Occupy Sydney Headline Animator

Saturday 27 October 2012

Brazil: Agri Business in drivers seat on FOREST CODE - indigenous out in cold



Rousseff takes the last step in the process of the Forest Code, and with partial vetoes, consolidates legislation that has little protection and a lot of devastation. Civil society is mobilized by popular zero deforestation law.

As the lights went out on Wednesday, the federal government announced the partial veto the Provisional Forest Code, closing another chapter to disassemble the Brazilian environmental legislation and passing a clear message to those who deforest our forests for years and are committed to impunity: crime was worth it.

Even with the vetoes, the law maintains the amnesty.Forgiveness who illegally deforested remains to establish lower limits recovery to those who overthrew forest by 2008.Moreover, with the new law the legal uncertainty in the field will continue. The standard will address how uneven owners who have the same conditions, which can cause questions in court. Unfortunately, even with vetoes, the new Forest Code ceases to be a law of forests to be a law that consolidates illegal deforestation.

"Despite warnings from scientists and scholars on the subject, and the clear opposition of several different sectors of society, Dilma chose the path of retreat ruralista. Throughout the process of dismantling of environmental law, the government was negligent or was colluding with the proposal of what is latest in agribusiness, "says Marcio Astrini, Greenpeace Amazon campaign.

Henceforth, the country no longer has one of the most modern forestry legislation in the world to make way for a law tailored to the interests of agribusiness eager to expand on forest areas. The legislation became a patchwork in which agribusiness - not the forest - is the central issue. Besides the amnesty to illegal loggers, the new law brings benefits large estates and legal loopholes for more devastation purposely left in the new law.

"The environmental issue live one of his worst moments under the tutelage of the current government. Never seen so much bad news out of the Plateau in so little time management, "says Astrini.

In the past two months, deforestation in the Amazon, the largest rainforest in the world, is growing again, compared with the same period last year. In August, an increase of over 200% in overturned. Over the past 50 years, Amazon has already lost more than 720 000 km2, an area equal to the sum of the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and Santa Catarina.

The problems regarding offensive deforestation on forests are just beginning. The caucus has also attacks the protected areas, indigenous lands and Maroons and the revision of rates of land reform. The increased use of pesticides, expanding the boundaries for the purchase of land by foreigners in the country and even the weakening of labor laws in the country are also in the sights of agribusiness. "The agenda ruralista always been clear. The difference is that now found a government willing to bargain with that agenda, "says Astrini.

Forests are essential to ensure the balance of climate, biodiversity conservation and livelihoods of millions of people who directly depend on it to survive. In Brazil, this vegetation is responsible for much of the rains that irrigate our crops and that supply our water tanks. Moreover, what we have currently open land, we can double our food production without having to stop any more hectare of forest. There are currently more than 30 million hectares of degraded land by livestock only unproductive.

To ensure the protection of our forests is urgent that Brazil has a law of zero deforestation. This law of popular initiative already has the support of nearly 600 thousand people who signed the petition. "The text written by landowners and approved by Plateau brings no rules to improve environmental protection or combat deforestation. They made a law for the deforester. We will make a law through the forests. "


originally published in Brasil (Portuguese) here  http://oplanetaemmovimentojanetemelo.blogspot.com.au/

Thursday 25 October 2012

The video #Monsanto does not want you to see.


Aboriginals discuss escalating rent strike into Occupation

  A long festering dispute between the Bourke area Nulla Nulla Land Council and its tenants may escalate from the rent strike many Alice Edwards Village aboriginal community tenants  have maintained for in some cases years to become an Occupation for Tenant Control. Tenant representatives travelled to Sydney and tonight are holding a marathon meeting to strategise the possibility of Occupy protesters joining their community to demand properties neglected for years by the Council be passed to tenant control. 
 Tenant representatives report that the Land Council has at best been tardy with maintenance. Snake infestation of homes is common and control a landlord responsibility, yet despite a young child requiring hospitalisation some time ago for potentially deadly snakebite the snakes remain. Lack of maintenance of electrical systems has left many homes dangerously wired.The council says severa; homes sholud be demolished.There are families who are fearful that they will be left homeless by the heartless actions of the local Land Council.

 A group of Occupy Sydney occupiers are readying to join the residents should residents request our participation as protesters.

related (abc)  

Family: The basic building block of Community, Society

Why do successive Australian and international governments act eyes wide shut to the plight of Families??Why are children and parents who want to be together forcibly separated by self serving government departments?? Why are politicians deaf to the pleas of distraught parents robbed of their right to raise and rear their families in peace? Why do governments not work with families when issues are evident within them instead of invasively stealing children to feed the Government - Sector Australian Child Gulag in their quest for profits??

 Within the Occupy Sydney community are a strong resilient alliance of participants who believe that Family is the basic building block of society is FAMILY.- and that government wilfully colludes with unelected interests to weaken and undermine family thereby weakening community and ultimately societys capacity to resist or reject control of people by increasingly tyrannical government. "The people should never be afraid of their government - but government should always be afraid of its people"
Heres Jordans Story 
being denied a hearing by 
Prime Minister Julia Gillard

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Food Mythbusters

Exploding the myths about food and GMO

Steve Keen :Euro Crisis ...forgive debt & reboot?

Talking Economics (today with Professor Steve Keen)



Economics Prof Steve Keen from http://debtdeflation.com & University of Western Sydney

and below at Occupy Sydney Anniversary October 13



Talking Economics aims to be a daily Occupy Sydney Post .To submit relevant video or written content please post to occupysydney@gmail.com with an accurate description 

Sunday 21 October 2012

Occupy Sydney Moves Forward-GA Monday Oct 22 5-30pm

Please Note: Monday 22 October GA will proceed regardless of numbers.

Input on the Wiki here

  As the Southern Summer 2012 brings warmer climes to Sydney and our First Anniversary is passed , Occupy Sydney remain one of the few Occupations worldwide to have maintained a 24 hour 7 Day Occupation -and the only Occupation to do so in the centre of their country's recognised financial district. Martin Place is of course Sydney's (if not Australia's) Wall Street.

  Occupy Sydney's First post anniversary General Assembly will be held from 5-30 pm Monday 22nd October at the Occupation Site (corner Martin Place & Elizabeth St) near Channel 7. This General Assembly will formulate a roadmap to advance Occupy Sydney as a movement for change reflecting the international values of the Occupy Movement while factoring in unique local issues paramaters and conditions.

  The Occupy Sydney of October 2012 is quite different from the vehicle which roared into life on October 15th 2011. It has shed those who came to sell their isms convinced that their leadership alone was what the world so desperately needed. Gone are the polarising idioms and images. In place today is the basis of a movement capable of genuinely accomodating the aspirations of the 99%. In place today is an open platform where the common aim is people driven ,people controlled change. On the table are discussions about issues affecting us locally and Globally. Your ideas for people driven people controlled change are welcome. We aim to make a better world possible






 This Weeks General Assembly is about

  1. AGENDA ITEM:  identifying issues within Occupy Sydney structurally -and addressing those issues by putting in place appropriate Groups and strategies to facilitate effective delivery. (replacing those which have ceased to function). These 
  2. AGENDA ITEM: Identifying Core and empathy issues locally  nationally and globally which Occupy Sydney will invest resources in working for. This issue may at the discretion of the meeting be notified and implemented at a later meeting.
  3. AGENDA ITEM: CONSENSUS & the OSYD GA decision making process: a) What is consensus?? b) What type of decisions require consensus? c) What other decision making process can we adopt for urgent (such as time sensitive) decisions?
  4. Proposal: That the Hand signals shown at right be adopted.
  5. Proposal: That with the exception of Knitting, Media ,Occupy My Mind, Free School and Legals all other current working groups be declared vacated.
  6. Proposal: That Working Groups become the appropriate place to discuss related issues and that Working Groups have full autonomy to develop their sphere of operations as they see fit.
  7. Proposal.That Working Groups decide and enact their own decision making process as they see fit.
  8. Proposal: That a new Statement of solidarity with the 99% be formulated replacing the current GA statement .
  9. Proposal: That all online Occupy Sydney entities current and future be recognised as part of the Occupy Sydney discussion with equal standing, provided they are within the core values of the International Occupy Movement AND not disendorsed by Occupy Sydney GA.
  10. Motion of Support for Scarlet Alliance and condemnation of NSW Governments attempts to license or criminalise sex workers. ( https://www.facebook.com/iwwsydney/posts/427474487302551 )
  11. Notification: Discussion Days: Each Day at the Occupation will Focus on discussions about a specific issue. SUNDAY: DoCS out of Families Day-by Docsbusters,Family Name and Shame File and Ride Against DOCS. MONDAY:?? - 5-30pm GA TUESDAY: ?? WEDNESDAY ?? THURSDAY ??? FRIDAY(night movies??) ??? SATURDAY ??? Free School. Examples could be ECONOMICS - HOUSING  & AFFORDABILITY - SOCIAL JUSTICE - HUMAN RIGHTS - CORPORATE PARASITES. 
  12. Notification: Stand up for the Burrup Action December 2nd -Occupy Sydney to Occupy Sydney Barracks as part of 100 World Heritage Sites Campaign.
  13. Notification: That an Occupation working group will form consisting of Occupiers and regular Occupation participants.  Requirement for this Group are that participants be Overnight Occupiers OR participate at the Occupation for a minimum of eight hours per week OR be specifically invited to join the working group by a majority of Occupiers.
  14. Notification: 
  15. Notification: Occupy Sydney Protest Commonwealth Bank 9am 30 October at Convention Centre Darling Harbour. Working Group forming, meeting after GA.
  16. Notification: Occupy Sydney Vigil Tuesday October 23rd : Join Facebook Event  .
  1. I know I'll never forget 5am October the 23rd, 2011.

    Is anyone interested in doing a Vigil for our One Year since the violent & illegal eviction from Martin Place by 120 Riot Police ?

    The time and place is changeable, I suggest either the Rocks Police Station or perhaps Surry Hills Police Station, other suggestions of course are welcome.

    Maybe a Silent Vigil with a banner, or a mic check or even
    a re-enactment if people are up for it


Saturday 20 October 2012

Ecocide at James Price Point

The Western Australian Government, Woodside, Shell, BHP Billiton, BP, MIMI are all planning to commit Ecocide at James Price Point/ Walmadan. They are driven to providing returns to shareholders above the protection of the environment.

 For a few years of profit they are prepared to risk irrepairable harm to the pristine yet fragile ecosystem. Don't consent to these actions. 

 Occupy Sydney are in solidarity and fully support the Campaign Against a Gas Hub at Walmadan / james Price Point . Please support here:

Broome Community No Gas Campaign

Save James Price Point (Broome WA )

Free Marian Price


TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2012

Secret British Drug Experiments on Politically Interned Marian Price



#FreeMarianPrice, #freemarianprice, #MarianPrice






New evidence is emerging that Marian Price was drugged involuntarily and secretly, without her knowledge, with a substance that has a long history as a truth serum. Scopolamine was also administered to several other interned Irish internees in British Occupied Ireland, who are referred to as the Guineapigs because of the many British experiments carried out on Irish political prisoners.

Documents on British operating procedures for experiments were obtained by the independent mediacl monitors investigatiing Marian Price's and other Irish political prisoner's bad health which reveal that several drug's used on Irish internees are primarily experimental. Experts have said that one of the drugs scopolamine is not recommended, because of the severe side effects which is currently causing considerable a serious medical condition, distress and agony for Marian Price, who has been reported as close to death, on several occasions after British torture and experiments which are primarily about sensory deprivation.

The British government has not responded to accusation and evidence of drugs being secretly given involuntarily to Marian Price and other  Irish  political internees. Irish internees along with Marian Price were drugged without their knowledge, with unknown substances used for experiments on them and several internee medical records are incomplete, with names and drug dosage removed. Details of the mistreatment of Marian Price are about to emerge publicly.

Details and evidence about the use of scopolamine and other mind altering drugs are emerging, that leave Irish political prisoners of conscience, drowsy, disoriented and sometimes as with Marian Price in considerable pain. It is believed that Marian's sister Dolours who was also tortured by the British, was used as a guineapig for British drugs without her knowledge. The CIA, because of its many undesirable side effects, stopped using scopolamine as a truth drug, because of the seriously harmful side effects. which include, death, hallucinations, faulty perception, headaches, heart attacks and blurred vision.

Read more:

Marian Price Britain's Tortured Political Guineapig

#OpJubilee

On 5 NOVEMBER 2012 ANONYMOUS CALL FOR THE CANCELLATION OF ALL DEBT AN END TO ALL WARS REDISTRIBUTION OF THE LAND AND ELIMINATION OF POVERTY





#OpJubilee


Remember Remember the 5th of November.....



David Hicks, GITMO Torture and the potential fate of Julian Assange

WACA (Wikileaks Australian Citizens Alliance) sat down with Aloysia Brooks, the founder of The Justice Campaign to talk about David Hicks, GITMO Torture and the potential fate of Julian Assange, if extradited to the USA.

Aloysia is a human rights and social justice advocate who campaigns for thepromotion and protection of human rights in the increased security environment. ...



reported by @TheJusticeCampaign

Helen Caldicott & David Freeman Nuclear Power: Life & Death

Veteran Australian based Global anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott (credited with persuading then NZ Prime Minister David Lange to implement anti nuclear policy) speaks with David Freeman

reported by Citizen News Network

The Story of Your Enslavement

We can only be kept in the cages we do not see. A brief history of human enslavement - up to and including your own. From Freedomain Radio, the largest and most popular philosophy conversation in the world.



They're Killing Protesters in Bahrain Right Now

They are killing protesters in Bahrain right now. Town of Duraz
Bahrain 45 National Guard troops involved the suppression of the Nuwaidrat 19/10/2012





UPDATED:: 
Diraz Media Network
7 minutes ago via Twitter
URGENT: Most areas of Bahrain and its towns out into the street and convulsed strongly condemned the strict siege on the town proud Aker

(Reports I have read say they are using shotguns and tear gas, chasing people down and going door to door beating people)
هدافنا : كسر حاجز التعتيم الاعلامي على ثورة شعب البحرين نقل اخبار الثورة بكل مصداقية فور حدوثها من قلب الحدث



reported by Jenny Baker

Occupy Sydney connecting with Sydney Homeless

 Since its inception, Occupy Sydney has engaged at one level or another with elements of the homeless community. In fact Occupy has almost continuously had direct participation from at least some of the local homeless community. 

 These connections have been less than accidental. There was for example nothing accidental about the decision to locate the Occupation in Martin Place in close proximity Sydneys main ad hoc and organised homeless services venue. 

  Occupy Sydney are now a resource for genuinely Homeless people in Sydney.Leveraging partnerships with skilled non government/ngo affiliates the Occupation has become a regular point of contact and inquiry for the City's Homeless.

 Through partnerships Occupy Sydney has become the sole defacto 24-7 contact point for Sydney Homeless people requiring blankets and advice on resources. 

 From today the partnership will grow further as The @SydneyHomeless Project and Occupy Sydney begin flowing out the following services:


  1. Managed Removals Solutions (available now)
  2. Removalists Prepacking Service
  3. Casual Labour Hire - CBD specialists 24-7 removals, logistics 
  4. Street Promotions Casuals
  5. On Street Advertising
  6. Ambush Marketing
  7. Logistics Solutions.
  8. Commercial Power-Saver Solutions
  9. Electrical Services 
  10. Social Media Management  Strategies & Consulting
  11. Events Photography & Video Production (including Livestreaming options) 
  12. Commercial Film Production
Call 0410 722 000 24-7
You can also Contact @occupySYDNEY or on Facebook

Friday 19 October 2012

To Occupy Sydney from Austin G Mackell

On Occupy Sydney, Steve Keen and Indigenous Yorta Yorta activist William Cooper , Wilfred Burchett and integrity -perhaps a bygone era?? Save for a few!!

originally delivered as a birthday message at the Occupy Sydney Anniversary October 13th 2012

First of all: Thanks, and congratulations to all of you for making it out today. What you are doing is having a huge impact.

 In just one year the Occupy movement has changed the whole discussion. Gone is the myth of an apathetic generation, who, because they weren’t cueing up to join the youth wings of the major parties were presumed to be without political vision or a sense of justice.
The taboos that protected those at the top from the scorn their actions deserve is starting to erode.  Success at the expense of others is no longer celebrated with quite the same gay abandon.
 Cutting through the din of commercialism and horse race politics, this new movement has managed to be heard. People know what you mean when you say “we are the 99%”.
Perhaps not gone, but severely damaged,  is the myth of market magic, the idiotic idea that you can build a nation by cutting the funds that build its roads, schools and hospitals.
This is just the beginning.

It’s my understanding that Occupy had the good fortune to be addressed by rebel aussie economist Steve Keen -  one of the few economists clear headed enough to realise that debts which can’t be paid won’t be paid, and for this reason, one of the few to see the current crisis coming.
It’s not news to anyone here that the 1% and their courtiers have turned the world economy into a Casino where homes and jobs of millions of people became little more than chips these playboys toss across the table to impress each other.   
What Keen tells us goes beyond this however, exposing the systemic problem – untenable levels of private debt, built up by asset speculation bubbles like the one driving Sydney’s housing crisis. His call for you to “Occupy the Economics Departments” should not go unheeded. Of course, with the formal institutions are not the only way to learn – the point is we need a whole generation of bright young economists with good hearts and independents minds. There is going to be one hell of a mess to clean up by the time this is over.
Of course his ideas, while demonstrably head and shoulders above the standard theories in describing what is happening, are still mostly ignored by mainstream economics.
In this he carries on a proud Australian tradition of being there first, way ahead of the moral and intellectual pack.

   Aboriginal land rights activist William Cooper from Yorta Yorta country, near where the Murray and Darling rivers meet, who in 1887 was among 11 signatories in a petition to the Victorian governor that marks the first time the campaign for aboriginal land rights would be articulated in a language the invaders could not pretend they didn’t understand. It was only when he was in his 70’s however, after moving to the Melbourne suburb of Footscray that he truly found his calling as an activist. HE still managed to achieve more than most of us could in several lifetimes. By 1935 his energy had helped create the  Australian Aborigines League which called for indigenous people to be given direct representation in parliament, land rights and generally equal treatment before the law.
A petition in this spirit managed to gather 1814 signatures despite what Wikipedia calls “active obstruction from the national and state governments of the day.” And we should note, without twitter or facebook to help him. IN 1938 he helped organise the first combined, interstate protest by Australian Aborigines – a protest of mourning to mark the anniversary of the invasion, which whites celebrated calling it “Australia Day” [do the scare quotes thing with your hands].
But Cooper wasn’t only interested in the plight of his own people. He also led what  the Israeli Holocaust museum named in his honour, "the only private protest against the Germans following Kristallnacht."- arriving with a delegation from the Australian Aboriginal League at the German Consulate in Melbourne, where they delivered a petition condemning the “cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany.”

Another great, but mostly forgotten figure is that of Wilfred Burchett – best known for his work as a war reporter of great note. Even before becoming a journalist, however, he had written from Germany to Australian papers warning of the rise of the Nazis, even helping, at great personal risk, to become a people smuggler – saving many Jews before barely escaping with his own life.
After returning to Australia Burchett would go on to cover the uprising in New Caledonia. From there he would go on to China, where he would accompany Chinese troops as they marched south to Burma to assist the British.  Following a Japanese victory he and George Rogers, a Life photographer, escaped through the jungle with the help of local Naga guides, taking a hard route to India through the mountains never before travelled by white men. He would later be injured on another trip to Burma, and survive a kamikaze attack against King George V. He would also be the first foreign correspondent to reach Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped, shocking the world with his descriptions of the devastation.
Defying attempts by the US Military to suppress reporting on the results of their bombng wrote:“‘The damage is far greater than photographs can show. After you find what was Hiroshima, you can look around for twenty-five and perhaps  thirty square miles. You can see hardly a building. It gives you an  empty feeling in the pit of stomach to see such man-made destruction’. ”His work also included the first public account of radiation sickness and it’s terrifying effects, saying:
T"hey lost their appetites, their hair fell out, and bluish spots appeared on their bodies. They then began bleeding from the ears, nose  and mouth. Doctors first diagnosed them as suffered from general debility, and gave them vitamin injections. The results were horrible. Their flesh began rotting away from their bones, and in every case the victim died. Minor insect bites developed into great swellings, which would not heal. Slight cuts from falling brick and steel splinters caused acute sickness. The victims began bleeding from the gums, then they vomited blood, and died’.
 As one of the many online tributes to Burchett  details: "The official narrative of the atomic bombings downplayed civilian casualties and categorically dismissed reports of the deadly lingering effects of radiation. Reporters whose dispatches convicted with this version of events found themselves silenced."
 General MacArthur ordered Burchett to be removed from Japan, and his camera with photos of Hiroshima mysteriously vanished while he was in the hospital. U.S. officials accused Burchett of being influenced by Japanese propaganda. They scoffed at the notion of an atomic sickness.
The U.S. military issued a press release right after the Hiroshima bombing that downplayed human casualties, instead emphasizing that the bombed area was the site of valuable industrial and military targets.
Other journalists, having been busy covering the pomp of the official surrender ceremony, knew no better than the military told them.
Burchett would go on to report the deal that ended the Korean War from the northern side, before travelling to Vietnam where he detailed the destruction of that country by foreign powers, and the heroic resistance of the people there, and is said to have been on friendly terms with Ho Chi Minh.
 No good deed goes un-punished of course, and Burchett was attacked ferociously by reactionary forces in Australia, who labelled him a traitor, as they always do with those who tell too much of the truth.  The government refused to issue him a passport in 1955 after his was lost, repeating the claims against him of being a communist agent, effectively sending him and his family into exile for more than a decade. 

While both Cooper and Burchett are now experiencing somewhat of a revival, they still gain nothing like the prominence their remarkable achievements deserve – and which one would hope was awarded to any Australians of such a calibre, regardless of their political beliefs and affiliations.There is a reason for this – the same reason we don’t hear about the early white setllers who decided to live with their aboriginal partners and children rather than stay in the bigoted white society with its irrational fear of their love for each other. 

It is the same reason Assange is so fiercely attacked now by his vastly inferior contemporaries in the Australian media. It is the same reason that a group of aboriginal protesters, banging on the windows of a restaurant and chanting – desperate for our leaders to listen - is reported as a mob who have attacked the Prime Minister. She lost a shoe! She lost it, that is, when security decided to whisk her out of there as if she were about to be speared and boomeranged to death, their actions providing the only basis for the impression of any violence. The people in charge don’t want us inspired by these examples. 

 They don’t want us reminded that it is possible to stand up, to say no to power, to go against the grain, to speak the truth without fear for the consequences.
It’s always important to remember, that just like a big hairy spider, they are much more scared of us than we are of them.


Follow @AustinGMackell on Twitter - Friend Austin on Facebook 


Thursday 11 October 2012

Occupy Sydney to Celebrate 1st Birthday @ Martin Pl



This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Occupy Sydney's site within Martin Place, protesting 24/7 since October last year against corporate greed and pushing for economic and social justice.

Starting at 11am from outside Customs House in Circular Quay, Occupy Sydney participants and supporters from Wikileaks, Anti-War, Refugee and Indigenous Rights groups will march through the city, back to Occupy Sydney's location outside the Reserve Bank of Australia, where the celebration will continue with live performances by Novakayn, Kids of Yesterday, Takadimi, The Cheeky Misfits, Middle Eastern Sunrise and many more Occupy supporter artists .
...

Keynote Economic speaker, Steve Keen plus recently re-elected Greens Councillor, and long-term supporter of Occupy Sydney, Irene Doutney will be speaking along with crew members from the activist boat, the Sea Shepherd on recent events.

"Occupy Sydney welcomes all to join in our Anniversary Celebrations" said Occupy Sydney participant, Katie Sheppard. " The day includes speakers and public forums on economics, sustainability, and affordability. There will also be live music, yoga classes, and free food provided by "Food not Bombs".

Occupy Sydney has watched the appalling state of behavior demonstrated here and abroad by politicians, banks, and the "1%" which shows more than ever, the relevance and need for Occupy to exist as a local and global educational and social movement."

Occupy Sydney Anniversary Freeschool : Food Security

An Occupy Sydney Anniversary Freeschool
Food Security Event Sunday 14th Oct 10am
@ Martin Place /Above Rail

The People's Food Plan: Have your say!
A few months ago, the government released the Green Paper for its industry-focused national food plan. Read more here about why this plan won't make for a fairer food system:



https://theconversation.edu.au/the-draft-national-food-plan-putting-corporate-hunger-first-8342.
The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (http://australian.foodsovereigntyalliance.org/) is working on a 'People's food plan' that proposes real solutions.
A draft of our People's Food Plan discussion paper is available here: http://australian.foodsovereigntyalliance.org/blog/2012/09/14/peoples-food-plan-values-principles-and-best-practice-discussion-draft-now-available/
We want to hear from you!
We are hosting public meetings all around the country to discuss the plan and hear your suggestions for changes and additions.
We'll be at Martin Place for Occupy Sydney's first anniversary and we'd love to see you there to discuss important questions about how our food system needs to change.
https://theconversation.edu.au/the-draft-national-food-plan-putting-corporate-hunger-first-8342.
The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (http://australian.foodsovereigntyalliance.org/) is working on a 'People's food plan' that proposes real solutions.
A draft of our People's Food Plan discussion paper is available here: http://australian.foodsovereigntyalliance.org/blog/2012/09/14/peoples-food-plan-values-principles-and-best-practice-discussion-draft-now-available/
We want to hear from you!
We are hosting public meetings all around the country to discuss the plan and hear your suggestions for changes and additions.
We'll be at Martin Place for Occupy Sydney's first anniversary and we'd love to see you there to discuss important questions about how our food system needs to change.

Monday 8 October 2012

Occupy Sydney Anniversary October 13th

Thats Right!!! On Saturday October 13th one of the few remaining 24-7 Occupations which evolved from Occupy Wall St, Occupy Sydney turns one year old!! We're doing it with some of what's become traditional Occupy , for example our Free School sessions, and some new concepts. 

 Our Birthday Bash will kick off with The Winds of Truth March, starting at Customs House (Alfred Street,behind Circular Quay) note: alternative assembly McDonalds Block. where we will address Britains curious and unequal extradition laws -  

Occupy Citizen of the Year 2012

PRECEDED @ 11am by Winds of Change March to #OccupySydney #O13 anniversaryhttp://ow.ly/eexiu (please join)

On October 15th 2011 the Occupation Story began in Sydney.

ONE YEAR LATER...

On October 13 2012 that story continues....

THE WIND OF CHANGE MARCH ...

11AM ASSEMBLING OUTSIDE CUSTOMS HOUSE CIRCULAR QUAY.
12pm Entertainment Begins:
Activist Band ~ NOVAKAYN www.facebook.com/Novakayn2
www.facebook.com/Novakayn1
KIDS OF YESTERDAY
www.facebook.com/kidsofyesterday
TAKADIMI
www.facebook.com/Takadimi
THE DISADVANTAGED
https://www.facebook.com/The.Disadvantaged
MUZYY LIVO
https://www.facebook.com/themuzyy
THE MIDDLE EASTERN SUNRISE with Nicky
Open Mic plus many more
(please add as friends so we can share together ~ www.facebook.com/Novakayn2 )

When all Marches have arrived a Parade of Placards will leave for NSW Parliament where a Media & Public photo opportunity be created along the fence. The Placards will then be reclaimed and the parade will return to Occupy Mainstage where the placards will be placed around the Stage Area.

An Occupy solidarity statement with Australia's Indigenous Peoples will be read.

A Message of Traditional Indigenous Recognition will be Performed.

A Welcome to The 1st Occupy Sydney Anniversary Festival will be spoken... a site information message will be delivered and ...let the Games Begin :)


MAINSTAGE: Reserve Bank Top area:
Multiple Musical & Entertainment Acts

interspersed with

Social Change

and

Economics speakers ,

PLUS: appearances by Faces of Occupy past and present.



Activist Band Novakayn also Kids of Yesterday and Takidimi will play live
(please add as friends so we can share together ~ www.facebook.com/Novakayn2 )

A Children Safe Play area.

AFFORDABILITY Forum : ( Lower Reserve Bank Area , Phillips & Martin Pl
October 13th 12 noon to 6pm. Lower Area. Free Food (inc.l Barbecue/the Peoples Kitchen) -

The Affordability Forum will include:
Free Store - PROMOTING THE CONCEPT OF FREESTORES as part of our Repair and Reuse before Recycling Platform. Free Giveaways -FURNITURE Clothes sports gear , camping equipment (to prevent Flea marketers some restrictions may be placed on what is taken.
a discussion about homelessness and sustainable affordable living possibilities...
FREE COMPUTERS: courtesy of the Occupy Sydney OpEquip Project

HOUSING A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT
a discussion about alternatives to owning or renting housing
Squatting
Tent Living (BYO)
An Announcement of a Strategy to End Involuntary Homelessness and Provide Affordable Housing for All Citizens and Residents within 15 years.
Some long term strategies.

Occupation Area : Cnr Elizabeth & Martin Pl (near Channel 7)

An Occupy Sydney Art Photographic & Videos Exhibition...

ECONOMICS FORUM: The Economics Forum with keynote speaker Prof Steve Keen

Affinity Groups Info Zone:

Chillout space: A Chill Zone and Zen Zone(Yoga with Vicki Aleta & 3 other teachers) , near the occupation.

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Saturday 6 October 2012

Aboriginal Indigenous Rally 12th October

An initiative of Indigenous Social Justice Action & Friends


From: Ray Jackson
Subject: rally 12.30pm 12/10 central courts complex

ISJA and other activist supporters will be rallying on friday 12/10 at 12.30pm outside the central courts in liverpool street, between George and Pitt streets.
Facebook Event

the reason for the rally is to support the Briscoe family in their continuing struggle for justice. the media report below explains in clear detail the reason we are holding the rally.

whilst we support the coroner's and nt government's wishes to reduce alcohol abuse in the nt, such controls are only being racially aimed at the aborigines residing in the nt but not at the many drunken tourists and non-aboriginal residents of the nt.

though coroner greg cavanagh in his inquest was absolutely scathing of the police brutality of the assaults perpetrated against mr briscoe, along with a criminal lack of duty of care during his time in the alice springs police station prior to his unnecessary death, as the attached report explains, no police officer was charged with the death of mr. briscoe.

yes, mr briscoe was in a total inebriated state and he was picked up for protective custody for the 32nd time but does this not surely underline the failure of the nt system, whether clp or labor, to assist alcoholics to overcome their debilitating health problems. alcoholism is not an aboriginal problem. it is a social health problem for all stratum of society. it has been shown time and time again that, percentage-wise, more non-aborigines drink than do aborigines. we do, however, have too many extremely heavy drinkers who are much more public with their day to day illness.

the nt floats on alcohol and drinking is the order of the day and/or night. some drinking holes in alice springs open what they term as the animal bars for aboriginal drinkers. a few hours later they are shut and the drinkers are then forced to buy take-away alcohol at highly inflated prices when compared to the draught ale. the nt government and alice springs council know that there are way too many alcohol outlets but argue that alice springs is a tourist town and cannot shut any of the outlets down. they can and they should but what needs to be done is to fully recognise that continual inebriation is an illness and must be treated as such.

there is a great need for sobering up centres and a policy of taking the person home if it is safe for the family to be done. rehab centres also must be built to assist the drinker to overcome his or her illness. all these centres are just not for aborigines but for all problem drinkers. police cells should not be used, the person should, as the coroner kept repeating, be taken to the hospital. shutting down the animal bars would be a good start. i admit to being ok with mandatory rehabilitation for both alcohol and drugs but only after everything else has been tried. i have travelled in that glass canoe to nowhere but i was able to stop drinking some 25 years ago but some of our brothers and sisters are not that strong and will need assistance but it is not merely a government decision, it must be done in full collaboration with the elders or significant others who can speak for the communities and families.

the current stronger futures act does not give us hope that this will happen but we must at least continue to call for it.

another problem we must continue to call for it to be stopped is the usual practice of non-aboriginal australia of blaming the victim. such practices have been foisted upon our people for over 200 years and all it has done is pushed us further into the muck and mire of racism and wasted billions of dollars.

as i stated earlier, coroner cavanagh constantly berated the nt police officers and their criminal attitude towards those to whom they have a duty of care and yet made no recommendation that any of the ten officers on duty that night who proved to be demonstrably negligent were found by him to be worthy of his legal consideration. previous recommendations that he had made in other death in custody cases were either ignored or, if implemented, had been dismantled by the nt police commissioner as being too costly or, in his opinion, unnecessary. such blind ignorance only leads to further deaths in custody.

my argument here is fully supported by the words of george newhouse, of the australian lawyers alliance, who made representations to the coroner on behalf of the family of mr briscoe. see attachment.

george is quite right in his particularly well chosen words that come down to the point that until the system gets fair dinkum in investigating and adjudicating death in custody events in the full glare of the legal spotlight whereby the custodial systems and the officers who work within them are to be held as accountable for their actions as every other citizen of this country, then and only then will we ever get real justice and not continuing whitewashes.

when mark burgess, ceo of the australian police federation, at a recent forum gloated that mr. briscoe had died as a result of a health problem, i challenged him on that interpretation but, on reflection, he was right to say that. what he also should have added however is that the death of mr briscoe was brutally exacerbated by the actions and non-actions of the police on duty that fateful night. but the system is also to blame for not recognising that mr briscoe had an alcohol problem and should have initiated assistance for him when he was picked up the 15th time, the 20th time, the 25th time. how morally blind is our system that they so easily refuse to recognise their duty of care to its citizens, regardless of race or colour.

we fully support the briscoe family in their call to stop the humiliating and derisory attempt to push the blame for his death onto the victim. the death of mr briscoe, indeed, was a health problem but it was also a racist police problem as much as it was a problem of extraordinary proportions for a racist government and the society that they govern.

we call on the chief minister to drop the blame the victim game and concentrate on looking at the problem holistically. look at your racist police. look at your failing health systems and look deeply into the aboriginal communities and restore the federal government monies that all nt governments have fraudulently stolen from those communities. i know it will come as a surprise to you, chief minister, but our people also have answers but have they been invited to address the issues?
we are all part of the problem so it needs to be worked out together.

come join us at the rally to support the briscoe family and the call for justice.

fkj

ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association

isja01@internode.on.net