Indymedia 101
06/11/2004
Melbourne Indymedia is a network for radical reportage and analysis of current events: a website produced by grassroots media makers covering struggles, actions and celebrations for social and environmental justice. From Argentina to South Africa, Madrid to Melbourne, Indymedia is about people telling their own stories. In the continuing era of war mongering politics independent media is likely to become more important than ever in covering the voices the mainstream media ignore or distort.
Have you ever wondered how Indymedia works? Want to know how to publish to the site or learn about the history of Indymedia? Thought about getting involved but don't know how? We will be holding an info session giving a basic introduction to all this and more.
Come along! Saturday the 20th of November, 3pm, Irene Warehouse, 5 Pitt st, Brunswick.
Announcement List | About Us
Margaret Hassan - a message to Iraq
06/11/2004
from the newswire
You know recently there have been endless pleas and lots of begging being directed in the general direction of Iraq regarding the life of Margaret Hassan. There was lots of begging and pleas made in the past for the lives of others, like that one kid from Japan who naively went backpacking through Iraq. Didn't work. And so as I was sitting here fuming with frustration and anger the thought occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, there might be a different way of approaching this big problem we have here.... [ Full Story]
[Who's counting the dead in Fallujah? CARE? |
Occupation Watch |
The kidnapping of John Martinkus]
US may trial dumb bombs in Australia?
06/11/2004
The United States looks set to test new generation weapons, including dumb bombs, in Australia within three years. The testing would be part of increased joint military exercises, which are currently being planned. Up to 20,000 United States troops will descend on Queensland's Shoalwater Bay, north of Rockhampton, in 2007 to participate in new warfare training and experimentation exercises.
"There is not a US military base in the world that has not resulted in soil and/or ground water contamination from toxic chemicals in munitions, fuel, paint and thinners, greases, heavy metals, acids, PCBs, oils and solvents. By signing up as a front line collaborator with the US military, the Howard Government is putting all Australians in danger." said Dr Hannah Middleton, spokesperson for the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition. [Full report]
[Anti-bases campaign |
Disobedience: direct action against war |
Bombs for Beginners]
Arctic Sea Ice Getting Thinner as Climate Hots Up
06/11/2004
The Arctic ice cap is melting at an unprecedented rate due to human induced global warming, according to a new study conducted by 300 scientists and elders from native communities in the arctic. Key findings said that the Arctic "is now experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on Earth", Further: "Over the next 100 years climate change is expected to accelerate, contributing to major physical, ecological, social and economic changes, many of which have already begun." Over the last 30 years the ice cap has shrunk 15-20 per cent. With the build up of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, the trend is set to accelerate with forecasts that by the summer of 2070 there maybe no ice at all, thus making the polar bear under threat of extinction. [ Full Story]
[Discuss |
Arctic sea ice changes climate models]
Bikers protest car licence leniency by Magistrate
05/11/2004
from the newswire
Fifty motorcyclists gathered outside the State Magistrates Court at 4pm, 3 November 2004. The gathering was a protest against the ruling by Magistrate Ian Gray to allow a woman accused of killing a motorcyclist while driving drunk, to be allowed to drive a car to and from work. The woman had left the scene in a car splattered with blood and pieces of flesh. Her lawyer successfully argued in court she needed her licence for her job as a sales representative.
[Read more & Discuss |
VMU Report]
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 ]
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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 
