Byron Shire Mayor, Cr Jan Barham says she is "honoured to be invited" to speak up and speak out against the US alliance at the Independence from America Day rally which will assemble in Apex Park, Main Beach, Byron Bay from 11 am Sunday 3 July.

The rally will begin with a SpeakOut then parade through the streets of Byron with flags and drums to the Market ground where the SpeakOut will continue open mike.

"The US alliance has not only hijacked our defence forces for service in US foreign wars, its tyrannous influence strips Australian citizens of human rights hard won in their own land," said the organiser, Graeme Dunstan, long time peace activist, captain of Peacebus.com .

"Now is the time to be speaking up and speaking out for peace, for justice and for the Earth," he said.

"Be visible and be heard," he urges. "Bring a placard. Bring a flag. Bring a drum!"

Mr Dunstan said the aim of the rally was to cultivate public place oratory and to build local and sustainable resistance to the US global tyranny.

Further information
www.peacebus.com/FourthJuly/
Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688

Peter Breen will be one those speaking up and speaking out against the US alliance at the Independence from America Day rally which will assemble in Apex Park, Main Beach, Byron Bay from 11 am Sunday 3 July.

Peter Breen is a human rights activist, author and member of the Legislative Council of the New South Wales Parliament since 1999. He's a council member on Southern Cross University and has lived in Byron Bay and Lismore since 1989.

In 2001 he instigated an inquiry into a Bill of Rights for New South Wales which resulted in the establishment of the Parliament's Legislation Review Committee. Currently he serves on parliamentary committees overseeing police and prisons.

Recently he addressed the New South Wales Parliament for three and a half hours on indefinite detention of prisoners.

"The illegal terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba can be compared with Australia's immigration detention centres because they operate contrary to the principles of international human rights instruments to which Australia is a party," said the Honorable Peter Breen..

The Independence from America Day rally will begin with a SpeakOut and then parade with drums and flags through the streets of Byron Bay to the Byron Markets. After a drum and dance up there, the SpeakOut against the US tyranny will resume, open mike.

"The US alliance has not only hijacked our defence forces for service in US foreign wars, its tyrannous influence strips Australian citizens of human rights hard won in their own land," said the organiser, Graeme Dunstan, long time peace activist, captain of Peacebus.com .

"Now is the time to be speaking up and speaking out for peace, for justice and for the Earth," he said.

Bring a placard. Bring a flag. Bring a drum!

Further information
www.peacebus.com/FourthJuly/
Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688

The fifth annual Independence from America Day, it will like previous years be celebrated as a carnival of liberation and this year it will take place in association with the Byron Markets.

A big drum up and a big crowd is to be expected.

Paul Barrett, drum master of the Samba Blisstas, will be assembling at least 40 drummers.

Organiser, Graeme Dunstan, a long time peace activist, expects the drumming to be heard all over Byron and maybe in Lismore, Sydney, Canberra and Washington.

"The drums will be saying, that here is a place and people where no sway is held by the lies and deceits of the US government and its murderous military, its war profiteers and its resource pirates, its poverty making World Bank, and its Earth destroying corporate greed," said Mr Dunstan.

"Independence from America Day will be a celebration of people who want to detach themselves from the full spectrum global dominance of the US and to be visible, loud and fearless in speaking and acting truthfully in defence of peace, justice and the Earth," he said.

The carnival will assemble in Apex Park, Main Beach, from 11 am, for a Speak Out followed by a sing and drum up, then a parade of flags, banners and drums will move through Byron to the market ground, there to create carnival and stir the spirit and body of people power.

Mr Dunstan says that the Byron Independence Day in Byron Bay will be a rehearsal for a mass mobilisation that will take place at the Sydney Opera House, 30 August through 2 September in protest at the Forbes Global CEO conference there.

Called A30, the mobilisation will occupy the forecourt of the Opera House for a Speak Out and also a mass drum up with Paul Barrett as drum master while masters of greed and war profiteers confer inside. Check out the website www.peacebus.com/30A and make it a date to be in Sydney for.

For peace. For justice. For the Earth!