LL:URL: Know Your Place! Shut Your Face! anti-war satire
http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/PhotoAlbum1.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:INFO: IWW Melbourne Letter to Big Issue Management
Hello, There is an ongoing dispute between vendors/street sellers of the Big Issue magazine and management. The Big Issue originated in London but now operates in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and is about to begin in Perth. Vendoring is yet more more international poverty development: casual, unwaged work in this case street selling. While begging by poor folks is banned from many City streets and shopping centres, a named and numbered unemployed person; in a visible uniform, is tolerated. Thus they're an easily monitored example of caring Corproate sponsorship. While it has the greenwash image of Body Shop helping the homeless unemployed help themselves and Progressive sponsors etc in reality it is anti-union. Last year we finally got a toilet for the vendors after hassling the Management. If you have any health and safety experience/example arguments or other useful suggestions please let me know. Can you please take the time to talk to any vendors you see or protest to the management! Help us challenge this situation. yours for solidarity, organise the unorganised! Margaret Creagh Industrial Workers of the World Melbourne IU 660 Distribution Big Issue vendors. PO Box 145, Moreland 3058 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Friday 4th October Mr. Bill Mallanack, The Big Issue, 148 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne 3000 Tel 03 9663 4496 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear Mr. Mallanack, As per our organisation's phone conversations and visit of Friday 4th October, we are following up with a written list of grievances that Big Issue vendors have asked us to bring to your attention. Some vendors feel they are not treated as equal with the staff. There are no amenities for vendors e.g. access to lockers, staff room/kitchen and shelter from the rain/inclement weather. (We are following this issue up with the Ron Norman-Property Manager from Wesley Mission.) There have been pitch disputes as none are permanent. There seem to be no negotiating with vendors, and solutions are taken by staff members without any consistency. A health and safety issue is of grave concern to us as one of our members has allegedly been subject to intimidatory tactics by another vendor. No access to rear door except for staff. Uniforms/bags/badges should be provided free to vendors. We hope a meeting can be set up soon with the vendors, yourselves and ourselves so these issues can be addressed. Please ring as on as possible on mobile 0403 139 818. Yours faithfully, Margaret Creagh Delegate for the IWW Copies: Graham Wise-Body Shop Advertising Manager Simon Castle- Editor, Big Issue .. -- -- 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:DDV: The Big One ETCCP/SUWA benefit showing
UNION PROMOTIONS presents Premiere Showing 3CR's ETCCP/SUWA BENEFIT THE BIG ONE Michael Moore's 1998 road trip film of downsized workers book launch of Downsize This! *See Phil Knight - smirking CEO of NIKE - refuse a free flight to Indonesia to visit his wage slaves * Cheer the Borders Books unionising workers * Cry with the redundant workers. * Boo the greedy bosses corrupt politicians. * Laugh the rest of the audience will probably laugh with you. ! WHERE? Victorian Trades Hall New Council Chambers upstairs, 54 Victoria Street, Carlton WHEN? 7.30PM FRIDAY August 30th 2002 Donation at the door on the night Union Promotions www.tradeshallarts.com.au Tel 9 662 3555 East Timor Community Community Project www.etccp.org.au Radio 3CR www.3cr.org.au Tel 9 419 8377 Authorised by SUWA, 5.30-6.30pm. Fridays 3CR 855 on your AM Dial -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Chumba's Her majesty
http://www.chumba.org/hermajesty.asp -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: 3CR radiothon Bread Roses film showing June 7th
UNION PROMOTIONS presents Premiere Benefit Showing for COMMUNITY RADIO 3CR JUNE 2002 Radiothon BREAD ROSES Ken Loach's 2001 film is inspired by the 1999 Justice for Janitors Campaign led by immigrant cleaners, mostly women, in Los Angeles, California. Victorian Trades Hall Building, Lygon Street, Carlton. (Victoria Parade entrance upstairs to Bar) 8PM FRIDAY JUNE 7th 2002 Union Promotions www.tradeshallarts.com.au Tel 9 662 3555 Radio 3CR www.3cr.org.au Tel 9 419 8377 Authorised by SUWA, Fridays 5.30-6.30pm. 3CR 855 on your AM Dial -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: Please Help Promote E TIMOR GIG - MAY 3
Adam Lincoln CFMEU Organiser 0414 228 878 Workers of the world unite! Industrial Workers of the World - http://www.iww.org-- Join the One Big Union! PRESS RELEASE Industrial Workers of the World - May Day Benefit For East Timor - 3 May @ the Gaelic Club, Devonshire St, Surry Hills, Sydney - 8pm Outspoken Australian songwriter Fred Smith will be heading the lineup for the Industrial Workers Of the world May Day Benefit for East Timor on Friday 3 May at the Gaelic Club on Devonshire Street. Smith has blazed a trial to the forefront of the Australian Roots scene with extraordinary performances at the Woodford Folk Festival and his new album Bagarap Empires receiving critical acclaim along with extensive airplay on Radio National. The album recently won Fred an unusual distribution deal with Oxfam/Community Aid Abroad-one of only two white Australian acts on their roster- as well as the Sreensound Australia award for Best New Release at the 2002 National Folk Festival. Fred has been described by a more than one critic as Australia's answer to Billy Bragg. He is one of the more unusual figures on the Australian music scene. He released his first album Soapbox in 1998 with several songs from the disc receiving airplay on Triple J and ABC Radio. The album contained some mad comic tracks along with more serious ballads including the politically sharp Open Country, the song that won Fred the Australian Songwriter's Association's Ausmusic Award. After acclaimed performances at the Woodford Folk Festival in 1998 Fred left to Bougainville and the Solomons to work with Australian run Peace Monitoring outfits in the Pacific hotspots. He recently returned to complete Bagarap Empires. The album comprises eleven clean-cut ballads, some in English and some in Melanesian pidgen, telling stories of humour, dignity and compassion relating to the troubled recent history of Bougainville and the Solomons where Fred worked with Australian peace monitoring operations The Sydney Branch of the IWW plans to celebrate May Day by raising money for the East Timor Community Computer Project. An IWW Organiser is currently in East Timor coordinating this project. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and other unions have assisted in shipping recycled computers and parts to East Timor. The IWW organises to send computers and other plant and equipment to East Timor and coordinate their installation into computer schools and community centers. After 12 months, computers have been distributed to Laga, Los Palos, Viqueque, Manatuto, Venilale Autoro. In addition, computers have been distributed to various community groups around Dili. Our Organiser also ran a free computer school in Bebonuk with around 6 students per day. The IWW is currently organising to expand this project into Same, Suai and Oecussi. To support this important work, the Sydney IWW is holding a fundraising concert on May 3 at the Gaelic Club in Surry Hills. Renowned singer-songwriter Fred Smith will be playing, alongside well-regarded political/folk singer Martin Doherty and for a change of pace, MC Ozi Battla will bring a hip-hop flavour to the night. For info contact Adam: 0414 228 878 . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Cyderdelic
Anti-Globalisation protesters make it to Melbourne Comedy Festival and beyond: http://www.cyderdelic.com/index.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 Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: NI special issue on unions
special issue of New Internationalist on unions: http://www.newint.org/issue341/contents.htm . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Judge Overturns Death Sentence for Abu-Jamal
Judge Overturns Death Sentence for Abu-Jamal http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011218/ts/crime_abujamal_dc_3.html Tuesday December 18 3:03 PM ET Judge Overturns Death Sentence for Abu-Jamal PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A federal judge Tuesday overturned the death sentence of former radio journalist and Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal and ordered a new sentencing hearing for the convicted cop-killer whose case has been espoused by death-penalty opponents worldwide. Ruling on a defense petition for a new trial, U.S. District Judge William Yohn let stand Abu-Jamal's conviction for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, who was gunned down in the early morning hours of Dec. 9, 1981. But the judge gave state prosecutors 180 days to conduct a fresh sentencing hearing for Abu-Jamal, citing errors in the original death-penalty phase of his murder trial. ``The short answer is that we're going to appeal,'' said Philadelphia district attorney's office spokeswoman Cathie Abookire, who predicted that a new hearing would not move forward anytime soon. Abu-Jamal, 47, is a political activist whose two-decade imprisonment has won him comparisons among supporters with South Africa's Nelson Mandela as a political prisoner victimized by a racist criminal justice system. But prosecutors say his is nothing more than a violent common criminal. Abu-Jamal was convicted of murdering Faulkner during a shootout, after the 25-year-old police officer pulled over his brother for driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Abu-Jamal, who was wounded in the chest, contends he was shot while running away. With dogged backing from a network of supporters who alleged that he was railroaded into a conviction, Abu-Jamal has repeatedly maintained his innocence in Faulkner's death and launched numerous legal appeals to stall his execution. European opponents of the death penalty and groups including Amnesty International have long protested Abu-Jamal's planned execution. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:INFO: International Events on Dec. 28th
Gila Svirsky [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 08:12:14 +0200 Friends in the Feminist Peace Network, I told you about the mass Women in Black planned for December 28th in Jerusalem. Well, there are now 67 cities in 15 countries holding events in solidarity on that day. On that day, we are planning a mass march of mourning through the streets of Jerusalem for the victims of violence on both sides, followed by a concert for peace, with Israeli and Palestinian performers. The more solidarity events that happen on or about that day, the more impact our efforts will have on political leaders, both in the Middle East and in the west. Below is a list of the cities so far. If you'd like to join one near you, see the full list with contact information on our web site at http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org If you don't have an event near you, consider starting one. All it takes is two women and a hand-made sign. If you have any questions, write to us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] List below. Warm wishes from Jerusalem, Gila Svirsky The cities participating (non-US list first, alphabetical by country): Adelaide, Armidale, Canberra and Sydney in Australia; Vienna; Brussels; Montreal, Victoria and Toronto in Canada; Copenhagen; Cairo; London; Paris, Privas, Aubenas and Rennes in France; Hofgeismar, Goettingen, Cologne and Hamburg in Germany; Milan, Rome, Naples, Reggio Emilia, Ravenna, Padua, Verona, Torino, Alba and Bologne in Italy; Edinburgh and Dundee in Scotland; Barcelona, Zaragoza and Valencia in Spain; Belgrade; Stockholm; And the cities in the US (alphabetical by state): Tucson; Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Sebastopol, and Willits in California; Boulder; St. Peterburg; Chicago, Baltimore, Boston, St. Louis, Albuquerque and Santa Fe in New Mexico; Detroit and Ann Arbor in Michigan; Minneapolis; New York City, Buffalo, New Paltz and Woodstock in New York; Eugene; Philadelphia and Yardley in Pennsylvania; Austin and Houson in Texas, and Seattle. If you'd like to make a contribution to support our efforts, there are 3 ways: 1) US-tax-deductible: Make out a check to the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace and mail it to US/Israel Women-to-Women, 275 7th Avenue -- 8th floor, New York, NY 10001. 2) If a US-tax deduction is not relevant, make out a check to Coalition of Women for a Just Peace and mail it to Bat Shalom, P.O. Box 8083, 91080 Jerusalem, Israel. 3) To use a credit card, click on https://www.paypal.com/refer/pal=KTQ29RAYW4QTW which will bring you into the web site of PayPal.com. You will then have to register (sign up) and then follow the instructions for Send money. Before you enter the site, copy this e-mail address, as you will be asked to fill it in: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The money reaches us virtually instantly, and I will confirm it immediately. Many thanks! Gila Coalition of Women for a Just Peace Web site: http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ### . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:PR: Yesmen RTMark Site-stealing program answers WTO crackdown
From: RTMark Bulletin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 11:42 PM Subject: Site-stealing program answers WTO crackdown WTO ATTACKS WEBSITE, REAPS HUNDREDS OF OTHERS As it met in Qatar, WTO attempt to shut down critical website; group counters with site-stealing software Contacts: Jonathan Prince (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) Jean-Guy Carrier (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) Verio (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) The Yes Men (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) Software: http://www.theyesmen.org/yesiwill/ http://yesiwill.plagiarist.org/ http://detritus.net/projects/yesiwill/ Last Friday, Jonathan Prince, who owns the Gatt.org domain, received a call from Verio, Gatt.org's upstream provider. The World Trade Organization had just asked Verio to shut down the domain for copyright violations, and Verio told Prince that it would do just that if nothing was changed by November 13--the last day of the Doha Ministerial, as it would happen. An official email followed (http://rtmark.com/verio.html). (Last-minute update: Verio's shutdown is currently expected sometime after noon EST today--watch software sites above for updates.) It's the war, says Prince. Bush has popularized zero-tolerance, and it's open season on dissent of any kind. So just when they're meeting in Doha, the WTO has decided to divert attention from its problems by attacking a website. Or maybe they really do want to make it so that protest has as little place on the web as it does in Qatar, adds Prince. Oddly enough, the WTO has been aware of the parody website since before the 1999 Ministerial in Seattle, when it issued a public statement claiming the site misled visitors (http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres99_e/pr151_e.htm). Two weeks ago, the WTO issued another release (http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news01_e/gattdotorg_e.htm), this one claiming that Gatt.org was harvesting e-mails, an allegation reprinted as fact in some newspaper articles (http://rtmark.com/pressgat.html). While it may be puzzling why the WTO chose to issue a second press release about Gatt.org two years later, it is even more surprising that they are now taking concrete steps to stop the critical site. In statements made just last week to the French daily newspaper Liberation and to others, WTO spokesperson Jean-Guy Carrier stated that It's not our job to use legal means against people. We appreciate dissidence and honest criticism. Why the sudden change of attitude? They got nervous, it's only human, said Elaine Peabody, a spokesperson for The Yes Men (http://www.theyesmen.org), the group that maintains the Gatt.org website. The WTO remembers what happened the last time they had one of these meetings [in Seattle]. They felt like tackling something they knew they could handle--and a satirical website fit the bill. BATTLE HEATS UP But the WTO could well have stepped on a hornets' nest. To counter the attack, the Yes Men have are releasing today a piece of open-source parodyware (http://theyesmen.org/yesiwill/) that will forever make this kind of censorship obsolete, according to Peabody. Using this software, it takes five minutes to set up a convincing, personalized, evolving parody of the WTO.org website, or any other website of your choice, said Peabody, who helped to develop the program. All you need is a place to put it--say, WTOO.org, WorldTradeOrg.com, whatever. The software, called Yes I Will!, automatically duplicates websites as needed, changing words and images as the user desires--with results that can be very telling. The WTO site can be made to speak of consumers and companies rather than citizens and countries. Unleashed on the CNN.com website, the software can simplify the reporting even further by referring to Bush as Leader, and the war in Afghanistan as one between Good and Evil; a Time.com article linked from the site then discusses The Poor Way of War. The parody site updates itself automatically as the target website changes. The idea is to insure that even if they shut down our website, hundreds of others will continue our work of translation, said Peabody. The more they try to fight it, the funnier they're going to look. Such heavy-handed tactics work as poorly in cyberspace as they do on the geopolitical stage, said Cooper Kharms, another Yes Man. At least Gatt.org was transparent: you could tell what it was by reading a line or two. These other sites may not be so obvious. Prince thinks the software, while interesting, is not a solution. With their attack on Gatt.org, an unelected, unaccountable organization is running roughshod over the USA Bill of Rights, said Prince. But every day they violate people's rights in the Third World, or enable corporations to do so. This time it's just closer to home. For more on the legal basis of the WTO's attack, see also
LL:INFO: Goolangullia Banstown, Sydney Occupation Update day 35.
Goolangullia Occupation Update The Occupation of the Goolangullia building at the Bankstown campus is now in to its 35th day. I hear that the record for the longest occupation in Australia is 40 days, I wonder if we can reach this mark. Firstly I would like to thank all the people who have sent letters of support, money, food, people, and encouragement to this cause. It has been insipiring for me to be so closely involved in such a campaign and all the support gives all the people here extra drive to keep going. So thank you. So whats going on? Actually a lot. We had our first and only meeting with upper managment of UWS last Monday week. I was not there but, from the report backs it went well, the University and students finally sat down and began to talk about what has happened since August and get the issues out onto the table. The meeting went for four hours and the plan was that the University would prepare a response to the students, and the students would prepare a statement saying that they had no connection to threats towards a UWS management employee. Both these were done. On Thursday the students held a rally for Aboriginal Education, it went well except for the weather, but we relocated it to the bar and this gave students a chance to relax and listen to the Aboriginal Community members and Elders speaking about the dispute. It also gave us a chance to hear fantastic Aboriginal musicians. This rally was so inspiring that the speakers spoke for almost 3 hours and hardly anybody left, there was pure respect and esteem for all the speakers and by the end of the speakers there was not a dry eye in the room. Basically the students were told by their Community and their Elders that this fight is not only for them but for past, present and future Aboriginal students, this fight is crucial and is something that they can not lose. To quote a speaker on the day: - Usually when i have to tell a student that they have failed, I dont tell them that they have failed because it is a negative word, i say to them that they have not met the requirements and should keep going if this is what they wish to do. In this dispute if we lose we fail, we fail for Aboriginal students and the community. Thursday night the response from the University came. Very bad response. They did not change their opinons on any point and actually threatened the occupiers by stating that if the occupation does not end they will cancel (postpone) the next residential, planned for Wednesday the 17th if the occupation does not end 10am Friday Morning. The occupation did not end and the residential was not cancelled, apparently the University Managment believed that classes got taught out of Goolangullia, little did they know that Goolangullia provided support and admiistration for students, the rooms that students get taught in are normal everyday classes. You would think that the University Management would have some knowledge about the centres they are trying to merger. Rather than go on the defensive the students wont on the offensive and picketed the student centre and shut it down all Friday. This made the University Management upset. Also that Friday was the first lighting of the sacred fire, brought from the tent Embassy On Monday the students took their picket up to Frogmore House. (which we now name Toad Hall) The picket at Toad Hall saw 10 of the occupying students take their picket to the Vice Chancellor. They stayed to 11am and then had a smoking ceremony, which was rudely interupted by a member of the UWS management to pass on a formal communication. Monday was a hectic day trying to get to students to make sure they didnt come to Uni, join the picket and inform their friends etc. Around 12 that day the University Management did an OHS check on Goolangullia. We passed with flying colours, the only problems was no fire exit out the back, poor disbled access, not enough fire extingishers and other things which were all pre existing things that the University has failed to address. So that backfired on them, actually on that the Management have not shown us the OHS report that they were promised they would. Tuesday was the picket of the UWS Bankstown Campus and the shutting down of the campus. On Tuesday I think there is usually about 2500 students on campus. At the busiest part of the day (between 12-1) there was 15 cars in the carpark. Throughout the day car park one (which holds no more then 150 cars) was not full. So this was a good, a small problem with convincing the NTEU about not crossing the picket line but besides a few s#*bs most members were supportive and did not show up. Thank you to those who helped picket on the day (i wont mention people or organisations who were on the picket because the management and some NTEU members have been bothering known supporters). Throughout the rest of that week up to last Friday the University have tried to get the files from Goolangullia. To counter this we have a
LL:ART: THE TOP FIVE LIES ABOUT THIS WAR
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED], 10/17/01 * THE TOP FIVE LIES ABOUT THIS WAR * How many people do you know who claim to be skeptical, who pride themselves on their distrust for authority, who like to pretend that they're wise to the ways of the world -- and then, every time there's a war, they swallow the lies of the government with all the gullibility of a three-year-old child in the lap of a department store Santa Claus? Don't fall into that trap yourself! Learn to identify and refute official misinformation when you see it. Let's count down some of the common misconceptions about this war: Lie #5: We're not at war with the Afghan people -- look, we're bringing them food! Reality: Afghanistan is in the midst of a severe drought which threatens literally millions of people with starvation. Even before the threat of US bombing, the World Food Program (WFP) said that nearly 6 million people were in need of immediate food assistance. When the threat of war caused massive movements of refugees and internally displaced people, the WFP raised that number to 7.5 million. UN agencies were keeping huge numbers of people alive, but the war danger -- as well as the US demand that Pakistan seal its border with Afghanistan -- caused the WFP to suspend deliveries of wheat flour to the country. We have no idea how many people have already died as a result. Meanwhile, the US dropped 37,000 individually-wrapped packages of food from the sky. You do the math. That's enough to feed about 37,000 people for one day, in a country where seven and a half million are in danger of starvation. Additionally, the spokesman for an international charity active in Afghanistan told the London Independent that Random food drops are the worst possible way of delivering food aid. They cause more problems than they solve. Not the least of which is the fact that Afghanistan has the highest number of unexploded land mines in the world. There are already 10 or 15 mine incidents every day, and with people scrambling into mine-ridden areas to pick up random packages of food dropped from US planes, that number is only going to go up. Lie #4: Oil? Who said anything about oil? Reality: The Caspian Sea region has potentially the world's largest oil reserves, likely making Central Asia the next Middle East. The problem is piping it out. Afghanistan occupies a strategic position between the Caspian and the markets of the Indian subcontinent and east Asia. It's prime territory for building pipelines, which is why the oil company Unocal -- as well as the US government -- welcomed the Taliban's rise to power in 1996 as a promising source of stability. That turned out to be a pipe dream (so to speak), but people like our Commander-in-Chief and the oil men around him have never given up on the tremendous profit possibilities that Central Asia offers. And if you don't think such considerations are crossing their minds at this time of crisis, may we suggest a refresher course in The Facts of Life? Lie #3: The US is trying to liberate the people of Afghanistan from Taliban tyranny. Reality: The US, Russia, and Iran have been aiding a rough coalition of armed groups called the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance's fighters are drawn mainly from ethnic minority groups in Afghanistan who have been persecuted by the Taliban. But their record is also a bloody one. Groups like the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), www.rawaa.org which have been fighting against fundamentalism and for democracy in Afghanistan for years, have publicly stated that the fundamentalist gangsters of the Northern Alliance are not an acceptable alternative to the fundamentalist gangsters of the Taliban. No wonder: Human Rights Watch implicates the Northern Alliance in indiscriminate aerial bombardment and shelling, direct attacks on civilians, summary executions, rape, persecution on the basis of religion or ethnicity, the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, and the use of antipersonnel landmines. By now everyone knows that Osama bin Laden was among the mujihadin recruited by the CIA to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Meet the next generation. Lie #2: America is coming together. Reality: Tens of thousands of people have been laid off in the airline industry alone. The government quickly responded to the airline industry crisis with a multi- billion-dollar bailout package for the companies in order to keep afloat the profits of shareholders and the salaries of CEOs, but when it came to aiding the thousands of workers laid off, Congressman Dick Armey said that that would be contrary to the American spirit. Maybe it is. Maybe it's the American spirit to make common working people pay for a crisis and to bear the burdens of an expensive war. But it certainly doesn't have anything to do with togetherness. And the biggest lie of them all . . . Lie #1: It's possible to win a 'war
LL:INFO: terrorists/government satire :-)
Confused?
Having difficulty telling the good guys from the bad guys?
Use this handy guide to differences between Terrorists and the U.S.
Government:
TERRORISTS:
Supposed leader is the spoiled son of a powerful politician, from extremely
wealthy oil family
US GOVERNMENT:
Supposed leader is the spoiled son of a powerful politician, from extremely
wealthy oil family
TERRORISTS:
Leader has declared a holy war ('Jihad') against his 'enemies'; believes
any nation not with him is against him; believes god is on his side, and
that any means are justified.
US GOVERNMENT:
Leader has declared a holy war ('Crusade') against his 'enemies'; believes
any nation not with him is against him; believes god is on his side, and
that any means are justified.
TERRORISTS:
Supported by extreme fundamentalist religious leaders who preach hatred,
intolerance, subjugation of women, and persecution of non-believers
US GOVERNMENT:
Supported by extreme fundamentalist religious leaders who preach hatred,
intolerance, subjugation of women, and persecution of non-believers
TERRORISTS:
Leadership was not elected by a majority of the people in a free and fair
democratic election
US GOVERNMENT:
Leadership was not elected by a majority of the people in a free and fair
democratic election
TERRORISTS:
Kills thousands of innocent civilians, some of them children, in cold
blooded bombings
US GOVERNMENT:
Kills thousands of innocent civilians, some of them children, in cold
blooded bombings
TERRORISTS:
Operates through clandestine organization (al Qaeda) with agents in many
countries; uses bombing, assassination, other terrorist tactics
US GOVERNMENT:
Operates through clandestine organization (CIA) with agents in many
countries; uses bombing, assassination, other terrorist tactics
TERRORISTS:
Using war as pretext to clamp down on dissent and undermine civil liberties
US GOVERNMENT:
Using war as pretext to clamp down on dissent and undermine civil liberties
--
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LL:ART: Noam Chomsky Interview Sept. 30
From: Michael Albert [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 01, 2001 12:31 AM Subject: ZNet Commentary / Noam Chomsky / Albert Interviews Chomsky / Sept. 30 http://www.zmag.org/sustainers I sent six questions to Noam Chomsky. His answers, by email, are below. (1) There has been an immense movement of troops and extreme use of military rhetoric, up to comments about terminating governments, etc. Yet, to many people there appears to be considerable restraint...what happened? From the first days after the attack, the Bush administration has been warned by NATO leaders, specialists on the region, and presumably its own intelligence agencies (not to speak of many people like you and me) that if they react with a massive assault that kills many innocent people, that will be answering bin Laden's most fervent prayers. They will be falling into a diabolical trap, as the French foreign minister put it. That would be true -- perhaps even more so -- if they happen to kill bin Laden, still without having provided credible evidence of his involvement in the crimes of Sept. 11. He would then be perceived as a martyr even among the enormous majority of Muslims who deplore those crimes, as bin Laden himself has done, for what it is worth, denying any involvement in the crimes or even knowledge of them, and condemning the killing of innocent women, children, and other humans as an act that Islam strictly forbids...even in the course of a battle (BBC, Sept. 29). His voice will continue to resound on tens of thousands of cassettes already circulating throughout the Muslim world, and in many interviews, including the last few days. An assault that kills innocent Afghans -- not Taliban, but their terrorized victims -- would be virtually a call for new recruits to the horrendous cause of the bin Laden network and other graduates of the terrorist networks set up by the CIA and its associates 20 years ago to fight a Holy War against the Russians, meanwhile following their own agenda, from the time they assassinated President Sadat of Egypt in 1981, murdering one of the most enthusiastic of the creators of the Afghanis -- mostly recruits from extremist radical Islamist elements around the world who were recruited to fight in Afghanistan. After a little while, the message apparently got through to the Bush administration, which has -- wisely from their point of view -- chosen to follow a different course. However, restraint seems to me a questionable word. On Sept. 16, the New York Times reported that Washington has also demanded [from Pakistan] a cutoff of fuel supplies,...and the elimination of truck convoys that provide much of the food and other supplies to Afghanistan's civilian population. Astonishingly, that report elicited no detectable reaction in the West, a grim reminder of the nature of the Western civilization that leaders and elite commentators claim to uphold, yet another lesson that is not lost among those who have been at the wrong end of the guns and whips for centuries. In the following days, those demands were implemented. On Sept. 27, the same NYT correspondent reported that officials in Pakistan said today that they would not relent in their decision to seal off the country's 1,400- mile border with Afghanistan, a move requested by the Bush administration because, the officials said, they wanted to be sure that none of Mr. bin Laden's men were hiding among the huge tide of refugees (John Burns, Islamabad). According to the world's leading newspaper, then, Washington demanded that Pakistan slaughter massive numbers of Afghans, millions of them already on the brink of starvation, by cutting off the limited sustenance that was keeping them alive. Almost all aid missions withdrew or were expelled under the threat of bombing. Huge numbers of miserable people have been fleeing to the borders in terror, after Washington's threat to bomb the shreds of existence remaining in Afghanistan, and to convert the Northern Alliance into a heavily armed military force that will, perhaps, be unleashed to renew the atrocities that tore the country apart and led much of the population to welcome the Taliban when they drove out the murderous warring factions that Washington and Moscow now hope to exploit for their own purposes. When they reach the sealed borders, refugees are trapped to die in silence. Only a trickle can escape through remote mountain passes. How many have already succumbed we cannot guess, and few seem to care. Apart from the relief agencies, I have seen no attempt even to guess. Within a few weeks the harsh winter will arrive. There are some reporters and aid workers in the refugee camps across the borders. What they describe is horrifying enough, but they know, and we know, that they are seeing the lucky ones, the few who were able to escape -- and who express their hopes that ''even the cruel Americans must feel some pity for our ruined
LL:DDV: Great Sustainable Building Debate
From: Glenda Lindsay [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, 4 September 2001 1:02:PM Subject: Great Sustainable Building Debate - Daylesford Sept 22- 24 THE GREAT SUSTAINABLE BUILDING DEBATE, Sat 22nd/Sun 23rd/Mon 24th/September. Daylesford, Vic - organised by Solar Sisters Maureen Corbett and Kerry Wise. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Three full days of speakers: Hear experts, radical thinkers, architects, owner-builders including # David Holmgren # Eric Zehrung # Frida Thornton # John Morgan # Sam Thompson # Kerryn Wilmot House Tours: Visit a range of 18 very different architect-designed and/or owner-built timber, mud and strawbale houses Debates: Argue the rules and how to break them! # Sustainable building # 5-star energy ratings # Embodied energy materials # Power, water people systems Solar Sisters welcome any promotion of this event you could undertake on our behalf. Feel free to contact us if you'd like posters, multiple hard copies of our brochure or further information, Sincerely Kerry Wise 5348 2055 Maureen Corbett 5348 2592 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDQ: Forwarded mail....re CHOGM
From: ruby black [EMAIL PROTECTED] MEET THE ANARCHISTS! Are you travelling to the anti-chogm protests in Brisbane 6-9 October.Meet other non hierarchial anti capitalists groups and individuals from around Australia.We welcome you to participate in a networking talk fest on Friday the 5th October. Each group has a short time to explain their goals and what their doing etc...followed by a general discussion re.CHOGM tactics or general networking according to the desires of those present. People interested in Anarchist ideas are welcome to attend.No hierarchial groups- parties.The purpose of this meeting is to spread Anarchist ideas and network. Interested! contact me via email -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: COSHG Workshops
From: Sue Nash [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 12:53 PM Subject: Workshops W o r k s h o p s (3) 1. SUPPORT There will be a workshop on the theme of Support on Saturday October 27. 10am - 4pm. To be held in Carlton. Topics will include ways that group members can support each other, including active listening and skills for answering phone calls from members and prospective members. Facilitators of the sessions will be Lera O'Connor from the Anti-Cancer Council and Eilís Hughes from the Genetic Support Network. Cost will be $10 (or $5 if you have a Health Care Card or similar level of income). Bring your own lunch. There will be a maximum of 40 people. It is essential to book your place. Please contact COSHG. A program with details of session times, public transport, car parking, etc will be sent to you on receipt of your booking. Our recent workshops have been on weekdays. We are holding this one on a Saturday and hope that members of self help groups who are at work on weekdays will be able to join us for this workshop. 2. NEW GROUPS, NEW PEOPLE, NEW DIRECTIONS A workshop for:- - people involved in starting a group - people thinking about starting a group - people taking on new responsibilities (for example being a committee member or convenor) - groups that are thinking about doing things in a new way Workshop will cover a range of issues, depending on the needs of the participants. If you would be interested in attending, please call COSHG before September 11, and we will arrange the workshop at a time to suit the people who want to attend. 3. FUTURE WORKSHOPS We hope to hold more workshops in 2001-2002 and we are looking for people to facilitate sessions. Could you run a session on a topic that would be useful toother groups? This is a chance to share your experience and knowledge with a small informal group of people involved in self help. Information about future workshops will be in the COSHG news sheet. If you are interested in future workshops, please subscribe to the news sheet. Some possible topics for workshops ... Computer skills Internet use Web pages News sheet production, mail-outs, evaluation Leaflet production Starting a group Group maintenance Recruitment - how to get people involved Legal structures, incorporation Meetings, facilitation, Consensus decision making Conference/forum organising Consultations - is it worth being involved? Conflict Resolution Awareness - Cultural/ disabilities, etc GST other tax issues Evaluation Public Speaking presentations Media Skills (press releases) Finances - being a treasurer Funding - submissions, fund raising Issues for similar groups - e.g. Health Groups Support groups - active listening, phone skills, referrals, confidentiality Publicity, working with the media Gender relations in self help and social action Video making Screen Printing Banner making Social Action and the Law Students volunteers in self help groups Campaign skills Nonviolence and direct action Strategic Questioning Lobbying Umbrella groups - policies and structures END = Collective Of Self Help Groups P O Box 251, Brunswick East 3057 Vic Australia Phone 61 3 9349 2301 (Wed 2-4pm) www.vicnet.net.au/~coshg For people wanting to contact, start or maintain self help or social action groups Directory of Self Help and Social Action Groups. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:PR: WTO applauded for insulting Gandhi satire
From: RTMark Quarterly Report [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 5:07 PM Subject: WTO applauded for insulting Gandhi August 30, 2001 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WTO INTRODUCES NEW MEMBER Gold and one meter long, phallus is brand-new technology to control distant workers Anti-WTO impostors have struck again, delivering a lecture about the rights of slavery, the stupidity of Gandhi, and the supremacy of free trade to an enthusiastic crowd of scientists, engineers, and marketing professionals--all of whom thought they were watching an official WTO representative. The 150 experts at the Textiles of the Future conference in Tampere, Finland heard one Hank Hardy Unruh explain that Gandhi's self- sufficiency movement was entirely misguided, because it centered around protectionism, and that Lincoln, by outlawing slavery, had criminally interfered with the trade freedom of the South, as well as with slavery's own freedom to develop naturally. Had slavery never been abolished, Unruh said, today's much cheaper system of sweatshops would have eventually replaced it anyhow; following this free-market logic to the end, Unruh declared the Civil War just a big waste of money. Finally, to applause from the highly educated audience, Unruh's business suit was ripped off to reveal a golden leotard with a three-foot-long phallus. The purpose of the Management Leisure Suit, he explained, was to allow managers, no matter where they were, to monitor their distant, impoverished workforces and to administer shocks to encourage productivity--assuring that no Gandhi-type situation develop again. If a group of Ph.D.s cheers at such crudely crazy things, just because it's the WTO saying them, what else can the WTO get away with? said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men, the impostors' umbrella group. (The entire PowerPoint lecture is available at http://www.theyesmen.org/finland/, along with some shots captured by a video crew preparing a film on the Yes Men's activities.) The Yes Men had a similar experience last October with a group of international trade lawyers (http://www.theyesmen.org/wto/). And in July, a member of the group, again passing as a representative of the WTO, appeared on a major television network show about protest's effect on the market (http://theyesmen.org/tv.html); among other things, he spoke about how the privatization of education will naturally eliminate unproductive thinkers from the high-school classroom, a long-term solution to the problem of protest. (Because the imposture was not noticed and the Yes Men hope for further appearances, the show's name is being withheld.) In other quarterly developments: * A conference session on techniques to counter anti-corporate activism, normally available for $225 to corporate clients, is available to activists for free at http://rtmark.com/prsa/, thanks to an anonymous donor. * At the G8 protests in Genoa, activists distributed one thousand vanity mirrors, which were then used to reflect the sun into the eyes of attacking policemen; this fulfilled RTMark project MIRR (http://rtmark.com/archimedes.html), and those who carried it out received a $1,000 anonymous investment. The Archimedes Project comes on the heels of the medieval catapult attack on the FTAA fortress in Quebec City, for which the workers were awarded $200. For the upcoming IMF protests in Washington, D.C., on September 29, an RTMark investor has offered $500 to any Lacrosse team that harnesses their skills and equipment to throw tear gas canisters back to the police (http://rtmark.com/fundhigh.html#LACR). * A software development kit and book from http://hactivist.com, entitled Child as Audience, allows anyone to reverse-engineer the Nintendo Gameboy. Because of content that many will find objectionable, RTMark has lent its corporate veil to the project, meaning that any legal flak will be absorbed by the RTMark corporate body rather than by those responsible. * The same label that enraged Geffen Records with Deconstructing Beck is issuing its fourth RTMark-sponsored release, A Mutated Christmas, a paean to musical sharing illegally assembled from copyrighted holiday music. Promotional copies will be available in late September; press and radio requests should be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. RTMark's primary goal is to publicize corporate subversion of the democratic process. To this end it acts as a clearinghouse for anti-corporate projects. A list of just-added projects is maintained at http://rtmark.com/new.html. # 30 # www.iww.org because capitalism cannot be reformed. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: Filmotec screening Chiapas short film docos
Filmotec (latin American Film Society) is screening on Thursday 30th August from 7.30pm Short film documentaries made by indigeous people from the communities of Chiapas, Mexico. At Cinemedia (at Treasury Theatre formerly State Film Theatre) (downstairs) 1 Macarthur Street, East Melbourne. Spanish with English sub-titles. $9 full $6 concession. Tel 9537 0478 for more information and other programmes Unfortunately this clashes with a fund-raiser for Friends of the Earth also on Thursday night of film: He Died With His Felafel In His Hand at the Nova. Oh well in a city of millions there should be lots of diverse interesting events on all at the same time anyway... :-) -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: water privatisation
Blue Planet targets commodification of world's water by Patrick Bond and Karen Bakker The July 5-8 Blue Planet conference in Vancouver opened with a call by Maude Barlow to promote a global water revolution. This is the first of many international civil society meetings to take back control of our water. The host Council of Canadians, a 100,000-member citizens' group, was joined by several hundred representatives of indigenous peoples, Third World communities, anti-globalization activists, radical youth, public-sector trade unions, environmentalists, anti-dam campaigners, World Bank watchers, and consumer groups. Barlow, the Council chairperson, was in the news in April for helping turn out Maude's Mobs of middle-class Canadians to the Quebec City protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas. For several years, she and Tony Clarke of Polaris Institute have fused citizens'-rights respectability with surprisingly radical rhetoric against the ravaging of Canada by corporations and pocketed politicians. Barlow and Clarke recently supported local activists in Vancouver as they fought off a privatised wastewater treatment plant. In contrast to previous criticisms that the Council has been excessively nationalist, this conference recreated the internationalist spirit of the Porto Alegre World Social Forum. Aiming directly at next year's tenth anniversary of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Blue Planet took on corporate globalization more generally, posing routes that lead from multi-faceted resistance to alternative conceptions of water management. The trends in virtually all countries are towards the commodification and privatization of water. Blue Planet promotes a radical manifesto and global treaty as seminal documents in the international fight-back. The manifesto stresses the essential nature of water to life and to social and ecosystem integrity, and identifies cultural resonances and the sense of the sacred associated with water in various spiritual traditions. Aboriginal communities played a key role in framing the debate during the conference. Getting governments to sign up to the treaty, it is hoped, will be a rallying cry and political tool for the movement. The documents provide a broad-based way of arguing for water as a human right, and will have universal applicability in sites of struggle around the world. Indeed, five scales of water struggle are, in the process, being fused: local communities, national governments, world water policy fora, sites of global rule such as Free Trade Agreements and the Bretton Woods Institutions, and the more general takeover of water by multinational corporations. Solidarity with campaigns underway in a variety of Third World settings represented at the conference--Ghana, India, Bolivia, Mexico, South Africa, Guatemala, Colombia, Tanzania, Slovakia, Honduras, Philippines, Mozambique, Indonesia, as well as First Nations within North America-received serious attention. The concerns included damage from mega-dams and cross-catchment water transfers, despoilation of groundwater and aquifers, municipal water privatisation, tariff price hikes and water poverty, agribusiness abuse of water in the wake of the irrigation-guzzling green revolution, global warming/drying, worsening droughts and floods, scarcity and wastage, and the extension of corporate bill-of-rights protections to water via the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.Canada is a poignant host for some of these issues. The week before the conference, Mike Harris--conservative leader of Canada's main province, Ontario--was a witness at a judicial hearing on the seven deaths and thousands of poisonings at the town of Walkerton last year. He was explicitly asked whether his ideology of privatisation was to blame, given that testing the town's water for E.coli was outsourced to a local firm. It failed to do so and attempted a cover-up. Harris was in full denial mode too, but Canadians got the point. Other local struggles include anti-dam fights in Quebec and British Columbia, resistance to bulk sales of water to the US, and campaigns to bring services to indigenous peoples who suffer Third World water poverty in one of the world's richest countries. Water can become a locus of the anti-globalization movement, some speakers contended, for several reasons. Water struggles tend to bridge traditional red/green divides, link North and South in solidarity, endorse the notion of a global Commons that mustn't be privatised, focus on the public (especially municipal government) character of service delivery, involve the expansion of the service through expanded labour and jobs, and offer a way to practice local self-management and sustainable consumption. Thus if water becomes a public good protected from the market, it also serves a progressive political trend towards an expansive eco-social localism, unlike the establishment's
LL:INFO: Love and Rage Announcements
Announcements CHOGM transport Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM): Brisbane 6th October. Trains leave Sydney Thursday 4th and return by Monday 8th. $66 cons return $132 full fare. To book a place and/or travel with Love Rage contact one of the Love Rage Student conveners: Jess 0416 148 964, Pru 0402 541 789 or Lee 0402 216 766. Autonomy Solidarity Newsletter Launch Fundraiser: 6.30pm Saturday 11th August at the Love Rage Social Centre - 67 Newington Rd Marrickville (off Enmore Rd, Bus Stop before Enmore Park Buses from Central 423 426 428). We Want Your Contributions! Campaign reports, commentaries, news items, announcements, articles, poems, fiction, art, cartoons, images, anything Deadline for Next Edition - 31st August, 2001 - Logo Competition Lazy Artists of the World, We Need You! Design a logo for Autonomy and Solidarity, and win yourself a lifetime subscription and a bottle of wine. COMING SOON www.loveandrage.org The new and updated Love and Rage Website will be launched within the next couple of weeks.If you: have technical skills and want to help with site design. have content for the website - articles, links, graphics, anything. want to help manage part of the site (no technical skill necessary. You could basically run one section of the site, eg. Women's Liberation, Anarchism or virtually any topic that takes your fancy) We'd love your help and involvement. For more details contact Safari: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Nelson: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sergio: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 0412 407 678 Free the Refugees Solidarity Tour Free the Refugees Solidarity Tour, Woomera 2001, Friday September 21 - Sunday September 23. GET ON THE BUS Join the Refugee Action Collective trip to Woomera Detention Centre in South Australia to protest at the imprisonment of refugees and asylum seekers, as we go into an election where neither of the major parties offers a decent alternative to the current system of gross human rights violations. In the tradition of the Freedom Rides, defy the government tactic of using fear and remoteness to divide those of us living in Australia from those seeking peace and freedom, who would join us. Buses will be leaving from Melbourne and Sydney at this stage, and hopefully from Adelaide, Canberra, and other places as plans progress. The itinerary is as follows: Friday 21 September: Leave in the afternoon from Melbourne's own Maribyrnong Detention Centre, for a bus ride to Woomera in South Australia. Saturday 22 September: Arrive in Woomera for breakfast. Protest, activities, etc at Woomera Detention Centre for the morning, into the afternoon. Bus to Adelaide in the afternoon. Tentative plans for a public meeting in Adelaide to help build a refugee activist group there, and to discuss the day. Spend the night in accommodation, which we will be planning in either billets, backpackers etc, or perhaps a church or school hall. Sunday September 23: morning rally and speakout in Adelaide, and bus back to Melbourne arriving in the evening. In the days following the trip we will organise a public meeting or rally to highlight the experience. Register via email [EMAIL PROTECTED], or phone Judy 0418 347 374 The cost will be about $100 per person (including accommodation), but we will be fundraising to subsidise. Volunteers who would like to help organise things, please contact us (see details below), or come to our regular meetings Tuesday 6pm at Trades Hall, cnr Lygon and Victoria Sts. Refugee Action Collective www.vicnet.net.au/~rac-vic [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0418 347 374 Subscribe to Autonomy and Solidarity If you want to subscribe to Autonomy and Solidarity please contact us. Phone Karen on 040758220, or Email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Write to us at Red and Black P.O Box 4, Enmore NSW 2042. We will have to ask people do pay a small donation for mailing costs ($10 for ten issues within Australia , $A30 for 10 issues overseas or whatever people can afford) -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: VTHC Rally - campaign on industrial manslaughter
Victorian Trades Hall Council: Rally to launch union campaign on industrial manslaughter laws Event: Rally to launch union campaign on industrial manslaughter laws Event starting date: 10:00am 23 August 2001 Event finishing date: 12:00am 23 August 2001 Where: Storey Hall, RMIT 336 Swanston Street, Melbourne Contact: Margot Hoyte (OHS Campaigns and Information Officer, Trades Hall) Description: In September a new law will be introduced into Victorian parliament, creating the crime of Industrial Manslaughter. OHS reps and delegates are urged to attend the launch rally on August 23. Speakers at the launch include: Jan Carrick (mother of Anthony Carrick, killed on his first day at work), Sia Lagos, Director, Legal Services and Investigations, WorkSafe Name: Margot Hoyte Telephone: 9662 3511 Ground Floor, Old Building, Trades Hall, Cnr. Victoria Lygon Streets, Carlton, VIC 3053 Ph: (03) 9662 3511 Fax: (03) 9663 2127 http://www.vthc.socialchange.net.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 Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: tech wars in meat space
Week of August 1 - 7, 2001 Protest Goes 'Star Trek' With Nonlethal Weapons Tech Wars in Meat Space by Erik Baard When Carlo Giuliani's rage at the new world order turned violent during the recent G-8 summit in Genoa, he was hit with an old-fashioned response: two bullets that ripped through his head. Police forces are asking themselves if that kind of death is an inevitable part of street clashes, or if high-tech nonlethal weapons could offer a way out. Police in the future may be armed with energy beams that inflict a burning sensation on skin without causing permanent damage, or even painlessly and temporarily immobilize a rioting demonstrator. Waves of sound and light could disorient mobs, and sticky foam could trap them like flies on a strip. As things stand, if you dropped Wyatt Earp into today's world he'd be pretty comfortable, says Captain Charles Sid Heal, a nationally regarded nonlethal-weapons guru with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. But Earp's bullets aren't the answer to every breach of code, he says. Save them for a time when inaction will cost a life, and consider even that a failure for not acting nonlethally, sooner. Activists worry that cops with gentler means of crowd restraint will be more likely to nip protests in the bud, preventing any message from getting out. Already, demonstrations have been wrecked and people injured by tear gas and rubber bullets. The increasing popularity of less lethal weapons is a two-edged sword, says David Jackson, a spokesman for CopWatch.com, a Web site dedicated to tracking police abuses. On the one hand, their use causes far fewer deaths than the use of traditional firearms. On the other hand, the perception that they are 'nonlethal' results in their indiscriminate or improper use to a far greater degree than such use of traditional firearms. That's not a bad thing, according to Colonel Andrew Mazzara, director of the U.S. Marine's Institute for Emerging Defense Technologies at Pennsylvania State University. I would assume and hope that the 'trigger' would be pulled sooner than a lethal weapon, he says. Faced with that hard line, rabble-rousers are piling gadgets into their own box of tricks. Protesters now have robots that can graffiti public spaces at lightning speed. The technology exists for real flying saucers to project laser messages onto the sides of buildings or display text on their underbellies with light-emitting diodes. The Institute for Applied Autonomy, the techno-artist collective that makes the remote-controlled GraffitiWriter, sees nothing ahead but growth. [T]he IAA has identified the already emerging market of cultural insurrection as the most stable market in the years to come, says their Web site. IAA research has examined the primary behavior patterns of this market and is developing technologies that best serve the needs of the burgeoning market. The term nonlethal is a goal, not a guarantee, because these weapons can be deadly if used carelessly. Heal counts 11 deaths from bean-bag rounds in North America alone. That's what scares activists. Ill-trained, overzealous, angry cops frequently use pepper spray as an impromptu, 'officially sanctioned' form of torture, says Jackson of CopWatch.com. Likewise, firehoses and truncheons have broken bones. Modifications to these weapons on the Penn State radar include a water cannon made by Jaycor that can deliver an electric charge. New sensors on muzzles can slow projectiles when a target is too close for safety. Another new projectile is the Sticky Shocker, a battery-powered device that clings to its target's clothing with glue and barbs, delivering an incapacitating electric charge. There are even billy clubs that fire soft projectiles and ensnaring nets. Streams of gluey foam, like a souped-up version of the party favor Crazy String, can also immobilize suspects or create barriers. That was done by marines in Somalia, who created perimeters of the foam to block mobs as UN forces withdrew. Problem was, those barriers were easily bridged by laying down planks of wood and sheets of plastic. Small explosives that deliver a burst of shockwaves can be used to disorient an entire crowd, as can LE Systems' handheld Laser Dazzler, which is essentially over-stimulating rave gear that could have been designed by Dr. Evil. Some speculate that infrasound assaults of low-frequency waves could confuse people and if applied in greater doses will produce vomiting, diarrhea, deafness, and death. A nonlethal-weapons laboratory may sound like another Tower of London, but any of these ideas might have spared Carlo Giuliani's life. The standard is not perfection, Heal says. The standard is the alternative-death by gunshot. Our immediate retort is, What would you rather be shot with? Still, he knows that standards within police forces don't match the layman's ideal. Everything changed on a Thursday night in 1966, he says.
LL:DDV: Turkish hunger strike solidarity rally
From: ezgi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: hunger strike solidarity really Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 23:14:16 +1000 solidarity rally with turkish hunger strikers on 18 August 2 pm, front of State library We call on you to show solidarity with the political prisoners in turkey against cells and masacres The state saved lives with 20,000 bombs, over 50,000 gendarmes-police and other kind of security forces by attacking its own prisons! Turkey has more than10.000 political prisoners. They are trade unionist, human rights activists, revolutionary leftist groups, democrats, artists, writers, Kurdish patriots, Socialists etc. For the last 280 days the prisoners staging a protest and resistance against the governments so called F type isolation-death cells scheme by putting their lives at stake by the only meanings of resistance in their hands: Hunger strike and the Death fast. So far 60 prisoners and supporters outside of the prisons died as a result. On 19 December 2000 government forces attacked the prisons in order to break the resistance and remove the prisoners to the new F type prisons by force and called it pathetically Operation Return to Life by killing 30 of them and seriously injuring many. The government was hoping to end the resistance, instead participant numbers increased and the situation has worsened. Now the greater numbers continuing resistance in the F type prisons as well as outside the prisons by the family members and the sympathetic supporters of the prisoners cause. Their lives in the prisons are in a permanent struggle for minimal human rights and human dignity, which is denied by the more oppressive new prison system. Sultan Erdogdu, an insider who's recently released from one of those prisons told; They have brought us here beating us all the way, finally all of us were unconscious. We were affected by poison gas. The results of this are a terrible burning sensation in our throats and eyes. From time to time soldiers come and pound on our cell doors in order to disturb us. Our only weapon is the DEATH FAST and we will only emerge from here dead! The health situation of the prisoners is very bad and everyone is very weak Let us not be SILENT. Even the smallest initiative, a little help can be a light in the isolated life of a prisoner. Lets not abandon them to solitude. Let us become window from their cells to the outside world The Hunger strike began on the 20 November 2000, On the 19th of December 2000 an operation conducted by the government forces in 20 prisons across the country murdared 30 prisoners, 6 female prisoners were burnt alive. Following the operation increased numbers are continuing the death fast. - After that date 25 more prisoners died on the death fast. 60 of them suffering from amnesia and many already have irreversible physical defects. - In support of the prisoners 5 TAYAD members lost their lives in the death fast. Turkish and Kurdish Human Rights Committee Melbourne July 31, 2001 195 Sydney Rd Coburg [EMAIL PROTECTED] info: www.ozgurluk.org www.iww.org - because capitalism cannot be reformed. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: 2 minutes of Infamy 18.08.2001 Northcote
Hi, Apologies if youíve already got this before, weíre all madly emailing at the moment. A few of us from awol have organised another 2 minutes of infamy as an opportunity for non hierarchical groups to network and also for individuals who are interested in this type of activism to check out what is going on, + where they can get help from. Depending on numbers, it will be run as the previous one i.e. a representative from each group will have 2 uninterrupted minutes to talk about what their group is doing, resources they can offer, and also resources that they need. This will be followed by a short time for questions. We intend to stick strictly to 2 minutes, so that it doesn't go on. The 2 minutes of infamy will be part of a more general afternoon/evening that will include debriefing and discussion of where we are at and where we need to get too, and also an evening fundraiser. The debriefing will be an opportunity to discuss and debrief on the last rather busy year, as well as talk about possible directions for the future. The fundraiser has been organised under the banner no issue is single as a way of highlighting the interconnectedness of our struggles. It will be a half half split between the group in awol who are trying to set up a squat/community centre and the Keepers of Lake Eyre who are battling Western Mining for the survival of their land and culture. We hope that if you canít or donít want to make it for the full afternoon/ evening youíll be able to make it to the 2 minutes of infamy that we see as an excellent opportunity to build a broader anti authoritarian network in Melbourne. Thanks Shane Saturday 18th August, 3pm til late The Pink Palace - Eastman St , Northcote, off High St. near council chambers ( it is a big warehouse and wont be difficult to find ) for final details please check the awol site closer to the event www.antimedia.net/awol Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] /ph 0418 340 191 PS The text from the flyer is posted below, let me know if you want an original to distribute. The Return of Two Minutes of Infamy + The Festival of C.R.A.P. (Celebration and Recognition of Autonomous Plurality) networking/debriefing/fundraiser/party for anarchists,autonomists, radicals and trouble makers Saturday 18th, August 3pm - 6pm Debriefing/networking A get together for groups and individuals involved in or interested in non-hierarchical organising for small groups discussions on plotting actions, de-briefing on recent events, consciousness raising, critique and self-critique, learning about each other more deeply, discussion on weaving together struggles and brainstorming on new groups and projects, look at different autonomous organising experiences, histories and possibilities, strengthening non-hierarchical communication, dealing with burnout 6pm - 7pm Two minutes of infamy Networking spokescouncil for affinity groups, organisations and individuals. A representative from each group has 2 uninterrupted minutes to introduce their group, what theyíre doing, resources they can provide, and stuff that they need. Followed by dinner. 7pm til late A joint No issue is Single fundraiser $5/4 The Keepers of Lake Eyre/ AWOL community space working group. K.O.L.E. - Keepers of Lake Eyre A coalition of environmentalists and Arabunna of the Lake Eyre Region, taking on Western Mining Corporation who are destroying their culture and land. More information - http://come.to/lakeeyre AWOL - Autonomous Web of Liberation 'AWOL is a consensus-based decision-making network supporting affinity groups and individual actions. AWOL is non-hierarchical, decentralised and autonomous and seeks to build alternatives to capitalism. The awol community space group is establishing a community/activist space in Melbourne to facilitate the building of community and resistance. Spoken word performances, beats, bands, and other stuff Saturday 18th August, 3pm til late The Pink Palace - Eastman St , Northcote, off High St. near council chambers for final details please check the awol site closer to the event www.antimedia.net/awol Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] /ph 0418 340 191 no journos, no cops, and no dogs please (dog bites hurt!). Free material only this event organised by the f.o.c working group from awol -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Raymond Hoser vs State Government of Victoria
To whom it may concern, please print the following file in your newspaper - thanks for your help. All the best ___ Raymond Hoser - Australia's leading corruption author is now facing jail for telling the truth - go to: http://www.smuggled.com/VGS1.htm for details. Please publicise this matter as widely as possible. ___ Raymond Hoser(AAC) PO Box 599 Doncaster Victoria 3108 Australia Phone: (Within Australia) 0412 777211 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.raymondhoser.com www.iww.org Although the police force is made up of workers, once you begin to examine their historical loyalties, it becomes immediately apparent who they take their orders from. The rich. Make sure your children know their class history well. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: Grasslands Fundraising Benefit Party
Sat 4th August 2001 Since 1997, Grasslands has donate dover $55,000 to a range of community based groups undertaking innovative social projects. Grasslands now needs you support to clear debts incurred in setting up the organic grocery store in Footscray which has generated the bulk of the these donations. VENUE: St Augustine's Parish Hall, 61 Sommerville Road, Yarraville (5 minutes walk from Yarraville train station). BANQUET; organic vegan feast starts at 6pm includes party. Cost $35 or $25 concession pr=3Dpurchased before the event for catering purposes. Tables of 6 to 12 people are available. PARTY: kicks off at 9pm with local acoustic folk bands as well as a covers band playing dance hits frm the past. Cost: $10 or $5 concession tickets pre-purchased or at the door. Kids get in free and there will be a bar stocking a range of organic wines and beers. To book your ticket or for more information contact Grasslands. socially responsible...ecologically sound...affordable 205 Nicholson Street, Footscray Victoria 3011 Phone 9362 0830 Faz 9362 0810=20 Monday - Saturday 10am - 6pm. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: New Debord Translation
From: Bureau of Public Secrets [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 11:16 AM Ken Knabb's new translation of Chapter 4 of Guy Debord's THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE is online at http://www.slip.net/~knabb/SI/debord/4.htm Debord's book -- easily the most important radical book of the 20th century -- has been translated into over a dozen languages. There have been five or six different versions in English alone. This new translation of Chapter 4 incorporates the best renderings from those previous versions, but it is clearer and more accurate than any of them. Chapter 4 is not only the most important chapter of the book, it is also the easiest to understand because it deals primarily with concrete historical events, revealing the practical implications of ideas that are expressed more abstractly in the other chapters. The topics dealt with include Hegel, Marx, Bakunin, Lenin, Lukács, anarchism, utopian socialism, reformism, fascism, Bolshevism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, the Russian revolution, the Spanish revolution, Third World movements, workers councils, revolutionary organization, and the nature of the new revolt that Debord saw coming -- the revolt that burst into full view in 1968, less than a year after the original publication of the book. * * * The Bureau of Public Secrets website features numerous texts by and about Guy Debord and other members of the Situationist International, the notorious avant-garde group that helped trigger the May 1968 revolt in France. BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS PO Box 1044, Berkeley CA 94701, USA http://www.slip.net/~knabb [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.iww.org - when faced with injustice the polite response is attack. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Octaves Beyond Silence Project CD
G'day! For the interest of those who want to suppport the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan activists (and listen to some good world music of resistance in these bleak days of State violence, global Capitalism's excesses and women hating fundamentalists). see http://www.octavesbeyondsilence.com/ you can send check or money order for $17.99 to Octaves Beyond Silence, PO Box 5207 Takoma Park MD 20913. Credit card orders phone 1-800-634-6044 or visit www.ladyslipper.org Ladyslipper Music is a woman owned run label. Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan url: http://www.rawa.org or email them [EMAIL PROTECTED] Smash the triple yoke: Capitalism, Patriarchy the State ( keep a smile on yer lips a song in your heart!) Margaret www.iww.org An organisation flirting with any degree of inequality shall miss its goal by as many degrees as the inequality it entertains. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:INFO: Fw: P.N.G. Solidarity Message - 7 July 01
From: robert rodvik [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 12:51 AM Subject: Fw: P.N.G. Solidarity Message - 7 July 01 Solidarity message from Papua New Guinea received Saturday, 7 July 01. 7 July 2001 TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND COMRADES IN AUSTRALIA, On behalf of the Anti-Privatisation Alliance and all the people fighting against the World Bank/IMF Program in Papua New Guinea, we would like to extend our best wishes and gratitude to all our friends and comrades in Australia for your solidarity, support and sympathy at this time. Since 1993/1994 when we began the campaign against the corporate take over of Papua New Guinea (PNG) by the World Bank/IMF, the struggle had been long and bitter. And as recent events have revealed, it has also been bloody, with our students paying with their lives. Let there be no mistake however while the police in Papua New Guinea pulled the trigger, Alexander Downer and John Howard are responsible for the death of our students as they are the ones who have insisted and demanded that the Government of PNG implements the World Bank/IMF program despite the consistent and massive opposition of our people. They are the ones who are also supplying the technical expertise to train and turn the police in Papua New Guinea into brutal and vicious murderers. While we are in sorrow and mourning the death of our students, your acts of solidarity and moral support has and will contribute to easing the pain that we are feeling at this moment. We know that we are not alone and that the struggle is common and that the death of our students will not be in vain. While we are all saddened by the loss of our students, we know that the campaign and struggle against World Bank/IMF program in Papua New Guinea must continue as it provides the only hope for a better future for the people of Papua New Guinea. We know the World Bank/IMF program cannot solve the problems in Papua New Guinea as it has failed to improve the lives of our people even though the country has been subjected to these programs since 1991. Nothing has improved since. We know too that while we are acting at local level to counter the take-over and domination of our lives by the World Bank/IMF, our struggle and campaign is the same campaign being waged all over the world by those of you, who like us, are opposed to the take over and domination of our world by multi national and transnational corporations. We therefore call on you, all our friends and comrades to continue the anti-globalisation struggle as it is the only way to build a better future for our common world. To effectively support us in our campaign and struggle we call on you all to continue the campaign and acts of solidarity and to demand that the Australia Government undertake the following actions: 1. Apologise and offer condolence for the death of the students. 2. Suspend its technical and financial support to the Royal Papua New Guinea Police until there have been very serious steps undertaken to stop the brutality and killings committed by the Police Force. All funds provided to assist the Police in PNG should be diverted to fund and support community initiatives to prevent crime and rehabilitate criminals. 3. Insist that a Royal Commission of Inquiry is held into the death of the four students. (A coronial inquest will be inadequate in the circumstance.) 4. End, suspend or otherwise slow down the implementation of the structural Adjustment Program in Papua New Guinea, especially the Privatisation Program. 5. Increase funding to health and education in Papua New Guinea, including university education. 6. That AusAid seriously engages members of the Anti-Privatisation Alliance and the civil society generally to address issues of development, crime, poverty and other social/economic issues in Papua New Guinea. With warm regards and solidarity, Powes Parkop, General Secretary MELANESIAN SOLIDARITY GROUP For Justice Dignity, PO Box 71, UNIVERSITY, NCD, Papua New Guinea Phone: (675) 3261227 Facsimile (675) 3230887. www.iww.org Capitalism is like a dead fish in the moonlight - it glitters but it stinks! -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:INFO: East Timor Community Computer Project needs
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 9:01 AM Subject: list of East Timor Community Computer Project needs, re: donations Here's a list of items that are needed in East Timor for the ETCCP. So when collecting / requesting IT equipment, this is what the techs have said they are looking for - we have started collecting for the next load to go to Darwin / Dili - Computers (high level 486's (at least 16 meg RAM) - Computer Mice + pads (always need as many as possible) - Server quality computers (at least 32meg RAM, 10 gig hard-drive) - Universal Power Supplies (UPS) hundreds of them. ( if you call sola, they may even donate a few to such a worthy cause.) - Modems ( at least 14,4000bps) - Ethernet Hubs and Switches - Ethernet Cards - Cat 5 cable and fittings (ie. wall plates, RJ45 sockets and RJ45 jacks) - RJ45 crimper - Generator ;-) - Routers - Wireless Networking equipment - Cards - Bridges - Antennas - Coax Cable - Laser printers - Tape backup units and Tapes - Computer Books, anything _CURRENT_ - BNC connectors - NIC's + multi-connectors - Diskettes (not used of course) - ZIP Disks (as above) - Technicans tools - Satellite dishes - Any Sat equip - Tool for measuring Satellite signal strength. www.etccp.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 Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Businessman escapes jail term after killing picketer
Businessman escapes jail term after killing a New Zealand picketer By John Braddock 30 June 2001 Derek Powell, a 53-year-old businessman convicted of manslaughter after killing a woman on a New Zealand picket line, walked out of the High Court last month without having to face jail. At the end of a two-week trial, the jury found Powell guilty of causing the death of Christine Clarke, a 45-year-old mother of two and the wife of a port worker. Powell had run Clarke down with his four-wheel drive vehicle when she joined picketing wharf workers at the Port of Lyttelton, near Christchurch late in 1999. The presiding judge, Justice Panckhurst, on June 15 sentenced Powell to nine months' periodic detention. In the New Zealand justice system, periodic detention is a non-prison term, usually reserved for minor offenses, involving weekend community work under police supervision. The conclusion of this case, however, had a definite political content. Justifying the manifestly light sentence, Justice Panckhurst went to considerable lengths to shift the blame for her death from Powell onto the picketing workers. Christine Clarke died in the Christchurch Hospital intensive care unit on New Years' Eve, 2000. She had been admitted with severe head and leg injuries after being run down during the second day of the picket, organised to protest a decision by the Lyttelton Port Company to contract out its coal loading operations. According to evidence given at the trial, Powell had already driven past the picket several times. The manager of a luxury boat importing company, he had been carrying out business at the wharf. At about midday, he returned again, driving his vehicle at speed towards the picket line before braking heavily. He then gradually moved the vehicle closer to the picket line, stopping within inches of the pickets' legs. Twelve workers testified that Powell then suddenly accelerated at the picket, striking Clarke and throwing her momentarily into the air before she fell back hitting her head on the ground. According to one worker who had been standing nearby, Powell looked her straight in the eyes and booted it. He went right over the top of her. The motives for Powell's decision to accelerate through the picket line were the subject of dispute at the trial. The prosecution argued that Powell had become either impatient or angry at being held up, and simply decided to force his way through. All the prosecution witnesses agreed that there was no provocation or physical altercation prior to Powell's decision to drive forward. In any case Powell would have been allowed to drive on after several minutes. The defence argued, however, that Powell was suddenly subjected to physical abuse from the pickets through the open driver's side window of his vehicle, and that he had driven forward in self-defence. Powell had only one witness, the driver of a truck following behind his vehicle, to support his version of events. Moreover, television news footage of the picket, taken just a few minutes before the incident, showed Powell's car stationary before a calm and orderly picket line. The window of Powell's car was open, and his arm hanging outside of the vehicle. In order to sustain the claims of an unprovoked physical attack on Powell, his defence was forced to argue that the mood of the picket suddenly changed, for no apparent reason, and this led to significant violence being committed against him. Powell denied that there had been any verbal altercation on his part which might have provoked a response from the picketers. In summing up, the prosecution pointed out that even if Powell had felt himself under threat he could have reversed away from the picket. In taking the action he did, he carried the responsibility for killing Clarke by driving, at the very least, in a dangerous and careless manner directly at the line of pickets. The jury clearly concurred with the prosecution's arguments and found the businessman guilty. However, when the judge reconvened the court three weeks later for sentencing, he had decided to give significant weight to Powell's version of the events. Justice Panckhurst began by confirming Powell's culpability in Clarke's death, which he said was a tragedy for her family. He went on to declare, however, his intention to sentence Powell on the basis that he had been under threat in the moments before he drove forward. To justify his position, the judge referred to television footage shot, not at the time, but earlier in the day, which he claimed showed aggressive male picketing workers behaving badly. In a further display of class prejudice, the judge went on to deliver a lecture to the picketers saying that, in blocking a highway, they were acting in a manner that was indefensible: Freedom of movement on the highways is a fundamental right, he declared. To empower a group of persons to stop traffic, even temporarily for
LL:ART: Body bags stockpiled for G8 in Genoa 20.07.2001
Note: G8 = gathering of the rich for the rich by their politicians in the case of Berlusconi the rich politician self-serving BBC News Online http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_140/1400554.stm Body bags stockpiled for G8 summit The protests against G8 in Genoa have already begun Italian authorities have ordered 200 body bags as they step up preparations for a violent confrontation at next month's G8 summit in Genoa, say Italian media reports. A room at the city's hospital will also be set aside as a temporary mortuary, said Italian news agency ANSA. The reports come amid growing concern that the G8 summit will witness even worse confrontation than last weekend's European meeting in Gothenburg. Tens of thousands of protesters - from anarchists to Basque separatists - are expected to head for Genoa. As well as the threat of street unrest, Italian authorities have been warned that attempts may be made on the lives of some of the world leaders present. One threat passed on to Italy by the German secret service is of an assassination plan by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, aimed at US President George W Bush. Militant supporters of Bin Laden are said to planning a possible bomb attack. President Putin's personal security will also be stepped up because of a possible threat from Chechen rebels, say his bodyguards. Mr Putin's bodyguards have already visited Genoa and met the heads of special services from nearly all the countries being represented there, said Russian security chief Yevgeny Murov, head of the FSO. Each special service works out its own method of providing security these days. Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service renders enormous assistance to us, and we are in a permanent contact with them, he said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. He said his agency was aware of the Bin Laden threat, and was making its Genoa preparations in the light of them. We view the threats as totally serious, but hope that with joint efforts we can solve all the problems, said Murov. Leaders from Italy, France, Canada, the UK, Japan and Germany will also be at the two-day summit, which starts on 20 July. Italian authorities are preparing a huge force of 20,000 police and soldiers, backed by the threat of tear gas, water cannon and a formidable array of military hardware. A ring of steel will be imposed on the city. Railway stations and motorway junctions will be closed, and flights into Genoa diverted. In the city itself, the streets around the summit venue have been declared as a red zone, and will be blocked off by dozens of armoured vehicles. Outside the red zone, some areas will be set aside for protesters to make their views known. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said he wants dialogue with the protesters, and stresses the legitimate right of people to make their views known, but he has warned them that violent extremists will be isolated and not be allowed to do harm. Aircraft carriers As the security operation continues to build up, some organisers are still reported to be keen to switch the summit venue to a cruise ship, which would be moored safely out at sea somewhere along the Italian Riviera. At least two conference leaders - President Bush and French President Jacques Chirac - are already planning waterborne accommodation. Both will stay on aircraft carriers while attending the summit. Concern about security has deepened since events in Gothenburg, when Swedish police appeared to be overwhelmed by the scale and depth of violence. A lavish dinner had to be cancelled and some delegations had to switch hotels after police said they could no longer guarantee their safety. Three protesters were shot and dozens of police officers were hurt. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: The Business Of Revolution Is Business: Recuperation URL
The Business Of Revolution Is Business http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2509/smithsimon2509.html Why change the world when you can work overtime? by Greg Smithsimon Have you been inspired by the excitement of street protests that swept through Seattle, D.C., Prague, Philly and L.A.? Want to make those corporations take notice? Want to feel the energy, irreverence and fun of the coolest global movement since blue jeans? Then Gary Hamel's Leading the Revolution just might be for you. A no-holds-barred, practical handbook for revolutionaries, visionaries and activists, this book teaches the nuts and bolts of building coalitions, writing a manifesto and picking targets for a campaign. But watch out: Hamel won't let you rest easy in your armchair. "One person, one vote represents not the full ideal of democracy, but its most minimal precondition. If you exercise the rights of citizenship only once every four years, at the polling station, can you really claim to be a citizen?" Democracy means activists redirecting society toward their ideals" be it feminism, environmentalism, [or] racial equality." One hitch before you ask for it at your local book co-op. The jacket promises this to be "An action plan, indeed, an incendiary device" that will "ignite the passions of entry-level assistants, neophyte managers, seasoned VPs, CEOs." Those corporations took notice of the street protests, all right, and decided they were too exciting not to rip off. So steal this book they did. "Activists are the coolest people on the planet," Hamel recognizes, which is dandy as long as he can quietly redefine "activists" to mean people who work extra hard at their job. This Wall Street Journal bestseller assures readers that it's every bit as exciting, hell, every bit as ennobling, to be the employee that convinces Sony to design a new audio chip as it is to desegregate buses or liberate South Africa. This is the sexiest thing that's happened to engineers since they stopped carrying slide rules in their pockets: One minute, they're the ultimate cog in the wheel, the next minute, they're revolutionaries rubbing elbows with Hamel's role models: Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Vaclav Havel, and the founders of Amnesty International and Greenpeace. Revolutionaries or corporate motivators? "These are people who change the world. And you can't change your own company? Give me a break." The book fires up readers with a practical guide on "how to start an insurrection." First you write a manifesto; Thomas Paine's work during the American Revolution is a good guide. Then you build a coalition to maximize your influence, just like "a labor union organizing a strike." Does "pick your targets ... co-opt and neutralize" sound like veteran organizer Saul Alinsky's "pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it"? It should. Hamel calls Alinsky's Rules for Radicals a "classic." Likewise, "winning small" in the beginning to build momentum might as well have come from an ACORN community organizers' handbook. If executives have paid any attention to the protesters at their doors, they should already know Hamel's game plan. We've been running it against them for years. What's hardest to swallow after reading the book is not that the counterculture has been ripped off yet again, with no royalties paid, or that the determination of environ-mentalists is presented as inspiration for corporations seeking to extend their dominance over the planet. The tough part is considering the possibility that there's something in here for progressives to steal back and profit from. OK, not much. Leading the Revolution mainly consists of some radical lingo ladled over the same luke warm hash that's been sold in trendy business books for years. (The formula is for the head of a consulting firm, like Hamel, to write a book that tantalizes potential corporate clients into paying for the full story.) Personally, what I want to adopt is the business world's ability to print whole books in full color with hip graphics. Beyond that, it's time to put corporate platitudes about empowerment into action for ourselves. Hamel's claims that smart businesses "let youth be heard," "listen to the periphery," and "let newcomers have their say" are hype that hide corporate hierarchies. But plenty of good, hardworking NGOs don't use the ideas and innovations of most of their people, either. For starters, groups could try out Hamel's suggestion that half the attendees at the next strategy meeting be people who have never been to one before. Next consider the promise that business makes whenever it talks about workplace "teams" or when Hamel proposes "listening to new voices." They're talking about people having a real say in what their employer is doing. They're talking about workplace democracy. While Hamel, like progressives, recognizes the payoff of giving people a real voice, that's one strategy corporate
LL:DDV: etccp benefit at Arthouse 9pm Sat 17/03/2001
East Timor Community Computer Project benefit gig. 9pm Saturday March 17th Arthouse/Royal Artillery Hotel cnr Elizabeth Queensberry Streets Melbourne ska, punk and fast bands will make the music. $6 entry ($5 to etccp and $1 goes to Arthouse owners) A truck is being driven 4,000 kms to Darwin later this month and carrying a variety of materials for Timor. [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.etccp.org.au=20 Melbourne: PO Box 756 Brunswick Lower 3056 Tel Steve London 0409 544 088 Darwin Leanne Melling c/-Wagait Supermarket CMB1 Mandorah Darwin 0801 Tel (08) 89 78 50 88 Dili Rowan Mitchell PO Box 284, Dili East Timor Tel: 0409 938 943 -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink LL.VC
LL:PR: May 1st/May Day propaganda - AWOL Melbourne Australia
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 12:44 PM Subject: propaganda Mayday ( May 1st 2001 ) 'Liberate the Streets ' A W O L Autonomous Web of Liberation CALL FOR DIRECT ACTION RESISTANCE TO CAPITALISM Mayday ( May 1st ) is a day to celebrate working class solidarity and resistance to Capitalism. In keeping with this tradition AWOL ( Autonomous Web of Liberation ) is calling for an anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian day of action. AWOL is working towards an action around the idea of' Liberate the Streets ' in the City of Melbourne. We are calling on all anti-capitalist groups and individuals who believe in consensus decision making, direct action and who organise on the basis of non-hierachy ( autonomous from all centralisation and bureacracy ), to co-ordinate with us for this action. We are also calling on you to organise your own actions, affinity groups, clusters, net-works and co-ordinations against Capitalism on Mayday. M A Y D A Y M A Y D A Y M A Y D A Y Mayday , May 1st is a day of anti-capitalist action and to remember and take inspiration from those who have fought before us. To fight back against bosses and Capitalists at work and in the unions and those who try to control our lives. Mayday incorporates the struggles of all oppressed peoples, resistance to police corruption and surveillance, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and for radical egalitarian futures. It is a time to remember struggles like the workers struggle for the 8 hour day in Chicago, USA, 1886. The demonstration was attacked by 176 armed police, a bomb thrown by unknown persons, resulted in open fire on the crowd, killing 4 workers and some of their own officers. 8 Anarchists were framed for this attack, a number not even being in attendance at the time of attack, 'Anarchy was on trial. ' These events and the recognition of brave struggles against bosses and bureaucrats and capitalists are a reminder of what the state and capitalists do to us everyday, and why it is important to resist on Mayday, bring struggles together and always fight back. L I B E R A T ET H ES T R E E T S We hope to occupy and liberate a piece of land, to create a commons for community celebration, a world turned upside down, a glimpse of freedom and ecological survival. A place to share our dreams and visions, an example of a world of respect for diversity and acceptance of difference, direct democracy and community control of resources, free from the tyranny of money, bosses and leaders. L I B E R A T E T H ES T R E E T SO N M A Y-D A Y 2001 AWOL is organising every Thursday at the BOWLS CLUB - 14 Pearl St - Northcote @ 6.30 pm. *** meetings are run on consensus decision making *** [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antimedia.net/awol -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: AFR article on May Day
Australian Financial Review Friday 2 March p.19 May 1 protest to target ASX Nina Field Anti-globalisation protesters will blockade Australia Stock Exchange buildings across Australia and target CBD businesses as part of worldwide action planned for May 1 this year. A broad alliance of activists, including the S11 group which protested at the World Economic Forum in Melbourne, will attempt to blockade ASX buildings in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth from 7am on May Day. The protesters known as the M1 alliance, have identified the ASX as the major target, but participants incluiding unionist, green and anti-nuclear groups, land rights organisations, socialists and refugee campaigners have also selected other targets. Telstra, Rio Tinto, WMC, Nike, Yallourn Energy and Sedimentary Holdings will all be hit with protest action, and other companies are likely to be added to the list closer to the date. The planning for M1 comes as eight far-Left political parties have agreed to band together to form the "Socialist Alliance" to challenge One Nation as the party of anti-globalisation protest. The Democratic Socialist Party, the International Socialist Organisation, Freedom Socialist Party, the Workers League, Workers Power, Workers Liberty, the Workers Communist Party of Iraq (Australia) and Socialist Democracy will team up to win over voters keen to punish the major parties at the coming federal election. The Progressive Labour Party, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party and the Socialist Alternative are also looking at joining the new alliance. Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Mr Leigh Hubbard yesterday distanced the union movement from M1 plans for an ASX blockade in Melbourne. He said unions, including the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Electrical Trades Union and the Textiles Clothing and Footwear Union, intended to engage in protest action on May 1. But he said unions would not endorse or participate in any attempt to shut down the ASX. Instead unions were likely to stage their own events, targeting corporations such as Rio Tinto and Nike, which had a very poor industrial relations record, he said. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: How do we keep our movement from getting hijacked?
From: "Chip Berlet" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 12:42 AM Subject: How do we keep our movement from getting hijacked? Hi, Political and social movements that want to remain autonomous and democratic need to think about the dynamics involved. I wrote the essay below for the Resist Newsletter. Abstaining from Bad Sects Understanding Sects, Cadres, and Mass Movement Organizations http://resistinc.org/newsletter/issues/1999/12/berlet.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 Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:PR: Our Genetic Engineering Book Published!
From: Mitchel Cohen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 9:46 PM Subject: [IWW-News] Our Genetic Engineering Book Published! AVAILABLE IN MARCH -- JUST PUBLISHED! $19.95 soft-cover, from Zed Press, Great Britain Distributed in US by St. Martin's, and in Canada, S. Africa, Australia, and several other countries. (Brian, Mitchel several others who wrote chapters in this book are available for team speaking engagements beginning in March Redesigning Life? The Worldwide Challenge to Genetic Engineering Edited by Brian Tokar Institute for Social Ecology, Vermont and Godard College Today we appear to be on the threshold of the Age of Biotechnology. Genetic engineering, animal cloning and new reproductive technologies are being promoted as the keys to a brighter future. Genetic engineers promise a more productive agriculture, wondrous medical miracles and solutions to our most pressing environmental problems. But growing numbers of farmers, scientists and concerned citizens disagree. There is growing evidence that genetically engineered foods are hazardous to our health and the environment. Farmers all over the world encounter an increasingly monopolized seed and agrichemical industry. Animal cloning and human genetic engineering raise troubling ethical questions. And genes from plants, animals and humans have become objects to bought, sold and patented by private interests. A growing worldwide resistance to genetic engineering and other new biotechnologies has brought these issues to the forefront of public controversy in many countries. This book offers the first comprehensive examination of the hidden hazards of the new genetic technologies, and the emergence of worldwide resistance. Twenty-six internationally respected critics offer their analysis of the issues, their social and ethical implications, and what people are doing in response. Redesigning Life? is essential reading for everyone who seeks to understand the full story that lies behind today's headlines. 'In this wide-ranging collection, scientists and activists discuss the pressing issues growing out of the wanton commercialization of the life sciences. With clear and up-to-date examples, the authors illustrate the dangers inherent in the unfettered manipulation of plant , animal and human biology for health and societal wellbeing. But, they also document the growing world-wide resistance to attempts to engineer life in all its forms. An excellent guide to the brave new world of genetic engineering and to effective ways to counter and transcend it.' - Ruth Hubbard, Professor Emerita of Biology at Harvard University, Board Member of the Council for Responsible Genetics "The biotechnology industry has taken us beyond natural evolution into the unknown terrain of a never-to-be-natural-again world, with self-replicating novel constructs of recombinant DNA that have never existed before... Science without ethics is blind, and biotechnology without bioethics is a danger to all... The excellent and wide-ranging coverage of this complex subject by the contributors to this book will help us all awaken to the costs and potentially harmful, even catastrophic consequences of this new technology...' - Dr. Michael W. Fox, Senior Scholar, Bioethics, The Humane Society of the United States, Washington, DC 'A deeply-researched, cutting edge critique of today's headlong rush toward genetic engineering and the ways in which a few corporate "Gene Giants" gained control. Penetrating insights into these corporate actors and their research and patenting strategies to dominate global food supplies, pirate the planet's biodiversity, the human genome and the keys to life itself. Startling reading for all who are working to check global economic predators and help shape an equitable, ecologically sustainable humane future.' - Hazel Henderson, author, Beyond Globalization and Building A Win-Win World 'We are involved in a global war called genetic engineering. Most of us are totally unprepared too fight this war. Reading Redesigning Life is mandatory if you want you and your offspring to enjoy life as we have known it. It is a must read.' - Howard F. Lyman, President, EarthSave International Contents Introduction: Challenging Biotechnology - Brian Tokar Part 1 - Our Health, Our Food and the Environment 1. From Golden Rice to Terminator Technology: Why Agricultural Biotechnology Will Not Feed the World or Save the Environment - Martha L. Crouch 2. Genetically Engineered 'Vitamin A Rice': A Blind Approach to Blindness Prevention - Vandana Shiva 3. Cloning Profits: The Revolution in Agricultural Biotechnology - Sonja Schmitz 4. Genetically Engineered Foods: A Minefield of Safety Hazards - Jennifer Ferrara and Michael K. Dorsey 5. Safety First: Controlling the Risks of Biotechnology - Beth Burrows 6. Ecological Consequences of Genetic Engineering - Ricarda Steinbrecher 7. Biotechnology to the
LL:URL: FINAL DUMP SITE CHOSEN! Kungkas lauch website
**Irati Wanti [the Poison-Leave it!] Campaign Office of the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta - Senior Aboriginal Women of Kupa Piti, SA PO Box 1043 Ph[08] 8672 3413 Kupa Piti, 5723 Fax[08] 8672 5483 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thursday Jan 25, 2001 "THE DUMP IS NOT A DONE DEAL" Elders announce website launch in their fight for protection of country. www.iratiwanti.org Today the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, Senior Aboriginal Women of Coober Pedy, South Australia have stepped up their campaign against the proposed national nuclear waste dump for their country. They have announced the launch of their website: http://www.iratiwanti.org. The site is to be launched in the main street of Coober Pedy today, Thursday 25 January 2001, and chronicles the relentless and inspiring campaign of the elders against the nuclear industry. The website relays stories of the effects of atomic testing on the elder's lives in the fifties and of the Kungka Tjuta's current struggle to stop more poison returning to their country, in the form of the proposed nuclear dump. The launch of the site is a timely response to Senator Nick Minchin, who yesterday announced `Site 52a' within the Woomera Prohibited Area, as the preferred final site for the nuclear dump. This country is the traditional lands of the Kokatha people, who have never been properly consulted or entered into negotiations with concerns to the dump. This is despite the Minister's claims of "extensive consultation with regional stakeholders". Spokeswoman for the group, Ms Rebecca Bear Wingfield said: "Senator Minchin has just confirmed what we've known all along. That the community consultative process has been a sham and has actively excluded traditional owners from dialogue and negotiations as to the proposal for the dump." For further media comment please call Ms Rebecca Bear Wingfield on 0404 204 527 For details and progress of the website launch : Lucy Brown 0409 694 864 Please also find the following statement from Rebecca Bear-Wingfield: I really want to call you a liar Senator Minchin, but I realise that this issue has to be dealt with using rational academic and scientific discourse. My name is Rebecca Bear-Wingfield, I am a senior Aboriginal woman from Kokatha country. I am responding to your press release today that announced the three final site location with site 52A being the preferred site for the location of this 'nuclear waste repository' (dump). Your government and all the successive governments dating back to Menzies's government of the 1950's, the 15th October 1953 when the first atmospheric test was conducted at Emu Plains three years before the Maralinga tests. Are guilty of committing 'ecocide' and genocide against the first nations of this ancient country. By the way the old people are still waiting for a 'sorry' when many of them were exposed to the black rain clouds that spread shortly after the test at Emu Plain. This is why the Kungka's are talking up about this issue because they know first hand about the dangers of nuclear byproducts, bombs, contaminated lands and health problems that have resulted over the last 47 years. Using discourse to disempower Indigenous people in our attempts to oppose the dumping of nuclear waste by products which are always quantified as mainly hospital waste products and low level waste is misleading, a lot of this waste under international standards of classification is medium level. But it does not matter if it is low, medium or high the fact remains that some of us have a moral and cultural responsibility to educate you and your parliamentarians about the facts. Australia talks of reconciliation but how can we reconcile when this waste is going to be dumped on the ancestral lands of the Kokatha people. How can the government continue to negotiate and make decisions about stolen lands, without the consent of all the Kokatha people who are the custodians and who have already had their lands stolen back in the 1950's when their lands were annexed by the Commonwealth Government using the doctrines of ' Terra Nullius'. This is morally wrong and this why the Kupa Piti Kungka's have always opposed this proposal. We know the country, because of our connection to the land that dates back to at least 40,000 years. Scientists don't have the history like us. How can they offer guarantees that this is the perfect environment for storage? If you don't wish to be a member of this group, please send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] All previous messages have been archived (and can be viewed)at the website : www.egroups.com/iratiwanti-news Irati,Wanti!! means The Poison - Leave It!! in Yankunytjatjara language, Aboriginal language of the Western Desert, Central Australia. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at
LL:DDV: etccp information social night 1/2/2001
East Timor Community Computer Project Information Social night. 7pm, Thursday February 1st 2001 205 Nicholson Street Footscray Tel 9362 0830 Donations on the door go to general fund to send a shipping container of computer building materials, clothes toys. Hear first hand account of what is happening with the project, meet other supporters, share resources, help us plan further events. ALL INTERESTED WELCOME! Melbourne PO Box 756, Brunswick Lower 3056 Tel Steve 0409 544 088 Harvey (03) 9388 1912 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.etccp.org.au=20 Darwin Leanne Melling c/- Wagait Shop, Mandorah, Darwin 0801 Tel (08) 8978 5088 Dili PO Box 284, Dili, East Timor. Tel Rowan Mitchell 0438 785 088 -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink LL.VB
LL:DDV: AWOL - Liberate the Streets MAYDAY call to action
From: DOWN SHUT [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 5:55 PM Subject: AWOL - Liberate the Streets MAYDAY call to action Mayday ( May 1st 2001 ) 'Liberate the Streets ' A W O L Autonomous Web of Liberation CALL FOR DIRECT ACTION RESISTANCE TO CAPITALISM Mayday ( May 1st ) is a day to celebrate working class solidarity and resistance to Capitalism. In keeping with this tradition AWOL ( Autonomous Web of Liberation ) is calling for an anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian day of action. AWOL is working towards an action around the idea of 'Liberate the Streets ' in the City of Melbourne. We are calling on all anti-capitalist groups and individuals who believe in consensus decision making, direct action and who organise on the basis of non-hierachy ( autonomous from all centralisation and bureacracy ), to co-ordinate with us for this action. We are also calling on you to organise your own actions, affinity groups, clusters, net-works and co-ordinations against Capitalism on Mayday. M A Y D A Y M A Y D A Y M A Y D A Y Mayday , May 1st is a day of anti-capitalist action and to remember and take inspiration from those who have fought before us. To fight back against bosses and Capitalists at work and in the unions and those who try to control our lives. Mayday incorporates the struggles of all oppressed peoples, resistance to police corruption and surveilance, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and for radical egalitarian futures. It is a time to remember struggles like the workers struggle for the 8 hour day in Chicago, USA, 1886. The demonstration was attacked by 176 armed police, a bomb thrown by unknown persons, resulted in open fire on the crowd, killing 4 workers and some of their own officers. 8 Anarchists were framed for this attack, a number not even beign in attendance at the time of attack, 'Anarchy was on trial. ' These events and the recognition of brave struggles against bosses and bureacrates and capitalists are a reminder of what the state and capitalists do to us everyday, and why it is important to resist on Mayday, bring struggles together and always fight back. L I B E R A T ET H ES T R E E T S We hope to occupy and liberate a piece of land, to create a commons for community celebration, a world turned upside down, a glimpse of freedom and ecological survival. A place to share our dreams and visions, an example of a world of respect for diversity and acceptance of difference, direct democracy and community control of resources, free from the tyranny of money, bosses and leaders. L I B E R A T E T H ES T R E E T SO N M A Y-D A Y 2001 AWOL is organising every thursay at the BOWLS CLUB - 14 Pearl St - Northcote @ 6.30 pm. *** meetings are run on consensus decision making *** [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antimedia.net/awol -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink LL.VE
LL:INFO: Briefing paper on the Yallourn Power Dispute 5/12/2000
From: "simon" - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Briefing paper on the Yallourn Power Dispute 5/12/2000 May 1999 Yallourn workers enter EBA negotiations in good faith with their employer Yallourn Energy (PowerGen) Negotiations begin with workforce representatives making every effort and concession possible in a vain attempt to get the employer to begin to negotiate. July 1999 Employer seeks assistance of their AIRC November 1999 Employer applies to AIRC to have existing EA terminated This termination application confirmed our view that Yallourn Energy had no intention of negotiating a fair EA. They had determined to use Reith's draconian Industrial Relations Act to legally steal from their workers their job security and conditions. When employers make an application to terminate existing EA's under Reith's Act it is mandatory for the AIRC to terminate unless the unions can prove that it is "contrary to the public interest. In IR matters, this makes the union responsible for protecting the public interest. The case to terminate the EA went from one adjournment to another. The workers patience was wearing thin with Yallourn Energy's tactics and their refusal to negotiate. Maintenance workers took protected action in the form of overtime bans on the 4th of January 2000. This soon led to an effective lock out of all maintenance workers and a shut down of Yallourn Power Station. It is suspected that due to market manipulation Yallourn Energy may have been able to buy power at pre shutdown prices from other generators and sold it back into the system at a considerable profit as power prices skyrocketed due to Yallourn being shutdown. The state government set up talks between parties with the assistance of former government minister Neil Pope and Yallourn Energy refused to accept the outcome. The state government then enacted the Electricity Act forcing the party's back to work. Through AIRC president Ross the maintenance union thrash out a deal. Negotiations were meant to resume. The workforce reps. and unions again tried all available means to get the company to negotiate without success. May 2000 at a mass meeting of CFMEU members it was decided to put a comprehensive position document to the company. June 2000 This document was put to the company in June and rejected outright by Yallourn Energy. At this point as a last resort, our members determined to take protected industrial action in an effort to force the company to the negotiating table. The Latrobe Valley CFMEU placed bans. Yallourn Energy claim the bans cost them an estimated $4 million dollars a day. The CFMEU Latrobe Valley strategy group determined that they couldn't just shut Yallourn down because: * The bargaining period would have been terminated by the AIRC under Reith's laws * As part of the sell off of the SEC the Kennett government put in place laws that protected power companies in the event of workers taking industrial action to defend their jobs and conditions by compensating the power companies fully for losses greater than 550MW. Essentially strike breaking legislation. The CFMEU attempt to take industrial action was followed by a barrage of Federal and AIRC cases initiated by the company in their effort to stop us. CFMEU member's place bans limiting output to 950MW for seven weeks. CFMEU member lost more than $100,000 in wages. The company's response was an application to the AIRC to have our bargaining period terminated This part of Reith's rotten act depended on two things * were the workers covered by a paid rates award * was there a reasonable chance of a negotiated settlement. If the bargaining period is terminated then the next step is conciliation then arbitration. After arbitration the EA become a MX award. October 2000 The Melbourne Age reported on a Yallourn Energy plan revealing a conspiracy to sack the entire mine workforce of 262; combined with a lockout of the entire workforce of 580. Then pressure the government with power blackouts and contract out the mine. The Victorian Supreme Court granted Yallourn Energy's request to suppress these documents. With this new information the CFMEU made applications to both the Federal Court and AIRC to stop Commissioner Lewin making a decision on terminating our bargaining period. November 2nd Lewin rang the CFMEU legal team and said he would not be making any orders in his decision on the termination of the bargaining period. The CFMEU strategy group met a 1pm to consider its recommendation to the Latrobe Valley Mining Energy mass meeting at 4pm that day. Lewins decision of 25 pages started to be faxed through at about 2pm. This meant that the strategy group ran out of time to make any decisions or recommendations for the upcoming mass meeting. This meant that any resolutions/decision would have to come from the floor. Luke Van der Meulen Latrobe Valley CFMEU secretary reported to the mass meeting. The
LL:INFO: McDonald's Workers Need A Union!!!
Hello Comrades Fellow Workers, Please post in message boards relating to McDonald's, or any other fast food restaurant. Print-out and distribute to anyone you know who works at a fast food restaurant. DO YOU WORK FOR McDONALD'S? (OR KNOW ANYONE WHO DOES? - IF SO, PASS THIS ON) ARE YOU SICK OF LOW WAGES? Would you prefer a decent payraise, guaranteed hours, overtime pay and an end to humiliating "performance reviews"? ARE YOU SICK OF SEEING PEOPLE INJURED? Even McDonald's admits that burns, slips and falls etc. are BIG problems. ARE YOU SICK OF BEING BOSSED AROUND? Do you want RIGHTS, and freedom from being constantly watched and treated like being in the Army? Do you want an end to harassment and unfair dismissals? ARE YOU SICK OF POOR WORKING CONDITIONS? Do you want relief from continual pressures to work hard, to 'hustle', to cut corners with safety procedures? Do you want decent breaks, and to smile when YOU feel like it? ARE YOU SICK OF McDONALD'S? Are you fed up with all the crawling to bigwigs from Head Office, the company's inane propaganda, and their processed food? DO YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ? Did you know that McDonald's spends well over $2 billion worldwide every year on ads and promotions to boost their image - yet they can't, for example, find a single penny to pay overtime. The aim is: get profits UP, and wage costs DOWN. No wonder so many chuck the job in. But those who stay can fight to improve things. "It's their right to join a Union if they so choose." Paul Preston (McDonald's UK President) in the High Court, 5th July 1994 WHAT YOU CAN DO - Obviously you'll need to be careful. But you can: * copy these leaflets to give secretly to your friends, including at other stores * find out and demand your legal rights, and use company grievance procedures * anonymously tip off local press and others about in-store conditions (including food quality and hygiene) * refuse to play the 'hustle' game * build up solidarity amongst staff by getting together in the crew room, or better still by socializing together or organizing meetings outside the store to talk about problems * secretly join a trade union and get others to do so as well. Why not access the 'McSpotlight' Internet site (http://www.mcspotlight.org/). Join the many McDonald's workers and managers sharing their views and experiences by contributing to the McSpotlight on-line discussion forum - the Workers' Debating Room. Contact details: McLibel Support Campaign 5 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DX, UK. Tel/Fax: +44 (207) 713 1269 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.mcspotlight.org For more information about how to form a Union, go to http://bari.iww.org/homesites/organize.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 Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: ZNet Update --Chomsky Commentary
From: Michael Albert [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUMMITS By Noam Chomsky United Nations Summit in New York in September was the second major gathering of government leaders marking the millennium. The first was the South Summit in Havana in April. The UN Summit received considerable national publicity, while the South Summit was barely reported, a reflection of the "imbalance" in the global system that it deplored. The South Summit brought together heads of state of the "Group of 77" (G77), now 133 countries, accounting for 80% of the world's population. The name G77 is carried over from the founding meeting of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1964, attended by 77 of the "developing countries." The April 2000 Summit was of unusual importance. The first meeting ever at the level of heads of state, the Summit focused on the concern that the South is "collectively endangered" by the global economic system that has been instituted by the rich countries. A leading third world journal described the Summit as "a defining moment in G77 history," ending on "a note of confidence and determination from the leaders to work together to bring about a new world order based on equity and fairness," with South-South cooperation as a centerpiece and a plan of action seeking significant changes in the global system (Third World Economics, Penang). In the New York Times Week in Review, UN correspondent Barbara Crossette reported that the Summit "denounced the global economy and its symbols" (the World Bank, IMF, and WTO), dismissing it as insignificant because "slogans and oratory do little to illuminate the profound complexity of human development in the new economic order." According to "development experts," for the poor "nothing could be more irrelevant than global theories or rants against multinational corporations." "The experts," who recognize the "profound complexities," prefer serious measures to deal with them: for example, persuading multinationals to "help workers improve their lives" and inducing "big international institutions" to adopt policies that "work for all levels of society." The experts are also bemused by the "irony" that the World Bank is moving "dramatically into social programs...just as protestors operating on outdated images single it out for attack." Translating to the real world, the World Bank is reacting to protestors who have been operating for years on quite accurate images, as the experts now tacitly concede; whether the reaction will pass beyond rhetoric depends substantially on the dedication of the critics who are largely responsible for bringing it about. Each Summit produced a Declaration. The Declaration of the UN Summit consisted largely of pieties, though at least one resolution had a certain bite: "to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to make essential drugs more widely available and affordable by all who need them in developing countries." There is little need to elaborate on the extraordinary human catastrophes to which the resolution alludes, and it is clear enough who bears the primary responsibility to address them. One central topic, much discussed in commentary, was what Secretary-General Kofi Annan described in his call to the Summit as "the dilemma of intervention": "national sovereignty must not be used as a shield for those who wantonly violate the rights and lives of their fellow human beings." That much is generally agreed, at least at the rhetorical level. But a rift appears with Annan's next sentence: "In the face of mass murder, armed intervention authorized by the Security Council is an option that cannot be relinquished." The US and its allies, which monopolize military power, adopt a very different stance: they insist on their unique right of armed intervention without such authorization. Annan is relatively popular in the West because of his efforts to accommodate the interests of the rich and powerful, but in this case he sided with the South Summit, which rejects what it calls "the so-called `right' of humanitarian intervention" by the powerful in violation of the UN Charter and "the general principles of international law." The Declaration of the South Summit also "firmly reject[s] the imposition of laws and regulations with extraterritorial impact and all other forms of coercive economic measures, including unilateral sanctions against developing countries." The Declaration calls on "the international community neither to recognize these measures nor apply them," alluding obliquely to US initiatives, primarily. The Declaration insists on "the right of developing countries, in exercise of their sovereignty and without any interference in their internal affairs, to choose the path of development in accordance with their national priorities and objectives." It views "with alarm the recent unilateral moves by some developed countries to question the use of fiscal policy as
LL:DDV: trivial dispute fundraiser for etccp
The East Timor Community Computer Project (ETCCP) presents... Trivial Dispute. A Quiz Night Fundraiser for the ETCCP. Saturday September 9th. From 7pm. The Smith Street Bar. 14-18 Smith Street, Collingwood. Tables of 8 and heaps of fabulous prizes and fun for all. Tickets- $10/8 (concession). Please prebook by calling 9354 0651. The ETCCP is a grassroots initiative aiming to provide training in and access to computers for ordinary people in East Timor. For more details visit our website at www.solidarity.infoshop.org.au/etccp or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] LL.VI -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:AA: AMWU picket line
Visit/support the AMWU picket line at Kockums 188 Northbourne Rd Cambellfield company tries to break bans; forces workers onto picket lines AMWU members want; ~respect ~5% per year wage increase ~better long service leave ~income protection ~decent redundancy deal ~Union rights Kockums offer: ~under the thumb ~3% per year ~ no better L S L ~no income protection ~no redundancy deal ~restrict union rights Donations welcome; wood food visits money For info see ~Ron 0438 515 642 ~Chris 0419 352 612 - the owner company is Arrowcrest, and the AMWU fella's don't trust the company they think they may be running down Kockums. Arrowcreest own other factories - including one local, so they dont feel isolated. Amwu people visiting and supporting. They said they mostly feel low on numbers. They've been there 8-9 days and nothings gone in or out. so looking good there. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: Save Grasslands Dinner Party 2/9/'00
SAVE GRASSLANDS DINNER PARTY Saturday 2nd September 2000 St Augustines Parish Hall, 61 Somerville Road, Yarraville (under bridge beside railway) $25 per person (kids free) 7pm start, food served until 8.30pm. Organic vegan/vegetarian buffet Live music by Scooter (popular covers), Neon Leons, Seagull Frenzy (blues/reggae/jazz) others. Comedian Mathew Dean. Bar with drinks at pub prices. Kid friendly and smoke free venue. Tables of 10 available, book your table today by calling Grasslands Grocery Information cafe 9362 0830, situated at 205 Nicholson Street, Footscray 3011. WHAT IS GRASSLANDS GROCERY INFORMATION CAFE ? We are a not for profit enterprise funding innovative social projects through the sale of organic foods, low allergenic cleaning/personal products and books on social justice. We are collectivley managed by a group of friends and most of the work is done on a volunteer basis. We have been able to donate over $30,000 since our inception to a range of communmity groups including: HUman Rights Centre for Mental health, Red Cross Asylum Seeker Support Service, Iramoo Youth Refuge, East Gippsland Otways Forest Blockades, Women's Circus, Food Not Bombs, Trade Union Community Picket lines, and others. Unfortunately we need to clear some of the debts we incurred in setting up the shopfront so that we can continue to be able to assist these and other groups in the future. LL.VH -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Little Johnny
By Simon Hunt: Dear friends - Just to let you know: Little Johnny releases his new single "I'm Sorry" tomorrow (Monday). I'm on the Channel 9 "Today" show at 7:50am; Radio National around 8:15am; and 2DAY FM at 8:15pm. There should be a story in the Sydney Morning Herald today. I'm filming lots of other interviews that should pop up over the next week or so, and we should be on Rage on Friday. The website goes up around 10am or so at http://www.littlejohnny.org I've attached a story that went out on the AAP wire service last night, so the other Little Johnny will get to read it by morning. I'll see you all in hell! love SIMON SYDNEY, Aug 5 AAP - The artist-formerly-known-as Pauline Pantsdown has returned to centre stage as Little Johnny - the latest in Australian political satire, complete with comb-over hairstyle. Pantsdown sent up controversial One Nation leader Pauline Hanson by joining various recordings of her voice in the top-ten single, I Don't Like It, which sold 30,000 copies and managed two nominations at last year's ARIA Awards. Now Simon Hunt, who digitally invented the Little Johnny (LJ) character has no less than Prime Minister John Howard in his sights with the debut song, I'm Sorry. The song has been digitally compiled by Mr Hunt, using fragments of Mr Howard's voice, in an effort to find "the apology within". Mr Hunt, who lectures on sound at the New South Wales College of Fine Arts and has a background in theatre and film, collected 65 minutes of "Howard- speak" from television and radio interviews. He said after about 450 hours manipulating the sound using computer software, he was left with 7,500 words, parts of words and phrases. "Even then, I still couldn't get the little guy to say his 'r's properly," Mr Hunt explains. "It's no wonder he's so unwilling to say the word 'sorry'." He said he had turned his attention to the Prime Minister because he was beginning to take on all of Mrs Hanson's ideas. He's become her and she's become him," he said. "I have never seen them in the same room at the same time - so they must be the same person." Mr Hunt said it was too early to predict how Mr Howard would react to his newly created alter-ego. "I'd expect him to take it on the chin," he said. "But he doesn't have much of one." But if the Hanson experience is anything to go by, Mr Howard may now have every reason to fear for his electoral fortunes. Pantsdown ran as New South Wales Senate candidate in the 1998 federal election, confronting Mrs Hanson and her adviser David Oldfield at every turn, with the brightly-dressed drag character's campaign featured in domestic and international media coverage. Liberal MP Cameron Thompson, who successfully defeated Mrs Hanson for the Queensland federal seat of Blair attributed his success to his focus "on doing something for the local people, while she (Mrs Hanson) was doing battle with Pauline Pantsdown." But Mr Hunt says LJ does not have much work to do to bring about Mr Howard's political downfall. "I think he's on the way down anyway," he said. "I'm going to get a reputation for kicking people while they're down. It's good to hurry things along anyway." He thought long and hard about the prospect of introducing the LJ character after realising he would have to endure hundreds of hours of Mr Howard's voice in the studio. "I didn't think there was a song in him because he speaks in such a monotone," Mr Hunt said. "For all her drastic faults, Pauline had melody." Mr Hunt says there's even something in the character for the followers of the latest fashion trends and in particular, hairstyles. "The mullet is dead, the comb-over is back," he said. LJ and his debut single will be officially unveiled to the public in Sydney tomorrow but the character had a successful first trial run on the weekend at the Newtown Theatre during the inaugural Miss Reconciliation Quest, an Aboriginal drag contest. AAP as Garry C Black+White+Pink http://bwp.org.au/ __ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: evil austria
From: ABC Innsbruck [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: evil austria Hi out there... I just wanted to inform you that evil:austria (a "journal" about the political situation in Austria can now be down-loaded from following homepage: http://www.raw.at. It´s available in different languages... Fight the power! Join the angry side! -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Global Grassroots Resistance Directory
From: "PopeCrab" [EMAIL PROTECTED] THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS RESISTANCE DIRECTORY NEEDS YOUR HELP! The Global Grassroots Resistance Directory (GGRD) is the web's currently most comprehensive directory of anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian grassroots struggles around the world. Country by country, the Directory lists any grassroots groups, organizations or movements that in one way or another seek to resist capitalist and authoritarian forces. Whether in Botswana, Thailand, Germany, Solomon Islands or the USA, the Directory helps you find resisting organizations. Easy to use, the Directory is the ideal instrument for local networking around a campaign, getting in touch with local struggles during your travels, starting some new project, or seeking a new group to join. To have a look at the Directory, please visit http://www.lobsterparty.org/directory/index.phtml The Global Grassroots Resistance Directory is now in the process of extensive revision. Many new sections will soon be incorporated (see below). In general, we want to revise the Directory in detail country by country and city by city. This is where YOU can help. You can help us by taking a look at the Directory's coverage of YOUR particular city or country and help us find inaccuracies, propose modifications or identify new groups to add to those sections. We need contacts in literally EVERY city and country in theworld. YOU CAN HELP! If you are well connected, it is good, but even if not, your feed-back will be valuable - you probably know much better about the groups in your city or country than we do. By the way, there is no commitment - you decide by yourself how much time and energy to put into this. If you want to help, please do let us know as soon as possible, by sending a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please do not forget to indicate clearly which city and/or country you can help us with. We will contact you later with further details. The Global Grassroots Resistance Directory will soon include the following new features: *** NEW COUNTRY LISTINGS: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, and Italy (Appearing soon: Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, USA, and Wales.) *** LISTING CITY BY CITY *** SEARCH ENGINE *** SELF-DESCRIPTIONS BY EACH GROUP *** CLICKABLE WORLD-MAP Is YOUR GROUP OR ORGANIZATION listed in the DIRECTORY? If your group is a grassroots organization that seeks to resist capitalism and authoritarian social structures, and if you cannot find it listed at http://www.lobsterparty.org/directory/index.phtml, then please do not hesitate to submit your information straight away! It is a five minute business which may greatly improve your networking with other organizations, your involvement in local campaigns, the recruitment of new members, and simply help to put you in the center of where things happen. Submit your group's information from http://www.lobsterparty.org/directory/submitdir.phtml. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Pope Crab Thomas Johansson for the Global Grassroots Resistance Directory [EMAIL PROTECTED] Shortcut URL to this page: http://www.onelist.com/community/mayday2k -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:QUERY: Looking for older activists
On Fri, 9 Jun 2000 10:46:52 +1000 (EST) [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hi, We are producing a radio series for Sydney Radio 2SER, entitled "Survivors." This ongoing series consists of interviews with older activists (65 years +) with long involvements in progressive social movements in Australia. The series aims to document segments of the history of socialist, radical and feminist movements in this country, and thereby provide a sense a perspective to current political struggles, while also situating current organising efforts within the strong traditions of past movements. If anyone has any ideas for interviewees, please contact me on (02) 9572-7928, or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] THANKS Greg Shapley -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: Residents vs Pascoe Vale McDonalds anniversary
Residents Against McDonalds are commemorating the first anniversary of the demolition of the 109 year old house at # 1 Sussex Street, Pascoe Vale to construct the drive-through McDonalds now on the site. A plaque will be unveiled on the footpath outside. A year ago 200 police and 80 private secuity guards overpowered the protesters and the historic home destroyed. The residents have shown the video film McLibel and participated in World anti-McDonald's Day October 16th. Join them at 11.30am on Sunday June 11th. corner Bell Sussex Streets (55 tram terminus nearby in Melville Road) Residents Against McDonalds are also putting on a touring exhibition of the 94 day community protest, with the Living Museum of the West others, to tour schools and communities to help educate others resisting Corporate dictators. "RAM is a resident group opposed to McDonalds, dedicated to informing the community about the impact McDonalds has on our society, and the repeal of the Victorian planning laws RL 155 RL 160" Residents Against McDonalds, PO Box 103, Pascoe Vale South 3044 Telephone: 0418 300 507 http://www.taz.net.au/ram=20 email [EMAIL PROTECTED] International web site http://www.McSpotlight.com LL.VF -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:INFO Military aircraft - humour (sic.)
I don't usually post jokes or the like to Leftlink, as anyone looking for a joke doesn't have to go much beyond their nearest House of Parliament. I'm feeling whimsical today though, and so apologise in advance... It won't happen again... Alister This was allegedly posted very briefly on the McDonnell Douglas Website by an employee there who obviously has a sense of humour. The company, of course, does not have a sense of humour, and made the web department take it down immediately (for once, the 'IMPORTANT' note at the end is worth a read too Thank you for purchasing a McDonnell Douglas military aircraft. In order to protect your new investment, please take a few moments to fill out the warranty registration card below. Answering the survey questions is not required, but the information will help us to develop new products that best meet your needs and desires. 1. [_] Mr. [_] Mrs. [_] Ms. [_] Miss [_] Lt. [_] Gen. [_] Comrade [_] Classified [_] Other First Name: . Initial: Last Name.. Password: .. (max. 8 char) Code Name: .. Latitude-Longitude-Altitude: ... ... 2. Which model aircraft did you purchase? [_] F-14 Tomcat [_] F-15 Eagle [_] F-16 Falcon [_] F-117A Stealth [_] Classified 3. Date of purchase (Year/Month/Day): 19... /... /.. 4. Serial Number: ... 5. Please indicate where this product was purchased: [_] Received as gift / aid package [_] Catalogue / showroom [_] Independent arms broker [_] Mail order [_] Discount store [_] Government surplus [_] Classified 6. Please indicate how you became aware of the McDonnell Douglas you have just purchased: [_] Heard loud noise, looked up [_] Store display [_] Espionage [_] Recommended by friend / relative / ally [_] Political lobbying by manufacturer [_] Was attacked by one 7. Please indicate the three (3) factors that most influenced your decision to purchase this McDonnell Douglas product: [_] Style / appearance [_] Speed / manoeuvrability [_] Price / value [_] Comfort / convenience [_] Kickback / bribe [_] Recommended by salesperson [_] McDonnell Douglas reputation [_] Advanced Weapons Systems [_] Backroom politics [_] Negative experience opposing one in combat 8. Please indicate the location(s) where this product will be used: [_] North America [_] Iraq [_] Iraq [_] Aircraft carrier [_] Iraq [_] Europe [_] Iraq [_] Middle East (not Iraq) [_] Iraq [_] Africa [_] Iraq [_] Asia / Far East [_] Iraq [_] Misc. Third World countries [_] Iraq [_] Classified [_] Iraq 9. Please indicate the products that you currently own or intend to purchase in the near future: [_] Colour TV [_] VCR [_] ICBM [_] Killer Satellite [_] CD Player [_] Air-to-Air Missiles [_] Space Shuttle [_] Home Computer [_] Nuclear Weapon 10. How would you describe yourself or your organisation? (Indicate all that apply:) [_] Communist / Socialist [_] Terrorist [_] Crazed [_] Neutral [_] Democratic [_] Dictatorship [_] Corrupt [_] Primitive / Tribal 11. How did you pay for your McDonnell Douglas product? [_] Deficit spending [_] Cash [_] Suitcases of cocaine [_] Oil revenues [_] Personal cheque [_] Credit card [_] Ransom money [_] Traveller's cheque 12. Your occupation: [_] Homemaker [_] Sales / marketing [_] Revolutionary [_] Clerical [_] Mercenary [_] Tyrant [_] Middle management [_] Eccentric billionaire [_] Defence Minister / General [_] Retired [_] Student 13. To help us better understand our customers, please indicate the interests and activities in which you and your spouse enjoy participating on a regular basis: [_] Golf [_] Boating / sailing [_] Sabotage [_] Running / jogging [_] Propaganda / misinformation [_] Destabilisation / overthrow [_] Default on loans [_] Gardening [_] Crafts [_] Black market / smuggling [_] Collectibles / collections [_] Watching sports on TV [_] Wines [_] Interrogation / torture [_] Household pets [_] Crushing rebellions [_] Espionage / reconnaissance [_] Fashion clothing [_] Border disputes [_] Mutually Assured Destruction Thank you for taking the time to fill out this questionnaire. Your answers will be used in market studies that will help McDonnell Douglas serve you better in the future - as well as allowing you to receive mailings and special offers from other companies, governments, extremist groups, and mysterious consortia. As a bonus for responding to this survey, you will be registered to win a brand new F-117A in our Desert Thunder Sweepstakes! Comments or suggestions about our fighter planes? Please write to: McDONNELL DOUGLAS CORPORATION Marketing Department Military, Aerospace Division IMPORTANT: This email is intended for the use of the individual addressee(s) named above and may contain information that is confidential privileged or unsuitable for overly
LL:INFO: Insight SBS Thursday 8.30pm on Fairwear.
Insight on SBS television, Thursday 8.30pm, has a feature on Outworkers. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: WORKERS MEMORIAL - IDSA - 28/4/'00
The unveiling of the memorial to commemorate the workers who have lost their lives as a result of their work will take place on the 'International Day of Mourning' - a day to remember all workers who have died: Friday, April 28, 2000 VTHC front lawn - Lygon Street, Carlton. Assemble at 10.30am (following the rally inside the VTHC) If you have lost someone to a work death, please bring along a photo of your loved one to place on the lawn area after the unveiling. The memorial rock has enormous significance for so many of us. It has come from a site where a worker has died. The 'symbolic' cross was carved by a worker who lost his mate on the job, and it was erected by two groups of workers (on their weekends), each of whom have lost someone dear to them due to a work death. The memorial rock honors ALL VICTIMS of work-rleated deaths and is a constant reminder of the number of people who lose their lives each year in Australia as a result of their work. Further Information: Liz or Mary at IDSA Inc. - (03) 9309 4453 The erection of the memorial is a collaborative effort between the Building and Construction Industry workers, unions and Industrial Deaths Support Advocacy Inc. (I.D.S.A.) IDSA, PO Box 3095,=20 Broadmeadows, Victoria 3047 Tel: 03 9309 4453 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.idsa.com.au=20 LL.VD -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: MORNING COFFEE TAKEN WITH BLAST OF TEAR GAS, BLOOD
MORNING COFFEE TAKEN WITH BLAST OF TEAR GAS, BLOOD By Mark Hume WASHINGTON - Inside Fortress America paranoia is rampant, the predominant sound is the thud of a helicopter overhead, and it's getting hard to tell the revolutionaries from the establishment. In a surreal scene here yesterday, riot police wielding batons chased demonstrators through the streets of the central business district, clubbing them, spraying them and blasting off percussion grenades, while astonished citizens looked on. What they saw as they walked to work, carrying their briefcases and morning coffee, were scenes of fleeting, but unforgettable violence. A woman spewing blood on the sidewalk while protesters wearing red crosses on their arms tried to help. A young man, reeling along like a drunk, his face white, mucus running from his eyes, mouth and nose from a blast of pepper spray before volunteer medics grabbed him. While police chased the demonstrators, the wounded fell away. One man was left leaning against a building near some office workers, a makeshift bandage wrapped around his head to stem the blood flowing from below his left ear. Rob Fish, 21, from Stanhope, N.J., an independent photographer, was trying to shoot pictures of demonstrators fleeing a phalanx of riot police when a man wearing street clothes suddenly hit him with a club. "I didn't even know it was a police officer," he said, a blank look of shock on his face. "I called for police to arrest him. But when they came over they started hitting me ... I don't know how many times they hit me. At least twice ... They tried to step on my camera, but I managed to throw it across to a friend." He refused to be taken to hospital. "The hospital is a police state," said an angry young woman who was helping him. The violence erupted at about 8:15 a.m., shortly after two groups of protesters, numbering a few hundred, converged near Farragut Square, about three blocks from the White House. They headed west down I Street, outside a police fence, going toward one of the main entrances to the well-guarded buildings where delegates to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were meeting. The protesters were behaving peacefully, chanting slogans and beating on drums. But when they hit the intersection leading to the World Bank, they marched right into the path of a police car escorting a van loaded with conference delegates. A police officer jumped out of his vehicle -- and that was the spark that would trigger panic and violence. "I think somebody touched him," said Kenyon, a man who was at the front. "He started swinging his club, then more police came piling out of the van ... the grenades went off ... it was mayhem." A riot squad that had been guarding a security fence leaped into the fray, and suddenly undercover police officers seemed to be everywhere, coming out of the crowd and jumping out of unmarked cars. Some of the undercover officers pulled on arm patches that identified them, but some didn't bother. They pulled clubs out of car trunks and started chasing protesters along with the riot squad. "I guess it's kind of shocking. It's kind of hard to believe," said Chris Hamaty, a patent lawyer who was standing on the sidewalk, his briefcase in hand. He was on his way to work when he heard the protest march coming, and stood aside to watch. He said the protesters were raising important issues. A few blocks away, Charles Harrison, an accountant, walked along the sidewalk while a squad of riot police charged down the middle of the street beside him. Commuter traffic ground to a sudden halt, and people came to their office windows to watch, while the police pursued a group of about 100 demonstrators who were fleeing ahead of them. "This is pretty incredible," said Mr. Harrison. "I remember this as a kid, in 1968, when they had [urban] riots here. But we haven't seen anything like this since then. "I lived in Washington all my life, and I can tell you, you don't see stuff like this." Mr. Harrison, an African American, said the black community has not been paying a lot of attention to the protests, but he felt the dramatic events here had changed that. "Most African Americans don't know what this is all about, but there's a program about it on the black radio network. I will listen to that. I want to be better informed," he said. The clash shattered efforts to organize a morning rally near the World Bank. With squads of police chasing protesters through the streets, it seemed like the final day of protest was going to be over before it got started. "This feels to me like a clean up by the police," said Jaggi Singh, a student from Montreal. "The police are acting like a gang, reclaiming their turf. They're saying 'You had the streets yesterday, we're takin' it today'. " But he predicted the protesters would somehow find a way to rebound. The small, scattered groups began slowly to coalesce, as word
LL:INFO: Michael Moore Open Letter: Kayla Rowland, Flint, and Us
-Original Message- Date: Friday, March 03, 2000 3:54 PM Subject: Michael Moore Open Letter: Kayla Rowland, Flint, and Us Michael Moore Open Letter: Kayla Rowland, Flint, and Us Dear friends, I tried to write this letter to you last night, but the level of sadness in me would not allow me to sit at this keyboard and compose these words. How much more can my hometown take? How much more do the people we love have to suffer? How much? How much?? HOW MUCH! Isn't it enough that tens of thousands of lives in Flint have been wrecked, destroyed by the greed of General Motors? Isn't it enough that my wife and I and tens of thousands of others who love our home -- love it more than any of you will ever know -- have had to leave Flint in the past 20 years to find work far from family and friends? Isn't it enough that Flint suffers the highest or near-highest per capita rates of murder, rape and theft in the nation? What else do the people of Flint have to go through while the rest of country mouths the propaganda of the evening news claiming "the economy is the best ever!"? The top 10 percent just get richer and richer and the next 30 percent of you keep the CNBC stock ticker on your screens all day and toss out all sections of the daily paper but the pages that tell you how well your portfolio did yesterday. I thought there was nothing else left for Flint to go through. Like Job, it seemed that every imaginable sorrow had been visited upon its people. I guess I was wrong. I look up at the TV and a helicopter is hovering over a school while the words "Buell Elementary" flash on the screen. Buell? Buell! At the end of "The Big One," when I twisted Nike chairman Phil Knight's arm to match my $10,000 contribution to the kids of Flint -- that $20,000 went to Buell Elementary. Yesterday, a 6-year old boy brought a semi-automatic gun to that very school in Flint and killed a 6-year old girl in their first grade classroom. Six years old. A little girl whose name was Kayla Rolland. That's about the only thing the national media got right about the story. Twenty satellite trucks now ring the school, but with all that technology, they cannot find the way to bring you the truth. Of course, they have been spun and snookered by the local officials in Flint who try to hide from the responsibility they share in Flint's destruction any time a tragedy like this happens. You have probably heard that this school shooting took place out in the "suburbs," in a place called "Mount Morris Township"... "somewhere near Flint." There is no such place. Buell Elementary, where the shooting took place, is in the Flint Beecher school district, the poorest school district in Genesee County, Michigan, and perhaps the poorest in the entire state. Eighty-two percent of its children, according to the federal government, live below the "official" poverty level (meaning the number of kids in total poverty is even higher). Beecher is Flint's dump. It is where you go when you have nothing left to your name. 60 percent black, 40 percent white. No municipality in Genesee County wants to govern Beecher, so it exists as a No Man's Land on the northern city limits of Flint. It covers a small portion of two different townships (one of which is where my wife Kathleen is from). But folks, when you hear the word "township" used in the case of Beecher, those of us from Flint mean it in the way the word was used in South Africa. Buell Elementary in the Flint Beecher school district has a Flint address and a Flint phone number, but the black officials from Flint on the news yesterday tried to point out that "this school really isn't in Flint!" It is amazing how deep oppression takes its roots when even black leaders find themselves in bed with General Motors and, like Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, repeatedly deny that people of their own race have anything to do with them. Poor, poor Flint. The media blowhards babble on about how "this is the youngest child to kill another child in a school shooting" and the few anchors who started to look at their own helicopter shots showing the school sitting in the middle of a bombed-out neighborhood commented that "this is actually the first of all these school shootings we've had lately that has taken place in an 'urban' school." Wow. Two records for Flint in one day. When I was a senior in high school, the assistant principal of Beecher High -- the first black man in the area to hold such a position -- became despondent over his inability to quell the racial disturbances in the school, so one night he went home, wrote a heartfelt letter to the kids in the district, then put a gun in his mouth and blew his brains out. As my friend, Jeff Gibbs, who went to Beecher, told me last night, it's sad that the only two times that Beecher receives the attention of the nation is because of a gun. I heard from relatives last night that the family of the
LL:ART: Pastry Action Reports From the UK and OZ
From: Biotic Baking Brigade [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Pastry Action Reports From the UK and OZ
-
Report from Down Under:
"Meanwhile another corporate nasty got pied in South Australia - Chuck
Foldenauer, head of a uranium mine owned by General Atomics (US-based
nuclear giant). Perpetrators of the pieing: the 'humps not dumps' women,
anti-uranium camel crusaders.
-
"Minister Pays For Farm Fury"
Excerpts from the Evening Standard (London, UK), February 2, 2000, Front
Page Chocolate attack farce on Nick Brown sends serious warning to Blair.
The fury of Britain's farmers impacted directly on the Government today
when Agriculture Minister Nick Brown had his face smeared with chocolate
eclair by a woman protester.
The incident came half way through an angry confrontation between Mr. Brown
and farmers at their union conference. Delegate after delegate, at least
one of them in tears, lined up to berate the minister over the Government's
lack of help for agriculture.
[The perpetrator] is said to have links with anti-genetically modified crop
protest groups, and later said the attack was a spontaneous protest at how
the Government is treating farmers in Britain.
General Public Release (special pie technical data follows 'for your pies
only!')
Tuesday, 1st February 2000. Grosvenor House Hotel, London.
Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid arrived in the UK today along with
10 ministers and 100 Indonesian corporate directors for a business seminar
with 400 invited delegates from British industry. They were in the UK as
part of a tour of Europe and Asia designed to drum up business and rescue
the Indonesian economy from the doldrums. It was a carefully crafted PR
exercise aiming to spread the illusion that Indonesia is no longer run by a
despotic regime that murders people and plunders the land to maintain the
wealth of its ruling elite.
The Indonesian delegation flew in from Davos in Switzerland only this
morning where they had been attending the World Economic Forum which had
been besieged by more than 500 rioting demonstrators disguised with
ski-masks. Escaping this, they arrived at the Grosvenor House Hotel in
London's Park Lane where they were met by 25 demonstrators hastily
assembled at only two days notice. The demonstrators, disguised with masks
of a West Papuan tribesman, blockaded the entrance preventing the
delegation entering the hotel and sprayed fake blood across the hotel
steps. The delegates were harangued through a megaphone and greeted with:
'Good morning suits! You are not anonymous, you are not invisible--if you
invest in genocide we will target you! Your offices will be occupied, your
homes will be visited. Welcome to the world of resistance!' Custard pies
were flung at the alarmed Indonesian delegates, while demonstrators chanted
'Papua Merdeka'! ('Free Papua!').
The demonstrators blockaded both the front and the back of the hotel to
prevent delegates arriving unnoticed and were joined by an East Timorese
exile who proceeded to attack the Indonesians in their own language.
After about an hour, when delegates had ceased arriving and the number of
police outnumbered protestors by about 2 to 1, the protestors decided to
leave. A successful, if small, action that hopefully scared off British
companies from dealing with the murderous Indonesian regime and investing
in 'developing' West Papua. Unfortunately the photographer wasn't pie-eyed,
BBB needs specialist photographers with fishpie lenses to capture the action.
http://www.eco-action.org/opm/london/index.html
But if you look closely there are some mysterious white dots on 'london4'
-- by the french window.(well ok, its the lights inside...) And pie
shrapnel from previous slaughter is visible everywhere.
A portable pie strategy was decided on, and piers were issued with foil pie
trays, a carton of ready made custard and an aerosol can of whipped cream.
This proved useful as the piers were able to hide behind a second banner
set at an angle and thus could continue making new pies as and when needed.
The Pies, although none made a full-on direct hit in the face, got
everyone; delegates, security and blockaders. One pier was overheard saying
'we need a training camp with lots of pie'. They claim to have got about
10-15 of the delegates with a sufficient amount of pie to cause annoyance,
and knowledge that they were not welcome.
It was obvious from their faces that they were not used to this treatment,
and would normally have had everyone shot. Security guards promised to
'get' the pie people later.
-
very tasty
for a pastry--
must've cost
a lot of dough--
and the bakers
are good makers
of news stories
you can throw.
in the kitchen
they must pitch in,
arms in flour
to the elbows,
while creating
innovating
tarts to fling
LL:PR: Close The Waihopai Spybase Now!
From: CAFCA (Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa) [EMAIL PROTECTED] CLOSE THE WAIHOPAI SPYBASE NOW! WHY? WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT? Waihopai does not operate in the interests of New Zealand or our neighbours. It is not accountable to Parliament or the people. It is exempt from key provisions of the Privacy Act and Crimes Act. To all intents and purposes, it is a foreign spybase, working for the US. Waihopai intercepts and records your international phone calls. Waihopai is a waste of taxpayers' money, which should be better spent on health and education. What does Waihopai actually do? The Waihopai electronic intelligence gathering base is located in the Waihopai Valley, near Blenheim. First announced in 1987, it is operated by New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in the interests of the foreign powers grouped together in the super-secret UKUSA Agreement (which shares global electronic and signals intelligence among the intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ). Its two satellite interception dishes (shielded from public view by giant domes) intercept a huge volume of telexes, faxes, electronic mail and computer data communications. It gathers this data from our Asia/Pacific neighbours, and forwards it on to the major partners in the UKUSA Agreement, specifically the US National Security Agency. Its targets include international communications involving New Zealanders. The second and newer dish enables Waihopai to intercept satellite phone calls, including New Zealanders' international calls. It spies on our neighbours, people such as the Bougainvilleans and Timorese. Nicky Hager's 1996 book "Secret Power" featured a foreword by former PM, David Lange (who authorised Waihopai's construction). Lange says that politicians and Ministers (including the Minister in charge of security and intelligence agencies, who is always the PM) do not know what goes on there. New Zealand is an integral, albeit junior, part of a global spying network, a network that is ultimately accountable only to its own constituent agencies, not governments, and certainly not to citizens. Waihopai and Tangimoana must be closed immediately. The GCSB must be abolished. New Zealand must withdraw from the UKUSA Agreement and other international intelligence agreements. Anti-Bases Campaign, Box 2258, Christchurch, New Zealand CAFCA Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa PO Box 2258, Christchurch email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: ZNet Update - Commentary/Jan 24/Jennifer Collins/Ecuador
For those wondering abut what has been happening in Ecuador. From: Michael Albert [EMAIL PROTECTED] Military-Indigenous Coup Aborted by Military High Command By Jennifer N. Collins Report from Ecuador Quito, January 22, 2000: The coup carried out yesterday in Ecuador by mid-level military officers together with leaders of the indigenous movement lasted less than 24 hours. Actions taken by officers in the Joint Command of the Armed Forces has given way to the destitution of President Jamil Mahuad and his replacement by Vice President Gustavo Noboa, and thereby the return to constitutionality, but the pressing problems of social injustice and exclusion remain. The indigenous and popular movements, which led the way to the coup have not been granted any concessions or a seat at the negotiating table, this may lead to further unrest. A Single Day of Popular Power After taking over the Congressional building, declaring a new government of national salvation, and installing a new "popular parliament," the forces supporting this rupture with the constitutional order and the installation of a new popular government moved the center of their activity from the Congress building slowly towards the National Palace, located in the colonial center of the capital. At about 5pm that afternoon the protestors and the military officers who had joined the rebellion began a march from the Congressional building to the National Palace. At around the same time, President Mahuad abandoned the seat of government after being informed by the General in charge of the troops guarding the Palace, that he could no longer assure the security of the building. Later that night, after the leaders of the newly declared government had installed themselves in the National Palace, it was announced that they would meet with the leaders of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. This was clearly a crucial moment; up to that point the high level military leadership had been very clear in their position of only supporting a constitutional solution to the crisis. Earlier that day they had called upon President Mahuad to resign, but had by no means given their support to the mid-level officers who had joined together with the indigenous and popular leaders. At about 7pm that night, the Chief of the Joint Command, General Carlos Mendoza, arrived at the National Palace and began to dialogue with the leaders of the coup in the middle of the plaza. Eventually they went inside the National Palace and went into a closed session meeting with leaders of the newly declared "Junta of National Salvation." It was certainly quite surprising to see this representative of the highest level of the military command entering into peaceful negotiations with the leaders of the coup, who had in effect subverted his authority. In the meantime, the military cordon that had been blocking access to the plaza in front of the National Palace was finally broken at 7pm and about 5,000 demonstrators, supporters of the new government flooded into Independence Plaza. The balconies of the national palace were brimming with people, a mixture of members of the military and the police together with indigenous and popular leaders. Members of the military could be seen speaking to the crowd below and leading them in chants of "Ecuador, Ecuador." Below, illuminated by the light of TV cameras, the plaza was filled with supporters of the new popular government. Just before mid-night, after about three hours of negotiations behind closed doors, Coronel Gutierrez, who had led the mid-level officers in the coup announced that his mission had been completed and that he was handing over power in this new government to General Carlos Mendoza. At that point Mendoza announced the formation of a civil-military triumvirate, composed of himself, the President of the National Indigenous Confederation (CONAIE), Antonio Vargas, and Carlos Solorzano, a former President of the Supreme Court. Mendoza announced that this triumvirate would "work for the country, put an end to corruption, and assure that day by day Ecuadorians would become less poor." In response to a barrage of questions from journalists about what sort of policies this new government would implement, Mendoza evaded any concrete answers, and instead explained that the triumvirate would have to meet the next day and had not yet made these crucial decisions. Betrayal Comes at Night Thus, last night the country went to bed with a new civilian-military popular government, but it awoke to the surprising news that General Mendoza had betrayed his promise to join this new government. Just three hours after the midnight announcement, sometime around 3am, Mendoza announced that he was withdrawing from the triumvirate, and that he would give way to the assumption of power by Vice President Noboa. In his declarations he basically admitted that he had purposefully deceived the
LL:AA: Fight Union-busting at Greenpeace
Date:Tue, 11 Jan 2000 22:29:10 -0500 From: Andy Lehrer [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Fight Union-busting at Greenpeace Oppose Union Busting at Greenpeace Greenpeace Canada (GPC), with a budget of over $7 million annually is on a drive to bust the union of telephone and door canvass employees. The phone canvass department alone raises an estimated $250,000 in net gains for GPC, after wages and costs. They are expected to work unpaid overtime to meet the unfair labour practice of quota (wages and job security determined on the basis of funds raised per individual, not based on seniority etc). Outsourcing has been threatened to companies that have a far lower rate of return than the phone canvass department. This is explicitly designed to bust the union, OPEIU local 343. Management has been clear about this from the beginning. Several employees were fired in the early 90s for trying to organize a union. The current telephone supervisor Eric Gamble - has stated that "there is no security in this job. If we want to fire somebody around here - it can be done easily." They have wrongly assumed that the union will not fight. Currently, the workforce is completely part-time. Yet it is only full time employees who qualify for the overwhelming majority of the benefits, optical, paid vacations, sick time etc. Currently management is conducting a disciplinary process against union rep, Jason Baines. It is a matter of discrimination against the union as other employees who have not obtained "quota" have not been disciplined. It is the traditional management tactic of victimizing union campaigners in an attempt to weaken the union and strengthen its overall position. It will not work. Already grievances have been filed. However this is not enough. The mobilizing power of ordinary workers and youth is central in winning gains for telephone workers. It is not just the specific local that is effected here. It is important for unionized telephone workers to organize. A victory at GPC will strengthen the union, putting it on the necessary foundations to unionize of low paid telephone workers. Please voice your concerns. Call Eric Gamble acting Geenpeace phone canvass supervisor at 416-597 8409 extension *3009 and email him if possible at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please demand: full rights and benefits for part-timers end harassment of union activists decent job security and a living wage If you're a member of Greenpeace or have contributed money to Greenpeace, please point that out in your message. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:INFO: Disability Pensioners - Pharmaceutical Allowance cuts
From: Judi Ann [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, 8 January 2000 00:09 Subject: Disability Pensioners PHARMACUETICAL COSTS INCREASE AS FROM 1- 1 - 2000 TOCONCESSION CARD HOLDERS WITHOUTNOTICE NOT EVEN OUR ORGANISATION WHICH IS A REGISTERED ONE WAS TOLD SO WE COULD INFORM OUR MEMBERS Medications now cost $3.30 per item on Script instead of $3.20. Today was a real wakening that what lays ahead of us may not be very good at all, not only are they trying to put us back to the work-place, but they are also not giving us an increase in our Pharmaceutical allowance to cover the increases in costs of medications, so what hope does any DSP pensioner have ??? This issue is on our Agenda for our February National Conference. DSP Australia Inc. ARB076023544 AOO28385N National Office. P.O. Box 2092. WERRIBEE. VICTORIA. AUSTRALIA Judi Ann [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN SEATTLE
I am posting two updates from Seattle detailing police (re)actions to the peaceful protesters - I imagine we all know the general details - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN SEATTLE by Portland student/reporter Jim Desyllas Called-in from a pay phone outside Seattle. Wed., 7:30 pm Pacific time. (Posted at www.emperors-clothes.com 12-2-99. Feel free to distribute in full including this note.) I just spent 4 days in Seattle. The "information" people are getting from the mass media is false. This was not, as Pres. Clinton claims, a peaceful protest marred by the actions of violent protesters. This was a massive, strong but peaceful demonstration which was attacked repeatedly by the police with the express purpose of provoking a violent response to provide photo opportunities for the Western media. I know because I watched it happening. I'll tell you how they did it. As Michel Chossudovsky says in his "Disarming the New World Order" (See Note # 1 at end for link to that article) - the government put a lot of effort into making sure the protesters in Seattle were a "loyal opposition" who wanted to reform the WTO, not get rid of it. But the people in Seattle - American steel workers, Canadian postal workers, college kids from all over, environmentalists from Australia - you name it - were not for reforming the WTO. They were for getting rid of it. And this wasn't just true of the protesters. I interviewed delegates. None of them had anything favorable to say about the WTO. Two delegates from the Caribbean were angry about job loss. One delegate from Peru took a bullhorn and got up on a car and spoke to the protestors against the World Trade Organization. He said it hurts the workers and farmers. I interviewed a Norwegian guy from Greenpeace. Totally against it. Even a delegate from Holland said it had hurt the farmers there. He said though it is supposedly democratic, that's actually a lie: the US, England and Canada and a few others get together and decide what they want to do. Then they ask the rest of the countries to vote and if they vote wrong they threaten,"You won't get loans," or whatever. They get them to do what they want by blackmailing them. The Italians we interviewed were upset too. I couldn't find any delegates who were in favor. So the government instigated a "riot" to discredit the movement against the WTO because they couldn't dilute it. I am not guessing about this. I was there. I saw it happening. And I will tell you I am frankly shocked to see, close up, just how little our leaders care what happens to ordinary people. Clinton can pose and speak a lot of flowery stuff but the truth is - we are nothing to them. I saw this with my own eyes. Sunday and Monday, there was no violence. None. The people were aggressively non-violent; they were self-policing. Up until Tuesday at 4pm there was one window broken in the whole city - a McDonalds window. This compares favorably to the typical rock concert, let alone a demonstration of people who were non-violently barring entry to the World Trade Center! At this point, a new group of police - tactical police - moved in and started gassing people and shooting rubber bullets. Is it any surprise that people got mad? Of course, the young kids hit back by breaking some windows in retaliation for being gassed, sprayed with very painful pepper gas, and shot with dangerous "rubber" bullets. The police instigated these kids, plain and simple. Sunday and Monday they had young cops, using them to block the streets. These were trainees. But Tuesday they had the real cops; none of them were young. They were trained to attack people. A small group, maybe 100 people total, struck back. Then these cops herded that group around the city, making sure there were plenty of photo ops of "violent protesters." A number of times they had these 100 or so protesters caught between buildings and walls of police. They could easily have arrested and detained this small number of people and gotten it over with. Instead they would gas them and let them go. Then trap them again, gas them again, and again let them go. The cops made no arrests that I know of until late Tuesday night though the skirmishing was going on from three till 9:30. The cops would blockade three or five blocks of an area, give the angry kids room to operate, keep gassing them - when you gas a person, let me tell you, it gets them fighting mad. Tuesday night the police gassed all of downtown. This was going on from 3 PM, till 6 PM.. Gas everywhere. The kids broke a few windows - McD's, Starbucks - small stuff - burned a few garbage cans. The police were using these people as extras. It was staged. I believe also the police had their own people in there, encouraging people to break stuff - if people think I may be exaggerating, I saw supposed protesters - they were screaming and so on - and then later,
LL:DDV: October 16th world anti-McDonalds Day - Some Melbourne events
Saturday October 16th "McCrappy" events:
Residents Against McDonalds will mark World Anti-McDonalds Day at Coburg
Mall, next to the library from 10.30am. {Sydney Road trams and the Upfield
railway line station at Coburg will put you close by.}
The event will include an appearance by Mr McLitter, speakers and the
drawing of a raffle.
{First prize: original watercolour painting of # 1 Sussex Street, Pascoe
Vale.
Second prize: a print of an original sketch of the same historic home
(demolished by Redbar Demolition for McDonalds guarded by 80 Advent
security and 200 police).
Third prize: a jazz CD RAM t-shirt. Tickets cost only $1.}
Contact RAM:
Telephone Russell: 9640 4213 or Leanne: 0411 782 675
Write to: PO Box 103, Pascoe Vale South, 3044
Visit the website: http://taz.net.au/ram
Write email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From midday to 1pm on Saturday other anti-McDonalds protesters are also
gathering. This time outside the State Library in Swanston Street, City.
They plan to go to McDonalds sites around the City in the early afternoon.
Contact:
McLibel, PO Box 700, Brunswick Lower 3056
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Protests by groups in other regions in and outside of Melbourne eg Torquay
may also be taking place.
See the film McLibel now showing at the Nova Cinema in Lygon Street,
Carlton.
International website: http://www.Mcspotlight.com
LL.VJ
--
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LL:PR: explorations URL Squat? Why Not! zine
ANNOUNCEMENT The excellent Squat? Why Not! magazine, 60 pages, has just been published. Features include: Getting In and securing your squat, Resisting eviction, Unorthodox house repairs, art of scamming, quick compost, edible gardening, the legal bits, local and international stories eg. Dijon France, Gateavisa Norway 121 in london evicted after 6752 days of continuous occupation: 18 years, his herstory eg the brown warehouse in Collingwood, the Squatters Union seaside squatting near sydney after WW II, how to build a bender and a yert, interviews with squatters. Available for $2 (plus postage if mailed to you) at better bookshops or directly from: Barricade Books, 115 Sydney Road, Brunswick 3056 Tel 9387 6646 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.anarki.net/barricade/index The occupied space outside Melbourne's Indonesian Consulate (72 Queens Rd) is the latest in a long list of great examples of the community and workers, united together, using direct action. The picketers still need volunteers to do the roster help out so please contact: 9521 4522 or see www.freetimor.com A really inspiring site you should check out, all about exploring abandoned buildings and other palces you "shouldn't go". There is also a magazine which has an amazing story about exploring former nuclear missile silos. the address is- http://www.infiltration.org Squatters Unwaged Workers Airwaves every Friday, 11am to Midday, on Melbourne's Community Radio 3CR 855AM c/-3CR, PO Box 1277, Collingwood 3066 www.xchange.anarki.net/huelga/suwa [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unreal Estate Squatters Handbook on Line www.cat.org.au/housing/book -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: ZNEt Timor Update / Oct 5 URLs
Much new material has been added to the Timor Section of ZNet including, in particular, a transcription of a major talk given by Noam Chomsky in Kansas: http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Timor/sovereignty.htm also a transcript of the Gusmao/Horta UN Press Conference at: http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Timor/gusmao_a.htm -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:AA: Call for volunteers to assemble an aid transport fleet for
Timor Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 19:06:01 -0700 Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Loop: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 00:56:52 +1000 From: Peter Ravenscroft [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Call for volunteers to assemble an aid transport fleet for Timor East Timor Drovers Project Vehicles Owner Drivers Needed Peter Ravenscroft. Phone (07) 3289 4470 or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] This newly formed organization is a voluntary body dedicated to aiding the East Timorese. We need your help. [UPDATE 24-9-99: We are establishing a base camp at Darwin as soon as possible. The situation remains very unsettled and this prevents aid agenices entering the country right now. However, as soon as things calm down, we will be going into Timor.] We are appealing for volunteers to go to Timor, to drive for a group of five aid agencies based in Darwin. We particularly need owner drivers who are prepared to go over with their own vehicles. We need drivers, mechanics (qualified or not), and field organizers. Firstly contact us and arrangements will be given, about getting yourself to Darwin. Unrepairable vehicles will also be scrapped for parts or sold to raise funds. Please, no write-offs as we cannot act as your waste disposal service. Vehicles do not need to be registered to pass into East Timor. However, they do need to be transported there. The East Timor Mercy Ship is sailing for a second time some time next week or shortly after. We will have vehicles on that. We also need, anywhere in Australia, office staff, fundraisers and other organizers, transport managers, internet people and general scroungers. Whatever your expertise, location and time availability, if you are prepared to volunteer your services we will be able to find you something useful to do. If you would like to do something real to help the Timorese people, this is one way to do it. We need cars, utes, trucks and buses, and in particular four wheel drives. Also bicycles. We may be able to transport unregistered but fully serviceable vehicles by truck to Darwin. This is not a safe operation, and there are no guarantees for personal safety, or for vehicles. We may not be able to get our vehicles back for a long time if at all. There is no pay, but if that can be arranged later it will be. We also invite people to start and run independent Drover groups in their own communities, and to help run the existing groups. Two, Samford and Mount Nebo, are operating. The first party from Samford will be leaving for Darwin in a couple of days. Extra drivers are needed. Overseas Help: Those not in Australia can offer their help also. Primarily, anyone can offer donations and funds. Also, anyone offering transit such as boats, planes or shipping can contact us. THE STORY SO FAR... The Drovers organization exists to provide transport for people in crisis areas, and for the aid groups helping them. It has just been formed. Our first project is to provide transport for East Timor. There are very few vehicles left operating there. So far, two 4WD, two tip trucks, one 5 ton 4WD, two cars, a utility (pick-up truck) and about 25 bicycles. We may have free rail freight organised (thank you Queensland Rail). This is a good start for only four days operation, but more help is urgently needed. A vintage Morris Z is also being sold to raise funds for $3000, so for any offers please contact by phone or email (Brisbane area prefered). CONTACT INFO: If you would like to and can help in any way at all, please phone either 07-3289 4470 (Samford Drovers), or 07-3289 8159 (Mount Nebo Drovers) or 08-8985 5529 (Timor Aid, Darwin). Vehicles should head for Darwin, and be supplied with spares, tools and camping equipment such as swags and tents. Once there, food and fuel will be provided to the best of our ability. If willing to go to East Timor, take your passport, or documents sufficient to get one in Darwin. Expect delays and disorganization. This is a crisis! Drovers ~ Peter Ravenscroft (23-9-99) Phone (07) 32894470. Page by Ambrose Watson [EMAIL PROTECTED] Community Aid Abroad East Timor Appeal web space provided by www.samford.net -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe:
LL:Update East Timor actions Indonesian Embassy London
- Original Message - From: Ciaron O'Reilly [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, 11 September 1999 12:18 Subject: Re: Update - Vigil for East Timor, Indonesian Embassy, London BREAKING NEWS...ROBIN COOK BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER (and longtime arms dealer and dictatorship apologist) ANNOUNCES BRITISH ARMS EMBARGO ON INDONESIA. BELGIUM DRAWING UP A PROPOSAL FOR EEC ARMS EMBARGO TO BE PUT MONDAY. (We have a British Aerospace Hawk fighter at the Warton factory totally dressed up in INdonesian Air Force markings with registeration no. with no where to go!!!) Vigil for East Timor, Indonesian Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London (closest tube Bond St.) Mon (Sept. 13.) - Fri (Sept. 17th.) 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Phone Ciaron 07930-961842 CONTENTS 1) Vigil for East Timor Update 2) Other demonstrations for East Timor 3) Opposition Grows in Australia 4) East Timor Solidarity Activist Jailed for 30 days 1) Vigil Update The 3 month old Vigil for East Timor outside the Indonesian Embassy that lead up to the ballot day in East Timor has been resumed over the past week on a Mon- Fri 9-5 basis. Many of the folks who joined us outside the embassy last week came spontaneously to express their outrage and solidarity with the people of East Timor - without knowing if their would be anyone else there. Hopefully groups such as BCET, Tapol, Amnesty International, CAAT, Pax Christi are now publicising the vigil amongst their membership and the general public who are phoning their offices in response to the genocide. Over the past few days the vigil has been joined by people from East Timor, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Switezerland, Sweden and Portugal. Nearby workers on lunch break, workers making deliveries to the embassy and a few bicycle meessengers have all stopped into vigil. Solidarity has been expressed by folks living in the apartments neighboring the embassy, police guarding the embassy and many honking passing motorists. A local church has given us space to stash our banners and placards overnight. Indonesian government staff have been confronted with the reality of the genocide their government is persecuting in East Timor. Some of these confrontations have been on-to-one as individuals pursued embassy staff down the street to engage them. Thus far these engagements have been in an assertive and nonviolent spirit. We are helping each other to maintain a nonviolent disciplin in this most provacative time and place. Vigil for East Timor supports encourages nonviolent resistance at the embassy.blockading, sitting in, locking on etc. To the best of our resources we will accompany resisters through action-court-punishment. A daily presence has started outside British Aerospace Warton where a Hawk fighter fully decorated in Indonesian Air Force markings and registeration number awaits immediate delivery to this genocidal regime. Hawks are presently being used over East Timor by the Indonesian military. Preston Contact Tony Vera 01772- 825831 2) Other Demonstrations *Monday Foreign Office 12.30 p.m. - 2 p.m. British Coalition for East Timor Ph. 0370-372315 *Tues and Wed actions at the Arms Fairs Call CAAT 0171-281 0297 *Wednesday 12 noon - 2 p.m. at British Aerospace Warton (near Preston)against the Hawks awaiting delivery to the Indoensian military Ph. Ver or Tony 01772-825831 *Saturday organised by the Portugese Community 10 Downing St. 12 noon - 2 p.m. 3) Opposition Grows in Australia Yesterday (Fri) 25,000 people marched in downtown Melbourne in solidarity with the people of East Timor, 20,000 marched in Sydney. Brisbane City Council hosted an east Timor solidarity gathering of 1,000 in City Hall. Today (Sat.) over 20,000 marched in other Australian centres. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) have placed significant bans on Indonesina shipping and flights. Air Garuda flights have been disrupted and diverted. The MUA placed similar bans on Dutch shipping duiring the struggle for Indonesian independence in the 1940's. Three Christian peace activsts were arrested after entering the offices for the Dept. of Foreign Affairs in Brisbane, pasting photogarphs of a recent massacre in East Timor on the walls and writing the words "God Forgive Us!". Lisa Bridle, Rachel Harrison and Jim Dowling have been charged with "criminal damage". Others were arrested blockading the Brisbane offices of Air Garuda. Young East Timorese were arrested following an occupation of the Indonesian Consul. 4)East Timor Solidarity Activist Jailed for 30 days as His Demands for an End to the Training of Indonesian Troop in Australia are realised. Jim Dowling a member of the West End Catholic Worker community (Brisbane/Australia) and the Faith Resistance network is at present in the Brisbane watch house serving a 30 day sentence in protest against the training of
LL:URL:Znet Timor links
- Original Message - From: Michael Albert [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 10 September 1999 06:41 Subject: ZNet Free Update - Timor Links and major new statement from Chomsky... Please do come to the continually updated Timor pages -- http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Timor/timor_index.htm -- to get not only news of occurrences in East Timor, but even more important, clear accounts of the context, the prospects, and what normal folk are doing and can do to stop the horror. Recent link additions to the Timor Page include, among others -- Chomsky's major new statement, as of September 10th -- literally minutes before this was mailed -- included below. Chomsky: East Timor on the Brink / http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Timor/chomskybar.htm Chomsky interviewed by Barsamian Sept 9 transcript from KGNU Boulder Direct from Dili / Sept 8 http://www.webactive.com/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn990908.rastart= 1:05 full audio link) Allan Nairn Democracy Now report U.S Complicity in East Timor http://www.thenation.com/issue/990927/0927nairn.shtml (text variant) Allan Nairn in The Nation Genocide !! ? http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Timor/geno2.htm David Peterson for ZNet Sept 9 Will the U.S. Commit to Timor? http://www.zmag.org/ustimor.htm Scott Burchill for ZNet Sept 8 And also many links to sites with direct reporting, resources, organizational statements, etc. For those who remember our coverage of the Kosovo conflict (on-going), we are working on a Question and Answer piece like that done then, as well. - Major new statement from Noam Chomsky, Sept 10, on Timor Comments On the Occasion of the Forthcoming APEC Summit There are many topics of major long-term significance that should be addressed at the APEC conference, but one is of consuming importance and overwhelming urgency. We all know exactly what it is, and why it must be placed at the forefront of concern -- and more important, instant action. This conference provides an opportunity -- there may not be many more -- to terminate the tragedy that is once again reaching shocking proportions in East Timor. The Indonesian military forces who invaded East Timor 24 years ago, and have been slaughtering and terrorizing its inhabitants ever since, are right now, as I write, in the process of sadistically destroying what remains: the population, the cities and villages. What they are planning, we cannot be sure: a Carthaginian solution is not out of the question. The tragedy of East Timor has been one of the most awesome of this terrible century. It is also of particular moral significance for us, for the simplest and most obvious of reasons. Western complicity has been direct and decisive. The expected corollary also holds: unlike the crimes of official enemies, these can be ended by means that have always been readily available, and still are. The current wave of terror and destruction began early this year, under the pretense that the atrocities were the work of "uncontrolled militias." It was quickly revealed that these were paramilitary forces armed, organized, and directed by the Indonesian army, who also participated directly in their "criminal activities," as these have just been described by Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, still maintaining the shameful pretense that the "military institution" that is directing the crimes is seeking to stop them. The Indonesian military forces are commonly described as "rogue elements." That is hardly accurate. Most prominent among them are Kopassus units sent to East Timor to carry out the actions for which they are famed, and dreaded. They have "the job of managing the militias, many observers believe," veteran Asia correspondent David Jenkins reported as the terror was mounting. Kopassus is the "crack special forces unit" modeled on the U.S. Green Berets that had "been training regularly with US and Australian forces until their behaviour became too much of an embarrassment for their foreign friends." These forces are "legendary for their cruelty," observes Benedict Anderson, one of the leading Indonesia scholars. In East Timor, Anderson continues, "Kopassus became the pioneer and exemplar for every kind of atrocity," including systematic rapes, tortures and executions, and organization of hooded gangsters. Jenkins wrote that Kopassus officers, trained in the United States, adopted the tactics of the US Phoenix program in South Vietnam, which killed tens of thousands of peasants and much of the indigenous South Vietnamese leadership, as well as "the tactics employed by the Contras" in Nicaragua, following lessons taught by their CIA mentors that it should be unnecessary to review. The state terrorists were "not simply going after the most radical pro-independence people but going after the moderates, the people who have influence in their community." "It's Phoenix," a well-placed source in
LL:URL:East Timor addresses
- Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 10 September 1999 16:09 Subject: East Timor - addresses Hello, It's been a while since my last email regarding the website "Address Directory, Politicians of the World". Given the situation in East Timor, I thought you might not mind if I supplied you with a few useful addresses: Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie President Office of the President 15 Jalan Merdeka Utara Jakarta Indonesia gov't webpage http://www.dfa-deplu.go.id/english/govern1.htm National Commission for Human Rights Jl. Latuharhary No. 4B Menteng, Jakarta 10310 Indonesia phone 62-21-392-5230, fax 62-21-392-5227 email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Gubernur Jalan Infante de Henri Dili, Timor Timur Indonesia Best regards, Don Vermithrax http://www.trytel.com/~aberdeen/ Address Directory - Politicians of the World http://www.trytel.com/~aberdeen Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART:Concern for human rights stops in ETimor?
- Original Message - From: MichaelP [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 9 September 1999 07:54 Subject: Concern for human rights "stops in ETimor" ? In case anyone has limited knowledge of the East Indies chain of islands - this piece is not about E Timor but rather about West Papua. Perhaps one our Oz friends can bring us up to date on the related topic of New Guinea. Cheers MichaelP == GUARDIAN (London) Thursday September 9, 1999 by George Monbiot West Papua has been raped and pillaged, just like East Timor The west's concern for human rights, the Indonesian government has been promised, stops in East Timor. If the army stops massacring the East Timorese, suggests Don McKinnon, the New Zealand foreign minister hosting the inter-governmental conference, the global powers will turn their backs on butchery elsewhere. "We do not consider," he told the BBC yesterday, "any other parts of Indonesia in any way as being the same as East Timor." The west is still playing geopolitics with Indonesia's people. There is another occupied territory, whose existence lies beneath the scope of Mr McKinnon's elevated worldview, but whose story is almost identical to East Timor's. West Papua, or Irian Jaya as the Indonesian government calls it, is the western half of the vast island of New Guinea. Holland held on to it when the rest of the Dutch East Indies became the Republic of Indonesia, for it lies on a different continent, two and half thousand miles from Jakarta, and is peopled by a different race. New Guinea, its Melanesian inhabitants had long demanded, should be allowed to form a single, independent state. At length, the Dutch and Australians agreed. But in 1963, after this plan was disputed by the Indonesian government, the Dutch handed West Papua to the United Nations. In violation of every principle the UN was established to defend, the US insisted that it be given to Indonesia. When President Kennedy was asked how the handover could be justified, he replied: "Those Papuans of yours are some seven hundred thousand and living in the Stone Age." I n truth, there were more than 1m West Papuans who, having failed to master the art of time travel, were living in the 20th century like everyone else. But Kennedy's racist realpolitik gave the Indonesian government the green light to pursue its own. The Indonesian army wasted no time in demonstrating the benefits of integration. The Papuans trained for political life were rounded up and kicked to death. Tribal villages were strafed and napalmed from the air, then machine-gunned from the ground. Detainees were electrocuted and had nails hammered through their feet. As Papuan men took to the forests armed only with spears and poisoned arrows, the Indonesian army, equipped by Britain, France and the US, began a full scale pacification programme. Girls were raped then killed with a bayonet in the vagina or a stick up the rectum. Tribal leaders were taken up in helicopters and dropped, alive, into their villages. The slightest spark of resistance would trigger off punishment bombings. As vast mineral and timber concessions were handed to British and American companies, the global superpowers raised not a squeak of protest. The United Nations had insisted that Indonesian rule in West Papua could be ratified only when a full and free referendum had taken place. The Indonesian government argued that this would be too complicated. Instead, it insisted, representatives should be chosen to vote on their communities' behalf. President Suharto announced that anyone who voted against integration would be guilty of treason. In 1969, 1,025 men selected by the army were lined up at gunpoint, and the population was recorded as having unanimously chosen Indonesian rule. The UN left the Papuans to the mercies of one of the most violent governments on earth. By the mid-80s, Indonesia had started to apply its final solution to West Papua. Hundreds of thousands of Javanese people were shipped to the territory, in order, the governor explained, to give "birth to a new generation of people without curly hair, sowing the seeds for greater beauty". The programme was assisted by the World Bank and implemented by British and Canadian development consultants. In 1987, working with the photographer Adrian Arbib, I spent six months in West Papua, traversing the island on foot, documenting Indonesia's atrocities for our book Poisoned Arrows. We found that the Papuans were being herded into model villages, while the migrants sent to displace them from their lands were scarcely better off, dumped far from home without food, schools or hospitals, and forbidden to return. We saw British armoured personnel carriers, recently re-equipped for counter- insurgency by a British company, being sent to quell dissent. We spoke to thousands of Papuan people, and,
LL:ART:Arms trade menu
- Original Message - From: MichaelP [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 9 September 1999 07:41 Subject: Arms trade menu BBC Wednesday, September 8, 1999 Indonesia pulls out of [brit] arms fair Indonesia has pulled out amid growing violence in East Timor The Indonesian Government has declined an invitation from the UK's Ministry of Defence to attend an arms fair next week. The move follows intense pressure on the UK Government to withdraw its invitation to the Indonesians because of the repression by militias in East Timor. An MoD spokesman said: "Certain things are obviously on their mind domestically and they are obviously busy with things in East Timor." EAST TIMOR Earlier, the ministry had denied newspaper reports stating it had bowed to pressure from the Foreign Office and cancelled the invitation to Indonesian military officers. Defence Procurement Minister Lady Symons has previously insisted Indonesia should be allowed to attend the arms fair despite the violence in East Timor to look at "self-defence" equipment on sale. 'TRADING THE TOOLS OF REPRESSION' Human rights organisations have consistently attacked the UK's sale of arms to Indonesia, claiming it breaches Labour's pledge to pursue an ethical foreign policy. [ image: Baroness Symons: Defended arms sales to Indonesia] Susan Kobrin, a spokesperson for Amnesty International, said: "The decision of the Indonesians to withdraw from the arms fair may help the government avoid an embarrassing situation but will do very little to help the people in East Timor. "The decision to grant export licences lies with the government and the Department for Trade and Industry and they need to decide whether they are willing to trade in the tools of repression. "The violence could end very quickly if the Indonesians chose to bring their army under control. "We have called for a UK moratorium on the sale and supply of military equipment and training that could be used to inflict human rights abuses." ROW OVER JETS The international exhibition at Chertsey in Surrey and London Docklands is the UK's largest arms fair. It is being organised, on behalf of the UK arms industry, by Spearhead Exhibitions. But the MoD routinely sends out invitations to foreign governments. The row over the arms fair invite grew last week when Foreign Secretary Robin Cook admitted UK-built Hawk jets had been used for internal repression within East Timor. Britain has supplied more than 40 Hawks to Indonesia since the early 1980s and Jakarta is still awaiting delivery of the majority of an order for 16 of the planes under a deal struck in 1996. Lady Symons had insisted the UK does not supply arms to be used for internal repression, but faced criticisms from MPs from all parties, including Donald Anderson, the influential Labour chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. More than 600 companies from 50 countries will be exhibiting at the Defence Systems and Equipment International exhibition, which opens on 14 September. [This piece is about newly-dead Alan Clark, who as one of Maggie Thatcher's ministers helped the brit interest in arms sales - Cheers -MichaelP ] GUARDIAN (London)Thursday September 9, 1999 by Hugo Young Stop selling UK arms to the cruellest regimes on earth False promises made by Jakarta belie the crassness of Britain's position Alan Clark's most enduring contribution to politics, apart from his ripping diaries, was as the only serving minister to express the truth about the arms industry. His conduct over selling the tools of war to Iraq in the late 1980s personified it. As the Scott Inquiry discovered, Clark's words and deeds were the acme of evasion, duplicity, cynicism and outraged innocence in the service of the national interest. In the hour of British complicity in the hideous events in East Timor, this unvarnished realism might be the epitaph he best deserves. As a minister in two departments, Clark thought all arms sales were prima facie desirable. In the case of Iraq, he pressed for restrictive guidelines to be relaxed, and tipped the wink to Matrix-Churchill munitions men. He taught them how to frame their licence applications for dual-use equipment to conceal its military dimension. Being economical with the actuality, he said, was the first duty of anyone, including a minister, who operated in this world. Behind these opinions, which embarrassed his colleagues and partly caused the Scott Inquiry to be set up, lay a brutal attitude to power and money. Every country should have any arms it could pay for. Britain was a massive arms-maker, the second biggest global exporter. She could be proud of the industrial and imperial history that produced this happy outcome. The job of a British munitions worker was worth more than the life of any East Timor dissident trying to get away from Indonesia.
LL:URL:East Timor related videos (fwd)
If the media continues to not show pictures then consider showing videos for education about resistance and ask a speaker from the Timorese community to attend. We are not hearing about the protests overseas, perhaps tomorrow Friday's global protest day will 'bring it all back home'. Access news SKA TV here in melbourne is another sources of videos. In emotional turmoil, grief and anger love and rage! Margaret -- Forwarded message -- Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 16:49:43 +0100 From: undercurrents [EMAIL PROTECTED] East Timor and arms deals video As civil war is set to erupt in East Timor, the British government is staying very quiet. To find out why check out http://www.undercurrents.org alternative news video 6 and 10. Britain supply warplanes and other weapons to Indonesia which invaded and massacred hundreds of thousands of East Timorese. Those same warplanes are being used now in East Timor to suppress the people who have voted for their independence. Use undercurrents videos to inform and inspire the public to take action. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [DIYVID] East Timor videos "With my hammer"- a 7 minute inspiring music video by radical songsters "Seize the day" about the 4 women who disarmed a warplane bound for Indonesia with household hammers. see here for details http://www.undercurrents.org/issue10 "If i had a hammer"- an inspiring documentary about the 4 women who disarmed a warplane sold to Indonesia for use in East Timor. See here for details http://www.undercurrents.org/issue6 The East Timor Action Network have a site at http://www.etan.org or check a campaign site on http://www.freetimor.com or check latest news on http://www.easttimor.com undercurrents alternative news video 16b cherwell st oxford ox4 1bg Britain 44 (0) 1865 203661 http://www.undercurrents.org Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: From Internet to International
This is an excerpt of the entire article - which can be found at the address below - because the entire article was too large for posting to this list... alister - Original Message - Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 09:34:40 -0400 From: Eric Lee [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.labourstart.org/elgersburg.shtml LabourStart April 1999 From Internet to "International" The Role of the Global Computer Communications Network in the Revival of Working Class Internationalism by Eric Lee This paper was presented at the "Marxism on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century" Conference, 18-21 March 1999, Elgersburg, Germany "Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the workers of different localities in contact with each other." --Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party It is my belief that the Internet is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the revival of labour internationalism in the twenty-first century and with it, the revival of socialism. The global computer communications network we call the "internet" is necessary because one cannot imagine a workers International coming into existence today in any other form than online. I will expand upon this idea in a moment. But not sufficient -- because it will take more than a global computer network to re-create the labour International. It will take the will of class conscious individuals and movements who approach the question with open eyes. Let me begin with a simple definition of "International". To Marx, the International was a world-wide organization of working people which aimed to coordinate their activities across borders and thereby strengthen them in the struggle with capital. The First International was no more -- and no less -- than that. Others may disagree, and the Leninist tradition certainly doesn't accept this definition of "International", but it is how Marx himself saw the concept and implemented it in practice. Internationalism is central to Marxist thought; it was with an internationalist message that Marx and Engels chose to close the Communist Manifesto. Marx devoted considerable effort to the creation of a workers' International which was unique in the series of "Internationals" which followed in that it was a very broad-based union of workers without a strong ideological slant. It engaged in practical affairs related to the day-to-day needs of trade unions, and one of its main roles was to collect and distribute information. We cannot romanticize too much about Marx's International. Lacking funds and decent means of communications, it was not particularly effective. In reading through the minutes of its General Council meetings, one can sense the frustration at not being able to act in many cases. Information reaching the International in London was often sketchy and out of date. The Internationals which followed could not play the same role. The Second, still around today and still based in London, was and remains a global federation of social democratic parties. Particularly today, when trade unions and social democratic parties are often not nearly as close as they once were, and when social democratic governments are no guarantee of pro-labour policies, the Socialist International can hardly be considered the true inheritor of Marx's First International. Regarding the Third International, let me only say that nothing did more to undermine and discredit the cause of international socialism than the Stalinist regime in the USSR and the countries in its orbit. The Third International seemed more inspired by the 19th century tsarist diplomatic corps with its many intrigues -- described in some detail by Marx himself in his little-known writings on tsarist diplomacy -- than by Marx's vision of working men and women uniting. In other words, there has never really been a true workers' International. That is why what we must be thinking about is not a Fourth or Fifth International, but a First. With the fall of the Berlin Wall a decade ago, the world described by Marx in which there would only be one social system for the developed countries and that one based upon a free market -- finally became reality. Call it globalization, call it a unipolar world, but the world described in "Capital" has finally become real. This is, of course, an oversimplification, and not the central theme of this paper. Nevertheless, the reason why the beginning of the 21st century seems such an appropriate time for the labour movement to make another attempt at the elusive dream of a workers' International is because of capitalism's global triumph. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LL:URL: Online Labor Conference
ANNOUNCEMENT Juan Somavia and Bill Jordan to open online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century. Juan Somavia, the Director General of the ILO, and Bill Jordan, General Secretary of the ICFTU, will launch a debate in an online Conference "Organized Labour in the 21st Century". The Conference will be run by the International Institute for Labour Studies, of the ILO, in cooperation with the ICFTU, and will begin in mid September 1999. Participation in the Conference, which is aimed at trade unionists and labour researchers, will be open, and those who have signed up in time for the opening (before mid-September) will have a chance to react and put questions to the keynote speakers by e-mail, or over the web. Anyone wanting to participate can learn more by going to the Institute's website, where it is possible to sign up from today to participate in the Conference: http://www.ilo.org/pblic/english/130inst/research/network/index.htm (Background documents are also available from this web address.) The Conference focuses on the future of trade unions around the world, and is expected to run for approximately twelve months. Guest speakers will be invited to act as "panelists" every month. Each month, a new topic (with new "speakers") will be launched. The topics will be announced about a week in advance and are likely to include: - Employment and development - The law and trade unions - Responses to globalization (trade, investment, labour standards) - Unions and structural adjustment - Transnational industrial relations - Collective bargaining and social dialogue - Informal sector and marginalised workers - Social protection - Recruitment and organizing - Political strategy (party politics, alliances with NGOs, etc.) - Women in unions - Youth in unions - Union structures and services (membership participation, mergers, finances, etc.) If you do not have access to the World Wide Web, but would like to participate, send an empty e-mail message to this address, and you will be subscribed automatically. [EMAIL PROTECTED] FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONFERENCE ON LABOUR IN THE 21st CENTURY Please contact Mr A.V. Jose [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Dennis' Boxing Labor http://members.tripod.com/~irish_7x4/index.html -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDN: Shall we go too? 19 July 99
If you missed out on J18 protests or did get out that day have the fever from that great experience; and would like to "send your regards" or fling some pies to the Corporate ruling class attending, at $180 entrance, to sort out their GST worries (not!)...IF YOU ARE IN SYDNEY.Coincidentally July 19th (1936) is the anniversary date for Spanish Revolution and Conzinc Rio Tinto of course backed Fascist General Franco in that bloody Civil War and previously had many Asturian miners shot for striking. -- Forwarded message -- Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 12:33:05 GMT-1000 From: Vikki John [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Shall we go too? 19 July 99 SHALL WE GO? RIO TINTO, WESTERN MINING COMPANY AND SHELL etc WILL BE THERE. TELL OTHER INTERESTED PERSONS TOO. THANKS. Programme; 19 July 1999 Intercontinental Hotel, Sydney 12.30 - 1.00pm Registration and Coffee Forum Speakers Dr Roland Williams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Shell Australia Ltd Welcome and Introductions Senator the Hon. Robert Hill, Minister for the Environment and Heritage Opening Address Mr Bjorn Stigson, President World Business Council for Sustainable Development The International Sustainable Development Agenda: drivers, motives and values Lord Holme of Cheltenham CBE, Advisor to the Chairman Rio Tinto Ltd Corporate Social Responsibility: boundaries and expectations Dr Jane Gilmour, Executive Director Earthwatch Institute From Partnerships to Triple Bottom Line Dr Malcolm McIntosh AC, Chief Executive CSIRO Science and Technology: responding to the social agenda Mr Hugh Morgan AO, Managing Director WMC Ltd Implications of the International Sustainable Development Agenda for Australian Companies Mr Campbell Anderson, President Business Council of Australia Close The 1999 Joint Forum of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) will focus on the emergence of corporate social responsibility as a driver for sustainable development and the implications this has for Australian business. Rising community expectations are presenting complex issues for business, governments and the scientific community. The forum will focus on the following aspects of the new agenda: * International and Australian perspectives * Determining the boundaries of responsibilities * Finding appropriate responses We look forward to your involvement. Bjorn Stigson President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development Campbell Anderson President, Business Council of Australia 19 July 1999 Intercontinental Hotel, Sydney Registration Enclosed is a cheque in the amount of $180.00 made payable to the Business Council of Australia. Payment by credit card: Please complete and return this form to: 1999 WBCSD+BCA Forum Facsimile 03 9610 4223 Inquiries should be directed to: Lily Rombiolo Telephone 03 9610 4221 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For multiple registrations please photocopy this form. Title : _ Name : __ Position : __ Company : _ Postal Address : Telephone : __ Facsimile : _ Email Address : __ @ ___ Cost $180.00 LL.NG -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:Carpenter's Wildcat Strike Continues -- Solidarity Requested!
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, 22 May 1999 01:33 Subject: Carpenter's Wildcat Strike Continues -- Solidarity Requested! PLEASE FORWARD! PLEASE FORWARD! PLEASE FORWARD! Fellow Workers, friends, and comrades: The Carpenters' Wildcat Strike continues and is gaining momentum. However they need our solidarity. I went to their rally at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco at 2:30 PM this afternoon, where Carpenters (including workers from several parts of this extensive building trade's union) discussed where to take the strike from here. Workers from all around the Bay Area continue to wildcat. The open meeting included discussions about strategy and tactics and it's clear that while some differences exist about how to proceed with the strike itself, an overwhelming majority of those present voted to continue the strike. I'm sorry that I d not have all the details, and admittedly this spontaneous wildcat strike has been spontaneously organized to say the least. Whatever the case, these workers have taken direct action and they've already crossed that magical line between theory and reality. If they lose this battle it will represent a defeat for the working class. If they succeed, it will send a shot in the arm to the labor movement. We need to do our part to make this as successful as the Neptune Jade if we can. What these workers need is solidarity on the picket line and on the front lines. They need folks to spread the word about what's happening. They need financial support. Because this wildcat was the spontaneous efforts of a small group of pissed-off workers, many carpenters do not know about it. The mainstream media is largely ignoring the wildcat (when they're not belittling it). The only thing that's helping spread the word about this strike are the efforts of these rank file workers who've been traveling from job-site to job-site pulling workers off the job. There will be more walkouts on Monday and Tuesday. You can help by joining in the pickets. Call (510) 496-3458, Working Carpenters for a Stronger Union, for further information. That is a voice mail. Listen carefully for instructions. TEXT OF THE FLYER FOLLOWS - CARPENTERS: ONE MEMBER ONE VOTE! Brothers Sisters: throughout (the) San Francisco (Bay Area) carpenters are shutting jobs down. The San Francisco AirPort-the largest construction job in California-is shut down. Carpenters walked off Pacific Bell Park. They walked at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco. They walked at Microsoft. We are getting support from the ironworkers, the laborers, the cement finishers, and the electricians. If we have left any out, or we have left out any other jobs that have been shut down, we apologize. This first day has succeeded so far beyond our imagination that we are unable to fully keep up with our successes. We all understand what is at stake. We are fighting to take our union back from that tiny handful of unelected, unrepresentative officials who are shoving this contract down our throats. We are the strongest union supporters there are, but we know that the only way the union will be truly strong is if it fights for us. We are told that we are jeopardizing the "Project labor Agreement" at the airport. We, the working members, are the real project labor agreement. We have sworn a blood oath that when we go back to work there, Agreement or no, there will be no non-union construction at the airport. We don't need a "PLA", all we need is our own strength and our own unity. We demand the following: (1) (The sellout) contract (negotiated by the union's bureaucrats and the bosses without the consent of the union's rank file) must be taken off the table. It does not represent our interests and it was voted on illegally at a meeting that was called illegally. It must be removed. (2) No new contract voted on by the Regional Council delegates until it is voted on and passed by the working members at area-wide general membership meetings where we can discuss the pros and cons. No phony "mail-in" ballots, where they control the source of information, they keep the members feeling isolated, and they count the "results". We are united, we are strong, and we will take back our union. JOIN US! Working Carpenters for a Stronger Union For more information and regular updates, call (510) 496-3458. - Posted in Solidarity by a Wobbly For the One Big Union, -FW Steve East Bay IWW / Branch Secretary East Bay IWW http://bari.iww.org/ Phone (510) 845-0540 Timber Workers IU 120 -- http://bari.iww.org/iu120/local/ Marine Transport Workers, Local 9 -- http://www.iww.org/iu510/local9/ Communications Workers, Local 23 -- http://www.iww.org/iu560/local23/ Take Part in the I99 International Solidarity Conference!
LL:URL:Fw: tech for political control
You might be interested in this: http://www.iptvreports.mcmail.com/stoa_cover.htm (or, if you e-mail me individually, I can e-mail you the text) Title: DEVELOPMENT OF SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY AND RISK OF ABUSE OF ECONOMIC INFORMATION (An appraisal of technologies for political control), Part 4/4: The state of the art in Communications Intelligence (COMINT) of automated processing for intelligence purposes of intercepted broadband multi-language leased or common carrier systems, and its applicability to COMINT targeting and selection, including speech recognition Publisher: European Parliament, Directorate General for Research, Directorate A, The STOA Programme http://www.europarl.eu.int/dg4/stoa/en/ Author: Duncan Campbell - IPTV Ltd - Edinburgh [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.gn.apc.org/duncan Editor: Mr. Dick Holdsworth, Head of STOA Unit Date: April 1999 PE Number: PE 168.184 / Part 4/4 (The above is related to last year's "Appraisal of Technologies for Political Control", also published by the European Parliament and also [still] on the world wide web at: http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/1393/anchor1.html ) Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL:May Day On the Web 1999
EDMONTON HOSTS INTERNATIONAL WEB PAGE CELEBRATING MAY DAY EDMONTON May Day On The Web (www.accessweb.com/mayday) is a project of the Edmonton District labour Council (EDLC) and the Edmonton May Week Committee. The Web Page links events in Edmonton as well as announcements and events across Canada and around the world. Launched last year the page has an ongoing online art show, message board and links to events around the world. This web page is unique and was awarded the Political Web Site Of The Day on April 17 of this year. The page has received numerous other awards as well. Over 700 visitors have voted on the web poll asking if May Day should be recognized as a national holiday. The overwhelming majority (88%) have said yes. The theme of this years page is the 80th Anniversary of the 1919 General Strikes. Workers around the world and in particular in Winnipeg, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary conducted general strikes for the eight hour day and union recognition, in 1919. Edmonton was under the control of a workers strike committee from May through July of that year. Information on these and other general strikes are linked on the page. Once again Edmonton, and in particular the labour movement in this city, has shown it is the cutting edge of innovative use of new technology. Visit our web page for a unique view of the labour movement on the web. MayDay on the Web http://www.accessweb.com/mayday/ Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: AOL IS FACING CHALLANGE OVER FREE LABOR
From: Paul Poulos [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Monday, 19 April 1999 07:32 Subject: AOL IS FACING CHALLANGE OVER FREE LABOR April 14, 1999 America Online Is Facing Challenge Over Free Labor By LISA NAPOLI For the last 10 years, America Online Inc., the nation's largest online service, has relied on volunteers to help maintain the virtual community it offers its members. The volunteers, who are known as "community leaders," perform tasks like answering questions from subscribers, supervising chat rooms and enforcing the service's rules. The reward has been a free account with the service and, America Online says, the opportunity to play a more active role in its community of 16 million members. --- - Related Articles Internet Providers' Demands on High-Speed Data Rejected (April 14, 1999) America Online Plans to Lay Off Up to 1,000 (March 25, 1999) AOL-Netscape Deal Won't Be Blocked (March 12, 1999) --- - Now at least seven former volunteers are challenging the practice, and have asked the Labor Department to look into whether the use of volunteer labor by America Online and its subsidiary, America Online Communities Inc., violates the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. A Labor Department spokesman would neither confirm nor deny that AOL was under investigation, but several former volunteers provided copies of a letter from the department's Employment Standards Administration saying it would look into the matter. Information about the investigation was published two weeks ago on Observers.net, a Web site set up last September by former volunteers. A spokeswoman for America Online, Ann Brackbill, said on Friday that she was aware of the Web site and the information about an investigation, which she said had prompted the company to "initiate contact" with the Labor Department. But she added, "We do not elaborate on discussions we have with regulatory agencies." America Online, which has 12,000 employees, also has more than 10,000 volunteers, Ms. Brackbill said. Volunteers commit to a minimum of four hours a week of work, in addition to training time and time spent on required paperwork. Some of the former volunteers said they devoted much more time to the company. Marilyn Perkins of Chicago, a co-founder of Observers.net, is one of at least seven people who have registered separate complaints with the Labor Department. Ms. Perkins and other volunteers acknowledge that they signed on to work for AOL in exchange for a free account, which now costs $21.95 a month. But many volunteers signed up when the value of a free account was potentially much higher, because the online service billed users at an hourly rate and charges for heavy users ran in the hundreds of dollars. Although their complaints vary, the former volunteers say that AOL relies on volunteers to do work that should be paid. Ms. Perkins says the company has dismissed volunteers who have asked for compensation or complained about the program, and has taken away their free accounts. In their complaints to the Labor Department, the former volunteers do not make explicit demands for back pay. The issue, they said, is to publicize the situation and to change the way the online service uses unpaid labor. "Some are filing for revenge, some are filing to stop AOL from abusing others, some simply want their AOL accounts returned to them," said Kelly Hallissey, a former volunteer who lives in Greensboro, N.C. "I'm filing to support others' allegations and also to object to how AOL has treated myself and many others." Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a person must be compensated for time spent at job-related activities that benefit the employer, regardless of how the job is classified. There is a difference between volunteering for a charitable cause and volunteering to perform work that is critical to a company's business, said Jeffrey Chamberlain, an employment lawyer based in Albany who is not involved in the AOL dispute. --- - How the Internet is redefining the nature of work in the information age. --- - In a claim like the one made by the former AOL volunteers, Chamberlain said: "The more it looks like a real job, the less likely it is to be deemed volunteer. The kinds of things they are describing would make lawyers' bells go off." But Ms. Brackbill defended the volunteer program, saying it was a formalization of contributions that AOL subscribers have made to the service since it began in 1985. "It's an organic thing that sprouted from what people love to do online," she said. "Community and participation are the DNA of the Internet."
LL:DDV:10 reasons to March fro Mumia's Freedom.
Melbourne Rally March: Saturday, April 24th. G.P.O. Bourke Street Mall, 1.00 pm 10 Reasons to March for Mumia¹s Freedom Black political prisoner and radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on death row in Pennsylvania since 1982, after being falsely convicted of killing a Philadelphia policeman. Republican Governor Tom Ridge has signed his death warrant once before. Mumia¹s attorney, Leonard Weinglass, will file his case before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 22. Neither Democrat President ³Crime Bill² Clinton nor the Supreme Court are likely to grant a new trial. Mumia could be executed within a year. Justice will not be found in capital¹s courts. To save his life we must build a powerful working class movement to take action, as we are on April 24. Every port on the West Coast will be shut down with Stop-Work meetings from 8AM to 5PM to demand: Stop the Execution! Free Mumia! Here are the facts. You decide. 1. THE TRIAL- Mumia was denied his constitutional right to represent himself in court and was removed from the courtroom. His court- appointed attorney hadn¹t interviewed one witness and informed the judge before trial that he was not prepared to proceed. The defense investigator quit before the trial and no ballistics expert or pathologist was hired because of insufficient defense funds. In 1995, the news media exposed a festering Philadelphia police scandal: the framing-up of innocent people, corruption and police brutality. In all, 300 convictions were thrown out and many innocent victims set free. A videotape of Philadelphia¹s District Attorney acknowledged that blacks have been routinely excluded from juries. In Mumia¹s case 11 blacks were. 2. THE JUDGE- Albert Sabo, a former member of the Fraternal Order of Police was forced into retirement,but not before he had sentenced twice as many people to death as any other sitting judge in the U. S. Six former Philadelphia prosecutors have sworn in court documents that no accused could receive a fair trial in Judge Sabo¹s court. Five of the seven judges on Pennsylvania¹s Supreme Court were supported by the Fraternal Order of Police which is waging a campaign to execute Mumia. How can he possibly get a fair trial? 3. THE FALSE WITNESSES - Three key prosecution witnesses-- Veronica Jones, Cynthia White, and Robert Chobert-- all with criminal charges hanging over their heads, testified for the prosecution. For their cooperation, they were given special exemptions from criminal prosecutions. Later, Jones, while recanting her original false testimony in court, was immediately arrested on the witness stand on other charges. 4. THE TRUE WITNESSES- Five witnesses, all from different vantage points, saw the real killer flee the scene while Mumia lay shot on the ground. Due to prosecutorial and/or police misconduct all but one failed to testify. 5. THE EVIDENCE-An entry in the original coroner¹s report that stated that a .44-caliber bullet killed the policeman is now considered a ³clerical error². Mumia¹s gun, a .38-caliber pistol, could not have fired such a bullet. A medical examiner testified that the bullet was smashed, but a defense expert asserts that the bullet remained intact. A ballistics expert told the defense that switching bullets was done all the time. 6. THE ³CONFESSION²- Mumia¹s supposed ³confession² was first reported by police two months after the fact. The emergency room doctor said Mumia remained silent. 7. THE DEAD- Policeman Faulkner. Also dead is the possible killer who had borrowed the driver¹s license found in the pocket of the dead policeman. He was arrested on other charges two months after the murder while in possession of a .22-caliber gun. He was found dead in 1985, coincidentally on the day the police bombed the black commune MOVE house, killing eleven including five children. 8. THE DEFENDANT- Mumia Abu-Jamal last year supported the NABET/CWA workers in their lockout by ABC-TV, refusing to give an interview to scabs during the dispute. He also endorsed the ILWU¹s Neptune Jade solidarity defense campaign from death row. He has been fighting for the oppressed since the age of 14 when he protested the racist presidential campaign of then-Alabama Governor George Wallace. A year later he joined the Black Panther Party and learned journalism. Mumia had no criminal record before his arrest for the killing of police officer Faulkner. While president of Philadelphia¹s Association of Black Journalists, he received an award for his expose of police brutality. 9. THE FRAME-UP - Philadelphia Mayor and former Police Commissioner, Frank Rizzo, at a 1978 news conference following the death of a policeman, vowed to hold the ³new breed of journalist² like Jamal responsible. The FBI¹s COINTELPRO ³anti-terrorist² program of the 70¹s targeted Black Panthers and other black militants for frame-ups and
LL:BELGRADE 17-NGO APPEAL
From: sodepaz [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Saturday, 10 April 1999 03:32 Subject: BELGRADE 17-NGO APPEAL BELGRADE 17-NGO APPEAL ( http://www.nodo50.org/noalaguerra/ ) Deeply shocked by NATO strikes devastation of our country and the plight of Kosovo Albanians, we, the representatives of non- governmental organizations and the Nezavisnost Trade Union Confederation, energetically demand from those who have created this tragedy to immediately take all necessary steps to create conditions for the resumption of peace process. For two weeks now the most powerful military, political and economic countries in the world have been killing people and destroying military and civilian facilities, bridges, railway lines, factories, heating plants, storage facilities and fuel tanks. This has produced an exodus of unprecedented proportions. Hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavs, primarily ethnic Albanians, are forced to leave their devastated homes to escape the bombing and military actions of the regime and KLA, in the hope that they will find salvation in the tragic status of refugee. It is obvious that all this leads to a catastrophe and that a negotiated and peaceful solution to the Kosovo problem, which we have urged for years, is now farther than ever. Our effort to develop democracy and a civic society in Yugoslavia and help it restore its membership of all international institutions have taken place under constant pressure by the Serbian regime. We, the representatives of civil groups and organizations, have courageously and consistently fought against every war-mongering and nationalistic policy, and for the respect of human rights, and particularly against the repression of Kosovo Albanians. We have always insisted on the respect of their human rights and freedoms and on the restoration of autonomy for Kosovo. Throughout this period, Serb and Albanian civil society groups were the only ones to retain contacts and cooperation. The NATO intervention has destroyed everything that has been achieved so far and the very survival of the civic society in Serbia. Faced with the current tragic situation, we put up the following demands in the name of humanity and values and ideas that have been guiding us in our activities: · We demand an immediate cessation of bombing and all armed operations; · We demand the resumption of peace process with international mediation at the regional (Balkan) and European level, as well as in the United Nations; · We demand from the European Union and Russia to take their charge of responsibility for finding a peaceful solution to the crisis; · We demand an end to the practice of ethnic cleansing and repatriation of all refugees; · We demand support for peace, stability and democratization of Montenegro and every possible action aimed at helping this republic alleviate the disastrous consequences of the refugee crisis; · We demand from Serbian and international media to report professionally and impartially about current developments, to refrain from participation in the media war and from fanning inter-ethnic hatred, hysteria and glorification of force as the only reasonable way out of the crisis. We are unable to achieve this on our own. We expect from you to support our demands and help us realise them through your actions and initiatives. - Association of Citizens for Democracy, Social Justice and Support for Trade Unions - Belgrade Circle - Center for Cultural Decontamination - Center for Democracy and Free Elections - Center for Transition to Democracy - Civic Initiatives - EKO Center - European Movement in Serbia - Forum for Ethnic Relations and Foundation for Peace and Crisis Management - Group 484 - Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia - Students Union of Serbia - Union for Truth About Anti-Fascist Resistance - VIN: Weekly Video News - Women in Black - Yugoslavian Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and - NEZAVISNOST Trade Union Confederation. END Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:PR:McLIBEL APPEAL VERDICT 31st MARCH - press release
-Original Message- From: Dave Morris [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Friday, 26 March 1999 05:04 Subject: McLIBEL APPEAL VERDICT 31st MARCH - press release Please circulate widely.. McLibel Support Campaign 5 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DX, UK.Tel/Fax 0171 713 1269 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet info - http://www.mcspotlight.org PRESS RELEASE 25th March 1999 McLIBEL APPEAL VERDICT 31st MARCH The verdict for the McLibel Appeal will be handed down at 11am on Wednesday 31st March, at the Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand WC2 (Court room not yet announced). There will be a picket outside the Court from 10am- 11am. The McLibel Appeal was heard by Lord Justices Pill, May and Keane. It began on 12th January 1999 and lasted 23 days in court, ending on 26th February. Helen Steel (33) and Dave Morris (45) once again challenged the use of libel laws as a form of mass censorship, and argued for the overturning of the parts of the original verdict which went against them in the controversial case brought by the McDonald's Corporation. On June 19th 1997, after a 314-day trial - the longest in English history - in which the defendants had been denied Legal Aid and their right to a jury trial, Mr Justice Bell ruled that "various of McDonald's advertisements, promotions and booklets have pretended to a positive nutritional benefit which their food (high in fat salt etc) did not match" and that "customers who eat McDonald's food several times a week will take the very real risk of heart disease if they continue to do so throughout their lives encouraged by McDonald's advertising". He further ruled that McDonald's "exploit children" with their advertising strategy, are "culpably responsible for animal cruelty" and "pay low wages" - but despite this, awarded £60,000 damages to McDonald's on the basis that he considered that Helen Dave had not proven some other points. Significantly McDonald's did not appeal over these damning rulings against them, stating that the Judge was 'correct in his conclusions' (written submissions 5.1.99). The McLibel 2 argued during the appeal that these and other findings against McDonald's core business practices were so damaging to reputation of McDonald's that the Corporation's claim for libel should have been thrown out. Helen Dave submitted that the Judgment should in any event have been in their favour based on the overwhelming evidence supporting their case, and that the parts of the verdict that were against them were found on the basis of extreme and unnatural interpretations of the meaning of the London Greenpeace factsheet, including satirical cartoons and graphics. They also argued that McDonald's had consented to the publication of the factsheet by a previous agreement with the main distributors of the document (Veggies Ltd) and by the actions of their hired infiltrators who admitted distributing it. The McLibel 2 also argued that in order to protect the public's right to scrutinise and criticise companies whose business practices may affect our lives, health and environment, multinational corporations should no longer be able to sue for libel over public interest issues. Channel 4 news said the case would go down as 'the biggest Corporate PR disaster in history'. McDonald's aim of suppressing the "What's Wrong With McDonald's?" leaflets has spectacularly backfired, with over 3 million handed out in the UK alone since the writs were served, 400,000 in the weekend after the verdict - and they are now being distributed worldwide. The 'McSpotlight' website containing over 20,000 files about McDonald's McLibel has been accessed over 65 million times. If Helen and Dave do not succeed in this appeal, they intend to appeal to the House of Lords and then take the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary, in order to protect the public's right to criticise rich and powerful institutions which dominate our lives. Note: Background information on the case, verdict and appeal is available from the McLibel Support Campaign, or by visiting the McSpotlight website (details at top of page). Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Community Picket's 14th day in Pascoe Vale
Result of McLibel Appeal will be next Wednesday (31.3.99). Watch McSpotlight website for immediate details... http://www.mcspotlight.org Locally at 1 Sussex Street, Pascoe Vale there is a Residents Against McDonald's protest 24 hours a day now running for 14 days, today 26th March. More information from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] visit RAM website: http://taz.net.au/ram -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:OWC-YEAR 2000 CONFERENCE APPEAL
From: Robert Cherwink [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 2 Feb 99 From: Western Hemisphere Conference [EMAIL PROTECTED] OWC-YEAR 2000 CONFERENCE APPEAL *** Dear Sisters and Brothers, Please join with us in building a significant international labor conference for the independence of the trade unions and democratic rights. You will find below the Appeal for this international workers' conference, which will be held January 14-17 of the year 2000 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in San Francisco. The Appeal was issued by the Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference Continuations Committee in conjunction with the San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO). Following the text of the Open World Conference Appeal is a first list of endorsers. The enormous enthusiasm elicited for this Open World Conference in just a few weeks indicates that this year 2000 workers' conference could represent another important step toward building Global Unionism. But for this to happen, we urgently need your endorsement of the Conference Appeal and your support. Please send us your endorsement of this Appeal as soon as possible, and list exactly how you would like to be identified. Also, we urgently need your financial support to produce and mail the bimonthly conference preparatory bulletins and to build this event as broadly as possible within the international labor movement. Contributions, large or small, should be sent to WHC, c/o San Francisco Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94109. Please make checks payable to WHC. You can also reach us by phone at (510) 234-6603 or fax (510) 234-6998. Our e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copies of this Appeal are available in Spanish and French. Please let us know if you wish to be sent a copy in one or both of these languages. Also, if you wish more information about the Western Hemisphere Workers Conference Continuations Committee, please let us know. Thanks for your support, In Solidarity, Ed Rosario Mya Shone Co-coordinator Co-Coordinator + APPEAL for an Open World Conference of Workers in Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights From every corner of the globe, we hear the same message from governments and the multinational corporations they serve: It is working people who must relinquish their jobs, social protections and, most important, their independent trade unions to permit global capital's "free trade" agenda to move forward. It is we who, in the name of "modernization" and "globalization," must forfeit all the gains we have won over decades of struggle. The existence of international labor rights -- particularly the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike -- are considered barriers to "free trade." Indeed, the traditional trade union, we are told, is not suitable for the workplace of the new millennium insofar as it said to "hamper" a corporation's ability to compete in the global economy. In our own experience in the United States we have witnessed countless efforts by the employers and the government to restrict, suppress and even bust unions. The assault has taken various forms -- PATCO, Taft-Hartley, Landrum-Griffin, the Hatch Act, state "right-to-work" laws, Congressional back-to-work orders for striking railworkers, "Paycheck Protection" acts, and lawsuits against unions and officers who respect picket lines -- such as in the West Coast Neptune Jade case. The list goes on. But the content is always the same: to shackle the labor movement. When this doesn't work, we have seen the employers and government try to integrate us into their plans. Under the pretense of making us their "associates" and "partners," they deploy all sorts of schemes to undermine collective bargaining and to roll back our rights and working conditions. They also hold out the promise of toothless "side agreements" and other such language to get us to drop our fight against NAFTA and the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which are so crucial to global capital's "free trade" agenda. What can we do to fight back? On June 7, 1998, close to 200 trade union delegates from 36 countries met in Geneva to counter global capital's assault on working people the world over and to promote a fightback in defense of trade union rights. The meeting, held on the eve of the annual convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO), was called by the heads of 17 national trade union federations in Africa and the International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International (ILC), a coalition of trade unionists and activists in 82 countries fighting the structural adjustment policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Ed Rosario, coordinator of the Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference Against NAFTA and Privatizations, was the keynote speaker at the Geneva meeting. Brother Rosario, who represented the San Francisco Labor
LL:ART:Mexico: Million March Against Privatization
-Original Message- From: Antti.rautiainen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Friday, 19 March 1999 17:53 Subject: Mexico: Million March Against Privatization From the BBC . . . http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_299000/299389.stm Friday, March 19, 1999 Published at 05:07 GMT World: Americas Million strong march in Mexico City Many marchers wore Zapatista style face masks By Mexico Correspondent Peter Greste For Mexico City's 20 million residents, demonstrations have become a fact of life but it's been a long time since they've had to face one on this scale. With the help of an advertising campaign to publicise the protests, electricity workers and students managed to draw almost a million people into the central Zocolo Square. The electricity workers and the opposition Revolutionary Democratic Party are protesting against plans to privatise their industry, whilst the students from the autonomous university are rebelling against the introduction of fees. Governement blames oil prices Although it's yet to respond to the latest demonstrations, the government has so far shrugged off the demands of both groups. It insists its empty coffers mean there's no way it can continue to subsidise higher education or electricity. The government blames plunging oil prices for its latest problems. As one of the world's biggest oil exporters, any price shift affects it deeply. But there's also a presidential election due early next year and unions, the opposition and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party are expected to use every opportunity between now and then to score political point -- For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/ Antti Rautiainen - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please sign the online-petition for the animals of the Karttula breeder! http://www.enviroweb.org/karttula Allekirjoita vetoomus Karttulan kasvattamon eläinten puolesta! * "Messages sent on the IWW-news mailing list are the opinions of the individual senders; they do not necessarily represent the views of the IWW. IWW-news is for posting information which is relevant to the struggle of the working class against our bosses. Visit http://www.iww.org/ for more information." To subscribe/unsubscribe from the IWW-news mailing list please send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the subject of the message. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV:Slack Babbath-Benefit Tape and Launch
The long awaited tribute to the original metal band, Black Sabbath; called Slack Babbath, has been completed with several local Melbourne bands doing covers of their favourite Black Sabbath songs. A benefit will be held on Saturday 27th March at the Public Bar (across road from Vic Markets corner of Victoria Parade Elizabeth Street) Bands performing are: '99' , Kokoshkar, San Jose Cow Musak, Bo Smiling Backwards 9pm to 1am $5 entry Free copy of the Black Sabbath tribute tape for the first 150 payers. All proceeds to: Awareness League of Nigeria computer purchase. Melbourne ABC prisoners support group. Melbourne IWW dolee agitation project. After 27th March tapes are $6 (includes postage) makes cheques, postal orders to 'IWW' or send equivalent stamps to: Melbourne IWW PO Box 145, Moreland 3058 http://www.iww.org.au/melbourne LL.VC Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URGENT: APPEAL FOR CANANEA MINEWORKERS
-Original Message- From: Western Hemisphere Conference [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tuesday, 16 March 1999 15:33 Subject: URGENT: APPEAL FOR CANANEA MINEWORKERS URGENT: APPEAL FOR CANANEA MINEWORKERS *** Note: Please endorse this sign-on Open Letter to the Mexican authorities in support of the mineworkers and their families in Cananea, Mexico. Add your name and/or that of your union or organization. You should send your endorsement directly to Gemma Lopez Limon at "Ricardo Flores Magon" Human Rights Committee, Mexicali (Mexico). Her e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED]. She will forward your statement to the Mexican authorities. Please include your organization and title, if possible, and mention if these are to be listed for identification purposes only. Also, please send a copy of your e-mail endorsement to [EMAIL PROTECTED]. * IN THIS MESSAGE: (1) Open Letter to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo (2) Mineworkers End Bitter Three-Month Strike (3) Background to the Strike * (1) Open Letter to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo in Support of the Cananea Mineworkers (Mexico) Respect the workers¹ collective-bargaining agreement! Restore immediately all water distribution to the townspeople! Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon President of Mexico, Palacio Nacional 06067 Mexico, D.F. Fax: 011-525-516-5762 Dear President Zedillo: We are writing to express our deepest concern for the safety and well-being of the mineworkers and their families in Cananea, Sonora. These workers ended their bitter three-month strike on February 15, after the Mexican Army threatened to use violence against them. They went out on strike last November 18 to demand a halt to the projected 1000 layoffs demanded by the Compañia Mexicana de Cananea which is owned by billionaire Jorge Larrea and his Grupo México. The laid-off mineworkers were promised the full severance package stipulated by their collective bargaining agreement. No sooner had the strike ended, however, than the company reneged on its promise, offering the laid-off workers a pittance of the severance pay and benefit package they were entitled to. The company, moreover, blacklisted 120 workers on the grounds they were strike "organizers" -- thereby denying them the right to return to their jobs. These workers were not in units slated to be closed under the company¹s downsizing plan. And those workers who returned to their jobs were paid less than $2 per week, after the company illegally discounted large sums from their paychecks for "damages and costs incurred during the strike." This represents an open violation of Mexico¹s labor legislation. We are writing to urge you to insist that Mexican labor law and the workers¹ collective-bargaining agreement are fully respected and implemented in Cananea! We also understand that on March 9 -- in retaliation against the townspeople of Cananea, who ardently supported the strikers -- the Compañia Mexicana de Cananea cut off all water distribution to the town. Historically, the mining company has been responsible for all water distribution to the population. As of this writing [March 16], the town has not had any running or drinking water for seven days. The townspeople fear an outbreak of hepatitis and cholera as toilets cannot be flushed and people are forced to use contaminated water. This situation is intolerable! On March 11, the Women's Front of Cananea, together with thousands of townspeople, occupied the two water plants in the town and opened the valves to distribute water to the people. Within a few hours, the Compañia Mexicana de Cananea cut off all electrical power to the water plants, thereby halting off all water distribution to the community. As of this writing, all water distribution -- including to the mines and processing plants -- remains cut off. We call on the company and the authorities to resolve this conflict based on the respect for the collective-bargaining agreement and the democratic and trade union rights of the mineworkers of Cananea. And we call on the Governor of Sonora and the Mexican Ministry of Interior (Gobernación) to urge the Compañia Mexicana de Cananea to restore immediately all water distribution to the townspeople of Cananea. Thank you for your time and immediate attention to this extremely alarming situation. Sincerely yours, cc. Lic. Armando Lopez Nogales Governor of the State of Sonora Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico Fax: 011-562-17-41-26 cc. Manuel Ernesto Romero, General Secretary, District 65, National Mineworkers Union (Cananea) Fax: (011) 52-65-663-26543 * (2) Mineworkers End Bitter Three-Month Strike By GEMMA LOPEZ LIMON MEXICALI, Mexico Close to three months after they went out on strike to preserve their jobs against a deadly downsizing onslaught, the 2000 mineworkers of Cananea were forced back to work without obtaining any of the demands for which they had fought. Cananea is a small copper mining town in the northern Mexican state of
LL:ART:Interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wednesday, 10 March 1999 16:00 Subject: Interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal February 1999 The Dispatcher [newspaper of the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU)] Interview With Mumia Abu-Jamal Introduction Black political prisoner and radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on Pennsylvania's death row since 1982, falsely convicted of the killing of a Philadelphia policeman. Racism and frame-ups are nothing new to the "City of Brotherly Shove", as comedian Dick Gregory calls it. During the Civil War, black abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote: "There is not perhaps anywhere to be found a city in which prejudice against color is more rampant than in Philadelphia." Not far from the Mason-Dixon Line, Philadelphia has remained a tightly segregated city with a police force dedicated to maintaining the racist status quo. In 1978 600 police attacked the black MOVE communal house in Philadelphia. Like the Rodney King videotape of police brutality, television cameras captured police stomping one of its wounded occupants, Delbert Africa, who had surrendered. One year later, the federal government charging "widespread, arbitrary, and unreasonable physical abuse," filed a civil rights suit against the city and its police department. In 1985 MOVE's house was firebombed in a coordinated attack by police, the F.B.I. and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in which eleven people were killed, including five children, incinerating most of the black neighborhood. Once again in 1995 the Philadelphia police department scandal was front-page news across the country: framing-up of innocent people, corruption, police brutality. In all, 300 convictions were thrown out and many innocent victims set free. This expose was followed by the Philadelphia District Attorney revealing that juries had routinely been rigged to exclude blacks. In Mumia's frame-up the prosecution's chief witness Cynthia White, a prostitute, told a friend and prostitute, Pamela Jenkins, a key government informant in the 1995 investigation of police corruption, that "she was in fear for her life from the police". After police intimidation, White testified that Mumia, who'd been shot and lay seriously wounded, had shot the cop. Five eyewitnesses from five vantage points told police they saw the shooter flee the scene. None of this evidence was allowed in court. Police claim they never did the standard nitrate test for Mumia's hands to prove he'd fired a gun and scientific ballistics tests that could prove Mumia's innocence were not permitted to be introduced. Such travesties of justice go on and on, but the police got "their" man, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who they had been targeting since he was a 15 year-old member of the Black Panther Party. The ILWU, through resolutions from its organizational divisions and letters from its International Presidents, has been supporting the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal for ten years. Mumia, in turn, from death row, was one of the prominent endorsers of ILWU's victorious Neptune Jade case. Time and appeals are running out for Mumia. On Oct. 29, 1998 the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court upheld his conviction and Governor Tom Ridge has vowed to sign his death warrant. Prison authorities made a face-to-face talk with Mumia nearly impossible. So at his suggestion The Dispatcher submitted him a list of questions to which he made written responses. A View from Death Row A written interview with political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal by ILWU Local 10 longshore worker Jack Heyman January 15, 1999 The Dispatcher: West Coast maritime employers attempted by the use of cops and courts to intimidate labor activist picketers and the ILWU from demonstrating international labor solidarity in the Neptune Jade case. In the end we won by organizing a broad united front of individuals concerned with the erosion of democratic rights and the labor movement, mobilizing maritime and other workers for action here and around the world. Do you think similar tactics could be applied in your defense? Mumia: I think a "broad united front" may prove effective in labor actions and in human rights movements on broader social issues. Can it be applied in my case? Yes. For the efforts of the State are designed to isolate us, to construct barriers between us. All that we can do to demolish those walls is to the good. The Dispatcher: During the recent ABC-TV lock-out of NABET/CWA workers, you refused to be interviewed by strikebreakers on the news program "20/20" despite the fact that publicity may have helped your case. Why? Mumia: I had to ask myself, "Would I cross a picket line if I were living in quasi-freedom, and walking to the studio?" The answer was an irrevocable, 'no.' How could I do less, even under these circumstances? I felt an intense affinity for the people of NABET, and
LL:URL:May 1968 Graffiti
-Original Message- From: Bureau of Public Secrets [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Bureau of Public Secrets [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thursday, 11 March 1999 14:17 Subject: May 1968 Graffiti Translations of over 200 graffiti from the May 1968 revolt in France are now online at http://www.slip.net/~knabb/CF/graffiti.htm A few examples: Power to the imagination. Be realistic, demand the impossible. It's painful to submit to our bosses; it's even more stupid to choose them. No forbidding allowed. When examined, answer with questions. The more I make love, the more I want to make revolution. The more I make revolution, the more I want to make love. Boredom is counterrevolutionary. Run, comrade, the old world is behind you! * * * The Bureau of Public Secrets website, which has received over 30,000 page hits from some 7000 visitors during its first six months, features selections from Ken Knabb's SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY (translations from the notorious group that helped trigger the May 1968 revolt) and from PUBLIC SECRETS, the recent collection of Knabb's own writings, including "The Joy of Revolution," "Confessions of a Mild-Mannered Enemy of the State," and an assortment of comics, leaflets and articles on Wilhelm Reich, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, the sixties counterculture, radical women, Chinese anarchists, socially engaged Buddhists, urban "psychogeography," the Watts riot, the Iranian uprising, the Gulf war, and the recent jobless revolt in France. New texts are being added every few days. BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS http://www.slip.net/~knabb Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL: State Security Court issues a new death penalty sentence
-Original Message- From: Addameer [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Addameer Mailings [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thursday, 11 March 1999 19:58 Subject: State Security Court issues a new death penalty sentence State Security Court issues a new death penalty sentence - 2 Palestinian youth shot dead during protests against the court decision 10 March 1999 Once again the State Security Court in Gaza issued the death sentence against Palestinian, Raed Ahmad Al-Attar, 25 years, accused of shooting Captain Rifat Joudeh from Rafah. The conviction of Raed was read during the last hearing of State Security Court on Wednesday, 10 March 1999 at 11 AM. The panel of the Court consisted of General Farid Qutob as the presiding judge, deputy generals Talal Abu Zeid, Salim Al-Wadiah and Ismail Al-Shafee, and Major Munjid Al-Rayyess. The court also sentenced, Muhammad Abu-Shamaleh, aged 25, to life imprisonment with hard labor and the Usama Abu-Taha, aged 24, to fifteen years with hard labor. Addameer Association in Gaza followed up all earlier public hearings and has several serious objections to the procedures: 1. The prosecutor could not prove that it was the defendant Raed Al-Attar who fired the gun. The six witnesses who testified against the defendants actually confirmed the position of the defendant as they admitted that none of them saw Ra'ed opening fire on Captain Rifat. 2. There was no evidence introduced to the court which proved that the bullet that killed Captain Rifat came out of Al-Attars gun. 3. Judge Abdel Hay Abdel Wahed didnt appear at the last hearing when the verdict was read. Instead, he was replaced by Deputy General Ismail Al-Shafee which contradicted the Basic Law, where a judge should participate in at least four hearings. Following the courts reading of the verdict protests against the verdict spread around the city of Rafah. These protests turned into fights between the families of convicted and the family of late Captain Rifat and resulted in murder of Ala Jumah Al-Hums, 17 years, and Khamees Salaameh, 17 years, and the injury of three others by live ammunition. Addameer expresses its deep concern about these incidents and protests the unacceptable and unjustified use of force by Palestinian Security Forces. Addameer underlines the following: 1. We reconfirm our position against the State Security Court as it contradicts all internationally acceptable standards of Human Rights and the rule of law and does not fulfill the conditions of a fair trial. 2. We demand that President Yasser Arafat does not approve the death penalty sentence. 3. We demand canceling death penalty in general from the Palestinian Law as it is not a deterrent. 4. There must be an immediate stop to the use of fire arms against civilians and Palestinian security forces need to exercise caution and self-restraint in order to avoid worsening the situation. Important Note: We hope that every person concerned with the rule of law, will send faxes to President Yasser Arafat demanding that he not approve the death penalty and calling for an end to the State Security Court. President Arafat can be reached at this address: President Yasser Arafat Head of Palestinian Authority Gaza Fax: +972-7-2822365/6 __ ADDAMEER - Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Association Jerusalem, PO Box: 17338. Ramallah, West Bank. Tel: +972-2-2960446 Fax: +972-2-2960447 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.addameer.org/ __ If you have received this message more than once, please let us know so we can fix it. If you wish to be removed from this mailing list, send a message with 'remove from list' in both the subject and the text area of your message. __ * "Messages sent on the IWW-news mailing list are the opinions of the individual senders; they do not necessarily represent the views of the IWW. IWW-news is for posting information which is relevant to the struggle of the working class against our bosses. Visit http://www.iww.org/ for more information." To subscribe/unsubscribe from the IWW-news mailing list please send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the subject of the message. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL:Visit Disney's SWEAT-SHOP-LAND !!
Anyone else fed up with Disney who needs to know more check out this site. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: DISNEY!! Disney is a big time oppressor in Haiti, where they contract with companies that use sweatshop labor, and that practice anti-labor and anti-union tactics. If any worker is caught making ANY noise about unions they are fired. Their name is then added to a registry which is kept by all the sweatshops in Haiti. And they are blacklisted, and are unable to find any work. To find out more about this go to the National Labor Committee's website, at http://www.nlcnet.org/disney.htm . They have extensive information about Disney, and numerous other companies using Sweatshop, Child and Forced Labor. Disney's tactic is to fill us with so much fluff that our brains will be too numb to see the truth. But the truth is, while Michael Eisner makes upwards of $240,000,000.00 a year, (yes you read right!) his workers in Haiti subsist on poverty wages, and squalid conditions. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART:Y2K and Labor
Hello there, A Wobbly (IWW member) in US sent me this and I thought it might interest you too. Margaret From what I have read recently, Y2k failures will not be an event of one single day or week, but rather will stretch from the end of 1998 until 2002 or so. However, approximately 30% - 50% of failures will occur in the year 2000. Following are some sample occurrences of the millennium bug striking early that have been reported in the media, so there should be no question that this will be a signifigant event - further, I would like to point out that there has been basically no word from the labor movement about the issue. I think that we are in a unique position to start a Labor Y2K Preparedness Council or something similar - if you read the news reports, the churches and bosses' industry associations are well on their way to it. Shall we leave it to them to organize the population and show them who to turn to during times of turmoil? (Don't rely on each other, rely on the government and corporations) Many churches are calling it a historic opportunity to "save souls" and are stockpiling food supplies. Why not make it a historic opportunity to organize, to teach people the value of mutual aid and voluntary cooperation? What do people think about this? Has anyone read Utne Reader's Y2K Preparedness publication at http://www.utne.com/y2k/individual.html ? Or checkout http://cassandraproject.org Jason Adams Y2k events that have already happened, as collected by theCassandra Project on their website (http://millenia-bcs.com/). April '98, the computer network that schedules patient appointments at three hospitals and 75 clinics in Pennsylvania shut down - all because one person punched in an appointment for January 2000. (Money Magazine.) Eric B. Yablonka is vice president and chief information officer at the Hospital of St. Raphael, a 511-bed acute care facility in New Haven, Conn. His team recently uncovered 18 ventilators that were noncompliant. In autumn '97, Phillips Petroleum Co. engineers ran Year 2000 tests on an oil-and-gas production platform in the North Sea. The result: in a simulation, an essential safety system for detecting harmful gases such as hydrogen sulfide got confused and shut down. In real life, this would have rendered the platform unusable. At midnight on Jan. 1, 1997, 660 process control computers that run the smelter potlines at the Tawai Point Aluminium smelter in Southland, New Zealand, could not account for an extra day stemming from the 1996 leap year and crashed. Five pot cells were ruined, leaving the aluminium company with a repair bill estimated at more than $570,000. 'The clocks would go faster and some things could blow up' When the Hawaiian Electric utility in Honolulu ran tests on its system to see if it would be affected by the Y2K Bug, "basically, it just stopped working," says systems analyst, Wendell Ito. If the problem had gone unaddressed, not only would some customers have potentially lost power, but others could have got their juice at a higher frequency, in which case, "the clocks would go faster, and some things could blow up," explains Ito. Corning writes multi-year contracts for chemicals and other raw materials to smooth out fluctuations in supply and prices. But last summer, when it came time to start entering contracts expiring in the year 2000, "The system aborted with a programming error" and took several weeks to fix, recalls Jim Scott, technology director of Corning's science and technology unit. In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Mary Bandar, a 104-year- old resident of Winona, Minn., turned down an invitation to attend kindergarten. A computer, triggered by the fact that she was born in 1888, fired off a notice to begin school in the fall. Air traffic controllers at an emergency meeting of the International Federation of Airline Controllers (January 1998) simulated the year 2000 date change. Their screens went blank. A computer glitch at Smith Barney put roughly $19 million into each financial management account. The brokerage firm has 525,000 such accounts. The computer programmers who made the error were attempting to make Y2K repairs to a database. The changes had been successfully tested off-line, so the crew decided to conduct a live test in conjunction with the firm's main software. People celebrating their 101st or 102nd birthdays have been getting kindergarten enrolment forms. The Inland Revenue Service (IRS) uncovered an unintended side effect of its effort to eliminate the Year 2000 computer bug: About 1,000 taxpayers who were current in their tax instalment agreements were suddenly declared in default due to a programming error. The IRS has 62 million lines of source code to check. == Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
LL:Humor: Modern wage-slavery...
From: Mike Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thursday, 18 February 1999 15:31 Subject: Modern wage-slavery... You know you work in Corporate Capitalism in the 90's if: You've sat at the same desk for 4 years and worked for three different companies. Your company welcome sign is attached with velcro. Your resume is on a diskette in your pocket. When someone asks about what you do for a living, you lie. You get really excited about a 2% pay raise. Your biggest loss from a system crash is that you lose your best jokes. Free food left over from meetings is your main staple. Your supervisor doesn't have the ability to do your job. Salaries of the members on the Executive Board are higher than all the Third World countries' annual budgets combined. It's dark when you drive to and from work. Communication is something your group is having problems with. You see a good looking person and know it is a visitor. Weekends are those days your spouse makes you stay home. Being sick is defined as can't walk or you're in the hospital. You're already late on the assignment you just got. When 100% of your time means 20 hours. You work 200 hours for the $100 bonus check and jubilantly say "Oh wow, thanks!" Dilbert cartoons hang outside every work station. Your boss' favorite lines are "when you get a few minutes", "in your spare time", "when you're freed up", and "do I have an opportunity for you." Vacation is something you roll over to next year OR it's a cheque you get every January. Your relatives and family describe your job as "works with computers". You only have makeup for fluorescent lighting. You read this entire list and understand it. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: Lock out the Landlords!
Lock out the Landlords! Anti-eviction resistance 1929-36. Pamphlet launch 7pm Saturday 27th February At Barricade Bookshop 115 Sydney Road, Brunswick 3056 Tel 9387 6646 email [EMAIL PROTECTED] (19 tram route from Elizabeth Street City - alight stop after Brunswick Road - or Jewell Station on the Upfield Railway line) vegan meal - donation - all proceeds to Barricade Library. Showing of Richard Lowenstein's "Evictions" film and others on video. Lockout the Landlords! is a pamphlet chronicling the mass resistance that occurred across Australia during the economic depression. The story of a vibrant and highly succesful social movement is tld through a historical chronology of events as well as through quotes and photos. Housing has always been a right and not a privelege and the lessons of the past can provide inspiration for the struggles of today. The pamphlet is available from all good radical bookshops or from PO Box 199, East Brunswick Victoria 3057 for $2.50 (including postage). LL.VB -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List As vilified, slandered and attacked by One Nation mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART:Fears erupt over genetically modifide food
BBCFriday, February 12, 1999 Published at 12:48 GMT Fears erupt over genetic food Dr Arpad Pusztai: Vindicated Safety fears over genetically-modified food have received dramatic support after scientists backed a disgraced colleague who said that rats fed genetically-modified potatoes suffered health damage. The BBC's Pallab Ghosh reports on the genetic food disputeThe public statement from 20 scientists has renewed calls for the UK Government to impose immediately a moratorium on the use of genetically-modified (GM) foods. However Prime Minister Tony Blair has rejected the calls from consumer, environmental and food pressure groups, as well as opposition politicians. Cabinet Office Minister Dr Jack Cunningham said the findings "were in dispute" and that a moratorium would not be "sensible". He told the BBC: "We need to clarify what the scientific outcome of these experiments really is. But it is not a reason to ban all genetically-modified foods. Support for doctor The controversy began in August 1998 when Dr Arpad Pusztai, 68, made a public statement about his fears, following a £1.6m study he conducted at the Rowett Research Institute (RRI) in Aberdeen, Scotland. He told Granada's World in Action that he would not eat the GM food and said it was "very, very unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs". Within 48 hours he was suspended in humiliation and later effectively forced to retire. The RRI said he had misinterpreted his results. But now the group of scientists, drawn from 13 different countries, have re-examined his work and signed a joint memorandum saying his conclusions were justified. The group included toxicologists, genetic engineers and medical experts. Dr Vyvyan Howard: "We are going to have to test these plants like pharmaceutical agents""We found that his data is sound", their spokesman, Dr Vyvyan Howard, a toxipathologist at Liverpool University, told the BBC. He said: "Dr Puztai did some direct hazard assessment, got some unexpected results and then spoke out. I think he was right." Dr Howard said a new safety regime was needed: "We're going to have to test these plants like pharmaceutical agents. This takes years and costs about $400m to bring a new drug to market because of the level of testing." However Professor Phillip James, director of RRI, stuck by his actions over Dr Putzai, saying the research was incomplete and unchecked. Immune system and organ damage Dr Pusztai's experiments involved feeding rats on GM potatoes for 10 days. He found that some of the rats' immune systems were weakened. He also found that some organs shrank or did not develop properly, including the kidney, the spleen and the brain. The cause of these problems is not known and the group of scientists has demanded immediate funding to investigate. An audit carried out by the RRI last year cleared Dr Pusztai of fraud but said there was no basis for his conclusions. The group of scientists has now savagely criticised that audit saying it contained "serious flaws" and that a "great injustice" had been committed. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html
No Subject
Hello I got this reply to forwarding the story on Leftlink (about inter-union demarcation on wharves) from an ILWU member who is visiting Oz next month. Anyone on the list want to say hello, introduce themselves to him and or to MUA members here? Margaret Creagh Melbourne IWW -Original Message- From: Peter Bell [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: margaret [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wednesday, 10 February 1999 21:28 Subject: Re: Fw:ART:Kelty wades into brawl on wharf Dear Margaret; In Vancouver Canada, Local 500 ILWU shall be facing a similar problem in May with our provincial railway, B.C. Rail. Several years ago, B.C. Rail purchased Vancouver Wharves and began a massive rebuilding job with which they intend to abolish the ILWU yard Locomotive and train crews. There is another aspect to this whole story, namely, there are plans afoot to punch a tunnel beneath the Bering Strait to link Alaska with Siberia. B.C. Rail is a vital link in the Southern portion of the rail network. According to the internet proposal, Alaska has ten percent of the world's coal,much of it of good metallurgical Quality. Strictly by accident, on infoseek(search) I punched in Bering Strait Tunnel Project and the whole story revealed itself in the clip "Inter- hemispheric Tunnel Project". In closing, I would like to mention that I purchased a charter ticket to day and shall be in Aussie from Mar 8 til the 23rd. Fraternally, Peter Bell Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html
LL:URL: new brit archive on Pinochet
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wednesday, 3 February 1999 07:59
Subject: new brit archive on Pinochet
Here's a new Pinochet archive at
http://www.lakota.clara.net
It's a response by several Brit.TV-news reporters to the well-known
deficiencies of the commercial media. To me it's also an good example of
what internet activism is all about.
===
"The site idea came from a meeting in a London pub whereby a few reporters
were a little hacked off with their proprietors/columnists rewriting
history. Hence the PinoFacts/PinoFiction idea. We also wanted a central
one-stop resource for information in depth and thought it might be useful
to others. (We're looking to extend this concept to other international
news stories).
On the decision, the tip is the hearing closes tomorrow(Wednesday) and we
get the word in two weeks or so. My guess is that they will rule that
Pinochet goes to Spain (I can detail you why if you wish) but that the
British Home Secretary will -- at some stage in the summer -- rule that he
goes back to Chile on compassionate grounds (as he did with Roisin
McAliskey, the suspected IRA terrorist - wanted in Germany, last year).
That solution gets everyone off the hook.
{ They say : We'd be really interested in comments and feedback, plus any
errors of coding, speed or appearance.We'd also like to know how we can
make it better... Email to pinoc [EMAIL PROTECTED]]
"I work as a news and current affairs producer for an independent company
mainly working for Channel 4 ( http://www.channel4.com ). We have four
other reporters directly involved plus numerous supporters. 'Tis done on
the fly, either from home or on the desktop. We have outside contributors
in Spain (where I used to live) and Chile, which was my girlfriend's patch
in South America. We also have people in the US who supply us with
material. There's a web designer and a couple of interested lawyers.
We've had people in court -- I've even been there myself, but it's
bum-numbingly tedious. Even the agencies are labouring hard to get
anything out of it. The legitimacy of torture as an instrument of
government was an "interesting" point but it's more about legal philosophy
rather than justice. There are implications for international law (jump
off the legal pages for the US version, but also for British justice) and
that gives the Pinochetistas a slim chance (Law Lords never want to change
anything).
But the real debate is whether a head of state has immunity. There is some
disagreement anyway as to when Augusto was made head of state. The Foreign
Office here seems to think some time in 1975. If that's accepted, many of
the crimes listed in the Garzon writ were committed before he had possible
immunity. the crimes listed in the Garzon writ were committed before he
had possible immunity.
Small point also: Britains "most wanted criminal" - and they really,
really want him - Kenneth Noye (road rage killing, cop killing and the
rest) was in court in Spain yesterday on an extradition warrant to the UK.
He reappears in a month. How do you think the Spanish will feel if they're
refused Pinochet? ... My own view is that the news organisations are
vastly underestimating the issue in terms of interest and ratings.
The strange thing about the Pinochet case is that it defines *exactly*
where a person is on the political map. When I was at university, Nelson
Mandela was "God" and Pinochet "the devil". For Thatcherites it was the
other way around, which is why Lady Thatcher invited Pinochet to tea and
why a former Thatcher cabinet minister was able to call him "that good and
brave and loyal soldier."
I can't get worked up over income tax; I feel 'uneasy' about bombing Iraq;
but I'd happily go to the barricades over Pinochet.
The Home Secretary. Jack Straw - a Labour politician and former President
of the Students Union and must be acutely aware of this - perhaps even
feels a little of it himself, cold fish though he is...
*
