Media Alert 6 September 2007 Ghosts and Skellies to dance in APEC Ghost City While the APEC heads of state celebrate their economic and military dominance of the Pacific behind security fences and police lines, ghosts and skellies will be dancing in downtown APEC ghost city. 5-11 pm Friday 7 September 2007 Hyde Park North. "The APEC Ghost Dance will be a creative expression of Sydney's people's dissent to the APEC agenda," said organiser Graeme Dunstan of Peacebus.com. "More corporate greed, more military spending, more nukes, more resource piracy, more hot air on climate change; let the dead dance!" The Ghost Dance will be a dance party themed on ghosts and skeletons, bones and bling. Participants are being asked to make a costume, make a statement and dance. "Dance they will," Dunstan said. "With or without Bonesman Bush and Last Stand Howard." Dunstan is pleased to report an excellent rapport with the police liaison officers for this APEC protest and the event is approved by the Sydney Area Commander Superintendent Dave Owens. "Given the number of police on duty that night and their commitment to crowd safety, I expect Hyde Park North will be the safest place in Sydney town that night," Dunstan said. "And the most creative." More Information Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688 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 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 Graeme Dunstan under a Skellie backpack puppet at Stop the War rally, Railway Square, 4 September 2007