LL:DDS: SOCIAL ACTIVISTS' CALENDAR FOR PROGRESSIVES IN ADELAIDE

[Andy Alcock]

  SOCIAL ACTIVISTS' CALENDAR FOR PROGRESSIVES IN ADELAIDE

Publicising events that promote peace, social justice, reconciliation 
and environmental esponsibility in and around Adelaide, South Australia

   For further information, contact:

 Andy Alcock:>
 Phone: 61  83710480(home)

 Fax:   61 8 82236509
 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

  [Please  circulate]



//


WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM (AUSTRALIA)
MEDIA RELEASE - 11/3/02

A classified Pentagon briefing paper recently leaked to the US media
calls for marked changes in US nuclear posture. Until now, US nuclear
policy (to use nuclear weapons as a last resort) has been based
around the use of nuclear weapons as deterrents.

A secret "Nuclear Posture Review" would expand the kinds of
situations in which the US would be prepared to countenance the use
of nuclear weapons by its military. The Review states that nuclear
weapons could be used by the US in three types of situations: against
targets able to withstand non-nuclear attack; in retaliation for
attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons; or "in the event
of surprising military developments."

The report also identifies seven countries against which the US would
be prepared to use its nuclear armoury.

Consistent with recent changes in foreign policy, this Nuclear
Posture Review,  if adopted, would see yet another sharp move towards
increased US unilateralism. Refusal to participate in the
Comprehensive Test Ban  Treaty; an announced intention to withdraw
from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; and commitment to the
National Missile Defence system have all signalled a renewed
unilateralist inclination in the US.

"These suggested changes to US policy on the use of nuclear weapons
are provocative in the extreme and, if adopted, could only be
regarded as irresponsible," says Mary Ziesak of the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

"If this review is adopted, the US would be giving itself carte
blanche to use nuclear weapons even against nation states which
possess only conventional weapons.

Despite US denials, this new policy review would amount to nuclear
weapons being regarded as conventional battlefield weapons.

"These are moves which would make the use of nuclear weapons more
likely and could only result in increased international tensions.

"We need to be reducing political and military tensions not
increasing them," says Ms Ziesak. "This new nuclear posture would
diminish the safety of all, including the safety of Australian
citizens. At Pine Gap, Australia hosts a base which plays its part in
the US nuclear war fighting strategy. There is ample room for a
middle ranking power on the international stage such as Australia to
stand up against these belligerent and provocative moves on the part
of the US. WILPF believes that the Australian Government now needs to
take a firm stand against the changes proposed in this policy review."

Contact: Cathy Picone 08 8296 4357
--




///

AFGHANI NIGHTS

Here is a chance to meet asylum seekers at first hand and hear their
stories
without the slant and distortions of some of our political leaders.

These evenings have caused great interest in the past.


TIME: 
7 PM
DAY: 
TUESDAY
DATE: 
19 MARCH  2002

VENUE: 
OVERWAY CENTRE (Aboriginal Catholic Mission)
185 PIRIE ST
ADELAIDE

NOTE: 
IT IS ESSENTIAL TO BOOK

Bookings on 8232 1001



/

  OXFAM CAA ACTIVITIES

CAA's WALK AGAINST WANT

will take place on Sunday 24th March
  at Rymill Park 10am.

  A big call out to all of you to be part of this years walk which will
  incorporate a new aspect and that is the charities involvement to
march and bring banners or signs etc, to put forward your believes
and hopefully we can all get some media exposure to help all of
your amazing work which I am so passionate about and so
  honoured to be in the same boat as you.

So please consider this march and lets be active on this day and
express what we stand for.

If you have anyone interested to be part of the walk, please let CAA
know as soon as possible.

  WHAT TO DO:

  1)call 1800 034 034  or log into www.caa.org.au/walk or visiting any CAA
Shop,
Snowgum Store or  Body Shop to register and receive a sponsorship book

  2)turn up on the day a make a donation (any amount)

  3)Please forward this email attachment to anyone who you think will be
interested.


//

LL:ART: Silence over a crime against humanity

[Trudy Bray]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0203/14/national/national992.html

The Sydney Morning Herald
March 14, 2002

Silence over a crime against humanity

International Editor Hamish McDonald reveals the critical evidence
Australia's spy chiefs have kept hidden, as trials begin in Jakarta
today over violence during East Timor's independence vote.

The evidence is contained in the most tightly held archive in
Canberra: the electronic data base of the Defence Signals Direct-
orate (DSD), the result of months intercepting secret
communications between Indonesian officers involved in a shadowy
campaign to thwart East Timorese hopes of independence in 1999.

Some details of this vast intelligence record have been revealed for
the first time to the Herald by senior defence community sources in
Canberra. They are dismayed at a huge crime against humanity,
committed on Australia's doorstep and under the eyes of the
United Nations, remaining unexposed.

The DSD intercepts map out the chain of command, from the local
militias and covert Indonesian forces in East Timor up to one of the
most feared military men in Jakarta, General Feisal Tanjung,
whose involvement has so far escaped mention in human rights
investigations.

The defence sources also say that some of this critical intelligence
in the first half of 1999, pointing to high-level Indonesian
involvement, was not included in intelligence exchanged with
United States' agencies at a time when the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade was blaming the militia violence on "rogue
elements" in the Indonesian army.

The tensions this caused between Canberra's Defence Intelligence
Organisation and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
(DFAT) have been seen as contributing to the June 1999 suicide of
the DIO liaison officer in Washington, Lieutenant-Colonel Merv
Jenkins, after he was questioned by DFAT security officials about
"Australian Eyes Only" material shared with American counterparts.

The intercepts, contained in files classified as "Secret Spoke"
(meaning derived from intercepted clear-voice telephone calls) or
"Top Secret Umbra" (derived from encrypted or scrambled voice
communications), have not been shared with UN or other
investigators.

But they include details of command and communications
hierarchies that would provide vital evidence for international-
standard war crimes tribunals, such as those prosecutions being
mounted in The Hague against politicians and generals in the
former Yugoslavia.

Instead of setting up such a tribunal for East Timor, the UN has
stood back for 21/2 years to let Jakarta fulfil its promise to mount
its own trials of those responsible for the 1999 massacres,
abductions, coerced population movements and destruction.

In Jakarta, the first trial is due to begin today, with former East
Timor governor Abilio Soares and former provincial police chief
Brigadier-General Timbul Silaen accused of crimes against
humanity involving widespread attacks on civilians.

Silaen is one of three generals among the 18 military personnel
and civilian militia leaders accused of participation or responsibility
in some of the more large-scale acts of murder in 1999. The other
two are Major-General Adam Damiri, former head of the Udayana
regional command, which included East Timor, and Brigadier-
General Tono Suratman, who was East Timor military commander
for much of 1999.

To the extent they face substantial punishment the three still seem
to be in the pipeline for promotion within the army and police these
generals and a number of colonels and junior officers appear to be
the sacrifices to appease foreign and local concerns.

The senior generals who were more closely supervising the militia
campaign on the ground in East Timor, and who reported directly to
top military figures in Jakarta, have been left off the list of accused,
although some were named as suspects in Indonesia's special
human rights commission report in February 2000.

So far, it appears the Indonesian legal process, while concentrating
on specific incidents of terror, has not attempted to lay overall
blame for the militia campaign ahead of the August 30, 1999, vote,
or for the systematic drive after the result was announced to deport
the population and lay waste to the territory.

The Indonesian armed forces commander and defence minister at
the time, General Wiranto, was forced to resign from his later
cabinet post as co-ordinating political and security minister after
the February 2000 report said he carried moral responsibility for the
violence, given that Indonesia had guaranteed security for East
Timor's referendum.

But now Wiranto also appears to be a fall guy, in terms of political,
if not legal, responsibility. In all the inquiries so far, little 
attention has been given to the role of Feisal Tanjung, Wiranto's 
predecessor as armed forces commander then as political-security 
minister, whose pivotal role in instigating, planning and executing the 
militia campaign is broug

LL:REM: demonstrate against Peter Reith conference

[Shute, Carmel]

Please forward this as widely as you can. It's a pretty amazing 
conference, featuring Reith, Abbott, Andrew Bolt and a host of other 
uglies. Check out the website below.
www.hrnicholls.com.au 
--

Liberal Party Ex-Defence Minister Peter Reith is coming to Melbourne to
collect an award for services rendered, by the HR Nicholls Society, a
Liberal Party right-wing thinktank.

VICTORIAN TRADES HALL COUNCIL and REFUGEE ACTION COLLECTIVE

ask you to DEMONSTRATE AT THE CEREMONY

6PM FRIDAY 22 MARCH

HR Nicholls Society conference
The Holiday Inn,
Cnr Park Street and St Kilda Road,
Melbourne


5 REASONS TO PROTEST - Some crimes of Peter Reith

1. Lying to the Australian people about refugees throwing children overboard
2. Bashing the Maritime Union and construction workers
3. Attacks on workers rights - Workplace Relations Act
4. Phonecard rort
5. Profiting from government inside information

Speakers include:
Leigh Hubbard, Secretary, Trades Hall Council

For further info:
Refugee Action Collective
9659 3505 or 0402 413 914
www.rac-vic.   org 

Bring noise-makers, banners, placards

Below is the program for the HR Nicholls Society conference, a right 
wing think-tank. Peter Reith will be receiving the Charles Copeman medal 
from John 'Flat Tax' Stone. Brian Welch from the Master Builders 
Association is speaking on the Royal Commission witch hunt into the 
building industry. Andrew Bolt - propagandist in chief from the Herald 
Sun - is holding forth on (of all things) outworkers.

See the website   www.hrnicholls.com.au

---

The Changing Paradigm:
Freedom, Jobs, Prosperity
Friday 22 March & Saturday 23 March 2002
The Holiday Inn,
Cnr Park Street and St Kilda Road,
Melbourne
Tel: (03) 9209 9888
Fax: (03) 9690 1603

Programme

Friday, 22 March
7.00 pm for Dinner 7.30 pm

Guest of Honour and recipient of the Charles Copeman Medal for 2002:
The Hon. Peter Reith

Mr John Stone, former Secretary to the Treasury, and founding President
of the H R Nicholls Society, will make the presentation.

Saturday, 23 March
9.00 am
Session A
Chairman: Bob Day
I. 'Breathing Life into the New Paradigm'
Ray Evans
II. 'Reflections on the Cole Royal Commission'
Brian Welch
Exec. Director of the MBA (Vic)
Discussant: Stuart Wood
'After the Commission'

10.30 am Morning Tea

11.00 am
Session B
Chairman: Steve Knott
I. 'Minimum Wages and Other Barriers to Employment: or why Card and Krueger
were wrong'
Des Moore and Geoff Hogbin
II. 'The O'Connor Abattoirs Story' (to be confirmed): Kevin O'Connor

12.30 pm Lunch

1.30 pm
Session C
Chairman: Stuart Wood
I. 'Labour Market Reform post-10 Nov 2001'
The Hon. Tony Abbott
II. 'The Victorian Industrial Manslaughter Bill'
Ken Phillips

3.20 pm Afternoon Tea

3.40 pm
Session D
Chairman: John Paterson
I. 'What can be done when the Police decline to enforce the law' (to be
confirmed)
Frank Parry
II. 'Trade Unions and Civil Society'
The Hon. Gary Johns

5.10 pm
Session E
Chairman: Des Moore
'Facing the next Victorian election'
Bill Forwood, MLC

6.30 pm for Dinner 7.00 pm
Guest of Honour: Andrew Bolt
'Reflections on the Outworkers'




Jeff Sparrow
Coordinator
New International Book Co-operative
Box 18
Trades Hall
54 Victoria St
Carlton Sth 3053
tel 03 9662 3744 fax 03 9663 4755
www.nibs.org.au 

to receive regular updates about bookshop events, send a message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]



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LL:REM: get on the bus 2002

[Judith Anne McVey]

/URGENT -- SIGN UP NOW

JOIN THE FREEDOM BUS RIDES TO WOOMERA EASTER 2002
March 29 - April 1
to Free the Refugees

Contact Kristalo on 0413 115 109
or RAC on 9659 3505
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
to book your seat or for more information.

Be part of the national convergence to demand the
closure of the detention centres.

please let us know asap if you are coming because we
need to finalise numbers.


http://movies.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Movies
- Vote for your nominees in our online Oscars pool.


Crack of the Bat, Click of the Mouse. Taking someone
out to the ball game is great, but when you can't make
it to the park, Baseball Weekly is the next best thing to
being there! Sign up here!
http://click.topica.com/caaacQ2bUrIOybVoCWbf/TopOffers



Refugee Action Collective - Victoria
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.rac-vic.org

RAC-Vic has another email list, with regular
emails of news articles.
To subscribe to this list, email
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
---


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   Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
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LL:DDN: Sydney discussion: industrial democracy/workers power

[leon parissi]

Workers' Liberty
Industrial democracy and workers' control. What's the difference? Could
either have saved Ansett?

7.30pm Monday 18 March
The Green Iguana Café (upstairs)
6 King Street (Sydney Uni end) NEWTOWN

Could Ansett workers have saved their jobs, regional air services and 
cheap airfares if they had refused to leave their aircraft, airports and 
offices, and insisted on running Ansett themselves? Can a group of 
workers take responsibility for production and distribution without 
taking responsibility for the management of the enterprise's profitablity?

Other dates for Workers' Liberty discussions on the theme "is democracy
dead? at the Green Iguana:
Tuesday 2 April - Martin Thomas on Globalisation and the workers' movement
Monday 6 May - more on democracy and the working class

Contact us for details of other dates and reading. We will be discussing 
  workers democracy from the Paris Commune of 1871, the Spanish Civil 
War, Paris 1968, cordonis in Chile under Allende, Wonthaggi, Victoria 
1934 . the NSW BLF in the 1970s and others. Contradictions between 
capitalism and democracy. Why the public sector is undemocratic and 
bureaucratic. How the pursuit of working class democracy gives a new 
meaning to the struggle for human liberation.

Workers' Liberty PO Box 313 LEICHHARDT NSW 2040
0419 493 421 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.workersliberty.org/australia



_
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