The TPP -why don't Australians get it??

For the last four years there have been developing conversations about the demerits of the Trans Pacific partnership Globally and of course nationally in Australia. After four years of some of Australia's most astute minds carefully constructing a case, the mainstream media are largely ignoring "the bleatings from the left" excepting when articulated by members of parliament or luminaries who put their cases so eloquently. More importantly substantial swathes of the broad community remain blissfully unaware , far less engaged in the conversation.

 We are all at least sometimes guilty of putting responsibility for our lack of effectiveness at the altar of public apathy. That is an utter cop out. We who profess to oppose the TPP in Australia should admit that we are losing the opportunity to capture the public's imagination , understanding and support and in doing so are at real risk of not only losing the battle but the war on this #CorporateCartel serving proposed agreement. Compare the New Zealand #StopTPP campaign Nov 8th with 15 cities and towns engaged, with towns of 30000 people having more people down to attend than Sydney Adelaide Perth and Australia combined.  We should all reflect that "repeating the same actions yet expecting a different result" is Einsteins definition of insanity.

  It is high time for new tactics to be employed in the #StopTPP campaign in Australia.

• The point of discussion needs to be what each part of the TPP known to us will cost people and their communities as a first point of engagement.
• The language needs to change. We are still articulating in a form government need take no notice of. We need to show that we are pissed off at being pissed on by the LNP /Labor #GovtCartel .
• We need to be mindful of and informing the public that laws such as VLAD, Mandatory Data Retention and Anti Terror laws all are based on the Corporate wishlist Governments are being asked to sign up to. We do need to act as stringently against their implementation as we do against the Trans Pacific Partnership itself.
• Political Parties and Independents in Parliament who do not support the TPP need to take their opposition up a notch. They need to state that any future government they are part of will revoke the TPP if implemented without compensation and seize assets of companies which have benefitted from the TPP in any way. They need to flag retrospective charges against those who sign away Australian peoples rights without prior informed consultation.
• Protests need to be re-strategised. People are no longer necessarily prepared to turn up to be props for a pre-selected caste of speakers - it is insulting to many to expect that they would be otherwise. We are not sheep. If the aim is to capture mainstream media then lets give them something to engage with. People talking politely before a crowd of 50 does not get you headlines if that is your aim. Go out on a limb-be creative-but most importantly be effective....

Lanz Priestley

Occupy Sydney participant

Free Freya Thank You Fund

Heres your chance to thank whistleblower Freya Newman for telling the truth.... #FreeFreya

The Thank you Freya for telling the truth Gift Fund is receiving donations until 20 Nov 2014. 100% of funds collected will be gifted to Freya in gratitude for the unselfish act of courage she decided to take to inform the public of the irregularities of process and most unusual benefits bestowed on the Australian Prime Ministers daughter while unavailable to anyone else

In Sydney Nov 25th? Please join the supporters rally 9am at Downing Centre.

Free Freya Facebook page.

Stopping the TPP isn't enough.

While our focus is of course on the Transpacific Partnership which of course will grant Corporations excessive unacceptable powers of a magnitude the people of Australia have only a leaked synopsis to know, Governments of the proposed TPP and TPIP signatory countries are bringing in TPP compliant laws to cater to the Transnational Corporations desires in advance of and perhaps ultimately instead of the TPP. 

   Peru has passed laws giving police immunity from prosecution for shooting protesters in the immediate aftermath of the Glencore Xstrata La Bambas strikes fiasco. The move has sparked fears among human rights groups that there will be no reprieve for any excessive use of force as the mining industry continues to push into indigenous lands in Peru.

 New Zealand has given the Military powers to arrest protesters opposing mining or oil/gas drilling . 

 Australia is witnessing the prospect of the selectively applied Queensland VLAD laws becoming law in all States and Federally. We have seen the so called Anti Terror laws passed with scarcely a murmur.Today we confront the possibility that Mandatory Data Retention will apply to all our telephone and internet based communications effecting a mass criminalisation slur on all Australian people and businesses. 

  The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website states that The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is one possible pathway toward realising the vision of a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific. One could and should conclude that it is by no means the only mechanism to implement the reality transnationals are demanding. The author suggests that it is imperative that those who oppose the TPP also oppose smaller implementations of the TPP goals within the wider legal framework. To not do so may well mean that ultimately we win the battle to Stop the TPP but in doing so lose the war we never considered.

Sweden accepts Assange Appeal

The SVEA Court of Appeal has accepted Julian Assange's Appeal. It has disagreed with the prosecution contentions on several counts and discussed Assanges enforced exile in the Ecuadorean Embassy, agreeing with the contention put by Assange that there are no guarantees Sweden or the UK will respect his Ecuadorean Political asylum and not extradite him to the United States.
 The ruling is an important step in ending the politically motivated case against the Wikileaks founder. (full document here)

Thomas Jefferson: Banks

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
---Thomas Jefferson

we have a dream

that the world is at peace,
that police arrest unethical business leaders

that children are safe and pedophiles are not,
that clean water and air matter more than profit,
that all people have enough food and clean water,
that society has superceded greed and power,
that we are relearning the things we unlearned as animals,
and unlearned the things we learned as workers,
that we rely on ourselves such that government is irrelevant,
that Westfield is as financially as it is morally bankrupt,
that the people are not afraid of their government,
that government is afraid of its people
that we have paid back quantative easing borrowings
with marked $AQ quantative eased dollars
That society and our sentient friends matter more than profit
That we can dream ourselves into the real world
and leave the illusion behind....