GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER #125, February, 2006

http://www.gpja.pl.net/

Dear friends,

Coming events to watch out for are this Monday’s GPJA Forum at The Classic presenting the Roger Awards, an International Women’s Day Forum on March 8 and a double action day of March 18 – a march against war and a march/concert for the supersizemypay.com campaign.

2005 ROGER AWARD WINNER(S) TO BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY MARCH 6, AUCKLAND
The winner(s) of the 2005 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational
Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand will be announced on
Monday March 6. It's at the Classic Comedy and Bar, 321 Queen Street, Auckland Doors Open at 7pm. BAR ALSO OPEN. Please direct all inquiries about the event itself to: John Minto. The event is organised by Global Peace and Justice Auckland. There are eight finalists, equalling the highest number ever (from 2003). These transnational corporations (TNCs) are (in no particular order of preference): Telecom, Westpac, Toll, BNZ, Comalco, Guardian Healthcare, Merck Sharp and Dohme, and British American Tobacco.
Helen Clark is going to the Philippines in a fortnight to attend the Asia/Pacific Interfaith Forum.

SEND A MESSAGE TO HELEN CLARK OVER HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN PHILIPPINES

I suggest that she be bombarded with letters urging her to personally convey to the highest levels of the Philippine government NZ’s condemnation of the State of Emergency and demand that it be revoked.

Thus far, New Zealand has made no comment on the Philippine situation.

Murray Horton, Secretary, PSNA, Philippines Solidarity Network of

Aotearoa, Box 2450, ChCh

http://www.converge.org.nz/psna

PROTEST EMERGENCY RULE IN THE PHILIPPINES - Early morning on the eve of the 20th year anniversary of the People Power revolution in the

Philippines, 24 Feb. 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a State of National Emergency. This declaration became the mantle of authority for the government and the military to violently disperse all civilian demonstrations held yesterday in commemoration of the 1986 People Power revolution. Arrests without warrants of demonstrators, trade unionists, political activists, and opposition legislators were conducted by the police and the military within 24 hours of the issuance of the state of emergency. An opposition daily newspaper was also raided and taken over by the Philippine National Police (PNP) without any legal document to search the premises or any explanation to validate the take over. Arroyo, upon proclaiming the state of emergency, claims that this empowers her to take over public utilities, including media corporations, to authorize the military to arrest without warrants and detain opposition leaders whom she deemed dangerous to public interest.

http://www.iuf.org/den3123

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY MARCH 8

See “What’s on in Auckland” for forum details.

GLOBAL WOMEN’S STRIKE - END POVERTY AND WAR AGAINST OUR PEOPLE AND OUR PLANET! INVEST IN CARING NOT KILLING!

http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/

VENEZUELA: As Chávez announces money for the poorest women, women put forward their demands.

http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/English2006/StatementFromWomenToChavez.htm

CO-EXISTENCE EXHIBITION, Britomart Heritage Precinct - Behind Britomart Station FREE- 24/7 February 11th - March 5th. Israel's Raphie Etgar arrives in New Zealand to curate Coexistence, the 44-piece exhibition of giant, thought-provoking posters featuring compelling images by international artists. Some notable people associated with COEXISTENCE through their quotes are Nelson Mandela, Jean-Paul Sartre, the Dalai Lama, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein and John Lennon. New Zealand works are part of the exhibition.

CORRECTION: NOAM CHOMSKY INTERVIEW ON 95 B FM, Tuesday 28th of March @ 9.10am with Wallace Chapman (breakfast show host). Approx. 20 Mins.
Topics of discussion focus on Iran, Venezuala and Palestine

THE PALESTINIAN MOVIE "PARADISE NOW" has been nominated for an Oscar at this year's Academy Awards ceremony. Israeli diplomats and influential people in Hollywood are trying to pressure the organizers of the event to not declare the movie as coming from "Palestine". See:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3214866,00.html

So far, more than 11'000 people have signed an online petition supporting the pressure to not only change the description of the country, but to withdraw the nomination all together. In turn, another online petition has been started to express support for the decision to nominate "Paradise Now" for the Oscars and to name "Palestine" as the country. Sign the petition if you believe the event organizers should maintain the description as it is, and forward this to your friends.

http://www.petitiononline.com/para222/petition.html

Perhaps it should be "Paradise Now - Occupied Palestine".

PARLIAMENT MUST CONDEMN GUANTANAMO - There is a motion currently before Parliament calling on it to condemn the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and back the European Parliament's call for its closure. So far, the government has managed to get away with weaseling on the issue, but this will force them to put up or shut up, and either vote for international law and human rights, or against them. If we want this motion to pass, and for New Zealand to take a stand against arbitrary detention and torture, we need to make sure our representatives know how we feel on the issue.

The best way is to contact party leaders urging them to vote for it.

Please contact one or more of the following:

Helen Clark

Don Brash

Winston Peters

Pita Sharples

Tariana Turia

Peter Dunne

Rodney Hide

Jim Anderton

(I've left the Greens off because it’s their motion, and they will bevoting for it). Don't let the government weasel any more. Show them we're watching, and that we care about the positions they take in our name. For further information, see

http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2006/02/weaseling-on-guantanamo.html

Idiot/Savant - No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog

http://norightturn.blogspot.com

WHAT’S ON IN AUCKLAND

Wednesday, March 1, 6.30pm, St Colomba Centre, 40 Vermont Street,
Ponsonby. The AGM for the UNANZ Northern Region Branch in 2006 followed by apresentation and interactive discussion on Global Futures and the UN led y Gray Southon.

Thursday, March 2 (both meetings)

(1) 1-3pm, McLaurin Chapel, University of Auckland, Princes St

(2) 7.30pm, All Saints Anglican Church, Howick, cnr Selwyn Rd and Cook St.

PEACE ACTIVIST SPEAKS ON PALESTINE: Christina Gibb, a peace activist in her early seventies, originally from Dunedin, and part of the Christian Peacemakers Team, will be speaking in Auckland in early March. Each year for the past three years Christina has spent three months in Hebron as part of the peace-making team. Join us to get an update about what’s happening in Palestine. Christina is a ‘must hear’ for those who know little or a lot about the situation in Palestine. For further details contact: Jacqui Ryan, CWS Northern Fieldworker. Supported by Christian World Service – Action Against Poverty

Saturday, March 4, 2pm, QEII Square, Cnr Queen & Customs St, Downtown
RALLY FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE IN PALESTINE / ISRAEL - Come support
JUSTICE and PEACE based on: 1. End Israeli Occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem. 2. Right of Return for Refugees. 3. Sharing Jerusalem. 4. Removal of all illegal settlements in occupied Palestine. 5. Stop construction of Israel's annexation/apartheid wall

Sunday, March 5, 2pm, Socialist Centre, 86 Princes St, Onehunga.

IS LABOUR ANY KIND OF WORKERS' PARTY ? Introduction by DAPHNE LAWLESS, an editor of UNITY journal. Followed by open discussion. Happy Hour afterwards. Hosted by Socialist Worker. For more information, contact: Grant Morgan, Socialist Worker secretary.

Monday, March 6, 7.30pm, The Classic, 321 Queen St
GPJA FORUM: ANNUAL PRESENTATION OF THE RODGER AWARD FOR WORST
TRANSNATIONAL COMPANY OPERATING IN NZ. The winner(s) of the 2005 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand will be announced on Monday March 6. It's at the Classic Comedy and Bar, 321 Queen Street, Auckland Doors Open at 7pm. Please direct all inquiries about the event itself to: John Minto. The event is organised by Global Peace and Justice Auckland. There are eight finalists, equaling the highest number ever (from 2003). These transnational corporations (TNCs) are (in no particular order of preference): Telecom, Westpac, Toll, BNZ, Comalco, Guardian Healthcare, Merck Sharp and Dohme, and British American Tobacco.
BAR OPENS @ 7PM

Wednesday, March 8th, 7pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY - "A WOMAN'S PLACE IS IN THE STRUGGLE". A
Forum of Speakers, Discussion, Music and Drink. There will be a panel of speakers on "Women organising women ". Jill Ovens (Activist and Unionist) will speak on "Women workers:making the invisible visible". Daphna Whitmore will speak on "International struggles." Music by About Town, Rosetta Vai, and the Romanovas (to be confirmed). Entry: free / koha (optional) to cover hall hire and organising costs. Proceeds from drink sales to the Working Women's Resource Centre. Organised by the Auckland International Womens' Day Committe. Contact Nicki Jonas.

Saturday, March 18, 12 noon, US Consulate, Citybank Building, Customs
St East INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST TORTURE AND WAR. MARKING THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE INVASION OF IRAQ.

Saturday, March 18, 1pm, Brittomart, bottom of Queen St THE BIG PAY OUT - MARCH, RALLY AND CONCERT to support the SuperSizeMyPay.com campaign against low wages, youth rates and for secure hours. March up Queen St to a concert in Myers park from 2pm with bands including – 8foot Sativa; Stylus; Shona Laing; Olmecha Supreme; Geneva

May 10th - May 17th. Academy Theatre HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL 2006 With Panel Discussions of experts and speakers, Performances and entertainment. More details on doco's/films closer to the date.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK – ON PROPAGANDA

"The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human."- Aldous Huxley -(1894-1963)
Author

“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise” - Adolf Hitler – German Chancellor, leader of the Nazi party

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - George W. Bush - 43rd US President

BEST ON THE WEB

NEW ZEALAND

Lighting strikes twice at Starbucks

http://supersizemypay.com/lightening_strikes_twice_at_starbucks

Young Workers Strike as Youth Rates Bill Debated

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0602/S00145.htm

Matt McCarten Speech: The Great Rip Off! Restaurant Industry has halved wages in 20 years

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0602/S00073.htm

AUSTRALIA

Protesters to camp in city parks

JOHN PILGER: Refusing To Fly The Flag - Hicks became a Muslim and drifted through Kosovo, then on to Afghanistan, where he was kidnapped by the Americans and sent to their concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. Not a shred of evidence exists that Hicks fought for al-Qaeda, or is a terrorist.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12056.htm

BOLIVIA

The Second Foundation of Bolivia, by Eduardo Galeano

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/galeano170206.html

Evo Morales backed by 79% of the population

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/febrero/lun27/10-79evo.html

ROBERT FISK

Everyone in the Middle East rewrites history, but never before have we had a US administration so wilfully, dishonestly and ruthlessly reinterpreting tragedy as success, defeat as victory, death as life - helped, I have to add, by the compliant American press. - We are pushing hundreds of thousands of Arabs though the butchers' shops - and don't even care.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12083.htm

Something more serious is happening to our planet which we are not being told about

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12080.htm

VIDEO/VENEZUELA

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Video: Sometimes, a good documentary is all about being in the right place at the right time. It does not get much better for Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain, who, in late 2001 began filming a documentary about Hugo Chavez, the controversial President of Venezuela.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11167.htm

IRAQ

Exit without a strategy: The popular response to Iraq's latest atrocities has been to blame the occupation, not rival sects

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1716598,00.html

Abu Ghraib leaked report reveals full extent of abuse

• 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse

• 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse

• 660 images of adult pornography

• 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees

• 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts

Nearly two years after the first pictures of naked and humiliated Iraqi detainees emerged from Abu Ghraib prison, the full extent of the abuse became known for the first time yesterday with a leaked report from the US army's internal investigation into the scandal.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11969.htm

Video: Abu Ghraib - The Sequel: These are the photos the American

Government doesn't want you to see. While researching a story on guards at Abu Ghraib, I obtained a copy of the unreleased photographs and videos. Taken at the same time as the photos released in 2004 and often of the same abuses, this is the first time they have been shown to the public.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11944.htm

New Images: Iraq: Horrific New Torture Pictures Released – MORE photographs have been leaked of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. Warning: These pictures should only be viewed by a mature AUDIENCE:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11923.htm

UN report blasts Guantanamo prison, says detainees should be tried or freed: The world body also called on the United States to refrain from practices that "amount to torture."

http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=24&id=21647

Cindy Sheehan and Sam Bostaph: The Human Cost of War - The land that nourished the first written language and the roots of civilized political order has become a charnel house.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11967.htm

More Proof of Prewar Intelligence Manipulation by the Bush Administration: Writing in the March/April 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, Paul R. Pillar has launched a furious assault on the Bush administration for its manipulation of prewar intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and links to al Qaeda. Mr. Pillar should know, because he was the CIA's National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia (NESA) from 2000 to 2005.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11927,htm

Victims of War Are Not To Be Seen Or Heard Or Mentioned - Joseph
Bonham was an American soldier. He lost both of his arms and legs and all of his face to an artillery shell. He could not see or hear or speak. Other than that he was healthy and lucid. That was Joe's nightmare. He could be kept alive a long time.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12036.htm

WAR ON FREEDOM
Civil liberties fear as US terror suspect list rises to 325,000: Civil liberties organisations expressed outrage yesterday after it was reported that the database of terrorist suspects kept by the US authorities now holds 325,000 names, a fourfold increase in two and a half years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1710756,00.html

US soldiers face accusations of murder in Iraq and Afghanistan - At least 98 deaths occurred, with at least 34 of them suspected or confirmed homicides - deliberate or reckless killing - the group of US lawyers told BBC television on Tuesday.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12019.htm

How an internal effort to ban the abuse and torture of detainees was thwarted.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12029.htm

NEPAL

U.S. Embassy Ready To Evacuate As Nepal's King Plan For Exile: EPAL remains tense as the 7-Party agitation against the Monarchy gains strength and the Maoist continue to have success on the battle-field. Sources within the Palace report the King and his family are preparing for exile.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11925.htm

USA

Mike Whitney: Hurricane Katrina; “National Failure” or Criminal
Negligence: The senate investigation of Hurricane Katrina is turning out to be another White House whitewash. The senate strategy has been to characterize the Bush administration’s response as “a national failure” or “bureaucratic bungling” when in fact the evidence proves that the top officials in the administration, including George Bush himself, are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of New Orleans residents.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11921.htm

To combat hunger, more in US turn to soup kitchens: In 2005, it found more than 38 million Americans lived in "hungry or food insecure" households, an increase of 5 million since 2000.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12053.htm

Paul Krugman : Graduates versus Oligarchs: We're seeing the rise of a narrow oligarchy: income and wealth are becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small, privileged elite.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12093.htm

A tale of two deficits by Joseph Stiglitz

http://www.globalagendamagazine.com/2006/Stiglitz.asp

CUBA

Bush and the Waning U.S. Position in Latin America

http://www.ciponline.org/cuba/Op-eds/021406_WaningUSPosition.htm

PALESTINE

Life in Occupied Palestine

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=LEN20060213&articleId=1975

For Those Who Haven't Noticed - Watching the Dissolution of Palestine

http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein02242006.html

Stop scaring us! The State of Israel is the strongest state in the region - militarily, economically, scientifically and culturally. It enjoys broad support from the United States and European countries. It has peaceful relations with Egypt and Jordan. We could even have built a peace arrangement with Lebanon and Syria, if we had wanted to, but certainly no threat is hovering over Israel from that direction

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/687499.html

Scenes Of Israeli Massacre In Qana 1996: Warning! - This video of an
Israeli Massacre of Palestinian & Lebanese civilians in April of 96 is very graphic and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/quana_01_19_03.htm

INDIA

Arundhati Roy : Bush in India: Just Not Welcome: On his triumphalist tour of India and Pakistan, where he hopes to wave imperiously at people he considers potential subjects, President Bush has an itinerary that's getting curiouser and curiouser.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12098.htm

ENVIRONMENT

Sea levels likely to rise much faster than was predicted: Global warming is causing the Greenland ice cap to disintegrate far faster than anyone predicted. A study of the region's massive ice sheet warns that sea levels may - as a consequence - rise more dramatically than expected.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article345927.ece

Global warming '30 times quicker than it used to be': Greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere 30 times faster than the time when the Earth experienced a previous episode of global warming.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article345928.ece

© Scoop Media