#171: Nicky Hager To Speak At March 5 GPJA Forum

Global Peace And Justice Auckland Newsletter #171, February 19, 2007

Website http://www.gpja.org.nz/ Contact details: Forums - John Minto, (09) 846 2132, jbminto@xtra.co.nz; Newsletter Editor - Mike Treen 029 525 4744 / 09 845 4027 mike@unite.org.nz; Web page - media@nduunion.org.nz Donations can be sent to GPJA, P O Box 7275, Welesley St, Auckland. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter visit http://www.gpja.org/ or click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.

Dear friends,

Next month's GPJA Forum has a special guest - NICKY HAGAR speaking about his recent book 'THE HOLLOW MEN". Come along Monday March 5, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn

The GPJA committee will be having a special meeting to organize the antiwar protests on March 17. Come along next Monday, February 26, 7pm at the Unite Union office, Level 12, 300 Queen St (cnr Wellesley and Queen Sts).
ANTIWAR ACTION MARCH 17 - MOBILISE FOR US AND ALL FOREIGN TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ NOW - STOP THE ATTACK ON IRAN - NZ TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN

Also of special note is a visit to Auckland of a delegation of Japanese workers who have been involved in struggles against privatization in their country. You can meet the the Friday night before the GPJA Forum at the Unite Union office. WORKERS FORUM: "Fighting Japanese Privatisation in Rail, Postal, and Local Government". ALL WELCOME Twelve workers from Japan will be presenting their experiences from their struglles against privatisation in Japan. The workers have come in their annual holidays to study the effects of the ECA (and now the ERA), to see what has happened with privatisation, and to learn about the daily lives of workers in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is the fourth such visit organised by Asia Pacific Workers Solidarity Links networks of both Japan and Aotearoa since the first visit by 16 Japanese workers 1996.
Friday, March 2, 6pm at the Unite Union office, Level 12, 300 Queen St (cnr Wellesley and Queen Sts).

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"My generation's apathy. I'm disgusted with it. I'm disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whinning about for years.": Kurt Cobain (American Musician and Singer of the grunge rock band Nirvana. 1967-1994)

"If they do it, it's terrorism, if we do it, it's fighting for freedom." - Anthony Quainton, U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua, 1984

ANNOUNCEMENTS

BOOK LAUNCH - 'NEGLIGENT NEIGHBOUR: NEW ZEALAND'S COMPLICITY IN THE INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF TIMOR-LESTE', by Maire Leadbeater. Introduction by the Hon. Phil Goff.
To be held at the Womens Bookshop, 105 Ponsonby Road, Auckland on Thursday, 22 February, at 6pm.
Signed copies will be available for sale at $34.99.

"For almost a quarter century from 1975-1999 the people of East Timor lived and died under Indonesia's colonial yoke. During this time East Timor lost a quarter of its population and its people endured daily violence and fear. Against all the odds East Timor's resistance survived. Indonesia relied on western support for both the invasion and occupation of East Timor, but New Zealand's role is often forgotten or mentioned only in passing.

What happened in East Timor tells us much about how the modern world is ordered, and where the true source of modern terrorism lies. Maire Leadbeater's outstanding book carefully documents the often secret role played by New Zealand governments, and the opportunities that were wantonly lost. John Pilger

Maire Leadbeater combines activism for peace and human rights with her employment as a social worker. She is the Spokesperson for the Auckland based Indonesia Human Rights Committee, and in the 1990s she was a prominent campaigner for East Timor's independence. Prior to that she took a leading role in New Zealand's anti-nuclear movement. Her writing and lobbying is motivated by the conviction that New Zealand's foreign policy must change direction away from narrow 'selfinterest' to principled advocacy for peace and justice."

The Sunday Star Times review is available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/et110207.htm Links to more reviews will be added to the web page at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/negneigh.htm as they become available.

Signed copies will be on sale at the launch; and the book can be ordered online at http://www.craigpotton.co.nz/products/published/books/booksocial/neglige...

GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST THE SALWEEN DAMS IN BURMA - FEB 28
On February 28, 2007 join activists from around the world Stand up in solidarity with Burma's victims of severe and systematic human rights violations and environmental destruction. Protest against the Thai government's plans with the Burmese military regime to dam the Salween River in Burma. Join us and gather outside your Thai embassy or consulate to call for the complete halt of the dam plans on the Salween River, where:
- Civil War is raging in the area around the dam sites and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced at gunpoint
- Dams are being used as a military strategy against the ethnic peoples of Burma
- Torture, rape, and killings of villagers are continuing as more soldiers are being deployed and more landmines laid
- Dams will provide financial support to the military junta
- Massive corruption is inevitable given the complete lack of transparency
- The dams will permanently degrade Southeast Asia's longest free flowing river's fisheries, floodplains, teak forests and wildlife habitats, and flood villages and fertile agricultural land
What Can You Do?
- Demonstrate in front of your local Thai Embassy/Consulate on February 28, 2007
- Contact your Thai embassy and share your concerns
- Sign the petition letter attached. For organizations please send your endorsements to allisonmartin2006@gmail.com. For individuals sign online at http://www.petitiononline.com/nodams/petition.html
- Encourage others to sign the petition and participate in the action
- Hold roundtable talks, meetings, and letter writing parties to take future action
For more information on the event contact the person listed below in your local area, or to help coordinatean event in a location not mentioned below please contact allisonmartin2006@gmail.com

UNIFEM INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY BREAKFAST
The Auckland regional International Women's Day [IWD] Breakfast 2007 will be just 4 weeks away tomorrow.
Date: Thursday 8 March, 7.00am - 8.30am. Place: Ellerslie Convention Centre, Ellerslie Racecourse - just off Greenlane Road East, very close to the motorway. Tickets are again: $30 for adults ($280 for a table of 10) and $25 for college students. Please share this invitation with your friends, colleagues and members and display in a public space... We do hope you can join us on Thursday 8 March. Rest assured that this event will be well worth your time - excellent speakers and a great start to the day. UNIFEM's global theme for IWD 2007 is Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Shamima Ali is an excellent speaker. NGOs are most welcome to bring their publicity material for guests to pick up from the usual "browsing tables". A wonderful selection of raffle prizes is mounting and UNIFEM T-shirts and badges will be on sale. We look forward to seeing you on 8 March. Kind regards,
Aryana Khadem, President, UNIFEM Auckland Regional Committee. P.S. To reduce postal costs, this invitation has been sent out via e-mail. If you need more information now, please contact us - my phone number is: (09) 576 1415 e-mail inquiries to Beverley: unifem@nznet.gen.nz

WHERE TO FOR WELFARE? RECENT AND PROPOSED WELFARE REFORMS IN NEW ZEALAND
You are invited to an all-day forum which will present research on and debate recent and proposed reforms to New Zealand's social support system. These include:
* Changes to hardship provision, including the phasing out of the Special Benefit;
* The introduction of the Working for Families family assistance package;
* The proposed 'work-first' approach, which extends employment-focused assistance to clients regardless of their benefit type;
* The proposed replacement of existing working age benefits with a single benefit designed around outcomes.
Invited speakers will place these changes in an historical and international context, as well as provide evidence of the actual or likely impact upon low income families, lone parents and people with disability. A panel discussion at the end of the day will allow for broader debate about the future of welfare in Zealand.
The forum is being organised by the University of Auckland Public Policy Group and aims to attract a broad audience including a range of government, community and academic representatives from across New Zealand. Attendance at the forum is FREE but registration is essential.
When: 9am-4.30pm 21 March, 2007, Where: Conference Centre Lecture Theatre (423-342), University of Auckland, 22 Symonds St, Auckland. To register or for more information, please contact:
Dr Louise Humpage, Sociology Department, University of Auckland at l.humpage@auckland.ac.nz or (09) 373 7599 x 85115

STOP THE CUTS! STOP CONTRACTING OUT!
Send a message to Air New Zealand Managers now!
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c...
The Board of Directors and Corporate managers of New Zealand's national airline, Air New Zealand, intend to contract out 1750 jobs to a foreign ground handling company because they want to reduce the wages and conditions of their employees. Their plans to outsource 75 other airline clerical jobs to Fiji where workers will be paid less than one third of the wages of the New Zealand workers have been delayed by a coup in Fiji. They have deliberately pursued this agenda during the term of the unions' collective agreement when workers do not have the right to strike. Air NZ employees have managed to retain many employment terms and conditions, such as penal rates for overtime, because they have retained high union density over the last two decades. During this time, most other New Zealand workers lost many of their employment conditions as right wing governments drove an extreme agenda of privatisation and labour market deregulation and unions were almost destroyed.
The employer wants to break the unions at the airline by trying to force the workers to give away their conditions, or be contracted out. They intend to continue this strategy to destroy union rights across the entire airline that employs approximately 10,000 workers.

ADULT EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE - AUTUMN GATHERING
The Auckland Workers Educational Association and Kotare Trust are hosting a gathering for adult educators committed to working for social justice. The two main purposes are
•promoting networks amongst educators committed to working for social justice so that we can be more effective in our work
•sharing and developing resources to guide our work
Sam LaRocca and James Whelan from The Change Agency in Australia will be special guests (see www.thechangeagency.org for more information about their work); so the networking will be trans-Tasman! This gathering will build on ideas developed at an Education Skill Share hosted by Kotare in 2006 which explored similarities and differences between four approaches to education for social justice: problem-posing, conscientising, training for activists, marketing to the majority. This year we will reflect on these approaches and focus on ethical implications for practice in relation to each of them.
WHERE: Kotare (near Wellsford, north of Auckland)
WHEN: from 10 am on Saturday March 17 to 4 pm on Sunday March 18
FOR WHOM: anyone involved in promoting education for social justice
COST: $140 if paying as individual or from community group; $200 if from other organisations (reductions available where full cost would be prohibitive)
RSVP: the maximum number of participants is 15; so if you are interested, please respond asap to Christine Herzog, email coordinator@awea.org.nz, for further information and enrolment form. Enrolments will close March 9!
If you can't come to this gathering but are interested in hearing about similar ones in the future, please send your contact details to Christine.

JOIN THE MAY DAY SOLIDARITY BRIGADE TO VENEZUELA!
"Any Australian worker who has a chance to visit Venezuela should grab the opportunity with both hands. The Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela offers a genuine alternative to a world in which the market rules and profits always come before people. It is inspiring people in Latin America and beyond to believe that `another world is possible'. Being part of a brigade makes it possible to meet the workers who are reshaping their workplaces in this new environment. Many are involved in the democratic renewal of their unions, after many years of corrupt leadership. Others are creating cooperatives, with government support, to reopen and operate idle factories closed by bosses. The energy and enthusiasm for change that is benefiting workers in Venezuela is truly inspiring."
- John Cleary, former Electrical Trades Union organiser, Victoria
The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN) is organising a 2007 May Day solidarity brigade to Venezuela for trade unionists and all others interested in seeing first-hand the unfolding revolution in that country.
On May 1 last year, more than 1 million people joined the May Day celebrations in Caracas, Venezuela. Since then, Venezuela's working people, led by George W. Bush's arch-enemy, President Hugo Chavez, have taken over more workplaces, set up more cooperatives, established hundreds of free public education and health programs, organised their neighbourhoods and taken big steps towards exercising ``popular power'' in their country.
The Australian brigade will run from May 1 to around May 9. Participants will meet with workers' organisations, visit occupied factories, educational institutions and a range of community organisations, and speak to government and social organisations about the radical changes being implemented by the Venezuelan people.
The itinerary includes time in the capital, Caracas, and in regional Venezuela, so participants can witness popular control and management of both urban and rural workplaces. A highlight of the brigade will be joining the huge national workers celebration on May 1. In the last two years, the AVSN has organised four solidarity brigades to Venezuela, involving more than 120 participants. These study/solidarity tours have been exciting and inspiring experiences for the brigadistas, and are invaluable for helping progressive people in Australia better understand and build solidarity with Venezuela's struggle for a ``new socialism of the 21st century''.
Accommodation, transport and English translation in Venezuela will be organised for participants, and the AVSN can help you book your travel to and from Australia. The total cost, including return international airfares, is around A$5500-6000.
THE DEADLINE FOR REGISTERING FOR THE MAY DAY 2007 BRIGADE IS FEBRUARY 28.
If you are interested in being part of this inspiring and educational experience, please phone John Cleary on 0407 500 839 or Fred Fuentes on 0432 333 806, or email brigades@venezuelasolidarity.org. Brigade registration forms and more information are at http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org

MAY DAY WORLD BRIGADE OF SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA
Dear Friend: Please accept fraternal greetings on behalf of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples. Our Institute welcomes the second edition of the May Day World brigade of Solidarity with Cuba which will gather delegations coming from all over the world made up by friends who would like to share such a glorious date for workers with the Cuban people. Among its objectives, the Brigade is aimed at providing a wider understanding of the Cuban reality as well as giving its participants the opportunity of contributing to the agricultural and productive development of the country through voluntary work sessions. The program prepared for this occasion includes, apart from the participation in the May Day Central Rally and the attendance to the traditional International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, visits to places of historical, cultural, economical, and social interest in the capital and in other provinces, as well as lectures and meetings with organizations of the Cuban civil society. The activ

NORTH ISLAND SPEAKING TOUR - CHRISTINA GIBB, A QUAKER FROM DUNEDIN, WHO WAS IN HEBRON WITH CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAMS again last year, will be available to speak at public or local group meetings in the upper half and centre of the North Island between 18 and 28 February. Christina's reports from Hebron, and Hebron updates from Christian Peacemaker Teams for the time she was there, are available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/hebron.htm If you would like Christina to speak in your town or city, please contact her as soon as possible, email cgibb@ihug.co.nz

THE WAIKATO INTERFAITH COUNCIL is privileged to be hosting the fourth national interfaith forum on 18 & 19 february. speakers at the women's forum on sunday the 18th will include the Hon.Winnie Laban, Rabbi Johanna Hershenson, Rt Rev. Pamela Tankersley and Rev Amanda Bradley. On Sunday evening, we will be having Rev Chris Nichol, the presenter of the "My God" and "Praise Be" television programme. On Monday, we will have the Rev Buddy Te Whare speaking on Maori spirituality, Paul Morris leading a discussion on the statement of religious diversity and Joris de Bres. If anyone is interested in attending, please send in the registration form which can be found at www.interfaith.org.nz or on the human rights commission website. Please note that the interfaith forum is open to those who are atheist or have no particular religious beliefs, as we believe they have an important contribution to make to interf aith dialogue.

WHAT'S ON IN AUCKLAND

Wednesday, February 21, 6pm, Trades Hall, 147 great North Rd, Grey Lynn
Gay Simpkin and the Working Womens Resource Centre invite you TO THINK AND DRINK - GUEST SPEAKER: MS. GHENNET GIRMA. Background: Long standing militant for women's rights, civic and human rights, as well as for the establishment of democracy in Ethiopia. Has participated in trade union struggles in France and has taken part in campaigns to uphold the rights of refugees in Europe. Working Womens Resource Centre Red Flag social Club facilities will be available from 5.00pm. RSVP Ros Hiini Orgainser WWRC 09 379 7906 or wwrc@ihug.co.nz

Thursday, February 22, 6pm, Womens Bookshop, 105 Ponsonby Rd,
BOOK LAUNCH - 'NEGLIGENT NEIGHBOUR: NEW ZEALAND'S COMPLICITY IN THE INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF TIMOR-LESTE', by Maire Leadbeater. Introduction by the Hon. Phil Goff. Signed copies will be available for sale at $34.99.

Saturday, February 24, 2.30pm, Tivoli Bookshop, 5/143 Ocean View Rd, Oreroa, Waiheke Island
BOOKLAUNCH: "Capitalist Networks and Social Power in Australia and NZ" by Georgina Murray.

Monday, February 26, 7pm at the Unite Union office, Level 12, 300 Queen St (cnr Wellesley and Queen Sts).
GPJA COMMITTEE MEETING TO ORGANISE ANTIWAR ACTION ON MARCH 17

Friday, March 2, 6pm at the Unite Union office, Level 12, 300 Queen St (cnr Wellesley and Queen Sts).
WORKERS FORUM: "Fighting Japanese Privatisation in Rail, Postal, and Local Government". ALL WELCOME
Twelve workers from Japan will be presenting their experiences from their struglles against privatisation in Japan.
The workers have come in their annual holidays to study the effects of the ECA (and now the ERA), to see what has
happened with privatisation, and to learn about the daily lives of workers in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is the fourth such visit organised by Asia Pacific Workers Solidarity Links networks of both Japan and Aotearoa since the first visit by 16 Japanese workers 1996.

Saturday, March 3, 3pm, Karangahape Rd
Carnival Against Carmaggedon - Stop Climate Change- Free Public Transport Now - Reclaim the Streets- K Road, 3pm March 3rd 2007 www.climaction.org.nz

Monday March 5, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
GPJA FORUM WITH NICKY HAGAR ON "THE HOLLOW MEN"

Wednesday, March 7, 7.30pm, Room 029, ClockTower Bldg No. 105, 22 Princes Street
MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT - Tutor: Mike Mc Roberts and Tuma Hazou. Class Number: 91136. Fee (GST incl): $22.50 International Fee (GST incl): $35.70 Class Limit: 70 Course Description: Coverage of the Middle East conflict is often criticised by both Palestinians and Israelis as being unbalanced and biased. This seminar will look at a number of issues relating to reporting including: What is the difference between "objectivity" and "balance" and how does a journalist achieve these in a conflict environment? Does (and should) the media provide the public with accurate information and background of the issues that lie behind the conflict so they have a better understanding of this region? Are there differences in the language used by journalists when reporting on Israel and Palestine and does this influence people's attitudes and beliefs? How does media coverage relate to the beliefs and attitudes of the newspaper readers, television and radio audiences? There wi ll be an opportunity at t

Thursday, March 8, .700am - 8.30am. Place: Ellerslie Convention Centre, Ellerslie Racecourse
UNIFEM INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY BREAKFAST. The Auckland regional International Women's Day [IWD] Breakfast 2007. Tickets are again: $30 for adults ($280 for a table of 10) and $25 for college students.
If you need more information now, please contact us - my phone number is: (09) 576 1415 e-mail inquiries to Beverley: unifem@nznet.gen.nz

Saturday, March 17, 12 noon, Aotea Square, Queen St, City
MARCH AGAINST IRAQ WAR - NO ATTACK ON IRAN - ALL US TROOPS OUT NOW!

Wednesday, March 21, 9am-4.30pm, Conference Centre Lecture Theatre (423-342), University of Auckland, 22 Symonds St, Auckland
WHERE TO FOR WELFARE? RECENT AND PROPOSED WELFARE REFORMS IN NEW ZEALAND
You are invited to an all-day forum which will present research on and debate recent and proposed reforms to New Zealand's social support system. (Details in Announcements above)

BEST ON THE WEB

NEW ZEALAND
Super Fund nukes' investments unethical & Illegal? The revelation in The Listener yesterday that the Super Fund's investment of our taxes in nuclear weapons may be illegal, as well as unethical, requires a rapid response from the Government.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0702/S00167.htm
"Education Ministry heading for bankruptcy"
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0702/S00172.htm
We have been asked by the SFWU, a union in New Zealand, to send a loud and clear message to the directors and managers of Air New Zealand. The company is contracting out nearly 2,000 jobs, including some to Fiji (now under military rule following a coup d'etat) -- and they are doing this at a time when the workers do not have the legal right to strike. The company plan aims at breaking the power of the union in this, one of the remaining outposts of trade union power in a country where unions faced ferocious attacks over the last few decades. Go here now to send a message to Air New Zealand's management:
http://www.labourstart.org/airnz
Cleaning company takes its cleaners to court Service And Food Workers UnionCleaners and supporters planning Valentines Day Vigils calling for dignity at work have been met with a court case by cleaning company Total Property Services, says the Service and Food Workers Union.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0702/S00187.htm
Green And Labour Politicians Launch Timor Book Kevin ListLast evening in the Beehive foyer politicians that do not always see eye to eye came together to help launch a book on the plight of east Timor following Indonesian annexation in 1975 and the attitudes of Western powers to that annexation (pretty much hands ...
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0702/S00153.htm
NZ Must Work harder To Improve Children's Lives Save The ChildrenNew Zealand must work much harder to improve the lives of our children, according to Save the Children New Zealand's Executive Director, John Bowis in response to the UNICEF report on child well-being released today.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0702/S00199.htm

US WAR PLANS
Iran - Ready to attack - American preparations for invading Iran are complete
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17091.htm
Next Stop: Tehran - The White House denies plans to attack Iran, but the signs all point in that direction.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17093.htm
From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq - The same neocon ideologues behind the Iraq war have been using the same tactics—alliances with shady exiles, dubious intelligence on W.M.D.—to push for the bombing of Iran. As President Bush ups the pressure on Tehran, is he planning to double his Middle East bet?
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/whitehouse200703

REVIEW
One Angry African Puts Big Money on Trial - A RARITY among contemporary filmmakers, Abderrahmane Sissako is doing his best to uphold the tradition of "J'accuse" and the outraged polemic. For his latest movie Mr. Sissako, who lives in Paris, returned to his family courtyard in Bamako, the capital of Mali, and staged an act of symbolic justice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/movies/11denn.html?_r=1&ref=movies&ore...
James Brown - Doing it to Death
http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=9936
Britain's Slave Empire, as the Sun Set
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/movies/18ridi.html

ENVIRONMENT
Is the New UN Global Warming Report Too Conservative? by Brett Clark and John Bellamy Foster
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cf170207p.html
The Obscenity of Carbon Trading
http://climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/obscenity-of-carbon-tra...
Australian Text Demolishes Neoliberal Environmental Policies - What looks at first glance to be a fairly dry textbook instead turns out to be a vigorous demolition of the pervasive neoliberal approach to environmental issues, which is marked by government policies of emissions trading, "eco-taxes" and the like.
http://climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/australian-text-demolis...
Global Warming: It's All About Energy
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3998
Suppressed report shows cancer link to GM potatoes
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2278044.ece
Great Andean glacier 'will melt to nothing by 2012': The principal glacier of the world's biggest tropical ice-cap could disappear within five years as a result of global warming, one of the world's leading glaciologists predicted yesterday.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article13922...

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
A War on Science : Video: The theory of evolution is under attack from a controversial new idea called intelligent design. But is it science?
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/577/59/
Developing nations to test new $150 laptops: Its technological triumphs include a hand crank to charge its battery, a keyboard that switches between languages, a digital video camera, wireless connectivity and Linux open-source operating software tailored for remote regions.
http://snipurl.com/1a03q
Cuba Embraces Open-Source Software
http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20070216/D8NB1EK05.html

WORLD ECONOMY
Inequality Rising Despite Globalization
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0702/S00175.htm
The US as leading currency manipulator
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IB15Cb03.html
How Corporations Continue to Rape The Worlds Poor - BBC : 15 Minute Video Report By Greg Palast: Vulture funds - as defined by the International Monetary Fund and Gordon Brown amongst others - are companies which buy up the debt of poor nations cheaply when it is about to be written off and then sue for the full value of the debt plus interest - which might be ten times what they paid for it.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17070.htm
Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World By Michael Parenti - There is a "mystery" we must explain: How is it that as corporate investments and foreign aid and international loans to poor countries have increased dramatically throughout the world over the last half century, so has poverty? The number of people living in poverty is growing at a faster rate than the world's population. What do we make of this?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17102.htm

PACIFIC
Oceanic Islanders Win Appeal in Massive Claim Against Mining Giant Rio Tinto: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today reinstated the massive human rights claim brought by the people of the island of Bougainville against London-based Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP), one of the world's largest mining companies.
http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/prnews.20060807.SFM094/GIStor...

AUSTRALIA
JOHN PILGER: Mourning a secret Australia
http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=427
Costello remarks upset Venezuela
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/costello-remarks-upset-venezuela/...
CSIRO's horror climate forecast - HEAT waves that kill thousands, gigantic bushfires and regular 100-year storms are part of a frightening new climate change forecast for Australia.
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,21206062-5007221,00.html
Water crisis: how the market economy is sucking us dry
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/698/36241
Howard uses UN report to push nuke 'solution'
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/698/36253

MIDDLE EAST
Arabs Less Worried About Iran, Poll Finds
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6538.shtml
Conspiracy Of Silence In The Arab World By Robert Fisk - Where are the sheikhs when the Iraqi dead are fished out of the Tigris?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17025.htm
Iraq's Death Toll is Far Worse Than Our Leaders Admit - The US and Britain have triggered an episode more deadly than the Rwandan genocide.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17059.htm
Jailed 2 Years, Iraqi Tells of Abuse by Americans - The American detention camps in Iraq now hold 15,500 prisoners, more than at any time since the war began. The camps are filled with people like Mr. Ani who are being held without charge and without access to tribunals where their cases are reviewed, the Times examination published last December found.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17096.htm
Worse Than Apartheid
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061218_worse_than_apartheid/
Insurgents -- They Buy American - The administration's latest memory lapse is remembering where our enemies in Iraq got their weapons.
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0216-22.htm
'History Will Not Forgive Those Who Play Recklessly With Our Wealth' - Iraqi Oil Union Leader's Speech on Oil Law
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/x-feb-07-iraq.htm

UK
Not in Our Name: Campaign Launched against Trident - Leading figures from politics, religion, the arts and the military demand halt to replacement
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0215-09.htm

USA
Is the Big Ship America Sinking? By Sam Gindin - Are we in the midst of a momentous turn in world politics? Donald Rumsfeld has been shuffled out of the Pentagon. Daniel Ortega, Washington's nemesis from the Sandinista Revolution of the late 1970s, is back as President of Nicaragua. Hugo Chavez has been triumphantly re-elected, and Bolivia and Ecuador also have new left-populist presidents. U.S.-led neoliberalism is scrambling in Latin America; the U.S. state seems to be in the throes of a full retreat in Iraq; and, in its look ahead to the year 2007, The Economist is warning of the dangers of an 'authority deficit' at the level of nation states, international institutions, and the role of 'the superpower'
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17027.htm
Guatemalan workers sue U.S. firm over exploitation: Twelve Guatemalan workers filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday that accuses a U.S. company of exploitation, fraud and forced labor in the United States.
http://snipurl.com/19rx0
Long Treated as Volunteers, Tips-Only Supermarket Baggers Take Up Fight for Hourly Wage
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/nyregion/11baggers.html?_r=1&ref=nyreg...

CUBA
An important space is opened for revolutionary debate
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1107.html
Fidel and His Buddy Hugo, Exporting Revolution
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1957

VENEZUELA
Venezuela's democratic revolution
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/698/36248
Chavez Announces 5 Point Decrease in Sales Tax, Monetary Reform
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2222

ECUADOR
Ecuador's 'citizens' revolution
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/698/36244
Ecuador president threatens to resign - QUITO, Ecuador - New leftist President Rafael Correa said Saturday he will resign if his supporters do not win control of an assembly to rewrite Ecuador's constitution.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/16723892.htm

HAITI
Massive demonstrations in Haiti catch UN by surprise: Well over 100,000 took to the streets of seven major cities throughout Haiti on February 7 to demand an end to the UN occupation, freedom for political prisoners and the return of exiled president Aristide.
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/2_9_7/2_9_7.html

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