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Iraq Occupation Focus
Occupation and Resistance in Iraq: An International Teach-in
Sunday 5 December 2004
11am - 5pm
University of London Union
Malet Street, London WC1Speakers include:
Michael Hoffmann (Iraq Veterans Against the War)
Rose Gentle (UK Military Families Against the War)
Hassan Juma'a (General Secretary, Southern Oil Company Union, Basra, Iraq)
Lou Plummer (US Military Families Speak Out)
Adam Price MP
Christian Parenti (author of The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq)
Sami Ramadani (Iraqi writer, teacher, and activist)
Haifa Zangana (Iraqi artist, writer and activist)
Dr. Nadje Al-ali (Exeter University Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies)
Phil Shiner (human rights lawyer representing Iraqi families)
Paola Gasparoli, Bridge to Baghdad (Un Ponte per Baghdad, Italian NGO working in Iraq)
During the day the winning entries in the Iraq Occupation Focus-Red Pepper Poetry Competition will be introduced by Adrian Mitchell (Shadow Poet Laureate) and read out by the authors.
Workshops feature:
Tim Gopsill (editor, The Journalist, NUJ)
Dr Kamil Mahdi (Exeter University Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies)
Eddie Cherry, UK Veterans for Peace
Milan Rai (Voices in the Wilderness)
Justin Alexander, Jubilee Iraq (anti-debt campaign)
Greg Muttitt (PLATFORM, research group on oil industry)
David Miller (editor, Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq)
Jo Wilding (activist, eyewitness to attack on Fallujah in spring 2004)
Ewa Jasiewicz (activist and journalist, spent eight months in Iraq earlier this year)
Munir Chalabi (activist, Iraq Occupation Focus)
Mike Marqusee (author, activist)
Workshop topics include: human rights in Iraq; the Iraqi economy; legal challenges in Britain; the British media; women in Iraq; resistance in the military; practical solidarity and direct action; solidarity, resistance and the anti-war movement; oil privatisation and oil trade unions.
Registration: £5 (waged), £2 (unwaged).
Teach in generously supported by:
Voices in the Wilderness UK
Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
The international teach-in on 5th December will offer all those opposed to the US-UK occupation of Iraq a unique chance to learn, discuss and prepare for action.
The British media has largely failed to report or explain the realities of the occupation and the resistance to it. At the teach-in, a wide range of speakers from Iraq, the USA and Britain will share their knowledge, expertise and experience. 5th December will be a day to inform ourselves about the situation in Iraq (and the USA), to strengthen our arguments against occupation and examine the challenges facing the anti-war movement.
Media enquiries to:
Liz Davies 07958 673840
Munir Chalabi 07952 683415
Contact Iraq Occupation Focus at:
PO Box 44680
London
N16 7XX
Or swood@thenewpress.com
Notes to editors
Hassan Juma'a al Asaadi is the General Secretary of the Southern Oil Company Trade Union and President of the Basra Oil Union. SOC workers and the Union leadership have repeatedly stated their opposition to the occupation and any privatization of their workplaces and national resources. The Union is proud of its autonomous reconstruction efforts which have spanned every location in the Southern Oil Company, Iraq's largest company. Workers declared the SOC a no-go zone for all Kellogg Brown and Root employees last autumn. Southern Oil Company workers also shut down exports during the siege and attack on Najaf, in solidarity with the holy city's inhabitants. The Basra Oil Union was formed in July 2004 and represents over 30,000 workers from the oil industry across the south of Iraq. For more information contact Ewa Jasiewicz at freelance@mailworks.org 07749 421 576
Michael Hoffman took part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as a Marine Lance Corporal. On his return to Pennsylvania he became involved with the anti-war movement. He is co-founder and national coordinator of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Michael is interviewed in US magazine Mother Jones: "If you talk to the majority of guys there [in Iraq], they just want to go the hell home. They don't want to be there anymore. They know they're not wanted by the people of Iraq, so why should they stay?"
Lou Plummer - Lou lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg, where 45,000 military personnel are stationed. Lou served in the US army in the 1980s and is the grandson, son, brother and father of men who've served or are serving in the military. His son is currently in the US navy. He is a leading spokesperson for Military Families Speak Out and Bring Them Home Now.
In addition to the Teach-In on 5th December Lou and Michael will be addressing major public meetings in Leeds (Monday 6 December), Glasgow (with Rose Gentle, Tuesday 7th December), Manchester (8th December), Colchester (9th December). For more information on Lou and Michael, follow the link.
Adam Price MP is sponsoring the motion to impeach Tony Blair for misleading Parliament and the public on the reasons for invading Iraq. See http://www.impeachblair.org/index.shtml
Adam Price is Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr; see http://www.adamprice.org.uk/
Rose Gentle is the mother of Gordon Gentle, a 19 year old UK soldier who was killed in June in Iraq. Since then she has campaigned for an end to the occupation and has helped set up Military Families Against the War. See: http://www.mfaw.org.uk
Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist and former political prisoner. See her latest article in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1352849,00.html
Sami Ramadani was a political refugee from Saddam Hussein's regime and is a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University. See his latest article in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1347354,00.html
Phil Shiner is a lawyer with an international reputation for his work on issues concerning environmental and human rights law. He has acted for Gurkha soldiers facing discrimination in the British army and has represented CND in a judicial review challenging the Government's decision to go to war. Currently he is acting on behalf of Iraqi families in relation to the conduct of British troops in occupied Iraq.
US author Christian Parenti travelled extensively in occupied Iraq earlier this year, publishing a series of eye-opening despatches in The Nation (click here for his article). His new book The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq is an un-sanitized eyewitness account of how the war is unfolding. The book has just been published by The New Press at £12.99, and will be on sale at the Teach-In for the special discount price of £10.99. For more information on Christian Parenti's book and his visit to the UK, please contact Susan Wood at the New Press: swood@thenewpress.comLINKSVoices in the Wilderness UK
Platform - research into impact of the oil industry
Jubilee Iraq - calls for cancellation of debt
Bridge to Baghdad - Italian NGO for which the two Simonas worked
Public Interest Lawyers
Iraq Occupation Focus
Last modified: Wednesday, December 1, 2004
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Events
'The press: Invisible Political Actors?'
Join the vigil to protest BBC's pro-war bias: 2 December
Public Service Broadcasting: Charting the Future
Media and democracy in today’s Italy: a meeting with Tana de Zulueta MP.
The 12th Vanunu annual benefit
Seminar on The Public Service Publisher: How would it work?
Journalism & Public Trust
Conferences
Programme of CPBF/NUJ events at ESF
European Social Forum
Winning a Voice for licence fee payers
HOW SHOULD THE BBC BE RUN? … AND HAS GREG DYKE GOT IT RIGHT?
Spin and Corporate Power: Seminar at Strathclyde University, 18/9 Nov. 2004
Culture and Communications in Wales after the Communications Act
