A short (4 mins 25 secs) video from today’s protest in Otautahi / Christchurch in solidarity with those arrested on October 15th 2007 & February 19th 2007.
On October 15th, the NZ Police raided homes around the country, arresting Maori and Pakeha and claiming that there was a terrorist conspiracy. This film looks at two demonstrations in solidarity with the arrestees held in Otautahi/Christchurch. While all prisoners are now on bail, and no terror charges will be laid, they still face arms charges and need solidarity as much as ever!
The first ever Aotearoa Indymedia Newsreal is coming soon! A DVD full of local short films by Aotearoa activists telling their stories and reporting their news.
A short promotional video has been produced to publicise the impending release of the Newsreal, which you can check out by clicking this link.
Films included on the DVD include:
The Nu Face of Youth Rebellion, on the 2006 uprising in Tonga
Save Happy Valley, which explains the campaign to stop a proposed West Coast coal mine
Open Rescue, detailing the activities of the Open Rescue Collective
Youth Voices, a look into youth activism in Auckland
Stop The Weapons Conference 2005, a film about the Aotearoa Revolutionary Clown Army’s protest against the 2005 NZDIA conference
And many more!
If you’ve got a film you’d like included in the Newsreal, it’s not too late! Simply post a comment here, or email anarchiazine [at] gmail [dot] com
If you can’t see the embedded video below, then use this link.
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.
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.
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.
A video interview with Frances Mountier, an activist in the Save Happy Valley Coalition (SHVC), who was in court Wednesday after she was sued over her role in the production and distribution of a report into Solid Energy’s environmental destruction in 2006.
Frances Mountier, an activist in the Save Happy Valley Coalition (SHVC), was in court Wednesday after she was sued over her role in the production and distribution of a report into Solid Energy’s environmental destruction in 2006.
The legal action taken by Solid Energy had changed considerably from when it was first launched. Proceedings against Powelliphanta Augustus Inc, who Solid Energy were trying to claim were representatives of the Save Happy Valley Coalition, were dropped prior to the hearing and Solid Energy reached an out-of-court settlement with a third defendant, Simon Oosterman, who runs Enzyme, which hosts the SHVC website. Solid Energy also dropped the original major causes of action - defamation & injurious falsehood - in favour of simply pursuing Frances Mountier for use of their trademarked logo.
This morning in the Christchurch High Court, the Judge ruled that the report could continue to be published, but the Solid Energy logo must be removed from the front page.
“The complete rehashing of this case to one of the use of logo on the front page by myself, when it started as full defamation proceedings against three defendants, simply shows how mistaken and outrageous those attempts to injunct publication of the report were. The whole case has highlighted how anxious this state owned coal miner is to avoid public criticism and debate on their activities” said Frances Mountier, “While defending this case has cost thousands of dollars of funds donated by supporters, we have been successful – the Environment Report can continue to be published in a substantially unaltered form.”
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
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