Media Alert 3 September 2007 Bonesman Bush Invited to join APEC Ghost Dance APEC Ghost Dance organisers have invited the US President George Bush Jnr. to come shake his bones with them in Hyde Park North next Friday evening 7 September. "It was nice of George to apologize for the trouble his APEC security needs have caused the people of Sydney," said Ghost Dance organiser, Graeme Dunstan. "But if he really wants to establish a connection with the people of Sydney, the best place for him to do a meet and greet will be the Ghost Dance; there he will find Bonesmen kin." As students at Yale University, both George Bush Snr and Jnr were members of the Skull and Bones fraternity, which is the elite of the elite fraternities at Yale; membership is by invitation only and only the scions of the super rich are invited. The Skull and Bones fraternity, says Dunstan, is a de-facto death cult known for its strange initiation rituals in which for example neophytes are obliged to masturbate in coffins and mud wrestle while class seniors piss on them. It was Bonesmen, the collegiate of Skull and Bones, who gave birth to, and staffed, the Central Intelligence Agency for which George Snr. served as director before going on to the vice presidency and presidency. "When the ghosts and skellies dance during APEC, we would love to have George dance with us," said Dunstan. "It will be much more interesting for him than listening to interminable economic discussions of resource pirates." Dunstan emailed his invitation to the Public Affairs Officer of the US Embassy in Canberra, Pennina Reid, last Friday but he is not optimistic about an acceptance. Penny was out of the office, too busy with Sydney APEC too respond. The Ghost Dance will be an APEC protest dance party which will assemble in Hyde Park North from 5 pm on Friday 7 September. More Information Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688 Skull and Bones backgrounder Wrtten on request for Yedioth newspaper, Tel Aviv, 3 September 2007 None but the brave protest Sydney APEC The Sydney APEC summit will gather many unpopular leaders, corporate resource pirates and war criminals and many are the issues of protest and many the protest groups: peace, social justice, workers rights and climate change. Lame duck US president Bush will be hosted by lame duck Australian Prime Minister Howard, his partner in the so called Coalition of the Willing which launched the disastrous and illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003.Ê Opinion polls predict a crushing defeat for Howard at the election he must face by the year's end But for all that, the number protesting in the streets of APEC ghost city is not expected to be large. For Sydney APEC, the Socialist Alliance who are organising a Stop Bush rally on Saturday 8 September are expecting about 5,000. The Greens, who will be protesting climate change, nukes and coal exports, are expecting a mere 35. Ghost Dancers, maybe 200. Compared to the 20,000 who participated in the anti-globalization protests which took place in response to the World Economic ForumÊ in Melbourne in 2000, this is tiny. These low expectations are because of an effective campaign of fear and intimidation that has been integral to the publicity in preparation for the summit. "When APEC comes to town, it brings the War on Terror with it and sets about terrorizing the local citizenry," observes Ghost Dance organiser, Graeme Dunstan. Night after night Australians have been subjected to images and stories of new riot gear for police, new laws that enable foreign nationals to bear arms and shoot to kill, of laws that allow police to prescribe known activists and restrict their access to public places, of the APEC fence and the partitioning of the city, of a newly acquired water cannon,Ê of 30 new buses fitted out for holding and transferring prisoners and jails cleared to make room for them. This massive security organisation is costing Australian taxpayers in excess of $AUS400 million and is being justified by inflated fears of violent protest.Ê The organisers of the protests deny any such violent intentions and say that the intelligence of police is based on dodgy reports from undercover agents, spies and agent provocateurs.Ê They say the huge scale security operations have become a self justifying industry for police and their suppliers and that the true intention is to roll back civil liberties and intimidate and suppress dissent. "The advent of Sydney APEC is not a great day for liberal democracy in this land," said Dunstan. Dunstan says that although the protests will be small they will be no less significant. "The antidote for public fear is public courage," he says. And already the fearless determination of the few is having its impact. "As much as the APEC organisers might wish to sing of the benefits their meeting will bring to Sydney people and Australians generally, no one with eyes to see and ears to hear is buying the message," Dunstan said. "Prime Minister Howard had hoped APEC would project him as a statesman of world influence and so boost his electoral chances, but the security overkill has added to the loathing the people have for him and now both his leadership and his neo-conservative government are dead in the water." Such is the power of artful and peaceful witness. Let the dead dance! Wrtten on request for Yedioth newspaper, Tel Aviv, 2 September 2007 Sydney APEC Security Overkill Ghosts and skeletons will dance when world leaders meet at the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney next weekend. Some 21 heads of states from the Pacific rim will attend the summit and a massive security operation involving 3,500 police, backed by 1,500 counter-terrorism and special forces soldier will be on stand by to protect them. US President George Bush will attend and his entourage alone will include 250 secret personnel with shoot to kill powers, 50 national security advisors, three jumbo jets and two massive air freighters carrying armoured cars, attack helicopters and dogs. "Lame duck US President, George Bush Jnr, comes to town and he brings the War on Terror with him," said Sydney Ghost Dance organiser, Graeme Dunstan of Peacebus.com. The massive security arrangements will shut down the central business district of Sydney and partition it with a 3 meter high fence and so called Declared Areas in which Sydney citizens may not pass. The Australian government is claiming the threat of violent citizen protests against Australian involvement in the Iraq and Afghan wars and the lack of movement on climate change justify the severe security precautions. But protest organisers say the special police powers and over kill security are about suppressing dissent. But dissent will happen anyway. "If APEC security arrangements will render Sydney ghost city then let the dead dance," said Sydney Ghost Dance organiser, Graeme Dunstan of Peacebus.com. "If all APEC can offer is more corporate greed, more resource piracy, more corrupt government, more planet destruction, more war and more nukes, then let the dead dance." The Ghost Dance will take place in Hyde Park, Sydney's central park, and is expected to draw forth the creative dissent of Sydney residents angered by the way security arrangements for APEC have closed down life in the inner city. "The APEC fence is a deep offense to Sydney citizens," said Dunstan. "It partitions the rich from the poor, the powerful from the powerless and evokes recall of the human rights abuses associated with the Berlin wall and the wall built by Israel through Palestine." Graeme Dunstan Hi there Thanks a lot for the text. Could you please write another few lines on what the goals are of the protesters at the summit, are you going to use violence against the police, how many no-global protesters are expected at the summit and what are you protesting against. Please tell me a bit more, just a few more lines from your point of view. Thanks a lot !!! Daniel And Graeme replied with the above above "None but the brave protest Sydney APEC". Media Alert 29 August 2007 Ghost Dancers want to make the APEC fence art The APEC Ghost Dancers want the APEC Joint Task Force to lighten up and give them access to at least part of the APEC fence so that they might make it art. Ghost Dance organisers are appealing to the Deputy Premier, John Watkins, the Minister for Police, David Campbell, and the APEC PoliceTask Force Commander, Chief Superintendent Peter Lennon, to wind back the exclusion zones and create an opportunity for the expression of some creative dissent. "The fence is the offense", says Ghost Dance organiser, Graeme Dunstan. "We want access to the fence so that we may invite Sydney people to use the people's side of the fence as a free form, wall newspaper and say what they think about APEC, its occupation and partitioning of the city and its agenda." "I see the fence decorated with placards and poetry, cardboard cutouts, cartoons and posters, visual surprises everywhere," he said. The Sydney APEC Ghost Dance will take place on Friday 7 September. Police have approved Hyde Park North as an assembly area but want the Ghost Dancers to stay in the Park. "All dressed up with nowhere to go," says Dunstan. Dunstan describes the Ghost Dance as street theatre on grand scale and he is inviting Sydney people to come in ghost and skeleton costumes and make their dissent visible. "If APEC and its security arrangements are to render Sydney a ghost, let the ghost dance," he said. "If the future APEC offers is more corporate greed, more resource piracy, more corrupt government, more planet destruction, more jails, more wars and more nukes, let the dead dance." Graeme wants APEC Ghosts to be seen and heard. Further information Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688 John Watkins, Deputy Premier, (02) 9228 4866 David Campbell, Minister for Police, 02) 9228 3777 Peter Lennon, APEC Commander, 02 8236 2639 Media Alert 21 August 2007 Ghosts to Dance during APEC While the rich and the powerful celebrate on the Opera House side of the APEC Fence, ghosts and skeletons will be doing a Ghost Dance in Sydney streets on the other side. "The Ghost Dance will be vivid street theatre and on grand scale; a creative expression of Sydney people's dissent," said organiser and long time peace activist, Graeme Dunstan of Peacebus.com. "If all APEC is offering is more corporate greed, more corrupt government, more resource piracy, more wars, more nukes and more destruction of the Earth, let the dead dance!" he said. "APEC brings the War on Terror to town and its security arrangements will render Sydney a ghost city; let the dead dance!" Dunstan's vision is that a big bunch of Sydney citizens will dress up as ghosts and skellies, assemble in the Sydney CBD on the Friday evening of APEC and with drums and horns, dance to the APEC fence. Mr Dunstan reports that Sydney police have received the Ghost Dance action favorably and that he confident that Hyde Park North will be approved as an assembly area. "Peacebus.com welcomes dialogue with police in planning protest and has a long record of producing peaceful and artful protest actions in NSW, Queensland and Victoria," said Dunstan. In particular Dunstan says the 30A protest organised for the Forbes Global CEO conference at the Opera House in August 2004, in effect a precursor of Sydney APEC, established respectful relations with the Sydney police command. "The APEC Fence is the ultimate offense," said Dunstan. "A bunch of resource pirates and war criminals come to town, wage a propaganda Terror War on its people and excercise their power to fence off the city to satisfy their fears and their pleasures." For Dunstan, the APEC Fence evokes reminders of the Berlin Wall and the Israeli fencing of Palestine. In Dunstan's eyes the APEC Fence is a symbol of the war being waged by the rich on the poor through out the world. "Dancing to the APEC Fence will be an act as charged with symbolism as Gandhi's salt making." he said. Further information Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688 Media Alert 9 August 2007 Peacebus.com goes to APEC Peacebus.com, the colourful and itinerant vehicle of protest, will depart Nimbin tomorrow for Sydney to help prepare resistance to the upcoming Sydney APEC gathering. A new Peacebus.com mural painted for the occasion by Nimbin artists, Elspeth Jones and Helen Rodriguez will be unveiled 11 am Friday 10 August 2007 outside the HEMP Embassy, Cullen Street Nimbin. The text of the mural reads: "APEC: Pro-Greed, pro-War, Pro-Nuke. Let the dead dance!" "Sydney APEC represents the biggest gathering of neo-liberals ever to meet in Australia and Peacebus.com is the flagship of north coast resistance to them," said Peacebus.com captain, Graeme Dunstan. "APEC is in effect a peak meeting of corporate pirates and war criminals sitting down together to work out how they will divide up the rest of the pie; the pie being our Earth," he says. APEC security arrangements will render the Sydney CBD a ghost city and Dunstan says that's an appropriate metaphor. "The end outcome of neo-ilberalism is unbridled corporate greed, open slather resource piracy, deepening global poverty, escalating wars and planet death," he said. In Sydney Dunstan will work with local resistance groups to prepare, among other things a Ghost Dance in the CBD on the evening of Friday 7 September, the APEC imposed public holiday. Further information Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688 Graeme Dunstan under a Skellie backpack puppet of his construction in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, 7 March 2007. This was part of an entry of the Glitter Militia, a loose collective of Redfern based artist/anarchists, which won the Judges award for the best entry. Photo Sydney Star Observer