Global Peace And Justice Auckland Newsletter #25

Website http://www.gpja.pl.net/ Contact details: Forums John Minto, (09) 8463173 mailto:jbminto@xtra.co.nz; Newsletter Editor Mike Treen 0212547440 / 3763780 mailto:miket@pl.net Web page Geraldine Peters (09) 3570655 mailto:bern@ihug.co.nz Donations can be sent to GPJA, 84 Paice Ave, Sandringham, Auckland. All communication regarding the GPJA mailing list (email or snail) should be addressed to mailto:gpjamailinglist@xtra.co.nz

SATURDAY, MARCH 8 SAY NO TO WAR AND ITS MESSENGER JOHN HOWARD 12 NOON IWD MARCH, ASSEMBLE AOTEA SQUARE

2.15PM “NO hoWARd” WELCOME AT WHENUAPAI AIRBASE 4PM PROTEST OUTSIDE THE AUSTRALIAN CONSULATE, 186 QUAY ST 5.30PM PROTEST OUTSIDE SHERATON HOTEL

SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 9.15AM, PROTEST OUTSIDE SHERATON WHEN HELEN CLARK MEETS JOHN HOWARD

This Saturday International Women's Day is being turned into a protest against war. Australia's warmongering Prime Minister John Howard is also arriving that day and we plan to make his reception as hot as possible. The sickening hypocrisy of a man who detains Iraqi refugees in desert concentration camps while preparing to wage war to “liberate” the Iraqi people needs to be exposed in the strongest terms.

After assembling at Aotea Square at 12 noon to listen to some speeches the march will head to the US consulate where “weapons inspectors” will make their search.

Then we want as many as possible to head to Whenuapai Airbase by 2.15pm to give John Howard the welcome he deserves. We go back into town by 4pm for a rally outside the new Australian consulate (at 186 Quay St), which Howard is opening. From there we will go to a 5.30pm protest at the Sheraton where Howard is hosting a business reception to celebrate CER (i.e. “free trade” with Australia). The Next morning at 9.15am there will be further protest at the Sheraton when Helen Clark is meeting Howard.

MAKE MARCH 8 A DAY OF ANITWAR ACTION

It's imperative we organise as vigorous a protest as possible against John Howard. As Prime Minister of Australia he has taken the lead in supplying troops to the US-led military build-up in the Gulf. He has defended taking unilateral action if the US fails to cajole the Security Council into endorsing war. He has also defied the opinions of 90 percent of Australians who want no part in this war. At the same time he is detaining hundreds of Iraqi refugees in appalling conditions at desert camps in Australia and on islands in the Pacific. We must make sure he gets the message loud and clear. We must also keep pressing for our government to get off the fence and condemn the war drive by Bush, Blair and Howard in the strongest terms. With the fate of millions of people at stake this is no time for “politics as usual”.

MATIONAL DAY OF ACTION MARCH 22

GPJA is also calling for a national day of action against war on Saturday, March 22, and we hope to have leaflets and posters ready by March 8 for people to take away.

BADGES "Stop the War on Iraq" badges available - $2 each. Order one to wear or several to sell. Email mailto:miket@pl.net or phone Mike 3763780 / 0212547440

SPEND FOR PEACE www.spendforpeace.co.nz Boycott U.S. Brands. We can help peace every time we go into a shop. We can choose where to spend our money. We can send a message to Bush and his band of bullies that is strong and clear and effective. Join the Spend for Peace boycott now! Choose for yourself and your family which brands to boycott. Then tell them! Tell the retailers, the company's customer service line and their head office. And tell the politicians as well. Tell each other, spread the word. Let's all join together to send our message to the White House in language they will understand. We and the rest of the world will not tolerate U.S. domination and arrogance. Buy U.S.A.? No way!

WAITAKERE CITY PASSES ANTIWAR RESOLUTION Waitakere City Council becomes the first in NZ to pass antiwar resolution on Feb 18 RESOLVED 1. That this Council strongly supports the New Zealand Government's stance and urges the United States of America to pursue diplomatic measures in its attempts to ensure that Iraq does not possess weapons of mass destruction. 2. That this Council urges the members of the United Nations Security Council to support the continuation of the current arms inspection process being conducted in Iraq.

WHAT'S ON IN AUCKLAND

Friday, March 7, 7pm, St Benedicts Church, Newton World day of Prayer, organised by people in Lebanon

Saturday, March 8, 12 noon, Aotea Square WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD UNITE AGAINST THE WAR. March 8th is International Women's Day. All around the world on this day women are organising demonstrations against the war and sanctions on Iraq. Contact: mailto:iwd_auckland@yahoo.co.nz

Saturday, March 8, Sheraton Hotel, 83 Symonds St, City 2pm - Protest at new Australian High Commission being opened by John Howard 6.30pm – Protest at John Howard reception “celebrating” CER with NZ businesses

Sunday, March 9, 9.15am, Sheraton Hotel, 83 Symonds St, City Antiwar protest at John Howard/Helen Clark meeting

Sunday, March 9, 10pm local time LIGHT THE GLOBE FOR PEACE! LIGHT A LIGHT in a window, in your garden, courtyard, atop your home or building. Use a lamp, candle, lantern, projector or any other form of illumination. Keep it safe. As the light will be recorded by satellites and planes, this gesture will, in the annals of humanity, remain a definitive testimony for hope in the future common to all mankind -.PEACE for all. As the moment of the “Bush War” in Iraq approaches, let us make a special effort of solidarity to join global demonstrations and gestures for peace!

Sunday, March 9, 1pm, 84 Paice Ave, Sandringham GPJA Committee meeting to plan new antiwar action.

Tuesday, March 11, 7.30pm, Music Auditorium, Auckland College of Education QPEC meeting on GATS and education

Tuesday, March 11, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn Socialist Worker Forum: “The struggle for Women's liberation.”

Friday, March 14, 7pm, St Patrick's Cathedral, Wyndham St, City “Peace for Iraq”, organised by people in Auckland

Tuesday & Wednesday, March 18/19, Crown Plaza, Auckland GE Free Coalition to picket a “Commercialising Biotechnology” conference. Contact Karyn 3584105 or 025417209 or Steve Abel at Greenpeace 6306317 ext 308

Monday, March 24, 7.00pm, Friends Meeting House, 113 Mt Eden Rd, Mt Eden Forum with Sue Rhodes who has spent the last six months in Hebron, Palestine, as part of the Christian Peacemakers Team.

Sunday, April 6, 7pm, St Benedicts Church, Newton. "40 minutes for Peace", organised by Women's Resource Centre

Monday, April 7, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn GPJA forum with special guest Sue Rhodes who has spent the last six months in Hebron, Palestine, as part of the Christian Peacemakers Team. Message from Sue Rhodes: “CPT, or Christian Peacemaker Teams, is a Chicago based organisation which works to reduce violence in various parts of the world. At present there are teams based in Colombia and Israel/Palestine and there are smaller teams working for first nation rights in Canada and USA. Regular delegations are being sent to monitor the situation in Iraq, one returned three weeks ago and another will enter this weekend. The Team in Israel/Palestine is based in the middle of old city, in Hebron, West Bank. I will have been there for six months when I come to New Zealand. Part of our work is documenting and photographing human rights abuses, but the other important part is getting our information seen and heard by as many people as possible”.

VIDEOS Video for hire. ''Iraq: Voices from the street'' was filmed in Iraq in September 2002 by American documentary makers Saul Landau and Sonia Angulo. 23 minutes long, it is a window into what ''ordinary'' Iraqis are thinking and feeling about the crisis they are living through. These are the people who will suffer and die if the US attacks Iraq - a good video to view with friends and neighbours to increase understanding and empathy for the Iraqi people and their plight. Send $10 to cover the cost of postage and hire for 2 weeks to Christine Dann, P.O. Box 46, Diamond Harbour 8030, Banks Peninsula.

NEW WEBSITE FOR STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE http://www.playcreative.co.nz/sjp/

GREEN PEACE AND JUSTICE NEWSLETTER For the latest news read JustPeace - A digest of what the Greens and other peace-with-justice activists are doing locally and globally. It will concentrate on ''what's hot'' in peace news, action and analysis, and direct you to other bulletins and to relevant websites for more details. For back issues go to: http://www.greens.org.nz/docs/more_docs.asp?class=other&cat=118 To subscribe to JustPeace please email Tim Hannah. mailto:Tim.hannah@parliament.govt.nz

ANITIWAR CD PROJECT For a website/CD release/music project critical of the Bush junta see www.peace-not-war.org Includes shakira, springsteen, public enemy, suicide, change, massive attack, ms dynamite, asian dub foundation, cornelius, coldcut, crass, asian dub foundation, ani di franco, john pilger and tariq ali remixed, and others.

AN INVITATION TO JOIN WHAT IS THE ANTI BASES CAMPAIGN? We are a Christchurch-based group with links and members all over Aotearoa/New Zealand. We concentrate on the foreign military and intelligence installations in New Zealand. There are three - the US "Deep Freeze" military base at Harewood (Christchurch Airport) and the "New Zealand" intelligence gathering installations at Tangimoana (Manawatu) and Waihopai (Marlborough). We demand the abolition of the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), which operates Waihopai and Tangimoana. We demand that Harewood be demilitarised; and the others closed ASAP. Visit our Website at http://www.converge.org.nz/abc

WE NEED AN ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP We are inviting you to become a member of the Anti Bases Campaign and subscribe to our newsletter, Peace Researcher. Membership, including the annual sub, is $20. For overseas subscribers, the cost is $NZ25 if you live in Australia; or $NZ30 for anywhere else in the world. We post airmail. This is a vital issue. NZ is neither nuclear free nor out of the US war machine until these bases are dealt with. Send $20 to subscribe to Peace Researcher and join ABC Make cheques to: Peace Researcher, Box 2258, Christchurch, NZ Anti-Bases Campaign Box 2258, Christchurch, New Zealand mailto:cafca@chch.planet.org.nz http://www.converge.org.nz/abc

FINALISTS NAMED FOR THE ROGER AWARD FOR THE WORST TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION IN NEW ZEALAND IN 2002 The US and its allies (including little old New Zealand) are currently reverting to a very old form of "globalisation", namely that enforced at the point of a gun. Starting with Afghanistan, and in preparations for Iraq, it is aiming to reshape the world into something more amenable to its wishes, and more profitable for its biggest of Big Businesses. Globalisation simply means the increasing domination of the global economy by transnational corporations (TNCs), whether achieved at gunpoint or bloodlessly. Nowhere is this more true than in New Zealand, where they exercise an even greater influence in the economy, despite our having a "Centre-Left" government. Little or nothing has been done to change the policies of the past 18 years. The two Christchurch-based groups(CAFCA and GATT Watchdog) which organise the annual Roger Award say that TNCs are the real "government" of New Zealand; we asked the public to nominate the worst of 2002, and now the finalists are off to the judges.

The six finalists are: Tranz Rail; Novartis; Carter Holt Harvey; Shell; Telecom and Sky City. The criteria for judging are by assessing the transnational that has the most negative impact in New Zealand in each or all of the following fields: unemployment, monopoly, profiteering, abuse of workers/conditions, political interference/running an ideological crusade, environmental damage, cultural imperialism, impact on tangata whenua, impact on women, health and safety of workers and the public. The judges are: Sukhi Turner, Mayor of Dunedin; Dr Ranginui Walker, Emeritus Professor at Auckland University, Prue Hyman, academic and feminist, of Victoria University; and John Minto, National Chairperson of QPEC (Quality Public Education Coalition) and community activist. The winner(s) will be announced in Auckland, in April. >From politicians of all stripes, "experts" and the media (itself owned by a handful of transnational corporations) the public is constantly bombarded with the corporate agenda. Namely, that what is Good For Big Business is Good For New Zealand. We say that it ain’t necessarily so. The Roger Award holds an unflattering mirror up to the ugly side of Big Business and exposes the lie that unfettered corporate power is the best - and only - way. The Roger Award is part of our challenge to the "Centre-Left" Government - are you going to do anything to control and roll back the power of our real, unelected government, the transnational corporations? Leigh Cookson, Roger Award Committee

CAFCA Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa Box 2258, Christchurch, New Zealand mailto:cafca@chch.planet.org.nz http://www.cafca.org.nz

APPEAL FOR REPORTS ON ANTIWAR PROTESTS All of us were truly inspired by the global wave of peace demonstrations over the weekend of February 15-16! Hague Appeal for Peace and the International Peace Bureau would like to document the experiences of those who participated in the worldwide cry for peace on that historic weekend. If you attended a march or rally, we invite you to send us a brief (100 words or less) account of your experience. Please make it factual, describing highlights of the day: what happened to you tell us about encounters you had with others; what speakers said (use quotes if possible); what signs said (many were quite creative and poignant!). You could include brief references to responses from governments, police, those around you (especially youth). What will you "always remember" about the experience?

We will edit and categorize the responses, add some of the many great photos taken that day, and create a section on the Hague Appeal for Peace website (www.haguepeace.org). Depending upon our success in finding funding for this project, we hope to eventually create a CD-ROM or edit a book.

Pease note: Responses should be emailed to mailto:nowar@haguepeace.org. Sincerely, in peace, Michael W. Hovey Executive Director, Hague Appeal for Peace

QUOTES

"The killed will be covered with earth and lime, and once more all the crowd of deluded men will be led on and on till those who have devised the project weary of it, or till those who thought to find it profitable receive their spoil. And so once more men will be made savage, fierce and brutal, and love will wane in the world... And so once more the men who reaped profit from it all will assert with assurance that since there has been a war there must needs have been one, and that other wars must follow, and they will again prepare future generations for a continuance of slaughter, depraving them from their childhood." (Tolstoy, 1896)

NEWS ON THE PACIFIC

Pacific media Watch http://www.pmw.c2o.org/ NZ journos union protests Tongan newspaper ban http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0302/S00194.htm

ACEH

Indonesia violates peace accord http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/527/527p23c.htm

NZ & GATS

The NZ government is currently discussing what “commitments” it will make under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) which locks in access to services to multinational companies. For background material see: http://www.arena.org.nz/

PPTA GATS Submission The New Zealand government should abandon the March 31 deadline to conclude initial negotiations under the General Agreement of Trade in Services (GATS) until a review into the impact of the agreement on New Zealand's public education system is undertaken. PPTA calls on government to delay GATS http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0303/S00004.htm Submission on GATS Consultation Document http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0303/S00005.htm

ANTIWAR

Organisers of antiwar movement plan to go beyond protest http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30813-2003Mar2.html

International union opposition to Iraq war http://www.labourstart.org/iraq/newswire.shtml

US labour against the war http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/

Global brands face boycott in protest at US war plans http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=239172003

Too Much of a Good Thing Underlying the US drive to war is the need to open up new opportunities for surplus capital - George Monbiot, The Guardian http://www.monbiot.com/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=562

US arm twisting at the UN – buying votes http://www.msnbc.com/news/877101.asp?0sl=-13

Rumsfeld's lies – letter from a NZ “human shield” in Iraq http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00195.htm

What about the Iraqi children – a 13-year-old speaks to antiwar rally http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15291

If not war, what then? 48 opponents of war answer questions http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/page/0,12438,903942,00.html

Some great antiwar photos from around the world http://people.cornellcollege.edu/a-free/feb15.htm

Uniting for Peace – A UN alternative to war http://www.danirak.dk/english/ratner_final_op_ed_uniting.htm

THE WAR ON FREEDOM

The paydirt of paranoia – privatising detention – Aziz Choudry http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00186.htm

IRAQ WAR

For regular updates http://electroniciraq.net/news/

US says regime change and disarmament needed to avoid war http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/01/international/middleeast/01IRAQ.html

Star witness on Iraq said weapons were destroyed http://www.fair.org/press-releases/kamel.html

US prepares to use banned chemical weapons in Iraq http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=383006

Inside Iraq – the tragedy of a people betrayed – John Pilger http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1599.htm

Iraqi exiles reject war http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/1840/sw184022.htm

Those Iraqi missiles http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/feb/27/022702958.html

Kurds will resist Turkish troops in Iraq http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030228_1808.html

UK taxpayers paid millions for Iraqi arms http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,904627,00.html

Blairs Hypocricy – John Pilger http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=3154

How the news will be censored - Robert Fisk http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=381438

An amazing satire http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/special_reports/images/iraq_hard_place_transcript.doc

PALESTINE

Robert Fisk: America uses Israel's words to justify occupation http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=382362

Bush speech shifts policy to accept Israeli settlements http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13827-2003Feb27?language=printer

CUBA Cuba's biological weapons – the world needs more of them, by Richard Levins http://www.counterpunch.org/levins02282003.html

FREE TRADE

The Mexican Farmers' Movement: Exposing the Myths of Free Trade http://www.americaspolicy.org/reports/2003/0302mexfarm_body.html Laura Carlsen, Americas Policy Report Not since agrarian reform under President Lázaro Cárdenas in the late thirties had so many campesinos marched in the nation's capital. And perhaps not since the revolution had such a diverse crowd united behind such radical demands.

EU's secret plans hold poor countries to ransom http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,902296,00.html

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