LL:DDV: We Come In Peace
WE COME IN PEACE SURVIVAL DAY CONCERT - presented by Songlines Can't afford the Big Day Out? . . . Can't make it to the Sydney Habour shoreline? . . . Can't get enough great, original music? How about an Australia Day celebrating the first Australians and the enormous contribution music makes to Aboriginal culture? WE COME IN PEACE is a family oriented concert showcasing some of the best and brightest of current, contemporary Aboriginal music. Featuring:- Blackfire (Special Appearance), Monica Weightman, Andy Alberts and the Walkabouts, Deniece Hudson, Little G Spare Change Society, Brolga Boys, MC's Tammy Anderson and Kate Hudson. from 7:30pm (doors open 6:30pm) - Sunday, January 26th Trades Hall Bar New Ballroom $8 Full/ $6 Conc/ Under 15s FREE - Tickets at the door on the night - Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St (cnr Lygon St) Carlton The FULL unedited AUSTRALIA day OATH WE ARE AUSTRALIAN. WE don't under STAND what's going on HERE consequently some blokes have resorted to doing browneyes in public, quite PROUDLY. Now that's pretty BRAVE. STRONG language is used. A situation of OPEN slather prevails AND being alcohol TOLERANT helps enormously. So WE STAND HERE, and all things being EQUAL, where else can we stand? That's FAIR enough, surely. Standing here is a tried and TRUE activity; AND it's FREE. Stringing words TOGETHER is more difficult so WE WILL probably have to BUILD some more schools at some stage in THE FUTURE, but chances are WE WILL NOT. So forget the future, FORGET THE PAST; WE WILL just STAND TOGETHER. WE ARE AUSTRALIAN. - Michael Leunig TRADES HALL BAR Come and get the good oil . . . Trades Hall Bar has re-opened for 2003. Open nightly from 5pm, with Happy Hours every Friday from 4 - 7pm. EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST Currently being sought by Melbourne's home of conscience culture for theatre productions and other events throughout 2003. Theatre, film, music, public forums, conferences, literary events launches. Contact Jim Ph: 03) 9662 3555 or visit www.tradeshallarts.com.au for further information. -- 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: No War : Australian Education Union
The following nine points were adopted unanimously on January 17, 2003 by the AEU Federal Conference meeting in Adelaide. A media release was also posted on the AEU website http://www.aeufederal.org.au : No War The AEU Resolves: 1 That as an attack on Iraq will cause widespread death and destruction, increase insecurity and poverty in the world and threaten a wider conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere, including the South-East Asian region, the AEU is opposed to war against Iraq. Attacking Iraq to achieve regime-change is not only illegal but is likely to be counter-productive and lead to the strengthening of the repressive apparatus of Iraqi government. Joining an attack simply because the US wants Australian support is inadequate justification and has led to tragedy in the past. 2 Recourse to war is never justified before all non-violent solutions have been pursued. History is replete with examples of politicians committing other people's children to certain death, trauma and injury in war. The process of UN inspections and deliberations should not be pressured by US bullying of Security Council members into premature decisions. Neither should an Australian decision be pre-empted by a manipulated crisis created by the presence of huge US and British forces in the Gulf. 3 In view of US, British and Australian attempts to pre-empt UN processes, the Australian vessels currently enforcing the blockade on Iraq should be withdrawn immediately so as avoid any implication that Australian forces are in any way involved in a manipulated pre-emptive strike. A similar position should apply to Australian elements serving in US and British units. The blockade continues to inflict misery on innocent people in Iraq, and so should be lifted immediately. Further the bombing within the no-fly zones must cease. 4 The Australian parliament must have the opportunity to consult and debate the question of any military commitment prior to any decision. At that time those opposed to a military commitment by Australia will have the opportunity to assess any facts which the government or any other parties bring forward and to put their views before the community and the parliament. 5 That Education International be advised of the views of the AEU on the threat of war in the Middle East and be asked for its support in a campaign to achieve a peaceful resolution of the crisis. 6 The AEU commends those Australian political parties and individuals who have unequivocally opposed an attack on Iraq including the Greens and Democrats and many ALP figures including Carmen Lawrence and Laurie Brereton. 7 The AEU endorses the call of the ACTU for the rights of all to work and live in an environment free of harassment and discrimination on the basis of race, religion or culture and to work to increase the understanding of the international situation amongst its members. 8 The AEU will participate in and work to build the widest coalition of anti-war forces ever seen in Australian society such that the rush to war in Iraq by the Coalition Government will be rejected overwhelmingly by the Australian community and will mark the Coalition forever as unfit to govern Australia and lead to its removal at the next Federal election. 9 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. The following 13 points were endorsed by the AEU Federal Executive and provided to delegates at the AEU Federal Conference as background to making the above decision. The Howard Government Threatens Our Security Whereas: 1 It is a primary duty of government to create peace and security for citizens in domestic and international relations. 2 The terrorist attacks of October 12 2002 in Bali and September 11 2001 on the US can only be condemned and have profound implications for ordinary citizens to a peaceful existence in all countries. Contrary to the Fukuyama prophesy of unending Western moral and economic dominance following the Cold War, the West faces growing criticism of and resistance to global inequality and exploitation which provides a basis for the growth of military conflict and terrorism, unjustifiable as it may be. 3 Australia's security interests are not best achieved by servile responses to US policies when Australia's relations with our region are the worst they have ever been and face a rising tide of hostility in some large neighbouring nations and severe internal crises in others. Australia's security is best achieved by building strong regional alliances through mutual development programs and independent defence and mutual security arrangements which are not tied to the US military apparatus given its current aggressive posture. 4 Instead of acting to understand and address these issues, the Howard government has used the Bali
LL:DDV: Indymedia screening - The Land, The Street, The Square
sorry for x-posting Melbourne Indymedia Fundraiser Film Screening - The Land, The Street, The Square A video produced by Argentina and Italy Indymedia's, The Land, The Street, The Square, tells the tale of the uprisings and ongoing resistance in Argentina to the International Monetary Fund, neo-liberalism and political corruption. Beginning with an overview of capitalist globalisation, the video covers the wide range of movements in struggle, from the highway blockades of the piqueteros to the direct democracy of the popular assemblies. A Melbourne Indymedia fundraiser, come along and lend your support. We will also screen Voces Argentinas (Argentine Voices) by Concious Cinema. Where: 5 Pitt st Brunswick When: Feb 6, 8pm. Directions: take trams 1 or 22 from swanston st. Get off at the corner of Lygon and Glenlyon. Walk one block north. -- 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: People power can stop war
The following article was published in The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, January 22nd, 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. People power can stop war Half a million people demonstrated in Washington last weekend. Two hundred thousand in San Francisco. Placards read: No Blood for Oil, Regime change starts at Home, Would Jesus Have Bombed Them? One protestor said, It's really important for us to show Europe and the rest of the world that we oppose this so they may have the courage to say 'no'. The city councils of more than 36 American cities have declared their opposition to a pre-emptive strike against Iraq as the Cities for Peace movement sweeps the nation. Peace activist, Ron Solomon who helped steer a resolution against the war through the Baltimore City Council said, Here in Maryland, we have 800,000 people who lack health insurance. The Bush administration can find billions for war on Iraq but our cities are in a deep fiscal crisis without funds for programs that help people. This is the other America. This is the America for peace and sanity and against the warmongering of the Bush administration. Today's demonstrations shattered the myth of consensus for war, said a spokesperson for the Partnership for Civil Justice, one of the thousands of organisations affiliated to ANSWER (the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism coalition) which coordinated the demonstrations. The snowballing opposition to war in the US has been strengthened with the involvement of trade union organisations. Labor Against the War has been formed, made up of representatives of local unions, central labour councils and labour peace groupings as well as individual labour leaders from across the country. The Secretary of a Teamsters local, Jerry Zero, informed delegates to the formative meeting of the new organisation the result of a recent poll taken among the membership of the Teamsters Union. Half our members think George Bush is a liar and the other half don't think you can believe a word he says, said Jerry Zero. A poll conducted by Time magazine asking Why does the US want to attack Iraq? showed a very high level of understanding by the American people. Eighty-four per cent of those polled believed its aim was to Get Iraq's oil. Only 3.1 per cent said it was To disarm Saddam and only 4.7 per cent thought it was To make the world a safer place. There were 12,607 responses to the poll. Another poll conducted by the Miami Herald found that 68 per cent favour achieving US goals without going to war while only 34 per cent favour quick military action. The demonstrations in the US were part of internationally coordinated actions in cities in no less than 30 other countries. Demonstrators for peace and against war marched in the cities of the Netherlands, in Ireland, India, Canada, and France where up to 20,000 marched in Paris. They took to the streets in Moscow, Hong Kong, in Turkey, Italy, Syria, Japan, Austria, Lebanon, Egypt, New Zealand and Pakistan. Protestors in Cairo called on the Egyptian Government to prevent US and British warships from using the Suez Canal en route to a possible attack on Iraq. In New Zealand the Green Party's Keith Locke told 500 demonstrators that pressure from around the world can halt this war. Putting their lives on the line, dozens of British volunteers and at least one Australian are travelling to Iraq to act as human shields protecting strategic sites. The convoy is being organised by a former US marine, Kenneth Nichols, who served in the first Gulf War and won a combat medal but is now a vociferous opponent of another Gulf conflict. His experience of war left him disillusioned with American foreign policy. Never before has such Never before has such worldwide opposition to war swept the world in internationally coordinated actions. Opposition to war swept the world in internationally coordinated actions. Peace organisations throughout the world, including in Australia, are now gearing up for the next round of demonstrations to take place over the weekend of February 15-16. Using threats and bribery, the US Government is attempting to force a decision endorsing war through the United Nations Security Council by the end of January. Its timetable for war is now reaching a critical point. But war is not justified. It is against the Charter of the UN, it would be a violation of international law and is immoral. It is the human shield presented by the millions of ordinary people around the world that now stands in the way of the raging beast of warmongering US imperialism. ACT FOR PEACE In the
LL:ART: The nuclear weapons issue
The following article was published in The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, January 22nd, 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. The nuclear weapons issue The nations that are known to have nuclear weapons are the US, Russia, France, Britain, China, Israel, Pakistan and India. Before the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, that country had also developed nuclear weapons but after its election the ANC government had them destroyed. South Africa is the only country in the world to have carried out total nuclear disarmament. At the time, the development by South Africa of a nuclear capacity was kept quiet and no protests were made by the Western powers. To this day, there has been silence on Israel's development of nuclear weapons. No mention is made in the mass media. Western governments are party to this policy of silence. Nothing has been said by the International Energy Agency (IAEA). The UN Security Council has said nothing. Israel is not a party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) was first adopted in 1968 and many countries have adhered to it including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. For many years the governments of the People's Republic of China and France criticised the Treaty as being a means to ensure the maintenance of the monopoly of nuclear weapons by the major powers. These countries only joined the Treaty in 1992, thereby becoming members of the exclusive nuclear club of big powers. For many years the Soviet Union and China waged a strong campaign for the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons but with the break-up of the Soviet Union little is now being said by the five big powers about this obligation which is contained in Article 6 of the NPT. Breach of treaties Article 6 says that the parties will undertake negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control. There was a Review Conference in 2000 of the NPT, but the nuclear powers did not find the time to negotiate complete nuclear disarmament. The United States and the other nuclear powers are, therefore, all in violation of their obligations under the Treaty. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), an agreement between the US and the Soviet Union, did result in some reduction of nuclear weapon stockpiles by these two powers, but this treaty has been unceremoniously torn up by President George Bush, signalling an open go in the nuclear arms race. The Star Wars program now being pushed by the Bush administration will result in the nuclearisation of space. The Western powers looked at this issue from the point of view of evil powers - the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China-and good powers - the US, Britain, France, Israel and apartheid South Africa. Pakistan and India were also condemned by the West when they developed nuclear weapons but they are big powers and it was impossible for the UN or the IAEA to do anything about it. In any case they fell between the evil powers and the good powers. As we know, Pakistan is now on our side, meaning on the side of US imperialism and the other Western powers. It is on this background that the present virulent campaign is being waged against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) because it has pulled out of the NPT on January 11 this year. North Korean statement In a statement the Government of the DPRK says: Though we pull out of the NPT, we have no intention to produce nuclear weapons and our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such as the production of electricity. If the US drops its hostile policy to stifle the DPRK and stops its nuclear threat to the DPRK, the DPRK may prove through a separate verification between the DPRK and the US, that it does not make any nuclear weapons. The Government and people of the DPRK have faced 50 years of hostility from the US. The US has imposed a trade embargo, has occupied South Korea with about 37,000 troops, has stationed their good nuclear weapons in South Korea, has built a 10-metre high wall on the South Korea side from one side of the Korean peninsular to the other and has made many threats of aggression. Anti-American demos in South What is new in the situation is the widespread anti-American demonstrations in South Korea over the killing of two South Korean schoolgirls by an American vehicles the crew of which were exonerated by US
LL:INFO: anarchist record label is almost ready to go.
This is a message about the email I sent out a week or so ago, which asked for people to contribute to an anarchist CD that I'm putting together. If anyone has copies of this email, please delete it and don't forward it on. The reason for this relates to the Birmingham Hotel, which has been hosting meetings and gigs by Blood and Honour (Nazi skinheads). A lot of people in the local punk scene have taken the attitude that Blood and Honour aren't a problem, we're the problem for saying anything against them. The latest chapter in this is that someone has posted my full name and email address to the Melbourne Punx Forum website, a chat site which is used by Blood and Honour members as well. I don't know what the motive was, either hoping Blood and Honour would see it and track me down, or just that it'd intimidate me, or just that they thought they were being 'punk as fuck'. The email I sent out about the CD includes this email, and my home address. Thanks, James. . -- 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
