ASEN

The first SEAN gig of the year is going to take place on the weekend of week 3 (19th-21st March) at a beach house in Wombarra (Just north of Wollongong, accessible by cityrail network).

The focus of the SEAN gig will be on skilling-up brand new collective members in stuff like facilitation, collective organising, consensus, theories of change etc, refreshing and reviewing this stuff for older members, giving people the opportunity to develop their workshop facilitation skills, and giving collectives the time and resources to strategise for the coming year!

There is also a beach! There is also a large large area of grass big enough for ultimate frisbee!

This is a great opportunity for us to get together as a network, share the things we know and the skills we have, and avoid as much wheel reinvention as possible!

Accommodation: there are some beds in the beach house, but not enough to go round. Instead, it would be great if everyone could organise tents, sleeping bags and mats etc. There is A LOT of space out the back for camping.

Getting there: We will have meeting points in Sydney and specific trains that people will be catching both on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Watch this space for more details. The plan so far is that we will set up and have informal chats on Friday night, so people arriving Saturday won’t miss out on anything.

People from outside the Sydney and Wollongong area who are interested in coming along (do come!) can be offered transport subsidies.

In the mean time, we need volunteers to run workshops! We would love to match up more experienced workshop facilitators with those who are still a bit nervous (or have never done it before!). There are workshop plans that ASEN has put together like: theories of change, building and maintaining collectives, facilitation and consensus, non violent direct action but feel free to put together your own workshop! Let us know if you are keen and we will put you on the program.

>>To register click here<<

It’s crucial we know how many people are coming so we can organise food and enough room for you all.

Hope to see you all there!

Aimee Bull-McMahon 0407204973

Chris Moore 042252159

James Curtin 0400372889

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First workshop in the series - learn or rediscover your inner facilitator, explore difficult meeting and workshop situations and practice your facilitation skills. Registration open!

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Works by diverse artists from across NSW & the ACT will be auctioned off with all proceeds going towards the running of Climate Camp 09. Come to find out more about Climate Camp next month.

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September 6. 7 pm. Wholefoods Restaurant (Monash Uinversity, Clayton).

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“The people of the Northern Territory elected the Labor Party. We were led to believe that the nuclear waste
thing would be all overturned and overruled, and at this moment we are extremely disappointed”.
Marlene Bennett, Muckaty Traditional Owner

In 2007 the new Rudd Government promised to end a decade of division on radioactive waste management.

Labor pledged to:
1- Repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act
2- Implement an open, transparent and inclusive process
3- Remove the threat of imposed radioactive waste dumps.
 
This position was warmly welcomed by the Northern Territory government,
Traditional Owners, environment, health and human rights groups and trade unions.
 
So far it has not been acted upon.

Traditional Owners continue to live with the threat of a nuclear dump and the gap
between federal Labor’s promise and performance is growing.
 
It’s time to close the gap. It’s time to honour the promise.
It’s time for an open and responsible approach to radioactive waste management in Australia.

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On Friday the 26th of June, two activists locked onto a conveyor belt at Bluewaters coal-fired power station near Collie, 3 hours south of Perth, W.A.. The action is to protest Griffin Energy’s decision to burn wood from WA native forests for energy production. The two activists were arrested and later removed from the conveyor belt by police, after more than four hours of preventing coal from being fed into the power station. A third activist has also been arrested at the site.

“Griffin Energy is one of WA’s worst contributors to climate change. The company has recently opened yet another coal-fired power station and is constructing another three,” said Ms Jael Johnson, spokesperson for the action. “To add insult to injury, it now proposes to burn wood from our precious native forests as fuel and count this as renewable energy.”

“The WA public has a right to renewable energy. Here we have an abundance of wind, solar and wave energy. CETO, a wave energy company, has chosen to be a part of this renewable revolution. Griffin also has the opportunity to join Western Australian businesses committed to sustainable solutions. There is no place for coal-fired power station or native forest logging in a sustainable WA,” said Ms Johnson.

Griffin Energy recently won a tender from the Forest Products Commission (FPC) to buy between 250,000 and 400,000 tonnes of native forest logs a year.

Our native forests provide the WA community with clean air and water, biodiversity, and homes for unique WA plants and wildlife. Native Forests also store huge amounts of carbon. After logging and burning, the carbon is released into the atmosphere. Globally, deforestation and logging contribute about 27% of all climate change-causing greenhouse gases.

“Research in the eastern states shows that if native forests are left undisturbed, they can play a vital role in storing carbon and contributing to a climate change solution.

“Instead of protecting them for their vital role in reducing climate change, Forestry Minister Terry Redman proposes to allow Griffin to burn native forest logs, thereby releasing massive amounts of GHG and accelerating run-away climate change. This is an atrocious distortion of a system that should be leading us towards a zero-carbon economy, not further away from it.

“The people of WA will have to pay for Griffin’s reckless corporate behaviour long after its shareholders are done lining their pockets. So we will continue to disrupt the operations of organisations like Griffin for as long as they continue to display such corporate recklessness and short-sightedness.

“At the same time we support the calls from the Australian Manufacturers Workers Union and the Australian Council of Trade Unions for a just transition to a renewable society that leaves no worker or community behind,” said Ms Johnson.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Ms Jael Johnson: Mbl: 0438 856 981

Ms Emma McIntyre: Mbl: 0415 258 301

Photos and video on Indymedia (or soon to be on there!):

http://www.perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=144499

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Let’s give PG back his voice on nuclear issues!

Our demands:

-          Meet with Traditional Owners in NT and fund their travels to meeting from bush communities

-          Repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act

-          Scrap all 4 waste dump sites under assessment

-          Initiate independent public inquiry on waste management 

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Ziggy Switkowski, renowned for his  advocacy for uranium mining and nuclear power, is coming to the University of Western Australia this Monday 4.30pm: let him know we don’t want him here!

Dr Ziggy Switkowski presents: “Energy options in a warming world”.

He will be there advocating uranium mining and nuclear power to businessmen.

We will be there with Ziggy the White Elephant, banners and dissent.

UWA is actively supporting Ziggy Switkowski to come to Perth to speak about how great nuclear power and uranium mining are, specifically speaking to businessmen about the economics of the industry rather than health & safety issues and real facts on the immense amount of resources needed for uranium mines (e.g. 33 million litres of water per day at Roxby Downs uranium mine alone) and the long-term environmental impacts.

First with a speech at the Parmelia Hilton on Monday morning, and then at 4.30pm at UWA itself. Come to one or both actions - 8.30am at Parmelia Hilton for a silent protest and 4.30pm at UWA outside Banquet Hall, The University Club, Hackett Drive, Crawley (Parking: Enter off Hackett Drive, Hackett Entrance 1 Car Park 3).

Dr Ziggy Switkowski is the Chair of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. He is also a non-executive director of Suncorp, Tabcorp and Healthscope, and Chair of Opera Australia. He is a former chief executive of Telstra, Optus and Kodak (Australia). In 2006 he chaired the Prime Minister’s Review of Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy which returned nuclear power to the country’s strategic debate. He has a PhD in nuclear physics from the University of Melbourne and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engine.

If you are UWA Alumni please RSVP and go inside the event! RSVP details:
Yvette Vittorio
Administrative Officer - Special Projects
Office of Development & Alumni Relations (www.development.uwa.edu.au)
P: +61 8 6488 4774, or F: +61 8 6488 1063, or E: yvette.vittorio@uwa.edu.au

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