For info check out http://www.risingtide.org.au/

What's happening

Hundreds of people will
peacefully occupy Newcastle Harbour, and prevent the passage of coal
ships. This will be the fifth action of its kind in Newcastle. No one
has ever been arrested. At the last, in March 2009, we successfully
stopped all ship movements in the harbour for the day.

There'll
be plenty happening on the shore too, so please come along and show
your support even if you can't get out on the water. Good food will be
available by donation, and there will be a couple of performances and
engaging speakers. The Australia Institute's Richard Denniss will kick things off.

The
protest takes place at Horseshoe Beach, in the mouth of Newcastle
Harbour. It will start at 10am, and go for the rest of the day.

What about boats?

Bring
your canoe, kayak, tinnie, surfboard, (yacht?), whatever pleasure craft
you like. Don't have your own boat? Don't fancy yourself a raft-maker?
That's fine. Rising Tide is organising as many kayaks as we can, and
making them available for general use. If you have access to a
multitude of kayaks, please get in touch!

There'll be a ceremony of home made rafts! Check out the funky floating masterpieces, and enter your own creation!

What about safety?

There
will be fast rescue boats, generously provided and operated by
Greenpeace. If you get into trouble, someone will save you. We will
also have a first aid tent on shore.

 If you haven't used a kayak before, and want to use one of the kayaks we're organising for the day, then get in touch. If enough people are interested we will put on a kayak safety workshop before the big day.

Why should we blockade the coal port?

Now,
more than ever, we need to be turning up the heat on the coal industry,
and their friends in government. The export coal industry is
Australia's single biggest, and fastest growing contribution to the
global climate crisis.

Newcastle, already
the world's biggest coal port, is set to open a massive new coal
terminal this year, bringing the export capacity of the Hunter Valley
coal chain to an incredible 178 million tonnes of coal per annum.
That's the climate change equivalent of 30 Bayswater Power Stations.
Within ten years, the coal corporations plan on exporting more than 300
million tonnes of coal per annum - a tripling of current export
capacity.

Tripling coal exports means
tripling coal mining. As Newcastle coal exports boom, more precious
bushland will be razed, more waterways polluted, more communities
ripped apart as the transnational coal companies carve their way
westwards into the Liverpool Plains. The profits will be exported, but
the devastation will stay here in the Hunter. The catastrophic effects
of climate change will hurt all around the world.

This
madness has to stop. The climate crisis is deepening, and time is fast
running out. Politicians are failing to take action against the rampant
coal companies, so we have to do it ourselves.

Hundreds
of people will be doing just that in Newcastle on 28th March, and we'd
love you to join us. We'll be taking to the harbour in a big way,
occupying the world's biggest coal port with a mass of people, and
demanding:

• an immediate ban on the expansion of the coal industry in Australia,
• a swift phase out of coal, replacing all coal industry jobs with jobs in renewable energy and other sustainable industries

Want posters and flyers?

If you can help distribute posters and flyers for the Blockade, that's fantastic. If you want to print your own off, the files are here.

If you want us to post you some, send an email to risingtide at risingtide dot org dot au,
with your name, address, what sort of material you want (flyers,
posters, both), and how many you want, and we'll see what we can do.

Thanks very much.

Think you don't have the power to stop climate change? Think again! This December is D-Day for the planet as world leaders meet in Copenhagen to do a global deal on climate change. While they talk the talk, we're walking the walk all over the world, from New York to Tokyo, Mumbai to Paris and all over Australia. So get your walking shoes on and be part of the most important Walk Against Warming ever.

Meet at 1pm at Martin Place.

For more info check out www.walkagainstwarming.org

Jura talks monthly talk/discussion.

Information in flyer.Climate Camp '09 talk

Join Jura collective members and friends at Climate Camp!

Climate Camp will be three days of sustainable living and community action in Helensburgh, 40 minutes south of Sydney on Dharawal land. We’ll be near Metropolitan Collieries, Australia’s oldest coal mine.

We are parents, youths, locals, and workers who are excited about coming together at Climate Camp ’09. We want to protect our precious water catchments from more damage and pollution by coal mining. We know coal is fuelling climate change – together we can begin the transition to a renewable future. People deserve good jobs in clean and safe industries.

Pitch your tent alongside hundreds of others – or stroll in for an afternoon – for great workshops, music, food and positive climate action.

If you're concerned about our future and want to do something about it, Climate Camp is for you. Fed up with government tokenism and corporate spin? Come and see how you can make a real difference.

Climate Camp is for all of us – because when it comes to water, climate and jobs, actions speak louder than words.

Climate change won’t just go away until we – that’s you and me – get together at Climate Camp ’09 with our kids and parents, our neighbours and friends, and begin building solutions together.

More information

Last year, the Camp for Climate Action at Newcastle was a resounding success, building to a climax in which over a thousand people joined a peaceful protest to stop trains transporting coal and focus the nation’s attention on the polluting coal industry.

Australia’s emissions are still rising. At a time when we need to be urgently cutting greenhouse pollution, Australian governments are approving new coal mines and considering the expansion of the Metropolitan Colliery mine that is already damaging Sydney and Illawarra’s water catchment.

Coal mining is destroying our health, our water and our climate. We need community action to demand a renewable future.

For more, check out http://www.climatecamp.org.au/

Seeing through Empire’s new clothes is a conference that will be held from September 12-13, 2009 at the Redfern Community Centre in Sydney.29 Hugo Street, Redfern. 5 minutes walk from Redfern Station.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLG_enCH314CH314&hl=en&t...

The conference is free to attend, however we would appreciate donations to help cover the costs of the venue and transportation.

Join the facebook event as well: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135405350308&ref=share

We will aim to critique the wave of responses to capitalism’s current predicament. It is an opportunity to collectivelly analyse it’s ‘new clothes’. As ordinary people ourselves, it is a chance to strategise together for solidarity with emerging and ongoing struggles for workers’ autonomy and control, peoples’ freedom of movement, sustainability, sovereignty and self determination.

For more information and to see the full program: http://crisisconference2009.wordpress.com/