From adrian at gn.apc.org  Fri Aug 11 19:45:59 2000
From: adrian at gn.apc.org (Adrian Harris)
Date: Wed Feb  1 23:43:27 2006
Subject: [alternet-l] AlterNet #43
Message-ID: <200008111846.TAA03531@mail.gn.apc.org>

THE ALTERNET NEWS - ISSUE # 43

This issue: 
HOT SITES/
CREATING COMMUNITY/
DIRTY DIAMONDS/
ACTIVIST WEEKEND/
WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL/ 
PREPARE FOR PRAGUE/ 
HOLIDAY READING/ 
JOBS/ 
QUOTE/UNQUOTE/ 
DIARY/

******************************************************************** 
Send your news & comments to: actnow@gn.apc.org 
Back issues are on-line at: 
---> http://www.gn.apc.org/activities/alternet

********************************************************************* 
HOT SITES

War on Want campaigns against world poverty across the globe. The freshly
re-built WoW website is now on-line:
---> http://www.waronwant.org/

The Healthy Flooring Network is a new alliance of individuals and
organisations concerned about asthma and allergy.
---> http://www.healthyflooring.org/

The new site of the International Trotskyist Opposition is now on-line at:
---> http://www.gn.apc.org/ito

*********************************************************************
CREATING COMMUNITY

The Civil Society Internet Forum aims to provide a new framework for the
creation of a global Internet community. The Forum is currently focused on
the ICANN elections.
The Civil Society Internet Forum has two basic goals:
1) to make the Internet a ground and instrument for global civil society 
beyond national boundaries
and
2) to work for the democratisation of the Internet and Internet governance.

---> http://www.cpsr.org/internetdemocracy/csif/

*********************************************************************
DIRTY DIAMONDS

Global Witness have linked the trade in illicit diamonds with bloody
African wars and exposed the reality behind the sparking image of diamonds.
In poverty-ridden but mineral-rich countries rebels and governments fight
for control of diamond fields because that can determine who wins the war. 

The diamond industry is petrified by the possibility of a mass boycott; as
Ben Jackson, of Action for Southern Africa, points out: "With diamonds,
image is everything."

So De Beers now markets itself as a ?clean? diamond company, guaranteeing
bloodless stones.

But investigative journalist Jani Roberts claims children as young as 8 are
in 'debt bondage? cutting diamonds, and De Beers diamond miners are exposed
to raw asbestos with a simple "nose bag" cloth over their mouths they can
only replace once a year.

---> http://www.oneworld.org/globalwitness/
---> http://www.sparkle.plus.com

*********************************************************************
ACTIVIST WEEKEND

The Free Range Weekend on Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th August is a gathering
for mutual education and planning near Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire. The
purpose of the weekend is to examine how small groups of people can
'plug-in' to power structures and use them.

Topics include Saul Alinsky's "Philosophy of Action" and two major
anti-activism laws passed this year.

To reserve a place contact:
Tim Shaw, email timshaw@gn.apc.org or Paul Mobbs, email mobbsey@gn.apc.org

*********************************************************************
WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL


The World Voices Festival is dedicated to fresh and creative approaches
enabling people to pioneer change. Live out a sustainable lifestyle,
explore ethical career choices, debate tools and strategies



Speakers include:
Ricard Douthwaite, author of Ecology of Money; Kofi Maluwi Klu, Director of
Jubilee 2000 Africa; Walter and Dorothy Schwarz, authors of Living Lightly;
and Matt Dunwell, permaculturalist.
The Festival will be held in Gloucestershire from 23rd to 27th August.

---> http://www.worldvoices.org/festival/index.htm

******************************************************************
PREPARE FOR PRAGUE

The IMF and World Bank are holding their 55th annual summit in Prague over
September 26th to 28th. They?ll be joined by people from all over the world
campaigning for global justice. 

September 26 will build on the successes of the previous global Days of
Action against Capitalism.

---> http://x21.org/s26/index.shtml
---> http://www.bankwatch.org
---> http://inpeg.ecn.cz/

******************************************************************
HOLIDAY READING

'The Zapatistas: A Rough Guide' has been published by a small network of UK
activists who have been to Chiapas.
---> http://www.chiapaslink.ukgateway.net 


?Future Positive, International Co-operation in the 21st Century? is
written by Michael Edwards, Director of Governance and Civil Society at the
Ford Foundation and a former Senior Civil Society Specialist at the World
Bank.

The Times Higher Education Supplement claims it is 'an optimistic vision of
how to get to a future where people co-operate universally to end
injustice, poverty and conflict.'

Contents include: A New Formula for Foreign Aid, Humanising Capitalism,
Building Constituencies for Change.

Future Positive is published by Earthscan at ?20.00 (hardback).
ISBN 1 85383 6311 

If you add issues 201-250 of SchNEWS to in-depth articles from SQUALL, you
get The SchQUALL book!
276 pages jam-packed with quality photos, cartoons and all the news that?s
worth re-reading!
Cost's just ?7.00 (or ?8.50 inc. p&p direct from JUSTICE?) 
Make cheques/postal orders payable to 'JUSTICE?' 
Justice?/SchNEWS, P.O. Box 2600, Brighton BN2 2DX 
ISBN 09529748 3 5.

---> http://www.schnews.org.uk/
---> http://www.squall.co.uk/

****************************************************************** 

JOBS
Peace Brigades International (PBI) is seeking a coordinator for its Mexico
Project. (Office to be located in Brussels, Belgium) Major responsibilities
include: 1) Facilitating and supervising the implementation of the work
plans of the project's coordinating committee. 
2) Coordinating the building of contacts with other organizations.
3) Preparing materials needed for carrying out publicity, raising funds and
building a support network.
Qualifications sought include: Minimum of two years experience working on
Latin America issues, fluency in English and Spanish (preference for some
French) and commitment to human rights and social justice issues.
Inquiries to pbicam@igc.org


War on Want
Part Time Media Officer (?18,000 pa pro rata)
Two days a week (or equivalent) for nine months and then pending funding. 
We need to expand the opportunities open to us in the media and are seeking
a committed, enthusiastic and energetic individual to organise this work
and provide input into War on Want?s ground breaking campaigns.


Successful applicants will have considerable media experience and some
knowledge of international development. Equally important is the ability to
effectively communicate War on Want?s campaigns and projects to the media
and the capacity to think creatively about how best to achieve positive
coverage for our issues.

The post will be challenging and demanding but will also be satisfying and
interesting. You should only apply if you feel committed to making a
difference in the fight against world poverty and are sympathetic to War on
Want?s aims and vision. Hours will be negotiable.
Application pack available from David Rudkin, War on Want, 37-39 Great
Guildford Street, London, SE1 0ES. Tel. 020 7620 1111. 
Email drudkin@waronwant.org
For further information:
---> http://www.waronwant.org
Deadline for completed applications, 11 September 2000. 
Interviews week commencing 18th September 2000.

****************************************************************** 
QUOTE/UNQUOTE

"A lie frequently repeated will gradually gain acceptance."

- Joseph Goebles

****************************************************************** 
DIARY DATES:

AUGUST 

18-20 The Land is Ours Summer Gathering in Yorkshire 01865 722016 

10-15 Northern Green Gathering, wide range of workshops, info and
entertainments, ?35. 0113 2249885 

SEPTEMBER:

11: 2000 Trash Trident Trial begins in Manchester Crown Court Rosie and
Rachel, of Trident Ploughshares, are charged with ?25,000 of damage to a
Trident nuclear submarine last February. There will be a programme of
support activities and actions throughout the trial. 
Contact: 07808 553 778 
awtt@hotmail.com

More Diary Dates on GreenNet: 
---> http://webboard.gn.apc.org:8086/default/ 

****************************************************************** 

The AlterNet News is edited by Adrian Harris for GreenNet: 
---> http://www.gn.apc.org

Please note that opinions expressed in AlterNet are those of the
contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the GreenNet
Collective. 
Items for inclusion may need to be edited. Please include a Web link if 
possible. 
To subscribe to The AlterNet News, send an e-mail message to 
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From adrian at gn.apc.org  Thu Aug 24 20:03:17 2000
From: adrian at gn.apc.org (Adrian Harris)
Date: Wed Feb  1 23:43:27 2006
Subject: [alternet-l] Alternet #44
Message-ID: <200008241903.UAA00381@nfs1.gn.apc.org>

THE ALTERNET NEWS - ISSUE # 44

This issue: 
HOT SITES/
GRAND MARNIER WORKERS/
CHINA ?PRO-INTERNET?/
INTERNET FEEDS REVOLUTION/
FAIR TRADE BANANAS/ 
LANDMINE ACTION WEEK/ 
WORTHING GREEN FAIR/ 
QUOTE/UNQUOTE/ 
DIARY/

******************************************************************** 
Send your news & comments to: actnow@gn.apc.org 
Back issues are on-line at: 
---> http://www.gn.apc.org/activities/alternet

********************************************************************* 
HOT SITES
Sign The Rainforest Site Petition, which will be delivered to the United
Nations Commission on Sustainable Development this autumn. The petition
urges the UN to enforce the international community's political and legal
commitments to protect the rainforests:
---> http://www.therainforestsite.com/rbt/TRSPetition/r061322

The Climate Voice campaign is calling on people to lobby world leaders to
act on global climate change:
---> http://www.climatevoice.org/

*********************************************************************

GRAND MARNIER WORKERS
War on Want has been working closely with labour federation Batay Ouvriye to
improve conditions on Haitian orange plantations producing for Grand Marnier.

Campaigner Yannick Etienne claimed the workers were treated "like slaves".
"Workers on the plantation have very few rights and are paid a pittance".

After pressure from the newly formed trade union SOML, which
represents plantation workers, and from an international solidarity
campaign, Grand Marnier has acceded to workers? demands. 
---> http://www.waronwant.org/press/fgm2.htm

*********************************************************************

CHINA 'PRO-INTERNET'
Access to the Internet is limited or banned in Vietnam, Burma, and China,
but the times are changing.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin is now pro-Internet, annoucing it would
transform China. Most significantly, Jiang appears to accept the
inevitability of free information flows.

In a speech to a largely foreign audience at the World Computer Congress,
Jiang said: "The speed and scope of its transmission have created a
borderless information space around the world."

China routinely blocks Web sites of Western media outlets, human rights
groups, Tibetan exiles, and other politically sensitive sources of
information. Domestic sites that violate party dictates have also been
closed. At least two Chinese "Web dissidents" are in jail, including Huang
Qi, who published information on the Internet about the 1989 Tiananmen
Square massacre. He now faces trial for subversion. 
---> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,38324,00.html?tw=wn20000821

*********************************************************************
INTERNET FEEDS REVOLUTION
The fall of Suharto, the ex-President of Indonesia was accelerated by
students using the Internet to network, planning demonstrations and meetings.

Margot Cohen writing in the Far Eastern Economic Review, said:
"[T]he most powerful role of this technology has not been to introduce
outside ideas, but to provide a tool to an Indonesian middle class
increasingly fed up with corruption and other abuses of power." 

Internet postings now reach beyond the online community. Since Suharto's
resignation, students have formed committees to take their pro-democracy
message to outlying villages and poor urban neighbourhoods. They have
downloaded overseas commentary on the movement, printed the most compelling
posts, and plastered them on bus stops all over Jakarta. 
--->http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,12609,00.html

*********************************************************************
FAIR TRADE BANANAS

Caribbean banana farmers are facing the most serious challenge to their
survival ever. The seven-year-old banana trade war between the United
States and the European Union has come to a head, in favour of the US and 
in the interest of the huge US-based banana companies which dominate the
Global banana trade. Caribbean banana farmers, having supplied Britain with
bananas for 50 years, now need our help more than ever before.

Banana Link and the Positive Sound System along with Oxfam, the Caribbean
Banana Exporters' Association, UNISON and the Fairtrade Foundation, will be
at Carnival 2000 to let people know that it is not too late to take action
to support Caribbean banana farmers.
We can support family farmers in the Windward Islands by buying fairly
traded bananas now available in supermarkets. Fair trade bananas carry the
Fairtrade Mark and are bought direct from democratically organised small
farmers' organisations.
"We need people here to look out for Fairtrade Mark bananas wherever they
shop. If they are not there, then ask for them." Said Renwick Rose,
co-ordinator of the Windward Islands Farmers' Association. 
Carnival-goers are being asked to lobby the Foreign
Secretary, Robin Cook,urging him not to sign up to any solution to the WTO
banana ruling which would spell the end of Caribbean bananas.
---> http://www.bananalink.org.uk/

******************************************************************

LANDMINE ACTION WEEK 
September 4 - 10 
The Week publicises the landmine issue, with individuals, groups and
agencies taking part in a range of campaigning and fundraising activities.

The official re-launch of the UK Working Group on Landmines coalition as
Landmine Action takes place at London?s Royal Geographical Society on 6
September. A lecture from Rae McGrath, Nobel Peace prize co-laureate and
founder member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, will be
followed by a reception and photographic exhibition. For tickets (subject
to availability), please contact Landmine Action on 020 7820 0222.

For more details please contact David Hillman, Campaign & Education
Co-ordinator at Landmine Action
Email: ukwglm@msn.com (until further notice)
---> http://www.waronwant.org/fmines.htm

******************************************************************
WORTHING GREEN FAIR
The fourth Worthing green fair on Saturday 2 September promises music on 2
(pedal-powered!) stages, kids activities, garden and healing area, and
circus...

But amidst all the fun, the event will highlight local community resistance
to development plans. Prescott proposes to urbanise major areas of West
Sussex, with the resultant pollution, road building, crime and inferior
quality of life that will follow.
The local Conservative council has shown its concern by proposing to sell

off the very popular paddling pool and build luxury flats.

E-mail: greenfair@worthing.eco-action.org
---> http://www.worthing.eco-action.org/greenfair

Saturday 2nd September, 12 noon 'til 10 pm
Field of Hope / Beach House Green, (seafront), Worthing

****************************************************************** 
QUOTE/UNQUOTE
"We look at some people as if they were special, gifted, divine. Nobody
is special and gifted and divine. No more than you are, no more than I
am. The only difference, the very only one, is that they have begun to
understand what they really are and have begun to practice it."
- Richard Bach

****************************************************************** 
DIARY DATES:

AUGUST:
26: A day of discussion and analysis on
Marxism, the environment and Green Politics organised by Socialist Outlook
and the International Socialist Group at Caxton House, St Johns way, London
N19 (nr Archway tube). 11:00 am to 6:00 pm
?5 waged, ?3 unwaged. Creche available on basis of prior notification
E-mail: outlook@gn.apc.org

SEPTEMBER:
4-10: Landmine Action Week - See above

11: 2000 Trash Trident Trial begins in Manchester Crown Court Rosie and
Rachel, of Trident Ploughshares, are charged with ?25,000 of damage to a
Trident nuclear submarine last February. There will be a programme of
support activities and actions throughout the trial. 
Contact: awtt@hotmail.com

9: Palestine 2000 Festival All Hallows on the Wall, London - guest Alexei
Sayle
Contact: trust@virgin.net

16: Palestine 2000 Festival Beacon Church Centre, Birmingham - guest Father
Elias Chacour
Contact: elijahtrust@totalise.co.uk

23: Palestine 2000 Festival Edinburgh U. Chaplaincy Centre - guest Afif
Safieh, Palestinian General Delegate to the UK and the Holy See. 
Contact: mortoncc@gn.apc.org

All Palestine 2000 venues will have Middle Eastern food, guest
speakers/artists, talks and workshops, exhibitions, books and crafts,
music, etc. Admission free and all welcome.

More Diary Dates on GreenNet: 
--- http://webboard.gn.apc.org:8086/default/ 

****************************************************************** 

The AlterNet News is edited by Adrian Harris for GreenNet: 
--- http://www.gn.apc.org

Please note that opinions expressed in AlterNet are those of the
contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the GreenNet
Collective. 
Items for inclusion may need to be edited. Please include a Web link if 
possible. 
To subscribe to The AlterNet News, send an e-mail message to 
listproc@gn.apc.org with the message: 
subscribe alternet-l YOUR NAME 
as the only text in the body of the message. 
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to listproc@gn.apc.org with the 
message: 
unsubscribe alternet-l 
as the only text in the body of the message. 
For more information on this service and how to use it, send the following 
request in the body of a mail message to listproc@gn.apc.org: 
HELP
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