Palm Sunday Peace March 2010

Build not Bomb

palm-sunday-poster (poster pdf - pls distribute)

Plus there’s a Vigil against the war on Afghanistan
Tue 16 March, 4-6pm, Defence Plaza, 661 Bourke St, Melbourne.

justact action - Help UCCP workers

Get online and help Dr Alexis Montes, a lay leader in the health ministry of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and his health Worker colleagues.

There have been illegal arrests, disappearances and detentions.

This is an awfull situation involving people being put in danger. There has been llegal arrest and detention of 43 health workers in the Philippines including the prominent lay member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Dr Alexis Montes

We would be very grateful if you would consider using this easy online action in support of the doctor and his colleagues.

http://www.justact.org.au/just-take-action/

(Scroll down the link)

Please consider passing this on to interested friends or colleagues.

AVAAZ Action - Uganda

Stop Uganda’s Gay Death Penalty

Uganda’s parliament is preparing to pass a brutal new law that would punish gay people with prison — even death.

Initial international criticism drove the President to call for a review. But after a well-funded and vicious lobbying effort by extremists, the bill looks set to be passed — threatening widespread persecution and bloodshed.

Opposition to the bill is rising, including from the Anglican church. Ugandan gay rights advocate Frank Mugisha writes, This law will put us in serious danger. Please, sign the petition and tell others to stand with us – if there’s a huge global response, our government will see that Uganda will be internationally isolated by the proposed law, and strike it down.

With the decision expected in days, only an irresistible wave of worldwide pressure will be enough to save Frank’s life and many others. Let’s build a huge petition to stop the gay death law — click here to take action, then forward this email:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_rights_4/?vl

The petition will be delivered to President Museveni and the parliament at the end of this week by top Ugandan civil society and Church leaders. Pro-death penalty advocates have also planned a march this week, so our voices need to be louder than theirs!

The bill proposes life imprisonment for anyone convicted of having same-sex relations and imposes the death penalty for “serial offenders”. NGOs working to prevent the spread of HIV could be imprisoned for up to 7 years for “promoting homosexuality”. Even members of the public face up to three years in jail if they fail to report homosexual activity to the police within 24 hours!

The bill’s advocates claim that it defends national culture, but its strongest critics come from within Uganda. The Reverend Canon Gideon Byamugisha is one of many who’s written to us – he says,

It is violating our cultures, traditions and religious values that teach against intolerance, injustice, hatred and violence. We need laws to protect people — not ones that will humiliate, ridicule, persecute and kill them en masse.

By rejecting this dangerous bill and supporting the breadth of opposition to it, we can help set a crucial precedent. Let’s build massive support for Uganda’s human rights defenders, and save lives by stopping this bill — sign now here, then tell friends and family:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_rights_4/?vl

With hope and determination,

Alice, Ricken, Ben, Paul, Benjamin, Pascal, Raluca, Graziela and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES

African letter to Ugandan President to throw out Anti-Homosexual Bill:
http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=22761

Ugandan church leader brands anti-gay bill ‘genocide’:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/dec/04/gideon-byamugisha-homosexuality-bill

Human Rights Impact Assessment of Uganda’s Anti-homosexuality Bill By Sylvia Tamale, The Dean of Law at Uganda’s Makerere University:
http://www.zeleza.com/blogging/african-affairs/human-rights-impact-assessment-ugandas-anti-homosexuality-bill-sylvia-tamal

MPH roadtrip

Endorsing Statement from Adrian Greenwood (Wow! I know!!)

Make Poverty History (MPH) is a campaign the Uniting Church has supported and engaged with for many years from policy development, to political lobbing, education,  service and aid partnerships throughout the world. The MPH Roadtrip is a great opportunity for our young adults to put their faith in action.

At NCYC in Jan 2009 young people of the UCA articulated, demonstrated and celebrated a Good News that is both personally and socially transformative. Thousands of us engaged in public liturgy, acts of protest, service, social action and pranks, flash mobs and research. This May I am proud to encourage our UCA young people to join the MPH Roadtrip to engage their towns and country to make poverty history. We as the UCA are in an excellent position to help with local actions, provide hospitality in our churches and opportunities to see our agencies working to make a better world.  So join in already.

http://www.theroadtrip.com.au/

So the UCA are partnering with the roadtrip. This means churches can host groups (accom & food),  help organise actions and activities in your town when they come past. Also we (uca) have found some $ to help get your young peeps to it 50 UCA people get $100 towards their costs.

Contact oaktree, Tess, me or your state youth person to chat more about getting on board the roadtrip.

mph-roadtrip-information-final pdf info file

Al’s support letter (the useful one )

Rev Alistair Macrae - UCA President letter of support

Warm New Year greetings to you!

I write this letter to tell you about the Uniting Church in Australia’s involvement in the 2010 MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Roadtrip, organised for May this year.

The Uniting Church has been strongly involved in the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign for many years and is committed to doing our part to combat global poverty.

The MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Roadtrip will mobilise young people from across Australia, including many of our own young people, and equip them with valuable skills and experiences in advocacy and campaigning for a fairer world. The Roadtrip also aims to raise awareness about the Millennium Development Goals and issues of poverty with both the young people taking part and members of the community involved along the way.

I encourage you to read the enclosed information about the Roadtrip. Please consider ways your congregation might be involved in this exciting opportunity to engage with and support this journey of these passionate young people acting against poverty.

There are many ways you can be involved ranging from encouraging and sponsoring your youth to participate in the Roadtrip, to providing hospitality for the group passing through your area. The Oaktree Foundation is coordinating this project and the Uniting Church has been asked to take this particular role because of our long involvement in the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign, our concern for justice and our reputation for hospitality.

The Uniting Church joins with Christians worldwide in calling and acting for equality and justice for all. Your support of this Roadtrip is a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate that we take this call seriously.

I am looking forward to supporting and participating in this road trip myself. I might see you somewhere along the way!

I commend it strongly for your prayerful attention.

May God bless the worship, witness and service of your congregation in 2010.

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Rev Alistair Macrae

avvaz action - Copenhagen

Dear Friends,
With three days to go, the crucial Copenhagen summit is failing.

Tomorrow, the world’s leaders arrive for an unprecedented 60 hours of direct negotiations. Experts agree that without a tidal wave of public pressure for a deal, the summit will not stop catastrophic global warming of 2 degrees.

Click below to sign the petition for a real deal in Copenhagen — the campaign already has a staggering 10 million supporters - let’s make it the largest petition in history in the next 72 hours! Every single name is actually being read out at the summit — sign on at the link below and forward this email to everyone!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen_now

An Avaaz team is meeting daily with negotiators inside the summit who will organize a spectacular petition delivery to world leaders as they arrive, building a giant wall of boxes of names and reading out the names of every person who signs. With the largest petition in history, leaders will have no doubt that the whole world is watching.

Millions watched the Avaaz vigil inside the summit on TV yesterday, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu told hundreds of delegates and assembled children:

“We marched in Berlin, and the wall fell.
“We marched for South Africa, and apartheid fell.
“We marched at Copenhagen — and we WILL get a Real Deal.”

Copenhagen is seeking the biggest mandate in history to stop the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. History will be made in the next few days. How will our children remember this moment? Let’s tell them we did all we could.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen_now

With hope,

Ricken, Alice, Ben, Paul, Luis, Iain, Veronique, Graziela, Pascal, Paula, Benjamin, Raj, Raluca, Taren, David, Josh and the whole Avaaz team.

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Feast of the Holy Innocents: Prayers and peace procession from Victoria Barracks to Defence Plaza, 1pm-3pm.

In the days after Christmas, while most people are recovering from the indulgence of Christmas Day or deeply immersed in the liturgy of the Boxing Day Test, the Church calendar commemorates the Holy Innocents, the children killed by Herod in a bid to maintain his grip on power.  This is a part of the Christmas story which gets little attention in churches, yet it forms a major part of the biblical birth narrative.  It is a day when we remember children and other innocent people killed by today’s Herods, who consider such innocents to be acceptable collateral damage in their quest for power and security.  Children are still the most deeply affected by wars around the globe – 60% of Afghans are under the age of 21.  90% of those killed in wars now are civilians.

Join us for a peace procession from Victoria Barracks in Melbourne to Defence Plaza.  We will begin at 1pm with prayers at Victoria Barracks on St Kilda Road, and process to Defence Plaza, 661 Bourke St. Melbourne, for further prayer and reflection.

Christmas with a Difference

The Urban Seed mob are organising a “Christmas with a Difference” stall in the Bourke St mall over the next 3 Wednesdays from 11:30am. It would be great if you could forward this info around to your networks.

WHAT??? Mostly an information stall with ideas about how to do Christmas gift giving in a way that considers our own
over-consumption, the environment and the poor - ethical gift giving if you like. It will include the TEAR useful gift catalogues, ideas
around having a “buy nothing christmas” as well as environmentally friendly and ethical gifts. Getting into people minds some broader
ideas about Christmas than just buy, buy, buy…

CHRISTMAS CAROLLING: We will also be doing some Christmas Carolling with a difference from 1pm on each of those days - I have attached a
copy of the carols. It would be great to get as many along particularly for the carol singing as possible to get some noise
happening.

WHEN?? from 11:30am on Wed 9, 16 and 23. We will probably aim to finish up about 2:30. Probably set up on cnr Swanston and Bourke
outside Strandbags I think…

HELP!!?? You can help in a couple of ways
- block out 1/2 an hour in your diary to come and hang out and be availabe to chat to people about some of the ideas and spruik a bit or
just be a physical presence…
- at about 1pm we will do some “carolling with a difference” - it would be fantastic to have a good bunch of people to come and sing
along. Please bring your friends, kids, pets… etc. This will draw some attention to the ideas.
- forward this email on to your networks.

Hope you can make it for some fun fun fun!!!

Virginia.

HolyHardware: Goodnews from Word

UPDATE: GOODNEWS! WORD HAS JOINED THE CONVERSATION!!!!

This morning Word updated its public purchasing policy and this afternoon they begun dialogue with the JIM unit.

So now you can join me tomorrow for a celebration of  where we have got to in the holy hardware campaign. Maybe present Word with a thank you gift. Please come and thank them with me, hear the story and pray for those still exploited by our faith product industry.

This is good news because we now have both key players in the Christian retail sector helping find ways we can better the conditions of working people who make products for Christians.

Age

Keen to join me in a little Abolitionist Anti-Sweatshop Caroling and public liturgy? Good book it in, email me and turn up

Have you ever thought about the conditions in which products are made?

Then join us in a little Abolitionist Anti-Sweatshop Caroling and public liturgy? Outside Word Bookstore Head Office.

When: DEC 5  11:30am-12:30pm

Where: 11-13 Moncrief Road
Nunawading

We are asking that they join into the conversation on slave labour and Christian products.

Why?  Slave Labour 4 Christian Products is a Sin.

Yes! I totally am up for a little holy mischief! Who do I tell that I am in?

All your friends to help spread the word  and of course Age (age@morepraxis.org.au)

FaceBook Event here (please only say attending if you are coming - we are counting on you.  Facebook slacktivism will not cut it.)

More>Background info.

A 2007 report found that employees in China at one factory involved in making crosses were forced to work regular 14 to 15.5 hour shifts a day, seven days a week. They were paid as little as 30 cents an hour, just over half the legal minimum wage in China. (US National Labour Committee (NLC), Today Workers Bear the Cross).

“The products had to be finished by the 25th [of April] and all of the workers in our department had been working until three o’clock in the morning. We had been working non-stop for just about 16.5 hours. We were making crucifixes…. At 8 am, the morning of the 26th, it seemed as if our heads had just hit the pillows before out coworkers began to call for us to get up and get back to work again. The manager arranged for me to load the boxes for shipment. I, along with everybody else, was busy moving things into the truck. In total, we had close to 300 boxes of crucifixes and other things as well. Everything was so heavy; each box was about 20kg! We were so tired. My shoulders, legs and waist went weak. While we were moving the boxes of crucifixes, one of my coworkers suddenly cried out: “Jesus, take pity on me! I’m going to die of exhaustion.””

In late November 2007 the US National Labor Committee (NLC) released a report, Today Workers Bear the Cross, exposing members of the Association for Christian Retail (ACR) for selling crosses manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop. http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=479

Word Bookstores Pty Ltd is a high-profile and successful Christian retailer involved in the selling of a range of products made in China where there are documentedcases of gross disregard for the fundamental human dignity of working people.

Why Word Bookstores?

Word Bookstores is one of the biggest Christian retailers in Australia. With its roots in the old evangelistic ministry called Gospel Film Ministry Ltd (founded in Sydney), we want to remind Word that heeding the Gospel means supporting working people to be treated with dignity. We don’t think that all the gift items that Word sells are made in sweatshops, but we are concerned that items (particularly those made in China) could very well be. So we are calling on a key player in the Christian retail sector to get behind our campaign to find ways we can better the conditions of working people who make products for Christians.

The Justice & International Mission Unit of the Uniting Church in Australia has repeatedly tried to contact this company to start a dialogue about these issues; but there has been no response.

The JIM Unit contacted the VCC and the Victorian Heads of Churches. This broad group of Christian denominations expressed strong appreciation for the work done on this topic. In November 2008, the Heads of Churches gathered agreed with the document `A fair trade in Christian Goods’ and officially endorsed the accompanying ‘Christian Goods Standard’.

The Sunday AGE ran a small article which highlighted the issue: http://www.theage.com.au/national/slave-trade-in-religious-souvenirs-20081206-6swy.html

Stop the Traffik Freeze - Maroondah Festival

Hi Guys want to go to a festival and cause a little mischief?

This Sunday (12:30-1pm) inside the Maroonah Festival we are doing the STT freeze action with our friends from Ringwood Uniting.

As always the more people in the flash mob the more fun and confusion created.

Where - Town Park (Melways 50 K5) Meet me a Ringwood stall on fair trade CM9.

What is it? - Here is an article about us doing it before

Learn more and show your support for the campaign to stop human trafficking, Stop the Traffik.
Go to the website http://www.stopthetraffik.org.au and sign the global declaration against human trafficking.

“There are people who want to take the most precious thing you have and sell it to those who will abuse it and wreck it …

and http://www.fairtrade.com.au/ for the link to child labour etc

So email me, comment, tweet, facebook respond (whatever) to say you will be there.  :)

AI Action - Racial Discrimination Act

REINSTATEMENT OF THE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ACT (RDA)

Amnesty International Australia - Working to Protect Human Rights:

No conditions, no excuses Mr Rudd

http://www.amnesty.org.au/action/action/21865/

14 Oct 09: “Suspending the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) allows racially discriminatory actions to occur - and this is exactly what happened in the roll out of the Northern Territory Intervention. … The Federal Government has promised to take steps to reinstate the RDA as soon as next week. However, the Government is proposing to designate some discriminatory practices, such as welfare quarantining, as a ‘special measure’ to allow them to continue. Such ‘special measures’ would defeat the purpose and the spirit of the reinstatement of the RDA. It is important that the reinstatement of the RDA should contain no loopholes to allow racial discrimination to continue. Call on the Federal Government now to reinstate the RDA in full… no conditions, no excuses! … Take action now - Send a letter to the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, by clicking on the ACT NOW button on right-hand side of this page.”

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