Global Peace And Justice Auckland Newsletter #113.

Website http://www.gpja.pl.net/ Contact details: Forums - John Minto, (09) 846 3173, jbminto@xtra.co.nz; Newsletter Editor - Mike Treen 027 525 47440 / 09 845 4027 mike@unite.org.nz; Web page - bobo@enzyme.org.nz. Donations can be sent to GPJA, 6a Western Springs Rd, Morningside, Auckland. All communication regarding the GPJA mailing list (email or snail) should be addressed to gpja@xtra.co.nz

Dear friends,

This Monday’s GPJA FORUM is "What does the new government mean for Peace and Social Justice issues?". Speakers include: Hone Harawira, Maori Party MP; Keith Locke, Green Party MP; John Minto, Quality Public Education Coalition; Matt McCarten, Unite Union and Workers Charter; David Craig, Child Poverty Action Group and co-author of “Cut Price Kids”. Monday, November 7, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “I'm convinced that if we are to get on the right side fo the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin to shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people; the giant triplets of racism, militarism, and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered” - Martin Luther King - http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm

ANNOUNCEMENTS

SINN FEIN MP TO TOUR NZ - Bairbre de Brún is MEP for the Six Counties and the Sinn Féin spokesperson on equality and human rights. She was elected as an Assembly member for West Belfast. Born in Dublin, she lives in the Andersonstown area of Belfast. She is a teacher by profession and taught in the growing sector of Irish medium education. Bairbre began her political career as a member of the National Committee against the H-Blocks and Armagh Gaol in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She worked in the Women's Department and was head of both the Cultural and International Departments. She is a fluent Irish speaker and an expert in human rights and equality issues. She is a member of the Ard Chomhairle and of the Sinn Féin negotiating team and has travelled extensively both in Ireland and abroad to promote the peace process. Elected as a Sinn Féin Assembly member for West Belfast in 1998, Bairbre was nominated by the party to the newly formed Executive as Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety. AUCKLAND – Sunday, November 27, 6pm, Tom Forde's Bar, Anzac Ave WELLINGTON – Monday, November 28, 8pm, Blarney Room at Molly Mallones in Courtenay Place Also on November 28 a 15 minutes live interview with Linda Clark at 9:30am the National Programme If anyone wants to help out please phone Nik on 09 446 3144 / 021 162 1969 or email me at cumann@csfnz.org

PEACE RESEARCHER is the journal of the Anti-Bases Campaign. Number 31, October 2005, is a Special Issue, devoted to the late Owen Wilkes, who was a world renowned peace activist and a household name in New Zealand from the 1960s. Owen was a founder of ABC and the inspiration for Peace Researcher. You can access Peace Researcher online at: http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/prfront.html

WAIHOPAI SPYBASE PROTEST - JANUARY 20-22, 2006 The public face of New Zealand’s role as an American ally is the NZ military presence in Afghanistan. But New Zealand’s most significant contribution to that, and other American wars, including the one in Iraq, is the Waihopai spybase. Waihopai is controlled by the US, with New Zealand (including Parliament and the Prime Minister) having little or no idea what goes on there (let alone any control). 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 telephone calls, telexes, faxes, e-mail and computer data communications. It spies on our Asia/Pacific neighbours, and forwards the material on to the major partners in the UKUSA Agreement, specifically the US National Security Agency (NSA). Its targets are international communications involving New Zealanders, including the interception of international phone calls. The codename for this – Echelon – has become notorious worldwide as the vast scope of its spying has become public. 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 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 America’s 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. We’ve hired portaloos and a marquee. We provide the food (note: we cater for vegetarians but vegans will have to bring their own). Bring sleeping bag, groundsheet, a tent, torch, water bottle, eating utensils, clothing for all weather, and $40 (or $20 unwaged) to cover costs. Absolutely no open fires. How to find our camp: Take Highway 6 out of Blenheim (the Nelson road); cross the Wairau River bridge, take the first turn left, and then drive for approximately 15 minutes until you reach the bridge turnoff (a right turn) which takes you to the Department of Conservation’s Onamalutu camp. It is a public campsite and has some basic facilities. As there is a fixed charge per person per night to camp there, ABC has had to increase the registration cost. IF YOU WANT TO TAKE PART SEND MONEY AND REGISTRATION DETAILS TO: Anti-Bases Campaign, Box 2258, Christchurch. e-mail cafca@chch.planet.org.nz www.converge.org.nz/abc Make all cheques to ABC. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0510/S00237.htm

WHAT’S ON IN AUCKLAND

Monday, November 7, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn GPJA FORUM: "What does the new government mean for Peace and Social Justice issues?". Speakers include: Hone Harawira, Maori Party MP; Keith Locke, Green Party MP; John Minto, Quality Public Education Coalition; Matt McCarten, Unite Union and Workers Charter; David Craig, Child Poverty Action Group and co-author of “Cut Price Kids”.

Wednesday, November 9, 8pm, Maidment Theatre, Princes St, Auckland University 2005 Media Peace Awards Ceremony with special guest speaker Anita McNaught. MCs John Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld. Tickets $27 waged, $17 unwaged. Tickets available from the Maidment Theatre Ph 09 308 2383

Friday, November 11, 5.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn WWRC QUIZ NIGHT: to test your general knowledge, your capacity for trivia, and your good natures. Prizes for the best and the worst tables. Spot prizes. $10 entry fee. Supper provided.

Monday, November 14, 7.30pm, Unite Office, 6a Western Springs Rd, Morningside GPJA ORGANISING COMMITTEE – All volunteers welcome.

Sunday, November 27, 6pm, Tom Forde's Bar, Anzac Ave SINN FEIN MP TO TOUR NZ - Bairbre de Brún is MEP for the Six Counties and the Sinn Féin spokesperson on equality and human rights.

Monday, December 5, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn GPJA FORUM: JANE KELSEY REPORTS BACK FROM WTO PROTESTS IN HONG KONG. How so-called trade liberalisation and free trade form the agenda of the majopr corporates that dominate the world economy. How workers in both the first and third work are the ultimate victims.

Saturday 10 December, 7pm to 9pm, SkyCity Casino, Victoria St, City PARASITES ON POVERTY PROTEST. This protest is the second public protest of the GPJA "Parasites on Poverty" campaign which is calling for action against pokie machines and loan sharks. See www.pop.org.nz for more information. Many families are under serious financial pressure in the run up to XMAS and the casino is ready to exploit their vulnerability. Sky City contains the lion’s share of pokies in Auckland and has reported a profit of $104 million for the past year. This is money redistributed from the poor to the rich by the largest community parasite in Auckland. Come along and help develop pressure on poverty, loan sharks and pokies!

BEST ON THE WEB

NEW ZEALAND GPJA: Govt Must Suspend Relations With Israel Until It Recognises Palestine - GPJA is deeply disappointed that the New Zealand government is rushing to re-open diplomatic relations with Israel and allowing it to again establish an Embassy in Wellington while the Palestinian people continue to be brutally oppressed under Israeli military occupation of their country. We believe the government should continue the suspension of diplomatic relations with Israel until it can also recognise a viable, sovereign Palestinian state. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0511/S00006.htm Obituary: David Wakim By Maire Leadbeater http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=000EC3A5-6C8B-1358-BBF483027AF10017 Radical Youth Response to Youth Gang Violence http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0511/S00007.htm Fee Increases Undermine Labour’s Tertiary Policy - Quality Public Education Coalition - QPEC Labour Gives with its Left hand and Takes with its Right http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0511/S00002.htm Appalling ignorance over transgender issues - Supporting the basic human rights of transgender and intersex people has nothing to do with political correctness and Wayne Mapp’s remarks over the dumped gender identity bill are just another glaring example of intolerance, PPTA president Debbie Te Whaiti said today. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0510/S00242.htm Te Papa Protest: After The Clowns Were Sent In - More than 70 people took part in an action organised against the Weapons Defence Industry Association conference held at Te Papa on Tuesday. The action, which was organised by Peace Action Wellington, involved a large sit-in/blockade in front of Te Papa which lasted for about two and a half hours, and also a blockade in front of an armoured vehicle. Twenty people in all were arrested, from charges ranging from obstruction, trespass and assault of police officers http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0510/S00153.htm Wellington Peoples Centre Says Govt Still Targeting Beneficiaries Unlawfully - - A report released today by the Wellington People’s Centre says the government is recovering an estimated $60 million of debt against beneficiaries because the Ministry of Social Development has wrongly determined thousands of individuals to be living in relationships in the nature of marriage. This is despite government assurances that the problem has been fixed. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0510/S00181.htm http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0510/S00182.htm Air NZ Workers Shattered By Engineering Workshop Decisions - Air New Zealand engineers are shattered to learn that 600 of them could lose their jobs. The company today announced that it proposes making 600 of the 2100 engineers redundant in July next year. See... Air NZ engineers shattered by job losses [1] MORE: Alliance Party - Cullen washes his hands of Air NZ job losses [2] Green Party - Offshore maintenance will hurt airline's reputat'n [3] Maori Party - Maori Party Concerned By Air NZ Job Losses [4] [1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0510/S00352.htm [2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0510/S00165.htm [3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0510/S00116.htm [4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0510/S00114.htm Maori Party Condemns Rising Prison Population http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0510/S00161.htm Nurses Union Urges No Unfair Fat-Cat Salary Hikes For Bureaucrats - The New Zealand Nurses Organisation is cautioning government to ensure that money committed to fair pay rates in the aged care sector is not spent on the highest paid state sector officials and MPs' salaries. "Hardworking nurses, caregivers and support workers in aged care will not accept any protestations that there is insufficient money for them to be paid fairly and neither will equally hard working nursing staff in primary healthcare who still receive far less than their counterparts in DHBs," said NZNO Organising Services Manager Cee Payne-Harker http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0510/S00092.htm

PACIFIC Time Runs Out On South Pacific HIV/AIDS Crisis http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0506/S00001.htm Scoop Talks To Two West Papuan Freedom Fighters http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0510/S00292.htm

JOHN PILGER The Epic Crime That Dares Not Speak Its Name - At the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leadership, counts one and two, "Conspiracy to wage aggressive war and waging aggressive war", refer to "the common plan or conspiracy". These are defined in the indictment as "the planning, preparation, initiation and waging of wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements and assurances". A wealth of evidence is now available that George Bush, Blair and their advisers did just that. The leaked minutes from the infamous Downing Street meeting in July 2002 alone reveal that Blair and his war cabinet knew that it was illegal. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10785.htm

IRAQ Secret MoD poll: Iraqis support attacks on British troops http://telegraph.co.uk Bush Again Resorts to Fear-Mongering to Justify Iraq Policy - President George W. Bush's October 6 address at the National Endowment for Democracy illustrated his administration's increasingly desperate effort to justify the increasingly unpopular U.S. war in Iraq. Much of his speech contained the same misleading rhetoric regarding U.S. policy toward Iraq and the nature of the radical Islamists that has led the United States into its disastrous confrontation in Iraq and has served to weaken America's defenses against the real threat al-Qaida poses. http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/1532 Why only Saddam? Try them all!: The US was the only country that voted against a UN Security Council statement in 1986 condemning the mustard gas attacks by Iraq on the Iranian forces! The US also allowed its companies to export chemicals to Iraq, which used them on humans. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article10701.htm Guantanamo Hunger Strikers Say Feeding Tubes Employed as Punishment: Prisoners on hunger strike at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay say troops force-fed them with dirty feeding tubes that have been violently inserted and withdrawn as punishment, according to declassified notes released by defense attorneys Wednesday. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10689.htm The Former Head of Abu Ghraib, Admits She Broke the Geneva Conventions: Says the Blame "Goes All the Way to The Top” http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10786.htm

USA Poll results: Eliminating poverty should be No. 1 U.S. priority: Eliminating poverty in America is more important than fighting terrorism, U.S. troops should be pulled out of Iraq, and money saved on war should be used to rebuild hurricane-scarred New Orleans, according to a national poll. http://tinyurl.com/9rvdy Forgeries, Lies and Cover-ups: The Scandal isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10805.htm Who was behind the Niger uranium documents? Information developed by Italian investigators indicates that the documents were produced in Italy with the connivance of the Italian intelligence service. It also reveals that the introduction of the documents into the American intelligence stream was facilitated by Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith’s Office of Special Plans (OSP), a parallel intelligence center set up in the Pentagon to develop alternative sources of information in support of war against Iraq. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10816.htm A State Of Inequality - The United States is now the third most unequal industrialized society after Russia and Mexico. This is not a club we want to be part of. Russia is a recovering kleptocracy, with a post-Soviet oligarchy enriched by looting. And Mexico, despite joining the rich-nations club of the Organization for Economic and Community Development, has some of the most glaring poverty in the hemisphere. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10733.htm Another Iraq war legacy: badly wounded US troops: The human toll for the U.S. military in the Iraq war is not limited to the nearly 2,000 troops deaths since the March 2003 invasion. More than 15,220 also have been wounded in combat, including more than 7,100 injured too badly to return to duty, the Pentagon said. http://www.maconareaonline.com/news.asp?id=12320 Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_16.shtml

WAR ON FREEDOM US detainees 'Murdered' during interrogations - At least 21 detainees who died while in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were the victims of homicide and usually died during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defence Department data. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10751.htm White House Insists That CIA Should Be Allowed To Continue Torture Of Detainees http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10766.htm Cheney Taps Torture Memo Author to Replace Scooter Libby: On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney appointed his legal counsel, David Addington, to be his new chief of staff following the resignation of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Addington once wrote the war on terorrism has rendered the Geneva Conventions "obsolete." http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/01/1518210 Guantanamo Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts: Colangelo-Bryan stepped inside and saw a three-foot pool of blood on the floor. Numb, the lawyer looked up to see Dossari hanging unconscious from a noose tied to the ceiling, his eyes rolled back, his tongue and lips bulging, blood pouring from a gash in his right arm. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10845.htm

HAITI The sorrows of Haiti http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=55&ItemID=8968 "Electoral Cleansing" in Haiti Violates Human Rights and Democracy http://americas.irc-online.org/am/816

VENEZUELA Building socialist democracy - an interview with Marta Harnecker http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/646/646p12.htm Expropriations, cooperatives and co-management http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/646/646p14.htm Chávez Restyles Venezuela With '21st-Century Socialism' http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/international/americas/30venezuela.html

COLUMBIA Colombia’s death squads get respectable http://mondediplo.com/2005/10/12colombia

ISRAEL/PALESTINE The Ringworm Children: How the Israeli Government Irradiated 100,000 Israeli Kids On August 14, at 9 PM, Israel's Channel Ten television screened a documentary film which exposes the ugliest secret of Israel's Labor party founders: the deliberate mass radiation poisoning of nearly all Sephardi youths of a generation. http://prisonplanet.com/articles/october2005/281005ringwormchildren.htm

INDIA Painful truth of the call centre cyber coolies - Graduates burnt out by dreary work, unsocial hours and Big Brother-style observation - all at the end of your telephone http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1604664,00.html

CUBA Images: Hurricane Wilma - No lives lost in Cuba http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0511/S00034.htm

-- Bobo Enzyme Co-Ordinator http://www.enzyme.org.nz Enymze provides koha web services for activists engaged in non-authoritarian struggles for human liberation, workers self-management, indigenous rights, the ethical treatment of animals, and ecological sustainability.

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