GPJA #65 - The Future Of GPJA - Special Meeting, Mon Aug 2

GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER #65, July 22, 2004

Website http://www.gpja.pl.net/ Contact details: Forums - John Minto, (09) 846 3173, jbminto@xtra.co.nz; Newsletter Editor - Mike Treen 0212547440 / 3616989 miket@pl.net Web page - Bruce Hubbard (09) 6232667 or 027 256 3933 Rulesofthegame@clear.net.nz Donations can be sent to GPJA, Private Bag 68905, Newton, Auckland. All communication regarding the GPJA mailing list (email or snail) should be addressed to gpja@xtra.co.nz

Dear friends,

THE FUTURE OF GPJA - SPECIAL MEETING

This Monday is a special GPJA meeting on the future of GPJA. This replaces the regular organising committee and the August forum. Monday, August 2, 7.30pm, Trades Hall 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn

WHAT'S ON IN AUCKLAND

Friday 23 July, 1.15pm, Academy Theatre, Lorne St (under Auck Public Library ). Extra screening of "Checkpoint" at the Film Festival. It's so worth the effort to see!!

Saturday, July 24, 4.20pm, Rialto Theatre, Newmarket Special GPJA screening of F 9/11 (Sold out. For a City Vision Screening on Tuesday, July 27, see below)

Sunday, July 25, 2pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn Welcome the Cuban Literacy Volunteers! Ten literacy experts from Cuba are helping Te Wananga o Aotearoa create a course to teach functionally illiterate adults here how to read and write. Last year their contribution was attacked by Act MP Rodney Hide, who questioned what people in New Zealand could learn from Cuba. Supporters of Cuba answered this attack, pointing to the many achievements made in Cuba since the 1959 revolution there. We invite you to welcome these internationalist volunteers and hear their story. They include veterans of the 1961 literacy campaign in Cuba, which in the space of one year set the basis for almost wiping out illiteracy in that country. Followed by afternoon tea. Sponsored by NZ-Cuba Friendship Society. Phone Malcolm 276-2054 or Janet 525-5412, or email Mike miket@pl.net. Donations to Cuba Friendship Society, c/- 8/26a Sunnynook Rd, Forrest Hill, Auckland.

Tuesday, July 27, 8pm, Highland Park Village, Sky Village Cinema. Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary. Manukau Vision is holding a special showing of this movie as a fundraiser. Manukau Vision is a joint Labour/Greens/Alliance/Progressives ticket running for the ARC and DHB. I am one of the ARC candidates. We are up against Gwen Bull, Craig Little and Bill Burrell, all right-wingers, so we call on all Alliance people to support us in getting rid of these people! Please let your friends and relatives know about this fundraiser, especially those who live in Sth Auckland. To book tickets, email jill@aste.ac.nz or phone 276 9433.

Wednesday July 28, 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Trades Hall,147 Gt Nth Rd Grey Lynn Union Women's Network Seminar for Women Unionists - Workplace Bullying. Part One - July 28th Organisational Issues, Part Two - Sept 1st 2:30pm - 4:30pm Organising Around Workplace Bullying. (WWRC Bar open from 4:30). Joint initiative of the Auckland CTU Women's Council & the Working Women's Resource Centre. Part One Organisational Issues: presented by Marie Brelsford-Smith This seminar will explore our understanding of what workplace bullying is, how to change a bullying culture within a workplace, what practices, processes and procedures need to be in place to make our workplaces safe and how we can engage with employers to achieve this. Marie Brelsford-Smith will be presenting at this short seminar. Marie has worked for the Human Rights Commission and with many large organisations such as Air New Zealand as part of its settlement of the Air Hostesses Complaint, Westpac, Rothmans (BAT), Genesis, and Otago Polytechnic on issues of harassment prevention and employment best practice. For more details please contact Jo Taylor, WWRC, or Nadine Rae, CTU Organising Centre. Jo Taylor, phone 3797906, fax 375 2681, email wwrc@ihug.co.nz; Nadine Rae, Education Development Organiser, NZCTU Organising Centre, Private Bag 92 645, Auckland. dd 303 9008

Saturday, July 31, 10am-12noon, at the Anglican Marae church, 35 Cape Rd, Mangere (opposite the Mangere Town Centre). Follow up meeting to Facing Poverty seminar. The meeting will be progressing the housing action strategy agreed to at the meeting held last Saturday. If anyone wants copies of the action strategy, as well as the Govt's housing strategy documents and our response to that, they can contact me on jill@aste.ac.nz

Sunday, August 1, 3.30pm, Cityside Baptist Church, 8 Mt Eden Rd, Ahmed Zaoui was recognised as a refugee by the New Zealand government one year ago on Sunday August 1. Actions are taking place around New Zealand. In Auckland there will be a Zaoui Procession: A gathering at Cityside Baptist Church followed by a candlelight procession to Auckland Central Remand Prison. Starts at the church from 3.30pm with speakers, performances which include Don McGlashan, and poetry. Limited seating available. From 4.45pm there will be a candlelight procession to the prison, with performances, brief speeches and culminating in release of doves.

Tuesday, August 3, 6pm, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi O Tamaki Auditorium "REFRAME" is a feature documentary film which looks at the Palestinian Israeli situation through the lens of international law. Directed by New Zealander Jo Luping, the film follows human rights lawyer Dianne Luping, as she works in the Palestinian territories during 2001 and 2002. Tickets $5.

Saturday, August 7, 7.30pm, Glen Eden Playhouse Theatre, 15 Glendale Rd. Glen Eden, Waitakere City Waitakere Peace City Multicultural Performance. "Remember Hiroshima and Affirm Nuclear Free Peacemaker NZ” PLEASE pre-book tickets NOW ($20 each) by posting a cheque to: Free Spirit Peace Productions, 1310 Huia Rd. Huia, Waitakere City. Also from Titirangi Pharmacy or Laurie Ross 811 8696. Features: Mayor Bob Harvey, Miranda Adams violinist, Nati & Sasha Witten-Hannah, Sonar Chand Indian Dancers, Russel Walder oboe, Maysoon ~ Iraqi poetry, Middle Eastern Music & dancing. If you wish to help in any way please give me (Laurie Ross) a call on 811 8696 or come to the next meeting 7:30pm Monday 12th July at Titirangi Community House beside the library in South Titirangi Rd.

Sunday, August 29, 3pm, Manaia Room, Auckland Museum People's Voice' A screening programme that takes a looks back at protest, rallies and people's movements. People¹s Voice features the1951 Waterfront Lockout, Vietnam War protests, the 1981 Springbok Tour, and other moments in our history when people have found cause to speak their minds.

Tuesday October 12 & Wednesday 13 - Auckland. MARIE HILAO-ENRIQUEZ, FILIPINO HUMAN RIGHTS LEADER TOURING NZ OCTOBER 2004 THE PHILIPPINES IN THE FIRING LINE - AMERICA'S "SECOND FRONT IN THE WAR ON TERROR’ "AND THE IMPACT ON HUMAN RIGHTS. Marie Hilao-Enriquez is the head of Karapatan, one of the biggest and best known human rights groups in the Philippines, and also of Selda, the organisation of former political prisoners from the 1970s and 80s martial law dictatorship of the late Ferdinand Marcos. Marie herself was a Marcos prisoner and her family suffered badly (one sister was murdered by the military, another two siblings were imprisoned). Marie has been a leading figure in the Philippine human rights movement for the past 30 years. For Auckland details contact: Luke Coxon; ph (09) 8276059; mobile 027 2487005; e-mail: luke.coxon@finsec.org.nz Donations are welcome, to help with costs. Please make cheques to PSNA, with a note saying that it is for the Hilao-Enriquez Tour. Or you can make a donation directly into our bank account. If you do so, record it as a donation for the Hilao-Enriquez Tour and include your name. Send us an e-mail to tell us and let us know your name and address. Our account details: Philippines Solidarity Network, Kiwibank, 155 The Terrace, Wellington. Account number 389000 0792619 00. Details re other centres contact Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa, Box 2450, Christchurch, New Zealand cafca@chch.planet.org.nz www.converge.org.nz/psna

December 2-5, Massey University, Albany An International Interdisciplinary Conference on Restorative Justice to be held at Centre for Justice and Peace Development Massey University Albany Auckland. "NEW FRONTIERS IN RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: ADVANCING THEORY AND PRACTICE" To express interest in attending and/or to offer a presentation email newfrontiers@massey.ac.nz or write to Dr. Warwick Tie, Centre for Justice and Peace Development, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Massey University, Private Bag 102 904, North Shore MSC, Auckland. Closing date for the submission of abstracts is the 31st May 2004. Conference URL: http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz/

FAHRENHEIT 9/11

My First Wild Week with "Fahrenheit 9/11"... By Michael Moore Where do I begin? This past week has knocked me for a loop. "Fahrenheit 9/11," the #1 movie in the country, the largest grossing documentary ever. My head is spinning. Didn't we just lose our distributor 8 weeks ago? Did Karl Rove really fail to stop this? Is Bush packing? http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2004-07-04 Whose afraid of Michael Moore? http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/588/588p14.htm The lie that killed my son: Lila Lipscomb believed in Bush's case for war in Iraq. But when her son died in action, her faith in the American way was shattered. Emma Brockes meets the Michigan mother at the heart of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1256558,00.html A US comedian brings us closer to the truth than the BBC. Most of our journalists fail. George Monbiot http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1259938,00.html

MESSAGES

Ten days ago, I appealed for your support regarding a union delegate in a New Zealand casino who was sacked by his employer. Today, I'm delighted to tell you that thanks to your efforts -- and in particular to the 1,178 of you who sent off protest messages via the LabourStart website -- Andrew Bolesworth has been re-instated in his job. The union in New Zealand (the SFWU) has written the following: "Thank you to everyone who sent emails, wrote letters of support, signed the petitions, turned up at the pickets -- the members at Dunedin are really energised about unionism after a brief introduction and a big win." This is a wonderful victory, and we join with our brothers and sisters in Dunedin in celebrating. But we are not going to forget all the other workers who are appealing for our support today. We're not going to forget workers at the Aura-Misr (Aura-Egypt) Company, a manufacturer of asbestos products, who have been on strike since 6 June in protest over deadly working conditions. We're not going to forget workers at Colorking printing press in the Lahore District of Pakistan whose efforts to form a union in April of this year triggered a lockout by the employer and, a month ago, the arrest of union officials. We're not going to forget workers at Workwear Lanka, struggling for the right to form a trade union in a free trade zone in Sri Lanka against a management engaged in vigorous union-busting activities. And we're not going to forget the workers in the Bahamas, in Haiti, in Thailand and in Cambodia who are also currently running online campaigns, all of which you can read about here: http://www.labourstart.org/actnow.shtml

Now I want to be completely frank and honest with you. The fact is, hundreds of you who sent off messages of support for Andrew Bolesworth have not yet done so for workers in Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and elsewhere who also urgently need that support. And thousands of you who are reading this message today haven't taken the time to support any of these current campaigns. It takes only a few seconds to send off a message of protest, it costs you absolutely nothing, and the result can be what we saw today in New Zealand. We can pressure companies and governments to achieve our goals and to strengthen workers rights. We can win. And we have proven that today in New Zealand. Please, take a moment, and go here: http://www.labourstart.org/actnow.shtml And please -- pass this message on! Eric Lee, Labour Start

A reminder re submissions on the Foreshore and Seabed Bill - there are now a number of written submissions by various groups and individuals online at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/fssubs.htm If you would like to have your submission on that page, please email it to pma@xtra.co.nz The Articles and Statements section on the foreshore and seabed information page at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/fsinfo.htm has been updated with new material including yesterday's intervention at the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations meeting in Geneva, and the statement from participants at the 'Living and Learning Together: The role of human rights education in strengthening communities in New Zealand and the Pacific' conference in Auckland on 13 July.

The latest issue of Peace Researcher (Number 29, June 2004) is now online. PR is the newsletter of the Anti-Bases Campaign. Annual membership is $20 ($NZ25 for Australia; $NZ 30 for the rest of the world). Membership includes PR. Payment to ABC, Box 2258, Christchurch, NZ. The latest issue can be read at: http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/prcont29.html

The contents include:

- Waihopai 2004: The Protests Continue, With Some New Twists by Bob Leonard

- GCSB Wins Big Brother Award by Murray Horton

- Echelon Spies On The World: Britain Drops Charge Against GCHQ Whistleblower by Murray Horton

- Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Free: Mordechai Vanunu Unbowed, Defiant by Murray Horton

- Ahmed Zaoui Still Imprisoned Without Charge: Government Loses Legal Battles, Inspector-General Loses Job by David Small

- The Privatisation Of War by Murray Horton

- Are We Seeing A Popular Revolution In Iraq? by Joe Hendren

- Christchurch Firm Profits From US War In Iraq by Murray Horton

NEW ZEALAND

Constitutional Crisis Over Foreshore & Seabed In Aotearoa, Prof. Richard Boast http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0407/S00021.htm

AHMED ZAOUI

Ahmed Zaoui Affidavits Reveal Serious Prison Abuses New Zealand’s reputation as a fair and egalitarian society continues to erode as revelations emerge of ongoing prison abuse of refugee Ahmed Zaoui. While we await a High Court ruling on whether Mr Zaoui ought to be transferred or bailed from remand prison, disturbing detail has emerged revealing abuse that has dogged this man’s New Zealand experience from the day he arrived. Here for the first time Scoop publishes excerpts of Ahmed Zaoui’s account of being behind bars and awaiting the outcome of his asylum applications... http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0407/S00061.htm Judge Reserves Decision In Zaoui Bail/Transfer Bid. The mainstream print media largely overlooked this aspect of proceedings. http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0407/S00035.htm Zaoui’s Prison Mistreatment Began At Paremoremo http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0407/S00037.htm 2nd Zaoui Assault Investigation, Once Over Lightly http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0407/S00072.htm

BORN FREE

Being Born In NZ May Soon Not Be Enough. Green MP Keith Locke condemns the Government's desire to take away the automatic citizenship rights of babies born in New Zealand. See... Don't make the babies pay

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0407/S00135.htm

JOHN PILGER

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes an outstanding BBC television documentary that goes to the root of the unprecedented uprising by Australia's indigenous people, the Aborigines, in February. http://pilger.carlton.com/print/133309 Writing in The Independent, John Pilger says that, in survey after survey, when people are asked what they want more of on television, they say documentaries - especially those that make make sense of news. http://pilger.carlton.com/print/133311

FISK: So much for democracy http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=5848

JK GALBRAITH

Corporate power is the driving force behind US foreign policy - and the slaughter in Iraq http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1261593,00.html

ALTERNATIVES TO NEOLIBERALISM

The neo-liberal offensive, dismantling the social state and privatising public utilities, with power drifting away from citizens into the hands of transnational corporations and un-elected bureaucrats of the global institutions such as IMF, World Bank and WTO, have left many a person hopeless. But there are successful pockets of resistance to US-driven neo-liberal hegemony, and by learning from them, Hilary Wainwright charts strategies for alternatives.

http://www.tni.org/newpol/index.htm

WAR ON FREEDOM

Lawyer speaks out: Australian government complicit in Habib's torture http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/590/590p14.htm Disappearing Prisoners - Are they dead? Are they alive? Where is the media? Does anybody out there care? A startling probe on ABC's Nightline on May 13, 2004, "The Disappeared," focused on super-secret CIA interrogation operations overseas, about which ABC News' Chris Bury said: "We don't know where they are being held. We don't know how many of them there are. We don't know what the rules are." This prison system is "so secret that its very existence is classified. http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0427/hentoff.php 'Torture in a good cause' by Ignacio Ramonet, Le Monde Diplomatique The characteristics of colonial war are usually arrogance on the part of the occupiers, who believe that they belong to a superior ace (more civilised, more advanced), are contemptuous of the colonised and sometimes refuse to admit that the colonised are even human. http://mondediplo.com/2004/06/01leader

WEST PAPUA

US Sacrificed Papua to court Suharto http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/FG13Ae03.html Washington D.C., July 9, 2004 - "You should tell [Suharto] that we understand the problems they face in West Irian," national security adviser Henry Kissinger wrote President Nixon on the eve of Nixon's July 1969 visit to Indonesia according to previously secret documents posted today by the National Security Archive. The presidential trip coincided with Indonesia's holding of the "Act of Free Choice" voting by which it legitimised its annexation of the territory of West Irian (now known as West Papua). http://www.nsarchive.org

WAR FOR PROFIT:

The Pentagon employs more than 700,000 private contractors, and at least $33 billion of the $416 billion in military spending overwhelmingly approved by the Senate last week will go to private military contractors . http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0707-14.htm Billions of revenue from oil 'missing' http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1248753,00.html Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction: Lobbyists, aides to senior officials and others encouraged invasion and now help firms pursue contracts. They see no conflict. http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/reconstruction.html

CONTRACTING OUT TORTURE

U.S. Contracts Torture of Australian Citizen Mamdouh Habib: Habib was arrested in Pakistan in October 2001. Soon after he was handed over to American custody and then taken, to Egypt. For six months he was left at the hands of his Egyptian interrogators. Mamdouh Habib was severely tortured there before being delivered to Guantanamo Bay where he remains to this day without charge. Video and transcript http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/trans.php3?dte=2004-07-07&title=The+Trials+of+Mamdouh+Habib

IRA

qU.S. officials in charge of the Development Fund for Iraq drained all but $900 million from the $20 billion fund by late last month in what a watchdog group has called an "11th-hour splurge." http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.money03jul03,0,5386955.story?coll=bal-iraq-headlines PM admits graves claim 'untrue' http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1263901,00.html The resistance campaign is Iraq's real war of liberation http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1251120,00.html Robert Fisk: No mention of power cuts and violence at trial of the century: Now it is time for bread and circuses. Keep the people distracted. Show them Saddam. Remind them what it used to be like. Make them grateful. Make Saddam pay. Show his face once more across the world so that his victims will think about the past, not the present. Charge him. Before the full majesty of Iraq's new "democratic" law. And may George Bush win the next American election. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6416.htm Empire and Resistance Today, Walden Bello http://www.tni.org/archives/bello/resistance.htm Iraq is worse off than before the war began, GAO reports WASHINGTON - In a few key areas - electricity, the judicial system and overall security - the Iraq that America handed back to its residents Monday is worse off than before the war began last year, according to calculations in a new General Accounting Office report released Tuesday. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9041465.htm America has sown the seeds of civil war in Iraq It's not religious rivalry but the puppet regime that threatens stability http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1253127,00.html Tariq Ali: This is not sovereignty http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/27/1088274624411.html?oneclick=true Iraq war costs thousands per US family http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040701-024236-4063r.htm 'Iraq's daily death toll much higher than reported': "Neither the Iraqi government nor the American forces are interested in getting the exact figures. It's politically against their interests." http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/07/12/d407121303103.htm

PALESTINE/ISRAEL

World Court: Israeli fence violates international law, must be dismantled: "Israel is under an obligation to... cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated..." the ruling says. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/449395.html Full Text of ICJ Ruling on Israel's Apartheid Wall: pdf file http://electronicintifada.net/downloads/pdf/icj20040709.pdf White House Brushes Aside Ruling on Israel Barrier: The White House brushed aside a ruling by the World Court on Israel's West Bank barrier on Friday, saying it didn't think it was the right forum for addressing the issue. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=5631040 Palestine - Who are the Palestinians?: Why has the simple justice of their case - that of an exiled people's quest for a homeland - become enmeshed in the most protracted, implacable and dangerous conflict of our time? http://www.newstatesman.com/site.php3?newTemplate=NSArticle_NS&newDisplayURN=200407120012 The case for sanctions against Israel: What worked with apartheid can bring peace to the Middle East http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1259087,00.html

VENEZUELA

Venezuela: the Gang's All Here. Replay of Chile and Nicaragua?

By Alexander Cockburn, CounterPunch

You can set your watch by it. The minute some halfway decent government in Latin America begins to reverse the order of things and give the have-nots a break from the grind of poverty and wretchedness, the usual suspects in El Norte rouse themselves from the slumber of indifference and start barking furiously about democratic norms. It happened in 1973 in Chile; we saw it again in Nicaragua in the 1980s; and here's the same show on summer rerun in Venezuela, pending the August 15 recall referendum of President Hugo Chávez.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06262004.html

VIDEO

Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War:

An impressive roster of experts is assembled to provide a generally withering commentary on the quality of evidence and possible motivations of the Neoconservatives who provided the momentum and muscle behind America's venture into preemptive war. The fig leaf of the possibility of an honest mistake on the matter of WMDs is stripped away; what is left is the stark and disturbing anatomy of deliberate deceit. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6423.htm

Mike

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