president of the company. Meanwhile, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq the pretext used for going to war. Howards claim that Iraq held chemical and biological weapons capable of causing death and destruction on a mammoth scale has been proven to be a lie. Palestine too is under military occupation For 55 years, the people of Palestine have been dispossessed of their land by the US-backed Israeli defence forces and denied their right to self-determination. Since September 2000 the beginning of the second intifada - more than 2200 people have been killed and 20,000 injured by the Israeli army and paramilitary settlers. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza continue to suffer from strict military curfews and are subjected to arbitrary arrest and house demolitions. Bushs road map to peace, announced in the lead-up to the Anglo-US invasion of Iraq, will give no respite. Palestinians are being asked to give up the right of refugees to return, claims to their historic capital and accept as fact the imposition of illegal settlements and military roads on what is left of Palestine. In return they will get self-rule over townships in only 23% of historic Palestine. This Palestian state will have no control over water resources, foreign affairs and who can come into and out of their country. Peace can never be achieved in Palestine until the Israeli occupation ends and a viable, fully independent Palestinian state is established. The right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their homes must be recognised. July 4 is a global day of protest against the US colonial occupation of Iraq July 4 protests are being organised by anti-war coalitions in the United States, where thousands will march against Bush in Philadelphia, in Britain, targeting Bechtel corporation offices, and across New Zealand and Australia. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:URL: Sydney Social Forum: Please send us FEEDBACK
-Original Message- Sent: 6/26/2003 9:14:56 AM From: Vince Caughley Hi All, Just a note to say that you should encourage your contacts and friends, networks etc to send us some feedback via a new form at the SSF website. There's a link via main page, or you can go directly to: http://www.SydneySocialForum.org/feedback.html Incidentally, if you think there are questions we should be asking please let me know and I can update the form. Thanks. Vince -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: All the way with FTA?
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/541/ All the way with FTA? BY SEAN HEALY When they met over steaks and beer at the US president's Texas ranch, the discussion between John Howard and George Bush turned quickly to the Australian government's reward for participating in the Iraq war. And this, we are told, is it a free trade agreement (FTA) between the US and Australia which will further integrate Australia into the US economy, gut existing social and environmental policies and allow freer reign to giant US corporations. Some reward! Free trade, it's been said, is a salesperson's slogan. When you hear someone say free trade, you should ask What are they trying to sell me? Australia enters these negotiations with a very simple agenda secure concessions on the sale of agricultural products in the enormous US domestic market. Not only will this make economic sense to the government agriculture is still a major export earner. It will also make political sense the National Party hopes that some concessions will shore up its votes, presently leaking due to the economic crisis facing many farmers. Washington's demands will be more wide-ranging the shopping list includes items from a wider range of corporate sectors. Among the targets: the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The PBS, in place for 50 years, ensures Australians have access to subsidised medicines through the bulk purchase of drugs by the government. The US drug corporations have long considered the PBS a barrier to trade and are demanding it be overhauled. Fifteen companies have even formed a lobby group specifically for this purpose. Foreign Investment Review Board. The FIRB enforces requirements for minimum Australian ownership in some industries. US corporations want the removal of its powers to specify ownership limits in the media, telecommunications, airline and banking industries. Local content rules in film, television and music. The government regulates to ensure that a certain amount of content is of Australian origin, both to protect the domestic entertainment industry and to ensure that specifically Australian cultural forms can be disseminated. The US entertainment industry is keen on removing such barriers. Labelling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Australian law requires that any foodstuff containing GMOs must be clearly labelled as such, and restricts the growing of GM crops. US agribusiness, the world's largest user of GMOs, is lobbying hard for these restrictions to be scrapped. Quarantine rules. Australian laws on quarantine of food and other materials has traditionally been tough, to keep diseases which don't exist here out of the country. US companies claim that these quarantine laws are a means of restricting trade and are calling for them to be eased. Restrictions on the provision of public services. The FTA would allow US corporations to challenge government provision and regulation of services such as health, education and water, and lead to privatisation. This is the same agenda as the multilateral General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations currently proceeding in the World Trade Organisation, but in an even worse form. There is even the possibility that this FTA may include provisions giving private corporations the right to directly sue governments for the impacts of their policies on those companies' operations. This right is presently enshrined in the North American Free Trade Agreement, covering the US, Canada and Mexico, and has allowed, for example, the UPS parcel service to sue Canada for the fact that Canada Post has a monopoly on standard letter delivery. It has also allowed another US company (Metalclad) to successfully sue a Mexican city for refusing it permission to build a toxic waste dump. What is striking about comparing the two lists is how uneven they are concessions on agricultural exports in exchange for concessions on a wide range of social and environmental policies. Partly this is a product of the sheer unevenness of any bargaining between the US (population: 280 million) and Australia (population: 18 million). The Australian government's own report compares the size of the Australian economy to that of a medium sized state, roughly equivalent in GDP to that of Pennsylvania. But that doesn't explain why the Australian government is so keen on the deal if anything, Canberra has pushed it on Washington, not the reverse. It's especially inexplicable when much of the modelling of likely economic benefits is far from optimistic. The most recent government-commissioned report, from ACIL Consultants, was almost buried after it showed that, once unrealistic assumptions were removed, Australia would actually suffer small net losses from an FTA. Another report, by the CIE, found positive results but of still marginal size. So why the haste on the part
LL:DDQ: BRISBANE: Bougainville Appeal
I have arranged to have a final donation drop to be flown into Bougainville before the peacekeers pullout. I have till the 11th June 2003 to organise any donations to be sent in... items which we are seeking include: * Writing material (pens, paper, pencils, colouring pens/crayons/texters, sharpeners, erasers, etc) * Reading books * Learning books (atlas, dictionaries, thesaurus, spelling books, etc) * Subject texts (math's, science, computers, cooking, etc) * Board games, sporting equipment (skipping ropes, balls, etc) * School bags * Clothing * Raincoats, ponchos, hats * Footwear * Medicines, bandages, bandaids, first aid creams/solutions, etc * Spectacles * Sewing, crotchet, knitting, wool, toys, etc * Money - medical supplies Final Collection date: Wednesday 11th June 2003. Shipment date: 18/06/03 - from Townville All items, especially items for children will be very much appreciated. If you are able to support in anyway can you please contact - NICOLE SEETO - Brisbane Mob. 0407 608 794 Hm. 3345 6507 Wk. 3257 8545 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: (ABC) Baxter detainees go on strike
http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/sa/port/regport-4jun2003-2.htm Posted: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 13:48 ACST Baxter detainees go on strike Inmates at South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre have gone on strike. The Immigration Department has confirmed that a number of detainees from one compound are refusing to do any work. An Immigration spokeswoman says she does not know their reasons, but discussions are being held to address any concerns. She says Baxter's management is currently revamping its meaningful activities program, to create a system where all detainees are allowed to do voluntary work. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:URL: New LINKS magazine now online:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=323953group=webcast New LINKS magazine now online: Challenges in uniting the left by LINKS = LEFT = CONNECTIONS - 4:02pm Tue Jun 3 '03 - article#31812 address: PO Box 515, Broadway, NSW 2007, AUSTRALIA - phone: (+61 2) 9690 1230 - Fax: (+61 2) 9690 1381 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] LINKS No.23: January to April, 2003 - Introduction (summary of articles) and list of contents with all the LINKS... LINKS seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neo-liberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of actually existing socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. LINKS is published three times a year. The latest edition features a number of articles by socialist activists from around the world on the theme of Challenges in uniting the left. http://www.dsp.org.au/links/back/issue23/ Previous issues of LINKS have frequently discussed internationalism and internationals, or the question of how socialists should collaborate on an international scale. This issue is devoted to the closely related matter of left regroupment, or how socialists can collaborate at the national level. It discusses the challenges of left regroupment through concrete experiences in Australia, England, Scotland, France and Brazil. In Australia in 2002, the Socialist Alliance, grouping nearly all the far-left organisations, was able to overcome difficult electoral registration requirements in several states and attract as new members a significant number of activists who were not members of any of the component groups. In September, the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), the largest member organisation of the Alliance, proposed to spur the process of left regroupment by becoming an internal tendency within the Alliance and carrying out all its public political activity through the Socialist Alliance. In the following pages, we present two articles and two documents relating to the Socialist Alliance and the DSP's proposal. Peter Boyle's Steps toward greater left unity in Australia presents the background and rationale of the DSP proposal and the response to it within the Socialist Alliance and the Australian left more generally. What we proposed, Boyle stressed, was not an abandonment of Leninism but a tactic to build a bigger revolutionary vanguard in this country. The current political situation is creating new openings to collect a bigger revolutionary vanguard in Australia, and the proposal is a response to new conditions. Accompanying the article are the DSP's proposal, as contained in a letter to the Socialist Alliance National Executive, and a resolution on further steps adopted by the congress of the DSP in January 2003. John Percy, the National Secretary of the DSP, then examines the history of the party in order to extract some of the key lessons it has learned and which the DSP relied on in its proposal to strengthen the Socialist Alliance and the process of left regroupment. He concludes that our Leninist party perspective will still guide us, whether in the DSP, or as a Democratic Socialist Tendency, or as a strengthened Socialist Alliance party, or as a United Socialist Party. We have to be able to withstand bourgeois pressures, swim against the stream, to be critical and creative, but not reject the methodology and strengths that got us to where we are. Five other articles in this issue constitute a discussion about the forms and content of regroupment between members of the Socialist Workers Party and the International Socialist Movement in the Scottish Socialist Party. The first of these articles, by Murray Smith of the ISM, examines the evolution of the SWP's attitude to left regroupment, welcoming what he regards as important changes, but calling on the SWP to question some of its assumptions and deepen its analysis, on the Labour Party and above all on what kind of parties we need to build in the coming period. Alex Callinicos of the SWP then outlines his party's view of the question, situating it in an analysis of the rise of the anti-globalisation movement and the war drive of US imperialism. He debates the idea of the bourgeoisification of social democracy as used by Smith and the ISM, and argues that The future of left regroupment depends heavily on how well revolutionaries address [the] tricky task of know[ing] how to work with forces to their right without capitulating to them. Next, Nick McKerrell of the ISM takes issue with the SWP's use of the term united front in regards to
LL:DDN: September anti-WTO protests - initial brainstorming
From: Marina Carman [EMAIL PROTECTED] There is going to be an initial brainstorming session about the September protests against the WTO's Cancun meeting. Thursday, June 19, 6pm at the Reading Room, Holme building, University of Sydney. Please come along, and circulate this information to all relevant people and organisations. As far as I remember, initial international calls are for two days of action - one on Tuesday September 9 (WTO) another on Saturday September 13 (War and globalisation). But the idea is to get together and throw around ideas. Marina -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: FEATURE: Under Cover Police Pepper Sprays Student
http://sydney.indymedia.org/ STUDENT STRIKE- Apr 2 2003 Under Cover Police Pepper Sprays Student from the newswire (-- http://www.sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=28802group=webcast ) Undercover police sprayed a young protestor today and then fled the scene with Legal Observers hot on their heels demanding that they be detained or identify themselves as police. Uniformed police protected and eventually allowed the men to escape after legal observers and a team of citizens bailed them up in an innercity office block lift A Legal Observer witnessed what she described as an unprovoked pepper spraying incident during the Student protest today. Two men fled the area immediately afterwards followed by legal observers and camera people - one of the men wearing a Sony Music t-shirt [pictured] had allegedly opened fire with his pepper spray at close range downing a young student protestor. The men refused to identify themselves and were followed by Jennifer and other legal observers, myself and a video camera operator into an inner city office block. They then attempted to flee via a lift but the door was blocked by the team of citizens as they demanded the men either be arrested or identify themselves as police. The men refused to speak and were attempting to shut the door when a uniformed police officer cleared us from the lift door way and allowed the men to escape. My understanding is that this police officer confirmed (to another legal observer) that the two men were undercover police officers and that they had used the Pepper Spray on the student, claiming it to be reasonable force. One mainstream media report (-- http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=28849group=webcast ) describes a small outbreak that led to a splinter group of about 60 teenagers - many chanting their protests in Arabic - running amok through Sydney streets as they were pursued by police on foot and horseback. Protesters tried to damage shops as they charged through Darling Harbour before some were briefly surrounded by massed police after doubling back into the city. NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Dick Adams described the splinter group who broke away from the largely peaceful anti-war rally at Sydney's Town Hall as mostly young Middle Eastern males. However, another report on this episode presents a different picture with peer group restraint exercised by some students, but arrests still followed: We ran around in Darling Harbour then back through the city to Hyde Park and down into Surrey Hills. As you'd expect from teenagers it wasn't very organised, but generally the couple who wanted to trash stuff got turned around by others in the group and everyone just kept running away from the cops, who kept chasing them. The arrests started as the group spread out in Surrey Hills. I saw four arrests around Chapel Lane, plus one girl loaded into the paddy wagons who'd been arrested out of my sight. Read More of this Report. (-- http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=28822group=webcast ) Protest Images (-- http://www.moz.net.nz/photos/2003-04-02-student-rally/ ) [ Read More And Discuss | Books Not Bombs Report | Legal Observers Report (-- http://www.sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=28808group=webcast ) ] .. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: EAST TIMOR: President urges Australia to allow refugees
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/asiapac/programs/s817219.htm EAST TIMOR: President urges Australia to allow refugees to stay East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has made a personal appeal to Australia's Prime Minister John Howard on behalf of almost 2,000 East Timorese refugees living in Australia. Most fled East Timor at the time of the Santa Cruz massacre in Dili in 1991 and have established lives in Australia. But Australia no longer regards them as legitimate asylum seekers and insists they return home now that East Timor is independent. President Gusmao says the government's attitude lacks compassion. 26/3/2003 [ listen | audio help ] Presenter/Interviewer: Karon Snowdon Speakers: East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao; Australia's Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock SNOWDON: President Xanana Gusmao, on what he calls a personal visit to Australia, nevertheless had a message for the Prime Minister John Howard during a speech he gave in Sydney. GUSMAO: I appeal to the sensibility of the Australian authorities, in particular to the Prime Minister of the difficult problem of East Timor and East Timorese in Australia. I believe there is a need to consider a new status for them with a possibility of being allowed to a welcomed stay in Australia. One thousand and 6-hundred Timorese living in Australia will not incur great hardship on the Australia economy. SNOWDON: Sixteen hundred East Timorese living in Australia, having fled Indonesian and militia violence, have been told they must return home now that East Timor is independent and safe. Many have been in Australia for ten years or more, some have married, some were even born here. Most feel they have more links in Australia than in East Timor and significant community support is behind them, and as Xanana Gusmao points out, East Timor, where almost half the people live on one Australian dollar a day, is not at a stage of economic development to offer them jobs, welfare or even housing. GUSMAO: These 1,600 Timorese will merely constitute another 1,600 mouths to be fed. Dozens of more families that we are unable to shelter. SNOWDON: Following Australia's tougher stance generally on asylum seekers, the government doesn't want to offer special visas which might be taken advantage of - either by undeserving East Timorese or the 13,000 unlawful asylum seekers it says are in the country. Earlier this week, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock conceded however, there might be cases where he could use his discretion to allow some to stay. RUDDOCK: If you have a person who has substantial links with Australia, and particularly an Australian citizen or permanent resident and that might be in a spouse relationship, and in particularly if there are children of that relationship and the children would be Australian citizens, I think cases of that sort will be very compelling. SNOWDON: The minister's office today added those with well founded fears of persecution would also have their applications considered on a case by case basis, and an official representation from President Gusmao would also be considered. President Gusmao says the Australian government's tough line lacks compassion. He wants all the 1,600 to stay at least temporarily, until East Timor gets on its feet economically - and that's unlikely to be be soon. But his country's own immigration policy is coming in for flack itself. The draft law is currently before parliament and foreigners working for non-governmment organisations claim the proposed law has draconian provisions aimed at them. Among them, foreigners would be banned from any political activity - a vague, catch-all provision which could be read as marching in an anti-war demonstration in Dili. East Timor has benefited from the support of many Australians and other foreigners during the hard times and even now and some are feeling unappreciated. Xanana Gusmao says he's yet to see the draft bill and its not necessarily going to get his automatic stamp of approval. GUSMAO: I believe that we can talk more about this. We are beginning and I believe what you raise will be a matter for public debate. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DD: special marxist lecture tour: Behind the web of war
http://www.sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=28597group=webcast HUMPHREY McQUEEN special marxist lecture tour: Behind the web of war -- by www.Socialist-Alliance.org 2:46pm Sun Mar 30 '03 article#28597 [EMAIL PROTECTED] [ tour leaflet incl. photo ] SOCIALIST ALLIANCE proudly presents HUMPHREY McQUEEN, Australia's most eminent Marxist historian and commentator Capitalism, imperialism, globalisation: Behind the web of war --- FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS NOW Humphrey McQueen has been interpreting Australian society and economy from a radical Marxist standpoint. From his groundbreaking 1970 essay A New Britannia through to his most recent work The Essence of Capitalism McQueen has consistently exposed the cherished myths of capitalist civilisation in Australia and the world. Is the world being plunged into the horrors of war simply because a clique of militaristic madmen has gained control of the White House? Or does the threat of permanent war have deeper roots? In this special lecture tour for Socialist Alliance McQueen lays bare the economic and political essence of the globalised world in which we live. You can't afford to miss McQueen's lively and illuminating analysis of why this world of wars and social and ecological crisis is the way it is. Tour meetings 24 March Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 25 March La Trobe University + University of Melbourne 26 March Overland Public Lecture 27 March Deakin University (Geelong) 31 March Australian National University 1 April University of Wollongong 2 April University of Sydney 3 April Macquarie University 4 April University of Western Sydney (Werrington) + Sydney public lecture (Theme: The war on workers, SEE BELOW *) 8 April Newcastle University 9 April University of Queensland 10 April Griffith University + Brisbane public lecture (Theme: The war on work) 11 April Queensland University of Technology (Carsledine) --(*) The War on Workers: Globalisation and the exploitation of workers Australia's most eminent Marxist historian and commentator, HUMPHREY McQUEEN, lays bare the economic and political essence of the globalised world we live in. FRIDAY, APRIL 4 6.30pm Room 33, Trades Hall 4 Goulburn St, city Entry by gold coin donation. All welcome. -- For more information: phone: (02) 9690 1977 or (02) 9687 5134 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.Socialist-Alliance.org/ (PO Box A2323, Sydney South 1235, AUSTRALIA) -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:PR: Australian five Human Peace Shields in Iraq
http://www.active.org.au/sydney/news/front.php3?article_id=2255group=webcast Australian five Human Peace Shields by Maria Pilar 6:51am Wed Mar 19 '03 article#2255 address: Sydney, Australia phone: 02 9799 4591 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Australian five Human Peace Shields in Iraq last words before they get bombed! May Honor and Peace be with you all... MEDIA RELEASE WE WILL STICK IT OUT. WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED - THE AUSTRALIAN FIVE Baghdad, 18th March 2003: The five Australian Human Shields based in Baghdad are not intimidated by Bush's threats to bomb Iraq. All five are determined to remain in solidarity with the Iraqi civilians who will suffer greatly from the planned invasion of Iraq The Five Australians Human Shields in Iraq are: Ruth Russell, from Adelaide, and Donna Mulhearn, from Newcastle, both of whom are at the Taije Food Silo, phone 885 2846-7. Osama Al-Shaban, an Australian citizen who lives and works in North Queensland, who is at the Daura Oil Refinery, telephone 7750300, extension 4337 Patricia Moynihan, from Melbourne, and Rosemarie Gillespie (Waratah), both of whom are at the April 7th Water Treatment Plant, phone 443 6039. All these sites are in Baghdad. RUTH RUSSELL: Ruth is at the food silo site and staying there. The food storage site is on the other side of the Tigris River from the Palestinian Hotel where the Human Shields Office is. Ruth will be stopped from coming into the Human Shields office if American, British or Australian bombers destroy the bridges across the River. Her Statement is in the form of an open letter to the Prime Miniature of Australia OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER, JOHN HOWARD MOMENT OF NATIONAL SHAME FOR AUSTRALIANS Once again, Australia is being shamed as a nation which no longer believes in international law, human dignity and peace. Even yesterday, the UN Weapons Inspectors said that Iraq was compliant. There has never been a convincing argument for military intervention. I have come to Iraq as a human shield in deep despair and frustration that alternative non-violent resolutions were never ever considered by you. The question I am constantly asked here in Baghdad is We thought Australia was our friend - so why are they doing this? There is no possible answer that I can give. I believe now that the big question for Australians at home is - How can we change our Constitution so that we have a Prime Minister who must listen to the - * legal profession who say that this war is illegal ie.outside international law * medical profession, church leaders and humanitarian groups who say this will be a humanitarian disaster on a massive scale * Anzac heroes and Vietnam veterans who say that the trauma of war lasts a lifetime * The people of Australia who say this war and any future war is unacceptable behaviour for a civilised society to engage in. I am a mother who has come here to be a human shield protecting a UN classified humanitarian site, the Taji Food Silo, North Bagdad, where much of the Australian wheat is stored and distributed to feed 5 million people. If I am killed, then this will highlight the killing of innocent civilians. My children will lose their Mother as will thousands of other Iraqi families lose their fathers, husbands, mothers and children. We refuse to be called collateral damage This is the ultimate insult and what this new type of militarism means that the people of the world are so opposed to. As Australians we know that schoolyard bullying, domestic violence and murder in our community is illegal and totally unacceptable. How can it be acceptable then for Australians to kill strangers in a foreign land??? Make no mistake this war will be armchair killing of innocent people. I feel very sorry for the Australian servicemen and their families as they are placed in a very unenviable position- now being asked to do something which is dishonourable. NOT IN MY NAME will such an act of extreme violence be done. Ruth Russell 17 March 2003 OSAMA AL-SHABAN: My name is Osama Al-Shaban; I am 49 years old. I am an Australian citizen living and working in North Queensland. I have a Diploma of Engineering. For the last five years I have been working for Tableland Concrete Blocks in Mareeba. I love my job and the people I work with. I was born in Baghdad. I came to Baghdad, the city of knowledge, as a Human Shield, to stand side by side with the Iraqi people against the war. I know this war is an unjustified war. Our mission is a peaceful mission based on truth, justice and peace. The majority of the Iraqi people want peace. The majority of Australians want peace. I would like to thank the Australian people and the rest of the world for their solidarity and support for our peace mission. I would like to send a message to the United Nations, to do their best to prevent the war from happening, and to apply the Security Council resolutions about Palestine as rigorously as it has applied the resolutions
LL:DDN: M26 = NEXT STUDENT STRIKE AGAINST THE WAR
[ includes Poster ] http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=27556group=webcast M26 = NEXT STUDENT STRIKE AGAINST THE WAR (Wed, March 26) by Books Not Bombs Coalition - 5:44pm Sat Mar 15 '03 - article#27556 phone: Simon 0405 733 768 - Caroline 0414 506 283 - Jarvis 0404 015 789 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- High school students meet 1pm Town Hall, Sydney -+ Uni/TAFE students meet 12 noon on your campus ! -- United rally 2pm Hyde Park Nth, followed by a march around the city to finish back at Hyde Park Walkout of class to demand: * No war on Iraq! * Bring the troops home! * Books not bombs! (article 1) Details for your city are linked in the ACTIVIST CALENDAR section of http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/current/ (Adelaide, Brisbane S-E Queensland, Canberra, Central Queensland, Darwin, Geelong, Hobart, Launceston, Lismore NSW North Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth Fremantle, Sydney, Western Sydney Blue Mountains, Wollongong NSW South Coast) or see contact details below... This protest comes after the last student strike against war, at which 10,000 people in Sydney and 30,000 nationally attended, most being high school students. This next protest should be even bigger, building on the success of the last strike and involving more campus students now that universities have been back for a couple of weeks, but we need everyone to help get the word out - help stick up posters, leaflets, announce it in your classes, forward this email to others, get the word out! Anyone against the war can come - you don't have to be a student! Organised by the Books Not Bombs Coalition and enthusiastically supported by the rallies held on March 5, students will again be walking out of their class rooms and lecture theatres in protest of Bush's and HoWARd's unjust war for oil. - When the government is preparing to wage a bloody war on the people of Iraq, which will result in the deaths of hundrets of thousands innocent Iraqi people... - When Australian corporate war-profiteers - like QANTAS, BHP, and Dunlop - are set to make record profits from this slaughter... - When the government prioritises military spending while launching another savage attack on higher education funding... ... from http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2003/529/ What comes next? BY EMMA CLANCY The Books Not Bombs Coalition was launched around the country on March 5, with thousands of its newsletters being distributed and meetings being held afterwards in some cities. Many high school activists and groups came into contact with the Books Not Bombs Coalition at the strike, and now have the framework in which to build the next strike on March 26. Campus activists now have to catch up with the scale of organising on high schools, and consolidate links between different sorts of students. In Sydney, following the strike, the Sydney University anti-war collective Students Against War voted to merge with the Books Not Bombs Coalition, in order to form a larger, stronger youth movement against the war. This process will hopefully continue all around the country as a result of the success of the March 5 strike. Already, the National Union of Students is supporting and actively building the March 26 student strike, along with university anti-war collectives, which have really only just begun to function properly because campus was still on summer break in the lead-up to March 5. The success of March 5 - the inspiration it has provided to both high school and campus activists, the opportunities it has provided for the Books Not Bombs Coalition to grow larger and stronger and the support it has received from broader sections of society - guarantees that the next student strike will be an even bigger success. Students aim to involve many more in the March 26 strike, including their teachers, parents and other anti-war activists and we are especially eager to be joined in the strike by trade union members. -- The beginning of an international youth movement BY ALISON DELLIT The stunning success of the March 5 student strike for peace, which mobilised a whopping 30,000 mostly high school students, took even the corporate media by surprise. Although mixed, much of the coverage was favourable. Even the rabidly pro-war Murdoch-owned Australian ran a headline on March 6 that said Gutsy students repeat protest history. Sydney protest chairperson Lauren Carroll Harris, a high school activist in Resistance, had a 700-word piece printed in the Fairfax-owned Sydney Morning Herald on March 7. In it, she was able to put the case of the protesting students. Describing March 5 as an the beginning of an international youth movement against war on Iraq, Carroll Harris argued that money that will be spent on the military would be better spent on upgrading educational facilities, public housing and hospitals. Calling the mood of the protests passionate, exuberant, political and angry, she
LL:PR: Block supply! Let the people vote on war!
http://www.sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=27327group=webcast (SA) Block supply! Let the people vote on war! by www.Socialist-Alliance.org 8:55pm Fri Mar 7 '03 article#27327 address: PO Box A2323, Sydney South 1235, AUSTRALIA - phone: Dick Nichols 0418 281 424, Riki Lane 0400 877 819, David Glanz 0418 316 310 [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Socialist Alliance today called on Green, Democrat and ALP senators to block supply when treasurer Peter Costello brings the federal budget down in May. [MEDIA RELEASE - 3 March 2003] Alliance National Co-convener Dick Nichols said: John Howard has rejected putting Australian involvement in a war on Iraq to referendum - he knows the vast majority of Australians would vote against this unjust and criminal war. That's why Howard must be forced to go the polls. The people have a right to decide on war - the most important issue a country ever has to face. Nichols stressed that the Greens, Democrats and the ALP had a duty to vote down the federal budget in the Senate. He said: The opposition parties in the Senate have the power to make Howard face the people: if they don't take this opportunity to force the prime minister to the polls they will be failing in their responsibility to the majority that wants nothing to do with a war on Iraq - with or without UN support. To the argument that the budget has nothing to do with the looming war on Iraq National Co-convener David Glanz said: Costello himself has already flagged that this will be a 'tough budget'. The increase in 'defence' expenditure to fund Australia's biggest military adventure since Vietnam will come out of funding for health, education and welfare. Maternity leave has already been axed. More guns, less butter: that's this budget in a nutshell, Glanz stressed. National Co-convener Riki Lane said that the Alliance would be making use of every possible opening to pressure the Senate opposition parties to block supply. Alliance members in the trade unions will not only be pressing for union action - including strikes - against the war, he said, they'll also be calling on unions affiliated to the ALP to pressure Labor senators to block supply. Nichols concluded that the Alliance's campaign to compel the opposition parties to block supply would begin immediately and follow on the campaign of the NSW Socialist Alliance to encourage NSW voters write No War on their ballot papers at the March 22 NSW elections. http://www.Socialist-Alliance.org/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:PR: Report condemns police actions at WTO protests
Report from press conference, run as feature @ http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=26562group=webcast -- http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=27304group=webcast Report condemns police actions at WTO protests by DALE MILLS 3:37pm Fri Mar 7 '03 article#27304 address: UTS Community Law and Legal Research Centre, PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007 phone: (02) 9514 2914 - fax: (02) 9514 2919 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SYDNEY - A report criticising police behaviour at the November protests at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Sydney mini-summit was released by the Legal Observers Team, based at the University of Technology Sydney, on February 25. A press conference, held at Parliament House to release the report, was attended by Greens NSW MLC Lee Rhiannon and Gavin Sullivan from the UTS Community Legal Centre. The report supports allegations of unreasonable and excessive force by police during arrests, unlawful denial of bail, unlawful detention, unnecessary strip searches and injuries created by the use of police horses. Almost all the protesters arrested and charged with offences have pleaded not guilty and cases are still continuing. Civil action against the police for compensation is being considered. Of special interest is what the report calls pre-policing. This is the use of the media as part of an orchestrated campaign to discredit protesters and as an attempt to justify police violence against protesters in advance of the protest. In the case of the anti-WTO protests, this was shown by NSW police minister Michael Costa when he publicly calling for the banning of the Indymedia web sites based in Sydney and Melbourne. Indymedia encourages non-commercial reporting of current events and advertised the protests. The sites were referred to as encouraging violence, mayhem and anarchy. However, an independent investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Authority concluded that the sites did not breach any laws or government regulations. Further attempts at pre-crime occurred when media outlets referred to the demonstrations as being banned or deemed illegal, based on the fact that the police had not issued a march permit. Based upon the law and court decisions, the report concludes that protesters have a right to peacefully demonstrate, regardless of whether or not the police have issued a permit for a demonstration. Indeed, the word permit does not exist in the Summary Offences Act, the relevant piece of legislation governing demonstrations in NSW. The report examines the use of police horses at demonstrations and recommends an end to their use. At the anti-WTO protests, numerous protesters were injured, some severely, by being trampled on by police horses. The report expresses concern at the arbitrary use of strip searches of arrested protesters, the only purpose of which was to humiliate detainees. The strip-search becomes, in effect, an extra-judicial punishment for protesting. The research in the report, as well as the collection of evidence, was carried out by 40 lawyers and law students from around Australia. The full text of the report can be found at http://www.utscommunitylaw.org/ . [Dale Mills is a member of the Socialist Alliance and a volunteer with the Legal Observers Project.] From Green Left Weekly, March 5, 2003. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: 30,000+ student strike against war in Australia
http://www.BooksNotBombs.org.au/m5_updates.htm + + http://www.active.org.au/sydney/news/front.php3?article_id=2196group=webcast 30,000+ student strike against war in Australia by BooksNotBombs Coalition 11:01pm Wed Mar 5 '03 article#2196 phone: Resistance National Office: (+61)(02) 9690 1230 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.BooksNotBombs.org.au/m5_updates.htm Reports from the protests are still being collected. If you would like to write about the action in your city email it to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . The initial updates will be placed here [see website above] by tommorrow (6-3-03). In the meantime, the initial numbers from around the country are 10,000 in Sydney; 7,000 in Adelaide; 7,000 in Melbourne; 2,000 in Perth; 1,000 in Brisbane; 1,000 in Geelong; 600 in Hobart; 300 in Launceston; 500 in Canberra; 200 in Ballarat; 300 in Newcastle; 350 in Wollongong; even 40 students came out to protest in Darwin! [ Even the mainstream media confirm the unexpected huge turnout :] ABC Online: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 17:43 AEDT Thousands of students rally in anti-war protests Thousands of high school students have abandoned school today to take to the streets to protest against any war against Iraq. The biggest crowd was in Sydney, but thousands have also turned around Australia. At the peak of the march, about 10,000 students walked through Sydney's CBD, forcing traffic to a standstill. Police estimate 7,000 turned out in Adelaide, 1,000 in Canberra and hundreds in Perth, Hobart and Brisbane. All are determined to have their say. We have to get rid of Saddam some way, but war is not the answer, one student said. We're the youth of Australia - basically it's going to be our country, we're going to inherit it, so we're here to say what we want and we don't want war, another said. About 3,000 people rallied in Melbourne, including Iraqi refugee, Maryan Altabeli. Doesn't anyone care about the rights of Iraqi children - I do and so should we all, Ms Altabeli said. Meanwhile, Sydney police are criticising protest organisers of today's student protest for not following the agreed route, with three people arrested. Chief inspector Robert Sutton from Sydney City central police described the protest as rowdy but says he is more disappointed with the organisers than the protesters. They, for whatever reason, left an hour early, they didn't follow the route agreed to by police and they went to a different location, Inspector Sutton said. http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=27087group=webcast Student protests make international news by Libeation 7:34pm Wed Mar 5 '03 (Modified on 8:15pm Wed Mar 5 '03) article#27087 Student protests in Australia have made the international news wires, including left-wing French newspaper, Libération. http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=93329Template=GALERIEObjet=6897 COMMENTS photos by snappy 8:15pm Wed Mar 5 '03 comment#27089 can someone please post more photos of today's protest! i missed it.. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:ART: many school students to rally against invasion
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/27/1046064168755.html Sydney Morning Herald - February 28 2003 Truants or not, many school students to rally against invasion By Gerard Noonan and Linda Doherty Students in NSW schools are being encouraged to express their feelings about war but those taking part in an anti-war demonstration next Wednesday without parental permission will be regarded as truants, school authorities say. The Department of Education is telling principals that students will not be given permission to attend an anti-war lunchtime rally organised by students from the University of Technology, Sydney. Catholic students face the same curbs. Students who decide to attend a rally do so as individuals, guided by their own conscience; they will also need parental permission, said the head of Sydney's Catholic Education Office, Brother Kelvin Canavan. Principals interviewed by the Herald reported growing levels of stress among students, with anti-war petitions, passionate speeches at school assemblies and discussions in classes. At St Ignatius College, Riverview, the three school captains have written a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister, calling for a withdrawal of Australian troops from the Persian Gulf and for a non-military solution. Tom van Beek, Sean Williams and Justin Fleming told Mr Howard a poll of 574 students at the Catholic high school showed 75 per cent were against Australian military participation in Iraq, regardless of the United Nations' position. The Riverside Girls High School captain, Nadya Marokakis, and its vice-captain, Elizabeth Garlan, led 25 fellow students in their school uniforms to the peace rally in Hyde Park on February 16. The 17-year-olds have addressed their school assembly and made banners arguing for peace. This is the first war these students have faced but many have studied the Vietnam and Gulf wars and feel frustrated, more than anything else, Miss Garlan said. Learning about the experience of war and the mistakes made, to see history repeating itself is frustrating for us. We're the next generation and they're messing with our future. Riverside's principal, Judy King, wondered whether educational authorities realised quite how deeply feelings were running and how aware most students were. The principal of St Raphael's primary in South Hurstville, Felicity Giles, said the pupils there had a heightened awareness and sense of unease. At midday each day we down tools right across the school and say a prayer for peace - it might be a Muslim prayer or a Bahai or Hindu or Jewish prayer, not only a prayer from the Christian Catholic tradition. They need to feel that it's the world that seeks peace. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: Does Free Trade make you sick?
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 00:48:32 + From: Zanny Begg [EMAIL PROTECTED] [ Action on March 20 - please forward it to all the lists you are on ] Does Free Trade make you sick? Right now the US and Australian governments are negotiating the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) aimed at removing barriers to trade between the two countries. On the negotiating table is the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) which is regarded by the US Drug Companies as a barrier to them competing in the Australian market. The upshot of this for all of us could be a huge rise in the cost of essential medicins. The Australian government is also supporting measures in the WTO which make it harder for people in developing countries to access medicines for epidemics such HIV/AIDS. Access to healthcare - it's to die for. Join Global Justice Sydney for a protest against those who make a killing out of free trade. - Briefing on implications of the FTA: March 13, 6.30pm @ UTS Tower on Broadway (follow the signs), all welcome. - Protest: March 20, 4-6pm @ DFAT, Angel Place, 123 Pitt St, City - Angel Pl is just 50m from Martin Place, off Pitt St (before the Axis of Hope meeting that night - see http://www.sydneysocialforum.org/AxisOfHope/ ). [ DFAT = Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] - For a briefing paper on free trade and health email [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:DDN: CHANGED Venue for GLOBAL JUSTICE SYDNEY Forum
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=26325group=webcast (Thursday, F20) GLOBAL JUSTICE SYDNEY Forum: Struggles against Free Trade by GLOBAL JUSTICE SYDNEY 7:04pm Sun Feb 16 '03 article#26325 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://GlobalJustice.cat.org.au/ phone: Marina: 0414 788 852 - Vince: 0438 800 244 Struggles against Free Trade - How we can bring the world-wide campaign to Australia - inspiring examples from around the world - discussion of new campaigns planned in Sydney [ GJS LOGO + Forum Flyer .jpg ] On Thursday, 20th February, 6.30pm at Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire St, Surry Hills (Eastern Entrance of Central station ped tunnel) Speakers include: campaigners and recent returnees from the World Social Forum, Asian Social Forum and European Social Forum (John Hepburn, Kate Walsh, Sean Healy and M...ore;) Come along to share info and ideas for action. Topics to be covered include: - international protest plans for the WTO meeting in Cancun in September, - the Australia/US Free Trade Agreement, campaigns against GATS, - the world-wide campaign against corporate globalisation and war, - and how we can bring this all home to Sydney. Organised by GLOBAL JUSTICE SYDNEY, a new group which is in the process of being formed. It aims to promote and organise grass roots activism around trade and broader global justice issues. All individuals and groups interested in being involved should subscribe to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] . For more information phone Marina on 0414 788 852 or Vince on 0438 800 244 or checkout http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GlobalJusticeSydney/ http://GlobalJustice.cat.org.au/ Also coming up: AN AXIS OF HOPE - a of three public forums As we are confronted with the stark realities of a world defined by profit and war the challenge we face is to inspire hope for an alternate world. This series of three public forums, hosted by the Research Initiative on International Activism and the Sydney Social Forum will centre around three themes - Human Rights, the Environment and Peace - and help create an 'axis of hope' for another, better world. Each from 6.00-8.30pm at the Great Hall, UTS Tower, Broadway. Entry by donation, Disabled Access. HUMAN RIGHTS - Monday, 10 March Nurdin Abdul Rahman, Olga Havnen, Carmen Lawrence Supported by AidWatch + Indonesia Solidarity ENVIRONMENT - Thursday, 20 March Jacqui Katona, Anuradha Mittal, Helena Norberg-Hodge Supported by Greenpeace (Australia-Pacific) + Mineral Policy Institute PEACE - Monday, 24 March William Blum, Karen Flick, Maree O'Halloran, Tom Uren Supported by Labor Council of NSW + Walk Against War Coalition CONTACTs: Research Initiative on International Activism http://www.international.activism.uts.edu.au/ (click on 'new') Sydney Social Forum http://www.SydneySocialForum.org/ James 9514 2714, Vince 0438 800 244 STALL SPACE AVAILABLE If your union, community or activist group would like to have an information stall at any of the 'Axis' meetings, let us know. Send an email with your details to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . SPEAKER DETAILS William Blum: anti-war journalist from the USA with ZNet; author of Rogue State, a mini-encyclopaedia of US intervention around the world, Killing Hope and West-Bloc Dissident. Karen Flick: a community activist who has campaigned against Black Deaths in Custody, and is currently engaged in establishing training and development programs with Aboriginal communities. Olga Havnen: of Western Arrernte descent, from Tennant Creek, has a longstanding involvement in international human rights and Indigenous rights issues, including the National Indigenous Working Group, the Central Land Council, the Fred Hollows Foundation. Jacqui Katona: member of the Djok Aboriginal clan, former executive officer of the Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation which campaigned against the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine. Dr Carmen Lawrence: ALP MP, federal Member for Fremantle, former Shadow Minister and prominent critic of the Government's policy of mandatory detention for refugees. Anuradha Mittal: with 'Food First', campaigning for global food security. Originally from India, Anuradha is heavily involved in the global movement against Genetically-Engineered food. Helena Norberg-Hodge: from Sweden, heads the International Society for Ecology and Culture, is co-founder of the International Forum on Globalisation and the Global Eco-village Network. Maree O'Halloran: President of the NSW Teachers Federation, with a teaching career spanning city and country schools; in 2002 the Federation unanimously opposed the War on Iraq, calling for an end to sanctions on non-military assistance. Nurdin Abdul Rahman: twice imprisoned Human Rights advocate and academic from Aceh, Indonesia, with the Aceh-based organisation, 'Rehabilitation Action for Torture Victims'. Tom Uren: former federal ALP Member for Reid; Minister in the Whitlam and Hawke Governments; an active member of the left wing of
LL:PR: NSW voters urged to write No war on ballot papers
- NSW Socialist Alliance Media release from Tuesday, 18th February: - NSW voters urged to write No war on March 22 ballot papers The Socialist Alliance today called on all opponents of the United States-led war on Iraq to turn the NSW state election into a referendum on the war by writing No war on their ballot papers on March 22. If the Howard government won't consult the people by holding a nationwide referendum on the war, then the people will organise their own referendum, said Lisa Macdonald, Socialist Alliance's lead candidate for the Legislative Council in the NSW election. We are calling on all political parties, NSW election candidates, trade unions and community organisations who oppose the war to encourage voters - the majority of whom now oppose this war - to have their say on March 22. Last weekend, a million people around Australia - half a million in NSW - rallied and marched to say 'No' to the war on Iraq, but neither PM John Howard nor Premier Bob Carr appear to be listening. In the best of democratic traditions, we will make them listen - both at the ballot box and by continuing to march in the streets, strike at our schools and workplaces, and organise in our neighbourhoods, Macdonald said. NSW electoral law allows voters to write whatever they wish on their ballot paper without affecting the validity of the vote they cast. As well as voting for Socialist Alliance and the Greens, the two consistently anti-war parties contesting the NSW election, writing 'No war' on both upper and lower house ballot papers is the best possible use we can all make of our vote on March 22, Macdonald said. Whoever wins government in the NSW election, they will have been given a clear mandate to take action to stop this unjust war. For further comment, phone Lisa Macdonald on 0413 031 108 or e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.Socialist-Alliance.org/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Scores arrested in refugee protest [in Sydney]
[ A similar article ran even in the local Sydney Morning Herald, which usually never reports local protests of that size :-] http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,5951711%255E421,00.html Scores arrested in refugee protest February 07, 2003 BETWEEN 25 and 30 people have been arrested as demonstrators, protesting against the federal government's mandatory detention of asylum seekers, clashed with police in Sydney tonight. About 150 protesters and dozens of police were locked in a rugby-style maul for an hour outside the venue for a Liberal Party fund-raising event in the Cockle Bay nightlife precinct. As protesters chanted Lock up Ruddock, free the refugees, several guests at the Liberal Party function, at which Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock was to be guest of honour, began a rival chant of Philip Ruddock, we love you. The protest turned ugly when police moved in along a narrow terrace and attempted to move the protesters back downstairs from the second-floor venue. Tempers became frayed as demonstrators were locked face-to-face with police, whom they initially outnumbered 10-to-one. The protesters then attempted to steamroll the police line backwards, resulting in a number of confrontations and arrests, including at least five women. Many of the demonstrators sported placards that depicted the Immigration Minister branded with a Nazi swastika. As dozens more police arrived, they drove the protesters back along the terrace, often breaking the frontline of the demonstration by hauling someone forward and bundling them down a nearby set of escalators. Hundreds of Friday night revellers were in the area when the protest began at about 6pm. One of the protest organisers, Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC), was among those detained by police. As he was waiting to be processed at Surry Hills police station, he told AAP that he believed the protest was a success. There's nothing to celebrate, he said of the Liberal Party function's theme. We have made it quite clear to Philip Ruddock what his policies represent. Earlier, another RAC spokesman, Mark Goudkamp, said the minister has presided over a time of fear and abject misery for thousands of innocent people who have come legally to our country seeking refuge from persecution in their homeland. The protesters had largely retreated from the restaurant complex by 8pm, although police maintained a heavy presence at all entrances and exits. Mr Ruddock, and NSW opposition leader John Brogden, who protesters said would also be attending the function, were yet to arrive at Cockle Bay. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: (GLW) The power of our 'alliance of the unwilling'
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/523/ The power of our 'alliance of the unwilling' BY PIP HINMAN US President George Bush's alliance of the willing to attack Iraq is looking pretty thin: the governments of Britain's Tony Blair and John Howard don't make up for Washington's general lack of allies. Now, with Howard's popularity in decline and the polls showing just 6% of the population would support a war without UN backing, even the prime minister's rhetoric seems to be changing. He told the ABC's 7.30 Report on January 23 that he was in favour of the UN security council meeting before any decision was made about a war on Iraq. Slowly, Howard is shifting in response to the widespread opposition to the war. The leaders of France and Germany have had to; there, public opinion has been strongly against this war for some time. Germanys Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder won an election on the strength of his anti-war stand. French President Jacques Chirac is also under pressure, and the two can see the advantages of using a deeply unpopular war to bolster their bid to lead the European Union. But while Howard has yet to concede that public opinion is against him, opposition leader Simon Crean is rushing to catch up with it. Crean told naval forces about to leave Sydney on the HMAS Kanimbla on January 23 that the troop deployment was premature. I don't want to mince my words, because I don't believe that you should be going, he said. The Labor Party is rushing to catch up with the broad anti-war sentiment that the Greens and Democrats recognised some time ago. But even these parties have been slow to devote significant resources to developing this sentiment into a political movement that can stop Howard from going to war. Many unions have passed anti-war motions and some, like the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, are urging their members to support emergency actions around the war. The Australian Education Union (AEU) and the Victorian Trades and Labor Council are also urging unionists to get involved in the movement. The AEU will participate in and work to build the widest coalition of anti-war forces ever seen in Australian society ..., a recent AEU conference resolution states. It goes on: If the Howard government commits Australia to an unjustified war, the AEU urges the people of Australia not to support or co-operate with the war effort in any way. Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard has urged the union movement to act in solidarity with community, church and peace groups in upcoming anti-war protest actions. The socialist left faction of the NSW ALP has also recently declared its total and unequivocal opposition to a war on Iraq ... irrespective of whether it is endorsed by the United Nations Security Council or not. It has also called on its members to assist in and devote significant resources to the anti-war movement. This all helps build the pressure on Howard not to join the war. But it's coming late. The anti-war sentiment across Australia by far exceeds the level of anti-war organisation. Compared to the US, Britain and Europe where peace coalitions regularly hold organising meetings of hundreds of activists, and non-political people organise rallies in towns where such things have never before been seen the movement here is still too small and too thinly organised. It is also too difficult for new people, and especially young people, to get involved other than to turn up to a demonstration. Local peace groups and other networks are flourishing, that's true, but this needs to be on a much bigger and more intensive scale. Bush and Howard can be stopped if the movement is able to attach a big enough political cost to a decision to launch another unjust war. But what political cost can the movement impose? The power in a sustained mass action campaign is not simply that large numbers of people turn out in rallies and marches showing those who rule that many people disagree with them. Bush and Howard are not democrats who only need to be shown the will of the people. The movement's real power lies in the fact that it can radicalise and empower large numbers of people and turn them into political actors. This is the process that terrifies even the most powerful ruling class in history, because it subverts the passivity that allows them to oppress and exploit. So we need to build the next round of marches and rallies as big as possible, but we also need to involve as many people as possible in organising these and other anti-war actions. We haven't a moment to lose. The anti-war movement overseas shows the potential. Here people are asking, begging even, when is the next demonstration, the next public meeting, the next vigil? We have a chance to stop Howard, a chance we cannot squander. The only way we can is to use every available means to activate the alliance of the unwilling the majority of
LL:DDN: ACTIVATING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY CONFERENCE
[ http://www.scu.edu.au/research/clpc/human_rights/ http://www.scu.edu.au/research/clpc/human_rights/papers.html ] B Y E M A I L : - ACTIVATING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY CONFERENCE BYRON BAY, AUSTRALIA 1-4 July 2003 Hosted by the Centre for Law, Politics and Culture Southern Cross University Confirmed Keynotes: Professor Monica McWilliams (Ireland), Professor Raimon Gaita (Aust), Chee Soon Juan (Singapore) Professor Yash Ghai, (Hong Kong), Dita Indah Sari (Indonesia), Professor Costas Douzinas (UK), Dr Sev Ozdowsky (Aust), Charlene Smith (South Africa), Melinda Jones (Aust), Professor Carl Stychin (UK), Dr Lillian Holt and Dr Irene Watson (Aust). Planned opening with the Governor, Professor Marie Bashir and The Honourable John Dowd. Planned Endnote Speech by Peter Garrett. Other invited speakers include: - Basil Fernando, Executive Director, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong. - Natasha Stott-Despoja, Australian Democrats Senator. - Kerry Nettle, NSW Greens Senator. Rodney Croome, sexuality activist. CALL FOR PAPERS: ACTIVATING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY CONFERENCE http://www.scu.edu.au/research/clpc/human_rights/index.html Local and Global Voices This international conference is for everyone who cares passionately about human rights, and who wishes to activate/re-activate human rights and their importance in the twenty-first century. We hope the conference will provide a crucial and critical learning space for activating human rights and diversity in relation to the fields of law, culture, politics and health. A major focus of the conference is to invite participants to exchange ideas and experiences about human rights, questions of diversity and their implications across these fields. The conference is interdisciplinary as well as activist in approach. We especially welcome papers that engage with significant and often disregarded and unregarded areas of human rights activism. We also invite papers which address relevant contemporary issues that have a significant human rights dimension. CALL FOR PAPERS* Please send proposals for 20-25 minute papers, with a 200-word abstract by 3rd February 2003 to: Dr Baden Offord, Centre for Law, Politics and Culture, [EMAIL PROTECTED] The conference will have a mix of plenary sessions with invited papers, and panel sessions. The conference organisers welcome papers from academics, researchers, activists, community groups and policy makers. Draft Panel Sessions So far include: Refugees and Human Rights Indigenous Rights - Culture and Human Rights Romany peoples and human rights - Women and Human Rights Disability Rights Buddhism and Human Rights New Media and Human Rights Journalism and Human Rights Amnesty International high school students presentation Sexuality and Human Rights Children's Rights Health and Human Rights Asian Human Rights POSSIBLE CONFERENCE TOPICS The Conference welcomes contributions that are interdisciplinary in nature and which are informed by the confluence of theory and practice. In general, conference thematic matrix might include: 1. Gender sexuality 2. East Timor 3. Disability and rights 4. Refugees and diaspora 5. Indigenous approaches 6. Rights and globalisation 7. Culture and representation 8. Citizenships of belonging and participation 9. Asia/Pacific issues 10. Sexual slavery 11. Torture and exploitation 12. Human rights methodologies 13. Exclusion/inclusion 14. New technologies citizenship 15. Health care and human rights 16. Diversity legal discourse 17. Rethinking human rights activism 18. The politics of human rights 19. Monocultural/multicultural realities 20. Religion social activism 21. Music human rights 22. Reproductive rights 23. Moving beyond anguish trauma 24. Reconciliation Healing 25. Stories of breaking the silence 26. Activate/Re-activate -- Dr Baden Offord Senior Lecturer: Cultural Studies Researcher: Centre for Law, Politics Culture Convenor: Activating Human Rights Diversity:local global voices International Conference, Byron Bay, 2003. http://www.scu.edu.au/research/clpc/ School of Arts Southern Cross University PO Box 157 Lismore 2480 Australia Telephone: + 61 2 66203 162 Fax: + 61 2 66 221 683 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hmcs.scu.edu.au/ Paulo Friere: studying is above all thinking about experience, and thinking about experience is the best way to think accurately. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:INFO: Green Left discussion list launched (eGroup)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLeft_Discussion/ Green Left discussion list This list is for readers of Green Left Weekly newspaper [off-line or online - see link below] to participate in discussion of the news, issues and reviews it contains. List members must agree that their postings may be available for use in periodic supplements printed in Green Left Weekly newspaper on topics of interest to the wider (off-line) readership. These postings may be edited in accordance with standard print publishing procedures. If posting articles from other sources, please only post a short intro and the link (URL), not the entire article. -- You can access all contributions at the public archive @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLeft_discussion/messages/ By now, it already contains 5 discussions items on the war and the (new) anti-war movement. To subscribe to the GreenLeft_Discussion group, send an eMail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- People who don't know Green Left Weekly yet, can find it @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/ To get the current contents (incl. links to the articles), you have to click on the cover image. The GLW website also contains a complete and fully searchable archive (click on Back Issues). What is Green Left Weekly? http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/what.htm Green Left Weekly is Australia's radical weekly newspaper. In these days of growing media concentration, Green Left Weekly is a proudly independent voice committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality. By printing the news and ideas the mainstream media won't, Green Left Weekly exposes the lies and distortions of the power brokers and helps us to better understand the world around us. Green Left Weekly, launched in 1990 by the Democratic Socialist Party, the socialist youth group Resistance and other progressive activists to present the views excluded by the big business media, is now Australia's leading source of local, national and international news, analysis, and discussion and debate to strengthen the anti-capitalist movements. Green Left Weekly aims to provide a much-needed forum for discussion and debate about changing the world. By giving a voice to progressive ideas, by sharing a wide range of views, by linking issues, campaigns and activists, and by letting people know how they can join with others to take action for change, the paper contributes to the development of a more just and democratic world. Most importantly, Green Left Weekly is a campaigning paper: it helps strengthen the anti-racist, feminist, student, trade union, environment, gay and lesbian, civil liberties and anti-imperialist movements by linking the issues and activists, and by letting people know how they can join others in action for change. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: Global Justice Forum: Struggles against Free Trade
From:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Struggles against Free Trade How we can bring the world-wide campaign to Australia - inspiring examples from around the world - discussion of new campaigns planned in Sydney Thurs, Feb. 20, 6.30pm, Teachers Club, 33 Mary, St, Surry Hills. 5 minutes from Central, off Albion St. Speakers include: campaigners and recent returnees from the World Social Forum, Asian Social Forum and European Social Forum. (John Hepburn, Kate Walsh, Sean Healy and Matt Skellern.) Come along to share info and ideas for action. Topics to be covered include: international protest plans for the WTO meeting in Cancun in September, the Australia/US Free Trade Agreement, campaigns against GATS, the world-wide campaign against corporate globalisation and war, and how we can bring this all home to Sydney. Organised by Global Justice Sydney, a new group which is in the process of being formed. It aims to promote and organise grass roots activism around trade and broader global justice issues. All individuals and groups interested in being involved should subscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more information phone Marina on 0414 788 852, Vince on 0438 800 244, or Matt on 0438 381 917. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Marrickville/Newtown/Leichhardt organise against war
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/522/ Leichhardt activists organise against war BY LACHLAN MALLOCH SYDNEY - The recently formed Leichhardt Stop the War Group is demonstrating the breadth of local opposition to the waging of war on the people of Iraq. Its members include the mayor of Leichhardt, people from progressive parties such as the Greens, the Socialist Alliance and the Communist Party of Australia, the reverend of a local church, activists who are old enough to have marched against the Korean War and a 10-year old local boy and his father. The group will hold its first public event on Invasion/Australia Day, with a Picnic for Peace to be held from noon at Bicentenial Park (end of Glebe Point Road) on January 26. Mayor Maire Sheehan will address the peace picnic, which will also feature entertainment and banner painting. People are asked to bring their own food and drink. A Walk against the War will be held at 7.30pm on the evening of February 1, gathering at Leichhardt Town Hall on Norton Street. Speakers will include Reverend Don Wright, the Leichhardt deputy mayor and Greens candidate for Port Jackson Jamie Parker, anti-war activist and refugee campaigner Paul Benedek, who is the Socialist Alliance's candidate for Port Jackson, 10-year-old Joseph Alcock, anti-Pine Gap campaigner and Communist Party member Denis Doherty and union activist Col Cooper. Participants are asked to bring candles, torches and placards. The Leichhardt group is holding stalls and leafleting to both build the local events, and build a massive local contingent to protests that are part of the February 15-16 national weekend of action against war in Iraq. The next Leichhardt STWG meeting is at 7.30pm, Thursday January 30 at Leichhardt Town Hall. Phone Paul on 0410 629 088 for information. From Green Left Weekly, January 22, 2003. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page @ http://www.greenleft.org.au/ [ Introductory offer: $10 for 7 issues. Send an eMail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call 1800 634 206 (FREE call from anywhere in Australia) or phone us on +61 (0)2 9690 1230 or fax us at +61 (0)2 9690 1381. ] more info on http://www.active.org.au/sydney/calendar/?display=zoomevent=666 also: http://www.active.org.au/sydney/calendar/?display=zoomevent=653 Anti-War Protest targeting Sikorsky Aircraft (War Profiteer) 12:00pm Saturday 1 February Newtown Bridge (King St), march to Sikorsky HQ Transport: Train to Newtown Station. Buses 423, 426, 428 from city. Contact: Minh Nguyen [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.d7design.com.au/clients/acmica/enews/sikorsky.pdf Anti-war rally and march against Sikorsky Aircraft Corp (makers of Black Hawks, Comanche) - war profiteer - Marrickville's Merchant of Death! WHY SIKORSKY? The Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation are makers of Black Hawk and Sea Hawk helicopters. The Australian Army uses them to transport troops into battle. Sikorsky supplies means for delivering murder and misery as the US imposes its interests the world over. Sikorsky is here in Marrickville down by Alexandra Canal. They want new multi-billion dollar deals in Australia to replace Black Hawk Navy helicopters. Their prospects are good. Military spending shot from $11,000 million to $13,300 million a year in the last 2 years. Billions are spent making war so the US can dominate the worlds oil reserves. Meanwhile Medicare flounders, education funds shrink and social programmes suffers. TARGETING OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOT ENOUGH! Our Government humiliates Australians by subservience to the American Empire. It ties us into US bullying and aggression making us, with the US, an object of increasing foreign resentment. But targeting our governments is not enough. We must also target the corporate networks and institutions that provide the logic for war. The corporate-industrial-military complex has a huge say in Australia. Coalition Labor governments, to their shame, look after foreign corporate giants, and a few local ones too, deregulating, restructuring, privatisating, warmongering. Ordinary people cop the consequences. War is good for business. Manufacturers like Sikorsky use government commitment to the American Empire. They get Canberra spending billions on military equipment and arms. Their interests are driving Australian foreign policy. ITS TIME TO SAY NO MORE! - No war for oil! No Australian involvement in American aggression in Iraq! - Starve warmongering military profiteers! - Down with Sikorsky Marrickvilles local merchant of death! Organised by the MARRICKVILLE COMMUNITY PEACE GROUP A peace group set up by Marrickville residents concerned to oppose the involvement of the Australian military in an American War against Iraq. For more information, contact Colin on 0405 009 435 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] .. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/
[bsf-news] Brisbane Social Forum, 21-23 March 2003
The Brisbane Social Forum - Brisbane Powerhouse, 21-23 March 2003 the axis of hope Hope :: Challenges :: Alternatives :: Workshops :: Exhibitions :: Performance an open space of ideas, issues and alternative visions, created for and by your participation Hope can be a powerful tool for change. As we are confronted with the stark realities of a world defined by profit and war it is hope we turn to for inspirational visions of an alternate world. Visions that excite ideas for a realistic and achievable future and arouse and energise quests for change. The Brisbane Social Forum joins with scores of social and environmental justice organisations, and thousands of individuals and communities in the hope of another, better world. Hope, for achieving real security: job security, food security, ecosystem security, indigenous sovereignty. Security based on trust, peace and justice rather then war and fear. The forum will create an axis of hope for another better, world. We encourage people throughout Australia and overseas to converge and participate in the 2003 Brisbane Social Forum, to triumph hope over fear, to make another world truly possible. Participants Anuradha Mittal A native of India, Anuradha is the Co-Director of US-based Food First which campaigns for global food security. Anuradha was a key participant in the protests against the World Trade Organisation in Seattle in 1999. She has written and edited numerous books, including America Needs Human Rights (Food First Books, 1999), and The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance (Food First Books, 2001). Her articles and opinion pieces on trade, women in development and food security have appeared in numerous national and international news papers and journals. Anuradha is a jury member of the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) and is a Board Member of the Turning Point Project. Read more http://www.brisbanesocialforum.org/nuke/html/modules.php?name=Sectionsop=viewarticleartid=6 William Blum Brisbane Social Forum, in conjunction with the Brisbane Stop the War Coalition, is co-ordinating William Blum's visit to Australia. William Blum is the US author of Rogue State, a mini-encyclopaedia of US intervention around the world re-released and updated post 9-11. One of the founders and editors of the Washington Free Press, the first alternative newspaper in the US capital, Blum is a journalist and author specialising in US foreign policy. He is the author of three books and many articles and papers and he maintains the Foreign Policy Watch section of Znet . Read more http://www.brisbanesocialforum.org/nuke/html/modules.php?name=Sectionsop=viewarticleartid=18 Helena Norberg-Hodge A native of Sweden, Helena is a leading analyst of the impact of the global economy on cultures around the world. She is an author and the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (otherwise known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize') She is the Director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture in London, co-founder of the International Forum on Globalisation and the Global Eco-village Network, and a regular contributor to The Ecologist. Read more http://www.brisbanesocialforum.org/nuke/html/modules.php?name=Sectionsop=viewarticleartid=1 Emmy Hafild Emmy is an Environmental Activist from Indonesia and former director of WAHLI, the Indonesian Environment Forum. Chris Richards Chris is the Australiasian editor of New Internationalist Magazine. Read more http://www.brisbanesocialforum.org/nuke/html/modules.php?name=Sectionsop=viewarticleartid=15 Susan Hawthorne Susan is the author of Wild Politics and co-editor September 11, 2001:Feminist Perspectives. Read more http://www.brisbanesocialforum.org/nuke/html/modules.php?name=Sectionsop=viewarticleartid=4 Performances Morning Star Concert for West Papua Friday 21st Featuring David Bridie (My Friend the Chocolate Cake/ Not Drowning Waving) with Telek (Papua New Guinea), Native Ryme, Hot Rubber Glove, Zimbira, Spankinhide and more to be announced. Read more http://www.brisbanesocialforum.org/nuke/html/modules.php?name=Sectionsop=viewarticleartid=11 Other performers for the forum yet to be announced Open Space Workshops The Brisbane Social Forum will be structured using an inclusive model called open space. This is a self-organising model where the agenda for the forum is defined on the day by the people who attend. Participants will be invited to run workshops on the topics of their choice - or to attend whatever workshops they choose. For more information about how open space works - or to advertise your workshop prior to the forum go to http://www.brisbanesocialforum.org Exhibitions In the StreetsA Peoples History of Brisbane The Brisbane Social Forum is putting together an inspiring photographic exhibition of social movements in Brisbane covering the last thirty years of political life in our
LL:ART: War protesters plan their own lightning attack
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/11/1041990138738.html War protesters plan their own lightning attack By John Kidman, Police Reporter January 12 2003 The Sun-Herald Police have been placed on emergency standby as plans emerge for a mass demonstration within hours of the United States declaring any war on Iraq. A coalition of more than 100 local protest groups has been preparing since November to launch the lightning action at 5pm on the day bombing starts, The Sun-Herald has learnt. As a result, an alert memo has been issued to 23 city police commands seeking their help in responding to a major and possibly violent protest at extremely short notice. It is expected any rally would target the US consulate in Martin Place. Organisers, however, have warned that some protesters would be determined to agitate on several fronts, including Prime Minister John Howard's offices in Phillip Street and Governor Macquarie Tower. While the so-called Network Against War and Racism (NoWar) is understood to comprise a traditional collective of student, political and union groups, police are concerned the march may also involve a religious focus lending itself to a more radical element. Organisers insist the rally will embrace a simple anti-war message. As far as the coalition is concerned, we have something like 46 paid-up organisations or groups and another 60 or so coming along, spokeswoman Hannah Middleton said. Among them, it's agreed that there should be no war and no Australian involvement. At the same time, there had also been a great effort to reach into the Arab or Muslim community. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:PR: Study Faults Australia for Refugees
Australia: Deterring Asylum Seekers by Violating Rights [ (Arabic) ] Study Faults Australia for Accepting Refugees By Invitation Only (Sydney, December 10, 2002) Many refugees who come uninvited to Australia are compelled to do so because they cannot find effective protection anywhere else, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released to mark International Human Rights Day. --- These people are not 'queue jumpers' -many are refugees in need of protection who have been failed by the system at every stage. They should not be treated differently from the refugees Australia invites to resettle from refugee camps overseas. Rory Mungoven Global Advocacy Director Human Rights Watch --- The 94-page report, By Invitation Only: Australian Asylum Policy, is based on eight months of investigation and challenges the Australian government's policy on asylum seekers as a breach of the country's international obligations to protect refugees. These people are not 'queue jumpers' -many are refugees in need of protection who have been failed by the system at every stage, said Rory Mungoven, global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. They should not be treated differently from the refugees Australia invites to resettle from refugee camps overseas. Human Rights Watch found that many asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran were still at risk in the countries through which they passed - such as Jordan or Indonesia - and were unable to access the offices of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or foreign embassies to apply for resettlement. Human Rights Watch's evidence shows that the Australian Defence Forces violated the rights of asylum seekers on board boats intercepted in October 2001. They detained the single men under inhumane conditions, beat several of them with batons and used other unnecessary force against vulnerable refugee families. These findings contradict the report of the Australian Senate Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident [issued on October 23, 2002] that praised the humanitarian conduct of the naval operations. Unlike the Senate Committee, which could not collect refugee testimony, Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of refugees present during the naval operations. After being refused entry to Australia, the intercepted asylum seekers were sent to the Pacific states of Nauru and Papua New Guinea, where they have been arbitrarily detained and have had no access to legal assistance or an independent appeal body to re-examine their claims. Other asylum seekers have been warehoused in camps in Indonesia. The Human Rights Watch report criticizes Australia's so-called Pacific Solution by highlighting serious failings in the protection available to refugees and asylum seekers in these three countries. Human Rights Watch urged the Australian government to resettle those who remain in the Pacific detention centers and to refrain from forcing rejected asylum seekers back to countries where conditions do not allow for return in safety and dignity. Human Rights Watch warned that asylum seekers detained in the newly built facility on Christmas Island are likely to face the same abuses - arbitrary detention, lack of due process in asylum procedures and denial of family reunification. Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, was excised by the government last year, meaning that the right to apply for protection in Australia has been removed from any asylum seeker who arrives there. Human Rights Watch also appealed to the Australian government not to force refugees it had already accepted to re-apply for asylum when their current visas (called Temporary Protection Visas) expire. Such a policy is contrary to all accepted state practice and to UN guidance on reserving Temporary Protection for use in mass influx situations. If the Australian Department of Immigration insists on reassessing their status, Human Rights Watch believes that individual refugees should at least be given a fair chance to explain why they were not safe in a country nearer to home or en route to Australia. Under Australian law, the mere fact that they spent more than seven days in a country deemed to be safe before arriving in Australia, or that there were offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a country through which they passed, may be used as grounds for denying them important human rights. Human Rights Watch urged UNHCR to tell the Australian government and people in plain terms that its presence in transit countries such as Jordan or Indonesia is no substitute for the protection that should be offered by states. Australia's handling of these refugees is even more shameful when you learn the dangers they faced on the way here, said Mungoven. You can't say one group of refugees is more deserving than another, just because of how they arrived. That's the Australian government's game, but it's not international law.
LL:ART: WTO protesters to defy ban (The Australian)
http://www.sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=22378group=webcast WTO protesters to defy ban (10.000?) by The Australian (mainstream daily) 2:53pm Sat Nov 9 '02 article#22378 [..] About 10,000 protesters are expected to go ahead with plans to bring the centre of the city to a standstill during the two-day WTO meeting at Sydney Olympic Park. [..] WTO protesters to defy ban By Patricia Karvelas and Ashleigh Wilson 09nov02 ANTI-WORLD Trade Organisation protesters are threatening to defy authorities and take to Sydney's streets during an international conference next week despite police refusing marching permits. About 10,000 protesters are expected to go ahead with plans to bring the centre of the city to a standstill during the two-day WTO meeting at Sydney Olympic Park. But the student activists have conceded they have no chance of repeating the scenes of Seattle and Melbourne, where anti-globalisation protests severely disrupted WTO proceedings. Activists will protest on the WTO site at Homebush only on the second day of the meeting, confining action to the city on other days. Jim Casey, a 32-year-old union activist and member of the International Socialist Organisation, said the protesters have had to be realistic. Certainly the fact that they've made it at Homebush is going to cramp our style, Mr Casey said. But there's no point blockading a hotel when they are already inside. Protesters said laws passed for the 2000 Olympics, which gave police increased powers to quell protests, were still current and had prevented them from deciding to block the meeting. NSW Police inner-metropolitan region commander Dick Adams said peaceful gatherings would be allowed but would not approve anything that will blockade streets or disrupt people. Simon Butler, national co-ordinator of socialist youth organisation Resistance, said activists would go ahead with planned marches. It's an attempt to intimidate people from protesting. People will hate the idea that the right to free speech is being denied to them. The protesters, mainly students from Melbourne and Sydney, warned yesterday they would target the US consulate and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The loose network of more than 130 protest organisers were determined to disrupt the city. Mr Casey said that on the second day of the meeting protesters would be at the WTO venue from 7am to protest. He said he supported individuals or groups who attempted to gain entry and occupy the meeting. I support anyone's right to attempt to get in and stop the meeting. But the idea that people are making bombs is not true. Anne O'Brien, 21, spokeswoman for the green bloc, said momentum for anti-globalisation protests was stronger than ever. Matthew Skellern, national environment officer of the National Union of Students, said people would still attempt to disrupt the meeting. We don't want to be a small group of people who go to the site and get kicked round by cops, so I won't be going. The protesters' grievances include the destruction of the environment, Third World debt, poor labour conditions, indigenous rights, world poverty and the effects of free trade. They have also vowed to resist federal government plans to shut down or restrict access to activist websites that advocate violent demonstrations. The federal Government has announced it will review online content laws to crack down on sites that incite violence. Protesters said they would move sites to overseas servers or set up duplicate mirror sites if required, making it difficult for them to be closed down. © The Australian -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:leftlink;vicnet.net.au Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:majordomo;vicnet.net.au?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:majordomo;vicnet.net.au?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: (anti-WTO) can already celebrate a famous victory
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/s698446.htm [Listen to this story [Requires Microsoft Media Player] - This is a transcript of PM broadcast at 1800 AEST on local radio.] WTO meeting causes trouble in Double Bay PM - Thursday, October 10, 2002 18:45 MARK COLVIN: It seems that a coalition of groups campaigning against a World Trade Organisation meeting in Sydney can already celebrate a famous victory, and all before the first arrest is made. The mere prospect of the anti-globalisation forces has persuaded the NSW Police Minister and his Sydney Area Commander to tell the Federal Government that the planned venue for the talks next month is unsuitable. That venue was supposed to be the five-star Sir Stamford Hotel in Double Bay in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. But the Federal Government has ridiculed the pleas of local shopkeepers, who are worried about their boutiques and restaurants sustaining damage in the protests. Simon Santow reports. SIMON SANTOW: Double Bay is known by many in Sydney as Double Pay, because there seems to be a surcharge just to shop or linger over a cup of coffee among high society. Rather than complaining about the rents, often the rationale shopkeepers use to justify their inflated prices, there's a great deal of disquiet among the traders about feral protestors invading their streets. Local Chamber of Commerce President and real estate agent, Danny Doff. DANNY DOFF: I think it's absolute madness that you hold an event like this in Double Bay. I mean, I can't see a better spot to provoke anti-global capitalism, anti-capitalism than in Double Bay with the rows of Armani and Gucci stores and Harry Who and you just have a look around. They're all, they are all these boutique stores that just convey capitalism. SIMON SANTOW: DB's coffee shop has glass windows and is not far from where the talks are scheduled to take place. Co-owner Paul Kerr hasn't lost his sense of humour about the prospect of having to deal with protestors. PAUL KERR: The only thing that they could probably protest to us is probably the price of our coffee (laughs), and we just provide a service and if people are prepared to come in and utilise it, then we're prepared to serve them. We'd actually, actually encourage them to sit down and enjoy the ambience of Double Bay. A long way from the civilised ambience of Double Bay are the images and sounds of Melbourne two years ago, when the WTO came to town and the protestors took them on on day dubbed S-11. (protestors and police) STEVE SANTOW: The fear is that there will be even more anger because Double Bay is not exactly the paragon of socialism. One of the brains behind S-11 in Melbourne was David Glanz. He's definitely planning on coming to Sydney in November to make more anti-globalisation noise. DAVID GLANZ: I think they certainly should be aware of the fact that some thousands of people are going to descend on their suburb and make opposition to the agenda of the World Trade Organisation very clear. That's certainly going to involve attempts at filling the streets, blockading the perimeter. It will depend concretely on the circumstances, but certainly we'll see some thousands of people in Double Bay over a period of two of three days. If the shops lose business which I think is obviously their biggest problem, that will be collateral damage and they will have to pin that back on the World Trade Organisation, presumably the State Government and the Federal Government and the police for choosing that venue. But we're not going there to disrupt shops. We're going there to disrupt the agenda of the World Trade Organisation. STEVE SANTOW: NSW Police Minister, Michael Costa, made this plea to the Federal Government to abandon Double Bay as a venue. MICHAEL COSTA: Today I've written to the Federal minister, Vaile, asking him to consider moving the location for this particular activity. Well, the police have advised that they have obviously, following the Olympics, experience at handling large crowds and also these types of meeting. I have full confidence in our police officers to be able to handle the situation. But it helps if the people that are organising consult with our police and more importantly take their advice. STEVE SANTOW: His police commander, Dick Adams concedes that police will have to cope with protestors wherever the talks take place. DICK ADAMS: There are areas that we would be able to better prepare, areas that we are able to isolate from the general community and will have access and egress routes. One of the big problems here as was experienced in other cities in the world, especially in Seattle, Washington in the United States where a similar conference of a similar nature was held is that they will try and barricade off a number of the streets. We have to get the delegates in and out of this place. If we are unable to do so that's going to not only affect the reputation of NSW, but of course Australia's
LL:REM: Direct Action Collective of the NoWTO network formed
(forwarded message) As people may be aware, there is a WTO mini-ministerial being organised in Sydney, November 14-15. This only gives us six weeks or so to organise the biggest and broadest protests against this illegitimate organisation and its drive to enforce ``free trade'', immiseration and environmental destruction on the world's people. There are a range of different protests already being organised. Some of these include a ``Free movement of people'' march on November 13, 5pm at Town Hall, and a unity march starting at 12 noon on November 14 at Hyde Park. In addition, we would like to announce the launch of a new collective. We're calling ourselves the Direct Action Collective, and see ourselves as a part of the NoWTO network. We are committed to shutting the WTO mini-ministerial down, and want to facilitate the biggest and most accessible direct action space around the meeting. We want this to be action that non-networked people can find and participate in, and that existing activists can organise around. We speak for no one but ourselves, but we intend to speak really really loudly. We have had confirmation that the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Double Bay is going to accommodate the WTO delegates while they are in Sydney. In the absence of a confirmed venue for the meeting itself we are calling for a convergence of people who want to shut the meeting down at 7am, Stamford Plaza Hotel, Double Bay, on November 14. [ You can find it at 33 Cross St. See circle on MAP at http://www.NoWTO.cat.org.au/map.gif ] We are going to meet weekly, Wednesday 6pm at UTS Student's Association (Level 3, Tower Building). We call on anyone who wants to be involved in this, or existing affinity groups working around similar ideas, to get in touch with us or to come along Wednesdays. We would also like to remind people that there is a spokescouncil coming up on Wednesday October 16, 6pm at UTS. Everyone interested in informing others of actions they are organising, or discussing common actions with others should consider coming along. The Direct Action Collective of the No WTO network. Check out the website at http://www.NoWTO.cat.org.au/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: Oct 22: PROTEST WORLD BANK LECTURE @ Uni Sydney
[This is an initial draft from PNGSA = Papua New Guinea Solidarity Action. More information to come: Checkout the public archives of the PNGSA mailing list (eGroup) @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PNGSA/] --- CALL FOR ACTION --- On Tuesday, 22nd October, Klaus Rohland, the WORLD BANKs Country Director for Papua New Guinea, East Timor and the Pacific Islands, will hold a public lecture at Sydney University. The topic: Instability in PNG. The abstract reads: As the GREAT POWER OF THE REGION, what role should Australia play? WHEN SHOULD AUSTRALIA INTERVENE AND HOW? [emphasis added]. To date Australias intervention in PNG can only be described as serving AUSTRALIAN INTERESTS and disregarding the interests of the PNG people. The recently defeated government of Mekere Morauta, that the Australian Government openly supported even in the shambolic PNG elections, left behind the biggest deficit in PNGs history despite wide-scale, unpopular, privatisation. Last year Morauta sent in special police trained by Australia that killed anti-privatisation protesters, who demanded an answer from Morauta to a petition adopted by a mass student meeting before. We will be protesting against the lecture with banners and handing out counter-information about the detrimental affect World Bank policies and AUStralian (tied) AID and INTERFERENCE have on the PNG PEOPLE. We call on anyone interested and all activists to participate. -- World Bank Australia: HANDS OFF PNG! -- Tuesday, 22nd October, 5.30 pm @ The Great Hall, Main Quadrangle, University of Sydney -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Costa Call for protest website shut down
[ Below: Stay tuned - Provocateurs on sydney.indymedia.org ] http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5165734%255E15306,00.html Call for protest website shut down Wires September 25, 2002 NSW POLICE Minister Michael Costa has asked the Federal Government to shut down websites with instructions to disrupt a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Sydney. Mr Costa said today he was deeply concerned about the websites which provided information to violently disrupt the WTO Trade Ministers meeting in November. I support the community's right to peaceful, lawful protest but it's clear to me comments and information on these sites are designed to incite violence against NSW Police, who will be providing security at the meeting, he said. These people have gone too far. He said the websites told people to arm themselves with baseball bats, slingshots, firecrackers, gasmasks and marbles. They intend to harm police and police horses and put community safety at risk, he said. That's why I have written to the Federal Government today asking them to shut down these websites or restrict access to them, he said. He said he would also take the matter to the next meeting of the Australasian Police Minister's Council. A spokesman for Communications Minister Richard Alston tonight said he would send the letter to the Australian Broadcasting Authority. We would be urgently sending the letter to the Australian Broadcasting Authority who would take the appropriate action under the online content legislation, he said. Whilst it's not possible to say definitively the website is prohibited under the legislation without a full investigation of it, Senator Alston shares Mr Costa's concerns about a website which may incite violence against police officers. A spokesman for Mr Costa said there were at least three websites involved. AAP http://sydney.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=20726group=webcast provocateur says 'shut up and shop' by Joanna 12:02am Mon Sep 23 '02 article#20726 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thankyou for including the link! It takes you to the original post plus 15 comments... http://melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=33277group=webcast The 'shopping list' was posted by a provocateur who has been spamming Melbourne indymedia in recent weeks. This is from the first comment I posted in response to that day's serving of provospam: More provocateuring by Joanna 11:29pm Tue Sep 10 '02 comment#33347 [EMAIL PROTECTED] For new readers: 'SUPPLIER' is a provocateur. This poster of many psuedonymns seems desperate to spread the belief that protesters are violent, and no doubt has high hopes that some impressionable youngster will read supplier's posts and take a smoke bomb to the Sydney WTO demonstration. As a last resort, 'supplier' might take a smoke bomb along in person. Because smoke bombs look bad on TV, and 'supplier' doesn't care about asthmatics. 'Supplier' no doubt also wishes to distract attention from the real issue at the WTO protests - the WTO. The WTO is an unelected, undemocratic organisation representing the world's richest corporations. Its agenda is to further concentrate power and wealth into the hands of these corporations. To this end, in secret courts, with anonymous judges, it makes decisions that devastate third world economies and our biosphere. Click on the link at the bottom of this post for facts about the WTO. All the best, Joanna http://www.s11.org/n14/facts.html -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Lies, Lies, Lies: Media seek to discredit Baktiyaris
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=19594group=webcast Lies, Lies, Lies: Media seek to discredit Baktiyaris by GLW supporter 10:56pm Tue Aug 27 '02 address: PO Box 394, Broadway, Sydney, NSW 2007, AUSTRALIA phone: Free Call (+61) 1800 634 206 - Fax (+61 2) 9690 1381 [EMAIL PROTECTED] To all you AGE believers: Read the indypendent media or shut up! --- Media seek to discredit Baktiyaris BY SARAH STEPHEN The Murdoch family's Australian newspaper and the Fairfax's Melbourne Age have spent a number of weeks helping the government in its campaign to destroy the credibility of the Baktiyaris, a Hazara family who are seeking asylum in Australia. Ali Baktiyari, the father, was first accused of fraudulently obtaining refugee status in April. The immigration department no longer believed his claim that he was from Afghanistan. The August 14 Australian ran an expose on the real story behind the Baktiyaris, titled No recognition in Afghanistan. The Age ran a two-week investigation in Afghanistan, armed with photographs of the family, the names of people Baktiyari knew in his village and detailed UN maps of the region. None of the villagers of Charkh or nearby Chaper could identify the Baktiyaris. According to Cyrus Sarang from Sydney's Refugee Action Collective, who has also been acting as Ali Baktiyari's interpreter, the journalist went to the wrong village he should have gone to Charkh Knowlege. Sarang argues that the apparent inconsistencies were due to misunderstandings, in translation over a satellite phone, about the name of Bakhtiyari's village. A week later, the same two newspapers ran sensationist headlines claiming that Baktiyari had admitted he had spent two years in the Pakistani town of Quetta, something he had earlier denied. The August 23 Melbourne Age ran a story headlined The truth behind Bakhtiyari, while the August 23 Australian ran a story titled Asylum dad `admits Pakistan origin'. The August 24 Age reported the government's gloating: Prime Minister John Howard said criticism of the government over its treatment of asylm seekers and the case of Ali Bakhtiyari and his family was unjustified, given the revelations in the Age. `I would just invite people who've been so ready to criticise [immigration minister] Philip Ruddock, and so ready to brand the government as heartless to have a look at this material and just accept that we're not people who are behaving unreasonably,' he said. Immigration officials are currently in Quetta investigating the Baktiyari family's background. Ruddock told the August 24 Age that Ali Baktiyari would have between 14 and 28 days to respond to the case against him. The department would then move to cancel his temporary protection visa. Roberto Jorquera from Free the Refugees Campaign in western Sydney told Green Left Weekly: The government's accusation that Ali Baktiyari is Pakistani is blatantly false, and the media's willingness to offer this up as investigative reporting is a disgrace. He admitted that he spent two years in Pakistan. That doesn't make him Pakistani. To meet the definition of a refugee under the UN convention, asylum seekers must be outside the country in which they have suffered persecution. Close to 3 million Afghan refugees, fleeing the Taliban from 1996 onwards, spent anywhere up to six years in the cities and refugee camps of Iran and Pakistan. This doesn't invalidate their claims to refugee status, which is based on a well-founded fear of persecution if they were to return to their country. Asylum seekers often leave out details of how they arrive in Australia in order to avoid implicating those who have helped them get here, Jorquera added, but this shouldn't invalidate their claims. The government and the Refugee Review Tribunal are notorious for rejecting asylum claims when there are inconsistencies. They're not interested in why asylum seekers are scared about revealing their whole story. From Green Left Weekly, August 28, 2002. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page. - Media misinformation aids Liberal lies BY KERRYN WILLIAMS CANBERRA On August 11 the Canberra Times printed dramatically incorrect results from a Telepoll on attitudes to refugees. The report claimed that 18% of respondents voted yes and 71% no to the question, Should children be freed from the detention camps holding asylum seekers? This result came as a significant shock to many, given the widespread public opposition in Canberra to the federal government's policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers. In addition, the total votes didn't add up to 100%, even though the only options given were to vote yes or no. When inquiries revealed that the wrong poll results had been printed, the Canberra Times was forced to print a retraction. The actual question asked was Should children be held in
LL:DDN: FIGHTING CORPORATE TYRANNY ACROSS THE ASIA-PACIFIC
Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) monthly forum: FIGHTING CORPORATE TYRANNY ACROSS THE ASIA-PACIFIC Featuring: 1. Reportback from Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), Fiji by Rex Rumakiek, UN lobbyist for the Papuan Presidium Council Pacific representative of the OPM (Free Papua Movement). Rex attended the PIF and the counter summit to press the issue of West Papuan independence. 2. Reportback from the Asia-Pacific Social Movements Conference World Social Forum International Council by Iggy Kim, ASAP Sydney. Iggy attended these two important meetings, both in Bangkok, in preparation for the Asian Social Forum in India in January. 6.30pm, Thursday, September 12 @ Humanist Society Hall, 10 Shepherd St, Chippendale For details phone Pip: 0412 139 968 or Iggy: 0421 322 175 WWW: http://www.asia-pacific-action.org/ eMail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ASAP Sydney will continue to hold its monthly forums at the Humanist Society, on the second Thursday of every month. - West-Papua links: West Papua Project of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS, University of Sydney) seeks to promote peaceful dialogue in relation to West Papua (inside and international). The next international WPP Workshop will be held over September 2/3. Program details soon on: http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/CPACS/wppmain.htm Australia West Papua Association, Sydney: http://www.zulenet.com/AWPA/ International Action for West Papua: http://www.koteka.net/ West Papua Action, Ireland/Europe: http://westpapuaaction.buz.org/ West Papua News and Discussion list (in english): http://www.topica.com/lists/WestPapua/ http://www.topica.com/lists/WestPapua/read/ -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: N15: Australia to Host Doha Round Ministerial Meeting
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=18716group=webcast N15: Australia to Host Doha Round Ministerial Meeting by WTO - NO! 9:52pm Thu Aug 15 '02 article#18716 phone: 0418 273 475 ;-) [ includes 4 Anti-WTO photos ] http://www.trademinister.gov.au/releases/2002/mvt096_02.html Media release Thursday 15 August 2002 / MVT096/2002 Australia to Host Doha Round Ministerial Meeting Australia would host an informal meeting of trade ministers later this year in Sydney to discuss the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations, Trade Minister Mark Vaile confirmed today. The Doha round is vitally important for the global trading system and for Australia's trade interests, Mr Vaile said. I am determined that Australia takes every opportunity to ensure the round moves ahead and concludes on schedule. The Mini-Ministerial meeting of World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Ministers will be held in Sydney on 14-15 November. The meeting will bring together trade ministers from some 25 countries to discuss progress made in Geneva since last November's Doha meeting, and how we can ensure the next WTO Ministerial meeting, to be held in Mexico in September 2003, is successful. Mr Vaile said that over the last few weeks he had held detailed discussions about the Sydney meeting with the Mexican Minister for the Economy, Luis Derbez, who will chair the 5th Ministerial meeting next year. I have now spoken to many trade ministers who have indicated their support for the proposal and confirmed their attendance for the Sydney meeting. Aside from the major industrialised countries, such as the EU and the United States, I have been in contact with my colleagues in developed and developing countries across a wide range of regions and interests. The meeting will help build understanding across the range of key issues, including development issues as well as market access and the preparations for the next Ministerial meeting. Mr Vaile said that the hosting of this meeting, the first to be held since the launch of the Doha round, was an important confirmation of Australia's standing in and commitment to the multilateral trading system and his determination to ensure that Australia continued to play a strong leading role in the Doha round. This is all about this Government's commitment to drive the trade agenda forward, Mr Vaile said. Media Contact: Mark Croxford 0418 273 475 www.trademinister.gov.au/releases/2002/mvt096_02.html -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:PR: Shame Howard on Tampa Day
From: ASAP [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 15:39:46 +1000 Dear refugee rights supporter, Following is a call from Free the Refugees Campaign in Sydney to turn Tampa Day, August 26, into a shame John Howard day and to call again for an end to mandatory detention. It's designed to take advantage of the expected heightened media focus around the anniversary of the MV Tampa crisis. It's a campaign which can be run in a very decentralised way, but which can also go hand in hand with other actions already being planned to mark this important date. It could be used to set up refugee groups on more schools, work places, campuses and neighbourhoods, and in so doing create an even bigger network of people prepared to campaign for the humane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. Free the Refugees Campaign in Sydney will be popularising Tampa Day by urging refugee rights supporters to buy and wear black armbands (and earn some much needed cash for the campaign!). If your group thinks it may like to do the same, we'd love to hear from you. If you'd like to endorse the campaign please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] or ring Lisa Macdonald on 0413 031 108 or myself on 0412 139 968. Please publicise this call in whatever way you can. The more groups taking action around Tampa Day the greater our collective strength to force Howard to back down. Thank-you, Pip Hinman August 26: Tampa Day Shame on Howard! End Mandatory Detention! No deportations! August 26 is the first anniversary of the Tampa crisis when the Howard government refused to allow the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa to deliver to Christmas Island those asylum seekers it had rescued, and it marks a year of the misnamed Pacific Solution. If not for Captain Arne Rinnan's determination to ensure the well-being of 438 Afghan, Iraqi and Palestinian refugees, the MV Tampa may have become just another blip in the litany of Canberra's human rights abuses of asylum seekers. It was Captain Rinnan's humanitarian approach to those in need and his refusal to ignore the law of the sea which prompted the Pacific Solution, a mechanism to coerce Australia's poor, Pacific neighbours to take responsibility for asylum seekers intercepted by Australian navel vessels in Australian territorial waters. Last year some $500 million was allocated to the Pacific Solution. This year, some $3 billion has been devoted to border protection keeping out the miserable few thousand people who manage to make it to Australia's shores. Recently another survivor of the vessel which sank off Indonesia last October, repeated the claim that Australian naval vessels were sighted nearby. The Australian navy did not assist, and 353 people drowned. Thousands of refugees, including children, remain detained without trial in remote detention centres at Woomera and Port Hedland and in the off-shore detention centres in Nauru and PNG. The government's attempts to forcibly repatriate Afghans who do not accept the bribe to return to the war-ravaged country is further cause for concern. Enough is enough. Already this year, tens of thousands of Australians have stood up for refugees' rights and against mandatory detention in February in solidarity with the Woomera hunger strikers; on Palm Sunday all around the country; at Woomera and Villawood over Easter; and most recently to mark World Refugee Day on June 22-23. One year after the Tampa provides an opportunity to declare our shame at Australia's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. On August 26, Tampa Day, wear a black arm-band to show your opposition to the inhumanity of the government's refugee policies. End mandatory detention! Full rights, not temporary visas! No deportations! Money for resettlement, not the Pacific solution! Initiated by Free the Refugees Campaign, Sydney Endorsed by: Professor Margaret Reynolds (United Nations Association of Australia); Susan Connolly (Mary MacKillop Institute for East Timorese Studies); Karol Florek (Fortians for Refugees); Andrew Hall (Public Servants for Refugees, ACT); Susan Varga (Rural Australians for Refugees); Eva Sallis (Australians Against Racism); Nicola Gates (ChilOut, Children out of Detention); Riz Wakil (Progressive Young Hazaras) -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: Refugees Christmas Island meeting
Refugees Christmas Island 7:30pm, Wed July 10 Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, King St An eyewitness report with Anne Coombs, convenor of Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR). Anne will speak regarding her recent trip to Christmas Island, and its transformation, complete with detention centre, since the Tampa incident last year. She will also speak of the tremendous development of RAR, which now has groups in scores of rural areas across Australia. Organised by the Free the Refugees Campaign (FRC), Ph: 0410 629 088 for further information, or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:INFO: ASAP activists join Timorese demonstration over oil deal
Australian solidarity activists join Timorese protest in Dili The following speech was given by Sarah Stephen, a member of the ASIET-ASAP brigade to East Timor, at a protest organised by a number of East Timorese groups on May 19 in Dili. Participating organisations included the Labour Syndicate of East Timor (KSTL); Eusebio Guterres, a member of parliament for the Democratic Party, who represented the Labour Advocacy Institute of East Timor (LAIFET); La'o Hamutuk - the East Timor Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Development; the Sa'he institute, a left-wing think tank; the Timor Socialist Labour Organisation (SBST); Groupo Defensor - Defence group for democracy, peace and stability, coordinated by Manuel Carrascalao; Solidaritas - the Student Council for Democracy; and the Pro-Proletariat Movement (GPP). The protest was timed to coincide with the arrival of Australian PM John Howard and focused on the Howard government's attempts to steal Timor's oil. The protesters also called on the incoming East Timorese government to support the independence struggles being waged in West Papua and Aceh. Sarah Stephen, along with other solidarity activists, will be speaking at a public meeting organised by ASAP on June 13 at 6.30pm at the Humanist Society Hall, 10 Shepherd St, Chippendale. For more information, call Pip Hinman on 0412 139 968. ** Timor Gap protest May 19, 2002 Speech by Sarah Stephen, Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP), Australia Dili - Today is the last day of the United Nations running East Timor the last day of some 400 years of colonial rule. Tomorrow, the East Timorese people will begin to govern themselves. In Australia, many of us have campaigned hard for a free and independent East Timor. Australian governments have always supported the occupation of East Timor from Gough Whitlam to Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard. But many people in Australia disagreed with our government. After the referendum in 1999, we forced the Howard government to send the army to East Timor to stop the Indonesian military and militia killings. When tens of thousands of people protested in the streets, we forced Howard, against his will, to help stop the killings. John Howard sent troops, but John Howard is not your friend. The Australian government still doesn't care about the people of East Timor. If Australia cared about the East Timorese people, the government would not be stealing East Timor's oil! Timor is a very poor country. You have lived so long with war, occupation and destruction. But the spirit and determination of the people can achieve many things rebuild cities and towns, build up agriculture. But you need resources to do that you need money. And not money from the World Bank, from the IMF. Not loans which you have to repay by cutting wages, health, education. The oil in the Timor Sea, which is worth many millions of dollars in royalties, gives the East Timorese people the chance to climb out of poverty. But the Australian government is doing everything it can to deny East Timor that future. Australia is ignoring international law and using its strength to force East Timor to accept less than it is entitled to. In Australia, we will not stand by and let this happen. We will fight our government's exploitation of East Timor. We will defend your right to economic independence. Your struggle is our struggle. Viva Timor Leste! --- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:PR: Ten years of detention for asylum-seekers
Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 17:05:08 +0100 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Australia: Ten years of detention for asylum-seekers - time for change * News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International * 3 May 2002 ASA 12/007/2002 Tens years since the introduction of mandatory detention for asylum-seekers lacking visas, Amnesty International is appealing to the Australian government to step back and consider the costs and consequences of the policy and to bring it in line with international human rights standards. Now is a good time for the government to reflect on whether it is necessary, fair and humane for Australia to continue such a tough detention policy, which restricts the rights of refugees, Amnesty International said on the eve of the anniversary (5 May). Australia's detention system falls short of international standards and it is the only country world-wide with a national, mandatory detention policy which cannot be reviewed by a court. Even though the government says that asylum-seekers are seeking a migration outcome, their own figures show that the majority are found to be refugees entitled to the protection and safety they are seeking. Detaining children for up to five years, frequent rioting and self-harm by detainees, are not acceptable by-products of refugee processing. Legitimate border control and the fight against people smuggling can be achieved without violating human rights, Amnesty International said. There are also major concerns about how the detention system affects the mental and physical health of the detainees. There is a growing body of evidence that prolonged detention of unspecified duration, particularly when people are already traumatised by past persecution and do not know what the future holds for them, can lead to serious, physical and psychological damage. The Australian Human Rights Commissioner, the Ombudsman, Parliamentary Committees, religious organizations and NGOs have repeatedly pointed to the sense of deep frustration and despair among asylum seekers in detention centres - the kind of hopelessness and helplessness which has driven people to sew their lips together, to try to kill themselves or to hurt others. Furthermore, mandatory detention does not act as a deterrent; the numbers of those arriving in Australia without visas rose in 2000 and 2001. With a decade's experience of mandatory detention, the time is ripe for the government to take a serious look at alternatives. The problems associated with the system will not go away - rather the situation could worsen if more creative and constructive thinking does not emerge soon. The Government should use the Australian Human Rights Commission's Immigration Detention Centre Guidelines - based on international human rights standards, as a framework for addressing these issues, and should engage human rights experts and activists. Pacific solution Following her recent visit to Australia, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan has written to Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, raising new concerns that, contrary to the Minister's assurances, recognized refugees are currently detained in Australian-sponsored detention centres in Nauru. On Nauru, a small Pacific island country some 4,000 kilometres from Sydney, Australia is funding the detention of some 1,100 mainly Afghan and Iraqi asylum-seekers who were taken there by Australian warships last August. With a resident population of only 11,000, Nauru now has the highest proportion of asylum-seekers world-wide. Of these, at least 280 continue to be held despite their recent recognition as refugees, in camps run by the International Organization for Migration. Consistent with Amnesty International's opposition to unreviewable mandatory detention of asylum-seekers, the organization is seeking an explanation from Minister Ruddock for the continued and open-ended detention, funded and controlled by Australia, of at least 280 people recognised as refugees on 8 April 2002 by Australia (147) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (133) in Nauru. A similar call to Australia has been made in relation to recognized refugees on Manus Island. Background It was five years ago this week, in the case of A v Australia, that the United Nations Human Rights Committee found Australia's practice of detaining asylum-seekers to be arbitrary and unlawful, in violation of international human rights obligations binding on Australia. Australia is yet to heed the findings of the Human Rights Committee. The finding was made in an individual case, but the Committee has in July 2000 expressed its concern at the policy itself. International guidelines on detention of asylum-seekers, adopted by UNHCR's Executive Committee, of which Australia is a member, also call for detention to be used only exceptionally, to be justified in each individual case, and to be subject to the safeguard of an
LL:ART: No shortage of issues for May Day
http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/2002/04/27/FFXHVQ73E0D.html [SYDNEY] No shortage of issues for May Day protesters AAP | Published: Saturday April 27, 1:33 PM by Rebecca Glenn http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,4211040%255E1702,00.html Protesters target detention centres - 27apr02 CIVIL disobedience classes were today being held in Sydney ahead of planned May Day protests against a range of organisations, including the company that runs Australia's detention centres. Activists from socialist youth group Resistance were planning a May 1 militant blockade against the central Sydney offices of Australasian Correctional Management (ACM). Offices of the World Bank, the Australian Stock Exchange, the Israeli Consulate, Prime Minister John Howard's office and state parliament would also be targeted in a march around the city after the blockade. Resistance activist Lauren Carroll Harris said there was a lot to protest against. It's become a struggle against so many things ... May 1 is a convergence of all these issues and in a sense we're protesting for a different world, one that puts people before profits and respects human rights, justice and equality for all, she said. Ms Harris said the focus for Wednesday's protest would be the federal government's policy of mandatory detention, global capitalism and Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people. She said today's training day would include legal rights briefings and civil disobedience techniques including blockading, megaphone use and tactics. The group had also been liaising with police and expected a peaceful protest, she said. We've been in constant liaison with police and they know we're blockading ACM and marching around the city. Sydney Central Resistance organiser Bronwyn Powell said Resistance members would draw inspiration from recent protests at the Woomera Detention centre in which fences were torn down and asylum seekers escaped. When injustice becomes law then resistance becomes duty. It's the Australian government who is breaking international human rights laws by persecuting defenceless asylum seekers, she said in a statement. The blockade will begin at 7am on Wednesday, with protesters marching through the city the rest of the day. AAP UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER = This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. =
LL:DDN: Rally against Ruddock, 7th May, 8.30am in Redfern
Free the refugees: Rally against Ruddock Immigration minister Philip Ruddock will be hosting and addressing an international Immigration and Population Conference in Sydney on May 7-8. Join the protest outside to make it clear to the world that he does not speak for us. Bring your friends, family, workmates, placards, noisemakers, banners. Tuesday, May 7 Assemble at 8.30am (Ruddock speaks at 9.15am) Australian Technology Park Cornwallis Street, Redfern For more info, phone Free the Refugees Campaign on 0439 872 603 or 0428 190 276. [Please pass on this notice to everyone else who would may want to know.] -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: Anarchist and Autonomist Conference Workshop Timetable
http://anarcon.cat.org.au/general.htm -- http://anarcon.cat.org.au/workshop.htm From Resurgence to Insurgence Anarchist and Autonomist Conference April 26 - 28, 2002 Workshop Timetable - correct at 17.4.02 Saturday 10am - 11am - Opening plenary and recognition ... 11am - 12pm - Anarchist organisation - Sub(per)versive sexuality: BDSM as Mutual Aid - Revolting against War: resisting militarism in the age of smart bombs and peacekeeping 12pm - 1pm Lunch 1pm - 2pm - Anarchafeminism - The Sydney Squatted Social Centre Experience - Smashing borders - Punk and Anarchy 2:30 - 3:30pm - Relevance of Workplace Organisation - Love and Relationships - Libertarian education - Spanish okupa (video and discussion) 4 - 5pm - Jails are the Crime - Beyond private and public spheres - Organising as a federation 5pm - 6pm ... (Plenary?) Sunday 10am - 11am ... (Plenary?) 11am - 12pm - 'Ultra-left' Tendencies: Council communism, Bordigists, situationists and autonomists - Catalyst: Community Activist Technology and open source software - Public Speaking 12pm - 1pm Lunch 1pm - 2pm - Staying sane as an activist - Reflections on Spanish Anarchism - The 58 day successful aboriginal autonomist occupation - Globalised protest and the demise of pacifism 2:30 - 3:30pm - Communism and the Multitude - Individualism through Collectivity - Anarchosyndicalism - Paint it Black (video): anarchism, urban uprising, and the mainstream news media 4 - 5pm - Defensive struggle against the police - Art as Subversion - Organising in the Welfare Sector 5pm - 6pm Closing Plenary You can email the conference organising collective at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or sign yourself onto the list here. [ http://lists.cat.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/anarcon ] or drop in to Black Rose Anarchist Bookshop [ http://www.cat.org.au/blackrose/ ] 83 Regent St, near Central Station Phone 0425 315 502 -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Unionists cut links with ALP / AMWU ponders new party
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,3970447%255E2702,00.html Unionists cut links with ALP By Kristine Gough, Work writer - March 18, 2002 KEY Victorian union leaders have resigned from the Labor Party and are considering forming a new political force for working people, prompting a plea for unity from ALP national president Greg Sword. The ALP's core had been corrupted by careerists and branch stackers and had lost sight of the needs of ordinary workers, Electrical Trades Union state secretary Dean Mighell said yesterday. Mr Mighell and United Firefighters Union Victorian secretary Peter Marshall, who has also resigned from the party, said the executives of their unions had agreed to disaffiliate from the ALP. The announcement, coming as the party is reassessing its relationship with the union movement in an attempt to broaden its support base, was described by key union figures as a disaster for the party. I think the ALP is in real crisis, said Victorian Trades Hall Council president Leigh Hubbard, who is re-evaluating his own membership of the party. Mr Hubbard said Mr Mighell's move was not surprising, given the union movement's widespread dissatisfaction with the ALP at both federal and state levels. Mr Mighell, a left-winger, strongly criticised the Bracks Government's record on industrial relations, saying his union got no benefit from its Labor affiliation. Many union members no longer considered the ALP a viable alternative to the Liberal Party and a new workers' party could be the answer, Mr Mighell said. Mr Mighell yesterday confirmed he had joined the Greens, but stopped short of anointing the environmental movement as the future ideological home for unions, describing the Greens as too specific. Mr Marshall, a self-confessed apolitical animal, said UFU members had begun work on the constitution of a new workers party, with input from Mr Mighell. Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Victorian secretary Craig Johnston, who is a member of the Socialist Alliance grouping of left parties, said he expected his members would mount a strong push for disaffiliation at the next AMWU state conference in April. Mr Johnston said he was impressed by the community-centred political vision outlined by Greens leader Bob Brown at a Trades Hall dinner in Melbourne on Friday night, but was outraged when federal ALP deputy leader Jenny Macklin spoke at the same function on refugees. The ALP's position (on refugees) at the last election was a disgrace, he said. The AMWU contributes $250,000 a year to the ALP in affiliation dues, Mr Johnston said. Mr Sword said: The most important thing for Labor and the trade union movement is unity. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,3971830%255E421,00.html AMWU ponders new party Source: AAP - March 18, 2002 AUSTRALIA'S largest manufacturing union will discuss cutting its ties with the Labor Party at its national conference in July, the union's national secretary Doug Cameron has said. The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) will also consider forming a new political party for working class Australians and strengthening relationships with other parties such as the Australian Greens. Mr Cameron said the union wanted political representation that viewed Australian workers as its priority and the ALP no longer did that. He said it was often difficult to tell the difference between Labor and Liberal platforms. Working people are looking for a party that boldly and unashamedly speaks for them and I think there's a view among union activists that the Labor Party is not that party presently, Mr Cameron told ABC radio. He said quitting the ALP was not a question for him to answer personally but one that was on the agenda for the AMWU national conference. It's an issue for the union at its national conference and there are a number of options being looked at by the union, Mr Cameron said. One is to disaffiliate, the other option is to stay within the party and try and transform the party to one that does boldly and unashamedly speak for working people. The third is to have a closer relationship to other parties such as the Greens and the fourth is to work out whether we have a new working class party in Australia. Two Victorian union strongmen announced yesterday they had quit the ALP and their unions - the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the United Firefighters Union (UFU) - may vote to leave the party within a month. Dean Mighell, state secretary of the 18,000-strong ETU, quit the ALP on Friday and joined the Greens while UFU state secretary Peter Marshall also disaffiliated, accusing the Victorian Labor government of poorer industrial relations than the previous Kennett Liberal government. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/
LL:ART: (The Australian) Amnesty head to meet MP's
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,3899594,00.html © The Australian Amnesty head to meet MP's 06mar02 THE new head of human rights watchdog Amnesty International will meet with parliamentary members of the group during a five-day visit to Australia. Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan said Australia's image had been damaged by its treatment of the Tampa refugees, riots and protests at detention centres and farming asylum seekers out to Pacific islands. While the government continued with mandatory detention of asylum seekers in neighbouring countries, it was straying dangerously close to becoming one of the people smugglers it claimed to hinder, Ms Khan said. Diverting boatloads of people to detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea - in exchange for huge sums of money - perpetuates the very trafficking of human misery that the Australian government claims it is seeking to prevent, she said. Ms Khan, a Bangladeshi-born Muslim who took over Amnesty's reins six months ago, said in the wake of September 11 it was easy to vilify foreigners on the grounds of border security. But MPs had an obligation to resist the temptation and take a leadership role against the wishes of the mob. It is all too easy to feed people's fears that the threat comes from abroad, to create a climate of suspicion, mistrust, xenophobia and racism, she said. It is all too easy to confuse those fleeing terror with those who are suspected of causing terror and, in that process, of curtailing the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Who cares about a few foreigners being locked up if it will make us all feel safer, more secure? Prime Minister John Howard has refused to meet with Ms Khan during her visit. But she will have talks with Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock and Attorney-General Daryl Williams tomorrow. . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Refugee centre operators face US lawsuit
(AP) 14:10 AEDST Tue 5 Mar 2002 Refugee centre operators face US lawsuit Human rights lawyers plan to sue the company running Australian detention centres in an American court, using a 200 year-old US law designed to protect against piracy. Senior Murdoch University law lecturer Fernad de Varennes, one of a number of Australian and American lawyers involved in the action, said the group would claim Australian Correctional Management (ACM), under the direction of the federal government, violated human rights. An application was due to be lodged with a federal court in Florida within the next few weeks. We will submit that this prolonged detention constitutes prolonged arbitrary detention as is prohibited in human rights and international human rights, Mr de Varennes told ABC radio. Secondly, that the overall conditions in a number of the detention centres, especially perhaps Curtin (in Western Australia) and Woomera (in South Australia), constitutes cruel or unusual treatment or punishment. He said people outside the United States could use an American court to argue their basic human rights had been violated outside the US. There are certain basic rules of international customary law, the law of nations, which permits a claim in court, he said. Individuals outside the US can go to a federal court if their basic rights under international law has been violated outside the US. This law was initially used to deal with situations like piracy. Mr de Varennes said the Australian government could only be named as a joint defendant in the claim because it was immune from US prosecution. The ACM is only acting in this manner because it can only do what the government actually tells it to do and it can only release individuals who have been processed by immigration, he said. But, at the end of the day, that does not excuse any violation of human rights. Mr de Varennes said if the Florida court found the ACM had breached human rights, it could order the company to pay detainees millions of dollars in damages. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: A web of solidarity with refugees
A web of solidarity with refugees - BY SARAH STEPHEN There is a huge range of refugee solidarity web sites popping up every day, reflecting the broadening of support and sympathy for the plight of people trying to find a safe haven in Australia. Children out of Detention (ChilOut) is campaigning to get children, along with their primary carers or families, out of detention. ChilOut has an impressive web site with a lot of useful resources, including reports from lawyers and psychologists about the effect of detention on children, fact sheets, drawings from children in detention and a regular list of activities. Visit http://www.chilout.org. Australia Cares is a web site that was set up to support the Woomera detainees' hunger strike. It includes a discussion forum, details on how to get Say Yes to Refugees stickers and a report from the Adelaide university lecturer arrested while taking part in a hunger strike at Woomera detention centre. Visit http://www.australiacares.org. Australians Against Racism was set up in October. The group's web site opens with the statement: There comes a time and point in history when silence is betrayal. That time is now. We want to use the mainstream media to speak up and say we do not support what is being done to refugees, asylum seekers and detainees in this country. The group has produced a television advertisement involving many artists and actors. It can be viewed at http://www.australiansagainstracism.org. Another recent addition to cyberspace is an innovative campaign calling itself Spare Rooms for Refugees, a Victorian-based project to help asylum seekers enter the community, support refugees and promote alternatives to detention. The site includes the names and addresses of refugees in detention, with an appeal for people to write letters to them. It also contains handy barbecue facts for use in discussions. Go to http://www.spareroomsforrefugees.com. Rural Australians for Refugees is a national network of groups in rural and regional areas. It began in NSW in October and has snowballed, with many other RAR groups forming around the country. The web site contains a thought-provoking plan for small towns to contribute to resettling refugees. Visit http://us.geocities.com/rar1953. We are all boat people is the theme of a web site of an expanding group of media activists, artists, videographers, webheads, writers and designers. Together, the site says we have the power to challenge the border panic encouraged by the rhetoric of fear. We are making media and cultural actions to remind the government and people everywhere that all (non-indigenous) Australians are in fact `Boat People'. From the First Fleet in 1788, through two centuries of migration, to the most recent arrivals, we share a common past and a current obligation to our fellow human beings. The group launched itself with a huge banner-drop off the side of the Sydney Opera House, an image of a First Fleet ship and the words Boat People. The group encourages a thousand small actions, and provide some tools for how to participate, including a tactical media kit. Visit http://www.boat-people.org. The campaign for a royal commission into the treatment of refugees now has an online petition, which also allows you to make a comment. Visit the royal commission site at http://www.refugee-royal-commission.org and visit http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ausrefug/petition.html to sign the petition. From Green Left Weekly, February 6, 2002. . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Protestors to shadow Ruddock
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,3701978%255E1702,00.html Protestors to shadow Ruddock From AAP - 02feb02 PROTESTERS in Sydney have vowed to follow Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock wherever he goes until detention centres are closed. Up to 1,000 people marched from inner-city Town Hall to the Sydney offices of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to denounce the government's treatment of asylum seekers and its policy of mandatory detention. The procession of protesters stretched through Pitt and George streets for about a kilometre but police reported they were relatively pleased with the crowd's behaviour. Free the Refugees Campaign (FRC) member Paul Benedek told the gathering the pressure on the government to change its immigration policies would continue. Everywhere that Ruddock goes, we will be there, Benedek said. Every single time he shows his face, we'll be there with more and more people. Mr Benedek said a national protest was being organised to coincide with the opening of Federal Parliament in Canberra on February 12. Other protests would be staged before and after that date, while every public appearance Mr Ruddock and Prime Minister John Howard made would be marked by the presence of protesters, he said. The federal government's policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers also came under fire in Sydney last weekend, when protesters gathered outside Villawood Detention Centre. As today's protest began the crowd was told a 29-year-old Iraqi detainee at Woomera had been charged after an incident involving a centre employee last weekend. It was the latest incident at the troubled South Australian facility which has been plagued by hunger strikes and threats of self harm by detainees for several weeks. Protest organiser Roberto Jorquera from FRC said the level of public outrage over the government's current immigration policy was a sign that it had to change, and change quickly. It's a message to Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to say their policy is no longer sustainable and the situation has reached crisis point, he said. The protest was organised in consultation with City Central Police. . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. CRICOS Number: 00099F
