LL:DDS: SOCIAL ACTIVISTS' CALENDAR FOR PROGRESSIVES IN ADELAIDE
SOCIAL ACTIVISTS' CALENDAR FOR PROGRESSIVES IN ADELAIDE 2003 22 MARCH 2003 Please support the following actions and activities to promote peace, social justice environmental awareness. NO WAR RALLY - ADELAIDE * THE GEORGE BUSH FOR THE CONTROL OF IRAQ'S OIL POLITICS IN THE ME HAS BEGUN * THE WAR MONGERS ARE ON A ROLL * JOIN MILLIONS AROUND THE WORLD WHO WANT PEACE TO STOP THIS UNNECESSARY BUSH FAMILY OIL WAR TIME: 1 PM DAY:SUNDAY DATE: 23 MARCH 2003 Gather Victoria Square 1pm Volunteers Required to help on the day for badge selling, money collecting, marshalling and collecting contacts. Ring NOWAR on 8212 4822 or 0438 856 198 Volunteers will need to come to 239 Wright St at 11am on the Sunday. BE AWARE THAT THE CLIPSAL 500 WILL BE IN PROGRESS AT THE TIME OF THIS RALLY. PARKING WILL BE DIFFICULT TO FIND IN THE CITY Palm Sunday Rally - April 13th, 2pm Endorsed by the Adelaide Heads of Christian Churches in association with NOWAR SA. Gathering in Elder Park after rallying at 2pm at Victoria Square or St Peters Cathedral Volunteers also needed to assist with this rally. Please regularly check into our web site at www.nowar-sa.net for . . . ... AUSTRALIAN WEST PAPUA ASSOCIATION (ADELAIDE) AUSTRALIA EAST TIMOR FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION (SOUTH AUSTRALIA) INC [formerly Campaign for an Independent East Timor (SA) Inc] INVITE YOU TO A PUBLIC MEETING: WITH JOHN MARTINKUS TIME: 6 - 7.30 PM DAY:SATURDAY DATE: 22 MARCH 2002 VENUE: THE ATRIUM YUNGONDI BUILDING (Near Old Lion's Art Centre) UNI OF SA CITY WEST CAMPUS NORTH TCE (WEST) JOHN MARTINKUS John is an Australian journalist who wrote the book East Timor - Dirty Little War based on his experiences in East Timor in 1998 - 9. Last year, he wrote an article Dissent in Paradise in Quarterly Essay which shows how the Indonesian war criminals who organised the genocide in East Timor are now organising terror in West Papua. This will be a very important event and will show why the Bush/Howard plan to resume military cooperation with the Indonesian Special Forces/Kopassus is stupid criminally negligent because it will increase the terror in our region More information from: Dave Arkins Organiser, AWPA (Adelaide) Phone: 83454480 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Andy Alcock Chairperson, AETFA (SA) Inc Phone: 83710480(home) 82053200(work) 0417 838 952 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] . . SOLIDARITY FILM NIGHT Australia Cuba Friendship Society Australia Vietnam Society APHEDA - Union Aid Abroad [Australian People for Health Education Development Abroad] HAVE DINNER SEE:BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM TIME: 6.30 PM (DINNER) 7.30 PM DAY:FRIDAY DATE: 28 MARCH 2003 VENUE: WALLIS THEATRETTE 139 Richmond Rd, Richmond (North side near South Rd) TICKETS:$20 (dinner film) $15 (Concession) Support APHEDA aid projects in Cambodia, Cuba Vietnam For further details: Phone: 8264 3763 83421565 0418 831 873 8363 1322 . . JOHN HOWARD'S TERROR KITS KEEP SENDING THEM BACK These are the kits that have cost $15 million to produce, are very glossy and provide very little useful information. There are many rude suggestions as to what can be done with them! However, a very useful protest is to: * return your Terror Kit to Senator Bob Brown (Greens) or Senator Bartlett (Democrats) asking them to table in Parliament as a protest action. * write some comments about: - children in detention or detention in general - the Sievx tragedy - how the
LL:DDV: public forum with ANURADHA MITTAL
Apologies for cross postings. Please send out through your networks, elists or ebulletins. All welcome. Thanks. a public forum: ** GLOBALISING HUNGER? Food, trade and neoliberalism ** International guest ANURADHA MITTAL, co-director of the California-based 'peoples' think tank FOOD FIRST, tackles world trade and the root causes of world hunger. Thursday March 27, 6-8pm Seminar Rooms 1 and 2 Storey Hall, 344 Swanston Street, City Wheel chair accessible Food First (www.foodfirst.org) highlights root causes and value-based solutions to hunger and poverty, establishing food as a fundamental human right. Anuradha Mittal's articles on food and trade have been published in numerous national and international newspapers and journals, bringing together the links between debt, aid, cash crops, genetic engineering and neoliberalism to explain world hunger and poverty. She was born in India and is currently based in the United States. Presented by the Globalism Institute (www.rmit.edu.au/globalism) and the Friends of the Earth Trade Campaign (www.foe.org.au). RSVP if possible, by calling Friends of the Earth on 9419 8700 or emailing [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Friends of the Earth's trade campaign is run by a collective of people using creative and catchy public education and direct action to oppose corporate globalisation. To get involved come to a meeting (fortnightly on Monday evenings), or contact FoE on 9419 8700. - help keep FoE active - give a tax-free donation - Friends of the Earth Melbourne (Australia) PO Box 222 Fitzroy 3065 312 Smith St Collingwood Phone: (03) 9419 8700 Fax: (03) 9416 2081 (International: tel. +61 (3) 9419 8700; fax +61 (3) 9416 2081) www.melbourne.foe.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:DDV: Socialist Alliance Northcote anti-war public meeting
Socialist Alliance Public Forum Wed April 2nd 6:30pm Ruckers Bar and Grill 250 High St, Northcote Where to for the US: from Iraq to Nth Korea Speakers - Allen Jennings who will look at US interests in Latin America and the ongoing victories of the people of Veneuzuala against US interests. - Bill Hartley - long term Middle East peace activists will look at the history of the US in Iraq. Ph) 9486 5472 for more info All welcome! .. -- -- 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: the Women's Circus - live theatre is endangered
Dear Friends Live theatre is endangered! The Women's Circus major performance season of GHOSTS will only run from now until April 5th. And then it's all over. That's the deal with live theatre. You can't ask your mum to tape it, you can't get it from a video library on a lazy Sunday afternoon, you can't order it through the mail...it's now or never. So what are you waiting for? Bookings 9685 5111 or try your luck at the door. and then you can say (when the youth of tomorrow look up and ask) ... yep, I was there, at the world premiere (Shows run Wedesday - Saturday nights at Shed 14 in the Melbourne Docklands show starts at 8.30pm) Quotes from review by Helen Thomson, THE AGE this morning (Thursday). Page 4 in The Culture. SHARP TOPIC AND FRESH STYLE MAKE A POWERFUL STATEMENT The effect is poetic, suggestive and moving. ...remarkable music score... this is a marvellously imaginative and evocative show that celebrates the Women's Circus 13th year with a fresh style and an emphatically relevant subject. Details of GHOSTS Researched and developed by the Women's Circus Written and directed by Andrea Lemon Every day walking beside us are the ghosts of people, places and things we thought lost to us forever. GHOSTS takes us to an unholy limbo, peopled by wraiths caught between the real and the remembered, searching for release. With trademark courage and passion, the Women's Circus brings together over 50 women in a large scale production combining aerials, balance, dance, music and puppetry. Composer / Musical Director: Andrea rieniets Rigging Design: Franca Stadler Movement: Teresa Blake Circus: Andrea Ousley, Sarah Gosling Puppetry: Megan Cameron Set Design: Trina Parker Costume Design: Amanda Silk Lighting Design: Gina Gascoigne Sound Designer: Dawn Holland March 14 / 19 - 22 / 26 - 29 / April 2 - 5 2003 @ 8.30pm Tickets $26.50 / $16.50 Preview Thursday 13th March @8.30pm All tickets $11 No bookings Special price Wed 19th all tickets $15.50 at the door Bookings 9685 5111 Disability access enquiries 9687 3665 The Women's Circus respectfully acknowledges the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the land on which we are performing -- Emma Heughan General Manager Women's Circus Phone: 9687 3665 Fax: 9689 7886 [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:PR: Victory to the Iraqis over U.S. imperialism
Victory to the Iraqis over U.S. imperialism! Working people have the power to end the bloodshed The hope that a U.S.-led war of mass destruction against Iraq could be averted has evaporated like a water droplet in the Saudi desert. Over the protest of millions of people here, in the U.S. and around the world, Bush, Blair, Howard and Co. are at this moment murdering their way to Baghdad with the intention of imposing a military occupation that could last years. So much for the niceties of multilateralism and UN resolutions. Goodbye to the fiction that the Howard Government, pursuing an independent foreign policy, had not made a decision to commit troops to a U.S. led war. Gone is the misconception that support for human rights and oppressed minorities in the Middle East determine U.S. policy. U.S. backing for Israel's war of extermination against Palestinians shows exactly how little its supposed concern for Iraqi Kurds means. The naked truth is that major corporations and their arrogant servants in government are not bound by laws or decency to do anything that does not please them and serve their interests. And it pleases them now to invade Iraq, enslave its people, steal their oil, and set up another military outpost in the Middle East -- just as it once pleased them to arm Hussein against Islamic revolutionaries in Iran. So how is it that replacing this former ally through the genocidal bombing of Iraq's people has become the most urgent task of the Bush regime? Bush is spurred by economic necessity. The intractable problem of capitalism is the chronic overproduction of goods resulting in recession: global markets evaporating, millions of workers unemployed -- and profits in jeopardy. For Bush, who believes that even modest government support for welfare programs is creeping socialism, war is the only solution. The Iraqi people are being annihilated so that Halliburton, the energy company Dick Cheney headed, and thousands of other corporations can invest profitably in rebuilding Iraq and replacing the immense amount of military hardware that will be blown up in this conflagration. Where this U.S. drive for world economic and political hegemony will end, no one knows. The Syrians, Libyans, North Koreans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, or Venezuelans could be next in line. It violates every notion of sovereignty and self-determination for the U.S. government to consider regime change as its privilege to impose. It is the obligation of antiwar activists around the world to uphold Iraq's right to self-defense against the neocolonial army of the U.S. and its allies and the right of Iraqis to take care of Hussein themselves. The actions of working people -- especially in the U.S., Britain and Australia -- through protests and work stoppages -- can and will make a difference in the days ahead. Bring the troops home now! is the rallying cry of those who know this is an unjust war. Issued by: Freedom Socialist Party Solidarity Salon: 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick Vic 3056 AUSTRALIA * www.socialism.com * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * 03-9388-0062, 03-9386-5065 .. -- -- 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: Bob Brown: 'The world has failed'
Apols for x-posting. Chris Chaplin Preston, Vic - Original Message - From: Oquist, Ben (Sen B. Brown) [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 5:00 PM Subject: Greens-Activist The world has failed Dear all The Senate passed Greens amendment this afternoon calling for troops to be brought home immediately. Exact words: The Senate calls on the government to immediately return Australia's 2000 Defence Force personnel home Also attached transcript from Brown's press conference+ his release GREENS SENATOR BOB BROWN IRAQ WAR Opposition Leader's Courtyard Thursday, March 20, 2003 3.15pm SENATOR BOB BROWN - Australia is now at war at the behest of President Bush. The hearts and minds of the Australian people will both be with the two thousand Australians who are involved in this unnecessary war, which is not Australia's war, at the behest of John W Howard. And we'll be hoping they come home safe and secure with the other combatants but also and very specially with the twenty-six million Iraqi people who are caught now beneath the cruise missiles and between Saddam Hussein and George W Bush. It has to be hoped that as brutal as it will be, this war will be brief. The world will be hoping that if there has to be casualties, it will be Saddam Hussein and his hench people. But this is an illegal war. It is unnecessary. There were better options and there are better options under the auspices of the world body, the United Nations. It's an imperial war by the United States. Australia has been made a vassal to that by Prime Minister Howard which is an affront to the dignity and pride of this nation. But we will be with those two thousand Australians, good and true, in heart and mind, and with the people in Iraq. In the coming days, we will see unfold some terrifying events. But we must all think of the millions of people who are huddled in Basra and Baghdad and the other cities and regions of Iraq in the coming days and weeks, terrified, helpless and faced with an illegal onslaught from the most powerful weapons of mass destruction the world has ever seen arrayed in a situation like this. As an Australian and a Green, I join with people right around ... the majority of people around the world and the majority of countries around this world, including those people of like countries such as New Zealand and Canada in wishing that our defence force personnel were here at home, in wishing that the United States and British weapons were not being unleashed, and in wishing that the United Nations had been able to continue to contain Saddam Hussein without the death toll we're about to see unfold. REPORTER: Now that the war has actually started - I mean, we have been talking about it for weeks and weeks - do you think it will hit home to the government what they've actually done today, that, you know, our troops are now in there? They're now putting their lives on the line. Do you think it will at all humble them in any way? BROWN: No, I don't. I don't think our Prime Minister has the depth to, despite what he has said, to understand the horror of the engagement for Australians now and into the future. We know it is going to further imperil Australians for years into the future let alone for the men, women and children - the civilians - of Iraq. I was horrified myself to see today the government vote down Senator Nettle's motions to prohibit and to push against the use of cluster weapons, those horrific indiscriminate weapons used in Afghanistan by the United States now to be used in Iraq which children pick up, thinking they're food parcels and get blown to bits. This is a nasty, savage age of weaponry. The Prime Minister has put himself behind that. I oppose it. Millions of Australians oppose it. The majority of the people around the world oppose it. But all we can ... we who are unable ... and our country has cashed in, because of the Prime Minister, the opportunity to put a hand of restraint on George W Bush's shoulders. But now that John W Howard has done that all that we can do is join with the rest of the world in pushing to bring this to the shortest end possible and to continue to push to bring our two thousand Australians home as soon as possible. And I say to all Australians who are appalled by these events, go beyond that, be active, come out into the streets - peaceably. Write to your politicians, ring them up, go to the Members of Parliament who have backed this unleashing of these weapons onto the Iraqi people. Be active about it. The world is a modern world of communications and as Senator Nettle said, there is two super powers at play here. One is the United States of America, the other is world public opinion - and we're firmly on the side of the latter. REPORTER: What do you think this has done to Australia's reputation in the international community? Our involvement in... BROWN: Well, it has done enormous damage to Australia's reputation in the
LL:DDS: Ecological Footprints Tues 1/4, spkr M. Wackernagel
Ecological Footprints - Do We Fit on the Planet? How much nature do we use? How much nature do we have? Date : 1 April 2003, Tuesday Time: 6 - 7,30 pm Venue: Auditorium, Adelaide Convention Centre A free public forum presented by internationally acknowledged sustainability advocate and co-creator of the Ecological Footprint concept, Dr Mathis Wackernagel. We're spending our natural capital as if there's no tomorrow. The average Adelaide resident requires approximately 8 hectares of productive land to meet their consumption demands. If all the productive land on the Earth were allocated equally, there would be approximately 2 hectares per person. The battle for sustainability will be won or lost in cities. As Adelaide strives to become a green city, innovative and creative approaches to reducing the city's Ecological Footprint need to be devised. Mathis Wackernagel will discuss how the Ecological Footprint can be used as a tool for creating new urban possibilities in the City of Adelaide. RSVP Not required. For further information, please contact Gary Brook on 8302 3142. -- To help Australians join the human shield in Iraq please send donations to: Aussieshield Account, C/o Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (SA), GPO Box 2094, Adelaide, 5001. .. -- -- 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: New International bookshop big red quiz night postponed
As many people will now have heard, the Big Red Quiz night -- the New International Bookshop's major fund raiser -- has been postponed, since we didn't think many people on the Left would be feeling like a festive occasion at present. The new details are as follows: 7.30 pm, Saturday 24 May (note the new date) 120 Clarendon St, Southbank The world might be going to hell in a hand-basket but the Big Red Quiz Night continues. Join Carmel, Ken and the Doctor of Love in the salubrious surrounds of the Education Union building as they unleash their Weapons of Mass Distraction upon the serried ranks of the Left. Trivia not troops! Beer not bombs! A competition where all that's hurt is pride! $15 / $8 includes food (drinks at bar prices) Bookings essential on 9662 3744 Jeff Sparrow Coordinator New International Book Co-operative Trades Hall Box 18 54 Victoria St Carlton Sth 3053 Mon-Fri 9am-6.30 pm Sat 11am-5pm tel 03 9662 3744 fax 03 9662 4755 www.nibs.org.au to receive regular updates about bookshop events, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Through this experience we have been warned - learn everything, don't forget anything! [...] The main enemy is at home! Karl Liebknecht, 1915 .. -- -- 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: cuban trade unionists speak in sydney
A delegation of Cuban trade union representatives will be in Sydney as part of a tour organised by the Construction, Forestry, Mining Energy Union (CFMEU). The delgation includes: - Pedro Ross Leal, the General Secretary of the Cuban Confederation of Workers, Member of the Cuban National Assembly a member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party - Rafael Mesa Bravo, Secretary of the Cuban Construction Workers Union - Hilda Chacon Bravo, the International Relations Representative (Asia Pacific) for the Cuban Confederation of Workers A dinner talk sponsored by the CFMEU, the Australia Cuba Friendship Society, Amigos de Cuba the Committee in Solidarity with Cuba (Western Suburbs) has been organised. Speacial guests will be Pedro Ross Leal, Rafael Mesa Bravo and Hilda Chacon Bravo. The details are as follows: Dinner Welcome Topics include: - International Workers Solidarity - The future of Socialism in the World - War, Peace National Sovereignty Date: Sunday, March 30, 2003 Time:6.00pm Where: Greek Community Club 206 Lakemba Street, Lakemba Cost: $20.00 (dinner included) Entertainment will be provided by Latin Band. Seats are limited bookings are essential. For bookings further information, contact Nick Rawson 0414 691 732, Hugo Nardini 9822 5891/ 0408 964 953, Jodie Coleman 9749 0406 (for credit card bookings), Mara Ochoa on 9602 0450 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] or Joan Silk at [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:DDS: Nuclear dump debate Sunday 6 April 2pm
Forwarded from another list The Nuclear Dump Debate !! Sunday April 6, 2-4pm Cynthia Poulton Hall (next to St. Peter's Cathedral), North Adelaide. Moderated by Monsignor David Cappo of the Archdiocese of Adelaide Chair of the Board of the State Government's Social Inclusion Unit, former head of Centacare Australia. Speakers: * Senator Nick Minchin (Liberal - federal government) * Barry Wakelin MP (Liberal - federal government - member for Grey, SA)) * John Hill MP (Environment Minister - SA Labor government) * Senator Kerry Nettle (Greens - federal) * Senator Lyn Allison (Democrats - federal) * Senator Penny Wong (Labor - federal) * David Noonan (Australian Conservation Foundation) * Janet Giles (SA United Trades Labor Council) * Dr. Jim Green (Campaign Against Nuclear Dumping) Followed by questions and comments from the floor. More information: * Jim Green ph: 8211 7604, [EMAIL PROTECTED]. * David Noonan ph: 8232 2566. Jim Green 6/21 Surflen St., Adelaide, SA, 5000 Ph. (08) 8211 7604 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.geocities.com/jimgreen3 .. -- -- 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: How you can fight the war and the Blackshirts
STOP THE BLACKSHIRTS! NEVER AGAIN! On Saturday, 29 March, fight war AND fascism =8B Before the anti-war rally at the State Library (1.00 pm), * Rally from 11.30 am at Brunswick Town Hall (corner of Dawson Street Sydney Road, Brunswick). Speeches start at noon. * Then come along to a Street Party to celebrate diversity: 2.00 - 6.00 pm, Percy Street, Brunswick Hearkening back to Mussolini's fascist gangs, the Blackshirts stalk women who leave often-violent relationships, win custody of the children or may be in a lesbian relationship. They regularly demonstrate outside the Family Court to harass women who are fighting custody battles and to recruit like-minded brethren. Blackshirts' leader, John Abbott, says he has no problem with fascism. Fascism sent Jews and all groups that big business targeted as threats or burdens - women, queers, people with disabilities, immigrants, unionists, radicals - to their death. Organised by Diversity in Safe Communities (DiSC). ENDORSERS: Victorian Trades Hall Council; Moreland City Council; Denis Evans, Organiser for Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU); Radical Women; Workers Liberty; Freedom Socialist Party; Australia Asia Worker Links; Socialist Alliance; tallpaul, Editor of The Internet Anti-Fascist; LaTrobe University Women's Department; National Union of Students; Council of Single Mothers and their Children; Friends of the Earth; Refugee Action Collective; International Socialist Organisation; Monash Student Association; Men Against Sexual Assault; Socialist Party; Brunswick Women's Choir; Moreland Peace Group FOR MORE INFORMATION: For the rally, contact Debbie: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For the street party, contact Paula: [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: Lies rejected
The following Editorial was published in The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, March 26, 2003. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Guardian: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au Subscription rates on request. ** Editorial - Lies rejected The farrago of lies told by Howard, Blair, Bush and their supporters to justify war against Iraq has not swayed millions of people in Australia and around the world. People are demonstrating their rejection of these lies. Government leaders lied about weapons of mass destruction, that Iraq had links with al-Qaida, about the legality of their invasion, about the rightness of the cause, about regime change, that Australia is threatened by Iraq and that it is in Australia's national interest to go to war. Faced with these failures the government and supporters of war are now attempting to hide behind the cry - support our boys. Howard, Blair and even Crean are beating this drum as a desperate and backdoor means of pushing the Australian people into supporting an illegal, unjustified and criminal war. If those who now demand support for war were concerned about the well-being of the troops, they would never have sent them to Iraq in the first place. If the war is wrong and illegal what troops are being ordered to do in Iraq is also wrong and illegal. The Australian troops are not defending Australia. They are involved in a war of blatant aggression against a sovereign country for illegal objectives. The invasion of Iraq is already an international crime. The so-called allied troops - three countries out of 192 - are bringing death and destruction to one of the oldest centres of civilisation, highly cultured and highly educated. The bombers, cruise missiles and attack helicopters are killing from a great height. The TV images that follow the missiles to their targets do not show the mangled bodies. This is what war is all about and this is what it is for - killing people, occupying another nation's land and seizing its resources. Soldiers are trained to kill other human beings and that is what the invading forces are doing - killing civilians and Iraqi soldiers defending the sovereignty of their own country even though Iraq has been virtually disarmed compared with the technology arraigned against them. Consideration is now being given to charging Howard and others responsible with war crimes. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also hinted at similar moves. When threatening the Iraqi leadership and military that they would be charged as war criminals unless they surrendered, George Bush declared that it would be no defence to say: I was just following orders. This must also apply to others. All these considerations mean nothing to those who run Australia's Government and the military and strategic analysts who regard war as a parlour game of tanks, planes, guided missiles. They do not speak about the people whose lives, children, and hopes are blighted. These experts are joined by prostitute journalists of the ABC, CNN and other TV channels and the mass media who record their on-the-spot comments - an essential element in the service of the war machine. The consequences for the Iraqi people will be rapidly forgotten once their war game is over. Many supporters of war have also invoked God on the side of war. Godspeed screamed Sydney's Daily Telegraph front page while Bush repeatedly intones, God bless America as though there is no other country in the world other than the USA. God bless America, Australia and Britain, wrote one correspondent to the Daily Telegraph. Another wrote, May God be your protector. They call on a God to bless those whose job is killing. Their God is actually Mars, the Greek God of war. The troops are also declared freedom fighters by the same media and politicians who savagely restrict the democratic rights of the people with so-called anti-terrorist legislation and, in some countries, violently suppress anti-war protests. They will not liberate Iraq but impose an American occupation and a government that is totally subservient to US dictates as has already been done in Afghanistan. The oil resources of Iraq will be stolen by the US and British corporations. Millions of Iraqi families will be decimated, lives lost, homes destroyed, turned into refugees - thanks to the allied war machine in violation of international law. That is why the demand to Stop the War is ringing out around the world. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New
LL:ART: All the News That Fits
One of the people accused of helping refugees escape from Woomera is asking for letters of support. Please write to: timothy daniel collins port augusta prison po box 6 port augusta SA 5700 (Tim can't receive any books or papers but can receive cash and money orders). This week's stories: People of Iraq to Be Liberated...To Create A New World Free From Terrorism...Free From Fear...And Based on Democracy..Quotes of the Week. A UN report prepared before the war on Iraq estimated that it will create 900,000 refugees. The report also says that as many as 500,000 Iraqis may require treatment: 100,000 for injuries, 400,000 for disease. The report says that 3.03 million people will require 'therapeutic feeding' - 2.03 million severely and moderately malnourished children under five and one million pregnant and lactating women. London Times. The American government is planning a secret meeting to discuss the construction of a new generation of nuclear weapons, according to a leaked Pentagon document. A meeting of military officials and nuclear scientists in August would also decide whether to restart nuclear testing and how to convince the public new weapons are necessary. The National Nuclear Security Administration, which is responsible for designing, building and maintaining nuclear weapons, has confirmed that the document is real. A policy paper by Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld identified seven countries as potential targets for US nuclear weapons. The American government has adopted the policy of 'pre-emptive strikes' - attacking other countries that they feel might pose a threat in the future. The Guardian (UK), Washington Post. More than half of the San Francisco police department's leadership face prosecution for allegedly trying to cover up a street brawl involving off-duty police officers. Four of the city's senior police officers, including its police chief Earl Sanders, were among 10 officers indicted on criminal charges in connection with the fight reportedly sparked over a bag of Mexican take-away food. Three junior officers are accused of beating two civilians who refused to hand over their bag of steak Fajitas. ABC news website. The Australian government has established an email address where people can pass messages on to troops in Iraq. However the Defence Department says that 'negative' messages, presumably meaning messages critical of the war, will not be passed on. Quotes of the week: If the U.S. unilaterally goes to war, and it is anything short of a quick surgical strike (lasting less than 30 days), the economists were all predicting extreme economic gloom: falling dollar value, rising spot market oil prices, the Fed pushing interest rates down towards zero with resulting increase in national debt, severe trouble in all countries whose currency is guaranteed agains the dollar (which is just about everybody except the EU), a near cessation of all development and humanitarian programs for poor countries. Very few economists or ministers of finance predicted the world getting out of that economic funk for minimally five-10 years, once the downward spiral ensues. Science journalist Laurie Garrett, in a leaked private email sent from the World Economic Forum. [The world is] run by about 5,000 bickering, sometimes charming, usually arrogant, mostly male people who are accustomed to living in either phenomenal wealth, or great personal power. Laurie Garrett. ...this Administration has chosen to make terrorism a domestic political tool, enlisting a scattered and largely defeated Al Qaeda as its bureaucratic ally. We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind, arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The result, and perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast misallocation of shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the safeguards that protect American citizens from the heavy hand of government. September 11 did not do as much damage to the fabric of American society as we seem determined to so to ourselves. Is the Russia of the late Romanovs really our model, a selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction in the name of a doomed status quo? John Brady Kiesling, an American diplomat for twenty years, in his letter of resignation. We have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of the American people, since the war in Vietnam. John Brady Kiesling. We back democracy all the way. All the way, that is, up to the point where they disagree with us. Former US senior State Dept. Official, quoted in SchNews news report. anarchist news service write to James, PO Box 503, Newtown NSW 2042 or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] contact us to get ATNTF emailed directly to you. If you like All the News That Fits, forward it on. Some other Australian anarchist contacts: Love and Rage is a new anarchist, non-profit
LL:ART: THE WORLD SAYS NO!
The following article was published in The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, March 26, 2003. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Guardian: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au Subscription rates on request. 1. The world says NO! Since the massive bombardment of Iraq commenced on Thursday last week, millions of people around the world have taken to the streets to stop the war. Never before have so many people from so many countries united in such strong opposition to a war. In total disregard of the will of the people, and in total disregard for the thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands of innocent victims, the US and British Governments with their Australian lackey in tow, went ahead with their murderous, illegal and morally unjustifiable war on the people of Iraq. In Australia hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in mass actions. Anti-war marches in Perth climaxed last Saturday with 20,000 people rallying and marching through the city streets. On the day the war began 6000 protested in Forrest Place and marched to the UN Consulate, blocking St George's Terrace. More than 2000 Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) members downed tools and joined the action. Unions WA Assistant Secretary Dave Robinson called on the union movement to maintain the pressure and drive the Howard Government from office. Maritime Union of Australia State Secretary Wally Prichard said: Bush says he has Saddam in his sights. We have Howard in our sights. We will have regime change. Greens MLC Dee Margetts said the Greens had walked out of Parliament at the news of the war. The strategy of Bush, Blair and Howard will backfire, she said. Other speakers in Perth came from the Uniting Church and the No War Alliance. In Sydney 70,000 to 100,000 people marched from Belmore Park to The Domain on the Sunday to deliver another powerful message to the Howard Government to Stop the War on Iraq, Bring the Troops Home and Howard's War - Bloody Outrage As in other centres, there was a wide cross-section of the community, with trade union, church, ethnic, student, political and other groups participating. Many of the recently formed local peace groups took part as well as families and other individuals and even a few pets. Thousands of unionists rallied and marched against the war in Melbourne on Friday, March 21. The union anti-war rally, organised by the Victorian Trades Hall Council, demanded an end to the war in Iraq and called on the Howard Government to bring the troops home. The Victorian Trades Hall Council is calling on union members to attend the up-coming anti-war actions, including a day of action against the war on Thursday, March 27, and a rally on Saturday March 29 at the State Library. There are meetings of the Workers Against War on Wednesday nights at 6.30pm at the VTHC. Seasoned peace advocates and a growing core of new activists have had a hectic week in Adelaide including marches, rallies and candlelit vigils in several public parks and beaches. Five hundred people gathered on the steps of parliament house on the day the aggression was announced and a thousand gathered there again at 5pm on the day of the first bombing and the invasion. Then on Sunday over 15,000 people crowded into Victoria Square before marching on the State Parliament. FA18 fighter jets entertaining spectators at the Clipsal 500 car race on the other side of the city added some rather frightening background shrieks to the event. Mike Khazam of the NOWAR coalition that organised the rally surely echoed the upbeat mood of the people with his comments: Do not despair. Do not be despondent. We won't stop and we won't forgive our government! Yasmine Ahmed of the Islamic Foundation emphasised the potential political power of movements like the one that has sprung up in opposition to the war in Iraq. The Vietnam War was stopped in the streets and we'll make sure this one will be, too. In Brisbane at the commencement of the attack on Iraq more than 6000 people, with a good trade union presence, gathered in King George's Square and on Saturday another 6000-plus crowd protested. There were protests also when the war began and with follow up actions on the weekend in Darwin, Hobart, Geelong, Wollongong, Newcastle and in cities and country towns around the country. The actions continue as The Guardian goes to press. The Books not Bombs coalition against war have organised another national student strike for this Wednesday, March 26. Palm Sunday, April 13, is shaping up to be another big day of Australia-wide actions. International In Germany, more than 80,000 school children, many with their faces
