Activism this week: October 31st - November 6th

Go see "The Corporation" at the Regent on Worcester. It's on for the next few weeks.

Friday 5th November

Reclaim The Night

Saturday 6th November

Anarchist Gathering. Register at http://a-gathering.anarchism.org.nz

[Chomsky on anarchism]
[anarchism.org.nz]

Free anti-war music at The Peace Jukebox

The PEACE JUKEBOX is now playing hours of anti-war music for free at http://www.peace-not-war.org. Songs written during the Bush Presidency can be heard as high-quality MP3s, with lyrics, on this ad-free music site. This is the most prolific period of protest song-writing in history, and home-studio technology makes it possible for the world to hear these radical songs.

The PEACE JUKEBOX is currently playing anti-war songs by Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, Jurassic 5, Public Enemy, Jane's Addiction, The Cure, Ani DiFranco, Black Eyed Peas, Green Day, Faithless, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Lenny Kravitz, Paris, System of a Down, Propagandhi, Banco de Gaia, Zach de la Rocha... hiphop, rock, punk, acoustic, classical and spoken word.

The Peace Not War Music Project has received over 500 anti-war songs from different kinds of musicians, and they will all be going online. A translation facility is being developed for non-English speakers to read the lyrics in multiple languages. Musicians are invited to submit their songs as MP3s (192kbps, best quality), with full lyrics and credit information included, by email to jukebox@peace-not-war.org.

Peace Not War CDs are being sold by local peace groups to raise funds for their campaigns, and the Jukebox is an inspiring resource for everyone involved in the new global peace movement.

PEACE NOT WAR MUSIC PROJECT
http://www.peace-not-war.org

"The Corporation" screening at Regent

The Regent on Worcester is screening "The Corporation" for the next few weeks. By all accounts an excellent film.

Session times and other information

November 5th - Reclaim the Night

Creating a World Without Violence and Oppression

This Friday, 5th November 2004, Christchurch women will be “reclaiming the
night” with a gathering and march beginning in Cathedral Square from
8.30pm. “Reclaim the night” actions have been taking place worldwide for
decades, as women demand their right to safe streets and a less oppressive
society.

In Christchurch this will take the form of a gathering of women and
children who will collectively decide the route and nature of the event.
Participants are encouraged to dress up, bring banners, carry sparklers or
come up with their own unique ways to celebrate their right to the night.

The event is open to all women who want to attend. Men can and do support
this action and its objectives in other moral and practical ways.

‘The purpose of Reclaim the Night is to take back social spaces that
women don’t have safe access to. In many of these spaces women are
harassed and subject to many different forms of abuse. These include rape
and physical violence, the pressure to conform to men’s expectations, and
a sense of voicelessness and disempowerment,’ said Claire, who will be
attending the gathering.

Contact details: RTN@enzyme.org.nz

Activities for 24th - 30th October

Monday October 25ht

"In a Land of Plenty" screens on TV1

Friday October 29th

Militant Labour Forum

October 25th - In a Land of Plenty screening

25th October - 10.05pm - TV One

New Zealand currently has 89,000 registered unemployed. The Reserve Bank is trying to slow the economy which will lead to this number increasing.

"In a Land of Plenty" is an historical documentary describing how New Zealand moved from being a country of genuine full employment to one where unemployment is used as a tool of economic management. With rising unemployment workers are less likely to seek wage increases. Wages make up the largest part of the cost of goods and services and so by constraining wages the general level of prices is held steady. Inflation is contained.

Economic theory aside, unemployment is an emotional subject and this documentary gives voice to the low paid, the beneficiaries and their dependents whose quality of life is now shaped by Reserve Bank policy makers. Reserve Bank officials like Don Brash are seen explaining their actions. One of the most shocking scenes involves young Treasury officials deciding on a "poverty line". To increase the motivation of the unemployed to search for work, they decide that benefits should be cut to a level at which the recipient would have only just enough to eat.

Extraordinary footage from WINZ training videos shows Christine Rankin personifying the steady shift in attitude from compassion to compulsion in our welfare state. Pearl Biggs gives a moving account of having to choose whether to buy food for her children or to pay the power bill.

Director/researcher Alister Barry says "I am delighted that this film is to be screened on tv, I never expected it. The more people understand the way power really works in New Zealand, the more they can get some control over their lives. Michael Cullen says there is no alternative. I believe we can return to genuine full employment."

Ahmed Zaoui book release

"I Almost Forgot About The Moon" - the disinformation campaign against Ahmed Zaoui - is now available from GPJA at the UNITE! office - $15 with all proceeds to go to the Zaoui family. This book is a brilliant expose by Scoop Media editor Selwyn Manning of the campaign to discredit Zaoui by Algeria and France and the complicity of New Zealand officials in this as our country has tried to paint itself as a loyal footsoldier in the war on terror. Get in early for XMAS - no I'm not joking - and help make the Zaoui XMAS a bit happier! Order from miket@pl.net, or get a copy from the Unite Office, Ground Floor, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn

"The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist." Winston Churchill

October 21st - sustainability economics

Dr John Peet is speaking on sustainability and economics at the WEA (59 Gloucester Street), though the notice I got doesn't say what time... I'll sort that out asap =/

I went to his last talk about a week ago and I think he's got a very convincing idea of why we need sustainable economics (nutshell: the more resources each of us uses, the less of us the planet can support). However, like most Green Party policies, I'm left skeptical about the chances of actually achieving this in the face of the massive power that business holds in our society. Although there are many projects these days promoting enivronmental responsibility to businesses by claiming that it can make money rather than cost money, the fact remains that the basis of our lifestyle is the extraction and conversion of resources, many of which are non-renewable. For those that are renewable, the profit motive often drives them to be used faster than they renew.

Ultimately, sustainability requires holding our consumption of resources within the sharp limits posed by the ecosystem we exist within. This is anathema to the constant growth that capitalism requires, and so it seems to me that we can't really have a sustainable economics without a non-capitalist economics. If that sounds vague and wishy-washy, there's actually some quite well worked-out alternatives, Participatory Economics for one.

I am reassured by the title of Dr Peet's next lecture, "Does sustainability need a new economics?" and I'll definitely go along to see what else he has to say on the matter.

Thursday 21 October
WEA, 59 Gloucester St., ph.366 0285.
Entry by donation. All welcome!

October 20th - John Rumbiak interview

Last Thursday I went to see the Pacific speakers at Knox Hall. John Rumbiak was the most interesting, because of the extreme nature of the Indonesian government's attempts to control West Papua. It's a very similar situation to that endured by East Timor for so many years. In fact, many of the same people as were managing East Timor's repression and terror are now stationed in West Papua. The international community refuses to do anything. When John spoke to our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Phil Goff told him that we don't want to interfere in the internal affairs of another country. Indonesia is regarded by the US and its sycophants as an "Emerging Democracy"; a polite term for a brutal military regime on which the United States looks favourably.

Earthwise (96.9 Plains FM @ 8:30pm Wednesday) interviews John Rumbiak, West Papuan activist on why his land should be independent.

October 29th - Militant Labour Forum

'Law and order' campaign targets working people. This week's Militant Labour Forum will discuss how the Labour government and National Party opposition are preparing deeper attacks on working people's rights under the slogan of "law and order". 7pm, Friday, October 29, Suggested donation $3 Militant Labour Forum & Pathfinder Books, at 'The Gloucester' Arcade, (near the Theatre Royal), 129 - 131 Gloucester St, Christchurch. For more details ph(03) 365 6055 or e-mail: mlf-chch@paradise.net.nz

October 12th - Israeli Peace Movement

Professor David Shulman, from Hebrew University speaking to the topic "The Israeli Peace Movement: A personal account" on Tuesday 12 October, 7.30pm at the Central lecture theatre - C2 - at the University of Canterbury.

October 14th - Pacific peace leaders speak

From Christian World Service:

Dear Friends

Christian World Service and Arena invite you to a very special evening with some key leaders in the Pacific. John Rumbiak from West Papua, Lopeti Senituli from Tonga and Hilda Lini from Vanuatu will be speaking at Knox Church Hall, 7:30 pm Thursday 14th October. Today we are sending out fliers about the event which we would appreciate you sharing widely. If you would like more information please contact Gillian (phone number 03 366 9274 ext 112) at CWS.

Yours sincerely
Gillian Southey

Activities for 10th - 16th October

Tuesday 12th October

Public lecture on the Israeli peace movement

Wednesday 13th October

Amnesty International presents "Dead Man Walking"

Thursday 14th October

Pacific peace leaders speak

Friday 15th October

Militant Labour Forum

Saturday 16th October

West Papua in Crisis

October 13th - Against Death Penalty

University of Canterbury Amnesty International Presents: "Dead Man Walking" Wednesday 13 October, 12:30, Shelley Common Room, University of Canterbury Students' Association.

In honour of the World Day in Coalition Against the Death Penalty, AI will offer a free screening of "Dead Man Walking". This is a true account of the consequences of capital punishment as experienced by a nun servings as spiritual advisor to an inmate on death row. Information will be available about the current practice of capital punishment, including updated statistics and the exercise of child executions. There will also be opportunity to write a letter on behalf of the cause to end capital punishment.

MediaLens.org

Hmmm. I recommend MediaLens. No doubt it is biased against the US and the UK, as critics of the activist world-view monotonously claim. I don't quite get that objection: for one thing, there's so vastly much left out of the mainstream media that it's got to be worthwhile seeking alternative points of view, even if they're biased. You don't get the full story by looking at only one point of view.

For another thing, you're talking about two countries who illegally invaded another nation without ANY sort of excuse, as the mainstream media is belatedly reporting, and who consciously manipulate the media to protray themselves and their actions as favourably as possible. It's not unfair to be skeptical about them.

Maybe I should let MediaLens speak in their own words:

Facing Goliath:

What we are inviting readers to do is to redefine the standards by which the media are judged. People occasionally write to us suggesting that we praise an article in the Independent, or a couple of reports by Channel 4, on the grounds that they 'deserve to be mentioned in a relatively positive light when compared to the shockingly servile reporting of the situation we're getting from the BBC and the rest of the media'.

But what we are suggesting is that the entire corporate media is complicit in the devastation of the Third World, in the possibly terminal devastation of the environment, and in mass murder. They do not merely allow this to happen, they are vital in articulating the deceit of benevolent 'normality' by which obscenity is perennially camouflaged. There could be no clearer example of this than the staggering refusal of the media to demand the resignation or impeachment of Tony Blair.

The performance of the media suggests that literally nothing could persuade journalists to awaken from their establishment slumber - they are just too comfortable, too privileged, too compromised.

We must build alternative media, now, providing a rational and compassionate response to the problems facing us. We need to create a media liberated from the drive for profit, greed, egotism and power.

NEW books at The Freedom Shop

NEW books at The Freedom Shop!

The Freedom Shop is an awesome little place at the small end of Cuba Street... I hope I get back up there before the place is bulldozed. Anyway, the list of new books looks awesome. I recommend "Addicted to War," it's a fine comic. "The Trajectory of Change" is also pretty good, in an "oh yeah, that's obvious... why don't people see that?" sort of way.

"Parecon: Life After Capitalism" is an astonishing project, but it's available free online at http://parecon.org/.

Go! Order!

October 16th - 'Conflict in West Papua'

From indymedia:

West Papuan activist John Rumbiak is visiting New Zealand to publicise the Indonesian military repression of West Papuans. He is going to be speaking at a series of public meetings. West Papua is facing the same repression East Timor used to face.

West Papua in Crisis - National speaking tour by John Rumbiak

John Rumbiak is a fearless advocate for the rights of the people of West Papua, the Pacific country occupied by Indonesia since 1963. John is the Chairman of International Affairs for the West Papua Human Rights organisation ELSHAM, which has taken a lead in the efforts to establish West Papua as a Zone of Peace. He is visiting Aotearoa during September and October, and will be speaking at public meetings in Whangarei, Tauranga, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin (see details below).

For more information about John, and to check for updates on his public meetings, see http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/johnr04.htm The national and media contact for John's visit is Maire Leadbeater, Indonesian Human Rights Committee, tel (09) 815 9000 or email maire@clear.net.nz Local contacts are included with public meeting details below.


* Christchurch *

- Saturday, 16 October - 'Conflict in West Papua' workshop, part of the 'Securing a Peaceful Pacific: Preventing and Resolving Conflict in the Pacific' conference, for more information go to http://www.posc.canterbury.ac.nz/pacificpeace/index.shtml

See also:
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/johnr04.htm

6th and 7th November - Anarchist conference

From the Anarchist Round Table:

@ GATHERING - NOT ANOTHER BULLSHIT TALKFEST :: Register at http://a-gathering.anarchism.org.nz

Sick of green reformist politics? Want to take part in some real politics?

Then come along to this year's anarchist conference being held in Christchurch over Guy Fawkes weekend - the 6th & 7th of November. It will host a variety of workshops, discussions, strategy sessions and practical skill-sharing as well as a bit of entertainment. It should be a lot of fun!

A big focus this conference will be on the organisation of various anarchist projects as well as the anarchist movement in general.

The anarchist conference is open to all anarchists, lefties and those just curious! Here are the key things you need to know about the conference...

Date: 6th & 7th November, 2004. Running from 9.30am - 6pm both days.
Venue: WEA, 59 Gloucester St, Christchurch (easy walk from central city).
Accomodation: Plenty of free accomodation available, see the website.
Food: Lunch and dinner available on the Saturday, lunch available on the Sunday.
Childcare: Available, but please advise us ahead of time.
Entertainment: Sorted. Saturday night party at the Media Club, gold coin koha.
Cost: $15 unwaged, $20 waged (let us know if this is going to be an issue and we can sort something out).

So basically register now, sort out accomodation if you're coming from outside Christchurch and meet at the WEA at 9.30 on the Saturday the 6th of November. Bring yourselves and your smiles...

Visit http://a-gathering.anarchism.org.nz to find out more and to register!

October 15 - Militant Labour Forum

From the Militant Labour Forum:

Defend a woman's right to choose abortion!

The Militant Labour Forum will discuss why the fight for a woman's right to choose - a key front in the battle against sexist discrimination - is in the fundamental interests of the working class. Annalucia Vermunt, a member of the Communist League will introduce the discussion. 7pm, Friday, October 15. Suggested donation $3 Militant Labour Forum & Pathfinder Books, at 'The Gloucester' Arcade, (near the Theatre Royal), 129 Gloucester St, Christchurch.For more details ph(03) 365 6055 or e-mail: mlf-chch@paradise.net.nz.

PS: Abortions are legal

Linda vs Marie

Linda Clark is on the radio advertising the next week of her show on National Radio. Speaking about her Friday interview with Marie Hilao-Enriquez, she says "Marie is a human rights activist campagining for compensation from the ousetd Marcos government." That's not really the whole story.

Marie is touring Aotearoa over the next fortnight, speaking about "the Philippines as America's 'Second Front In The War On Terror' and the Impact on Human Rights." Marie's organisation, KARAPATAN, is not focussed on the Marcos regime, believing that although the leaders had changed, the system remained the same. Power is still wielded by elites in the Phillipines and human rights abuses have continued. The US lost their military bases in the Phillipines in 1991, five years after the ouster of their ally Marcos and one hundred years after invading, and are using the actions of the muslim separatist ("terrorist") movement as an excuse to get troops back in.

According to Moana Cole, of the Phillipine Solidarity Network of Aotearoa,

"A close scrutiny of the list of 34 "foreign terrorist organisations" designated as such by the US Secretary of State clearly show that only a few (ironically, those created or mentored by the US) could really be considered as terrorist organisations. The majority are either humanitarian organisations or national liberation movements espousing causes and programmes opposed to US intervention and economic domination." (source article)

Marie is currently involved in peace talks with the Muslim separatists.

I'm not sure if Linda Clark intends to limit the interview to one of Marie's ongoing projects (one which isn't even the reason for her visit to Aotearoa, but which does have the advanatge of allowing Linda to again mention Imelda Marcos' shoe collection). I suspect that she won't even know the questions to ask to find out about the Phillipines' history of conquest and occuption in which the Marcos' abuses are rooted. Go to Marie's talk on Tuesday, and listen to the interview on Friday, and hopefully that'll give a balanced look at things.

Activities for 3 - 9 October

Tuesday 5th October

Marie Hilao-Enriquez speaks at Trade Union Centre.

Thursday 7th October

"Is There an Economics of Sustainability?"

Friday 8th October

National Radio interviews Marie Hilao-Enriquez

Trans-Tasman weekend of anti-GE action begins.

Human Rights Film Festival

Starting on International Human Rights day (10 December), the Regent on Worcester is going to be hosting a weekend human rights film festival. That's all I know at this stage but I'll be posting details as they come in.

More details available from the media contact: darren.kemp@paradise.net.nz

October 7th - "economics of sustainability?"

You are invited to a public forum: Thursday 07 October, 7:30pm at WEA, 59 Gloucester St
Dr John Peet, Dept of Chemical and Process Engineering, Uni of Canterbury (retired) will speak on "Is There an Economics of Sustainability?"
Hosted by the Green Party