NEWS
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The JustPeace web page is now fully up and running — check it out at
http://www.justpeace.greens.org.nz
. All the back issues of ”JustPeace” can be found there, plus the latest Green statements, speeches and calls to action on war and peace issues. You can download the ”No support for Bush’s war” leaflet straight away, and by Friday February 21 the rest of the Antiwar Action Kit will be there to be downloaded. Links on the page to websites specialising in war and peace News and Commentary, Action, and Analysis will take you to top sites for information and cyber-action. -
”In those days, we were the mouse that roared. Now, we are the mouse that can barely squeak” said Keith Locke on 12 February, referring to the leadership the Labour Party used to give on opposing the US war on Vietnam, and nuclear testing and warships. He called on the current Labour government to return to its anti-war roots and finally send an unequivocal condemnation of America’s war plans to the White House. More at
https://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR6009.html
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”…peacekeeping is what this country does best” said Keith Locke on 10 February, congratulating the Defence Force on the successful completion of its East Timor mission. More at
https://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR5997.html
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”The so-called leader of the free world is a man who would rather accept hundreds of thousands of dead children than drive a smaller car. Put as starkly as that our moral compass ought to be clear, ” said Jeanette Fitzsimons in her Address in Reply speech in Parliament on 10 February. For the rest of what she had to say on the immorality of war in general, and this proposed war in particular, see below in the Analysis section. The whole speech can be found on the JustPeace web page —
http://www.justpeace.greens.org.nz
ACTION
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Here are some late-breaking listings from Peace Movement Aotearoa for events around the country organised for the International Day of Action on 15 February. Do check out the Peace Movement Aotearoa site for the latest information –
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/wkac0203.htm
It is updated daily.
THAMES
~ SAT, 15 February – silent vigil for peace, 9-15am to 9-45am, outside St James Church. For more info contact tel (07) 868 9914, email
bellbird
[at]
wave [dot] co [dot] nz
SAT, 15 February – join the silent vigil, then march up Pollen St to the War Memorial Hall, Mary Street; where there will be car-share available to travel to Auckland for the rally there. For more info contact Harry tel (07) 868 6641.
ROTORUA
SAT, 15 February – Rally and March – meet at 11am in City Focus, Tutanekai Street, for rally with speakers; 12 noon, march to Labour MP Steve Chadwick’s offices, Hinemoa Street. Organised by Rotorua Antiwar Movement tel (07) 349 5069 or 349 6533 or email
rpac
[at]
ihug [dot] co [dot] nz
HASTINGS
SAT, 15 February – Peace in the Park, with music, painting, dancing, and making Peace Cranes, and more; from 11am – Concert on the new stage in the Hastings Central City area, featuring local performers; from 1pm – Peace in the Park, Civic Square (by the library), bring a picnic, fun activities for young and old! For more info or to contribute energy to this event contact Peace Movement Hawkes Bay, Liz tel (06) 875 1234 or email
lizearth
[at]
xtra [dot] co [dot] nz
NELSON
FRI, 14 February – ‘NO to War – weekly Toot for Peace Action, 5pm to 6pm on the median strip on Haven Road between Auckland Point School and Trafalgar Centre, Nelson – bring a sign and a friend. For more info contact email
anne [dot] f
[at]
clear [dot] net [dot] nz
SAT, 15 February – Peace March and Rally, gather at 11am in Wakatu Square (Trafalgar Street near the Post Office), march down Trafalgar Street and end up at the Cathedral steps where there will be a rally and signing of petitions. Please join us; bring drums, signs and a friend. Organised by Nelson Peace Group, for more info contact Bob Jones tel (03) 547 7427 or email
bobjonesinnz
[at]
yahoo [dot] com
TAKAKA
SAT, 15 February – Peace Walk and Demonstration – meet at 10am in the Information Centre car park with placards etc, walk down Commercial St to Village Green, where there will be a PA system for speeches, music, anything you like, and circle dancing. Organised by Golden Bay Peace Group and Golden Bay Quakers, for more info contact tel (03) 525 9576 or email
helenk
[at]
paradise [dot] net [dot] nz
WESTPORT
SAT, 15 February – Peace Rally and gathering with placards, 11am at Post Office corner (Palmerston Street). For more info contact Pete Lusk tel (03) 789 5334, email
luskcox
[at]
xtra [dot] co [dot] nz
(
luskcox
[at]
xtra [dot] co [dot] nz
)
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Not in Our Name Aotearoa/New Zealand forms are available on-line at
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/nionnz.htm
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More CYBER-ACTION ideas available on the Greenpeace site — send a an e-Valentines Day card to friend asking them to e-mail the presidents of Russia, China and France to thank them for opposing war on Iraq. Send an e-letter yourself to these presidents, and to the other members of the Security Council. All the addresses on the Greenpeace site — link to it via
http://www.justpeace.greens.org.nz
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Tell your Aussie friends and family how they can tell John Howard where to stick his terrorism kit. Green Senator Kerry Nettle is encouraging people to post the insulting terrorism kits to her office. She will then do a ”bulk return”. Let your Aussie contacts know that it they would like their kit returned by Senator Nettle then to attach a stamp and send it to
Senator Kerry Nettle
GPO Box 36
SYDNEY NSW 2001Any messages attached to the kits will also be delivered.
Kerry would like to make the delivery as soon as possible, so please don’t delay in passing the message on.
ANALYSIS
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Colin ”Plagiarism ” Powell exposed. On 5 February the American Secretary of State Colin Powell made a special presentation to the UN Security Council, claiming to have a dossier of new, strong and original evidence which justified going to war on Iraq. He said that ”…every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources.” But when political scientists Glen Rangwala (Cambridge University) and Stephen Zunes (University of San Francisco) took a look at what he said, they found out that most of it was old and feeble and plagiarised from old and feeble sources. Rangwala’s critique can be found at
http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2003/msg00457.html
and Zunes’ at
http://www.fpif/commentary/2003/0302powell.htm
More critiques can be accessed via these sites and at the Institute for Public Accuracy
http://www.accuracy.org/
and
http://www.electronicIraq.net
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For the latest news and analysis on Iraq there is a new site put up by long time peace-with-justice in Iraq action group Voices in the Wilderness. Check it out at
http:///www.electronicIraq.net
- From Jeanette Fitzsimons’ Address in Reply speech, 10.2.03.
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” The so-called leader of the free world is a man who would rather accept hundreds of thousands of dead children than drive a smaller car. Put as starkly as that our moral compass ought to be clear.
We should make no mistake – this proposed invasion (I refuse to call it a war, which takes two to fight) is about control of oil. It is about a refusal to adopt a sane energy policy to use it more frugally and develop renewables. Why else should the US treat Iraq so differently from North Korea?
Even by the Bush administration’s own surreal standards, this sends a bizarre message to “rogue” states – disarm, allow inspection, and be invaded, acquire weapons of mass destruction and you’ll be treated with kid gloves.
The brutality of Saddam against his own people and his possession of horrendous weapons was simply not an issue when the US was funding and arming him against Iran. What has changed? The weapons search and the demand for evidence has become a charade. It must be intensely frustrating for the US not to be able to say publicly to Saddam “we know you have the weapons because we have the receipts”. John Pilger points out that the reason the US wanted to “edit” Iraq’s weapons declaration to the UN is that it contains the names of 150 US, British and other western companies that supplied Iraq with its nuclear, chemical and biological and missile technology, many of them in illegal transactions.
So where should New Zealand stand?
Let us remember what is really going on here. A few men in a room on the other side of the world have decided to drop 800 cruise missiles on Baghdad in 48 hours. There are not 800 military targets in Baghdad – it is blanket bombing, carpet bombing they are planning. The WHO has estimated that will produce half a million injured, needing hospital treatment that will not be available. And that’s not counting the dead. More than half the Iraqi population are under the age of 14. So that’s a quarter of a million primary school children and babies burnt, mangled and shattered. Those men making the decision, and the pilots of the planes, will not have to look at them and neither will our TV screens dare to show them. Instead people will talk of collateral damage; unfortunate civilian casualties.
Those in this House who do not want to think graphically about what that will mean should leave now as I intend to read you a sentence from John Pilger’s personal experience of a village bombed-out by B52s.
“The children’s skin had folded back, like parchment, revealing veins and burnt flesh that seeped blood, while the eyes, intact, stared straight ahead. A small leg had been so contorted by the blast that the foot seemed to be growing from a shoulder. I vomited.”
Those were not Arab children, they were Vietnamese. They were the reason our Prime Minister and many of the present Labour Government marched in the street against another US attack on a third world country. Where will they stand now?
I have been puzzled at the Prime Minister’s stance so far. We can be relieved she has not supported Howard’s rush to war alongside Bush and Blair but neither will she condemn it. We have not even seen a condemnation of President Bush’s stated intention to use first strike nuclear weapons. She has behaved more as a media commentator, assessing the likelihood of war, than as an actor in the drama, capable of influencing it.
It is not enough to say we will go with the UN. Even if the US can arm twist another eight nations, four of whom themselves possess weapons of mass destruction and four of whom may be dependent on the US for aid or trade, that is not international endorsement, it is a breach of the UN Charter and it does not make an immoral war moral.
There is still no concrete evidence the weapons exist. The sole grounds for attack seems to be breach of the UN resolution in terms of co-operation with the weapons inspectors. But Israel has been in serious breach of a UN resolution for a very long time, and the five permanent members are themselves in breach of UN disarmament resolutions but no one is suggesting invading any of them.
This afternoon Helen Clark has called on Iraq to move rapidly to co-operate with the weapons inspectors to prevent war. That is fine. But why does she not also call on the US to follow the spirit of the UN Charter? Why does she not call on Israel to comply with UN resolutions? Why does she not call on the nuclear states to comply with UN disarmament resolutions and the Non-Proliferation Treaty? What sort of one-sided message is NZ sending?
Germany and France are using some imagination and trying alternatives. A greatly stepped-up inspection backed up with UN peace-keeping troops has the potential to disarm Saddam without killing the Iraqi people. We should support their initiative.
What the US wants is our moral support for invasion. Whether the people we send are military or medical it doesn’t matter. Only strong and public diplomatic efforts to prevent an attack and complete condemnation of it if we fail will uphold the values on which Helen Clark and the Labour Party campaigned in the Vietnam days. It would be great to see the Prime Minister join us in the streets of most NZ cities and many countries of the world on Saturday, when massive public protest about a brutal and unnecessary war will erupt worldwide.
Let’s hear it now from our Government: an unequivocal condemnation of this proposed butchery, a refusal to have any part in it; a refusal to see it as inevitable; a commitment to peace and justice, and a recognition that unless we develop our economy in a sustainable way war will always be inevitable.