Ambassador Morozov, please free 30 activists held by Russian authorities

Open letter to Russian Ambassador to Australia, Morozov
[link]

On the morning of Wednesday 18 September two activists from Greenpeace International were arrested as they took peaceful action towards Gazprom’s off-shore oil platform Prirazlomnaya, to stop the company conducting oil drilling operations in the Arctic waters of the Pechora Sea. The following day, September 19, the Russian Coast Guard illegally boarded the Greenpeace International ship Arctic Sunrise while in international waters and arrested 30 activists on board at gunpoint. We are demanding the immediate release of all the activists detained and an end to the Coast Guard’s unwarranted aggression against our ship and peaceful protest.

Greenpeace International is in the Russian Arctic to bear witness and express non-violent opposition towards oil companies’ destructive and reckless oil drilling plans. Our peaceful protest was met with extreme and disproportionate force from the Russian Coast Guard, who fired 11 warning shots at our ship, the MY Arctic Sunrise, and threatened our activists with knives and guns. Now 30 of our activists are being held by the Russian Coast Guard against their will and without legal representation.

Today we are conducting a peaceful solidarity protest outside this embassy in support of our activists to demand that they are freed by the Russian authorities. We urge you to transfer our requests to the Russian government without delay.

We ask that you:

- Free the 30 activists who have been detained on board the Arctic Sunrise, and order the Russian Coast Guard to holster their guns and withdraw immediately from our ship.

- Prioritise investigation into the destructive activities of oil companies in the Arctic, and not aggressive intimidation of peaceful protesters.

- Ban offshore oil drilling in the Arctic for good.

The real threat to the Arctic comes not from Greenpeace International but from oil companies like Gazprom. In contempt of the urgent need to protect the Arctic for all life on earth, Gazprom is determined to drill in its remote, frozen seas for more fossil fuels that are warming our planet and melting the ice. In the Arctic an oil spill would be irrecoverable. Such an event would devastate the local environment.

We urge you to transfer these requests to the Russian government in Moscow immediately to assist us in the swift release of our activists from the custody of the Russian authorities, and put a end to the unwarranted aggression and repression of our peaceful protest against Arctic oil drilling.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Campbell

Occupy Melbourne protest removed with Police force

The Occupy Melbourne protest that has been running for a week in Melbourne's City Square was broken up today when Police forceably evicted protesters after Lord Mayor Robert Doyle issued an eviction notice.

The protest, largely against corporate greed, had been running in a peaceful and non-violent way for a week.

Interestingly, Melbourne City Square is itself a victim of corporate greed - half of it was sold by Melbourne City Council years ago to developers who built a hotel and shop complex on it, leaving a much smaller portion of it for the public.

Our elected leaders are out of touch with the people.  Violence does not solve problems, it creates them.  I think the increasing concentration of wealth in our society does not bode well for the future. I also think that the banks who caused the GFC through dodgy and illegal practices were rewarded by taxpayer funded bail-outs provided by politicians - and are continuing on with similar practices.

Things need to change. Protests such as those held by the Occupy movement are valid and part of a vibrant democracy.  Quashing them with force is counterproductive and illustrates which politicians and governments are part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Links

• Occupy Melbourne - Greenlivingpedia
• Occupy Melbourne: eviction - Overland literary journal 
• Occupy London protesters set up tent city in the City - CNN.com 

GM for Victoria is a travesty of democracy

The Brumby government removed the GM moratorium that was in place in Victoria for the last five years. I attended a vocal protest on the steps of the Victorian parliament on Thursday 28 February 2002 that raised community concerns about:

• the contamination of traditional farmers crops with genetically modified plants such as GM canola
  
• inadequate food labelling legislations which means the consumers cannot know if products they eat contain GM products - which means consumers do not have a choice
• the lack of government research into the safety of GM foods - in spite of evidence that GM foods have caused serious health problems in rats
• herbicide resistant genes from GM canola spreading to wild brassica weeds - making them resistant to existing herbice control measures
• the difficulty for transport and processing plants to segregate GM canola from natural canola - leading to possible contamination of all canola and other food products
• the government not listening to and respecting a clear majority of Victorians including farmers, food processors and shoppers who want our farms and foods to stay GM-free
• Victoria losing its clean green status for food production, which will compromise export markets.

GM giant corporations such as Bayer and Monsanto will benefit from this Brumby government policy while ordinary Victorians do not support it.

I call on John Brumby to release information on how many submissions and letters the government received supporting GM canola compared to those who opposed it. The Brumby governemnt should be governing for Victorians, not global companies and agribusiness interests.

The rally speakers included:

• Stefano De Pieri, Chef and restaurateur
  
• Scott Kinnear - Biological Farmers of Australia
• Kelly Donati - Slow Food Victoria
• Tracy Bartram - comedienne and radio host
• Jessica Harison - South Gippsland against GE
• Frances Murrell - MadGE

Politicians present were Tammy Lobato (Labor MP), Greg Barber and Sue Pennicuik from the Greens and Peter Kavanagh from the DLP. Greg Barber addressed the crowd.

Scott Kinnear, Tammy Lobato and Greg Barber

Tammy Lobato MP at the protest

It was encouraging to hear such a broad range of speakers oppose the introduction of GM canola and the lifting of the GM moratorium in Victoria, and incredibly dissappointing that the Brumby government has chosen to do this.