East Timor Support Action at Canungra, December 6/7, 1997
To mark the 22nd Anniversary of the invasion of East Timor, a group of people gathered at The Canungra Land Warfare Centre for a weekend of action. The LWC School of Military Intelligence trains Indonesian officers. To the people of Timor, "military intelligence" means living under constant surveillance, intimidation and fear - and providing this training contradicts Australia's guidelines that this kind of aid should not be provided to regimes with poor human rights records. Speakers, including a witness to the Dilli massacre, highlighted the plight of the East Timorese, and sunset on Saturday was marked with a candle light vigil and a traditional Timoresefuneral song, according to the traditional proverb - "Loron Alu Sa'eh ka folan atu menu ami la laaluha imi" (when the sun sets and when it rises again they will be remembered). Following this theme, at sun-up on Sunday, 120 people marched from Canungra township to the gates of Kokoda Barracks, a Mass service was held, a children's choir sang, and a former army major who had trained at Canungra burnt his Defence Force Commission in disgust at the training of torturers. A trespass action then occurred,with nineteen people, including two senators and a chaplain, entering the base, to distribute historical leaflets originally drafted by the Australian Defence Forces in WW2 to the people of East Timor, headed "Your friends will not forget you." The trespassers also carried a plaque into the base to replace the military crest of the Indonesian armed forces on the walls of the School of Intelligence. The plaque featured a crocodile, a Timorese symbol, and the southern cross, for Australia. The nineteen trespassers were arrested and face Beaudesert Magistrates Court on January 9. One participant said the weekend was about "sharing with out East Timorese neighbours a vision of freedom as we share the sight of the same stars above us."
Law to Look Out For
In the UK a few years back, the notorious Criminal Justice Act turned the kind of trespass actions that had been civil offences, punishable by fines, into criminal offences, resulting in arrest and possible prison sentences. Now it looks as if Australia is heading the same way. New trespass laws were passed in June 97, which allow types of public places to be declared off-limits with trespassers liable to prison sentences of up to six months. Attorney-General Jan Wade said they were needed to allow school principals to deal with brawlers and drug pushers. But last month, lawyers acting for the Coalition Against Duck Shooting advised the group that the provisions could be used to keep anti-shooting activists out of the wetlands.The wording of the laws even echo the UK Criminal Justice Act by seemingly allowing the police to use extra-sensory perception, saying that those who enter certain public places "in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace or a reasonable apprehension of a breach of the peace" can be charged. So don't even think about it!
More Precious Than Gold
Two months of blockading at Timbarra in northern New South Wales has forced gold mining to a halt! Now the fight to save this precious area continues in the court rooms. January 19th marks the beginning of the court case in which Ross Mining's proposed extension on the mineral lease will be approvedor not. Ross Mining want to get the extension approved before they get going with mining at Timbarra. A second court case involves native title claimants - the Donnelly-Mundine family of the Bundjalung people. They are seeking an injunction to protect the Aboriginal Heritage sites on the access road to the mine, and on the mining site itself. A report from their consulting archaeologist says that any widening of the road or work in the mine site will damage the heritage sites. This matter is, however, being disputed by the mining company. If any work does begin on the mine before this matter is settled, the native title claimants will seek an injunction. Further concerns are that Ross Mining now have an exploration license for the whole of Malara Ridip and the Timbarra River and Plateau. Currently the mining company are awaiting final approval to continue operations, which the Timbarra Protection Coalition believe will happen sometime this month. The Blockade is very low-key at the moment, with protesters taking an observational role to ensure that there is no work going on. Native title claimants are organising their own camp, whilst they continue to work parallel with the conservationists.
How you can help!
Funding for the court cases is still quite short. Financial help can be sent to assist either the Curri people c/- the Donnelly-Mundine Trust Account at Craddock, Murray and Newman Solicitors, Sydney Speak to Eddie Newman. Alternatively, you can help the Timbarra Protection Coalition (TPC) c/- the Environmental Defenders Office, attention: David Galpin. TPC Trust Account, phone 02 92626989. For updates on the Blockade, keep in contact with the Timbarra Protection Coalition, care of the Big Scrub Environment Centre, Lismore..
Tasmanian Tall Trees
January 1998
Everything is about to kick off with direct action down at the Western Tiers, also known as "Kooparoona Niara" (mountain of the spirits) as pristine forests are once mote under threat from woodchipping. Local activists say the situation is "amber alert" and all help is very welcome. Call 03 636 95102 for more information or visit the NFN web page for more <www.nfn.org.au>. If you can't be there, then make sure you're not creating part of the market demand that results in trashed forests. The Boycott Woodchipping campaign details are to be found at <www.green.net..au/boycott/bwchome.htm>
Hinchinbrook
December 14, 1997
The Hinchinbrook cction at Cardwell was a success, with 300 protesters presenting a visual and vocal display of their disgust at the development. Only 200 metres away, Rob Borbidge, the QLD Premier, was opening the first section of the development. Keith Williams didn't get it all his own way: support for the opening was overestimated by over 2000 people and tropical rain started soon after the protesters left to drench the 700 supporters of the development who did turn up. Actions against the development are expected to begin again some time in January.
If You go Down to the Woods Today
NSW In one of those clever paperwork manoeuvres, a change to the soil prescription rules for NSW deforestry along the north-east coast has suddenly made it possible for logging to continue during the wet season - in other words, to occur all year round with no breaks. According to the Unidentified Forest Organisation, virtually all the forest from Corindi to Macksville is now at risk. However, they have some positive news too, with the EPA (Environment Protection Agency) knocking back the proposed logging coupes next door to the new Dungirr National Park, saying the area is "too contentious" for a license to be issued - a direct result of surveying work by locals and other activists. Logging is occurring on a limited scale on private land currently, but Killikrankie and Little Wonder areas are expecting to be invaded soon, and forest camps are in the setting-up stage in readiness. Help needed ASAP; contact UFO, POBox 51, Bowraville, NSW 2449, phone (02) 65644060.
WA Giblett Forest lies in the southwest Western Australia. For the past nine months or so, there has been a blockade to stop the logging and wood chipping of the magnificent old growth karri and jarrah forests. Just before Christmas, the WA government organisation CALM (Conservation and Land Management) agreed with the Giblett Forest blockaders that they will not allow any logging in the area until June or July this year. Since this sounds fairly suspicious, the activists are monitoring the area, but not actively on alert for the time being. Some protesters have apparently moved to another endangered forest area just north of Giblett. For more info, contact the WA Conservation Council.
Victoria: Otway Forest Logging is continuing in the Otway Forests in south west Victoria. Protests & blockading of the logging and roading activities have been occurring since December 1st, using nonviolent techniques such as the use of tripods, vehicles blocking access roads, and general occupation of coupes. Passerby bush walkers have also become involved, with one group being threatened with arrest from police if they did not leave a coupe. Three different base camps have been set up to allow protesters to disrupt logging in various areas of the forest.
Logging at a new coupe commenced on 31/1/98, where numerous breaches of the forestry code have occurred. Protests have halted logging there so far. The Otway State forests contain temperate rain forest and rare remnants of Gondwana land ecosystems, which have survived millions of years protected from fire in the damp gullies of the Otways. These ecosystems are now being destroyed.
Otways Blockade needs your help now - OREN has an office/house at Apollo Bay where protesters can come and stay before heading up into the forests. Travel may be able to be arranged from Melbourne, so please call. Otway Ranges Environment Network, POApollo Bay, VIC 3233 (03) 5237.7413, email <[email protected]>
Badgering the PM
Sydney, December 21, 1997
Sydney residents, uniting under the banner "Campaign against an Airport in Western Sydney" made a special trip to Kirrabilli, John Howard's Sydney home, for anti-airport carol singing and the delivery of 10,000 Christmas cards to the PM. The cards, all from people who are against the development of an airport at Badgery's Creek, wished him a quiet Christmas, and added that they hoped very much that it would not be the last quiet one they and their families had. The arguments against air traffic expansion are too well known to need a repetition here, and the Sydney campaigners are joining a resistance movement seen most recently in the squatting of the airport site in Manchester, and the runway occupation at Schipol Airport, Amsterdam. A rally is planned for March, there are many local Sydney resistance groups to join, and anyone is welcome to start one in their area and link up with the campaign.
Not in Kakadu, Not Anywhere
The traditional owners of the land at Jabiluka, the Mirrar are embarking on a tour around Australia to inform people about the mine proposal, with info nights and showing of the recently released JABILUKA, a film by David Bradbury. . Additionally, here are some quick and easy ways you as an individual can contribute to the opposition of uranium mining. Some very well known shareholders of Energy Resources Australia - the company who has the supposedly valid mineral lease for Jabiluka - are: National Nominees, Westpac Custodian Nominees, NRMA Investments and ANZ Nominees. Others apparently include a diverse range of pension and superannuation funds. Westpac has an environmental policy that states their commitment to improving their understanding of the full impact of their business actions on the environment? They apparently need some help with this. If you bank with them, write to Robert Jess, Managing Director, Westpac GPO Box 7026 Sydney 2000. This goes for the others too - ask that the issue be raised at the next board meeting, express your concern at their using your money to be involved in the nuclear industry, etc. There is also the obvious move of changing to back with a more ethical bank uh hm well. If you find one let us know. Alternatively, stage a mass radiation die-in at your local ANZ/Westpac/NRMA branch.
US Earth First! Court Case
USA, December, 1997
In 1990 Californian-based Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Daryl Cherney were in Sari's car when a bomb apparently planted under her seat exploded, permanently crippling Judi and injuring Darryl. Three hours later, the two were arrested on terrorist charges, with the police alleging that they had been transporting the bomb for criminal use. The explosion put them out of action just as Redwood Summer, a campaign of direct action against logging of old growth redwood forests, in which the two were highly involved, was about to begin. Six weeks after the arrest, the terrorism charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, and Judi began a civil rights lawsuit, charging the FBI and the local police with false arrest, illegal search and seizure, and conspiracy to violate their first amendment right to organise for social change. The case has dragged on for six years, and Judi has recently died of cancer, but her colleagues have vowed to continue the case, and a significant decision has just now been made by Judge Claudia Wilkin. She has accepted the plaintiffs' evidence that there has been a "substantial showing of deliberate falsehood or reckless disregard of truth" on the part of the police, and that the FBI has also supplied false information. Based on this, she has made the landmark statement that no immunity from prosecution will be granted to either the FBI or the police. It has been clear to most people from the start that Judi and Daryl had no knowledge of the bomb and whoever planted it was hoping to put them out of action, either physically or through resulting criminal charges. With a judge interested in justice on the case, the true story may come out.
GANDALF Solidarity Pledge
London, January, 1998
The London Gandalf (Green Anarchist and Animal Lib Front) Support Campaign has been set up to promote the plight of the three UK journalists who have been sentenced to three years prison for incitement - in other words, reporting on direct action in the pages of Green Anarchist paper. The campaign has asked publications, organisations, and individuals worldwide to endorse the following pledge:
"We call on all publications to fairly report the Gandalf case and the issues involved".
"We pledge our solidarity with the Gandalf defendants, and call for the three jailed editors of Green Anarchist to be freed and for the outstanding legal actions against the two remaining defendants to be abandoned."
"We pledge to throw our weight behind the campaign the support the independent and radical press, and to defend the freedom to report news of direct actions and protests."
"We pledge to report any news of direct actions and protests whenever and however we see fit, and we will resist any attempts to censor journals or organisations which exercise such freedoms."
The Australian Earth First! Action Update has signed up. Anyone who wishes to find out more, sign the pledge, or obtain the imprisoned journalists' addresses, should email <[email protected]>.