Mullumbimby Community Action Network

Originally published 19Jul2009

mullum-zine

SYLVIA HALE VISIT - LOCAL CURRENCIES, ETC

NEWSLETTER 54 19.7.09


GREENS MLC SYLVIA HALE came to Mullumbimby last week and gave an interview for http://www.mullumaction.org where Robert has put up a movie clip. Sylvia talked about the NSW crisis re: planning that is happening around the state, Part 3A of the EPA Act and the new draft Centres Policy which is basically a push by corporate giants to put retail centres wherever they like, lifting current restrictions. Sylvia emphasizes the need for community action, and congratulated us on our recent win.


ANOTHER WOOLIES WAR LOOMS AT CABARITA BEACH http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/07/15/97805_gold-coast-news.html


THE POKIE PEOPLE challenged by the City of Moreland, Melbourne. Hey, this was a great interview with the Mayor of Moreland who is taking action – hear also the Woolworths pokie boss being grilled by Peter Mares. Lovely stuff. (15 mins) http://www.abc.net.au/rn/nationalinterest/stories/2009/2629268.htm



LOCAL CURRENCY IN MALENY: message from Graham Earle.
Maleny refuses to give up in its long battle against big business taking over the town. Now residents are printing their own money to encourage support for local, independent businesses.
The Baroon Dollar - named after Lake Baroon near Maleny - will be printed locally and sold by small businesses from August. It will be the first regional paper-based community currency in Australia and will be used in towns across the Sunshine Coast hinterland, including Montville, Mapleton and Kenilworth.

Many locals still refuse to shop at Maleny Woolworths and the supermarket giant will not be invited to sign up for the Baroon Dollar. But the organisers emphasise the project is not just the latest anti-Woolworths campaign. The movement started in the UK and US to create resilience for local economies and to encourage local area food production.
Read more on http://www.baroondollar.org/

BYRON DOLLARS: Who will start these?

ADOBE : building workshop in Uki 1 & 2 August
check http://www.calearth.org/
2 days learning techniques and design principals of earth dome building while constructing a raised garden bed or outdoor seating.
Contact edwinmark1@hotmail.com 0448950283


TRUEFOOD LATEST NEWSLETTER re:GM food – support wanted to keep WA GE free: http://www.truefood.org.au (branch of Greenpeace). Their online petition calling for GM items to be labeled in the supermarket: http://www.truefood.org.au/OurRightToKnow/


DOCO: MCAN & OPPOSITION made by Nathan, Daniel and James (fatboyfilms@live.com) currently studying film-making at SAE, Byron Bay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHrT4kqWg7E and part two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBc67P-IDoQ


SUPPORT WANTED!! RAINBOWDREAMING.ORG the photo-documentary of our Rainbow Region are wanting to send an exhibition of photos to Woodstock, (for 40th anniversary) New York and San Francisco. One of the photos is of the burning box in Mullumbimby from our demo last July. They need to raise $2000 by Monday 20 July to pay for the photos to be laminated in New York. Contact Harsha Prabhu 0434 490 737 and see samples of exhibit on http://www.rainbowdreaming.org donations of $20 and over will be acknowledged in the exhibition.


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY panto in Bangalow features a MCAN person as King Fwancis – catch him on Mon, Tues or Wed at 2 pm A & I Hall $10 or $8 conc. (clue: he"s also often on the radio Monday mornings).


MCAN REFERENCED IN ACADEMIA: Karen Osborne, a student at University of New England, Armidale, wrote an essay about community, 2600 words long in which she has mentioned MCAN"s fight against Woolworths on pages 2, 8, 9 & 10. This will soon be up on our website (use our search engine).


QUOTE: "One of the great defects of the global capitalist system is that it has allowed the market mechanism and the profit motive to penetrate into fields of activity where they do not properly belong." George Soros: The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered 1998.

Cheers
Deborah