Gunns 20 website + fund : Melbourne Indymedia

Dear All,

The Gunns lawsuit fighting fund is launched, and already a huge national response is underway. For the sake of free speech, democracy and justice, please be part of the solution to the growing might, arrogance and greed increasingly infecting corporate Australia.

See these websites for info in this issue:

http://McGunns.com

http://www.tasmaniantimes.com

What can you do right now.

1) Send this email to as many people as possible!!!

2) Donate to the Defence fund:

Money can be given to any or all of the defendants - through:

Donating to the Gunns 20 Fund via Senator Bob Brown-

Cheques/money orders can be made out to Bob Brown (Gunns 20) - please include all contact details in order to be receipted and post to GPO Box 1562 Hobart 7000 or in person at the Greens Shop 230 Liverpool St Hobart.
For more info call 03) 6234 1633.

Donating to The Gunns 20 Fund via The Wilderness Society-

Send cheques / money orders made out to The Wilderness Society (Gunns 20) to GPO Box 716, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, or at your closest Wilderness Society Shop or Campaign centre.

For more info call 1800 030 641, or click on
http://www.wilderness.org.au/regions/

Or donate to the Wilderness Society to help its defence by phoning 1800 030 641 or send cheques / money orders made out to The Wilderness Society to GPO
Box 716, Hobart, Tas, 7001, or at your closest Wilderness Society Shop or Campaign centre.

3) Offer other services:

For the moment please send to Bob Browns office preferably by email to Senator.Brown@aph.gov.au outlining your skills and contact details

4) Write to the papers and ring talkback radio

5) Consume wisely.......I think you know what we mean by this!!!!!

6) Participate in actions as they are organised

For more information and a copy of the legal Writ, click on
http://www.bobbrown.org.au

or contact Kristin Love
Tasmanian Greens
party@tas.greens.org.au
Ph/Fax 03 6331 3199
PO Box 758 Launceston 7250
http://www.tas.greens.org.au

We can't afford to lose this one!

Cheers
Neil Cremasco

Why Gunns have strategically litigated to silence dissent in Tasmania.

Tasmania continually asserts 'World's Best Practice' for it's forestry activities.

Personally, I think it's crap.

Anyone who's worked in the bush here is aware of the abundance of timber; structural Eucalypt and the fine cabinet timbers from minor species like Blackwood, Myrtle, Celerytop etc.

These potentially high-value timbers are often woodchipped or left to be burnt for no good reason other than inflexible management at Forestry Tasmania-formerly known as The Forestry Commission.

The Forestry Commission had a $300Million debt before it was cleverly accounted away somewhere a few years ago. The books were effectively cooked by the State Government. They then created Forestry Tasmania which now miraculously turns a 'good profit'.

The current harvesting regime of ForestryTas is conveniently attuned to the woodchip requirements of Gunns Pty Ltd.
Gunns rely on a huge supply of trees to make up their 5 Million tonne annual woodchip harvest. A small percentage of the total becomes timber.

Only a generation or so gone, Tasmania was be dotted with hundreds of small local mills. The growth of big woodchipping has coincided with the decline in this way of life for many timberworkers.

We still have timberworkers, thank goodness. They all work bloody hard and most get payed award or near-award rates. Many of them work in the larger mills, owned by Gunns and Neville Smith Pty Ltd.

A lot of these blokes would like, no doubt, to work their own mills. The rewards, both financial and personal, would be superior to being a robot on a process line working for the Man.

But this will never happen; we can't return to the old days now. The corporate/government nexus won't allow this to happen.

The economic and political gains for the industry captains and their politician mates respectively, are too important to allow a decent industry restructure.

Real power in Tasmania lies not in the Parliament, but in the relationships between the top end of town and the top end of both the Labor and Liberal Parties.

Premier Paul Lennon is a mate of Gunns boss-man John Gay.
Opposition Leader Rene Hidding has had Multi-Million-Dollar business dealings with Gunns in the past.

Both have been advocates of Gunns when the woodchip industry has been criticised: usually by The Wilderness Society and Senator Bob Brown.

Gunns have made substantial contributions to both Labor and Liberal parties in this State.

Prime Ministerial contender Mark Latham and Federal Labor's Election Platform were arseholed by Labor Premier Paul Lennon and Dick Adams MP just days before the election. They turncoated Labor claiming the 'interests' of the loggers of Tasmania.

Latham attempted an $800Million restructure package that would likely have benefited the little bloke in the long term, but the tactical mistake he made was appealling to the workers themselves. He failed to politically neutralise the influential supporters of Gunns: specific unionists, politicians, and forest 'support' interests.

These guys have a strong grip on the opinions of workers. NOBODY likes seeing timber logs going to feed Gunns' chipper, but speak openly about that and you risk ostracism. No anti-woodchip talk tolerated here.

Howard offered the workers diddley, and the poor bugger workers cheered their lungs out for him.
Howard, who wants to further erode their industrial rights.
Howard, the anti-union, big business-friendly Prime Minister.
Howard, the liar.
Something in this equation does not make sense.

Lots of Government actions in Tasmania do not make sense.

This is why the public here continue to question the dodgy deals done by successive State Governments.

BUT!!

Dissent is not welcome anymore in Tasmania.

Gunns obviously don't want independent or organised criticism; that enormous profit not allowed to threatened by anyone, right or wrong. Future fortunes may be not be realised.

Traditionally, powerful interests here do not like criticism.

The Hydro Electric Commission used to 'run' the government, but public pressure put paid to that.

State Governments here don't respond well to criticism.
The usual tactic is to slag-off the dissenter from the defamation-safe zone of the Parliament. Bad-mouth them as 'UnTasmanian' or such simpleton turn of phrase.

Former Premier Robin Gray was pretty good at that. He was also pretty good at winding up workers against anyone opposed to his 'environmentally sensitive' plans, such as the Franklin Dam, and of course, bigtime woodchipping.

Gray, as Liberal Premier in 1989, was peripheral to a conspiracy to bribe Labor MHA Jim Cox.

Central to this conspiracy was former Gunns Director Edmund Rouse.
Rouse had no regard for democracy, the voices of the people. He ended up in jail.

Robin Gray was admonished by a subsequent Royal Commission as acting 'improperly'. He was not charged.

Gray, known famously as the "whispering bulldozer"
or infamously as the "whispering bullshit-dozer" has, for some years been a Director of Gunns Pty Ltd.

Premier Gray championed Gunns in the old days when the company's value was 20% of the current value; now he works for them.

Who'll be the next former politician to bite that big happy Gunns cake? One thing's for sure, it won't be a Green. They ask too many pesky questions about things that really need answering.

And Labor and Liberal do not like the notion of genuine accountability.
The dissenters must be neutralised.

Run 'em outta town boys!