Gerry Georgatos interviewed Dave from Occupy Perth regarding protests against the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (COGM) in Perth this weekend
GERRY: Dave, can you give me a little insight into the brief history of the Occupy movement?
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), opened by the Queen, was held in Perth on Friday October 28 to Monday October 31. The event incorporated an Aboriginal presence and events included a welcome to country. However, one of Western Australia's prominent Nyungar Elders, Ben Taylor refused an invitation to be part of the CHOGM and instead opened the rally for justice against the CHOGM, with a welcome to country and the first speech, on Friday, at 10am in Forrest Place, Perth while the Queen's motorcade passed nearby.
Mr Taylor said, "Why would I bow down to them? I will not be a token Aborigine for them and bow down to world leaders, heads of government who commit one human rights abuse after another, including genocide."
Below is a video made by long time Melbourne peace activist Anthony Kelly which in his words focusses on the bravery of the non-violent resisters of Occupy Melbourne. As Anthony says - it took 10 hours to clear the square, 100 arrests and at least 80 injuries, yet the movement continues to grow. Power to the peaceful!
As a freelance journalist, it is my job to cover protest and put myself into situations where others may feel unsafe. It is my job to cover events as they unfold and report on them. Here is a detailed first hand account of my experiences of Occupy Melbourne's eviction.Â
Here I am not stating support for or against Occupy Melbourne. This is simply a detailed statement of what I witnessed.
26 October 2011 The Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect has today released a statement regarding the reports about the shooting of civilians in Jayapura, West Papua, on 19 October 2011.
The Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect appeals to the Indonesian
government to show leadership in protecting and upholding human rights in response
to continuing reports that members of the Indonesian military and police opened fire
on civilians attending the Third Papuan People’s Congress in Abepura, Jayapura, on
the afternoon of Wednesday 19 October 2011.
Media Release - Opinion - Environment updated
28 October 2011
Ya Want Koala Chips with That Ms Parker? Whaddaya mean hold the Quoll Paste?
By now everyone knows of NSW Minister for Environment and Heritage, Robyn Parker's Budget Estimates Committee alleged gaffe on Thursday 27 October 2011 that koalas are 'protected by logging'.
The "Logging saves Biodiversity" line is not unfamiliar. Forests NSW has run similar arguments frequently for decades. Take a look at this story they ran on ABC radio 6 days ago:
Dear Radio Friend,
The latest Shortwave Report (October 28) is up at the website http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml in 3 forms- (new) HIGHEST QUALITY (128kb)(27MB), broadcast quality (16MB), and quickdownload or streaming form (6MB) (28:59) Links at page bottom
(If you have access to Audioport there is a highest quality version posted up there {27MB} http://www.audioport.org/index.php?op=producer-info&uid=904&nav=&)
Peru fired Raquel Yrigoyen Fajardo from
INDEPA after she blocked a gas project
SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL, October 27, 2011 - - Peru has fired its top indigenous affairs official after she reversed an ‘illegal’ decision to allow Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol to enter land inhabited by uncontacted tribes.
Raquel Yrigoyen Fajardo has been replaced as head of Peru’s government indigenous affairs unit INDEPA by a former lawyer who specializes in ‘business ethics.’
Like in Sydney and Melbourne the authorities in the U.S. are increasing the level of violent repression of the Occupy Movement. This has had tragic consequences in Oakland California where a 24 year old Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen was hit in the head at point blank range by a tear gas cannister. Guardian article. The Youtube clip below shows a crowd being fired on with a stun grenade attempting to come to Scott's aid.
Indybay.org: Hella Occupy Oakland | Occupy Oakland
MEDIA RELEASE 24 OCTOBER 2011 Staff from the Fitzroy Legal Service attended as legal support on Friday 21 October 2011 as the Occupy Melbourne collective were moved on and dispersed by police horses, dogs, and around 200 members of the Victorian Police Force.
Occupy Melbourne intends to resume peaceful occupation of public space in Treasury Gardens after walking from the State Library of Victoria after assembling at 12noon, on Saturday the 29th of October.
After a shocking 4 Corners report on Monday, more than 30,000 GetUp members added their names to a petition calling on the Prime Minister to end Australia's detention disgrace.
Sadly, early yesterday morning our immigration detention system claimed another victim: 27 year old "Shooty" (as his friends knew him) who, after 2 years of detention, could no longer continue in a system of arbitrary and, what the Australian Medical Association has labeled, "abusive" detention system.
The Network for Global Activism released y'day the following call for int'l solidarity...
Dear friends,
This is a solidarity letter to support a woman worker who has been sexually harassed by her managers, and unfairly dismissed as a subcontractor of Hyundai Motor. She has been holding a sit-in struggle in front of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family from June.
Gerry Georgatos Australia has one of the worlds' worst deaths in custody records - prison and police custodial - however this country's social wealth is envied by most of the rest of the world. Therefore, how is it possible that Australia, with its social wealth, perpetrate the most horrific statistics in terms of custodial deaths, in terms of the rate of deaths and in terms of crude totals? How is it that the Aboriginal peoples of this nation are disproportionately borne with the brunt of deaths in custody and borne with disproportionately wild incarceration rates? Aboriginal incarceration rates are five times the rate when compared with apartheid South Africa, and West Australia's Aboriginal incarceration rates are eight times the rate when compared with apartheid South Africa. In any other country these types of targeted incarceration and deaths in custody rates would have led to a civil war or en masse confrontations.
A belated statement for the media.
My name is Ashwyn, and I have been involved in the occupy sydney camp, and along with a significant portion of my friends, have been extremely dissatisfied with the media coverage. To make it worse, the 'individual' (and I use the term loosely, perhaps I should say 'socialist party') spokespeople representing the movement have done a mostly terrible job of it. This is my attempt to bring forward some very important details that have been lacking.
Culture of entitlement
On the 25 October 2011, Julia Gillard along with the head of Woodside addressed the Gala ball at the CHOGM business forum at the Burswood Casino in what is to be the first of a week of CHOGM events and protests.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/kaputtradio/kr217.mp3
"Global Occupy Mix", "Quantitive Easing", "No. 999 - Cain Medley", "Gaddafi's Funeral", "Carbon Tax The Movie", "Climate Change", "European GPS Launch", "Dysfunctional Profits On The Slippery Slope"
media samples, popular movie samples, Clarke and Dawe, Herman Cain 999 Plan Spoof, Herman Cain Jazz, Zeitgeist Moving Forward samples, Meltdown goldbasics.blogspot.com samples, 'Revolution No. 9' Beatles sample, Keith Jarret sample, other sound samples
Newsletter date: 26 October 2011
Contents:
* Rosalie Kunoth-Monks - panellist on Q and A live from Darwin
* Interview with Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra - Yolgnu embassy proposed
* Interview with Michael Anderson - Sovereignty and Native Title
* Evidence - Free Policy Making? The Case of Income Management by Eva Cox
* Eva Cox: The lack of evidence for the benefits of Income Management
* What's Working: Tjuwumpa Rangers
* Chapter of Book: The Doctrine of Discovery in Australia
* Protesters shut down Macklin press conference
* More on APY Lands
Michael Woodley, CEO of the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC), says Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) is exploiting a State heritage system in crisis. As FMG prepare to launch into full-scale mining at Firetail/Solomon – Yindjibarndi call it Ganyjingarringunha – Mr Woodley believes their haste and defective heritage management practices risk a monumental disaster for this mountain sanctuary of Yindjibarndi sites dating back tens of thousands of years.
ANOTHER DETENTION CENTRE SUICIDE - WE HAVE LONG WARNED. As a PHD reseacher in deaths in custody I am disgusted in the Australian Government and from a criminological perspective. More detention centre deaths will come. A Tamil person lost his life to the abject despair of suicide at Villawood, another victim of the Australian government's harsh attitudes towards our Asylum Seekers. The man committed suicide early Wednesday morning, nearing dawn, 26 October. He took poison and died in hospital.
Related:HRA Media Release from May predicting more suicides -- Refugee Action Coalition Statement on suicide
