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Research Initiative on International Activism
+ Sydney Social Forum (www.sydneysocialforum.org)
AXIS OF HOPE: Speaker biographies
William Blum has a degree in economics from City College of New York. He left the State Department in 1967, abandoning his aspiration of becoming a Foreign Service Officer, because of his opposition to what the United States was doing in Vietnam. He then became one of the founders and editors of the Washington Free Press, the first "alternative" newspaper in the capital.
Mr. Blum has been a freelance journalist in the United States, Europe and South America. His stay in Chile in 1972-3, writing about the Allende government's "socialist experiment" and its tragic overthrow in a CIA-designed coup, instilled in him a personal involvement and an even more heightened interest in what his government was doing in various parts of the world. In the mid-1970's, he worked in London with former CIA officer Philip Agee and his associates on their project of exposing CIA personnel and their misdeeds.
William Blum is the author of three books and many articles and papers. His book on U.S. foreign policy, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, first published in 1995, has received wide acclaim. Noam Chomsky called it "Far and away the best book on the topic." In 1999, he was one of the recipients of a Project Censored award for "exemplary journalism", after writing one of the top ten censored stories of 1998 - an article on how, in the 1980s, the United States gave Iraq the material to develop a chemical and biological warfare capability.
Blum's book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, was published in 2000 and recently updated. It was written in reaction to the bombing of Yugoslavia, which, we were told, was done for humanitarian purposes. The book is in effect a mini-encyclopedia of all the un-humanitarian actions of the US government during the past half century. It has been translated into a dozen languages. In 2002, Blum's latest book, West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir appeared. William Blum is currently living in Washington, DC. In addition to speaking engagements, interviews and writing for a range of publications, Blum maintains the Foreign Policy Watch section of Znet.
Karen Flick
Karen Flick is community activist who has campaigned against Black Deaths
in Custody, and has worked with Kimberley Land Council and in developing
Aboriginal-controlled media in the Northern Territory and Queensland.
She is currently engaged in establishing training and development programs
with Aboriginal communities.
Olga Havnen is of Western Arrernte descent and grew up in Tennant Creek in central Australia. She is now the Indigenous Programs Manager of the Fred Hollows Foundation, overseeing a range of programs in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory which are pioneering a new, holistic approach to assisting local communities to tackle a complex range of issues. These include early childhood nutrition, financial skills, support to community stores, community learning and literacy, and arts and crafts.
Before joining the Foundation in 1998, Olga was Executive Officer of the National Indigenous Working Group (NIWG), a body representing all Indigenous organisations engaged in native title representation and land issues. In this role she coordinated the work of the NIWG, in particular a national public awareness campaign on the implications of proposed amendments to the Native Title Act 1993 during the period leading up to the passage of amendments in 1997-98.
Olga Havnen has a longstanding and active involvement in international
human rights and Indigenous rights issues. She worked with the Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade as Executive Officer, Indigenous Issues in
1993 and represented the Australian Government at various international
forums, including the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations.
In 1994 she joined the Central Land Council, based in Alice Springs, Northern
Territory, as Senior Policy Officer and represented the Council at a number
of national and international forums. In this role she played a key part
in organising major national conferences, including the Human Rights and
Indigenous Peoples Conference, held in conjunction with the Faculty of
Law, University of New South Wales in 1994, and the 20th Anniversary of
Land Rights Conference, in conjunction with the Northern Land Council
in 1996.
Olga is currently a Board Member of the Diplomacy Training Program (UNSW) which provides human rights training and education in the Asia Pacific region. This program was developed and established during the 1980s by Nobel Prize winner, Jose Ramos Horta
Jacqui Katona is a member of the Djok Aboriginal clan, Jacqui Katona is former executive officer of the Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation, an organisation established, managed and controlled by the Mirrar people, the traditional owners of part of Kakadu National Park. It assists the Mirrar people to maintain their culture and protect their heritage, publishes and disseminates information and represent the interests of members in the development of regional agreements and other matters that will further self-determination. In 1999 she was awarded the US-based Goldman Environment Prize with Yvonne Margarula, Senior Traditional Owner of the Mirrar people and chairperson of the Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation.
The Mirrar people, led by Katona and Margarula have mounted a massive campaign against the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine in Kakadu. Approval for mining at Jabiluka was granted by the Australian Government despite a prohibition on mining within the Kakadu World Heritage Area, and despite opposition from traditional owners.
The campaign employed legal action, education, and mobilization of national and international support. In March 1998, the Mirrar joined with environmental organizations to create a massive on-site civil disobedience, one of the biggest blockades in Australia's history. Over a period of several months, approximately 5,000 people from across the country and overseas traveled to the remote camp to protest in solidarity with the Mirrar people. Subsequently, the World Heritage Committee sent an inspection team to the mine site to assess threats to the area. In September 2002 the mining company Rio Tinto declared it would close Jabiluka uranium mine.
Dr Carmen Lawrence’s parliamentary career began in State politics when in 1986 she won for the Australian Labor Party the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Subiaco. She was promoted to the State Government Ministry in 1988. In a leadership change on 12 February 1990, Dr Lawrence made history by becoming Premier and Treasurer of Western Australia and Australia’s first woman Premier.
Dr Lawrence entered Federal politics by winning the Federal seat of Fremantle in a by-election on 12 March 1994. She was appointed Minister for Human Services and Health and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women on Friday 25 March 1994.
Following the defeat of the Keating Government in the March 1996 general
election, Dr Lawrence was appointed Shadow Minister for the Environment;
the Arts; and Assistant to the Leader of the Opposition on the Status
of Women. In September 2000 Dr Lawrence was appointed as the Shadow Minister
for Industry, Innovation and Technology, and Shadow Minister for the Status
of Women.
Dr Lawrence held the position of Shadow Minister for Reconciliation, Aboriginal
& Torres Strait Islander Affairs; the Arts, and Status of Women from
22 November, 2001, until 5 December, 2002.
Anuradha Mittal, originally from India, is the Co-Director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy, Food First , a leading progressive think tank and education-for-action center that is committed to establishing food as a human right and to re-shaping our global food system to make it more socially just and environmentally sustainable. She is also the director of America Needs Human Rights, a national campaign to challenge increasing poverty, hunger, and economic insecurity in the U.S.
Ms. Mittal has appeared on television and radio shows around the world. She is author of dozens of articles, opeds, and papers that have been published in journals such as the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Bangkok Post, Economic and Political Weekly, Houston Chronicle, the Nation, Dollars and Sense, among others. She has also lectured and given keynotes at universities, conferences and to community organizations in various parts of the world. She is co-editor of America Needs Human Rights (Food First Books, 1999) and edited The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance (Food First Books, 2001).
Anuradha is on the jury of the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) and also sits on the board of the Turning Point Project, ETC group (formerly known as RAFI), and EParliament. Prior coming to the U.S., Anuradha worked with Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), a major development group in India. There she worked on issues of commons and people's access and control over natural resources. She lives in Oakland, California.
Helena is a linguist by training and a native of Sweden. She is a leading analyst of the impact of the global economy on cultures around the world and has been extremely critical of conventional notions of development. She is the author of the inspirational classic Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991) which—together with an award-winning film of the same title—has been translated into more than 30 languages. She first went to Ladakh in 1975 and shortly thereafter founded the Ladakh Project, with the goal of providing Ladakhis with the means to make more informed choices about their own future. For her work as Director of the Ladakh Project, Helena Norberg-Hodge shared the 1986 Right Livelihood Award, otherwise known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'. She is the Director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture in London, co-founder of the International Forum on Globalisation and the Global Eco-village Network, and a regular contributor to The Ecologist.
Maree O’Halloran is the President of the NSW Teachers Federation. Her teaching career spans city and country schools. She has also spent two years teaching in TAFE and Corrective Services. Maree has been a Federation Industrial Officer and Senior Vice President. She has also practiced as a solicitor for teachers.
In 2002 the NSW Teachers Federation opposed the War on Iraq with a unanimous resolution opposing ‘any military action against Iraq that is not sanctioned by an explicit and current resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations’, and calling for the ‘lifting of sanctions on non-military and humanitarian assistance to Iraq’. The President, Maree O'Halloran, stated, ‘We believe the role of the UN has been perverted… It is being used as an instrument of war."
For many years, and in difficult circumstances, non-government organizations continue to work in Aceh, the majority of which are Acehnese NGOs. These organisations are central to providing services and support to Acehnese people. RATA (Rehabilitation Action for Torture Victims) is one of these Acehnese humanitarian non-government organisations, which provides counselling and rehabilitation services to victims of torture and abuse in Aceh.
Indonesian Solidarity is hosting Mr Nurdin Abdul Rahman in Australia in March 2003. He is currently teaching at University of Syiah Kuala in Banda Aceh and was the chairman of RATA. Mr Rahman is an outspoken intellectual who continues to speak out about the Indonesian army in Aceh. The purpose of this visit is to raise awareness about the human tragedy occurring in Indonesia, right on Australia doorstep, and to draw public attention to this issue. We aim to discuss the current Australian government policy towards Aceh and look at solutions for a democratic process, which can bring about a peaceful solution.
First arrested on November 15, 1977 and detained in Lhokseumawe prison for two months then transferred to Banda Aceh military prison on January 8, 1978. Detained without trial until April 23, 1981. Arrested again on October 15, 1990 and was released on October 22, 1998, he was detained by Indonesian authority in Banda Aceh prison and accused of being sympathetic to Free Aceh Movement. As a result of Amnesty under the Habibie government, he was released from prison. Since his release, he has travelled to the United States of America, Bangladesh, Denmark and Geneva representing RATA and meeting with non-government organisations and political parties
Tom Uren was born in Balmain, Sydney in 1921 and was educated at Manly High School. His career as a professional boxer was interupted by wartime service. He was a prisoner of the Japanese from 1942 to 1945, during which time he worked on the Burma-Siam Railway.
From 1958 to 1990 he was the ALP member for the House of Representatives seat of Reid, located in western Sydney. From 1973-75 he was the Minister for Urban and Regional Development, and from 1976 to 1977 he was Deputy Leader of the Opposition. In 1983 he became Minister for Territories and Local Governement, and from 1984 to 1987 he was Minister for Local Government and Administrative Services.
Throughout his Parliamentary career Tom Uren was an active member of the left wing of the ALP, maintaining opposition to the Vietnam War, conscription and nuclear testing. His chief political interests are urban affairs, the environment, veterans' affairs and security and intelligence.