Arundhati Roy collects Sydney Peace Prize
04/11/2004
Arundhati Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize on 3rd November at a function in Sydney where she delivered an address, ' What we call peace is little better than capitulation to a corporate coup'. The prize citation reads : "In recognition of her courage in campaigning for human rights and for advocacy of non-violence as in her demands for justice for the poor, for the victims of communal violence (in India), for the millions displaced by the Narmada dam projects and for her opposition to nuclear weapons."
Roy has been an articulate critic of the war in Iraq and the economic rationalist agenda of 'free trade' and investment regimes. Conservative commentators like Gerard Henderson have attacked the awarding of the Peace prize due to her support for resistance in Iraq against the invasion and occupation by the USA 'Coalition of the Killing'. Arundhati Roy told an ABC reporter "One wasn't urging them to join the Mehdi Army, you know, but to become the resistance, to become part of what ought to be a non-violent resistance against a very violent occupation. So that is to redefine what resistance means, you know, we can't just assume that resistance means terrorism, because that would be playing right into the hands of the occupation."
Some recent writings of Arundhati Roy:
100,000 Dead in 'Free Market' Shock Therapy in Iraq
03/11/2004
Journalist Naomi Klein
talks of the Shock
Therapy in Iraq and exposes the economic restructuring of Iraq to
match free market ideology being imposed by the USA occupation. "I think
it's really important to understand these economic policies as violence,
and that they actually cannot be imposed without some form of terror,
without some form of violence. We've seen this throughout Latin America,
and we've seen it in Africa, and I think what has happened in Iraq is
the culmination of the economic and the military side of this single
project."
The terror comes in the form of 100,000
civilian deaths from war related violence, according to a report in
the British Medical journal, the Lancet. Report author, Dr Les
Roberts, a public health expert in the USA, said "We can say with
absolute confidence that both mortality and violent deaths have gone way
up," he said. "Making conservative assumptions, we think that about
100,000 excess deaths or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of
Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths, and air strikes
from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths."
[Discuss
Restructuring Iraq |
Discuss
the civil deaths in Iraq |
Help get
Iraq war crimes investigated |
The Real Iraq War (Warning: Explicit Images of violence)]
Eyes of the World focus on USA election
02/11/2004
As Australians stop work to watch the Melbourne Cup horse race on November 2, a very different race is being run in the USA to elect a President.
Accusations of voter fraud and disenfranchisement continue to accumulate. Imcistas will be reporting from the ground including: Michigan Indymedia will have two days of special coverage on N2 and N3, including a live webstream ( more), Extensive coverage will occur also on Portland, St. Louis and Cleveland, among other places. Indymedia is also launching a new site, indymedia.us, compiling stories from IMCs around the United States. The Global indymedia site will also have regular updates.
[indymedia.us |
www.indymedia.org]
Lake Cowal Convergence
31/10/2004
On Friday 22 October a group of peaceful protestors occupied the site of Canadian mining company Barrick Gold at Lake Cowal. The group are demanding an end to development of the cyanide-leaching mine and for the area to be returned to the rightful owners within the Wiradjuri Nation. The three days of ceremony and actions began with the serving of the Notice to Quit operations at Lake Cowal to Barrick Gold.
One of the protestors, Terrence King, said “Lake Cowal is nature’s nursery, with hundreds of species of birds, some migrating from as far as China and Russia. There are also endangered fish in this area, and some of the trees Barrick wants to kill are hundreds of years old.”
Two women were arrested whilst trying to protect a sacred fire at the Lake Cowal site. The fire had been extinguished by police in 2003 but was since relit. Wiradjuri elder and traditional owner Mr Neville Williams said “the spirits of the Sacred Fire will never be extinguished…this is genocide against the Wiradjuri people. Lake Cowal is a Dreaming Site, and our people have been coming here since time immemorial.”
The current action at Lake Cowal marks a new chapter in the fight against Barrick Gold which has been continuing for more than twelve months. The mining giant was given the go ahead for development in February this year but activists show no signs of complacency. The latest protest at the Lake Cowal site is testament to this. [ full story and photos ]
[ Save Lake Cowal | Seige at Lake Cowal | Lake Cowal Campaign ]
Tahiti: Pro-independence Leader 'Fasts' for New Elections
30/10/2004
Oscar Temaru told the media "Today our country has two presidents - one who was legitimately elected by the people on May 23 and the other who is self-declared," as he began leading an unlimited "fasting" on Monday night inside Tahiti's presidential headquarters. Temaru wants to give the right to speak back to the people of French Polynesia in new elections.
Pro Gaullist conservative Gaston Flosse was installed as President on 23 October by a motion of 29 of the 57 MPs, with opposition MPs and the Assembly Speaker boycotting the election. An alternative sitting of parliament on 25 October was aborted This comes after a rally of more than 20,000 people, almost 10 percent of the population, calling 'for change' (Taui) and fresh elections. In the midst of a power struggle to comeback to power, Gaston Flosse was under fire in French media for allegedly entertaining an impressive payroll of "fictitious employees" while he was previously in power.
[Discuss |
Crisis Timeline]
Challenging Howard's Attack on Unionism
28/10/2004
George Simon writes "With the re-election of a more powerful Howard
Government, the union movement has an uncertain future ahead of it.
Ultimately, the government has been able to exploit the reliance of
unions on legal framework and institutions in order to undermine their
power. By creating a legal framework that is hostile to unions, the
movement must look to other methods of organising if it hopes to reverse
the crisis. The renewed focus on member activism is a step in the right
direction. The next few years will see unions adapting to suit this new
framework. ...." [ Full Story]
Joe
Toscano, argues that "Howard's new conservative ideological agenda
can be both blunted and eventually defeated if enough people are willing
to challenge the government's legislation, both in the workplace and the
streets." Other commentors question why unionist Craig
Johnston has been jailed whilst very few bosses have even seen the
inside of a court room let alone a jail cell when 26 workers have died
at work in Victoria so far this year, and thousands have been injured.
[Discuss |
Victorian Trades Hall |
Industrial Workers of the World]
Kyoto is Not Enough Says UK Chief Scientist
28/10/2004
The United Kingdom (UK) government's chief scientist, Sir David King, has warned that climate change is the most serious issue facing the world this century. "Kyoto is not enough. Kyoto is a beginning and it's a good process. And what will be needed is once we've got the process up and running, it will need to be ratcheted up so that we can really bring emissions under control." [ Full Story] On October 22 the Russian Duma (lower House) ratified the Kyoto treaty. It will become international law 90 days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signs the treaty.
In Britain a new report by a broard coalition of community groups says that global warming threatens to reverse human progress. In NSW Labor Pemier Bob Carr wants to build a new coal-fired power station thus adding substantially to Green House gas emissions. While in Queensland Greenpeace claims a campaign has successfully shut down a Shale Oil project.
Discuss |
Greenpeace Climate Index |
FoE Europe Climate Index]
20,000 March in Tahiti for Parliamentary Dissolution
21/10/2004
In French Polynesia the pro-independence "government of Oscar Temaru has
just been deprived of its electoral
victory of 23rd May with the benediction from Paris." according to
a communique from the Europe
Pacific Solidarity Seminar. "The corrupt and mafioso system of Gaston Flosse is
going to be put back into the saddle in order to cover more than 20
years of wasting public funds and of corruption of elected people."
said the statement.
On Saturday, 16 October, the biggest rally ever in Papeete gathered to support Oscar
Temaru and demand the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections.
According to a tahitipresse
report "An estimated crowd of more than 20,000 people peacefully marched into downtown
Papeete on Saturday, calling for the dissolution of the French
Polynesia Assembly so that new elections could be held."
In early October the pro-independence Temaru Government of French
Polynesia was defeated in a no-confidence motion in the local assembly,
after serving just four months in office. The Temaru government says
the French authorities have refused to dissolve the assembly and call
new parliamentary elections. Twice in the past week, France has ruled
out calling an election. Former French government minister and member
of the Socialist Party, Christian Paul, has said there have been acts
of "methodical destabilisation" on the part of the French government.
[Discuss
|
European Centre on Pacific
Issues |
La Polynésie, c'est loin ?(fr)]
melb-imc
(top)
|
The 
Shareholders arriving at Jeff's Shed on October 28 for the Telstra AGM were offered symbolic daffodils by unionists, victims of asbestos-related diseases and supporters of their fight 
from the newswire 
