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 miket@pl.net Web page - bobo@enzyme.org.nz Donations can be sent to GPJA, 6a Western Springs Rd, Auckland. All communication regarding the GPJA mailing list (email or snail) should be addressed to gpja@xtra.co.nz

GPJA FORUM MONDAY - LOAN SHARK CAMPAIGN; PROTEST & CIVIL RIGHTS This Monday the GPJA forum will be taking a deeper look at two important campaigns. The March 19 antiwar protest ended up in a police assault and the arrest of several GPJA supporters. Further arrest followed at the initial court appearance. (See Anti-U.S. Occupation Protest Faces Off With Police http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00180.htm) The Forum will review these events and plans for a protest march in the next few weeks. GPJA has also recently launched a campaign targeting the loan sharks operating in working class communities extracting extortionist interest rates off some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. (See: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0503/S00254.htm) The issues behind this campaign will be outlined by John Minto.

QUOTE FOR THE WEEK Martin Luther King: "I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government." Listen to this speech in full http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm WHAT'S ON IN AUCKLAND

Monday, April 4, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn GPJA FORUM MONDAY - LOAN SHARK CAMPAIGN; PROTEST & CIVIL RIGHTS

Wednesday, April 6, 5.15pm, Design Lecture Theatre, School of Architecture, Auckland Uni DOCUMENTING PEOPLES POWER: THE CASE OF ARGENTINA - Dr Kathryn Lehman, School of European Languages and Literature. In recent years, documentary film has played a critical role in the creation of an alternative public sphere in which the discourse of globalisation is openly challenged and portrayals of neoliberalist common sense are contested. The Argentine crisis of December 2001 was not only the largest loan repayment default in IMF history, it is also one of the clearest cases of the contradiction between elite representations of the success of neoliberalism and popular documentaries of its failures. Organiser: Elizabeth Eastmond, Department of Art History, enquiries: e.eastmond@auckland.ac.nz

Monday, April 11, 2-3 pm Functions Room, Auckland University Students Association (above cafeteria)7-30pm, Room 3.407, Auckland University Engineering School.. DEPLETED URANIUM - 'Poisoning Eden: Nuclear Weapons, Energy and Depleted Uranium' - Dr Chris Busby is a British expert on low-level radiation and DU. His mission is to raise awareness among political leaders, their advisers, opinion-formers and the general public about the health effects of low-level radiation with specific reference to DU and other radioactive waste from nuclear electricity generation. He will be the first expert to speak publicly on this issue in New Zealand. DU has the potential to become the Agent Orange of the 21st century, with wider health implications for not just New Zealand defence personnel but all New Zealanders working in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tour has been organised in response to reported health effects following use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons by US and UK forces in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq by a group of concerned Christchurch citizens called the DU Education Team (DUET), who are concerned about the short and long term impacts of DU on civilians in the countries where it has been used, and on New Zealand personnel deployed in those countries. Organised by DU Education Team (DUET); for more information about the Auckland meeting contact Marion Hancock tel (09) 373 2379

Monday, April 11, 7pm, St. Columbia Centre, 40 Vermont St Ponsonby The Aotearoa White Band campaign - If not us, then who? If not now, then when? This is an invitation to take a moment away from your own vital areas of focus and reflect on the fact that the world has never been richer. Yet there are still 8 million people a year dying of poverty. In 2005, people around the world are uniting to demand an end to this outrage. Get involved! The campaign is uniting under the symbol of a simple White Band, and has the support of some of the most respected figures in the world, including Nelson Mandela, who came out of retirement from public life to help launch the campaign in the UK, saying: "Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings." Coalitions are active in many countries already, with more forming all the time. Some campaigns are already in full swing: for example, check out the UK website: http://www.makepovertyhistory.org. This invitation is to one of the initial meetings to form a New Zealand campaign. The Demands - The international campaign is calling for an end to extreme poverty. Its focus is on three major causes of poverty in developing countries: crippling debt, unfair trade rules and bad or insufficient aid. The Millennium Development Goals agreed at the United Nations in 2000 give us the ammunition to make 3 major demands: Trade justice, Debt cancellation , More and better aid. Each national coalition is choosing the precise scope of its own campaign. One of the major tasks for the national platform meetings will be to decide the goals of the New Zealand coalition, including whether to include any New Zealand poverty issues. The other major task is to form an interim Steering Committee to initiate the campaign. Please let me know if you would like to volunteer or nominate someone else for participation on the committee. The national platforms will confirm the committee membership. Contact: Barry Coates Executive Director, Oxfam New Zealand, PO Box 68 357, 62 Aitken Terrace, Kingsland, Auckland Tel: +64 9 355 6500 FAX: +64 9 355 6505. See Oxfam NZ website at http://www.oxfam.org.nz for latest information on the tsunami response, Oxfam development programmes and campaigns.

Sunday, April 17, 7.30pm, The Classic, 123 Queen St Antidote #12. A Screening of …..The END of SUBURBIA Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream. Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary. The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. AND MAY DAY COLUMBIA (short) The targeted killing of educators and trade unionists in Columbia. To coincide with the "Peasant and Small Farmer global day of action",17th of April.

Saturday, May 7, University of Auckland, Engineering School, Lecture theatre 1.401 on Symonds Street Attention teachers and high school students. The Auckland branch of the United Nations Youth Association of New Zealand (UNYANZ) will be running a model United Nations Assembly for high school students on the 7th of May.The Model UN provides young people an opportunity to research, relate to, and represent a member country of the United Nations General Assembly. It will also encourage students to engage in active negotiation and alliance-formation. Mostly, the MUN is an enjoyable and fun event which allows young people to become familiar with issues of international concern. The fee for the day (which includes lunch and afternoon tea) is $17.50 for UNYANZ members and $27.50 for non-members (includes year long membership to UNYANZ). For more information and registration forms see the MUN page on the UNYANZ website or email aucklandmun@unyanz.co.nz http://www.unyanz.co.nz/Regions/Auckland/AucklandRegionalEvents/AucklandRegi onalMUN2005/tabid/188/Default.aspx

Thursday, May 12-19, Academy Cinema, City HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL: Our exciting programme includes the 2005 Academy Award winning documentary, Born into Brothels, the radical, entertaining Resistencia - Hip Hop in Colombia, and some of the finest documentaries currently touring the globe. Further highlights include high profile British director Ken Loach's dramatic feature, Bread and Roses starring Adrien Brody (currently in New Zealand filming King Kong); and the controversial study of the September 11 hijackers, Hamburg Cell, produced by New Zealander Finola Dwyer. The full programme for each centre will be released soon. If you register on our website, we'll email you an electronic version of the programme as soon as it's available. Go to http://www.humanrightsfilmfest.net.nz and click on keep me in the loop. Tickets will go on sale in a few weeks time.

MESSAGES

INDYMEDIA TECHNICAL AND EDITORIAL VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! http://www.indymedia.org.nz Key technical people are leaving in June, and new people are needed for this side of the process. Volunteer job descriptions: 1.Day to day system admin work on deskaheh.nysindy.org.[which isn't very much if you know what you are doing]. It is running freebsd. There are another 3 sites on deskaheh, and 2 mirrors. (To be shared) 2. Webcoding maintenance [php/mysql]. 3. Editorial Work: This includes: Making sure articles are correctly classified - Keeping out comment spammers- Keeping out bandwidth leechers [these are people who upload files to the site just to use our (stretched) resources]. - Hiding dodgy material - Occasionally making formatting alterations to stories - Proofing and approval of features. - Trying to keep this collective functional and happy. Contact Geraldene Peters bern@ihug.co.nz or 09 3765994 for further information.

CALL OUT FOR VISUAL EVIDENCE OF POLICE TACTICS OF CONTROL. In the wake of recent events, there has been a call to assemble visual evidence documenting police attitudes towards demonstrators and activists. The material we're looking for can cover a broad range of situations that fit within the general theme. If required, your anonymity can be assured. If you have any photographs and moving image evidence of "over-zealous" etc. police actions against activists and members of the public in general, could you please contact me (and send photographs to): Email: bern@ihug.co.nz Tel: 09 3765994 Cell: 021 104 5624. Tapes (clearly labelled with your return address) can be sent to: Geraldene Peters, P.O. Box 6117 , Wellesley Street, Auckland 1036. Alternatively, if you're in Auckland we can try to arrange a pick-up.

PETITION FOR MORDECHAI VANUNU To the members of the house of representatives of New Zealand in parliament assembled, we, the undersigned, respectfully submit: that the New Zealand parliament asks the Government, in the interest of Human Rights, Global Peace and the Anti-Nuclear movement to grant Mordechai Vanunu (the Israeli anti-nuclear whistleblower) a New Zealand passport.(Copies of the petition are available from: wakim.fam@xtra.co.nz)

SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF LAUNCH PETITION AT PAY CLAIMS MEETINGS Support staff who work in the country's primary and secondary schools launched a petition calling for a fairer and more effective way of funding their jobs this week. Please help support their petition by reading more about it and downloading a copy at www.nzei.org.nz. NZEI has 9600 support staff members working in more than 2500 primary and secondary schools. They work as teacher aides, special education assistants, school secretaries and executive officers, librarians, science and IT technicians, physiotherapists, nurses, sports co-ordinators and in more than 80 other jobs. "School support staff have little job security and have low pay rates. Their salaries start at just $21,000 a year, even though schools can't operate without them," says NZEI Te Riu Roa National President, Colin Tarr . Currently support staff are bulk funded from each school's operation's grant. This is the same pool of money principals and boards use to pay maintenance costs and buy all the equipment and resources that a school needs. School managers find it almost impossible to pay their running costs and their support staff from the same fund. As a result support staff are low paid and live with the on-going threat of their job be axed, or their pay being cut, because their hours have been reduced to enable their managers to pay the school's bills or buy equipment. "The Government has to recognise that the current system is not working and that there is a desperate need for a new system that is fairer and more effective, not only for support staff, but for school managers, teachers and students," says Colin Tarr.

ABOLITION 2000 AND ABOLITION NOW! ABOLITION 2000 (A2000) is an international network which came into being during the Non- Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference in 1995 when activists from around the world recognised that the issue of nuclear abolition was not on the agenda. They wrote a statement calling on all states, particularly the nuclear states, to take specific steps to achieve nuclear weapons abolition. More than 2000 organisations in over 90 countries have now signed the A2000 statement and are actively participating in ten working groups to accomplish the goal of nuclear weapons abolition. In Aotearoa several A2000 groups were established, and at present the Auckland Group has taken on the national role with representatives from the Peace Foundation, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Engineers for Social Responsibility, University of Auckland Centre for Peace Studies, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Peace Movement Aotearoa. A2000 has a new campaign called Abolition Now! working with the Mayors for Peace Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons to create the political will, through the mobilisation of civil society, for negotiations for a nuclear weapons free world to be completed by 2010, with the complete abolition of nuclear weapons by 2020. In the lead-up to the NPT Review Conference at the UN in New York this May, Abolition Now! is asking for support for the call for concrete plans for a nuclear free world during the 60th Anniversary year of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - 6 August 2004 to 9 August 2005. The Abolition Now! Brochure and sign-on form and petition are available online at http://www.abolitionnow.org/ Interested groups can also join the Mayors for Peace Campaign and talk to their local Mayors about this. Local groups interested in supporting the Abolition Now! Campaign can contact A2000 Aotearoa, c/o Marion Hancock, Peace Foundation, tel (09)373 2379 or email peace@fps.pl.net

CUBA AND HUMAN RIGHTS Dear Friends: This is an important international appeal that has already been signed by more than 2000 intellectuals, political leaders and peace activists worldwide. Your endorsement as individual, as well of your organization will make this appeal even stronger. Any person that wishes to sign or that you convince to sign please let me know. Best regards, Miguel Ramirez, Cuban Ambassador cubaindo@cbn.net.id http://www.cubadh.net/index.php?&lang=2&declara=1&cont=declara.php CAMPAIGN TO DEFEND UNICEF'S MISSION TO DEFEND CHILDREN! In May 2005 Ms. Ann Veneman, former US Secretary of Agriculture, will take office as the Executive Director of UNICEF. Her nomination, negotiated secretly by the UN Secretary General with the US Government and rapidly approved by UNICEF's Executive Committee, has alarmed public health advocates around the world. Ms. Veneman has no background in public health, children's welfare, or the rights of disadvantaged people. Her history as an advocate for agribusiness, both as a private lawyer and in government, is characterized by privileging private profit above the public good. Applied at UNICEF, this will be a disaster for the world's children. PLEASE SIGN ON to the People's Health Movement's Letter of Concern detailing our reservations about the appointment of Ms. Veneman and the appointment process. To read the letter and sign on, go to http://www.saveunicef.org Thank you for defending UNICEF's mission. For more information, contact: phm@hesperian.org Member of the People´s Health Movement www.phmovement.org

NZ Tolls On Auckland Roads - Highway Robbery http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK0503/S00183.htm Ahmed Zaoui: Prepared Celebratory Gathering Speech http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00217.htm Of Security Risk Certificates and Human Rights By Paul G. Buchanan http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0504/S00001.htm Free Quality Education Vital For Children & Young http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0503/S00268.htm Commission Announces Human Rights Action Plan http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0503/S00267.htm University escalates attack on staff union http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0503/S00074.htm AUSTRALIA PILGER: They are afraid of you - Speech to March 19 antiwar rally in Sydney http://207.44.245.159/article8333.htm INTERNATION UNION RIGHTS The Colombian Army has murdered three trade unionists and Justice for Colombia is calling for urgent email protests to be sent. Details are here:

http://www.labourstart.org/docs/en/000118.html In Nepal, the national trade union centre GEFONT has issued an alert following the arrest of one of its leaders. More details here: http://www.gefont.org/press_release/panta_arrested.htm OIL WAR Secret U.S. Plans For Iraq's Oil: "BBC" - The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed. http://207.44.245.159/article8294.htm A Few Words From A "Liberated" Iraqi: We do not hate America for its "freedom or democracy". We don't hate America. We hate the crimes, the destructions, and the devastation committed by America against the innocent people in our country. http://207.44.245.159/article8201.htm Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting - Counting the Iraqi Dead http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2472Number of starving children doubles in Iraq http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4395525.stm Two Weeks In Falluja - They see absolutely no justification for this war and were constantly asking me to explain how the American people can support these acts against a civilian population. For the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be an American. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8407.htm Is Bush's empire coming unstuck in Iraq? http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/620/620p17.htm PILGER ON COLUMBIA JOHN PILGER: Naming The Real Killers - The UK government finds it convenient to blame Colombia's huge murder rate on the drugs trade. The reality is that most of the killings are being done by a regime it supports. http://tinyurl.com/3tjy7

LATIN AMERICA Lula's Growth Strategy: Business vs Environment http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0503/S00289.htm EAST TIMOR Green Left Weekly: East Timor Ripoff Continues - ''We went to East Timor to help those people, and now we are slapping them in the face and stealing their oil.'' This is what Chip Henriss-Anderssen, a former major in the Australian military who served with the International Force for East Timor, told reporters on March 7. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00163.htm

WORLD ECONOMY Pensions Crisis? 12/03/05 | by Frank Andrews. A review of Robin Blackburn's account of the history and future of pensions in the economically advanced world http://www.spectrezine.org/reviews/Andrews.htm The World Bank: A Problem Bigger than Wolfowitz - The Bush Administration's choice of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank has ignited a storm of international controversy. Coming on the heels of the nomination of anti-UN John Bolton for Ambassador to the United Nations, the selection of Wolfowitz is widely perceived as sending a strong message to the rest of the world. http://www.cepr.net/columns/weisbrot/mark_weisbrot_3_17_05_.htm CIVIL LIBERTIES UNDER ATTACK UK-based pressure group Statewatch has just released an in-depth report on the new counter-terrorism regime in the G8 and EU countries. Counter-terrorism plans include the introduction of "special investigative" techniques, the allowance of "intelligence information" in court, and the creation of new "preparatory" offences. http://www.spectrezine.org/weblog/index.php?p=59 The Rendering - U.S. knowingly sending prisoners to be tortured in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan http://207.44.245.159/article8232.htm The Resort to Torture: A recently released army documents detail ongoing sadistic abuse, torture and murder of Iraqi Prisoners of War (POW) and Iraqi detainees by US and British forces in occupied Iraq. http://207.44.245.159/article8215.htm Each day brings new revelations of torture, murder and government whitewash in Bush's gulag. At least 108 prisoners have died in Bush's captivity so far; dozens of these have been listed as homicides, CBS reported. But last week, the Pentagon declined to prosecute 17 soldiers for brutal murders of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite the recommendation of Army prosecutors. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8419.htm The Pentagon's Secret Stash - Why we'll never see the second round of Abu Ghraib photos http://www.reason.com/0504/co.mw.the.shtml GE FAILS Damning verdict on GM crop - Final report on world's most comprehensive field trials says oil seed rape varieties would harm wildlife and environment http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5153369-111400,00.html BUSH FAMILY AIDS HITLER How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html TERRORISM AND WAR Far from being more dangerous, the world is safer now than ever before; and far from being an ever-growing problem, terrorism has been in sharp decline for over a decade. This is not a matter of opinion. It is provable. http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/science/story/0,12996,1447921,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/science/story/0,12996,1447921,00.html

ENVIRONMENT Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up' - The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/science/story/0,12996,1447921,00.html http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg18624934.300 VENEZUELA Interview with Philip Agee: The Nature of CIA Intervention in Venezuela - Philip Agee is a former CIA operative who left the agency in 1967 after becoming disillusioned by the CIA's support for the status quo in the region. Says Agee, "I began to realize that what I and my colleagues had been doing in Latin America in the CIA was no more than a continuation of nearly five-hundred years of this, exploitation and genocide http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1403 Venezuela VP Responds to Rumsfeld: U.S. Wants to Destroy Latin American Unity http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=7538 KOREA UN Will Have To Halt Food Aid To North Korea http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0503/S00463.htm ARMS RACE How Bush Learned To Love the Bomb: United States President George W. Bush is talking tough about nukes in Iran and North Korea. But critics say by illegally testing and building nuclear weapons, the U.S. is fuelling a new arms race http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,348779,00.html Ukraine Thanks Cuba For Chernobyl Children Care:

CUBA Cuba has treated 18,153 children victims of the radiation fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, Ukraine's Health Minister Nykola Polischuk said on Tuesday. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30132/story.htm AFGHANISTAN US scatters bases to control Eurasia: The United States is beefing up its military presence in Afghanistan, at the same time encircling Iran. Washington will set up nine new bases in Afghanistan in the provinces of Helmand, Herat, Nimrouz, Balkh, Khost and Paktia. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GC30Ag01.html PALESTINE Israel maintaining 'strangulation' policy in Gaza Strip: The report, titled "One Big Prison," documents what the organization says are Israel's violations of human rights and international law in the Gaza Strip. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/558349.html THERE'S MONEY IN WATER Private Sector Still Eyeing to Own Every Drop http://207.44.245.159/article8343.htm Cochabamba! - Water War in Bolivia: The Water War was a ground-breaking victory against the life-sapping effect of globalization in Latin America. A recent publication by South End Press entitled: "Cochabamba! - Water War in Bolivia" is a first-hand account of that victory. http://207.44.245.159/article8345.htm Four Thousand Children Die Daily From Contaminated Water- Scoop Report: Marietta Gross reports that more than one billion people worldwide source their drinking water from polluted founts, springs or rivers. On the UN's "Day of the Water" (March 22nd) UNICEF announced that every day more than 4000 children die due to diseases which can be traced back to contaminated water. Also 2.6 billion people, almost half of the world's population, have to manage without sanitary facilities such as latrines and sewage disposal http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00235.htm AIDS Cheap Aids drugs under threat: The days of cheap treatments for millions of Aids patients around the world are coming to an end, health agencies warned last night, after the Indian parliament passed a bill that makes it illegal to copy patented drugs. http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,12559,1443897,00.html MILITARISM AND THE WAR ON DRUGS: The number of drug offenders imprisoned in the United States has increased 800% since 1980, helping the US achieve the highest imprisonment rate in the industrialized world: 550 per 100,000. Under the banner of the war on drugs, a kind of creeping totalitarianism tramples more human rights and civil liberties each http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GC18Aa01.html Mike

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