June 27, 2010 For Immediate Release Press Statement - Toronto Community Mobilization Network The G8/G20 are anti-democratic illegitimate institutions that inflict daily violence on our communities. Everywhere the G8 and G20 have met to further their exploitative agendas – from London to Pittsburgh to Toronto they have faced huge opposition from local communities. The kind of mass resistance we have seen in Toronto has and will continue to follow them wherever they go. For several months, communities across Toronto have been coming together to resist the imposition of austerity measures advanced at the G8/G20 summits. The Harper government spends 1.2 billion taxpayer dollars to host the G8/G20 summits while it cuts social spending in ways that have drastic impacts people in the Toronto area and other parts of Canada. Since these communities have come together, the police have been using intimidation tactics to repress and silence people in the Toronto community. Police and intelligence officers went to community organizers' homes and harrassed them in the streets. Now they have arrested many of these people, many of them young organizers of color, and charged them with conspiracy. These people hold the Harper government to account and they speak out against policies that are making ordinary people poorer, sicker and more desperate. As a result, they have been intimidated, harassed, and imprisoned. They are political prisoners in this country, where the police repression shows that its claims of democracy are simply window dressing. While police continue to intimidate people, individuals and community members keep going out in the streets to show that they are not afraid and stand with political prisoners as well as oppressed peoples – first nations communities, immigrants and refugees, poor people, people of color, women, trans people, people with disabilities and queer communities. The police intimidation and repression added to the anger and frustration people have with the G8/G20 policies and leaders that destroy their lives and the lives of people around the world. This is why people targeted banks and multinational corporations, and the property of police. Ultimately, 1 billion dollars were spent on beating people who were demonstrating throughout the week, on intimidating community members in the streets, on arresting organizers of color and indigenous solidarity organizers, on sending demonstrators to hospital with broken bones, and on using tear gas on those in the so-called designated “free speech” zone. 1 billion dollars has not been used to protect people and to keep the city safe. Instead it has been used to repress the people who are working to make this city, and planet a fairer, more just, and more humane place. Toronto Community Mobilization Network
Showing posts with label struggles against neoliberalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label struggles against neoliberalism. Show all posts
6/28/10
Press Statement - Toronto Community Mobilization Network
5/4/09
9/18/08
Todos con Bolivia Everyone with Bolivia
After nearly 516 Years of European Invasion & Genocide in the Americas 12 October 1492 - 2008
International Day of Solidarity with Bolivia Melbourne Australia, October 10 - 2008
Solidarity Night for Bolivian people self-determination and sovereignty
International Day of Solidarity with Bolivia Melbourne Australia, October 10 - 2008
Solidarity Night for Bolivian people self-determination and sovereignty
Friday October 10, 6:30pm
New Council Chambers
Victorian Trades Hall Council
Corner of Lygon & Victoria streets, Carlton
New Council Chambers
Victorian Trades Hall Council
Corner of Lygon & Victoria streets, Carlton
Everyone with Bolivia
The process of changes in favour of the Bolivian majority is at risk of being brutally restricted. The rise to government of an Indigenous president with unprecedented support in that country and his programs of popular benefits, the recovery of the natural resources and with the support of the majority of the indigenous and grassroots organisations have had to face the conspiracies of the Bolivian richest sectors, the oligarchy and United States interference from the first day in office.
In recent days the increase in conspiracy, violence and humiliation against indigenous organizations has reached its climax. The subversive, criminal, racist and unconstitutional actions of the oligarchic groups supported by USA during last week and days to try to create insecurity, instability and the conditions for a military coup and the intervention of USA upon the Bolivian nation reflect the racist and elitist minds of these sectors and constitute a very dangerous precedent not only for the country's integrity, but for other countries in Latin America.
History shows with ample eloquence, the terrible consequences that the divisionary and separatist processes supported and induced by foreign interests have had for humanity, just remember the military intervention backed by CIA against Salvador Allende in 1973.
Faced with this situation the Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET), Friends of the Earth, The Alliance for Indigenous Self Determination and Latin American supporters from a range of Australian and community organisations are calling for an special Public Forum & Documentary Film night on Friday October 10, 6:30pm, at the New Council Chambers, Victorian Trades Hall (corner of Lygon and Victoria streets, Carlton) to express our solidarity and concerns in this difficult situation, at the same time we would like to sign, endorse and support a statement made by Bolivian indigenous and grassroots organisations which will be send to as previous the special Public Forum. The public forum will be addressed by Antonio-Nava Bolivian general consul from Sydney and solidairty activists will proposed different ways of action to support the Bolivian process, all welcome
The supporters of Bolivian people would like to express our support for the democratic and popular government of Evo Morales Ayma , for his policies for change and for the sovereign constituent process of the Bolivian people and the social movements supporting this process. At the same time we reject the antidemocratic attempt of instability leaded by the Bush administration, the Bolivian riches sectors, the reactionary and violent oligarchy in its crimes committed against poor and indigenous people in the lasts days.
All our support to the Bolivian people
Everyone with Bolivia
The International Indigenous Solidarity Gathering - Latin America, Asia & the Pacific support the international day of action with the Bolivian People. www.latinlasnet.org/gathering/freedom.html
Latin American Solidairty Network(LASNET)
Friends of the Earth (FOE)
The Alliance for Indigenous Self Determination
add you name here
More Info: 0400 914 944
Building Solidarity with Latin America... Building Bridges…
Organising Globally… The Power of Grassroots Organisations
lasnet@latinlasnet.org
www.latinlasnet.org
check for more info from indigenous and grassroots organisations from Bolivia at:
http://www.ubnews.org
http://bolivia.indymedia.org/
3/31/08
Australian Unions worry about adverse effects on Pacific of trade liberalisation
Posted at 17:12 on 30 March, 2008 UTC
The Australian Union movement is pushing to raise awareness among Australians of what it believes will be the adverse effects of trade liberalisation on Pacific Island states.
A workshop in Melbourne was attended by representatives of Australian unions, churches and NGO groups.
Alison Tait, the international director of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, says Australia’s own experience with economic liberalisation shows that free trade is not an entirely positive story.
“Whilst the economic properity of Australia has improved over many years, there are many people who lost their job, industries changed etc, and we know that is the future for the Pacific.”http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=38851
3/4/08
Paramilitary Policing and Global Control
Since the rise of civilization the world has been divided into areas which fall under the exclusive control of one gang or another. These areas defined within borders where the control of one gang ends and another begins have become known as states.
Traditionally there have been two types of armed enforcers for each state - the police and the army.
The role of the police is the control of internal enemies and the role of the military is for offence and defence against external enemies. The concept of a single global economic system attempts to eradicate these borders, encompassing all, and de marking the distinction between the enemy within and the enemy without. It will view all enemies as internal, dissidents opposing the imposition of economic imperatives as opposed to rival states attempting to gain control of resources. As the borders between nation-states weaken for capital and its elite, the borders between rich and poor are fortified.
Armies have existed for as long as societies have produced enough surplus to support their existence as specialized soldiers. Big political men have hired big physical men to carry out raids, invasions and occupations in the form of armies, and these armies became the enforcers of the state's will upon its enemies. The origins of police forces are less historically definable. The first modern police force is generally recognized as being the London Metropolitan Police set up by Robert Peel in 1829, with forerunners in Scotland and London docks. [Paris and other French cities had established local forces as early as 1667]
Prior to this local militias were employed by sheriffs to act as enforcers of domestic law, often employed casually to be authorized to act as the need arose. The emergence of modern police forces roughly coincided with the establishment of modern nation-states, and the monopolization of power within their borders became central to their construct. (1) A definition of The State could be the body that claims sole use of the right of force within a certain area. The birth of modern European nation-states in the nineteenth century also coincided with a rapid expansion of industry and the corresponding shifts in the class composition of newly industrialized societies. The cities were filled with masses of displaced rural workers looking for work, and desperate for the basic necessities of life now denied to them, they turned to robbery of the rich and others. This creation of an identifiable underclass as opposed to random bandits and social deviants led capitalist society to respond with the creation of its repressive opposite, a police force.
A capitalist society does not particularly desire the creation of an underclass of thieves and outlaws, but its logic does require the creation of a class of beggars and unemployed. The unintended creation of the former arose when rogue human elements came into play and people refused to quietly accept the shit that was dealt to them. In order to enforce its desired social structure, capital's managers were forced to create a counterforce to this unintended outcome of class division. This application of force to determine the outcome of complex social relations is of course crucial to the way things are. Subtler means of coercion including mis-education, profit sharing and so on may prove beneficial depending on the conditions, but force remains the ultimate threat.
Society is a human construct designed to predict and control human behaviour in favour of those who control it. In a capitalist society there is a very definite order in which masses of humans need to be arranged in order for the system to work in favour of those who control it. This idea of continuing action, reaction and correction could be applied to many aspects of what is termed progress. Progress could be seen as the increasing ability of humans to control and shape the natural world. However as life is a chaotic and often unpredictable force, what are initially hailed as advances in the fields of science and technology, etc. usually prove to have unexpected side-effects or outcomes when applied into the real world. As the scientist/doctor/politician formulates a new invention/medicine/law, unpredicted glitches/side-effects/social reactions arise after its introduction that require the implementation of secondary controls. As an example, the emergence of super bugs in recent years is a growing and worrisome aspect of modern medicine. Due to the massive use of antibiotics for decades to treat even minor ailments, extremely virulent and antibiotic resistant viruses are appearing (most notably MRSA), which results in more efforts to combat them and more strains of super bugs in retaliation. This is a vicious seesaw that is threatening to derail modern medicine systems by making hospitals inoperable by flooding them with viruses.
The outcome of the Second World War was the establishment of two rival economic blocs who posed against and threatened each other. Prior to the First World War, the individual nation-states of the developed world vied with each other for control of the world's resources in order to increase the wealth of the elite in these countries. This nationalist based version of capitalism resulted in massive death and destruction when things eventually came to a head with the outbreak of world war one. The Second World War was a finishing off of these grievances that left the previously powerful nations of Europe in the control of the two emergent superpowers of the US and the USSR.
This balance of power and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction by nuclear war kept the two economic systems played off against each other for almost fifty years. The world has changed dramatically since the collapse of the USSR and the state-capitalist system it supported. Since then, capitalism has asserted itself as a global hegemonic system. This process of globalization has been written about extensively but basically constitutes an unchallenged assertion of free-market capitalist economics on a worldwide scale without any serious challenges to its ideology or its functionaries. With this cohesion into a single system of operating, it might be useful to conceive of the world as becoming a unified state, at least in economic terms if not practical local details. With this shift in the balance of power, there also occurred a shift in the military strategies of the main players on the world stage. If there is no longer an external enemy to be countered, that leaves only internal enemies - maladjusted areas which need to be realigned, the normal scene of policing operations. Another view could be of these actions as attempting to incorporate unproductive areas into the hegemonic system, a type of empire building, a traditional use of military force reminiscent of pre-nation state eras.
If we look at the military adventures of the leading economic powers since the end of the cold war we see examples such as Iraq, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Afghanistan, East Timor, Haiti etc. It's brutally obvious that these are nothing like the large-scale inter-European wars of the past between large economic powers vying for dominance. Almost all of these were co-ordinated operations involving groups of nations such as the UN or NATO, thus making the comparison even more ridiculous. These operations could better be viewed as large-scale policing operations where rogue areas need to be brought under control, a bigger version of the riotous housing project if you will.
The phrase 'policing operation' has become part of military terminology in recent years. With these new objectives, there are new rules of engagement. Less frequently is crude propaganda used to raise excitement for a bloodbath; instead the soldiers are painted as peacekeepers on humanitarian missions and are given directions to behave like so. Given the possibility of media leaks of unsavoury incidents that don't fit with the public agenda, great lengths are gone to minimize civilian casualties. This might seem a moot point to someone who's wedding party just got gate crashed by a wayward smart bomb. But compared to the carpet bombing of North Vietnam for example there is a massive qualitative difference in the level of death being doled out. With the installation of soldiers as policeman into insurgent zones, a new dynamic has been created where soldiers are being ordered to impose order on large numbers of civilians, both in volatile crowd situations and in the daily control of social behaviour. In order to do so they are being armed with less-lethal weapons and trained in crowd control techniques. Riots can be great excuses for massacres if that is what is required, and less sophisticated states frequently resort to such measures, but for the leading nations of the free world, a clean image is everything, and corpses must be kept to a minimum.
The flip side to this increase in armies engaging in policing operations overseas is the increasing militarization of domestic police forces. The image of police officers is a multi-layered one. They are to be portrayed to Mr. Average who works permanently and invests in his own property etc. as the good guys, defending property, stopping violence and arresting thieves and assailants. However they also need to be portrayed to the criminal class as a force to be feared and hated. Ostensibly the first image is portrayed though the usual channels - smiling from the pages of the local paper, teaching school kids how to be safe, directing lost tourists and walking casually along community patrols. The nasty side needs only be shown on need-to-know basis, on dark streets, in your home, up close and personal away from the lights and cameras. Let's not forget though, that the enemy has been found in broad daylight, killing in front of everyone, like the horrific public murder of Jean Charles de Menezes or Carlo Guiliani.
The past decade or so has seen a massive move towards the militarization of police forces in the most developed nations. Looking at old footage of protests from the 80's/early 90's it is eye opening to see how little riot gear and less-lethal weaponry was available to the forces of order. This militarization most visibly takes place on the streets. Ordinary officers with more gadgets hanging from their belts, action heroes with sub-machine guns loiter in public places for no discernible reason, gangs of men in blue overalls lurk in vans in less-salubrious neighbourhoods and robocop makes his appearance at every minor protest. Shiny shoes are replaced by paratrooper boots, silly hats with baseball caps, clean shirts are covered with flak jackets and ever-increasing numbers of helicopters circle overhead. Slowly the gadgetry is increased but compare the average officer to his counterpart of a decade ago and the changes are obvious. This visible tooling-up is accompanied by a massive increase in the use of surveillance technologies, information storage and retrieval, identification databases and so on.
As with other aspects of repression it's not a voluntary movement; it is in response to changing social conditions. It is in the interest of capital to create as friendly and co-operative an image as possible. It means everyone is on the same team and creates an illusion of social stability. If there are heavily armed men in uniforms walking the streets then obviously something is amiss. The veneer of social cohesion is cracking. Many point to the terror attacks of September 11th and others in Madrid, London and elsewhere as being the excuse the elite needed to implement these measures, and to a large part this is true. Another smaller factor was the series of violent anarchist-led assaults on the tea-parties of the rich that enabled police chiefs to demand and receive funding for huge amounts of crowd-control technologies, lest the local elite lose face with its inability to deal with troublemakers while their mates are in town. It has largely been a case of the police responding to greater periods of class conflict and other moments of unstability.
The LA riots were a key point in the moment of policing in the United States, they were totally unprepared for the strain on their communications, fire-power, mobility, after the riots had susided there was a tremendous rush to get not only the LA cops but the rest of the pigs in the United States up to speed in terms of not only technology and resources, but minimum fitness and intelligence standards. These American methods of policing have been pushed all over the world. The carnivalistic riot which happened on June 18th 1999 in Londons financial district was a key moment for the resurgent anti-capitalist / anarchist movement, and also for how the state dealt with it. The planning for the day had inexplicably escaped the monitoring gaze of the British state despite being hyped for a year before hand across the country. This led to a sound-system riot of beautiful proportions and an after effect of widespread clampdown and surveillance of grass-roots political organising. The UK Police 'Forward Intelligence Team' (teams of cops who profile and harass activists) and the 'National Extremist Tactical Coordination Unit' (NETCU) are one part of this.
Of course once acquired, new technologies and police units are usually never relinquished and must be maintained and updated regularly. Whatever the crowd-control technologies bought to counter large-scale protests, the militarization is a much bigger deal than fancy-looking robocop outfits. It is in its applications in daily policing that its true essence is revealed, not in the extraordinary circumstances of the occasional rowdy demo.
Terror attacks were the excuses used to implement or speed up these changes. A common analysis of this project is that it is used to create an image of security to counter the fear created by outside attacks, while at the same time creating fear of the potential attacks by reminding you constantly of their possibility. A double bluff to make you trust your dear leaders with your safety. However another side to this is reflected in the same basic dual-image of good cop/bad cop mentioned earlier, and that's to scare the shit out of the underclass. Speaking from experience it's a lot more nerve-wracking to be searched while someone trains a machine-gun at your head than if it's just Officer Dickwad with his hard little stick. The increasing visibility of police power can be seen as recognition by the ruling elite that the social fabric of western democracies is coming unravelled. As capital continues along its merry way, the social order is stretched wider apart with ever-expanding wealth gaps. Increasingly polarized societies create increasing numbers of underclass bandits, marginalized and struggling working poor communities and more gated communities and glitzy high-rises.
Globalized economics are not just to blame for increasing misery in the third world; they are also creating more and more third-world areas in the advanced industrial and post-industrial nations. A trip to Brazil would show you no lack of wealth, flash cars, gold-plated banks, and also no end of deprivation, glue-addled street kids and a cheapness of life that's hard to stomach. This is the increasing reality for G8 and EU nations albeit on a much smaller scale so far. The social safety nets of unemployment payments, affordable health care and pensions are being stripped away as the world's resources get ransacked.
The increased police measures are needed for a simple reason. The numbers of dispossessed in the bellies of the beast is growing, and as the numbers go, so they are becoming more and more restless and ungovernable.
Social upheaval in French ghettos burned out of control for two weeks in late 2005, and had a knock-on effect when more politically motivated demonstrations paralyzed the country a few months later in response to legislative attacks on young workers. Now the banlieues are in flames again, with widespread accompanying industrial action and sabotage due to the neo-liberal policies of Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Everywhere the police patrol the cities train and bus stations armed with high power weapons, checking documents and repressing the people. Massive uprisings in Bangladesh and Mexico have had their events mirrored in some ways in outbreaks of social upheaval such as sports riots and ghetto upheavals in the more prosperous nations. Just as the medical researchers race to try and beat the continued and growing attacks by super bugs, so do capital's managers try to plug the holes in its ship with technological fixes and draconian legislation. The increased reliance on technological policing devices throws open their susceptibility to sabotage and misdirection. The massive increases in surveillance, policing, and penal institutions just reflect the fact that they're increasingly worried about it all coming apart. If they weren't getting worried that we could sink the fucker they wouldn't bother keeping such a close eye on us.
Be the virus.
12/1/07
Bolivian Workers oppose 'anti-terror raids'
The following statement from the Workers Central in the Department of Oruro, Bolivia, in solidarity with the workers and Maori activists arrested under the so-called 'anti-terror' raids has been received.
It is signed by the Central Obrera Departmental, the union centre to which all unions are affiliated in Oruro, November 9th.
New Zealand workers should note that Ururo and the COD based there is the centre of the miners movement in Bolviva which has led several revolutionary uprisings since 1952. It is significant that this union has as its founding documents, the Theses of Pulacayo, written in 1946 which clearly call for an anti-imperialist struggle for socialism. These sentiments are echoed today in the statement below at a time when Bolivia is at the brink of a civil war.
"STOP THE STATE AND PARAMILITARY REPRESSION IN NEW ZEALAND"
"The Bolivian workers affiliated to our central organisation, the Central Obrera Boliviana, and belonging to the Central Obrera Departmental, condemn the brutal deliberate repression of the state and Government of New Zealand against the workers and indigenous Maori people.
The repression unleashed on 15 October against fighters or liberation and sovereignty in this semicolony dominated by Australia and Britain, satellites of American imperialism, is intended to protect the economic interests of the privileged minority that exists in any capitalist country in the world, including Bolivia, and who subject the majority of the people to the most miserable social and economic conditions.
The struggle of the brother and sister workers and people of New Zealand is not alone and has the backing and solidarity of the oppressed of the world. The epoch of the abuse and plunder that imperialist capitalism has enjoyed has led inexorably to the differences between this minority and the poor in the world to become more and more abysmal and inhuman.
We have no alternative but to replace the corrupt and degenerate world capitalist system with a system where the majorities have the right to decide their future by redistributing wealth among all the peoples who are its inhabitants - a system where human rights are fundamental and not for the profits of an irrational and unlimited capitalism. The system can not be anything less than socialism, inspired by the most human and patriotic sentiments. The dilemma facing humanity is: Socialism or the reign of Barbarism"
Oruro, November 9, 2007
C.O.D. Founded 1st May 1953, Affiliate of the C.O.B. Oruro - Bolivia.
FSTMB (Miners) FED FABRILES (factory workers) FUSTCO (officeworkers) FED CONSTRUCTORES (construction) FED SALUD (Health workers) FED MAG URB and FED MAG RURAL (teahers) FESTRATEV (transport) RED RENT JB (retired workers) FUL (univerisity students) FES (secondary students) FED EST NOL (student teachers) CASEGURAL, SIND MUNCIPALES (public sector workers) ENTEL, ECOBOL, SINTRAUTO, COTEOR, (telephone, electricity, water etc) ASOC RED MIN (retired miners) PRENSA (media workers) DESOCUPADOS (unemployed) SEPCAM and ACMPD (small farmers).
8/17/07
Island States Stand Up To EU
take that you colonising arseholes, economic apartheid spreading vultures
BRUSSELS, Aug 3 (IPS) - Governments in the Pacific region have reacted
furiously to a threat by the European Union that it will reduce the
amount of development aid they receive if they delay on signing a free
trade deal with the 27-nation bloc.
Fourteen island states in the Pacific are currently involved in
negotiations aimed at reaching an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)
with the EU by the end of this year.
Although the accord is supposed to relate to trade rather than
development assistance, the EU's executive arm, the European
Commission, has now warned the Pacific it can expect less aid if the
Dec. 31 deadline is not met.
In an e-mail seen by IPS, the Commission told Pacific governments that
they can expect some 95 million euros (130 million dollars) in a
regional finance programme under the European Development Fund for
2008-13. Yet if no comprehensive trade agreement is reached this year,
48 percent of that sum would have to be "re-programmed", the e-mail
message said.
The message, dated Jul. 29, was signed by Francesco Affinito, deputy
head of a European Commission department handling relations with the
Pacific.
Affinito also warned that if an accord can only be reached on trade in
goods -- rather than one extending to services -- the regional funding
would be cut by 25 percent.
James Bule, the trade minister for Vanuatu, a Pacific island with
209,000 inhabitants, has lodged a complaint over this threat with
Louis Michel, the European commissioner for development.
In his letter, Bule said that ministers from the Pacific wished to
register their "grave concern and deep disappointment" at the threat.
The 14 countries, which have a combined population of eight million,
"will not accept the EC (European Commission) imposing this type of
linkage" between aid and trade, he added.
Bule contended that the "resources that the EC proposes to cut" would
be needed to foster regional integration in the Pacific "irrespective
of the outcome of the EPA negotiations."
Anti-poverty activists have described the Commission's threat as
tantamount to bullying.
Marc Maes, a trade campaigner with the Belgian organisation 11.11.11
said he would be asking EU governments to investigate the Commission's
threat.
"EU member states seem to have agreed to get off the Commission's back
for the next couple of months and to give it the necessary space to
drive these negotiations forward," he told IPS. "If they knew that the
Commission was resorting to these tactics, I hope they would signal to
the Commission that they are not acceptable."
Maes claimed that the Commission is trying to dictate the terms of an
agreement with the Pacific, without seriously examining proposals put
forward by the islands' representatives.
For example, the islands have suggested that a section in the
agreement dealing with investment should cover both the rights and
obligations of foreign firms. The Commission, on the other hand, has
argued that the investment clauses should only deal with ensuring that
investors have access to the Pacific markets.
Barry Coates, director of Oxfam New Zealand, said that the Commission
had resorted to similarly aggressive tactics in other talks on
proposed EPAs with Africa and the Caribbean.
He said that ministers from the Pacific "are shocked that the European
Commission is moving the goalposts five months before the deadline" as
"until now there had been no direct linkage between EPAs and the EDF."
But he noted that the threat to the Pacific is "not an isolated incident."
The Commission recently told a number of governments from Eastern and
Southern Africa that the amount of development aid they are to receive
will depend on the extent of trade liberalisation they will sign up
to. "Some of these countries rely on EU aid for up to 50 percent of
their national budgets," said Coates. "It is understandable that they
feel threatened."
African diplomats have alleged, too, that one of the EU's top trade
negotiators has been seeking to create a rift between their governments.
Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho and Swaziland are known to be perturbed
at how the EU has been trying to persuade South Africa to liberalise
its economy. These states are fearful that far-reaching liberalisation
could have adverse consequences for their trade with South Africa.
Diplomats allege that when these concerns were raised with Karl
Friedrich Falkenberg, a deputy director-general for trade with the
European Commission, in June, he suggested that the countries should
consider taking their own measures against South African firms.
Asked if there was any truth in this allegation, Falkenberg replied:
"Absolutely not".
"I am arguing for region-wide commitments (in Southern Africa) to
allow locally established service providers to take advantage of a
larger regional market," he told IPS. "South Africa refuses to take
any commitments."
In a new report, Oxfam has concluded that the Commission is taking an
"uncompromising approach" towards the Pacific and is "essentially
seeking a free trade agreement that is likely to provide better access
for EU companies and goods while being damaging to Pacific businesses
and people."
Some two-thirds of tariffs that the Pacific governments currently
impose on imports from Europe would be eliminated under an EPA,
depriving the countries concerned of the possibility to protect often
"fragile" local firms from outside competitors.
"Pacific countries are being asked to take a major leap into the dark
by making these commitments," the report says. (END/2007)
BRUSSELS, Aug 3 (IPS) - Governments in the Pacific region have reacted
furiously to a threat by the European Union that it will reduce the
amount of development aid they receive if they delay on signing a free
trade deal with the 27-nation bloc.
Fourteen island states in the Pacific are currently involved in
negotiations aimed at reaching an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)
with the EU by the end of this year.
Although the accord is supposed to relate to trade rather than
development assistance, the EU's executive arm, the European
Commission, has now warned the Pacific it can expect less aid if the
Dec. 31 deadline is not met.
In an e-mail seen by IPS, the Commission told Pacific governments that
they can expect some 95 million euros (130 million dollars) in a
regional finance programme under the European Development Fund for
2008-13. Yet if no comprehensive trade agreement is reached this year,
48 percent of that sum would have to be "re-programmed", the e-mail
message said.
The message, dated Jul. 29, was signed by Francesco Affinito, deputy
head of a European Commission department handling relations with the
Pacific.
Affinito also warned that if an accord can only be reached on trade in
goods -- rather than one extending to services -- the regional funding
would be cut by 25 percent.
James Bule, the trade minister for Vanuatu, a Pacific island with
209,000 inhabitants, has lodged a complaint over this threat with
Louis Michel, the European commissioner for development.
In his letter, Bule said that ministers from the Pacific wished to
register their "grave concern and deep disappointment" at the threat.
The 14 countries, which have a combined population of eight million,
"will not accept the EC (European Commission) imposing this type of
linkage" between aid and trade, he added.
Bule contended that the "resources that the EC proposes to cut" would
be needed to foster regional integration in the Pacific "irrespective
of the outcome of the EPA negotiations."
Anti-poverty activists have described the Commission's threat as
tantamount to bullying.
Marc Maes, a trade campaigner with the Belgian organisation 11.11.11
said he would be asking EU governments to investigate the Commission's
threat.
"EU member states seem to have agreed to get off the Commission's back
for the next couple of months and to give it the necessary space to
drive these negotiations forward," he told IPS. "If they knew that the
Commission was resorting to these tactics, I hope they would signal to
the Commission that they are not acceptable."
Maes claimed that the Commission is trying to dictate the terms of an
agreement with the Pacific, without seriously examining proposals put
forward by the islands' representatives.
For example, the islands have suggested that a section in the
agreement dealing with investment should cover both the rights and
obligations of foreign firms. The Commission, on the other hand, has
argued that the investment clauses should only deal with ensuring that
investors have access to the Pacific markets.
Barry Coates, director of Oxfam New Zealand, said that the Commission
had resorted to similarly aggressive tactics in other talks on
proposed EPAs with Africa and the Caribbean.
He said that ministers from the Pacific "are shocked that the European
Commission is moving the goalposts five months before the deadline" as
"until now there had been no direct linkage between EPAs and the EDF."
But he noted that the threat to the Pacific is "not an isolated incident."
The Commission recently told a number of governments from Eastern and
Southern Africa that the amount of development aid they are to receive
will depend on the extent of trade liberalisation they will sign up
to. "Some of these countries rely on EU aid for up to 50 percent of
their national budgets," said Coates. "It is understandable that they
feel threatened."
African diplomats have alleged, too, that one of the EU's top trade
negotiators has been seeking to create a rift between their governments.
Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho and Swaziland are known to be perturbed
at how the EU has been trying to persuade South Africa to liberalise
its economy. These states are fearful that far-reaching liberalisation
could have adverse consequences for their trade with South Africa.
Diplomats allege that when these concerns were raised with Karl
Friedrich Falkenberg, a deputy director-general for trade with the
European Commission, in June, he suggested that the countries should
consider taking their own measures against South African firms.
Asked if there was any truth in this allegation, Falkenberg replied:
"Absolutely not".
"I am arguing for region-wide commitments (in Southern Africa) to
allow locally established service providers to take advantage of a
larger regional market," he told IPS. "South Africa refuses to take
any commitments."
In a new report, Oxfam has concluded that the Commission is taking an
"uncompromising approach" towards the Pacific and is "essentially
seeking a free trade agreement that is likely to provide better access
for EU companies and goods while being damaging to Pacific businesses
and people."
Some two-thirds of tariffs that the Pacific governments currently
impose on imports from Europe would be eliminated under an EPA,
depriving the countries concerned of the possibility to protect often
"fragile" local firms from outside competitors.
"Pacific countries are being asked to take a major leap into the dark
by making these commitments," the report says. (END/2007)
8/16/07
South Africa, The anarchist federation ZACF Statement of Support & Call for Solidarity with Sebokeng Community Struggle
On Tuesday morning, 14th of August, over 1000 community members from
Sebokeng's "informal settlement" attempted to blockade the Golden
Highway between Sebokeng and Johannesburg in protest at the ANC
government's inadequate service delivery since its election in 1994.
The police arrived in numbers and fired randomly at the community
members, allegedly with live ammunition, seriously injuring 6
people and injuring others, including small children. Thirty-five
people were then arrested and taken to the Sebokeng police station,
and are being charged with public violence and illegal gathering. When
leaders of the Anti-Privatisation Forum and Coalition Against Water
Privatisation, under whose banner the protest was held, arrived at the
police station to enquire about the situation and try and have their
comrades released nine of them were also arrested, for addressing a
community gathering.
The fact that the SAPS police, under the ANC, can shoot with impunity
at poor people who are merely attempting to have their most basic
human rights met reminds one of the Apartheid era police. And it only
goes to prove that all governments, even those democratically elected,
soon turn on those they are supposed to represent, in order to defend
their newly acquired wealth, power and privilege. We know very well by
now that the ANC is not concerned with providing for the majority of
the population in South Africa and delivering on the promises that got
the ANC into power, but that it is only concerned with making
a profit out of the people, and further enriching the already
disgustingly rich new back elite. Even if it means charging the
poorest of the poor for the most basic necessities and essential human
rights such as electricity and water, which are laid down in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which South Africa is one of
the signatory states, as well as in the ANC People's Charter.
We make take the following stand:
1. We are absolutely disgusted by the ANC leaders, who flagrantly
flaunt their wealth in the face of so many poor and hungry people. We
are equally disgusted by the police responsible for this atrocity, who
have once again shown us that their role is not that of serving and
protecting the people, but serving and protecting the interests of big
business and capital.
2. We are encouraged and inspired by this bold action by the people
of Sebokeng which, by sabotaging the circulation of goods and
obstructing the flow of money, struck at that which the government –
through the police – most wishes to protect, big business and capital.
It is important to note that these protests come only after years of
the community having exhausted all legal means - including ANC
Alliance channels - to have their voices heard.
3. We wholeheartedly support the poor communities of the Vaal, and all
those across South Africa, who are struggling for their basic rights.
We are not convinced, however, that the ANC government, or any other
for that matter, will ever adequately deliver to the people. But we
support these struggles nevertheless as necessary for building the
confidence and power for a larger struggle. The struggle for total
liberation, that is, the struggle for the people to own and control
all the industries and the land, for them to be in control of the
communities the live in, and to have power to decide over all
that which affects them.
4. The ZACF - which has done numerous workshops in Sebokeng, and has
good relations with community activists - calls on all our comrades
around the world, and everyone who supports the struggle of the poor
and working poor for a dignified existence, to please organise actions
in solidarity with the struggling people of Sebokeng.
5. We call on everyone who can to picket South African embassies, as
well as to send protest letters and make phone-calls to the
Johannesburg City Mayor, Mr. Amos Masondo, Media Liaison to Minister
of Safety and Security Mr Trevor Bloem or to carry out any other
actions you deem fitting to protest this atrocious act, and warn the
ANC government against the course of action they have take.
Which is to declare war on the poor, and decree a new form of
Apartheid, economic & social Apartheid, which excludes the poor from
their rights to a dignified life.
In Solidarity with the struggling people of Sebokeng,
Jonathan Payn - Federation Secretary, Zabalaza Anarchist Communist
Federation
www.zabalaza.net
ZACF
Postnet Suite 47
Private Bag X1
Fordsburg
2033
South Africa
NOTE:
A proposed protest march to Sebokeng police station has been postponed
until a proper decision has been reached, involving the appropriate
structures. This is because it is too late to notify the police, and
the march will thus constitute an illegal gathering (sound familiar?),
which would probably result in the
arrest of many more comrades.
The arrested comrades are still being held, and the hearing has been
postponed until Thursday. Bail is not yet set.
On behalf of the APF, donations are being asked for in order to cover
this bail, as they still owe a large amount of money, accumulated
through years of struggle and having to pay for bail, lawyers etc.
Details for donations are as follows:
Local Donations (ie. from South Africa):
FNB
Acc. No.: 62 02 785 1452
Account Type: Cheque Account
Branch: Bank City
International Donations:
Acc No.: 250805
Block A
3 First place
Bank City
First National Bank
Johannesburg
2000
Swift Code: FIRNZAJJA046
(for donations from the U.S. - JP Morgan Chase- Manhattan Bank)
List of contacts:
Ministry of Safety and Security
Director: Media Liaison
Mr Trevor Bloem
Mail: Private Bag X463, PRETORIA, 0001
Street: Wachthuis, 7th Floor, 231 Pretorius Street, PRETORIA
Tel: 00 27 (0) 12 393 1523 / 00 27 (0) 21 467 7000*
Fax: 00 27 (0) 12 393 2833 / 00 27 (0) 21 467 7032/3*
Cell: 00 27 (0) 82 778 3561*
E-mail: bloemb@saps.org.za
Personal Assistant
Mr Peter Nkabinde
Mail: Private Bag X463, PRETORIA, 0001
Street: Wachthuis, 7th Floor, 231 Pretorius Street, PRETORIA
Tel: 00 27 (0) 12 393 2810 / 00 27 (0) 21 467 7004*
Fax: 00 27 (0) 12 393 2812 / 00 27 (0) 21 467 7036*
Cell: 00 27 (0) 82 446 6236*
E-mail: peternk@saps.org.za
Sedibeng District Council
Mayor Mlungisi Hlongwane
Designation: Executive Mayor
Telephone: 00 27 (0) 16 450 3017 *
Fax: 00 27 (0)16 421 3182 *
Email: sibongiler@sedibeng.gov.za
* If you are calling/ faxing from outside South Africa, drop the "(0)".
------------------------------
8/15/07
A call for shared intent against the violence of APEC
Sydney :: Public Meeting on APEC & Direct Action
Wednesday August 22 :: 6.30 pm
University of Technology Sydney, Tower Building
"We're not going to sit in silence, We're not going to live in fear."- John Farnham
The Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) is a forum where heads of governments in the Asia Pacific region, will meet to discuss economic and military strategies that will benefit ruling powers in the region. APEC heads of state will arrive in Sydney on Friday 7th and meet Saturday 8th September at the Opera House and Sunday 9th
September at Government House.
In Australia, the policies of APEC have resulted in the privatisation and degradation of public transport, low wages, de-unionisation of workplaces, high cost housing, an elitist
education system, increased military funding at the expense of education and health, and the lack of prevention of climate change.
As a colonial power in the Asia Pacific region, the Australian government has a direct interest in implementing these policies. In Papua New Guinea, East Timor, the Solomon Islands and elsewhere,
Australian companies profit, with military enforcement, from the privatisation of public assets, the displacement of local indigenous peoples and environmental degradation.
These policies create situations whereby people have a right to respond with anger. Governments can only maintain the legitimacy of such policies by maintaining an image of social control and demonising protest by committing millions of taxpayers' dollars to surveillance, repression and violence. But we are fighting for a better world.
The people who speak out against the repression of APEC will attend the protest as individuals on their terms. But with shared intent,
good communication and collective organisation, we can participate in mass direct action that is both meaningful and strategic. This can send a strong message against the poverty and violence imposed
by APEC's policies. It is important that we stay safe and minimise the repercussions of police repression in our families and communities.
We invite local community groups, individuals, unions and others to work with us and communicate with us before the event to develop a shared intent. A number of direct action training sessions will take place in Sydney and Melbourne to prepare for a mass, strategic intervention to the APEC meeting. We also support and hope to work
alongside others taking action in whatever way they see fit.
By the very praxis of stepping out and challenging their control of space we are committing what is regarded as a violent act. It is the violence of articulating resistance; it is a violation against
their understanding of our lives.
We want to act together with an approach that is empowering, strategic and fun. We want to use their borders against them. Our proposal is to disrupt their meeting by disrupting their control of the space, to challenge the exclusivity of their politics. We want together as a mobile obstruction and where we see a border silence
us, we challenge them, we turn their zones into the political forum we want to have. We make it known that we don't agree and we are not going to live in fear.
A call for direct action at the anti- APEC protests will be big news in Sydney. But will people join us? Only if we can successfully delegitimise APEC, give people hope that disruption is possible, communicate powerfully why they should participate and most importantly counter the huge fear campaign which the state has
rolled out against the people of Sydney.
This is a statement of our intent to disrupt the APEC conference, because we believe it promotes exploitation, inequality and the destruction of the planet. We are dreaming up ways to disrupt the
conference whilst communicating our deeply held convictions against capitalism and the authoritarian state, and our belief that another
world is possible. We call out to others to join us in planning creative, strategic disruptions, and to plan your own actions of disruption.
sharedintent(*)gmail.com
Related
* http://indyhack.blogspot.com/2007/06/apec-black-list-why-are-you-surprised.html
* http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/08/head-pig-for-apec.html
8/10/07
Announcing the formation of AC/DC...
The Melbourne Alliance for Civil Disobedience Co-ordination (AC/DC) statement on APEC protests in September 2007, Sydney Australia
1. We recognise that APEC is an illegitimate institution in the eyes of the mass of the human population, and that its agenda is a threat to our welfare and environment. We are therefore in favour of the largest possible mass mobilisation and mass demonstrations against it.
2. We aim to disrupt the functioning of any APEC-related activities in Sydney in September 2007.
2. We defend our right to mass civil disobedience and mass direct action and we will attempt to use these tactics as part of our resistance to the agenda of APEC.
3. We reject the police and the state's attempts to define and control our protest and our resistance through the use of declared areas, protestor black lists and other forms of state intimidation
4. We want to convince other groups, individuals and communities to join us in resistance to APEC that is meaningful and empowering
That is all - for now....
1. We recognise that APEC is an illegitimate institution in the eyes of the mass of the human population, and that its agenda is a threat to our welfare and environment. We are therefore in favour of the largest possible mass mobilisation and mass demonstrations against it.
2. We aim to disrupt the functioning of any APEC-related activities in Sydney in September 2007.
2. We defend our right to mass civil disobedience and mass direct action and we will attempt to use these tactics as part of our resistance to the agenda of APEC.
3. We reject the police and the state's attempts to define and control our protest and our resistance through the use of declared areas, protestor black lists and other forms of state intimidation
4. We want to convince other groups, individuals and communities to join us in resistance to APEC that is meaningful and empowering
That is all - for now....
8/9/07
::TRAJECTORIES OF DISSENT::
Trajectories of Dissent is a decentralised (multi-venue) exhibition which
seeks to make a visual intervention into current representations of
protest focused on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
www.trajectoriesofdissent.wordpress.com
24th AUGUST: Exhibition Launch - Drinks & Music
6pm Tooth Studios 67 Sydenham Rd, Marrickville
Exhibition open 24th Aug.- 16th Sept. Thurs. - Sun. 10am – 5pm
25th AUGUST: Exhibition Benefit Gig Extravaganza ($7 on the door)
7pm Tooth Studios 67 Sydenham Rd, Marrickville
29th AUGUST: Artist/Community Response Opening
6pm Little Fish Gallery, 22 Enmore Rd, Enmore
Exhibition open 29th Aug - 9th Sept. Thurs. - Sun. 11am – 5pm
5th SEPTEMBER: Opening/Community and Activist Dialogue
6pm Mori Gallery, 168 Day Street, City
Joined by members from the Asia Pacific Research Network.
Exhibition open 5th Sept. - 8th Sept. 11am - 6pm
For more info contact: 0401 045 536 or email apec@riseup.net
seeks to make a visual intervention into current representations of
protest focused on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
www.trajectoriesofdissent.wordpress.com
24th AUGUST: Exhibition Launch - Drinks & Music
6pm Tooth Studios 67 Sydenham Rd, Marrickville
Exhibition open 24th Aug.- 16th Sept. Thurs. - Sun. 10am – 5pm
25th AUGUST: Exhibition Benefit Gig Extravaganza ($7 on the door)
7pm Tooth Studios 67 Sydenham Rd, Marrickville
29th AUGUST: Artist/Community Response Opening
6pm Little Fish Gallery, 22 Enmore Rd, Enmore
Exhibition open 29th Aug - 9th Sept. Thurs. - Sun. 11am – 5pm
5th SEPTEMBER: Opening/Community and Activist Dialogue
6pm Mori Gallery, 168 Day Street, City
Joined by members from the Asia Pacific Research Network.
Exhibition open 5th Sept. - 8th Sept. 11am - 6pm
For more info contact: 0401 045 536 or email apec@riseup.net
8/7/07
Anti-SPP activists get ready to protest plan to sell out Canada to New American Union
by Psp-Spp.com staff
This August, George Bush, Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon will be just 90 minutes from Montreal, in Montebello, Quebec.
They are meeting at the Chateau Montebello, as part of the so-called "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (aka the "Three Amigos" Summit).
They talk about "security" and "prosperity", but their agenda really means insecurity and misery for working and oppressed peoples in the Americas.
In brief, the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP) combines the destructive neo-liberal policies of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the fear and paranoia of post 9-11 "Homeland Security" policies. The SPP is firmly rooted within a colonial and capitalist framework.
SPP is a plot to use the pre-text of the "War on Terrorism" to create a "New American Union" under the substantive direction of the U.S. political-military-industrial complex.
The SPP is described by its proponents as a "NAFTA 2.0", and is promoted and supported by corporations and their lobby groups, like the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.
A group of 30 corporate executives from the NAFTA countries comprise the North American Competitiveness Council, which was set up "to fully incorporate the private sector into the SPP process" (to cite the SPP's own words). Moreover, because the SPP announces itself as a "dialogue based on shared values," it is secretive process, subject to no formal public scrutiny or open debate.
There is no mystery to the SPP agenda: murderous wars and occupations abroad; border militarization; increased detentions and deportations; attacks on indigenous peoples, the poor, migrants, and working people; ecological destruction; mega-projects in the service of corporate greed; and unfortunately, much more and worse.
The SPP reinforces the idea of "Fortress North America", whereby the rich and privileged live in gated communities and gentrified cities, protected by police and security, with easy movement for capital between borders; for the rest, there's border fences, reservations, detention centres, prisons, surveillance, and increased precariousness.
This August, protests are being organized by anti-capitalist social justice activists in Ontario and Quebec, within the framework of the People's Global Action (PGA) Network. With organizing hubs in Ottawa and Montreal, on either end of Montebello on the Highway 148, we are preparing to resist the upcoming SPP meeting.
We are not going to lobby the SPP leaders or governments to be nicer. Justice and dignity is achieved through grassroots mobilizing and struggle, not the charity of rich philanthropists, rock-stars or politicians complicit in a destructive system.
When George Bush, Stephen Harper and Felipe Calderon try to meet at the Chateau Montebello, we are going to protest and try to disrupt their meeting. There will be activities from August 19-21, with a call for a convergence on Montebello (or as close as possible to Montebello) on 3pm on MONDAY, AUGUST 20. An anti-capitalist camp will be set up in the Montebello region in early August, as a convergence space for activists who want to gather early to plan popular and actions.
Make a Donation Pledge
Our protests are rooted in our ongoing mobilizing efforts and day-to-day organizing: for indigenous sovereignty and self-determination in the Americas, for immigrant justice and free movement, against deportations and detentions, against war and imperialism, for workers justice, against poverty, for ecological and environmental justice, for the liberation of all political prisoners, in solidarity with social justice movements worldwide.
On January 1, 1994, the day that NAFTA took effect, the Zapatistas began an uprising in southern Mexico, declaring NAFTA a "death sentence" on indigenous peoples. With the SPP, the politicians, bureaucrats and corporations of North America have renewed their death sentence on all of us.
The inspiration of the Zapatistas still resonates, 13 years later, as we make links between our struggles and issues, and unify to confront the SPP at Montebello, and beyond.
7/31/07
Protest Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, at NZ National Party Conference.
ImagineNative Action, in collaboration with Radical Youth, is organising an action this weekend to protest the presence of Alexander Downer at the National Party Conference being held at the Langham Hotel in central Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland). We want to send a clear message to Alexander Downer and the National Party that we do not support the Australian Colonial Government's recent military/police invasion of Aboriginal Lands.
More importantly we wish to stand in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of Occupied Australia as this plays a vital role in lifting the spirits of the Aboriginal People, strengthening their will to resist the colonial invasion and economic exploitation of their lands.
Saturday August 4th
2.30pm Mass demo against Downer and the National Party. Meet corner of Symonds Street and K'rd to march on the Langham Hotel, Symonds Street.
7.00pm: Disrupt Downer's Dinner.
Meet corner of Karangahape Road and Symonds Street, Auckland.
Bring musical instruments (especially taonga puoro - traditional Maori instruments) and noise makers. Some kai will be provided but donations are always welcome!
Since Don Brash resigned as National Party leader the National Party has put in a lot effort to convince us that they care about Tangata Whenua, the environment, and the poor of Aotearoa. Alexander Downer is a leading representative of a colonial government that has invaded Indigenous lands, supported similar actions in Indonesia and supplied troops to the invasion/occupation of Iraq. His government has publicly advocated using Aboriginal lands for large scale mining and nuclear waste dumping operations.
Downer's presence at the National conference clearly shows that National hasn't changed at all. It is still a party that endorses racism against indigenous people and represents the interests of the rich and powerful, at the expense of ordinary people and our whenua.
As it is likely that National will form the next colonial government of Aotearoa it is essential they know we will not tolerate racist and exploitative policies such as those enacted by Alexander Downer and his government.
For more information or to endorse this action email indigenous.solidarity (at) gmail.com or call/text 021 1551154
Endorsed by:
ImagineNative Action
Radical Youth
Indonesia Human Rights Committee
A Space Inside: Tamaki Makaurau Anarchist Collective
Global Peace and Justice Auckland (GPJA)
More endorsements to come.
Reminder: A planning and banner making session for this action is being held this Wednesday, August 1st from 7pm at 43 Warwick Ave, Westmere (Look for the Tino Rangatiratanga flag). Bring red, black and yellow paint, banner materials.
As always some kai will be provided but koha always welcome!
Mauriora!
na Te Kanikani Tangata Hara (ImagineNative Action) & Nila Yung (Radical Youth)
--
ImagineNative Action
"Building solidarity between Indigenous and Peoples of Colour communities. Defending our whenua & peoples against racism and exploitation since 2007"
Don't want to get panui/mail anymore?
Send an email to us with 'I suffer from Apathy' in the subject line & we'll take you off the list. Chur
7/24/07
Melbourne Activists Solidarity Gathering (Encuentro)
"In Solidarity with Latin American and Australian
Struggles and Resistance against Neoliberalism"
"Remembering at a time of forgetting"
"Against the love of death and For the love of life"
Dear Friends:
The Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET) in collaboration with other networks and groups is holding a gathering in solidarity with the Latin American, Australian and this part of the world (Asia pacific) social movements who continue to battle tirelessly to reach justice and dignity for all those that suffer under and resist against neoliberalism.
We believe it is very important to create spaces for discussion and to look for paths that lead us to the solutions to the exploitation of workers and humanity as a whole at the hands of the transnational corporations and the dominant sectors of our societies, the discrimination and marginalisation of the first nations, violence against minority groups and gay and lesbian people, the destruction of our natural resources and above all the irreparable damage that climate change is causing and will cause.
Other matters that focus the attention of activists of our nations are the topic of the validity of democracy under a neoliberal system, what type of socialism if any is possible in our societies, the violence or "security" that the nation state perpetrates against its people through its 'anti-terrorist' laws and the wars that the imperial powers are conducting at this moment against the poor of our countries under the pretext of the fight against terrorism.
We don't believe we can come up with the solutions today to these complex problems that humanity faces, but we can contribute to the discussion. The resolutions from this event
will be put for consideration at the gatherings to be held in Latin America in the next few
months and at the Forum in Solidarity with Latin America and the Asia Pacific to be held in
October in Australia.
We are having this solidarity gathering on Saturday 28 July 2007, from 9am-5pm at the MUA offices, 54 Ireland St, West Melbourne. It will be a simple day of workshops and central sessions which will allow space for participation and discussion.
At this gathering will be two international activists from the social movements. Claudio Castro will be representing the Popular Assemblies Movement from Chile, and there will be a Maori activist from New Zealand.
Registration is $10 waged, $5 unwaged and students.
Schedule:
9am: registration
9:30 am: Opening
10 am - 12 noon First plenary session
Organising, resisting and fighting against neoliberalism
Main Speakers:Claudio Castro, Chilean Activist from Popular Assemblies Movement from Chile;
Maori Activist; Dave kerin, Union solidarity
Lunch
1 - 2pm: Workshops
-Workers Organising against neoliberalism(Dave Kerin, Union Solidarity)
-Latin American struggles and resistances (Jody Betzien AVSN rep, John Clearly ETU, Claudio
Castro Chile, Lucho-LASNET)
- Anti-globalisation movements (Anti-APEC)(David Glanz)
-First Nations struggles, Indigenous resistances (Sina, Marisol. Canopy)
2-3 pm Workshops session 2
-Peace and anti-war movements in Australia (Jacob Grench)
-Climate Change (Cam Walker(FOE), Beyond Zero emissions)
-Student and youth Movements (Julia Dehm, Liz Turner, Claudio Castro)
3.15pm - 5pm Second plenary session and close
-Proposing a path....
-What should be the central points of our struggle?
-What type of struggle should we wage?
-Finally, what should we propose?
5:30 Movie Premier "La Segunda Conquista", The Second Conquest...Plunder,
corruption, and resistance of the people of Patagonia, Argentina...An independant
documentary by Denali DeGraft and Joao Dujon Pereira, An Argentinian/Ausytralia
collaboration
6:30 Film "Che Guevara: Hasta la Victoria Siempre", leading to the 9th of October
Commemoration of his Assasination by Bolivian and USA Army
7:30 Solidarity Dinner same place MUA, Music, dance, drinks and food available
To register or for more information
Write to
lasnet@latinlasnet.org or visit www.latinlasnet.org
Or call
Marisol: (03) 9481 2273
Pablo: 0421 011 182
Lucho: 0402 754 818
Struggles and Resistance against Neoliberalism"
"Remembering at a time of forgetting"
"Against the love of death and For the love of life"
Dear Friends:
The Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET) in collaboration with other networks and groups is holding a gathering in solidarity with the Latin American, Australian and this part of the world (Asia pacific) social movements who continue to battle tirelessly to reach justice and dignity for all those that suffer under and resist against neoliberalism.
We believe it is very important to create spaces for discussion and to look for paths that lead us to the solutions to the exploitation of workers and humanity as a whole at the hands of the transnational corporations and the dominant sectors of our societies, the discrimination and marginalisation of the first nations, violence against minority groups and gay and lesbian people, the destruction of our natural resources and above all the irreparable damage that climate change is causing and will cause.
Other matters that focus the attention of activists of our nations are the topic of the validity of democracy under a neoliberal system, what type of socialism if any is possible in our societies, the violence or "security" that the nation state perpetrates against its people through its 'anti-terrorist' laws and the wars that the imperial powers are conducting at this moment against the poor of our countries under the pretext of the fight against terrorism.
We don't believe we can come up with the solutions today to these complex problems that humanity faces, but we can contribute to the discussion. The resolutions from this event
will be put for consideration at the gatherings to be held in Latin America in the next few
months and at the Forum in Solidarity with Latin America and the Asia Pacific to be held in
October in Australia.
We are having this solidarity gathering on Saturday 28 July 2007, from 9am-5pm at the MUA offices, 54 Ireland St, West Melbourne. It will be a simple day of workshops and central sessions which will allow space for participation and discussion.
At this gathering will be two international activists from the social movements. Claudio Castro will be representing the Popular Assemblies Movement from Chile, and there will be a Maori activist from New Zealand.
Registration is $10 waged, $5 unwaged and students.
Schedule:
9am: registration
9:30 am: Opening
10 am - 12 noon First plenary session
Organising, resisting and fighting against neoliberalism
Main Speakers:Claudio Castro, Chilean Activist from Popular Assemblies Movement from Chile;
Maori Activist; Dave kerin, Union solidarity
Lunch
1 - 2pm: Workshops
-Workers Organising against neoliberalism(Dave Kerin, Union Solidarity)
-Latin American struggles and resistances (Jody Betzien AVSN rep, John Clearly ETU, Claudio
Castro Chile, Lucho-LASNET)
- Anti-globalisation movements (Anti-APEC)(David Glanz)
-First Nations struggles, Indigenous resistances (Sina, Marisol. Canopy)
2-3 pm Workshops session 2
-Peace and anti-war movements in Australia (Jacob Grench)
-Climate Change (Cam Walker(FOE), Beyond Zero emissions)
-Student and youth Movements (Julia Dehm, Liz Turner, Claudio Castro)
3.15pm - 5pm Second plenary session and close
-Proposing a path....
-What should be the central points of our struggle?
-What type of struggle should we wage?
-Finally, what should we propose?
5:30 Movie Premier "La Segunda Conquista", The Second Conquest...Plunder,
corruption, and resistance of the people of Patagonia, Argentina...An independant
documentary by Denali DeGraft and Joao Dujon Pereira, An Argentinian/Ausytralia
collaboration
6:30 Film "Che Guevara: Hasta la Victoria Siempre", leading to the 9th of October
Commemoration of his Assasination by Bolivian and USA Army
7:30 Solidarity Dinner same place MUA, Music, dance, drinks and food available
To register or for more information
Write to
lasnet@latinlasnet.org or visit www.latinlasnet.org
Or call
Marisol: (03) 9481 2273
Pablo: 0421 011 182
Lucho: 0402 754 818
7/20/07
Neoliberalism:Identity Aspects
One of a series of interconnected notes
prepared by Acción Zapatista de Austin
(www.utexas.edu/students/nave)
Neoliberalism and Identity
Neoliberalism’s most dramatic impact on indigenous
communities has been its attack on their access to land.
Throughout North America NAFTA has provided a rationale
for new enclosures of indigenous lands for purposes of
commercial exploitation. In Canada indigenous land claims
are being overridden with growing ferocity. In the US efforts
to privatize public lands and commercialize indigenous ones
are rampant. In Mexico the privatization of ejidal lands is
aimed at their concentration in the hands of agribusiness.
On a world scale the GATT has provided a rationale for the
enclosure of all public and indigenous lands and the reduction
of life everywhere to private property exploitable for private
gain. Such enclosure degrades all of nature to a mere “natural
resource” to be raped via mining, clear cutting, ranching, the
rip off of indigenous knowledge or genetic engineering. But
such enclosures not only destroy the land, its flora and fauna,
mountains, river systems and oceans. It also wipes out the
material foundations of indigenous community survival and
cultural development.
As a replacement for the cultures undermined, and for the
self-determined identities of those excluded from the land,
neoliberalism offers only the hollow rhetoric of development
and a new identity of “homo economicus” --the selfish
economic person without ties to others and standing alone in
work and consumption . The rhetoric is hollow because it
hides a vast concentration of wealth and spreading poverty.
Homo economicus is not only an impoverished abstraction
but even the usual formulation of “consumer” rings false
amidst starvation wages and endless work for the wealthy.
Indigenous Resistance to Neoliberalism
From local artisan and farming cooperatives to human rights
watchgroups and armed guerrilla movements, indigenous
peoples throughout the Americas have organized themselves
to resist such attacks.
Local coalitions have merged to form
multi-ethnic alliances and multi-national organizations that
recognize the common struggles that all indigenous and
subordinate groups face. The Foro Nacional Indigena in
Mexico stands as an exemplary model of this movement. This forum allows for
permanent dialog among indigenous communities and
opportunities for joint action against potentially devastating
neoliberal policies at both local and national levels.
Decades of repression and subsequent political struggle have
developed strong, vibrant and militant indigenous movements
that present sophisticated, well-organized challenges to the
capitalist system and the new era of neoliberal policymaking.
Because of their well-developed sense of purpose, of the clarity
of their autonomous conceptions of alternative, non-capitalist
ways of being and doing, the influence of these indigenous
movements has reached far beyond their own communities and
organizations. Their ideas and self-activity have come to
provide models of organization against neoliberalism for others
engaged against the same enemy. Perhaps most obvious in this
regard has been the struggles of those concerned with
ecological degradation who have often looked to the
indigenous for alternative approaches to the relations between
humans and nature.
Indigenous Leadership Against Neoliberalism
With the development of the struggles against neoliberalism
around the world, growing numbers have also come to
appreciate the politics of indigenous networking: collaboration
with respect for autonomy and new, creative ways of
discussing democracy, justice and peace. Through their
discussions of self-determination and democratic practices
rooted in community-level cultural, political and economic
traditions and needs, the international indigenous movement
has reinvigorated debates over developing democratic practices
and alternative community consciousness in many nonindigenous
left and radical communities.
The indigenous movement has placed community autonomy at
the center of the development of democratic practices and the
renewal of community consciousness and identity. Indigenous
autonomy goes beyond simple economic self-determination to
include social, cultural, legal and political community
autonomy. This notion of autonomy recognizes local and
ethnic differences and is not based on a universal notion of
rights, needs, culture and desires but on a plurality of political,
economic and cultural systems. This conception of autonomy
allows for a radical pluralism that accepts and fosters both
differences an dialog among people everywhere --an essential
ingredient of a better world.
prepared by Acción Zapatista de Austin
(www.utexas.edu/students/nave)
Neoliberalism and Identity
Neoliberalism’s most dramatic impact on indigenous
communities has been its attack on their access to land.
Throughout North America NAFTA has provided a rationale
for new enclosures of indigenous lands for purposes of
commercial exploitation. In Canada indigenous land claims
are being overridden with growing ferocity. In the US efforts
to privatize public lands and commercialize indigenous ones
are rampant. In Mexico the privatization of ejidal lands is
aimed at their concentration in the hands of agribusiness.
On a world scale the GATT has provided a rationale for the
enclosure of all public and indigenous lands and the reduction
of life everywhere to private property exploitable for private
gain. Such enclosure degrades all of nature to a mere “natural
resource” to be raped via mining, clear cutting, ranching, the
rip off of indigenous knowledge or genetic engineering. But
such enclosures not only destroy the land, its flora and fauna,
mountains, river systems and oceans. It also wipes out the
material foundations of indigenous community survival and
cultural development.
As a replacement for the cultures undermined, and for the
self-determined identities of those excluded from the land,
neoliberalism offers only the hollow rhetoric of development
and a new identity of “homo economicus” --the selfish
economic person without ties to others and standing alone in
work and consumption . The rhetoric is hollow because it
hides a vast concentration of wealth and spreading poverty.
Homo economicus is not only an impoverished abstraction
but even the usual formulation of “consumer” rings false
amidst starvation wages and endless work for the wealthy.
Indigenous Resistance to Neoliberalism
From local artisan and farming cooperatives to human rights
watchgroups and armed guerrilla movements, indigenous
peoples throughout the Americas have organized themselves
to resist such attacks.
Local coalitions have merged to form
multi-ethnic alliances and multi-national organizations that
recognize the common struggles that all indigenous and
subordinate groups face. The Foro Nacional Indigena in
Mexico stands as an exemplary model of this movement. This forum allows for
permanent dialog among indigenous communities and
opportunities for joint action against potentially devastating
neoliberal policies at both local and national levels.
Decades of repression and subsequent political struggle have
developed strong, vibrant and militant indigenous movements
that present sophisticated, well-organized challenges to the
capitalist system and the new era of neoliberal policymaking.
Because of their well-developed sense of purpose, of the clarity
of their autonomous conceptions of alternative, non-capitalist
ways of being and doing, the influence of these indigenous
movements has reached far beyond their own communities and
organizations. Their ideas and self-activity have come to
provide models of organization against neoliberalism for others
engaged against the same enemy. Perhaps most obvious in this
regard has been the struggles of those concerned with
ecological degradation who have often looked to the
indigenous for alternative approaches to the relations between
humans and nature.
Indigenous Leadership Against Neoliberalism
With the development of the struggles against neoliberalism
around the world, growing numbers have also come to
appreciate the politics of indigenous networking: collaboration
with respect for autonomy and new, creative ways of
discussing democracy, justice and peace. Through their
discussions of self-determination and democratic practices
rooted in community-level cultural, political and economic
traditions and needs, the international indigenous movement
has reinvigorated debates over developing democratic practices
and alternative community consciousness in many nonindigenous
left and radical communities.
The indigenous movement has placed community autonomy at
the center of the development of democratic practices and the
renewal of community consciousness and identity. Indigenous
autonomy goes beyond simple economic self-determination to
include social, cultural, legal and political community
autonomy. This notion of autonomy recognizes local and
ethnic differences and is not based on a universal notion of
rights, needs, culture and desires but on a plurality of political,
economic and cultural systems. This conception of autonomy
allows for a radical pluralism that accepts and fosters both
differences an dialog among people everywhere --an essential
ingredient of a better world.
6/27/07
Mexico, Oaxaca, They do not want us Indians: they want us dead to steal from us
To all honest media --- To all sons and daughters of mother Earth --- To all
brothers and sisters who are part of La Otra Campaña --- Brothers and Sisters:
The hearts of all men and women in the Indigenous Popular Council of Oaxaca
“Ricardo Flores Magón” (CIPO-RFM) are saddened and angered because of bad
governments who keep trying to steal our mother Earth only to hand it to rich
businessmen. These governments use communities that are affiliated with the
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to assault us and later say that it is
merely a conflict between two communities so that they can wash their hands
clean of the blood that is being shed. This is what is currently happening with
San Isidro Aloapam, a community that forms part of CIPO-RFM. This morning’s
events in a place known as Yyusuni in the San Isidro Aloapam forest help
illustrate this problem.
On Sunday June 17th, 2007 at 8.00 p.m. we received a phone call from Mr. Ricardo
Alavés Méndez, a police officer from the San Isidro Aloapam community. He said
he was extremely worried because according to some reports, San Miguel Aloapam’s
communal and municipal authorities had decided to go into the forest and log the
trees in the area. We have been asking the following authorities to intervene:
Esteban Ortiz Rodea (SEMARNAT regional delegate); Salvador Anta Fonseca
(SEMARNAT regional manager); Francisco Reyes Cervantes (CONAFOR ex-regional
manager); PROFEPA; and Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, regarding the issues of agrarian
conflict between the two communities; the outbreak of the Mexican pine beetle;
and San miguel Aloapam’s indiscriminate forest logging that has caused
irreversible damage to the ecosystem and has resulted in water shortages for
neighboring communities.
Our compañeros from San Isidro decided that they would keep surveillance of the
area in case that San Miguel Aloapam began to log the forest. They decided that
a commission would go into the forest in a peaceful way and engage in dialogue
to try to convince them to retreat. Compañeros and representatives of CIPO made
a phone call to Salvador Anta Fonseca (CONAFOR regional manager) as a
preventative measure. We called his cellular phone (044 951 54 71281) to let him
know about our fears and to ask him to intervene because that is his duty. He
acknowledged that SEMARNAT, CONAFORT, PROFEPA, and the state Government are
involved in the issue because they granted a permit to San Miguel Aloapam,
completely disregarding San Isidro. They did this in spite of their knowledge of
the agrarian conflict between these two communities. Nevertheless, he got upset
with our compañeros when they told him that he would be held responsible for
anything that might happen.
Unfortunately, today our fears were confirmed because at 8.15 a.m. loggers from
San Miguel Aloapam entered Yyuzuni guarded by more than 600 armed men. They were
carrying guns, rifles, and shotguns of different calibers and were accompanied
by their municipal president, San Miguel Fidel Alejandro Cruz Pablo and his
cabinet: secretary Pablo Alavés Pérez; treasurer Joel Santiago; municipal union
leader tomas Alavez Cruz; and auxiliary secretary Félix Rogelio Alavés Pérez.
At approximately 10.30 a.m. about 70 men and women from San Isidro walked into
the forest with the intention of peacefully addressing the people from San
Miguel Aloapam. However, when they reached the forest the loggers were already
falling trees. Still, they approached San Miguel’s authorities to try and speak
to them, but realized that the municipal president and his cabinet were
extremely drunk. The San Miguel authorities began insulting and attacking the
San Isidro people and ordered their people to arrest all those who were from San
Isidro. Given the situation our compañeros began backing down. It was at that
point that the people from San Miguel began firing shots in every direction;
they had to dodge bullets that were being fired by their own people. As a result
the men and women from San Isidro ran into the forest as fast as they could to
try and stay away from the bullets and from being caught by San Miguel Aloapam
paramilitaries.
At approximately noon, and little by little, those who were hiding in the forest
made their way back to San Isidro Aloapam. Initially it was thought that 13
compañeros had been disappeared, but slowly they started making their way back
to the community. At around 7.00 p.m. the police headquarters received an
anonymous phone call saying that those that had been kidnapped were in San
Miguel’s jail. The person said that they were being tortured and half dead from
the beatings. Oscar Fernandez, private secretary of the Head of State, was
called immediately. He confirmed the information and mentioned that he had been
aware for the last three hours but had not communicated it to anyone because he
did not have the names of the kidnapped.
People from San Miguel kidnapped four brothers and one sister. They are
torturing them in the San Miguel Aloapam jail, and we fear for their lives:
1. Juventino Cruz Pérez, 19 years old
2. Artemio Pérez Cruz, 52 years old
3. Juana Morales Pérez, 30 years old
4. Eutimio Méndez López, 32 years old
5. Anastasio López Pérez, 48 years old
We called Oscar Fernandez at 2.57 p.m. so that he could give us more information
about the missing people. He told us that the police was already in the forest
when San Isidro’s community members arrived there and that people from San
Miguel were shooting at them. He also mentioned that San Miguel people denied
having any prisoners.
This is all a result of the actions of SEMARNAT, PROFEPA, CONAFOR, and the state
Government. The deaths and blood are their responsibility. We are currently
receiving information from CEPROCI about 6 deaths. However, we do not know which
community the deceased belong to. What we do know is that this is all occurring
due to the conflict.
Currently, San Miguel Aloapam community members are using a megaphone to tell
all its people to gather with sticks, machetes, and other arms in order to
attack the autonomous community of San Isidro Aloapam. It is now known that
people from San Miguel cut down a tree in an area called Montesilla, which is
near the entrance of San Isidro Aloapam, with the purpose of blocking the path.
At approximately 10.00 p.m. according to government reports presented to us via
a murderer, Joaquín Rodríguez Palacio, San Miguel Aloapam would free the
hostages if the town was presented with the following people:
Ricardo Alavés Méndez, police officer San Isidro Aloapam
Epifanio Alavés Soriano, agency secretary
Eulogio Pérez Cruz, communal land owner from San Isidro
Marcelino Pérez Méndez, communal land owner from San Isidro
Octavio López Alavés, communal representative
Demetrio Pérez Méndez, community member
Dolores Villalobos Cuamatzi, general coordinator of CIPO-RFM
Given all the facts, all our hearts can feel is that both the state and federal
governments are protecting the PRI logres and paramilitaries from San Miguel
Aloapam, and that once again they are not practicing justice when it comes to
us, the indigenous. We hold the following people responsible for anything that
may happen to community members, citizens, municipal authorities and public
authorities of San Isidro Aloapam: SEMARNAT, Oaxaca delegate Esteban Ortiz
Rodea, Juan Rafael Evira Quesada; regional manager SALVADOR ANTA FONSECA; and
CONAFOR ex regional manager FRANCISCO REYES CERVANTES; PROFEPA; ULISES RUIZ
ORTIZ; JOAQUIN RODRIGUEZ PALACIOS; MANUEL GARCÍA CORPUS; President FELIPE
CALDERÓN; PRI candidate for Sierra Juarez deputy ADRIAN MENDEZ CRUZ; and San
Miguel Aloapam municipal Presient FIDEL ALEJANDRO CRUZ PABLO.
We call on all men and women with good hearts, the free, alternative and
community media to register what is currently happening and to spread the
information to all environmental and human rights groups, social organizations,
indigenous peoples from around the world, La Otra Campaña, and all those who
fight for justice. We urge you to help with any actions that may be within your
means. You can send a letter or call SEMARNAT, CONAFOR, PROFEPA, FELIPE
CALDERON, AND ULISES RUIZ so that all attacks on San Isidro Aloapam stop and to
prevent the destruction of the forest. We also ask that they act with honesty
and justice regarding the demands of our brothers and sisters from San Isidro.
The demands are the following.
1. The freedom of our five brothers that were kidnapped by people from San
Miguel Aloapam.
2. Punishment for those who have or commit any actions against people from San
Isidro Aloapam. In addition, guarantees for the safety of community authorities
and every single inhabitant of San Isidro.
3. That the corresponding truly execute the sentence that will force San Miguel
Aloapam to recognize 412 community land owners from San Isidro Aloapam.
4. That authorities recognize the injustices that our compañeros have suffered
under the legal cases 123/2004, 36/2000, and 129/2003 because in spite of having
presented evidence that proves their innocence, we fear that the court ruling
will not be in our favor due to San Miguel Aloapam’s bribing of judges.
5. That San Miguel Aloapam’s forest exploitation under the pretext of ‘curing’
it from the Mexican pine beetle stop. We want SEMARNAT to accept a program to
heal the 3-4 hectares of forested land affected by the pest. This should occur
with the participation of environmental groups, community members of San Isidro
Aloapam, forest technicians, neighboring communities, and using the lumber for
the good of the community and not for selling it.
6. That SEMARNAT does not grant San Miguel Aloapam any permit with the help of
CONAFOR, otherwise they will be taking part in an ecocide.
7. That there is a follow up of all the complaints previously made against
paramilitaries from San Miguel Aloapam befote state and federal authorities as
well as CONAFOR, PROFEPA, SEMARNAT Y GOBIERNOS.
For the reconstitution and free association of peoples
Indigenous Popular Council of Oaxaca “Ricardo Flores Magón”
CIPO-RFM
The Organizing Committee:
Dolores Villalobos, Rosario Gómez, Simón YIlescas, Crisologo Calleja, Pedro
Bautista Rojas y Miguel Cruz Moreno.
Favor de enviar e-mails y llamadas en solidaridad y apoyo a San Isidro Aloapam a
las siguientes direcciones:
Please send e-mails and make phone calls in solidarity and support to San Isidro
Aloapam to the following numbers and addresses:
Juan Rafael Evira Quesada
Titular de la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, SEMARNAT
Teléfono: 5628 0602 al 05, Fax: 56-28-06-43, Red: (Red 300,349 Red de Voz: 10901)
E-mail: c.secretario@semarnat.gob.mx .
Blvd. Adolfo Ruiz Cortínez 4209 Col. Jardines en la Montaña. C.P. 14210. México D.F.
Esteban Ortiz Rodea
Delegado Federal en Oaxaca de SEMARNAT
teléfono: (951) 512 96 00, Fax: 951-5129634, Red: 29630
E-mail: delegado@oaxaca.semarnat.gob.mx
Ignacio Loyola Vera
Procurador Federal de Protección al Ambiente, PROFEPA
Teléfono: 26-15-20-95 54-49-63-00, Fax: 26-15-20-41
E-mail: iloyola@profepa.gob.mx
Oficinas Centrales: Ajusco 200 CP 14210 Col Jardines en la Montaña, Distrito
Federal, TLALPAN
Edgar Guillermo Sigler Andrade
Delegado de la PROFEPA en Oaxaca
Télefono: 9515160078, 9515141991, Fax: 9515169213
Email: delegado_oax@correo.profepa.gob.mx
Av. Independencia 709, Palacio Federal, Centro. CP 68000 Col Centro Oaxaca de
Juárez, Oax.
Salvador Anta Fonseca
Gerente regional en Oaxaca de la Comisión Nacional Forestal, CONAFOR
Sabinos 402, Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca. Colonia Reforma
Teléfono: 01 951 5187210, E-mail: conafor@conafor.gob.mx
Presidente FELIPE DE JESÚS CALDERÓN HINOJOSA
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán, Col. San Miguel Chapultepec,
C.P. 11850, México D. F., Tel: +521 (55) 27891100, Fax: +521 (55) 52772376
felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx
Licenciado Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña,
Secretario de Gobernación,
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juárez, Delegación Cuauhtémoc, México D.F., C.P.
06600, México,
Fax: +521 (55) 5093 3414, Tel. +521 (55) 5093 3400
La dirección mail no aparece en los directorios, favor de mandar comunicación
por fax
Lic. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza,
Procurador General de la República
Av. Paseo de la Reforma #211-213 Col. Cuauhtémoc, Delegación Cuauhtémoc. México
D.F., C.P. 06500
Para enviar correos en línea: http://www.pgr.gob.mx/index.asp
Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández
Presidente de la CNDH
Periférico Sur 3469, Col. San Jerónimo Lídice, 10200, México, D.F.
Tel: 631 00 40, 6 81 81 25, Fax: 56 81 84 90, Lada sin costo: 01 800 00
Correo electrónico: correo@fmdh.cndh.org.mx , correo@cndh.gob.mx
Jaime Mario Pérez Jiménez
Presidente de la Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos
Domicilio: Calle de los Derechos Humanos no. 210, Col. América, C.P. 68050,
Oaxaca, Oax.
Teléfonos/Fax: Lada (951) 503 02 20, 503 02 21, 513 51 85, 513 51 91, 51351 97
Correo electrónico: correo@cedhoax.org
LIBERTY FOR THE INDIGENOUS PRISONERS OF THE CIPO-RFM "LONG LIVE AUTONOMY" visit
our website: www.nodo50.org/cipo
Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores Magón", CIPO-RFM. Calle:
Emilio Carranza 210, Sta. Lucía del Camino Oaxaca, México. tel: +(951) 51-78183
y +(951) 51-78190 mail: ciporfm@yahoo.com.mx, cipo@nodo50.org,
mujercipo@hotmail.com, los_magoneros@hotmail.com
FOR DONATIONS IN THE NAME OF THE CIPO-RFM: Banco Nacional de México, SA.
Domicilio Hidalgo # 821. col.Centro, Oax. C.P.68000, Sucursal Oaxaca, No. 120,
Suit: Banamex: BNMXMXMM, Cuenta: 002610012077451770
http://www.nodo50.org/cipo
Anarkismo.net is an anarchist communist international project.
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=5888
===============================================
* An antiauthoritarian anticapitalist initiative
6/26/07
Stop the attacks on building workers: Union Solidarity extraordinary meeting
Union Solidarity will hold an extraordinary meeting:
Thursday 6pm
June 28th
New Council Chambers
Trades Hall
Corner of Lygon and Victoria St Carlton.
The meeting will discuss the serious situation in the construction industry where the CFMEU and other unions are under enormous pressure from the building task force.
Approximately 90 investigations leading to possible prosecution, fines and or jail
terms is currently running Australia wide with approximately 56 of them affecting Victorian building workers and unions.
Specifically we will outline the situation on a large building site in Melbourne where shop stewards have been sacked and workers are denied the representative of their choice. We will discuss possible responses to this; concretely one item will be the organising of a phone tree for a rapid assembly/picket if the need arises.
Recently construction workers in Port Campbell building the Woodside gas plant who attended a mass meeting in defense of a sack shop steward have been summered to appear before the ABCC(Australian Building and Construction Commissioner). If the workers refuse to attend they face heavy fines and a jail term.
Construction union members are afforded less rights than accused criminals (they are denied the right to silence), at least if you rob a bank you have the right to remain silent in court.
Even discussing matters raised in the commission with partners and family could result in fines and a jail term.
These outrages must stop. Behind the recent hysteria in the media about what certain union officials have said is the reality that employers in the building industry (and in general) want to smash some of the most militant and effective unions in Australia.
Government backed and funded agencies like the ABCC are merely a tool to allow employers to get their way, deny working people basic democratic rights and increase the employer’s massive profit
margins.
You can make a difference, please attend this vital meeting and pass this message on through your networks. If you can’t attend the meeting and wish to be included on the phone tree ring the
number below.
More info: Dave 0412 484 094
Yours in Solidarity
Union Solidarity
Related
* http://www.unionsolidarity.org/
6/15/07
Pasifika Unite Stand Up Fight back
Big ups to the Aotearoa Indymedia Crew for their excellent work & recent feature articles bout the Pacific. With Press censorship a reality for many Pacific Islands these reports and voices are crucial....go the grass roots.
Tuvalu: Global Face Of Climate Change
As the leaders of the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in Germany hammered the final communiqué on climate change, half a world away, in the small Pacific island country of Tuvalu, Silafaga Lalua, a born and bred islander pondered her shaky future on the islands, as she has always done again and again.
Silafaga Lalua has a difficult decision on her hands, to either pack her bags and leave Tuvalu for safer territories or stay and watch her country slowly sink under the rising sea levels in the Pacific and hope for the best. Scientific predictions from the Australian Government predict dire consequences for the island in the next 50 years. Other predictions say it could be sooner. So for Silafaga, both issues are not easy to deal with , but she is increasingly aware that something has got to give.
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/73197/index.php
On the Eve of a Free Trade Area of the Pacific – Occupation, neo-colonialism and enclosure
New Zealand Minister for Trade Phil Goff has announced that talks will begin in August to begin the process of imposing a Free Trade Agreement to bind the economies of the sixteen nations of the Pacific Islands Forum together. Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and a range of other small island nations together comprise the Pacific Islands Forum.
The Free Trade Area of the Pacific has been in the pipeline at the Pacific Islands Forum for years now as New Zealand and Australian capital seek to carve out throughout the Pacific new markets, cheap natural resources and a flexible and disposable labour force.
The recent year in the Pacific has only heightened the increasing tension between the interests of Australian, New Zealand and American capital and those of Pacific peoples subject to increased repression, surveillance, control and impoverishment. In Timor Leste, Tonga and the Solomon Islands Australia and New Zealand have intervened directly into the political affairs to enforce their control over these nations and curb, criminalise and destroy popular social movements.
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/73189/index.php
TONGA: Sedition charges going to court
Five Tongan People's Representatives, charged with sedition in relation to the Nuku'alofa riots, have asked not to be tried by a jury, but by judge alone. The accused, 'Akilisi Pohiva, 'Isileli Pulu, William Clive Edwards, Lepolo Taunisila and 'Uliti Uata will be submitted in six weeks time to the Supreme Court for a trial date to be set. The alleged incident took place in the Cabinet Room at the Prime Minister's Office on the afternoon of November 16 last year.
A second sedition charge jointly for Pohiva, Edwards and Uata, relates to speeches they made at Pangai Si'i on November 14. There is also a joint charge of unlawful assembly for all five accused, which will be submitted also to the Supreme Court because it is under their jurisdiction. The preliminary inquiry hearing into the sedition charges ran from May 14-3
http://indymedia.org.nz/feature/display/71672/
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