#196: Help Save Ali Panah
GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER #196, August 14, 2007
Website http://www.gpja.org.nz/ Contact details: Forums – John Minto, Work: (09) 845 2132, Home 09 846 3176 jbminto@xtra.co.nz; Newsletter Editor – Mike Treen 021 211 5530 / 09 845 4027 mike@unite.org.nz; Web page - media@ndu.org.nz Donations can be sent to GPJA, P O Box 7175, 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,
HELP SAVE ALI PANAH - Three things you can do to help Ali Panah:
(1) Email Minister of Immigration David Cunliffe and the prime minister (with copies to us) to request Ali be given a temporary visa until it is safe for him to return to Iran. David Cunliffe dcunliffe@ministers.govt.nz Helen Clark pm@ministers.govt.nz
(2) Get your union, church or community group to issue a media release in support of Ali Panah
(3) Advertise and attend a picket outside Auckland hospital in Park Road at 12 noon this Saturday (18th August)
Background
Iranian Ali Panah is on the 33rd day of a hunger strike in protest at his detention without trial or charge for the past 18 months. He was transferred from Mt Eden prison to Auckland hospital last week. He is refusing all food as well as a drip and is taking water only. He is weak, becoming emaciated and confused.
Ali arrived here several years ago and applied for refugee status. His application was declined and he was arrested 18 months ago and detained at Mt Eden Prison to be deported. However it is not safe for him to return to Iran so he has refused to sign papers applying for an Iranian passport.
As a Christian convert (before he came to NZ) his life would be in danger. Ali has the strong support of his New Zealand employer, his Anglican vicar and fellow parishioners as well as the Iranian community in New Zealand.
Amnesty International says that in cases like this the government should issue a temporary visa until it is safe for Ali to return to Iran. David Cunliffe is refusing to use his discretion under the Immigration Act to do this.
We are requesting all organisation and individuals to support this request.
Please act urgently.
Mike Treen (mike@unite.org.nz) 021 211 5530
John Minto (john@unite.org.nz) Phone 0064 9 8463173 or 0064 9 8452132
MEDIA COMMENT ON PANAH CASE
Greens voice concern over health of hunger striker
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0708/S00213.htm
Day 31 Of Hunger Strike - Ali Panah Weak Confused
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0708/S00154.htm
Immigration Minister David Cunliffe says an Iranian hunger striker has had his full rights under the law over his claim for refugee status.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4164446a10.html
STRIKE WITH COMMUNITY PICKET FRI AUG 17 – INDEPENDENT LIQUOR
Friday, August 17, 3-6pm, Independent Liquor, Boundary Road, Papakura
- The workers at Independent Liquor need community support. It’s a site with a culture of bullying and anti-union victimisation where the workers are paid a “South Auckland rate of pay”. Unite union members have been offered pay increases less than non-union members which is illegal but of no concern to this company. (Independent produces “alcopops” aimed at teenage drinkers. These are brands such as Woodstock and Pulse which should be boycotted.)
WORKERS CHARTER NEWSPAPER:
The July issue is out. For a free copy email either editor@workerscharter.org.nz or john@unite.org.nz with your address and we will send you one in the hope you will subscribe. It’s possibly the best issue yet. Read about the hospital workers lockout, water price policies in Auckland, Sky City, Boycott Woodstock, Blair Peach, the “racist Bastard” in Aussie and his policies, review of the great film “Lives of Others”, the revolution in Venezuela, should unions fund the Labour Party? And the new slave trade via soccer. Etc etc
ANNOUNCEMENTS
NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR THE THE ROGER AWARD
Nominations are now open for this most prestigious and keenly contested annual Award (won by Progressive Enterprises in 2006; the previous winners are: Westpac/BNZ, Telecom, Juken Nissho, Carter Holt Harvey, TransAlta Monsanto and TranzRail – 3 times). Nominations close on October 31.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0706/S00327.htm
INVITATION TO JOIN THE NEXT AUSTRALIAN SOLIDARITY BRIGADE TO VENEZUELA
November 23 - December 3, 2007 - The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network’s brigades to Venezuela are a unique opportunity to see first-hand the unfolding revolution in that country. The Venezuelan people, led by George 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” at every level of their society. Participants on the November-December 2007 brigade will meet with a wide range of community organisations involved in transforming Venezuelan society, visit occupied factories and educational institutions, see participatory democracy at work in the communal councils and people’s banks, and speak to government and grassroots organisations about the radical changes being implemented by the Venezuelan people. This brigade will include a special focus on justice for Indigenous people, and will include visits to Indigenous communities and meetings with Indigenous activists and leaders. 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$4500. The deadline for registering for the November-December 2007 brigade is August 31. If you are interested in being part of this inspiring and educational experience, please complete the registration form at www.venezuelasolidarity.org, email brigades@venezuelasolidarity.org
VISIT CUBA THIS SUMMER
Cuba consistently makes the news: whether it is it’s health care system (see Salud or Sicko), its response to its oil crisis, its environmental programmes, or by remaining a political opponent of US imperialism for forty years. It is also the home of salsa and its music is world renowned.
Registrations are open for the 25th Southern Cross Brigade to Cuba. Members of the Brigade, which is made up of Australians and New Zealanders, spend approximately four weeks in Cuba, leaving 27th December and returning 24th January. The all up cost is $5500, including airfare, spending money and all accommodation and meals. Members of the Brigade often stay longer in Cuba as private travelers or move onto other countries in the region. For further enquiries and registration e- mail Ina at inashina@clear.net.nz or Paul at wkcultur@ihug.co.nz (03 732 4010).
LATIN AMERICAN AND ASIA PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY FORUM - OCT 11-14, 2007 - MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Dear Friend, We are writing to invite you to participate in the Latin American and Asia Pacific International Solidarity Forum - Fighting and organising globally against neoliberalism! (October 11-14th 2007). To read the conference call go to: http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org/?q=node/325 The forum has been initiated by the organisers of several successful conferences and gatherings in solidarity with Latin America and the Asia Pacific, the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN), Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference (APISC) and the Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET). We anticipate that this forum will be a unique and historic convergence of progressive and anti-imperialist groups from Latin America, the Asia Pacific and beyond. In order to ensure the conference is as successful as possible we are seeking the involvement and input of all interested individuals, institutions and groups. Written proposals for contributions, workshops etc are welcome and can be submitted in writing to the email below. Please distribute this invitation to your networks. In Solidarity, Lisa MacDonald (APISC) 0413 031 108; Lucho Riquelme (LasNET) 0402 754 818; Jorge Jorquera (AVSN) 0431 720 787. Further Information: Email solidarityforum2007@yahoo.com To join our discussion group go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Solidarity-Forum-2007
WHAT’S ON IN AUCKLAND
Wednesday, August 15, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
R A M - Residents Action Movement - An election launch never before seen. RAM's council election campaign kicks off with: BELFAST POETS TOURING GROUP presents: Love Poetry, Hate Islamophobia. Internationally acclaimed performance poets with an action-packed, high-voltage, multi-media show. Supporting acts: Latin rock band - ECHEVERRIA Y CIA; Good time group - FRANK E. EVANS BAND; P L U S SHOCK! HORROR! RAM announces news that will dismay the tired, useless, status quo politicians in City Vision (Labour) and Citizens & Ratepayers (National) and
WOW! TOO MUCH! RAM unveils the most cutting edge billboards of the council elections. These billboards will set the agenda of all election tickets. Seeing is believing! YOU ARE INVITED.
Bring family & friends. Safe alcohol-free zone. $10 waged/$5 unwaged. Come along and support RAM's policies: Cut council rates of grassroots homeowners; Defend our communities from racist attacks; Free & frequent buses and trains; Save our public assets from corporate colonisation; Protect our park on the Manukau Harbour; And other policies which put people before profits. OPEN TO THE MEDIA. Followed by light refreshments (non-alcoholic). For more information, contact: Grant Morgan, RAM organiser, 634 4432 (w+h), 021 2544 515 grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
Thursday, August 16, 7.30pm, Mangere East Community Centre, 372 Massey Rd (behind Library)
R A M - Residents Action Movement Manukau campaign launch - feel the beat! The exciting Cook Island performance group TE VAKA O MAUI kicks off RAM's Manukau campaign launch for the council elections. Come and feel the beat of the drums! Plus there's Mangere's outstanding hip-hop group RECOMMENDED DOSAGE as well as five-part acappella singers NESIAN 5 who are so talented so young. A fantastic evening of drums, songs and laughter along with RAM's core election message that people must come before profits - not the other way round as market politicians are telling us. Free of charge. Come along and support RAM's policies.
Thursday, August 16, 7pm, 29 Princes St, City
PEACE FOUNDATION AGM - We would like to extend an invitation to you to attend our Annual General Meeting. This will be an opportunity to hear about all of the work we have been doing over the past year, and to meet some of our people - Council Members, staff and personnel from Auckland, Wellington and from the Disarmament & Security Centre in Christchurch.
Friday, August 17, 3-6pm, Independent Liquor, Boundary Road, Papakura
STRIKE WITH COMMUNITY PICKET - The workers at Independent Liquor need community support. It’s a site with a culture of bullying and anti-union victimisation where the workers are paid a “South Auckland rate of pay”. Unite union members have been offered pay increases less than non-union members which is illegal but of no concern to this company. (Independent produces “alcopops” aimed at teenage drinkers. These are brands such as Woodstock and Pulse which should be boycotted.)
Saturday, August 18, 5pm, ARC Chambers, 21 Pitt St (Cnr Pitt & Hopetoun Sts)
LAUNCH OF CHRIS TROTTER’S BOOK: NO LEFT TURN.
Saturday August 25, 7pm, Jack Dickey Hall, 174 Greenlane
FROM THE HEART OF NEW ZEALAND TO PALESTINIAN HEARTS - Support the Paula Jones Documentary Film on New Zealand heart surgeon Dr Alan Kerr ‘s work among Palestinian children under Israeli Occupation - Fundraising Dinner $30 ~ Drinks available for purchase Tel: (09) 630 4912 Email marjorye@ihug.co.nz
Monday, August 27, Time TBC, Nga Wai O Horotiu Marae, AUT University
BOOK LAUNCHING - POU KORERO - A JOURNALIST'S GUIDE TO MAORI AND CURRENT AFFAIRS, Carol Archie (published by the NZ Journalists Training Organisation).
September 10, 12 noon, Aotea Square, Queen St
PROTEST MARCH TO THE US-NZ PARTNERSHIP FORUM – Tell Helen Clark: - Don’t support the US wars of terror in Iraq and Afghanistan; - Don’t sign trade agreements that give away our right to control our own economy; - Justice and human rights in the Pacific is not for sale. Contact A Space Inside Collective aspaceinside@gmail.com Ph 021 150 3597 http://ourworldisnotforsale.wordpress.com/
Thursday, September 13, 7.30pm, Auckland Centre University of Otago House 385 Queen Street (Free Parking ) PROF WILLIAM HARRIS - POLITICAL STUDIES - MIDDLE EASTERN SCENARIOS IN THE 21ST CENTURY Part of a series of free public lectures starting May 10 at the University of Otago Auckland Centre. http://www.otago.ac.nz/aucklandcentre/whatson/index.html
BEST ON THE WEB
REVIEW
Michael Moore exposes Bush's "Sicko" system
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/720/37354
NEW ZEALAND
KiwiFM Audio: Wallace Chapman talks to Scoop's Selwyn Manning about loan sharks and how a government report into this exploitation will be released by Lianne Dalziel this Friday in Otahuhu.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0708/S00185.htm
Hone Harawira: Going Walkabout With Alice
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0708/S00198.htm
FSANZ Approval of GM animal food into human food chain regardless of safety doubts.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0708/S00150.htm
Scoop News: Media Types Gather At 4th Estate's "Journalism Matters" Conference (Day Two) - Audio + Images: Many of New Zealand's top journalists gathered at the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union's Journalism Matters summit in Wellington this weekend where they discussed the direction of New Zealand's news media and what can be done to make sure it delivers. The summit held in Parliament followed a series of redundancies in APN and TVNZ due to financial decisions as well as the rapidly increasing move to staff reduction across New Zealand's media.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0708/S00157.htm
Alastair Thompson - Scoop Images & Audio: Journalism Matters (Day One)
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0708/S00142.htm
Simon Collins - Commercial pressure on journalism
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0708/S00172.htm
David Robie - Pacific Media Centre: Journalism Matters
http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/niusbeat/070812_OM-MakingPublic.shtml
Pacific Media Centre - Summary Of Resolutions
http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/niusbeat/070812_OM-EPMU.shtml
WORLD ECONOMY
High-risk mortgages turning into toxic mess - Experts believe the biggest problems will emerge during next 16 months
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20216643/
Credit Fears Spark Stock Market Plunge By Patrick Martin
http://countercurrents.org/martin100807.htm
US sparks worldwide panic: The market's biggest one-day fall in almost six years knocked almost $53 billion off the value of Australia's top 200 companies.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/08/10/1186530620178.html
Fed Injects $19 Billion More in Liquidity, Fed Funds Rate Falls: The U.S. Federal Reserve Friday provided the largest amount of liquidity for a single market operation in four years, adding ample funds for the second day running as markets fretted over credit conditions.
http://tinyurl.com/234v5p
Bank of Japan injects one trillion yen into money markets: The injection followed the European Central Bank's move Thursday to pump a record 94.8 billion euros (130.2 billion dollars) into the eurozone banking market as lenders struggled for funds in a flight to safety from the growing defaults in the US home loans market.
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/070810/1/4ahjw.html
The "Plunge Protection Team" (PPT) Working Overtime to Save US Stock Market: The PPT cannot afford to sit back and watch both the US housing market and the stock market sinking at the same time. That might spell the dreaded "R" word, - Recession.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article1771.html
Subprime: The Ugly American Hits Europe: French bank BNP suspends subprime-linked funds. Europe's central bank responds; stocks tumble
http://tinyurl.com/2hj9xn
ENVIRONMENT
Wild Weather A Taste Of Things To Come By Marc Kaufman
http://countercurrents.org/kaufman090807.htm
JOHN PILGER
Good Ol' Bill, The Liberal Hero By John Pilger - The Clinton scam is symptomatic of the death of liberalism - not its narcissistic, war-loving wing ("humanitarian intervention"), which is ascendant, but the liberalism that speaks against crimes committed in its name, while extending rungs of the economic ladder to those below.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18150.htm
How truth slips down the memory hole
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/720/37366
IRELAND
The inside story of British death squads in Northern Ireland : Simon Basketter reveals how a campaign to terrorise Catholics was orchestrated by military intelligence
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=12688]
VENEZUELA
Hugo Chávez By: Ignacio Ramonet - Le Monde Diplomatique
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2113
In Venezuela, Chávez designs socialist state for 21st century - Claims the needs of workers put ahead of profits
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2007/08/10/in_ven...
The Venezuelan Economy in the Chávez Years, by Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval - Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington
http://cepr.net/documents/publications/venezuela_2007_07.pdf
PARAGUAY
Priest takes on Paraguay's party monopoly: A rural priest hopes to become Paraguay's president on his promise to fix long-standing social ills such as poverty, and in the process unseat a party that for 60 years has run the country top to bottom.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/196043.html
IRAQ
Over 1 Million Killed Since U.S. Invasion: The number is shocking and sobering. It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on the only scientifically valid study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
Flush with Profits - Military Contractors See a World of Business Opportunities: With almost no congressional oversight and even less public awareness, the Bush administration has more than doubled the size of the U.S. occupation through the use of private war companies.
http://www.alternet.org/audits/59571/
PALESTINE
Palestine: a policy of deliberate blindness - Last year President Jacques Chirac asked Régis Debray to study the situation in the Middle East. On 15 January 2007 Debray sent the French authorities the following document on Palestine. It is an important key to understanding a long policy drift whose results are now obvious.
http://mondediplo.com/2007/08/05palestine
Mahmoud Abbas' War Against The Palestinian People - Abbas' policy of colluding with Israel to starve his own people is having its effect. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA issued a desperate appeal for the borders of the besieged strip to be reopened.All 600 garment factories in Gaza have shut down because they cannot import raw materials and 90 percent of factories involved in the construction industry have closed
http://countercurrents.org/abunimah110807.htm
AFGHANISTAN
How a 'good war' in Afghanistan went bad
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/12/asia/12afghan.php
Simon Jenkins: It takes inane optimism to see victory in Afghanistan: This war against the Taliban is part of a post-imperial spasm. The longer it is waged, the graver the consequences
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2143788,00.html
Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time: Afghanistan now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with Nato troops.
http://tinyurl.com/2s49tu
JAPAN
The Terror America Wrought By Robert Scheer - During a week of mayhem in Iraq, in which terrorists have rightly been condemned for targeting schoolchildren, it is sobering to recall that this week is also the 62nd anniversary of a U.S. attack that deliberately took the lives of thousands of children on their way to school in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As noted in the Strategic Bombing Survey conducted at President Harry Truman’s request, when the bomb hit Hiroshima on April 6, 1945, “nearly all the school children ... were at work in the open,” to be exploded, irradiated or incinerated in the perfect firestorm that the planners back at the University of California-run Los Alamos lab had envisioned for the bomb’s maximum psychological impact.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18142.htm
USA
How the Democrats Blew It in Only 8 Months By Alexander Cockburn - The voters put the Democrats in to end the war, and it's escalating. The Democrats voted the money for the surge and the money for the next $459.6 billion military budget. Their latest achievement was to provide enough votes in support of Bush to legalize warrantless wiretapping for "foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States." Enough Democrats joined Republicans to make this a 227-183 victory for Bush.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18157.htm
THAILAND
Who are the climate leaders?
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/720/37355
SAUDI ARABIA
In Princes’ Pockets By Tariq Ali
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n14/ali_01_.html