What’s on in Aotearoa/NZ (12/3/15)

Monday, March 16, 5.30pm, St Mary’s College Hall, Thorndon, Wellington

Caritas Seminar – Hungry Students in Catholic Schools. Caritas is hosting a seminar on this topic on Monday 16 March at 5.30pm at St Mary’s College Hall, Thorndon. Caritas researcher Kahurangi Dey will present initial findings of a small scale survey of the provision of food in Catholic schools, followed by a panel of speakers and a discussion. All are welcome.

Tuesday, March 17, 6-8pm, WG808, Sir Paul Reeves Building, AUT University
PMC SEMINAR 2/15 – MILITARISATION IN THE PACIFIC REGION – NFIP DAY: "What happens at the UN when indigenous peoples even attempt to speak to the issue of demilitarisation? We are forced to leave the "process’ with the one thing we cannot even consider bargaining away – our conscience." – Noho Hewa. Are indigenous issues being sold out at the United Nations? Speaker: Bunny McDiarmid, executive director of Greenpeace New Zealand. Organised by the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Coalition (APHRC) in association with the Pacific Media Centre. The seminar is followed by the APHRC annual general meeting.

Thursday, March 19, 11am to 12 noon, Potters Park Event Centre (Auckland Deaf Society), 164 Balmoral Road
Balmoral, Auckland
The Child Poverty Action Group Auckland Launch of ‘It shouldn’t be this hard’: children, poverty and disability. Child poverty and child disability are inextricably linked – children with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty than other children and much of this is to do with indifferent policy and indifferent policy makers. ‘It shouldn’t be this hard’:children, poverty and disability is the most recent research publication from Child Poverty Action Group. The research looks at the current status of support payments for families with disabled children noting that access to these payments has been cut over the past five years while the needs of families and the rights of disabled children continue to be overlooked by policy makers.
Speakers: Alan Johnson: CPAG’s co-convenor as well as a social policy analyst with The Salvation Army’s Social Policy & Parliament Unit. Alan wrote the housing chapter of CPAG’s latest flagship publication, Our Children, Our Choice: priorities for policy. Colleen Brown: Colleen has a strong background in local government. She currently chairs the Parent and Family Resource Centre in Onehunga; a Not For Profit organisation supporting parents and families with disabled family members. She has been involved with many different facets of the disability sector for over 30 years, setting up informal support groups and running lobby groups. Dr Louise Porteous: Louise is a senior developmental paediatrician in South Auckland. Louise sees firsthand what life is like for struggling families who have a child or children with disabilities.
Download the flyer and let all your networks know too! We look forward to seeing you soon

Friday, March 20, 7pm, Unite Union offices, 6a Western Springs Rd, Kingsland (Near Morningside train station and New North Road buses.)
Cuban Film Night: Cuba and Chernobyl. The Cuban government has been receiving praise worldwide for sending more medical volunteers to West Africa to combat the Ebola virus than any other nation. Since making the revolution that overthrew the Batista dictatorship in 1959, 325,000 Cuban health care workers have given aid to 158 nations, and Cuba has trained 38,000 doctors from 121 countries without charge. These include students from the South Pacific. Cuba’s Public Health Minister said the mission to combat Ebola, like other internationalist aid from Cuba, “is carried out under the principle that we don’t give what we have left over; we share what we have”. Come, watch, and discuss Cuba and Chernobyl. The documentary tells the story of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in Ukraine in 1986 and Cuba’s exemplary internationalist medical programme that treated more than 25,000 Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Russian victims at the Pediatric Hospital in Tarará, near Havana. Cuba and Chernobyl (‘Chernóbil en nosotros’) was produced in Cuba and broadcast on national television in 2006. English subtitles have just been added to the Spanish audio, to make it accessible to a broader audience. 50mins. Light refreshments available. Donations welcome. Organised by the Cuba Friendship Society. Email cubafriends.ak Phone Ina (09)303 1755, Malcolm 021 151 7887 Thanks to the Unite Union for use of their venue.

Saturday, March 21, 12 noon to 5pm, Newtown, Wellington
Living Wage Newtown Community Day. Join our march from Newtown markets to the Community Centre, lead by Brass Razoo Solidarity Band. 21 March Midday-5pm, Fun for all the whanau, Speakers include Karlo Mila Contact daele.oconnor

Sunday, March 29, 10am – 4pm, War Memorial Park, May Road, Mt Roskill, Auckland
Auckland International Cultural Festival

Sunday, March 29, 12noon, Victoria Park, Auckland CBD
March to Stop Deep Sea Oil. On Sunday 29 March the oil industry bigwigs are holding another glitzy oil conference in Auckland where Simon Bridges will continue his attempt to sell off our oceans to Big Oil.The oil industry are carrying out huge amounts of seismic blasting in our oceans right now. Seismic blasting is known to distress marine mammals and it is already happening very close to the critically endangered Maui dolphin habitat. Join us to march to the conference where we’ll make sure the oil industry and the Government hear loud and clear that New Zealanders do not want risky deep sea drilling in our waters. For more information see https://www.facebook.com/events/817460518289387/

Sunday, March 29, 3pm, Light House Cuba, 29 Wigan St., Wellington
Inequality for All : Screening and panel discussion. Inequality for All, an award-winning documentary starring economist Robert Reich, examines the effects of growing income inequality on the lives of ordinary US citizens. This special screening will be followed by a panel discussion between economist Geoff Bertram, Guardian commentator Morgan Godfery, and Philippa Howden-Chapman, professor of public health at the University of Otago. Chair of the panel is Max Rashbrooke, journalist and editor of Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis. Responding to the points raised in the film, the panellists will discuss the significance of increased inequality for New Zealanders. Tickets can be purchased from Light House Cuba. Book online on the Light House Cuba website – no booking fee required!

http://www.lighthousecuba.co.nz/movie/bookings/?sesid=45183

Saturday, April 4, 2-3pm, Downtown Shopping Centre,
Cnr Queen and Customs Streets, Auckland

Rally for Palestine. Add your presence and make a difference at the only regular public display of support for Palestine in Auckland!
Monthly Rally.
2pm to 3pm, 4 April, 2015 and every first Saturday of each month.

The Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand (PHRC) works to raise public awareness of the Palestinian people’s struggle to resist Israeli military occupation and Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
We believe that a just peace in Palestine/Israel depends upon the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland and the dismantling of the Zionist structure of the state of Israel, recognising that the further partitioning of Palestine in order to create the so-called two-state solution would lead only to further injustice and suffering.
We advocate the primacy of international law, the acceptance of which by the Israeli regime must be the basis for the ending of Israeli military occupation and all forms of ethnic discrimination.
We work to raise awareness of the international community’s responsibility for upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the urgent need for the state of Israel to be called to account for its gross abuses of Palestinian human rights.
We call for the establishment of a bi-national, secular and democratic state in Palestine/Israel, with full and equal citizenship rights for all.
We seek to bring pressure on the New Zealand Government to join the majority of the international community in requiring Israel to:
· Observe all relevant UN Resolutions and Geneva conventions
· Cease ethnic discrimination and territorial annexation
· Abandon its militarism and violence
Join the Palestine Human Rights (PHRC) Campaign Auckland
www.palestine.org.nz

Wednesday, April 8, 7-8.30pm, WEA Canterbury Workers’ Educational Association, 59 Gloucester Street, Christchurch
Land Day Commemoration event, Christchurch Palestine Association. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChchPA/
The newly formed Palestinian Solidarity Group supports the struggle for a free, non-racial and democratic Palestine State for all who live in it. Land Day Commemoration event will be our very first event where we will acknowledge the rights of the indigenous people of Palestine, celebrate their resistance and culture. The event will feature Guest Speaker Nijmeh Ali who grew up in Haifa; her family are internal refugees originally from Mia’ar in the Galilee. She is currently working on her PhD at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Otago University, New Zealand. Her focus is on the Palestinian citizens of Israel as an indigenous people, with an emphasis on the tension between citizenship and nationality in prolonged conflict. Nijmeh, who holds an M.A in political science from Hebrew university, and is a social justice activist, is interested in civic education and its impact on forming and framing diverse citizenship contexts, as well as in social and political movement theory. The event will also feature a Land Day History exhibition, along with recognition of famous Poets and Artists and their association with Land Day, we will also introduce Christchurch to a Palestinian Symbol called Handala. Refreshments will be served at the end of the event.

April 17-19, St Andrew’s on The Terrace

Remembering war / ending war: challenging militarism and building peace: National Peace Workshops, 17 – 19 April 2015
We are pleased to let you know that the date and venue of the 2015 National Peace Workshops has been now been confirmed – the Peace Workshops will be from Friday, 17 April, to Sunday, 19 April 2015, hosted by St Andrew’s on The Terrace in Wellington. So save the date in your diary! An exciting and thought provoking programme is being developed for the Peace Workshops, which will take the form of a peace conference with a mix of speaker and presentation plenary sessions, workshops, films, performance, poetry, displays and more – an invitation to contribute to the Peace Workshops is included below.
The overall theme is remembering war / ending war: challenging militarism and building peace, reflecting the key themes of the World War One Centenary Peace Project – remembrance of all of the casualties of war and of war resisters, ending war as a response to conflict, and promoting peace.
The programme will focus mainly on Aotearoa New Zealand and include sessions on:
· militarism, nationalism and national identity, and the privileging of military ‘heroism’ and ‘sacrifice’;
· the treatment of Maori, conscientious objectors, war resisters, and women during and after World War One;
· indigenous perspectives on militarism, war and peace;
· faith perspectives on militarism, war and peace;
· women, peace and security;
· diverting military expenditure to socially useful spending;
· climate change and militarisation;
· state surveillance and counter terrorism legislation;
· NZ involvement in the ‘war on terrorism’;
· humanitarian disarmament and the elimination of weapons old and new, from nuclear weapons to ‘killer robots’, aka fully autonomous weapons systems; and more.
The Peace Workshops will also include the launch of new resources challenging militarism and promoting peace, the sign-on statement rejecting a militarised national identity, and ‘sowing peace’, a new initiative from White Poppies for Peace.
The programme for the Peace Workshops will be available in February, along with registration details. If you received this message directly from Peace Movement Aotearoa, the programme and registration details will automatically be sent to you. If this message has been forwarded to you via another e-list or group, and you would like the programme and registration details to be sent directly to you, please email pma with ‘Add to NPW list’ in the subject line of your message.

Friday, May 1, Knox Presbyterian Church Hall, 28 Bealey Avenue, Christchurch
2014 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating In Aotearoa/New Zealand

Saturday, May 2, 9.30am-4.30pm, Knox Presbyterian Church Hall, 28 Bealey Avenue, Christchurch
THIS WILL BE A ONCE IN 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE! The theme is a combination of celebrating CAFCA’s first 40 years of history; analysing the political/economic situation; and looking forward. It is a celebration with speakers, it’s not a conference. Material on display will feature the old and the new, from CAFCA’s past and present, including screening
a short film of the 1974 Long March across Australia, which inspired the foundation of CAFCINZ (now CAFCA). And you can make a weekend of it, as the event to announce the winner of the 2014 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating In Aotearoa/New Zealand will be held in the same venue on the previous night (Friday May 1). The cost of the day is a koha (send us a donation or pay at the door). Lunch and morning and afternoon tea will be provided. We are also planning a social event on the night of Saturday May 2 (venue yet to be announced). It will most probably be a meal. That will be at the expense of individual participants. For catering purposes we need to have an idea of numbers, so we ask you to please register in advance.
Speakers: Bill Rosenberg – economic overview; Jane Kelsey – TPPA & investment agreements; Murray Horton – CAFCA history; Warren Thomson – military & intelligence overview; Robert Reid – where is the country going?

Registration and koha to CAFCA, Box 2258, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand Or e-mail to cafca
Online payment details at http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/join-cafca.html