March to stop deep sea oil this Sunday – What’s on in Aotearoa/NZ (27/3/15)

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

Auckland International Cultural Festival. The Peace Foundation invites you to a multicultural Sunday at the Auckland International Cultural Festival. This upcoming Sunday from 10am to 5pm Mt Roskill War Memorial Park will be transformed into a multicultural zone with activities, performances and food from all around the world. Like the previous years The Peace Foundation participates in this colorful event. At our stall we will have various peace activities. With your help we will create a peace banner with peace messages, children can draw in and take away peace flags, you can highlight your country of origin on our world map and our peace van from the Auckland Bed Race will be on site too. So please come along with your friends and family – enjoy the music, food, different costumes and drop by our stall for a chat with our team. We are looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!

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

Tuesday, March 31, 6pm, Western Springs Garden Community Hall, 956 Great North Rd, Auckland

Wednesday, 5.30pm, April 1, Columba Centre, 40 Vermont Street, Ponsonby, Auckland
Kotare Research and Education for Social Change Invites you to our public evening workshop, the second of a series on opposing the impact of free market theory. Turning the Tide – Countering the neoliberal agenda in Aotearoa. In the three decades since 1984, a system of values and practices has taken over our economics, politics, public service and community sector and their institutions. This system’s values – like ‘user pays’ and ‘individual choice’ – are now often quoted as natural truths. And its ways of behaving are seen as ‘normal.’ We want to look at what lies under this system and see what is driving neoliberalism. By understanding the motives of the people it benefits, and its impacts on the rest of us, we can start to think about effective alternatives. Kotare Trust is providing a series of evening workshops on the system of neoliberalism. On the first evening, the introductory workshop addressed the origins of neoliberalism and its purposes, and how it was established in Aotearoa. In this second workshop we will do a short recap of the origins of neo liberalism and look in more detail at how it is expressed in Aotearoa now, becoming "every day neoliberalism". We will then look at state housing and the social housing sector, and how neoliberal ideology drives some current policy changes and attacks on the right to adequate housing. We will discuss current challenges and alternatives. Two further evening workshops will address the neoliberal impacts on the public and community sectors, including education, welfare and health, and encourage activism to create people-based alternatives. Kotare’s style of learning is mainly participatory and active, along with some focused input. The aim of the workshop is to encourage action for change. When: 5.30 light meal. 6pm – 8pm workshop. Cost: $0 – $20 – a sliding scale for you to self-assess. Co-facilitators: Karen Davis and Tim Howard. RSVP required: For catering and organising purposes, please email Kotare Trust at kotare to register by 28 March – or to seek further information. Next workshops: Wed 15 April and Wed 29 April.

Thursday, April 2nd, 6:30 PM through 8:00 PM, Case Room 3, Business School, Owen Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Road, University of Auckland
The Continuing Threat of a Failed Financial and Banking System. How serious is the threat of current banking and finance systems to a stable, safe and secure future? Is there an easy fix, or is drastic reform needed? Is the state of the financial and banking sector so bad that it is driving us into real social and environmental danger? What do leading opinion makers and research offer as the way to respond?
Robert Howell returned from Canberra in 2014 where he worked part-time with the Australian Quaker Peace and Earthcare Committees. During his time in Australia he also helped establish the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility. He gave two presentations to Auckland Fabians last year which are available on line.
This presentation will explore the literature and research on where we go by:
· Steve Keen
· James Robertson
· Ellen Brown
· Deidre Kent
· Martin Wolf
· Herman Daly
· Bernard Lietaer
· Joseph Stiglitz
Attendees are encouraged to read and consider Robert’s ‘How are we to live?‘ and ‘Wiring Diagram’.
You can register here.

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.

Wednesday, April 8, 6pm, Peace Palace, 22 Emily Place, Auckland Central City
The Peace Place Book Club. When: 6pm on the 2nd Wednesday of the month (starts 8th April). For further info call 377- 5541, email thepeaceplacenz take a look at our Facebook Page or check out our listing at www.eventfinder.co.nz

Saturday, April 11, 11am, St Columba Centre, 40 Vermont St, Ponsonby, Auckland
INEQUALITY AND EDUCATION: The Quality Public Education Coalition invites members and friends to a forum on this important topic. Speakers: Max Rashbrooke: Inequality in New Zealand; Liz Gordon: Inequality under Tomorrows Schools; John O’Neill: Charter Schools, Charities and Change. Lunch will be available at 12.30 for a gold coin donation. This will be followed by the AGM which is open to members only.

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

Links to share: https://www.facebook.com/events/972037769491199 and http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/npw2015.htm

A reminder that ‘Remembering war / ending war: Challenging militarism and building peace’, the 2015 National Peace Workshops (NPW) will take place in Wellington on Saturday, 18 and Sunday, 19 April 2015, organised by Peace Movement Aotearoa in conjunction with St Andrew’s on the Terrace who are hosting the NPW. The programme – which includes a mix of speaker and presentation plenary sessions, workshops, a ‘Poets for Peace’ evening event, stalls with peace resources, and more – is currently being finalised, and an outline of what is happening is included below. Programme updates will be added on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/972037769491199 and on the web page at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/npw2015.htm

Registration for the NPW is $10 or $30 (whichever you can afford) – registration is essential for catering purposes and the registration form will be available next week. If you would like to be sent a registration form, please contact Peace Movement Aotearoa email pma with ‘2015 NPW registration’ in the subject line of your message, thank you.

Saturday, 18 April

• 9.30am to 10.00am – Registration
• 10.00am to 12.30pm – Opening session: Introduction – Remembering WW1 in the context of ongoing militarism – Challenging militarism and building peace in the Pacific (includes a tea / coffee break)
• 12.30pm to 1.30pm – Lunch
• 1.30pm to 3.00pm – Workshops
• 3.00pm to 3.30pm – Afternoon tea
• 3.30pm to 5.00pm – Workshops
• 7.00pm to 9.30pm – Poets for Peace

Sunday, 19 April

• 1.30pm to 3.00pm – Churches challenging militarism and building peace
• 3.00pm to 3.30pm – Afternoon tea
• 3.30pm to 5.00pm – Closing session: ‘Make peace not war’, reflections by weekend speakers, panellists and participants

Links to share: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/972037769491199 – Web page http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/npw2015.htm

Tuesday, April 27, 9am to 1pm, St Columba Centre, 40 Vermont St Ponsonby, Auckland
Working Together for Vulnerable People: Progressing the Church’s Social Mission. A Workshop on Issues and Solutions. Speakers Fr Bernie Thomas ofm Auckland Tertiary Chaplain. Sr Anne Hurley Mercy sister in South Auckland. Followed by 4 workshops :  Sustainable Income/Budgeting  Housing
 Inequality/Poverty  Strategy for Action. Please rsvp by 16 April to Judith Lunny jandblunny

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

Wednesday, May 6, 4.30pm, WG404, Case Study Room in the Sir Paul Reeves Building communications precinct. AUT University

AMIRA HASS: REPORTING FROM THE PALESTINIAN PERSPECTIVE: Amira Hass is an award-winning Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper Ha’aretz. She is particularly well-known for her independent reporting on Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has also lived for a number of years. Hass was the recipient of the World Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute in 2000. In 2001, she received the Golden Dove of Peace Prize awarded by the Rome-based organisation Archivo Disarmo. In December 2009, Hass was awarded the Reporters Without Borders Prize for Press Freedom for her "independent and outspoken reporting from the Gaza Strip" for the Israeli daily Ha’aretz during Operation Cast Lead.Organised by the Palestine Solidarity Network (PSN) and hosted by the Pacific Media Centre (PMC).