Today we are taking action against the war of our society. So we will be creating a roadblock at the army depot in rockhampton in the position of prostration.
Photos of todays Whale Watching action. Photographer Miranda Denner. free to use
Byron Whale Watch Operators + Conservationists oppose Japans Humpback kill plan
Melbourne film-makers documentary ‘Pride of Warriors’ was scheduled to screen on Al Jazeera English channel last night at 6:30pm. In cooperation with the 3rd largest English television broadcasters, the film had been made to uncover secret human rights abuses in the Indonesian Province of West Papua. It appears that the channel bowed to pressure from the Indonesian Government and removed the documentary hours before it was due to be aired.
Talisman Sabre 09 is a biennial exercise that involves 20,000 U.S. & 7,000 Australian troops, fighter jets and warships, it is taking place in July in central Queensland, Australia.
Australian complicity in the U.S. war on the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan includes the present deployment of 600 Australian (SAS, Special Ops and infantry) troops in Afghanistan, detention in Australia of Afghani refugees fleeing the war and daily targeting information for U.S. bombardment coming from the U.S. N.S.A Pine Gap near outback Alice Springs.
Six Australian graffiti artists were found guilty of painting British trains and have been gaoled in London.
The gang of six known as the AMF Crew painted internationally before being caught in London and found guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal damage. Other work by AMF has since been spotted in Japan and Australia.
Film Screening of 'Sling-Shot Hip-Hop', a documentary by Jackie Salloum about young Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel discovering hip-hop and using it to resist against racism, sexism, and Israel's military occupation.
By donation.
Migaloo the white whale is migrating north, risking sonar attacks and the live firing exercises of military war games.
Migaloo has been widely reported in the media as an iconic Australian animal. The rare white whale is joining thousands of other whales migrating north and was last spotted just south of Brisbane, at the Gold Coast on July 1st.
At his current rate of progress, he should reach central QLD at about the same time as the US-Aust joint war games, Talisman Sabre, are conducting live firing exercises on land and sea in the Great Barrier Reef and at Shoalwater Bay.
Dear Friends
Operation Talisman Sabre begins in days!!!
Attached is a detailed program of events for the Peace Convergence (a calendar of events is also available on the website http://www.peaceconvergence.com). Here is a quick overview of the program:
Fri July 3 - Sun July 5 Committed2Change Festival see http://www.committed2change.org
Sun July 5 1pm- 6pm Talisman Saber 2009 Open Day (see below)
Sun July 5 7pm Film Screening: Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives: the Environmental Impact of War
Thur July 9 5:30pm Nonviolent Direct Action Training
Native title claimants and five shire councils in central Queensland
have set the ball rolling for negotiations to develop an indigenous
land use agreement (ILUA).
Today in Mt Isa, representatives of the Kalkadoon People and the
Boulia, Burke, Cloncurry, McKinlay and Mt Isa shire councils signed a
memorandum of understanding (MoU) that commits them to an
agreement-making process.
Media Release
26 June 2009 PR09-13
Native title claimants and local government commit to negotiations
Native title claimants and five shire councils in central Queensland
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia – The Cycle Strongman Expedition (CSX) recently rolled into Darwin completing the first leg of Chris Roach’s “adventure of a lifetime”1 - to complete a solo, unassisted and continuous circumnavigation of the planet on a humble bicycle.
Friends of the Earth welcome visitors Dr Sue Wareham OEM, President of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War and Judith le Blanc, Native American activist & Organising Co-ordinator for the US peace group United for Peace and Justice. Wareham and le Blanc will speak in Brisbane this week on the environmental and social justice costs of war in opposition to the Talisman Saber 09 US-Aust joint war games. Dr Wareham will show the film Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War
Contact:
Rayna Fahey
G20 Support Network
+ 61 0416 620 221
http://www.afterg20.org/
Support for G20 Protester Facing Trial
Maori activist and mother of three, Sina Brown-Davis, goes to trial before a jury in the Melbourne County Court today 2nd July 2009, on charges relating to protests against the G20 two and a half years ago in Melbourne.
A history of Cooperative Action: A celebration of our past, and a peer into the future of cooperative action.
This Saturday, 4th July, is the International Day of Cooperatives, and what better way to spend it then with friends who live this model in their lives and work.
5pm, Saturday 4th July
FoE House: 294 Montague Road, West End, Brisbane
Strike for Climate Justice! December 11th 2009 – Jeffrey Luers, May 09.
Around the world people are beginning to feel the heat of global warming, entire nations to tiny communities are suffering the effects of climate change.
Few issues so neatly symbolise a whole system of oppression as the ban on same-sex marriage. It seems so clear to gay and lesbian people and our supporters that we deserve the basic civil right to be able to publicly celebrate our relationships with the same standing and recognition that straight couples do. It is so blatantly unfair.
For decades we were told that free market capitalism was the solution to all of society's problems. The world economic crisis has shattered that myth. Millions are being thrown out of their jobs or their homes. A whole generation of young people wanting to enter the workforce are finding that there are simply no jobs. In a world where there is the technological capacity to provide a decent life to every person on this planet, poverty and want are everywhere.
As already reported on this site (see http://indymedia.org.au/2009/06/15/update-from-the-sydney-g20-solidarity...) the trial was due to begin in Melbourne today of one of the activists arrested after the G20 protests in November 2006. Sina Brown-Davis is charged with riot, affray and criminal damage.
34 to 60 people were killed and many more where injured and some activist have gone missing after protests turned to clashes between Indigenous Indians of the Amazon and police in Bagua north of Peru got violent. The protests came about after the Peruvian government made changes to land laws threw there free trade agreement with the USA to allow corporations to log, drill for oil and dam the river. If the works went ahead it would have been the end of for the many indigenous group’s culture and living standards.
7.30–9.30
Welcome to country: Darumbal elder Janette Yow Yeh
— Speakers —
Judith LeBlanc
National Organizing Co-ordinator of United for Peace and Justice,
the largest US national peace coalition
Professor Jake Lynch
Director, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Sydney University
Chip Henriss
Co-founder of Standfast: veterans and service people against the wars.
Chip has served as a US Marine and Australian Army officer and
Close the Bases
Stop the Exercises
End the Wars
Up to 30,000* US and Australian troops will be practicing bombing, landing and raiding at Shoalwater Bay in Central Queensland - just north of Rockhampton- in the NT and in WA as part of Australia-US Joint Military Exercises Operation Talisman Sabre 2009 from JULY 6 – 26 this year.
The Peace Convergence is calling for peace action to take place throughout the war games in the Shoalwater region, throughout Queensland and around Australia. Join us in saying NO! to the practicing and waging of war.
Stop War Games Stop Talisman Sabre 09
Reduce Military Spending
Australian troops out of Afghanistan
We oppose these war games because:
· They are designed to practice aggression and offensive military strategies, not to defend Australia or protect its people.
· They are intended to train Australian military personnel to take US military orders – the so-called “seamless interoperability”.
· The exercises will cost over $50 million, an obscene amount in these times of economic recession.
From the 6 July, Australia will host the third 'Operation Talisman Sabre', joint military exercises with 13,000 US and 7,000 Australian troops. With worldwide military spending likely to tip $1.4 Trillion this year, and our militaries continuing to participate in a horrendous war in Afghanistan, it is vital people let the Government know we seek a different solution to our world's problems. Perhaps you can come up to Shoalwater Bay in central Queensland to join protests and resistance.
Where US troops go, sexual assaults and drug charges follow. Look out Cairns!
Around the world, in the Philippines, Japan and many other locations, US bases have become the centre of major social problems. The Governor of Okinawa has said the US bases on his island brought a major increase in levels of prostitution, drugs, alcoholism, rape, sexually transmitted diseases, and abuse of women and children.
The Australian experience is similar.
An Anglican Church report from Hobart details frequent sexual assaults on juvenile men and women by US service people.
Media Release 24 June 2009
Stop Talisman-Sabre - Brisbane launch
Peace and environmental protesters from around Australia are organising to obstruct and counter the US - Australian war games which will take place at Shoalwater Bay near Yeppoon 6 - 26 July.
Called Talisman-Sabre, the live-fire war games will involve some 30,000 US and Australian military personnel, cost Australian taxpayers at least $50 million and bomb and blast coastal waters and pristine rainforest of the largest wilderness area on the Central Queensland coast.
In Melbourne outside Parliament train station approximately 1,000 leaflets were distributed in solidarity with jailed unionists in Iran from 7:30am to 9am on Friday 26 June
More information: Victor Moore, Rail, Tram & Bus Union 0475 512 494
source AAWL on 3CR's 9am Saturday's Asia Pacific Currents radio show interview Saturday June 27th
http://www.3cr.org.au/asiapac
MUA members and officials joined around 300 unionists, workers and members of the Australian Iranian community outside the Iranian Embassy
