GPJA #447 (Part 1 of 3): What’s On – TPP Action / Thurs – US worker-organiser Erik Forman talks about Occupy, the rebirth of the IWW

GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER No. 447, December 3, 2012

TPPA ACTION: UPCOMING EVENTS AROUND THE COUNTRY, MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED

• to 8 Dec Auckland. ‘Having fun with TPP’ Cartoon exhibition, BizDojo.Co.Space, Karangahape Road, Auckland.
• 3 Dec Auckland 6.30pm, Old Government House Lecture Theatre, Auckland University. Fabian Society will host a public meeting on TPP, Old Government House Lecture Theatre, University of Auckland. Two of the world’s foremost critical voices on international free trade and investment agreements — Lori Wallach and Jane Kelsey — will deliver presentations and take questions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a treaty being negotiated between the United States, New Zealand, and 9 other countries on the Asia-Pacific rim.
• 4 Dec, Wellington midday. Aotearoa Is Not For Sale Wellington are running a rally in opposition to the TPPA: Tuesday, December 4th, 12noon, Midland Park, Lambton Quay http://www.facebook.com/events/510342432318020/
• 7 December Auckland. Aotearoa Is Not For Sale: The Big Push. March against Asset Sales, meeting 6pm at Britomart. http://www.facebook.com/events/304092823039121/
• 7 December. The TPPA and labour relations: overseas and NZ unionists talk on the TPPA. 6Pm, venue TBA
• DEC 8 – NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION – WHAT IS YOUR COMMUNITY GOING TO DO?
• Auckland: Aotearoa Is Not For Sale: Shut Down the TPPA. Direct Action: http://www.facebook.com/events/421123814617113/
• It’s Our Future: Rally and presentation of Avaaz petition, 2pm (details to come)
• It’s Our Future: Awareness raising concert at St Kevin’s aracde from 5pm
• Nelson. March up the main street on 8 December, followed by speeches and maybe even a picnic! Contact Mary Ellen O’Connor at oconstance
• 10 Dec Auckland “Trading away our future: TPPA and the Environment”, featuring: Sanya Reid Smith (Third World Network), Gareth Hughes MP, and Nathan Argent (Greenpeace). Refreshments provided. 5.30 at Green Party offices, 17 Mercury Lane, Newton. http://www.facebook.com/events/562836617066132/
• 12 Dec Wellington. Aotearoa Is Not For Sale demonstration at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Details to be announced (AINFS meet at Trades Hall each Wednesday at 5.30).

Please share TPPA activities or good articles: Contact Stephen Parry stephenparry1985; Facebook page ItsOurFutureNZ; and website www.itsourfuture.org.nz

WHAT’S ON IN AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

Thursday, December 6, 7.30pm, Unite Union, 6a Western Springs Rd, Morningside, Auckland
Come and hear American worker-organiser Erik Forman talk about Occupy, the rebirth of the IWW (a grassroots anti-capitalist union) and class struggle in the US of A. Unite union presents: “From Precarity to Power: Class Struggle in the USA and the Return of the IWW”. The global economic crisis of 2007 has increased the misery of life under capitalism for workers around the world, particularly the already poor and precarious. However, amidst the tragedy of increased exploitation and poverty, new struggles have erupted, each with their own potentials for human liberation as well as limitations. In this talk, US labor organizer Erik Forman will discuss his experiences rebuilding the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) at Starbucks and in the the US fast food industry, IWW participation in the grassroots workers’ movement in Wisconsin and in the Occupy protests, and the potential for revolutionary unionism in the United States of America. See: https://www.facebook.com/events/519371654759313/
More on the IWW:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iww
http://www.iww.org/
http://www.starbucksunion.org/

Monday, December 10, 6.30pm-9pm, Freeman’s Bay Community Hall, 52 Hepburn St, Auckland
My ‘Voice’ Counts – Join us to celebrate Human Rights Day! All Welcome! The Human Rights Commission and EventX are hosting a free concert to celebrate our ‘voices’! Featuring Sam RB, Phillip Patston, Jodi Pringle, Panther and the Zoo, Johnny Matteson & Friends, Tommy Hamilton and Paul Gibson (Disability Rights Commisioner)

Tuesday, December 11, 12noon to 2pm, across the street from the Onehunga Work and Income.
Auckland Action Against Poverty Recession Buster Rally. More info at www.aaap.org.nz

Wednesday, December 12, 2-pm, Mangere Budget Advisory Service, Auckland
An open meeting will be held for all organisations involved in the Living Wage Aotearoa New Zealand.

December 27 to January 18, NZ-Cuba
XXX SOUTHERN CROSS BRIGADE TO CUBA: Receive warm greetings from Cuban Institute for Friendship with Peoples (ICAP), that every year receives, with great satisfaction, all friends that spontaneously decide to join us in the Southern Cross Brigade of voluntary work and solidarity with Cuba. Main objectives of the brigade are to provide a great deal of knowledge about Cuban reality so that the visitors could understand it as well as to work voluntarily in the agricultural fields in order to help in the development and productivity of the country. The program of the brigade includes visits to historical, cultural and social places. Participants will receive lectures on national and international topics and will also interact with representatives of Cuban organizations and people in general. Each brigade member, at the moment of the arrival, is committed to follow the program and schedule, and also to have a proper behaviour, discipline and social interaction not only in CIJAM but also all over the country. For further communication: Phone numbers (53 7) 838-24 30 / 8335372 / 830-1220 / 834-4544 ext. 15 and Emails: asia.norte , director.dao and amiventas We would be pleased to have you in the XXX Southern Cross Brigade, a beautiful project that ICAP and Australia/New Zealand – Cuba Friendship Societies have proudly maintained since 1983, which has allow to show Cuban reality to more than one thousand people who have taken part in previous brigades as well as to receive their support and deep solidarity. This year program and brigade has a special aim and it is to commemorate 55 anniversary of the triumph of Cuban revolution on January 1st, 2013 and also to celebrate with every participant coming the 30 anniversary of the Southern Cross Brigade visit to Cuba. This is a formal invitation to join the brigade in order to strengthen brotherhood between our peoples. Sincerely yours, Asia and Pacific Division, Cuban Institute for Friendship with Peoples NZ Participants: Email gael.d for the full programme and any other questions.

January 18-20, Waihopai, Blenheim
COME TO WAIHOPAI SPY BASE PROTEST: JANUARY 18-20

The Kim Dotcom saga has certainly put the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and its Waihopai spy base smack bang into the glare of the spotlight. Not coincidentally this is happening in the same year that the Government has got New Zealand back into ANZUS in all but name. NZ has hosted its first visit from a US Defense Secretary for 30 years and he offered to base US marines here. For the first time since the 1980s, American troops have trained here; NZ troops have trained in the US; and NZ warships have taken part in US-led naval exercises. How ironic that all this was happening at the same time as the country was celebrating the 25th anniversary of our nuclear free law.
The public face of New Zealand’s role as an American ally is the NZ military presence in Afghanistan. But New Zealand’s most significant contribution to the global American warfighting machine is, and has been for more than 20 years, the Waihopai electronic intelligence gathering base, located in the Waihopai Valley, near Blenheim. It is controlled by the US, with New Zealand (including Parliament and the Prime Minister) having little or no idea what goes on there, let alone any control.
First announced in 1987, Waihopai is operated by New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in the interests of the foreign Powers grouped together in the super-secret UKUSA Agreement (which shares global electronic and signals intelligence among the intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ). Its satellite interception dishes intercept a huge volume of civilian telephone calls, telexes, faxes, e-mail and computer data communications. It spies on our Asia/Pacific neighbours, and forwards the material on to the major partners in the UKUSA Agreement, specifically the US National Security Agency (NSA). Its targets are international civilian communications involving New Zealanders, including the interception of international phone calls.
Post- 9/11 the GCSB and Waihopai now spy further afield, to those regions where the US is waging wars. The codename for this – Echelon – has become notorious worldwide as the vast scope of its spying has become public. New Zealand is an integral, albeit junior, part of a global spying network, a network that is ultimately accountable only to its own constituent agencies, not governments, and certainly not citizens.
Join us for the weekend of anti-war protest at this spy base. Come prepared for roughing it and camping out. We provide the food (we cater for vegetarians but vegans will have to bring their own). Bring sleeping bag, groundsheet, a tent, torch, water bottle, eating utensils, clothing for all weather, and $40 (or $20 unwaged) to cover costs. No open fires.
How to find our camp at Whites Bay: turn off SH1 at Tuamarina (9km north of Blenheim or 20 km south of Picton) and drive to Rarangi on the coast. Follow the steep Port Underwood Road over the hilltop before descending to the Whites Bay turnoff. There is a DoC public camp at the bay with basic facilities. ABC has to pay a fixed charge per head.
Waihopai does not operate in the interests of New Zealanders or our neighbours. Basically it is a foreign spy base on NZ soil and directly involves us in America’s wars. Waihopai must be closed. Email abc for further registration information.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

AOTEAROA INDYMEDIA: ACTIVIST MEDIA SITE RELAUNCHED BETTER THAN EVER!
We are writing to you about the relaunched and refreshed Aotearoa Indymedia news website that has just gone live. Aotearoa Indymedia (www.indymedia.org.nz) is an activist news website where you publish information to a wide audience about the issues you are concerned with. Indymedia is a non-commercial, not-for-profit website that encourages the participation of our users to create and use content. You can directly publish stories, photographs, press releases, details of upcoming events, action reports, newsletters, research reports, interviews, OIA responses, and share worthwhile content from other sites. The process is very simple and quick: just go to indymedia.org.nz and click on the ‘publish’ button. Follow the link to the form you need for a story, event or reposting content from other sites. All you do is fill in the online publishing form, add your photos or upload other useful documents for readers and click ‘publish’. There is no waiting – all items are immediately published. Indymedia exists to provide a platform for positive radical social change. We do this by providing a media platform for spreading ideas and information about social, economic and environmental issues. Indymedia is run by a volunteer collective and is part of the global Indymedia network. Indymedia provides an important role in making the connections between issues by allowing people to get and share information from a wide variety of social movements. If you would like more information about Indymedia or would like to get involved in the collective, please contact us! And please check out and make use of www.indymedia.org.nz Cheers, The Indymedia collective

PARIHAKA ANNIVERSARY, NEW BOOK RELEASE
Monday, 5 November, is the 131st anniversary of the invasion and plundering of Parihaka. To mark this year’s anniversary, Huia Publishers is releasing a new illustrated children’s book by Jennifer Beck, and illustrated by Lindy Fisher, titled ‘Remember that November’ / ‘Maumahara ki tera Noema’. It’s almost Guy Fawkes Night, and at the school speech competition Andy talks about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. The children cheer excitedly, thinking Andy will win the contest. But then, Aroha gets up, wearing a white feather in her hair, and tells the story of another fifth of November – the invasion of Parihaka in 1881. ‘Remember that November’ / ‘Maumahara ki tera Noema’ is a beautifully illustrated, poignant story that recounts a key event in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history. The book is available in both Maori and English editions – ordering information for the Maori edition is available at http://www.huia.co.nz/shop&item_id=3726 and for the English edition at http://www.huia.co.nz/shop&item_id=3727 Information about the invasion of Parihaka is available at http://parihaka.com/

FUNDRAISNG FOR SUSTAINABLE BOLIVIA AND GIVING VOICEDear friends I hope you can assist Giving Voice with fund raising to attend an event in Bolivia.Previously we have receaved funding from CID for travel however due to funding cuts this fund is no longer available.Below is some information about project as it relates to Giving Voice and Sustainable Bolivia. Every year, Bolivia’s fastest growing and third largest city, Cochabamba, hosts Sustainable Bolivia http://www.sustainablebolivia.org/documentaries.html. Sustainable Bolivia selects international filmmakers to make short documentaries that focus on community development. These films are then widely distributed. In return for the film makers’voluntary efforts, the organisation that is being documented provides food and accommodation for three months.
New Zealand documentary maker Peter Marra has been selected to be one of these guest film makers for 2013. There is a proviso that he is able to speak Spanish intermediate level of fluency. This is a challenge to most of the international film makers, so to prepare them for this, Sustainable Bolivia finds each guest documentary maker a host family where they can stay for three months prior to the Sustainable Bolivia event, as well as organising the guest’s enrolment in a specialised language school to improve their Spanish competency. As well as encouraging participant to be involved one of thier partner organisations by volunteering and experience managing funds for a project that is in alignment with the partner organisation goals http://www.sustainablebolivia.org/.
What this means is that Sustainable Bolivia is investing in Peter Marra by accommodating him for 3 months during the event while he will be fim making, but he needs to fund raise for the 3 months of Spanish language preparation in Bolivia, as well as for the return airfares.Some of the fees that go to accomadation and language tuition are passed on to Sustianable Bolivia partner organisations.
Giving Voice Trust, phone 06 7581857 email marrap
Giving Voice is a Charitable Trust committed to raising awareness of sustainable development, children’s rights to an education reflective of their cultural identity, the environment, peace, citizenship, human rights, social justice and health. We give voice to individuals, communities and societies through documentary and other media. Giving Voice Trust was granted a Certificate of Recognition by UNICEF for upholding the Principles for the Rights of the Child as a finalist for the for Childs Rights award for the Asia- Pacific Region TV 2009 for our documentary movie Children of a Nation based in Timor Leste.
Giving Voice Trust has an impeccable record of managing funds from a wide range of funding bodies Including the Asia NZ foundation, Council for International Development, NZ Aid via the Global ,Peace and Disarmamament Fund for projects such as Children of a Nation (See UNICEF Certificate). And we have received funding for trustee Dave Owens’ innovative educational resources to encourage New Zealand fathers to bond with their young infants which has been well received and received funding for the Lyon Foundation and the Todd Foundation. These grants led him to develop the Great Fathers initiative which has benefited a wide variety of sectors in New Zealand including secondary schools (including teachers and students), civil society organisations, Community Development agencies and volunteers, fathers and parents in general, inspiring people that they can make a difference in their daily lifes.