[Green-Activist] Fw: Palm Sunday - 1 April - news from Melbourne

[Anne Goddard]

Hiya Felicity (and list members)
:-)

Looks like April Fuels/Fools/Palm Sunday Alliance day is a goer in Vic!
Thanks Felicity, i am sure Bro is happy that his little seed is growing so 
vigorously!
pretty cool stuff.
...Note the Global Climate Change Action Endorsement :-)

Help it to grow people !

Warmest regards
Anne


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Felicity Hill" <felicity.hill at mapw.org.au>
To: <undisclosed-recipients:>
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 5:48 PM
Subject: Palm Sunday - 1 April - news from Melbourne


Greetings from the Palm Sunday Alliance in Melbourne,

Two weeks ago in Melbourne a meeting was called to brainstorm how peace,
faith, union, environment, social justice and medical groups could
organize around Palm Sunday (which falls on April Fools Day in 2007), to
have some serious fun while sending some serious peace and anti-nuclear
messages home to the government and the ALP.

This note shares information about what we have decided and planned thus
far, and is an invitation to get involved and to think and talk over the
holiday break about how to make this day both fun and politically
effective.

*At the Melbourne meeting we:
    * Decided to call ourselves the Palm Sunday Alliance for a peaceful
      and nuclear free future, with Palm Sunday Alliance for short,
      which is open to all groups wishing to participate

    * Drafted some loose demands which we were determined would include
      positive alternatives, not just no, no, no, which we thought about
      and agreed at our next meeting (see below)

    * Drafted some very simple text for a poster and flier, which is
      still under discussion and very much open to suggestions (see below)

    * Brainstormed about the large variety of themes, events and ideas
      that could be developed by other groups around Australia (see below)

    * Agreed that a fun, comedy filled event that plays on the April
      Fools theme will be attractive to those recently disempowered or
      turned off demonstrating, while serious enough on the substantive
      peace and nuclear issues to make a political impact

    * Decided to establish a website www.NuclearFoolsDay.org (not yet
      live but bought) on which we would be more than happy to advertise
      all Palm Sunday events and activities around the country

    * Decided to organise a large public meeting in February on the
      issues as part of the build up and outreach

So far the following groups have endorsed Palm Sunday events: Intensive
outreach to expand this list will start in 2007

Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Friends of the Earth,
Australian Conservation Foundation, Environment Centre of the Northern
Territory, Peace Organisation of Australia, Women’s International League
for Peace and Freedom, Australian Student Environment Network, Nuclear
Disarmament Party, Global Climate Change Action, Action in Solidarity
with Asia and the Pacific, Socialist Alliance, Catholics in Coalition
for Justice and Peace (CCJP), Alice Action, Arid Lands Environment
Centre, Greenpeace, Nuclear Free Australia, Stop the War Coalition
*
*Demands: *
*
Don't be a Nuclear Fool:

    * Stop nuclear power in Australia: Renewables not reactors!
    * Stop uranium mining: Leave it in the ground!
    * Stop nuclear weapons: Put down the US nuclear umbrella!
    * Stop nuclear waste: No waste dump in Australia!

Stop the Nuclear Fool Cycle!
*
*In Melbourne the Palm Sunday Alliance has so far decided to:*
    * Organize a fun and upbeat Peace Parade and Festival,
    * Start from Treasury Gardens where we will fly kites in the park
      and form a human peace symbol for an aerial photograph
    * Parade through the city to Federation Square for comedy and
      entertainment
    * Encourage people to dress up and make props, signs and bike
      extensions around the peace and Nuclear Fool theme
    * Invite Leunig to do the design for the poster, which could be used
      nation wide if space was left for folks to fill in city/town
      specific details
    * Invite Critical Mass and Bicycle Victoria to increase the cyclists
      peddling us out of the Nuclear Fool Cycle
    * Invite comedians in the Melbourne Comedy Festival (which starts
      only days after Palm Sunday) to participate; we are in
      communication with organizers about who will be in town - they
      want cross advertising so its likely we'll get some good laughs
    * Invite schools to include lessons about peace and sustainability
      in their teaching, including paper crane and kite making for
      flying on Palm Sunday
    * Invite faith based groups to participate on the day, possibly they
      could issue an ecumenical statement and ceremony as in the past
    * Enter the Moomba Birdwo/man Rally in March with a contraption that
      advertises Palm Sunday and peace

Other ideas for themes and actions that folks in other centres may find
useful:

    * The Fool on the Hill: might be a good theme for Canberra groups,
      or general reference to Johnny Howard
    * Get a sign on letter and publish it in the papers
    * Ensure that the voices of atomic victims and survivors are heard
    * Clearly advertise a dress up theme, as clowns, as fools, so people
      can participate very easily
    * Hold a Yellow Cake competition
    * Drop a hypothetical bomb in a popular place – show the impact,
      visually, with markers & symbols
    * Project images and slogans onto night time surfaces/buildings of
      major cities
    * Stage some kind of mock nuclear waste spill at a busy location
    * Ask the remaining members of Midnight Oil to perform, plus other bands
    * Use as many comedians as possible
    * Get the local Mayor for Peace, or soon to be Mayor for Peace involved
    * Invite Tim Costello to participate
    * Use candles
    * Use donkeys (from palm Sunday church services), and tractors and
      horses where they have em
    * Invite church goers to bring their palms and use them in the day
      somehow
    * Get a bunch of Peace Boats on the river
    * Let off balloons with information about radiation traveling in the
      wind, asking folks to call in to register where they found balloon
    * Have family friendly kid activities like picnic, kite flying,
      crane making/hanging in addition to rally speakers
    * Not use the word rally, but parade or festival
    * Invite politicians along to question them about their views on
      nuclear issues
    * Do actions outside ALP MP offices before the day
    * Get a national sign on letter to give to an ALP official to
      register unity of the NGOs
    * Invite veterans, the RSL to participate and the victims of the
      Maralinga nuclear tests to speak – ensure these victims of nuclear
      weapons are visible and remembered 50 years after the British
      fenced off an area the size of England and then blew up 7 bombs
      and contaminated an area the size of London for 250,000 years
    * Table a Senate motion urging the government to support our efforts
      in promoting a nuclear-free Australia
    * Get the Channel Seven’s Sunrise program on board

DRAFT Poster language:

Don't be a Nuclear Fool!
Join the Palm Sunday Peace Parade & Festival!

April Fools Day
1pm Gather at Treasury Gardens
2pm Parade to Federation Square

Dress foolishly, ride your bike, fly your kite!

Stop nuclear power in Australia: Renewables not reactors!
Stop uranium mining: Leave it in the ground!
Stop nuclear weapons: Put down the US nuclear umbrella!
Stop nuclear waste: No waste dump in Australia!
Stop the Nuclear Fool Cycle!

www.NuclearFoolsDay.org

Organised by the Palm Sunday Alliance
for a peaceful and nuclear free future

DRAFT outreach text we are still working on to widen the appeal*
*
Don't be a Nuclear Fool!
Join the Palm Sunday Peace Parade & Festival!

Palm Sunday falls on April Fools Day in 2007.

You and your organisation are invited to join the Palm Sunday Alliance
–made up of faith, medical, social justice and environment
organisations– who have come together to organise a parade and festival
for a peaceful and nuclear free future on 1 April.

Information about our meetings, participants and plans are here
www.NuclearFoolsDay.org

Gathering at Treasury Gardens at 1pm on April Fools Day to fly kites,
adjust costumes and make a human peace symbol for an aerial photograph,
the parade will move off at 2pm to Federation Square for a peace
festival with comedians and entertainment.

This will be a family-friendly, foolish and fun day to drive home some
deadly serious messages to all political parties:

Stop nuclear power in Australia: Renewables not reactors!
Stop uranium mining: Leave it in the ground!
Stop nuclear weapons: Put down the US nuclear umbrella!
Stop nuclear waste: No waste dump in Australia!
Stop the Nuclear Fool Cycle!

Our government is contemplating 25 nuclear reactors by 2050: No Way!

The Prime Minister’s hand-picked nuclear ‘taskforce’ recommended in
November that Australia build 25 reactors along our fragile coast line
to supply a third of our electricity by 2050. Too slow, too expensive,
too dangerous and too much water would be wasted on this – wind is
cheaper and quicker and doesn’t cause drought or wars.

Don’t be a Ruddy Fool Mr. Rudd: Wake up and read the polls!

78% per cent of ALP voters don’t want any new uranium mines in Australia
or want uranium mining stopped altogether, compared to 16% favouring new
mines, a ratio of nearly 5:1. And 66% of the general public polled don’t
want any new uranium mines in Australia or want uranium mining stopped
altogether, only 22% support increased uranium mining - a ratio of 3:1
(Newspoll 30 May 2006). ALP should learn from the bitter uranium debates
of the 1980s in which they lost members and votes. Now is not the time
to review the ALP “no new mines” policy.

Australia is selling uranium to China, a nuclear weapon state: Nuclear
Fools! *

Our government boasts that it opposes nuclear weapons and has the
highest “safeguards” standards for export of uranium. Rubbish! Australia
actually normalises and legitimises nuclear weapons by participating in
the US nuclear umbrella. If Australia is serious about nuclear
disarmament, the government should never sell uranium, particularly to
countries with nuclear weapons. Safeguards provide only an ‘illusion of
protection.’ Australian and international safeguards cannot guarantee
that Australian uranium does not end up in nuclear weapons.

*Nuclear is NO SOLUTION to climate change!

Nuclear energy is not emissions free or ‘greenhouse friendly’. According
to the German Environment Ministry, the building and decommissioning of
reactors, and the mining, processing and extensive transportation of
uranium releases carbon dioxide in quantities comparable to burning
natural gas. Nuclear power provides about 15% of global electricity
generation and electricity contributes about 30% of human made
greenhouse gases. If we doubled the existing 442 nuclear reactors to 884
by mid-century, we would only reduce greenhouse emissions by 5%. It is
economically, practically and politically inconceivable that enough new
nuclear power plants could be brought on line quickly enough to make a
significant contribution to mitigating climate change in the next decade
or two, the critical period during which we must take the steps which
will set us on the road to avoiding dangerous climate change. Nuclear
energy has never been able to compete on the open market, and has never
been commercially viable anywhere without massive public taxpayer
subsidies. Numerous studies have shown that a dollar invested in energy
efficiency is up to seven times more effective in reducing greenhouse
emissions than a dollar invested in nukes.

www.NuclearFoolsDay.org

So..... Keep your thinking caps on over the holiday period, and lets get
busy in January! Our work will begin in earnest next year, and we look
forward to an inspiring Palm Sunday.

best wishes
Felicity Hill on behalf of the Melbourne Palm Sunday Alliance

Felicity Hill
Campaign Coordinator
ICAN - International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons
Medical Association for Prevention of War

www.icanw.org www.mapw.org.au www.ippnw.org

Phone: + 61 38344 1637
Fax: + 61 38344 1638
Mobile: + 61 43239 8261

Skype address: icanflick

Postal Address: MAPW, P O Box 1379, Carlton, Vic 3053, Australia
Visiting Address: MAPW Alan Gilbert Building, 2nd Floor, 161 Barry
Street, Carlton, Vic 3053

Listen to 3CR 855 AM every Friday morning at 7.45 for an ICAN update!
Streaming via www.3cr.org.au
---------------------------------
original message from "bro"

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Anne Goddard" <anne at globalclimatechangeaction.org>
To: <ClimateChangeAction at yahoogroups.com.au>;
<Oz-envirolink at altnews.com.au>; <green-global at lists.altnews.com.au>;
<green-activist at lists.altnews.com.au>
Cc: <bro at c031.aone.net.au>
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 4:18 PM
Subject: [Green-Activist] Re: [ClimateChangeAction] Some campaign
strategysuggestions re climate change

I really like the idea of an "April Fuels" day...

Hiya Members :-)
I have invited "Bro" to join the CCA group.

Some campaign strategy suggestions re climate change

>> Posted by: "Bro" bro at c031.aone.net.au
>> via "greenleap"
>> Mon Dec 4, 2006 8:18 pm (PST)
>> John Howard is (unless I have had a seniors' moment) the first serious
>> Australian politician since Sir Charles Court thirty years ago to run
>> nuclear reactors (not to mention the whole damn fuel cycle) up his flag
>> pole.
>>
>> Court the Elder used to speak of WA as the world's energy farm. Peter
>> Costello spruiks our involvement in the G20 in terms "Energy our freeway
>> to the future" (The Age, lead story 18 November).
>>
>> Meanwhile almost 7000 people have voted in the current Yahoo web poll
>> "What is the most important issue under discussion at the current APEC 
>> summit?"
>> with the following result from a choice of four answers:
Climate Change 59%:
Iraq 19%;
Economic Development 18%;
Undecided 4%.
>>
>> For the people climate change is the issue: for the Government it's
>> consuming ever more energy with a bit of highly-vexed
>> pollution-ameliorating
>> expensive, yet-to-be demonstrated technology.
>>
>> And the Sunday Times (19/11) reports:
>>
>> 'With the caucus aghast at Mr Beazley's latest verbal stumble, it will be
>> badly buffeted by the latest Ipsos-Mackay poll to be broadcast on Channel
>> 10's Meet the Press this morning.
>>
>> The survey shows that 60 per cent of Australians think the issue of
>> climate change will play an important part in how they vote at the next 
>> election.
>>
>> While 24 per cent believed the Greens would be the best party federally
>> to handle global warming, they were closely followed by the Coalition on 
>> 23
>> per cent.
>>
>> Remarkably, Labor trailed both parties, on 19 per cent.
>>
>> The results will be deeply unsettling for many federal Labor MPs who
>> already have a question mark over Mr Beazley's performance.
>>
>> The recurring complaint from his internal critics is that he fails to
>> ``cut through'' to voters with the Opposition's message.
>>
>> The Ipsos-Mackay poll will simply confirm that impression, especially
>> since John Howard has widely been seen to have been wrong-footed on 
>> climate
>> change since the publication three weeks ago of the British 
>> Government-sponsored
>> Stern Report.
>>
>> The report concluded that Earth faced catastrophic consequences unless
>> climate change was confronted. Mr Howard has been a self-confessed
>> ``climate change sceptic'' and has refused to sign up to the Kyoto 
>> Protocol. "
>>
>> Speaking to mainly young people at the Make Poverty History Concert on
>> 17/11 Tim Costello said (of course, it's not news other than he said it 
>> about
>> him for, I believe, the first time):
>>
>> "I do have a brother. That brother, along with both sides of politics,
>> has failed to see with the same moral clarity what your generation gets 
>> This
>> is how politicians govern: they wet their finger, they put it up to the 
>> air
>> and they say which way is the wind blowing."
>>
>> I've been banging on now for 6 months about the next federal election,
>> and particularly the long lead up to it, being a once in a lifetime
>> opportunity to blow the winds of sustainability with frostbite-inducing 
>> force over
>> the wet fingers of our political leaders. The hooks being ever-increasing
>> public concern over the impacts of climate change and the capture of the
>> Government's (and, led by Ferguson and Fitzgibbon, a proportion of the
>> Opposition's) agenda by the carbonucleophiles ("carbon dioxide - we call
>> it  the stuff of life!").
>>
>> 1 April 2007 falls on a Sunday.
>>
>> Noting the success of the recent Walk Against Warming, as part of an
>> escalating campaign for a real, anti-nuclear response to climate change
>> significant nationwide actions on "April Fuels" day seem to me to be
>> worthy of contemplation and organisation.
>>
>> I shrink from showing my age by raising memories of 1977 or even using
>> the term "mobilisation" (or looking ahead to 6 August 2007) for what 
>> might be
>> contemplated and organised.
>>
>> I would be grateful to receive any views that people may have on these
>> Sunday morning musings.
>>
>> Cheers, bro
>>
>> Dr Bro Sheffield-Brotherton B.Sc.(Hons), Ph.D, Dip.Ed, MEIANZ
>> Chairman, Sustainable Solutions Pty Ltd
>> Scientific Advisor, National Toxics Network
>> Honorary Life Member, Australian Conservation Foundation
>> Member, Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand
>> 47 Prentice Street
>> Elsternwick 3185
>> AUSTRALIA
>> Ph: +613 9528 1957, Mob: +614 1230 3 718
>> Fax: +613 9528 5100
>> Email: bro at c031.aone.net.au
>>
>> "The ultimate measure of people is not where they stand in moments of
>> comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and
>> controversy." - Dr Martin Luther King Jr
>>
>> "The danger is when you get old like us you may become soonical." -
>> Dagmar Schroeder