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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This weekend the Victorian enviro network (CCEN) is putting on a camp of amazingness in the forest in East Gippsland (north east Victoria) and SEAN is invited to come and play, run workshops, talk shop etc.

Dates: 3-6th December (leaving Thursday morning and returning Sunday or Monday)

Where: Goongerah in glorious East Gippsland, camping by a creek

What: workshops, meal times, siesta times after meal times, planning sessions, camping and wandering in the forest…

Registrations are due today (Monday 30th November)! at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&invite=CKqfyZQI&formkey=dE9uRktsY0p0N3g0UGFSRHpIekxVW or email victoria@asen.org.au

If you’re interested in coming from somewhere in NSW let me know soon at gemromuld@gmail.com so we can organise car pooling and food gathering before we hit the road south!

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Hey SEAN
Climate Camp was great. We had a neighbourhood bursting with cake and two grand affinity groups! - if you want to see how hott everyone is in the media check out these links compiled by James of the CC media crew:

October 12

New Matilda – And now for a healthy emission

Crickey – Greens talk common sense on climate bill

Illawarra Mercury – Climate Camp slideshow

Illawarra Mercury – Editorial: Any changes in climate must be aired above

St George & Sutherland Leader – 13 Arrested at Helensburgh climate change protest

2SER (the wire) – Activists lose patience with politicians

October 11

Sydney Morning Herald – Activists arrested at NSW coal mine

Daily Telegraph – Activists chained to coal mine conveyor belt

Courier Mail – Climate Change activists chain themselves to coal conveyor

ABC – Protestors lock down coal mine

Channels Ten and SBS : News here

And also- see this rad little film of SEAN people halting conveyor belts for four hours and pulling off a sweet banner drop at Dendrobrium Mine in Mount Kembla, Wollongong.

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In the early hours of the 11th of October, four student activists locked onto the conveyor belt at the Dendrobium coal mine in Wollongong. The group was protesting over concerns about the mine’s impacts on the local river system. Shot and edited by Tyler Freeman Smith, music by The Herd.

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We hope to see you next weekend at Climate Camp ‘09 at Australia’s oldest coal mine: where actions speak louder than words.

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So, this last weekend saw the second SEAN weekend of 2009 bring together a bunch of SEAN folk from different collectives to camp at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on Dharawal land in Wollongong. We set up on Friday and spent the weekend cooking deliciousness on a fire, going for chilly swims at the beach and watching a pretty brilliant moonrise over the ocean. Oh and we also chatted and did some workshops and had a SEAN meeting over breakfast and stuff.

On Friday we heard from Uncle Dootch about the campaign to save the land and indigenous burial site from Stockland- developer of ugly beachfront houses. On Saturday we did a Non-Violent Direct Action workshop, talked about affinity groups and a potential SEAN neighbourhood for Climate Camp 09 and in the afternoon heard from Caroline of Rivers SOS on local coal happenings and government/industry dodginess (see photo). On Sunday we chilled out a bit, had a deep ecology workshop and a SEAN meeting with our breakfast tea.

Of which here are the minutes if you wanna read them:

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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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Sorry to mess things around, but you might be interested in knowing that the upcoming SEAN gig is going to be a week later than previously planned. This is so we don’t clash with the Rivers SOS meeting in Boolar (north of Newcastle) so SEAN folk can go to that meeting, and so some local (to the illawarra and it’s myriad coal problems) Rivers SOS peeps can hopefully come speak to us during the weekend.
So it shall truly be the 4th-6th SEPTEMBER! (Same place, different time- Sandon Point near Wollongong, on Dharawal land)

Registration is HERE!

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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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