Call for global solidarity
Freedom @ Woomera2002
What is Woomera?
Woomera is located 500 kms from the nearest city of Adelaide, in South Australia.
It is best known as the location of Australia's largest onshore internment camp,
and the scene of the most determined resistance to Australian Government policies
of automatically and extrajudicially interning people who arrive in Australia
by boat and without papers.
Thousands of people are detained in prison camps around Australia for months
and sometimes years - and since the establishment of a military blockade of Fortress
Australia some months ago, on Pacific Islands and in Indonesia, in camps funded
by the Australian Government. This policy has been met with ongoing and protests
by those who have been interned, generating a growing movement of opposition outside
the camps.
The town of Woomera was built by UK and Australian military forces on land
seized from indigenous peoples, who have since waged a struggle against nuclear
weapons testing, uranium mining, and (more recently) the proposed toxic waste
dump. Woomera is situated in a vast military prohibited zone, under the control
of the Department of Defence. Close by to Woomera are also three uranium mines,
and the US-CIA/Australian Spy Base, Pine Gap, pivotal to the proposed US's 'Missile
Defence Shield'.
: woomera2002 : festival of freedoms : autonomadic caravan : direct actions
:
28 March - 2 April, 2002
This Easter hundreds, possibly thousands, of people from around Australia will
make the journey to Woomera to make the connections between the enclosures, colonialism
and war. We hope you can join with us in your own way, no matter where you live
in the world.
"We are making the journey to refuse the death, pain and confinements
that are manufactured in the name of The Economy. We refuse the caging behind
razor wire and the new world borders fashioned so that capital, by reserving for
itself the 'right' to move around the world, can better enforce austerity, misery,
the earth's destruction and the 'race-to-the-bottom'."
To read the rest of the call to action, and for more information on the issues,
go to http://woomera2002.com/
Solidarity
We have been heartened by the many messages of support from around the world,
and from those unable to make the trip. Many have asked how they can help. Below
you will find a few suggestions.
We would also like to note that while no other Government practices mandatory
and extrajudicial internment of sans papier, and while the struggles of the invisible
here are amongst the most determined, we hope that not only will people support
woomera2002, but they also take the opportunity to draw the connections with their
own struggles, the struggles of sans papier, and against the terror of the enclosures
and dispossessions.
March 30th
Of course you can show your solidarity at any time; but we envisage that as
the protests in Woomera gather by the 29th, the authorities might well respond
severely to protesters, including those inside the internment camp - as they have
done time and again when those behind the razor-wire have called for freedom -
including with tear-gas, water-cannon and beatings. Above all, we would ask you
to respond to this. Here are some suggestions of things you can do:
- Send faxes to the Australian Government and Opposition - the policy of mandatory
and extrajudicial internment is a bi-partisan one. See below for fax and emails.
- Make a noise in front of the Australian embassy or consulate near you.
- Organise protest at one of the other detention centres in Australia: Maribyrnong,
Villawood, Port Hedland, Curtin and Perth. Or create some direct action at a detainment
centre, department office or estate near you.
- Protests for the rights and freedom of sans papier everywhere. The Australian
Government has established offshore internment camps in the Asia-Pacific, and
there are also a number of detention centres in Europe and the USA.
- Participate online in woomera2002 via the Virtual
PeopleSmuggler
- Get involved in noborder actions near you, or get them going. See http:noborder.org/
and http://antimedia.net/xborder/
for links to numerous noborder groups and events around the world.
- Help us out with funds and/or skills. See the woomera2002 website. There
are specific actions and events listed at the woomera2002 website which you might
also like to support.
===================
Fax numbers and email addresses:
Prime Minister, John Howard
Fax: +61 26273 4100
Or submit an email at:
http://www.pm.gov.au/your_feedback/feedback.htm
Leader of the Opposition, Simon Crean
Fax: +61 26277 2307
Email: s.crean.mp@aph.gov.au
Minister for Immigration, Philip Ruddock
Fax: +61 26273 4144
Or, submit an email at:
http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/general/contents.htm
Shadow Minister for Immigration, Julia Gillard
Fax: +61 26277 8457
Email: julia.gillard.mp@aph.gov.au
Regular mail address for all politicians:
Parliament House,
Canberra 2006
Australia
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