chebol
25th December 2004, 02:59
Subject: 3rd Asia Pacific International Solidarity
Conference, Sydney, 24-28 March, 2005
[Please send an email to [email protected], with the words I AM COMING in the subject line, to register your interest in coming.]
Networking for campaigns against war and neo-liberal globalisation will be a major focus of 3rd Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference in Sydney, March 24-28.
APISC 2005 is being organised by Green Left Weekly newspaper and website (www.greenleft.org.au) and Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) (www.asia-pacific-action.org) and is sponsored by a range of other groups and organizations.
Social movement and political leaders and activists from more than 20 countries will be coming to Australia to speak at APISC 2005. Along with scores of Australian speakers, they will be presenting reports and talks at more than 150 workshops and feature sessions at the conference. It is expected that up to 1,000 people will be attending.
STAN GOFF
The campaigning focus of the conference will be marked by an opening speech at an evening public meeting to be addressed by STAN GOFF. Goff is a veteran of Special Operations in the U.S. Army and now a prominent figure in the anti-war campaigns by military families in the U.S. He is a member of the co-ordinating committee of BRING THEM HOME NOW! He locates his opposition
in an overall framework critiquing U.S. foreign policy and the economic system it serves. GOFF will be one of several U.S. activists speaking at the conference.
DITA SARI
Another well-known anti-globalisation campaigner is DITA SARI. Dita Sari is chairperson of the Indonesian National Front for Labor Struggles (FNPBI) and was gaoled under the Suharto dictatorship for four years. She has been a prominent campaigner in Indonesia against the IMF and World Bank devised neo-liberal policies of the Indonesian government. She was a keynote
speaker at the last World Social Forum meeting in Mumbai, India. In 2001 she was awarded Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Magsayay Award.
Struggles in the Asia Pacific
Prominent among the international speakers will be representatives from the movements for freedom and social justice in Aceh, West Papua, East Timor, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Mauritius and Palestine. They will be reporting on the struggles in their own countries as well as joining the collective discussion on how to further global campaigns for justice and an end to aggression.
We are also hoping for confirmation of participation of delegations from Vietnam and Venezuela as well as from Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tahiti. Activists from Europe will also be coming.
The conference will open on the evening of March 24 and will end late afternoon March 28 and will be held near the center of Sydney. Apart from the feature sessions and discussion workshops, there will be a conference dinner, film showings, on site bookshops and social events.
APISC tradition of action
The APISC conferences have built up a tradition of integrating on the gropund protest action, In 1998, hundreds of conference particpants left the venue to join pickets during a major struggle on the waterfront. In 2002, the conference suspended its agenda so everybody could join a demonstration outside an immigration detention center to protest Australi's repressive
refugee policy. In 2005, the conference coincides with another major protest against Australian government refugee repression and the conference will again suspend some if its agenda so to organise a demonstration in Sydney.
Another Australia is possible
With hundreds of people from around Australia at the conference, the opportunity will not be lost to further discussion to of local struggles and issues. Australian progressive academics and intellectuals will join other activists in workshops and feature sessions on the Australian economy,
politics, social conditions and the environment.
Past conferences
See http://www.dsp.org.au/apiaustralia/apsc98.htm#top (1998) and for 2002 http://www.dsp.org.au/apiaustralia/index.htm for information about earlier conferences.
Register your interest now!
Send an email now to [email protected] and register tour interest. You will be eligible for an early bird discount on registration if you register by 30 December 2004. Registration fees will be determined soon but they will not be prohibitive. We will send you a registration form immediately. When you email in provide your name, email contact and whether you or your
group would like to hold a workshop. (Please not because commitments to overseas guests and sponsoring organizations, there may not be space to accommodate all requests.)
Send off your email now! Please put the words I AM COMING: at the beginning of the subject line in your email. Thank you.
Max Lane
Convenor
APISC 2005
Conference, Sydney, 24-28 March, 2005
[Please send an email to [email protected], with the words I AM COMING in the subject line, to register your interest in coming.]
Networking for campaigns against war and neo-liberal globalisation will be a major focus of 3rd Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference in Sydney, March 24-28.
APISC 2005 is being organised by Green Left Weekly newspaper and website (www.greenleft.org.au) and Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) (www.asia-pacific-action.org) and is sponsored by a range of other groups and organizations.
Social movement and political leaders and activists from more than 20 countries will be coming to Australia to speak at APISC 2005. Along with scores of Australian speakers, they will be presenting reports and talks at more than 150 workshops and feature sessions at the conference. It is expected that up to 1,000 people will be attending.
STAN GOFF
The campaigning focus of the conference will be marked by an opening speech at an evening public meeting to be addressed by STAN GOFF. Goff is a veteran of Special Operations in the U.S. Army and now a prominent figure in the anti-war campaigns by military families in the U.S. He is a member of the co-ordinating committee of BRING THEM HOME NOW! He locates his opposition
in an overall framework critiquing U.S. foreign policy and the economic system it serves. GOFF will be one of several U.S. activists speaking at the conference.
DITA SARI
Another well-known anti-globalisation campaigner is DITA SARI. Dita Sari is chairperson of the Indonesian National Front for Labor Struggles (FNPBI) and was gaoled under the Suharto dictatorship for four years. She has been a prominent campaigner in Indonesia against the IMF and World Bank devised neo-liberal policies of the Indonesian government. She was a keynote
speaker at the last World Social Forum meeting in Mumbai, India. In 2001 she was awarded Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Magsayay Award.
Struggles in the Asia Pacific
Prominent among the international speakers will be representatives from the movements for freedom and social justice in Aceh, West Papua, East Timor, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Mauritius and Palestine. They will be reporting on the struggles in their own countries as well as joining the collective discussion on how to further global campaigns for justice and an end to aggression.
We are also hoping for confirmation of participation of delegations from Vietnam and Venezuela as well as from Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tahiti. Activists from Europe will also be coming.
The conference will open on the evening of March 24 and will end late afternoon March 28 and will be held near the center of Sydney. Apart from the feature sessions and discussion workshops, there will be a conference dinner, film showings, on site bookshops and social events.
APISC tradition of action
The APISC conferences have built up a tradition of integrating on the gropund protest action, In 1998, hundreds of conference particpants left the venue to join pickets during a major struggle on the waterfront. In 2002, the conference suspended its agenda so everybody could join a demonstration outside an immigration detention center to protest Australi's repressive
refugee policy. In 2005, the conference coincides with another major protest against Australian government refugee repression and the conference will again suspend some if its agenda so to organise a demonstration in Sydney.
Another Australia is possible
With hundreds of people from around Australia at the conference, the opportunity will not be lost to further discussion to of local struggles and issues. Australian progressive academics and intellectuals will join other activists in workshops and feature sessions on the Australian economy,
politics, social conditions and the environment.
Past conferences
See http://www.dsp.org.au/apiaustralia/apsc98.htm#top (1998) and for 2002 http://www.dsp.org.au/apiaustralia/index.htm for information about earlier conferences.
Register your interest now!
Send an email now to [email protected] and register tour interest. You will be eligible for an early bird discount on registration if you register by 30 December 2004. Registration fees will be determined soon but they will not be prohibitive. We will send you a registration form immediately. When you email in provide your name, email contact and whether you or your
group would like to hold a workshop. (Please not because commitments to overseas guests and sponsoring organizations, there may not be space to accommodate all requests.)
Send off your email now! Please put the words I AM COMING: at the beginning of the subject line in your email. Thank you.
Max Lane
Convenor
APISC 2005