GPJA SPECIAL EVENTS NOTICE, NOVEMBER 5, 2002

Dear friends,

This is a special notice to update the ³What¹s On in Auckland² section of the GPJA Newsletter. Of special importance for GPJA is a request for people to help organise a mass antiwar picket of the US Consulate on December 14. A meeting to plan this picket is being held this Thursday, November 6, 7pm at the Auckland Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd. If war begins before then we will be rallying outside the US Consulate at 5pm the same day.

Other activities to check out that have been added to ³What¹s On² are some events to help publicise the GE Free Rally on November 16, an STV fundraiser November 15 and a special seminar on Public Private Partnerships November 17. The regular GPJA Committee meeting is on Sunday, November 24. This is an open committee for people who want to get active.

70 people attended the GPJA forum Monday night on ³The WTO, Gatts and Privatisation² with Jane Kelsey and Penny Bright speaking. Representatives of the Steven Wallace Trust Fund for Justice were present and gave a moving account of their struggle. $200 was collected for the fund on the evening but this is a fight that will cost tens of thousands of dollars. If you can help phone 090058784 to make a $20 donation.

I also failed to put the dates for the Waihope Spybase protest next year in the last newsletter. It is from Friday January 25 to Sunday January 26 (which happens to be a long weekend for Aucklanders).

WHAT¹S ON IN AUCKLAND

Ongoing to November 16

Join the team holding banners, and leafleting, at road intersections in Auckland to advertise the GE Free March and Rally on 16 November! If you are interested in joining the Banner Vigil Schedule, please contact Karyn Amoore tel (09) 358 4105 or email mailto:amoorenz@yahoo.com

Wednesday, November 6, 3pm, Carlton Hotel, Mayoral Drive

Picket by the Water Pressure Group of yet another business seminar promoting Public private Partnerships as the way to privatise public services for profit. Contact Penny Bright Ph 8469825

Wednesday, November 6 & 13, 8.30 pm EARTHWISE Radio - PLAINS FM 96.9

Susan George, a French citizen born in America, living in Paris, has written A Fate Worse Than Debt and other works on the impacts of globalisation. This Wednesday (6th) Earthwise features a discussion of her work, and the following Wednesday (13th) a special interview with Susan George, focussing on the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) - a proposal for worldwide privatisation of public services like water, health, and education. Not to be missed!

Thursday, November 7, 7pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd.

Help organise protest action against the war on Iraq

Friday, November 8 and Saturday, November 9, All Saints Church, Ponsonby

ŒThen and now - the theology of armed violence¹, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship National Conference and Open Day, speakers include Revd Geoff Haworth, Dr Margaret Bedggood, and Dr Chris Marshall; there is a session on ' Seeking Peace in Israel-Palestine' with Boris Lubetzky of the Auckland Jewish Community and Tuma Hazou, a Christian Arab and former Middle East correspondent for BBC, NBC and ABC. From midday Friday to evening Saturday. $25 including lunch, please RSVP by 2 November if you¹re planning on going.

For more info or to book please contact Chris Barfoot, tel (09) 575 6142, fax (09) 575 4836 or e-mail mailto:barfoots@xtra.co.nz

Saturday, November 9, 9am, Alexandra Park racecourse.

NZ First Conference ³Say No to Racist Scapegoating².

Saturday, November 9, 11am, Entrance Viaduct Basin.

Anti aerial spray protest. For further info email mailto:wasp@xtra.co.nz or phone 8272516

Wednesday, November 13, 8.30 pm EARTHWISE Radio - PLAINS FM 96.9

Second part of Susan George interview (see November 6 entry)

Wednesday, November 13, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn

³Is Bali our S11?² Public Forum with Tim Behrend on Indonesian Islamic Groups and Scott Hamilton on the real terrorists in the region. Sponsored by the Anti-Imperialist Coalition.

mailto:anti_imperialist@hotmail.com http://www.antiimperialist.org.nz

Thursday, November 14, 7.30pm, Maidment Theatre, University of Auckland

PEACE FOUNDATION¹S 2002 MEDIA PEACE AWARDS. Nga Tohu Rongomau Papaho. In association with the 'Like Minds' Awards Special Guest Speaker: Tom Scott - Journalist, Cartoonist. MC¹s Carol Hirschfeld and John Campbell. Tickets: $25.00 waged, $15.00 unwaged Tickets at Maidment Theatre. Phone: 09 308 2383. http://www.peace.net.nz/

Friday, November 15, 5.30pm ­ 7.30pm, 7 Bourne St, Mt Eden

Fundraiser for the Auckland STV Poll demand campaign. Evening drinks and Hors d¹oeuvres at the home of former Mayor Chris Fletcher. $20 inclusive. RSVP¹s appreciated: Ph 3615975 by November 13. STV ­ it¹s not a disease, it¹s the cure. The ailment? The voting system we use to elect our local body representatives. Symptoms include a Mayor with no mandate (the majority voted for other candidates) and a ³First City of the Pacific² Council that just does not reflect Auckland¹s diversity. STV stands for Single Transferable Voting and is used throughout the world. STV is a proportional and preferential voting system where you rank candidates in order of preference (1, 2, 3Š). STV guarantees that mayors can only be elected with a majority of preferences. If enough electors sign the STV Poll Demand by 12 December, the Council will be obliged to hold a binding referendum on the voting system. STV ­ let the voters decide. http://www.stvnz.org

Friday, November 15

The final deadline for submissions on the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Genetically Modified Organisms) Amendment Bill, which allows for open field trials and commercial releases of GE crops. For more information check out http://www.gefree.org.nz (scan down the page until you reach the relevant text); you can download a simple submission as a Word document at http://www.gefree.org.nz/HSNoForm.doc The official Public Discussion Paper 'Improving the Operation of the HSNO Act for New Organisms; Including Proposals in Response to Recommendations of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification' is available at http://www.mfe.govt.nz/about/publications/hsno/discussion-paper/index.html Saturday, November 16, 12 noon, Aotea Sq, Queen St, City GE-FREE MARCH Demand a GE-Free Aotearoa, in food and environment. The government is ignoring majority public opinion. Show them that the GE-Free movement is more powerful than ever. This march has been endorsed by GE-Free coalitions and groups nation-wide, there will be people converging on Auckland from all over NZ. Contact the Auckland GE-Free Coalition (Karyn 09 3584105 mailto:amoorenz@yahoo.com) or MAdGE (Mothers Against GE) ph 09 3093838 if you can help with distributing leaflets, posters, stalls, marshalling, fundraising, and the multitude of other tasks vital before and on the day. http://www.madge.net.nz Sunday, November 17, 10am-4pm, Mt Eden War Memorial Hall, Dominion Rd. The Government's secret agenda to involve big business in Public-Private Partnerships has been exposed Š now the public debate needs to begin! A one-day seminar with speakers including Jane Kelsey, John Minto, Mered Barrar, Penny Bright and Sue Henry on topics including: what¹s wrong with Public- Private- Partnerships (PPPs)? Are PPPs the new wave of privatisation? Are PPPs just a mechanism for corporate welfare? Who are the winners and who are the losers? How are PPPs, the WTO and GATTS interlinked? How do PPPs affect our community, our country¹s future and us all? Lunch provided, a koha to help cover expenses will be gratefully received. Supported by Wake Up Auckland, Citizens Against Privatisation, Water Pressure Group (Auckland), Global Peace and Justice Auckland, and Action Research Education Network Aotearoa (ARENA). For more info contact Penny Bright tel (09) 846 9825 or email mailto:pennybright@xtra.co.nz Monday, November 18, 8am-11am, Sheraton Hotel, Symonds St, Auckland Protest at 3rd International Pacific Rim Biotechnology Conference. Take the morning off work to boost numbers at this important protest. Demand our food and environment remain free of GE, and free from the corporate agenda of the biotech industry to own the food supply, and our bodies. The last frontier of colonisation! Monday, November 18, 7pm, Glenfield Community Centre, cnr Bentley Ave/Glenfield Rd.

³Peace, Tolerance and Civil Liberties². Public meeting with Keith Locke, Green party Foreign Affairs spokesperson.

Friday, November 22, 7-30pm, at the The Religious Society of Friends / Te Haahi Tuuhauwiri meeting house, 113 Mt Eden Road. Tony Maturin speaks about his experiences as Quaker Peace and Service NZ delegate on the Belgium/Iraq Friendship Society peace delegation to Iraq in April 2002. Friday, November 22, 6pm - Sunday November 24, 3pm, Kotare Education Centre - 510 Wayby Station Rd, Wellsford. Coalition Building Skills for Social Change Activists: A workshop for key networkers in different activist groups such as peace and justice, Te Tiriti, women's liberation, anti corporate globalisation or GE FREE Aotearoa. We invite groups to send a person who is a good networker, plays a facilitator role and understands both coalitions and the central values of your group. A fundamentalist view of struggle or methods is not relevant. Enrol early, as numbers are limited to 15. Facilitators Catherine Delahunty and Tim Howard will lead the process. Email mailto:cdelahunty@clear.net.nz

Sunday, November 24, 10am, 84 Paice Ave, Sandringham

GPJA Committee meeting. All welcome who want to get active.

Sunday, November 24, 1pm, Waipapa Marae, Auckland University (behind St Andrews Church. Symposium on the Palestinian struggle with speakers, documentary films, and action workshops, concludes with Palestinian dinner, followed by Palestinian traditional dance performance (Dabkah). There will be a focus on four main issues: the NZ government's trade and commercial links to Israel; NZ companies that trade with Israel; NZ universities links with Israel; and ways to highlight NZ wide the struggles of the Palestinian people - any advance research on these topics would be appreciated. Starts at 1pm, will end around 8pm. free entry, a small koha (donation) would be appreciated. Hosted by Auckland University Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), supported by Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC), Auckland, for more info contact Zaeem email mailto:zeebee001@hotmail.com or Suzy tel (09) 520 0201.

Monday November 25 to Sunday December 1 (in Auckland)

'Courageous Women in Dangerous Times: Women Working for Peace', the Gertrud Baer Seminar 2002, ³from banners, blockades and bolt cutters to interventions at the United Nations, women working for peace use a variety of ways and means to get the message

across²; an opportunity for young women to be part of the first International WILPF meeting to be held in Aotearoa/NZ. The seminar weaves in and out of the WILPF meeting - a chance to learn from each other and from peace women from around the world; includes a two-day seminar ŒThe Impact of Colonisation on Indigenous Women and the Environment¹, with

workshops with indigenous women from Aotearoa/New Zealand and other parts of the Pacific. $250 / $100 (subsidised), cost includes seminars, workshops, meals and accommodation. Restricted to 25 young women, registration deadline is 25 October. For more information or a registration form, contact < mailto:pma@xtra.co.nz > (please put GB Seminar in subject line) or Gertrud Baer Seminar, c/o PMA, PO Box 9314, Wellington.

Tuesday, November 26 and Wednesday, November 27 (in Auckland)

ŒThe Effects of Colonisation on Indigenous Women and the Environment¹, a two day seminar with indigenous women from Aotearoa/New Zealand and other parts of the Pacific, begins at 9am on the Tuesday with a pöwhiri, closes with a poroporoakï at 4-30pm on the Wednesday, includes a bus tour showing the effects of colonisation on the environment in the Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland area, hangi, workshops and discussion groups; $112 all inclusive cost, overnight accommodation available at $10 or $59 - all women welcome. Part of the International WILPF 2002 meeting; for more information or a registration form, contact mailto:pma@xtra.co.nz (please put Colonisation Seminar in subject line) or WILPF Aotearoa, PO Box 47-189, Ponsonby, Auckland.

Monday, December 2, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn.

GPJA FORUM: ³The state of democracy in Auckland City² with a panel of speakers.

OTHER NEWS/EVENTS

IRAQ PEACE DELEGATION. Dharmacharini Navachitta has asked to circulate a proposal for a delegation of Zealanders to join an international effort to send ³human shields² to Iraq to deter a US/British attack. Although GPJA hasn¹t endorsed the project we are happy to pass on her contact email for people who may be interested. mailto:navachitta@compuserve.com

OCEANIA SOCIAL FORUM - Bringing together the peoples of Oceania to renew the vision of the world we share, Nelson, Aotearoa/New Zealand, 21st ­24th April 2003. A social forum inspired by the 2001 and 2002 World Social Forums that have been held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, is to be held in Nelson, from Monday 21st to Thursday 24th April 2003. For further information:

- Re the Oceania Social Forum: mailto:info@oceaniasocialforum.org.nz ph 0064 (0)3 548 7284.

- Re the World Social Forum: http:www.forumsocialmundial.org.br

- To subscribe to the WSF¹s weekly bulletin: http:www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/cadastro.asp

TRUSTEES SOUGHT FOR PONSONBY TRADE AID STORE. Trade Aid has recently opened a new store in Ponsonby Road, dedicated to selling handcrafts, tea and coffee produced by partners in developing countries. Through regular orders, fair trading terms, and services such as product development, Trade Aid supports the efforts of producer groups to attain self-reliance, and to strengthen community enterprises. The store also carries material promoting fair trade, and examining the causes of the poverty suffered by handcraft producers. A group of trustees is needed to make policy decisions, act in support of staff, and liase with Trade Aid Importers in Christchurch, and support education initiatives. We are looking for a mix of business, human resource, marketing and development skills, or just a belief in Fair Trade and a desire to help. The time commitment is usually two hours a month plus any extra projects. If you are interested, or can nominate someone else, please call Vi Cottrell on 0508 872332, or email mailto:vic@tradeaid.co.nz

FRI, 8 TO SUN, 10 NOVEMBER (IN WELLINGTON) - AOTEAROA PEOPLE'S GLOBAL ACTION CONVERGENCE! Peoples Global Action is a worldwide network that works towards a durable, peaceful, social, borderless and directly democratic alternative to capitalism and all systems of oppression. The Convergence is for everyone who has an affinity with the PGA hallmarks and the PGA Organisational Principles, for more info check out http://aotearoa.wellington.net.nz/mayday/converge.htm Hosted by Te Mana Akonga and Ngai Tauira, Wellington collectives and groups including Aotearoa Educators, Windymedia, Anti-Bypass Action, Committee for the Establishment of Civilisation (CEC) ... the PGA Convergence will be in the Student Union Building, Victoria University, Kelburn Parade.

WAIHOPAI SPYBASE PROTEST JANUARY 24-26, 2003

NZ is one of George Bush¹s most enthusiastic allies in his apparently endless and borderless 'war on terror' - the public face of that is the involvement of the SAS in the war in Afghanistan; but New Zealand¹s most significant contribution to that war, and any other wars waged by our Western allies, is the Waihopai spybase. Even though the Government is not so keen on following the US in its plans to wage war on Iraq, Waihopai will play a key role in that too, because it is controlled by the US, with NZ (including Parliament) having little or no idea what goes on there (let alone any control). Waihopai does not operate in the national interests of New Zealand or our neighbours. Basically it is a foreign spybase on NZ soil and directly involves us in America¹s wars. Waihopai must be closed! We invite people from around the country to join us for the weekend of anti-war protest at this spybase. Come prepared for roughing it and camping out. For more info contact the Anti-Bases Campaign, Box 2258, Christchurch; email mailto:cafca@chch.planet.org.nz or check out http://www.converge.org.nz/abc

MAKING IT HAPPEN" - NGOS LOBBY FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GOVERNMENT'S AGENDA FOR CHILDREN

Fourteen non-governmental organisations have produced "Making it Happen" about what the Government needs to do to implement its June 2002 strategy document, "Agenda for Children". The key message is that the Government must act now.

"Making it Happen" focuses on the seven "action areas" in the Agenda for Children and makes practical recommendations such as: * ending child poverty with a balanced set of tax and benefit provisions to be introduced in the short and medium term * making changes to government structures and processes to accommodate children's interests, including representation at the Cabinet table, child impact reporting, and an all party select committee * addressing violence in children's lives by promoting whole community initiatives, developing early intervention programmes and putting resources into evaluating what works

The organisations behind "Making It Happen" are ACYA, the AUT Institute of Public Policy, Barnardos, Child Poverty Action Group, Children's Agenda, Children Issues Centre, Children's Television Foundation, National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges, National Council of Women, the Paediatric Society, Plunket, Public Health Association, Save the Children, and UNICEF.

You can get the report and further information, and join the Making It Happen mailing list, by going to http:www.makingithappen.info Or you can contact Beth Wood at UNICEF New Zealand, PO Box 10 978, Wellington, ph 04 473 0879; or Emma Davies at the Institute of Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1020, ph (09) 917 9999 ext. 8408.

THE STEVEN WALLACE TRUST FUND FOR JUSTICE 0900 JUSTICE (0900 58784) number is working again. You can ring the number to make an automatic donation of $20 to the Fund. Donations would be particularly appreciated at this time because of the high costs of bringing the private prosecution against Constable Keith Abbott who shot and killed Steven in Waitara on 30 April 2000. The private prosecution began in September 2001, more than sixteen months after Steven's death, because no progress had been made towards justice by the official bodies whose duty it is to investigate the actions of police officers which result in harm or death.

TV One News revealed on 15 June that Cabinet had decided to pay around $130,000 to the Police Association for the cost of Constable Abbott¹s defence to date. The Wallace family are not receiving any legal aid for the court case. Helen Clark was reported as explaining this with: ³This is a private prosecution and there is no legal aid for private prosecutions.² ³If there was, you would lift the lid off and you would never get the lid back on. It would be fair game for anyone to lodge a private prosecution.² (ŒClark hears of Taranaki issues¹, Lyn Humphreys, INL News, 20 June 2002).

As we commented at the time ³Given that this is the first private prosecution brought against a serving police officer, it is hardly a question of lifting the lid off. There is a disturbing implication in these comments that a private prosecution is something, which is determined by the ability to pay for it - surely a private prosecution should proceed on the merits of the case, rather than whether or not a complainant has the financial resources to fund it. One law for the rich and another for the poor?² (ŒA step towards justice? The Chief Justice¹s judgment on the shooting of Steven Wallace¹, PMA, 25 June 2002). The trial will begin in the Wellington High Court on 18 November 2002. Where you can get more information:

http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/steven.htm

Send notices for ³What¹s On in Auckland² to mailto:miketreen@yahoo.co.nz

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