LL:DDV: Rally to Stop the Blackshirts
Hello LeftLinkers Rally to Stop the Blackshirts! This is a call to endorse and help build a huge anti-Blackshirts protest rally and march on March 29 in Brunswick. It is being organised by Diversity in Safe Communities (DiSC), a coalition of residents, grassroots activists and anti-fascist fighters that formed last August out of widespread community opposition to these patriarchal thugs. 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. In September, a public meeting which packed out Brunswick Town Hall launched DiSC to defend everyone's right to decide how they will live and with whom and to enjoy that right in safety. The meeting voted to set up a Rapid Response Network and organise a protest rally. The March rally will follow on from DiSCB9s highly successful counter-demonstration against the Blackshirts outside the Family Court just before Christmas. RALLY DETAILS: Saturday, 29 March. Rally 12.00 noon at Brunswick Town Hall, corner of Dawson St and Sydney Rd, Brunswick. TO ENDORSE: please contact Debbie on (03) 9386 3230 or email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] DiSC is preparing the first rally leaflet for distribution at Pride on Sunday, February 2. Endorsements received by this Tuesday, 28 January will be included. If you can't send in your endorsement by then, that's OK - the leaflet will be regularly updated. To get involved, come to the next DiSC working group meeting on Saturday, 15 February, 1.00 pm at Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Rd, Brunswick, or contact Debbie (details above) to let us know what you can do. DiSC General Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month, 7.00 pm at Cafe Mingo, 600 Sydney Rd, Brunswick. Next meeting is Tuesday, 11 February. Everyone is welcome. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON DiSC: contact Riki: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 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]?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/
LL:DDV: Children of the Gulf War Exhibition - 31/1 - 10/2
Although it is late notice this very timely and important exhibition needs support and all interested parties are invited. Please circulate widely through your networks . . . Children of the Gulf War a photographic exhibition by Takashi Morizumi 31st January - 10th February 2003 12-6pm Everyday except Tuesday @ Horti Hall Gallery - 31 Victoria Street - Melbourne - VIC This deeply moving exhibition has received international critical acclaim. It documents the aftermath of the Gulf War and focuses on the lasting effects of the 300 tonnes of Depleted Uranium Weapons that were used. It especially centres on the plight of the many children who have been affected by these weapons. Depleted Uranium Weapons are known to causeleukemia, liver and kidney problems as well as vastly increasing thechances of abnormalities at birth. Takashi Morizumi who is a well respected photojournalist and advocate of a nuclear free world has been documenting the unfurling tragedy in Iraq since the late 1990's. Sponsored by Melbourne City Council. http://www.vicpeace.org/iraq/actions/exhibition.html http://www.vicpeace.org/iraq/actions/exhibition.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: NO US WAR, NO UN WAR
The following article was published in The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, 29 January 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. ** NO US WAR, NO UN WAR. As The Guardian goes to press, the UN Security Council is considering reports from the weapons inspectors. Regardless of the outcome of that discussion, war against Iraq should be opposed. Whether launched by a US pre-emptive strike or endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, such a war has no justification and would result in the most horrendous outcomes for the people of Iraq. The time has come when war must be eliminated from the affairs of humanity and all disputes resolved by peaceful means, in accordance with the UN's Charter. Weapons of mass destruction, the most powerful of which are held by the US military, have become so horrendous in their destructive power and in their ability to kill that entire nations could be obliterated. The Voice of America has threatened the annihilation of Iraq. The Chief of US armed forces, Myers has declared that on the first day of action against Iraq weapons with a destructive power more than those used in the two months of the 1991 Gulf War would be unleashed. There is absolutely no case for war on Iraq, even if it were endorsed by the UN Security Council. Here are nine reasons why a UN Security Council war resolution should also be opposed: 1. A war on Iraq will cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians -- men, women and children. It would further destroy Iraq's health system, water supplies, electric power and other facilities necessary for life. More territory will be poisoned by the use of uranium enriched weapons. The Voice of America warned that war plans are laid out for complete annihilation of Iraq via conventional weapons, or if needed, via nuclear weapons. 2. The Charter of the United Nations gives the Security Council the obligation to settle disputes without recourse to war. Millions around the world expect the Security Council to carry out its obligations. It should support the majority of the world's people and decisively reject any war resolution. If members of the Security Council are bribed or pressured into supporting a war resolution, it would be a violation of the UN Charter and their obligations. Despite its weaknesses the Security Council must act to prevent war, uphold peace and its humanitarian obligations. 3. In the present period, Iraq has not invaded or threatened any neighbouring state. Iraq certainly poses no threat to the US, Britain or Australia. 4. There is no proof that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction following the destruction of such weapons in previous years. 5. A regime change which has been repeatedly claimed as the objective of the United States, is the responsibility of the Iraqi people and not any outside power. This would also be a violation of the UN Charter and is a violation of the sovereign independence of nations. A UN-authorised war would, in fact, hand over operations to the United States and would make the UN Security Council an agent of the violation of its own Charter. The UN would become the virtual prisoner of the United States and subservient to it. 6. Iraq would become an occupied country with a government imposed by the United States as has already happened in Afghanistan. Far from bringing genuine democracy, an imposed government would serve the interests of the US. 7. If the UN Security Council endorsed a war against Iraq it would set a precedent for similar action against any other country against which was alleged to have weapons of mass destruction or named as being a rogue state by the US and its few supporters. 8. Any war against Iraq would have devastating economic consequences, not only for Middle East countries but also for the whole world. It would give the United States control of the main supplies of oil and result in the economies of most countries being placed under the control of the US corporations. 9. A vote for war would be a vote leading to the virtual destruction of the UN and would show its inability to enforce the UN Charter and its responsibilities to the people of the world to uphold peace. The only principled stand is to oppose any war, whether authorised by the UN Security Council or not. The world's people want 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
LL:DDN: Women Of Troy Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre
Women of Troy An anti-war play by Euripides. Directed by Robert Kennedy and Jenny Green . With Jeanette Cronin. Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre Preview Wed 29th. 30th Jan to 16th Feb Tues 7pm Wed-Sat 8.15pm Sun 5pm Tickets: $25 Adult $19 concession. (Group Bookings of 6 or more $19) Jan 29th preview $17. Pay what you can Tuesdays (Min $5) Bookings: 02 9699 3444 or www.belvoir.com.au (+7% for Online Bookings) For enquiries please email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] August 2004. A refugee camp in the shadow of a bombed out city. The coast of the Persian Gulf: Troy. The West have won the war and have sent in a commander to liquidate the camp. The mothers, wives and children of the dead don't know where they will go. All they can do is wait. How much does victory cost? Robert Kennedy and Jenny Green's Women of Troy is an unashamed protest against the impending US-led war in the Middle East. -- -- 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: BRING THE TROOPS HOME
The following articles were published in The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, 29 January 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. ** Bring the troops home While George Bush, Colin Powell, Tony Blair, John Howard and Alexander Downer continue to beat the war drums, millions around the world are demonstrating for peace and against any war on Iraq. In warmongering statements over the weekend, Colin Powell (the alleged dove of the US administration) said, We continue to reserve our sovereign right to take military action against Iraq alone or in a coalition of the willing. A Pentagon official revealed a plan to rain as many as 800 cruise missiles on Iraq in two days. There will not be a safe place in Baghdad, said the official. The sheer size of this has never been seen before, never contemplated before. It would wipe out water and power supplies in the city and would kill tens of thousands of civilians. The architect of the plan, a military strategist from the National Defence University in Washington, cold-bloodedly described the desired outcome: to achieve the same affect as another US crime against humanity -- the nuclear weapons at Hiroshima - not taking days or weeks but minutes. In an interview with Kerry O'Brien on the ABC's 7.30 Report (27-1-03), Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer continued to deny any decision had been made about Australia's involvement in a US-led war. But when pressed by Kerry O'Brien conceded that the Australian Government is prepared to join a military strike on Iraq without the UN Security Council's endorsement. Australia's forces are not only over there, they have been written into the US's battle plans for Iraq. The US communications facility at Pine Gap plays a key role in the US's planned war and the preparations for it. The base should be closed and the troops brought home now. There is no public support nor justification for war on Iraq. Across the world, rallies, marches, meetings, leafleting, paste-ups, street actions, petitions, letter-writing, pickets, new peace groups, information sharing on the internet and many other actions are swelling the unparalleled global anti-war movement. People from every walk of life imaginable swamp the talkback radio stations and letters' columns. Peace activists, environmentalists, workers and their trade unions, governments, churches, community groups, scientists, doctors, other professionals, students, Gulf War and Vietnam War veterans, military personnel and millions of other individuals voice their opposition to war. The calls for No War on Iraq become louder by the day as more and more people come to understand the dangers posed by such a war and the longer-term agenda of the US (see editorial page 2). In Australia, preparations are well under way for big national actions over the weekend of February 15-16 (see details page 5). Peace groups in Australia have condemned war on Iraq - with or without UN approval. On Friday last week, a group of parliamentarians, church and trade union leaders put on hard hats to join construction site workers on the top of the World Square Project in Sydney's CBD as they hoisted a 20-metre purple ribbon on a giant crane. People are urged to wear purple ribbons to show opposition to war with Iraq. Protestors also delivered the anti-war message as Prime Minister John Howard fare welled HMAS Kanimbla with Australian troops bound for the Gulf. We absolutely condemn the dispatch of Australian military forces to the Gulf in the face of massive public opposition, and without any parliamentary debate, said former Senator Bruce Childs, a spokesperson for Sydney's Walk Against The War Coalition. Care was taken to direct the protest against the Howard Government's policies, not the troops who were following orders. A statement issued by the Federal ALP Left declared: The Left opposes Australia's involvement in a war irrespective of whether it is endorsed by the United Nations Security Council or not. In Adelaide last Thursday (January 23) a procession of about 100 cars made its way through the city streets with their headlights on, and carrying placards drawing the public's attention to the forthcoming Don't Attack Iraq rally. Then on Saturday, a group chalked slogans and projections of casualties in any invasion of Iraq around the outlines of bodies on the pavement of Adelaide's Gawler Place. Loudhailers and leaflets promoted the rally in the busy shopping precinct. Peace activists head to Iraq During the week, the media carried the news that Adelaide residents Ruth Russell and Edward Cranswick were preparing to go to Iraq to serve as human
