#222:

GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER #222, January 14, 2008

Website http://www.gpja.org.nz/ Contact details: Forums – John Minto, Work: (09) 845 2132, Home 09 846 3173 jbminto@xtra.co.nz; Newsletter Editor – Mike Treen 0295254744 / 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.nz/ or click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.

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WHAT’S ON IN AUCKLAND
CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANISING MEETINGS: Starting again January 15. Civil Rights Defence Committee, 6pm, Tuesday Unite House, L12, 300 Queen St

WHAT’S ON IN WELLINGTON

~ Thursday, 17 January - End NZ support for the 'war on terrorism', peace vigil from 5pm to 6pm at the Cenotaph (corner Lambton Quay and Bowen Street). This will be the first vigil for 2008, they will then resume the usual pattern of the first and third Thursdays of each month; for more information contact Peace Movement Aotearoa email pma@xtra.co.nz

~ Every Saturday - 'Behind the News' produced by Jim Delahunty, from 12.15pm to 12.45pm on Access Radio 783AM. If you would like to contribute to 'Behind the News', please email jimddig@clear.net.nz

WHAT’S ON IN NEW ZEALAND

~ Friday, 25 to Sunday, 27 January - Waihopai spybase protest: "The public face of New Zealand's role as an American ally is the NZ military presence in Afghanistan. But New Zealand's most significant contribution to that, and other American wars, including the one in Iraq, is the Waihopai spybase. Waihopai is controlled by the US, with New Zealand (including Parliament and the Prime Minister) having little or no idea what goes on there (let alone any control) ... Waihopai does not operate in the interests of New Zealanders or our neighbours. Basically it is a foreign spybase on NZ soil and directly involves us America's wars. Waihopai must be closed. We invite people from around the country to join us for the weekend of anti-war protest at this spybase" - more information and the registration form for the protest is available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/waihopai08.pdf or from email cafca@chch.planet.org.nz

~ Thursday, 31 January - deadline for the return of signatures for the depleted uranium (DU) munitions national petition, which reads: "To the House of Representatives: that the House emulate the Belgian Parliament's decision of 22 March 2007 by prohibiting in New Zealand the manufacture, use, storage, sale, acquisition, supply and transit of inert munitions and armour that contain depleted uranium [DU] or any other industrially manufactured uranium." The printable petition form, with a fact sheet from DUET, is available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/dupetition.pdf

~ Saturday, 2 and Sunday, 3 February - Save Happy Valley: occupation celebration - 2 years! "You're invited to the Save Happy Valley Coalition's celebration of our second successful year of occupying Happy Valley. We have been continuously occupying Happy Valley since January 28th 2006 in order to prevent Solid Energy from turning it into an environmentally devastating opencast coal-mine. Despite spies, 6000 snails from Augustus transferred in ice cream containers, the destruction of a nearby mountain, Solid Energy's plans for massive expansion, and the October 15th raids on activists, people have managed to keep Happy Valley safe so far! Yay for train track blockades, film nights, alternatives to minerals forums, demos, radio interviews, everyone's actions, and the occupation! The Save Happy Valley Coalition, and anyone who wishes to join us for the weekend celebration, will be meeting at Les Warren Park, in Westport, at 8am on Saturday, 2 February (the majority of us will travel to Westport from Christchurch on the Friday night, car pooling can be arranged thru the coordinator). We hope you can join us. Please RSVP so we can coordinate easily Please let us know if you have any special needs that are of concern, we will be as accommodating as possible and we can provide you with as much information as you require." For more information, including the list of what you need to take with you if you are planning on going, and to RSVP, contact email frances.feijoa@gmail.com

~ Wednesday, 6 February - Waitangi Day, the 168th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty, details of associated events will be included in the what's on where listings in the new year.

~ Monday, 18 to Friday, 22 February (registration deadline is Friday, 18 January) - Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, with approximately 350 participants expected from more than 100 governments, as well as around 100 civil society experts in the removal of cluster munitions, assistance to victims, and advocacy. Information for NGOs is available at http://www.stopclusterbombs.org.nz/the-conference If you wish to register for the conference, the registration form is at http://www.stopclusterbombs.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/nzcmc_wlgr... - please note that participants from NGOs in Aotearoa need to register as soon as possible, the absolute deadline is 18 January. There will be public meetings in Auckland and Wellington (and possibly other cities) around the time of the conference; registration is not required for those events. Information about what you can, wherever you are, to support the conference reaching its goals will be available at http://www.stopclusterbombs.org.nz/take-action/ in January; the government's web site for the conference is at http://www.mfat.govt.nz/clustermunitionswellington/index.php

~ Friday, 14 to Sunday, 16 March - 'Promoting peace through active non-violent resistance' is the theme of the 2008 National Peace Workshops - postponed earlier this year, the National Peace Workshops have now been re-scheduled and will be held at the Quaker Settlement, Whanganui, in March. The weekend will include workshops and panel discussions with Maori, Moriori, Pacific and Pakeha contributors who have experience of community and individual non-violent resistance, and/or non-violent direct action in Aotearoa and overseas; as well as workshops on campaigns of our member and other groups. More information and registration details will be available in late January at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/npw08.htm

~ Ongoing - Help us ban cluster bombs, online petition: "I support the global call to ban cluster bombs", you can add your name at http://www.stopclusterbombs.org.nz/take-action/petition/

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNOUNCING THE MAY DAY 2008 BRIGADE TO VENEZUELA
Registration deadline: March 30th, 2008 (including payment). The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network’s (AVSN) next solidarity brigade to Venezuela is schedule for May 2008 and will coincide with May Day (May 1st) in Venezuela. The brigade will be a unique opportunity to see first-hand the unfolding revolution in Venezuela. The AVSN has organized five very successful brigades to Venezuela. Venezuela’s poor people, led by George W. Bush’s arch-enemy, President Hugo Chavez, have taken over many workplaces, set up thousands of cooperatives, established thousands of free public education and health programs, organized their neighborhoods and taken big steps towards exercising “popular power” in their country. Participants in the AVSN brigade will meet with a wide range of community organizations involved in transforming Venezuelan society, visit occupied factories and educational institutions, see “popular power” at work in the communal councils and people’s banks, and speak to government and grassroots organizations about the radical changes being implemented by the Venezuelan people. The itinerary will include time in Caracas as well as regional Venezuela, and will incorporate a special focus on meetings with Indigenous activists and communities. Accommodation, transport and English translation in Venezuela will be organized for participants. If you are interested in being part of this inspiring and educational experience, please send the completed registration form to brigades@venezuelasolidarity.org, or phone Lara Pullin on 0439 601 277 or Roberto Jorquera on 0425 289 394.

TOUR FOR NOTED US CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER LEONARD WEINGLASS
Dear Friend, The Cuba Friendship Society in Auckland invites you to be part of an international campaign calling for the release of five Cubans imprisoned in the United States. Gerardo Hernández, René González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, and Fernando González – the Cuban Five, as they are known – have been in U.S. prisons for nine years. They were convicted in 2001 of conspiracy to commit espionage for the government of Cuba, and related charges.
The five men were monitoring Cuban-American organisations based in Miami in order to uncover plans and activities that posed a threat to the safety of the Cuban people. These organisations have an extensive record of carrying out violent attacks against Cuba from U.S. soil, including assassination attempts on Cuban officials, biological warfare, and bombings.
Leonard Weinglass, one of the U.S.-based attorneys for the Cuban Five, will be touring Australia early April 2008 to raise awareness and build support for this campaign. He will be available to visit Auckland for two days as part of this tour.
Beginning in the 1970s, Leonard Weinglass has defended many political activists, including Angela Davis, Mumia Abu Jamal, and leaders of the American Indian Movement. In 2004, the American Trial Lawyers Association voted to name an annual award, the Leonard I. Weinglass Award, honouring lawyers who contribute to human rights and civil liberties causes.
If you want to help with the tour, need further information, or have ideas on fund-raising or others to approach, please let us know. Email: cubafriendship@xtra.co.nz More information about the Cuban Five can be found at www.freethefive.org
GUARDIAN INTERVIEW: 'Society has become more punitive': For 40 years, Leonard Weinglass has been the defence lawyer in some of America's most spectacular trials, representing the Chicago Eight, the kidnappers of Patty Hearst and the man who helped bring down President Nixon. He tells Duncan Campbell why the current case of the Cuban Five shows how politics is derailing the US justice system
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,2237566,00.html

BEST ON THE WEB

NEW ZEALAND
Waihopai Protest Part Of Global Day Of Action Anti-Bases Campaign - From your community to the world! From the world to your community! The International No Foreign Bases Network invites you to join the GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION on 26 January 2008.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0801/S00060.htm
Work-Life balance important for all families Child Poverty Action Group
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0801/S00038.htm
The Eighth Annual “Big Gay Out” - AIDS Foundation - The ever-popular Big Gay Out is coming to Coyle Park again in Pt Chevalier, for the eighth year running, on Sunday February 10 http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0801/S00063.htm
John Minto: Apartheid and Palestine
http://johnminto.org.nz/apartheid-and-palestine/
John Minto: Predictions for 2008
http://johnminto.org.nz/2007/12/
One News sponsor linked to rainforest destruction Green http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0801/S00085.htm

REVIEWS
The Power of Authority: A Dark Tale
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/movies/30lipt.html
The Kite Runner: Film Review by Colin Wilson, January 2008. Director: Marc Forster
http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=10244
No Country for Old Men: Film Review by Toby Osmond, January 2008. Directors: Ethan and Joel Coen
http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=10247
"The Great Debaters" A Courageous Film Undertaking By Sherwood Ross
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0712/S00332.htm
David Edwards And David Cromwell's "Guardians Of Power" By Stephen Lendman: Book Review: "Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media". It's a work distinguished author John Pilger calls "required reading" and "the most important book about journalism (he) can remember" since Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman's classic - "Manufacturing Dissent." Cromwell and Edwards "have done the job of true journalists: they have set the record straight" in contrast to the mainstream that distorts and corrupts it for the powerful.
http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman090108.htm

VIDEO
Who Killed the Electric Car? Who Killed the Electric Car? is a 2006 documentary film that explores the birth, limited commercialization, and subsequent death of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 of the 1990s. The film explores the roles of automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, the US government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers in limiting the development and adoption of this technology.
http://leftclickblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/who-killed-electric-car.html

INDIGINOUS PEOPLES RIGHTS
Valuable resource database on native peoples' web sites and organizations:
http://www.nativeweb.org/hosted/
"For America to Live, Europe Must Die" By Russell Means - The following speech was given by Russell Means in July 1980, before several thousand people who had assembled from all over the world for the Black Hills International Survival Gathering, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is Russell Means' most famous speech.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19048.htm

WAR ON FREEDOM
The "Good Good War" Is A Bad War By John Pilger - John Pilger describes how the invasion of Afghanistan, which was widely supported in the West as a 'good war' and justifiable response to 9/11, was actually planned months before 9/11 and is the latest instalment of 'a great game'
http://www.countercurrents.org/pilger110108.htm
Free Radicals: Peace Activists Protest Torture In Front Of CIA - ''We are here as citizen witnesses speaking out as reports continue to reveal the role of the CIA in the rendition of people who are clandestinely abducted, held without charge, denied access to lawyers or loved ones, abused, and tortured. News reports have divulged that the CIA has covered up its role in the possible use of the torture technique known as water-boarding.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0801/S00120.htm

ENVIRONMENT
Unto The Breach: Greenpeace Confronts Japanese Whalers In Southern Ocean http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0801/S00166.htm
Illegal Logging And Road Building Threatens Tigers And Tribes Of The Heart Of Sumatra http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0801/S00090.htm

WORLD ECONOMY
Bernanke Warns Of Recession - US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Wednesday that the US economy is slowing dramatically and broadly hinted that the Fed would aggressively cut interest rates in response, perhaps before its next scheduled policy meeting at the end of January
http://www.countercurrents.org/kay120108.htm
The Deflation Time Bomb By Mike Whitney - When banks don’t lend and consumers don’t borrow; the economy crashes. End of story. The whole system is predicated on the prudent use of credit. That system is now in terminal distress. Everyone to the bunkers. Perhaps the whole “inflation-deflation” debate is academic. The real issue is the length and severity of the impending recession. That’s what we really want to know. And how many people will needlessly suffer
http://www.countercurrents.org/whitney120108.htm
A Lesson From the Last, and Next, Recession
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/a-lesson-from-the-last-a_b_7...
When Neoliberalism Implodes - Left Perspectives on the Current Political Economy
A Discussion with Robert Brenner and Sam Gindin Moderated by Vivek Chibber
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/bg020108.html

ARGENTINA
Class divide hardens for Argentina's growing poor - A quarter of the nation now lives in poverty in a country that once prided itself on an egalitarian ethos
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0107/p04s02-woam.html

BOLIVIA
Fear and Loathing in Bolivia: New Constitution, Polarization
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1067/1/
Danielle Mitterrand’s Open Letter to European Leaders: Bolivian Democracy in Mortal Danger
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=52&ItemID=14648
Why Bolivia Matters Laura Carlsen | January 7, 2008
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4876

BURMA
The influential Burmese website THE BURMA DIGEST yesterday announced the results of it's poll for Person of the Year 2007 in Burma. U Gambira, who led Burma's Saffron Revolution in 2007 got highest number of votes.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0801/S00002.htm
The All-Burmese Monks Alliance (ABMA) issued a statement yesterday, calling on the people of Burma to support their struggle against the military regime once again.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0801/S00030.htm

CANADA
The curious absence of class struggle - It's not so much the rich getting richer; it's the very, very rich
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080104.wcoessay0105...

CHINA
In Chinese Factories, Lost Fingers and Low Pay http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05sweatshop.htm...

CUBA
'Society has become more punitive': For 40 years, Leonard Weinglass has been the defence lawyer in some of America's most spectacular trials, representing the Chicago Eight, the kidnappers of Patty Hearst and the man who helped bring down President Nixon. He tells Duncan Campbell why the current case of the Cuban Five shows how politics is derailing the US justice system
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,2237566,00.html
Latin America at the Crossroads: Cuban Communist Makes the Case for International Revolution
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/riddell030108.html

IRAQ
New Year Begins Unhappily In What Was Home
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40657
US Carries Out Massive Bombing On Outskirts Of Baghdad - The US military unleashed a huge bombardment on the Arab Jubour district just 15 kilometres south-east of Baghdad on Thursday. In the space of 10 minutes, B-1 Stealth bombers and F-16 fighter-bombers pounded 47 targets with 47,500 pounds of high explosive bombs. A military spokesman, Major Alayne Conway, boasted that the operation “was one of the largest air strikes since the onset of the war”. The blasts were seen, heard and felt in the suburbs of Iraq’s capital
http://www.countercurrents.org/cogan120108.htm
Iraq: Less Violent But Not Less Hellish By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
http://www.countercurrents.org/jamail120108.htm

KENYA
What's The Real Source Of Kenya's Violence? By Lee Sustar - The class polarization--along with an increase in police violence in the name of fighting gangs in the slums--set the stage for the explosion of political violence. The Kikuyu, who are disproportionately represented in business and commercial life, became the scapegoats for class inequality
http://www.countercurrents.org/sustar110108.htm

PAKISTAN
Pakistan's flawed and feudal princess - It's wrong for the West simply to mourn Benazir Bhutto as a martyred democrat, says this acclaimed south Asia expert. Her legacy is far murkier and more complex
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2233261,00.html
My heart bleeds for Pakistan - It deserves better than this grotesque feudal charade - By Tariq Ali
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article3295851.ece

PALESTINE
"What Is The Lesson To Be Learned From The Holocaust?" By Silvia Cattori - Hedy Epstein, is a German Jewish Holocaust survivor, born in 1924, whose parents were sent to Auschwitz in 1942, where they perished. In 1948, Hedy Epstein went to live in United States. In 2003, she decided to make a trip to Palestine. Shocked by the oppression that the Israeli government is imposing on the Palestinians, she is, since then, devoting herself to make it known to the world.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19044.htm
Israel's Right to Be Racist By: Joseph Massad
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General/Story2289.html
Ungenerous occupier: Israel's Camp David exposed By Jonathan Cook
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9181.shtml
Shin Bet chief says 1,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since 2005: Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin noted Sunday that "in the last two years roughly 1,000 "terrorists" were killed in IOF and Shin Bet operations in Gaza over the past two years."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3493510,00.html

SRI LANKA
Sri Lankan Government Pulls Out Of 2002 Ceasefire Agreement By Wije Dias - After waging an undeclared civil war for two years, the Sri Lankan government gave notice on January 2 that it would pull out of the 2002 ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The decision sets the stage for a further escalation of fighting aimed at destroying the LTTE militarily and effectively ends any prospect of peace talks and a negotiated resolution to the 25-year conflict
http://www.countercurrents.org/dias090108.htm
International Cover-Up in Colombo
http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=...

UK
George Monbiot: The Turks haven't learned the British way of denying past atrocities: It is not illegal to discuss the millions who were killed under our empire. So why do so few people know about them?
http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1674478,00.html

VENEZUELA
Some notes on Chavez's latest reflections at PSUV founding congress
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/blog/fred/3060
People's Power in Venezuela
http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/riddell090108.html
Venezuela's Chavez Announces Plans for Rectification and Continued Advance
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3038
What to expect in 2008
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/blog/fred/3058