Solidarity Issue #3 out now! Free newssheet by AWSM

Download issue in .pdf format (1.23MB)

The third issue of Solidarity, free monthly newssheet of the Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement. Download the .pdf above, or click below to read the contents online. This issue has a special feature on May Day, international workers day.

Contents:

• Locked out Zeal workers stand strong!
• Zeal 320 Interview
• What is May Day?
• May Day 2009 Report: Auckland
• May Day 2009 Report: Wellington
• May Day 2009 Report: Blackball
• The curator of Baghdad: a story from Guantanamo

If you want to make sure you don’t miss an issue of Solidarity, you can subscribe to either the print or electronic version.

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Subscribers will be sent .pdf copies of Solidarity each month, along with other publications produced by AWSM and ocasional information – we promise we won’t spam you with a ton of useless stuff though! The electronic copy is identical to the print version.

Or, you can subscribe to the print edition to receive a copy of Solidarity in the post. $8 for 12 issues. Mail a cheque to AWSM, PO Box 6387, Wellington 6141, or contact us to organise an alternative method of payment.

Rembrandt Suits picket in Wellington

Workers from Rembrandt Suits held a picket on Saturday 6th December outside the Kirkaldie & Stains department store in central Wellington after receiving a pitiful offer from Rembrandt bosses.

The workers, skilled and experienced machinists (one of whom has worked for the company for 20 years) are currently on the minimum wage and are asking for $13.50 / hour. They have been offered only a 24 cent increase, which would take them to $12.24. Most of the workers require Government subsidies just to survive.

Recently, almost half the workforce at Rembrandt were made redundant (some “voluntary”, some not), meaning those workers left will be required to absorb much of the work once done by those colleagues.

The workers are unionised by the National Distribution Union (NDU), who are asking supporters to contact Rembrandt Managing Director David Lyford to tell him to stop being such a miser. You can reach him at (04) 567 4820 or on lyfordD (at) rembrandt.org.nz

If you can’t see the embedded video, click here.

Global day of action against state terror in Aotearoa / New Zealand

Just wrote this for the next issue of the Earth First! Journal, based in the USA.

Global day of action against state terror in Aotearoa / New Zealand

Demonstrations and protests were held around the world on August 30th for the global day of action to ‘Drop the Charges’ against the 20 people arrested in the nationwide State Terror Raids of 15 October 2007 in Aotearoa / New Zealand.

On Monday, October 15th 2007, more than 300 police carried out dawn raids on dozens of houses all over Aotearoa / New Zealand. Police claim the raids were in response to ‘concrete terrorist threats’ from indigenous activists. The reality, however, included heavily armed police terrorising an entire township. To date, no evidence of the so-called terrorist plot has been revealed.

Police arrested 16  indigenous, anarchist, environmental and anti-war activists, including Tuhoe, Te Atiawa, Maniapoto, Nga Puhi (all Maori iwi, or tribes) and Pakeha (non-indigenous) people (a further person faced unrelated drugs charges stemming from a raid on his house). Police wanted to charge 12 people under the Terrorism Suppression Act (TSA), however the Solicitor-General denied the police permission to proceed. After four weeks in jail everyone was released on bail. On Tuesday, February 19th 2008, police raided further properties, arresting 3 more men. All were released on bail with strict conditions that same day. A woman was arrested on Thursday April 17th, 2008, and also faces charges under the Arms Act.

The 20 arrestees face hundreds of charges of illegally possessing firearms and molotov cocktails. This is despite the face that only a handful of weapons (many legally owned and registered) were found during the extensive police raids, while many of the firearms people have been charged with possessing have never been proven to even exist.

On a cold and miserable day, the cries of “No More Police State!” echoed through central Auckland’s as over 200 Maori, trade unionists and left wingers joined a rally to defend the Urewewa 20, and remember the State Terror Raids of October 15th last year. Images and Sounds were projected against the court house in support of the Global Day Action. International indigenous support was present with First Nations manuhiri (guests) from Turtle Island (Americas). 150 people went on a lively march through the capital city, Wellington, and stopped at the police station for a shaming history of their violence, and a pass-by of Labour Party candidate Grant Robertson’s office nearly resulted in a very large broken window.

Overseas, banners were hung and fliers were handed out in Hamburg, Freiburg and Berlin (Germany), Basel and Lausanne (Switzerland), the Congo and Melbourne (Australia) in support of the call to drop the charges. Fundraisers and awareness raising events were also held in Vancouver (Canada) and  Tucson (USA). Many international groups also signed on to the solidarity statement prepared by the October 15th Solidarity collective, which can be seen at http://october15thsolidarity.info/en/node/332

Court Update

September 1st  saw the start of the depositions hearing, a pre-trial hearing where the crown presents its evidence and the Judge rules on whether there is enough for the charges to proceed to trial. At the time of writing, this hearing (now into its fifth week) is still ongoing, and it is still unclear what the outcome will be.

Early in the hearing, the judge issued extensive suppression orders, making it illegal (potentially punishable by an indefinite jail sentence and/or an unlimited fine) to discuss anything that is said or occurs inside the courtroom – this includes media (corporate and independent), public talks, leaflets and anything else you can imagine.

During the course of the hearing, Police have conducted an intimidation campaign against the arrestees and their supporters. On September 9, one of the arrestees and his partner were arrested, after Police accused the arrestee of scratching the car of Aaron Pascoe, the lead officer in the raids. Both were bailed after several hours in the cell (and face charges of wilful damage, assaulting police and resisting arrest), however the partner was not allowed to breast-feed her young baby while she was in the cells for over 4 hours.

More background information on the raids and the issues surrounding them, regular updates on the court hearings and information on how you can show your solidarity with the arrestees is available at http://www.october15thsolidarity.info

Thousands gather in solidarity with October 15th arrestees and against the Terrorism Supression Act

A feature I wrote for Indy…yesterday at E Tu was fun, incredible weather…

Thousands gather in solidarity with October 15th arrestees and against the Terrorism Supression Act

Over 2000 people gathered today in Wellington for E Tu, an all day event with bands and speakers, in solidarity with those arrested and raided on October 15th, and against the Terrorism Supression Act. Speakers included someone from Tuhoe, one of those arrested and imprisoned on October 15th, an MP, and other Tino Rangatiratanga and social justice activists. Bands like Little Bushman, Olmecha Supreme and the Klezmer Rebs entertained the diverse crowd for the 7 hours of the event. [ Photos ]

Protests also took place today in Auckland and Hamilton – if you attended one of these, please post reports and photos here on Aotearoa Indymedia.

A new website has been launched “in solidarity those affected by the recent ‘anti-terror’ raids in Aotearoa/New Zealand.” October 15th Solidarity offers news and analysis of the raids and aftermath, support groups across Aotearoa and more.

The cases under the Arms Act for all 16 arrestees will be back in court on Monday 3rd, where matters such as continuing name and image supression for some of the arrestees will be discussed. There will be a rally outside the Auckland District Court from 10am.

Links: October 15th Solidarity | E Tu | Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe | Civil Rights Defence

Our World Is Not For Sale protest video

If you don’t see the embedded video below, click here.

Happy Valley train blockaders in court

In late April 2007, two Save Happy Valley activists locked on to train tracks in Christchurch to stop a coal train from reaching Lytellton Port. After several hours, they were removed and arrested, and a third activist was also arrested and charged with “communicating with a prisoner”.

On Friday September 14th they appeared in court, and this is what happened. If you can’t see the embedded video below, click here. Hi-res version coming soon.

For more info, see www.savehappyvalley.org.nz

3 short vids from the US-NZ Partnership Forum protests

Below are links to three short videos from the US-NZ Partnership Forum protest on Monday September 10th. Links to Hi-Res versions of these clips will be added tomorrow.

I will also be putting out a longer edited video on the protest soon, probably on Sunday, which I’ll post here. Sorry these 3 clips took so long to get online – the first time they were uploaded they didn’t work (there was audio but no video) and this is the first chance I’ve had since then.

If you can’t see the embedded videos, then use the links

Video 1: A banner held at the entrance to the Hilton (the Forum venue) in the morning.

Video 2: A clip from the march down to the Hilton from Aotea Square, with a flare burning.

Video 3: Two protesters getting arrested near the end of the demonstration. A third was arrested shortly afterwards.

And a feature on the protests I helped write from Aotearoa Indymedia:

Actions in Auckland against NZ-US Partnership Forum

Around 100 people marched down Queen Street to the Hilton Hotel to protest against the NZ-US Partnership Forum. The forum, which brings together representatives of the two governments as well as from major US and NZ corporations to work on tightening the economic and political links between the two nations, was moved in the last minute from the Auckland Museum to the Hilton Hotel.

The protests had begun earlier in the day with a picket at the road corner by approximately 20 people, during the time Prime Minister Helen Clark arrived at the forum. The main march began at Aotea Square at 12 noon, with protesters taking the street, setting off flares and chanting all the way to the Hilton. Upon arrival at the Forum venue, a stand-off began with the police. After a short period, a scuffle erupted when the police attempted to open one lane to allow vehicles to enter and exit the area, an attempt which succeeded despite some resistance from a number of people. Some time later the police made a decision to open the remaining lane and force the protesters onto the footpath behind plastic barriers. In the ensuing altercation, three people were arrested and several injured.

The protests highlighted a number of issues. Our World Is Not For Sale spokesperson Ryan Bodman stated that the results of a free trade agreement between the US and Australia have included “the degradation of environmental protection, particularly in relation to genetic engineering of food, the degredation of quarantine laws, an economic nightmare for small farmers and businesses, a huge increase in australia’s trade defecit with the us, reduced access to affordable Australian pharmaceuticals and threats to australian manufacturing jobs.” The same results and others can be expected if an NZ/US agreement is signed.

Links: Our World Is Not For Sale campaign | Protest Timeline | Our World Is Not For Sale Press Release | Pre-Protest Feature | Pre-Protest police repression | Protest Reports: 1 | 2 | 3

Images : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Video : 1 | 2

Video – Stop the weapons conference

In October 2005, the New Zealand Defence Industry Association held a conference at Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. The NZDIA conference was an opportunity for weapons manufacturers to promote and sell their killing machines to the New Zealand army and other militaries. The Aotearoa Revolutionary Clown Army and friends joined together to blockade the conference.

And now, almost two years later, I finally got all the video footage from that day, and so I’ve made a movie about it. It’s the first bit of editing I’ve done, so hopefully it’s not too bad

Low quality version below from YouTube. If you can’t see the embedded film, click here to view. If you’re on broadband, you can download a high quality version (131MB) from EngageMedia by clicking here. The high quality version is obviously much better – you can even read the subtitles

Happy Valley – The fight continues

Below is an article I just wrote for the next issue of Auckland Animal Action’s newsletter/zine.

As the campaign to save Happy Valley, on the West Coast of the South Island, from being turned into a destructive opencast coal mine by state-owned Solid Energy enters its fourth year, the Save Happy Valley Coalition (SHVC) is continuing to take action around the country.

In Happy Valley itself, SHVC maintains the country’s longest lasting environmental occupation in history. On January 28th, 2006, 75 people made the three hour tramp into Happy Valley to begin the occupation and now, more than 15 months later, the occupation camp is looking beautiful and is ready to withstand its second harsh West Coast winter with snow, seemingly endless rain and biting cold. The Roa/Great Spotted Kiwi in the Valley call out to us every night and Western Weka roam around the campsite in a potent reminder of what stands to be lost if Solid Energy is allowed to destroy the precious ecosystem to mine climate changing coal.

Meanwhile, in Auckland, Wellington, the top of the South Island, Christchurch, Dunedin and the West Coast itself, local SHV groups are running stalls, public talks and film screenings, putting up posters and stickers, protesting and engaging in direct action.

On Sunday April 29th, two SHV activists in Christchurch locked themselves onto train tracks to prevent a coal train from Solid Energy’s Stockton mine arriving in the port of Lyttelton. At the same time, other SHV activists swarmed the coal train (which had stopped upon being informed of the locked on activists) hanging a 22 metre long banner reading “Solid Energy = Govt Sponsored Climate Change – www.savehappyvalley.org.nz”. The two activists, secured by metal pipes inside concrete laid under the tracks, remained there for several hours until fire rescue crew were able to remove them after jack hammering, grinding and digging away at the concrete. Both activists were charged with “interferes with railway line”, while their support person was arrested and charged with “communicating with a prisoner” after passing a bottle of water to the locked-on activists. In solidarity with this action, the Wellington SHV group hung a 10 metre long banner reading “Coal Mining = Climate Chaos – www.savehappyvalley.org.nz” from a motorway overbridge on the morning of Monday 30th.

SHVC needs your help! Join (or start) a local group and get involved in the campaign, or come and join our occupation (for 3 days, 3 weeks or 3 months). We aim to provide food and transport costs for longer-term occupiers, so money shouldn’t be an obstacle. If you are interested, or want to find out more, visit our website at http://www.savehappyvalley.org.nz or email occupation@savehappyvalley.org.nz for occupation related questions.

Israeli anarchists block Tel Aviv city centre

Don’t see the embedded video? Click here to watch it.

From Infoshop.org:

Basel Street, one of Tel Aviv’s hippest coffee shop centers, was blocked by 20 anarchists, using razor wire from the wall itself today at around 14:00.

The two rolls of razor wire were stretched across the street parallel to each other, in a formation reminding that of the wall, and red signs reading: “Mortal Danger-Military Zone. Any person who passes or damages the fence endangers his life”, also from the wall itself, were hanged on it. Flyers explaining Israel’s policy of restrictions on movement land-grab were passed around.

The action was carried to remind Tel Aviv’s café goers of everyday hardships of Palestinians, resulting from Israel’s apartheid policies and conduct in the Occupied Territories, and from the occupation itself. The activists urged Israelis to take responsibility of what is being done in their names, and force an end to Israeli occupation.

See also: Israel Indymedia.