Blame 'John Howard' for Sydney disruption during APEC : Melbourne Indymedia

The New South Wales Government says it is not a poor reflection on them that Sydneysiders are being encouraged to leave town during the (APEC) summit.

Minister for Tourism Matt Brown says the long weekend, starting September 7, is a good opportunity to visit regional areas.

He says people's lives in the city will be disrupted but it is not due to a lack of organisation by the government.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1938893.htm

[So get out of town? And it's all John Howard's fault? But thanks for the International business?]

Related:

APEC disruption to Sydney extended
Sydney faces more disruption from the APEC leaders meeting in September, with the war criminal prime minister announcing three major bilateral meetings will be held in the city either side of the summit.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1935953.htm

NT police to sweep for bombs before APEC dinner
Darwin police say they will sweep the area where a council worker found a pipe bomb yesterday, ahead of tonight's dinner of APEC energy officials.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1935821.htm

Police destroy suspected pipe bomb near APEC
Police have exploded a suspected pipe bomb just 300 metres from the APEC energy summit in Darwin.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1935410.htm

What a Waste
HOSTING A SAFE AND SECURE APEC 2007
The Australian Government confirmed its commitment to host a safe and secure Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2007 with the allocation of $70 million over four years for security-related purposes, together with $0.6 million for additional ongoing operating costs for armoured VIP limousines.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145289_comment.php

Australia: Police-state measures for APEC summit in Sydney
The APEC operation is part of a wider assault on basic democratic rights under the guise of combatting terrorism. Since 2002, the federal and state governments have combined to impose a raft of measures that would have been previously unimaginable, such as detention without trial, the outlawing of selected political groups, semi-secret trials and far-reaching sedition laws.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145289.php

Crackdown on 'nasty' summit protesters
DEMONSTRATORS and anyone under suspicion can be arrested and held without bail under unprecedented police powers being brought in for the APEC summit in Sydney.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145157_comment.php#145249

Mobile blocking helicopter to trail Bush in Sydney
"US President George Bush will be followed about by a helicopter which jams mobile phone signals during an upcoming visit to Australia, it has emerged.
http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=59067#59139

Security assessment for APEC summit?
The APEC summit promises to be an expensive—and dangerous—swansong for scaremonger Howard
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145157.php

No change to terrorist level for APEC: Ruddock?
Federal war criminal attorney-general Philip Ruddock has dismissed suggestions that the official terrorist attack threat level will be upgraded during September's APEC conference in Sydney.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145140_comment.php#145142

APEC summit and Public Safety
Howard's APEC summit in Sydney poses a serious threat to public safety with rocket launchers stolen from the Army still unfound
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145140.php

g20: Victims of violence still suffer as police hypocrisy continues
Another example of unsubstantiated claims by police and uncritical reporting of them by the mainstream media. The age article and my comments below.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145072.php

Random body searches okayed for APEC
NSW Premier Morris Iemma says the State Government will introduce legislation into Parliament to give police increased powers for the duration of the APEC Summit in Sydney.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145072_comment.php#145127

3 Sydney train stations to close for APEC
War criminal prime minister John Howard and New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma have announced three Sydney train stations will be closed during this September's APEC summit.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145072_comment.php#145100

Solidarity with g20 arrestees
A group of supporters held vigil this morning outside the Melbourne Magistrates Court in solidarity with G20 arrestees facing a committal hearing ...
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/144889.php

German police ban protests at G-8 summit
BERLIN (AP) _ German police have issued a ban on protests outside a fence built to seal off the venue for next month's Group of Eight summit, prompting anti-globalization activists on Wednesday to promise a court challenge.

APEC police 'will learn from G20'
NEW South Wales police will be able to use information gathered in the wake of the violent G20 summit protests in Melbourne to prepare for next year's APEC meeting, Treasurer Peter Costello has said.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145157_comment.php#145227

to people thinking about organising protests at APEC
Some people have said that they don't want APEC to be another G20. Neither do we. We don't want to see 'protest organisers' publicly denouncing other protesters. We don't want to see groups responding to a climate of police aggression by distancing themselves from those being targeted. We don't want to see groups so busy scrambling for crumbs of media 'legitimacy' that they willingly play into media hysteria about 'violence' and false and dangerous dichotomies between 'good' and 'bad' protesters.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/144670_comment.php#144748

Getting A Divorce From Federalism
It takes two to tango. In the event that either party to an agreement, such as the basis of a system of representative democracy, breaks both its spirit and its principles, the relationship can be legitimately severed. This need not involve a revolution or an overthrow of the current power elites. It is simply a matter of separation. Of going off in different directions, and to different futures. Neither party has the legal right to prevent the other from separating from the agreement. Constitutional lawyers or not, once the fundamental basis of the agreement has been destroyed by criminal acts, the whole deal can be called off. The days when the church could enforce matrimonial relationships for life, have long gone. Similarly, the power of constitutions to enforce the permanency of government / citizen relationships, is passing into history. In the event that a Federal government develops into the ultimate organised crime, the citizens of that decayed democracy have an inalienable right to secede from that federation.

Negotiating The Separation
The following mock dialogue illustrates the arguments involved in a region, state, or city within a federation opting to secede from the relationship, on the grounds of undemocratic processes and deep criminality in the administration having invalidated the basis of an existing constitutional agreement.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/144670_comment.php#144749
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/108175.php

Not Revolution, But Abandonment
The process of gaining full freedom from nation states will not involve revolution or civil disobedience. It will thus be beyond the power of federal governments to attack or control.

Daniel Quinn, writing in Beyond Civilization, Humanity's Next Great Adventure, puts the situation into sharp focus. Quinn uses the analogy of an aircraft in trouble, he argues that in such a situation nobody wants to shoot or overthrow the pilot, they only want a parachute and an open door. As Quinn sees it, governments always have countermeasures in place to put down any attack on their authority and power from within (aircraft pilots might have a double locked door between their cockpit and the main cabin, as well as weapons to use if they are attacked by passengers), but governments never have any defences against abandonment (a line of passengers with chutes exiting the external door of the main cabin).

Quinn contends that while governments can imagine a revolution they can't imagine abandonment. As he puts it, "..even if it could imagine abandonment , it couldn't defend against it, because abandonment isn't an attack, it's just a discontinuance of support."
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106136.php

In a worse case scenario?
Australian hospitals unable to cope with major emergency
A report published in the Medical Journal of Australia last month by three leading trauma physicians in Sydney and Melbourne concluded that hospitals in Australia and New Zealand could be overwhelmed in the event of a major disaster, whether natural or man-made.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/may2007/health-m15.shtml
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But you won't get hurt if you're not there or part of the crowded!