After further raids and arrests on Tuesday, protests were held on Saturday, 23rd February, in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Two men aged 44 and 46 from Maketu are due to appear in the Tauranga District Court again next week and a 24-year-old Ruatoki man will appear in Auckland in March on firearms charges related to the Urewera 16.

About 30 people attended a solidarity demonstration on Manners Mall in Wellington in support of the 'Urewera 20'. The demonstration was called earlier this week following additional raids by the police in Ruatoki and Maketu. Two of the arrestees spoke at the demo, which attracted a good crowd of at Manners Mall. Following a brilliant performance of 'Safer communities together Blues' by Don Franks, the demo did a lap down to the local police station.

In Christchurch, a rally was held in Cathedral Square. Speakers included Moana Cole, who in 1991 spent a year in an American county jail after pouring blood on and hammering an aircraft which was being prepared to drop bombs on Iraq. [ Video ]

Links: October 15th Solidarity | Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe | AoCafe

About a dozen Ngati Aukiwa members have started to occupy a three-bedroom house on the farm after it was left vacant last week by an employee who left the Stony Creek station in the far north. They said they were told by police they were trespassing. "We said we weren't. We moved into a vacant house and we're occupying it," said one of the group, Wilfred Peterson jnr. The group have had between 10 and 20 people at the house since last weekend and say they will stay there indefinitely.

Mr Peterson said the farmhouse occupation was part of a plan of action agreed by hapu members late last year after Deputy Prime Minister and Treaty Negotiations Minister Michael Cullen, and other government ministers, were forced to abandon nearby Taemaro Bay on December 22 where the agreement in principle involving Stony Creek and other lands was to have been signed with the trust board. [ AIMC Feature ]

Private investigation firm Thompson & Clark Investigations Ltd (TCIL) appeared before the Registrar of Private Investigators and Security Guards in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st February.

TCIL faced allegations that they had breached the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act (The Act) which governs their conduct. The allegations refer to the engagement of Ryan Paterson-Rouse to infiltrate the Save Happy Valley Coalition (SHVC) and of Somali Young to infiltrate the Wellington Animal Rights Network (WARN) and Peace Action Wellington (PAW). Also in question was the legality of the placement of a spy camera on the road near the entrance to the Happy Valley occupation site in 2006, by TCIL.

Links: Suppression lifted on spy case - SHVC Press Release

Click more for full report…

Another three people have been arrested as part of the police repression of the Tino Rangatiratanga movement. Two men aged 44 and 46 from Maketu are due to appear in the Tauranga District Court and a 24-year-old Ruatoki man will appear in the Whakatane District Court today on firearms charges related to the Urewera 16.

Valerie Morse, one of those arrested on October 15th, has also had her application for a stay of proceedings declined by the Solicitor-General David Collins.

Tamaki Makaurau / Auckland

Protest - Stop the raids! Saturday 23rd, 12noon, meet in Aotea Square.

Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington

Protest - Saturday 23rd, 12noon, meet in Manners Mall.

Otautahi / Christchurch

Protest - Stop The Raids! Saturday 23rd, 12noon, meet in Cathedral Square

Links: October 15th Solidarity | Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe | AoCafe | Civil Rights Defence Committee

UPDATES:

Tuesday 19th, 4pm: All three men have been granted bail. The two arrestees from Maketu have another hearing in one weeks time, at which point the Crown will attempt to have their hearings moved to Auckland with the 16 arrested on October 15th, 2007. Bail conditions include non-association orders with the other arrestees (with one exception for work for one arrestee), residing at specific addresses, surrendering passports and not possessing firearms.

6:09pm: The Ruatoki man has been given 9 charges under the arms act. The two Maketu men have 7 charges each.

11:34pm: The Ruatoki man was granted name supression at his hearing earlier today. He will appear next in the Auckland District Court (along with the 16 arrested on October 15th) on March 5th. The two Maketu men do not have name supression.

Wednesday 20th: Another person was questioned in the Whakatane Police Station today, but was not charged.

Auckland Animal Action anonymously received the following communique:

Every year through out New Zealand hundreds of thousands of pigs are confined to sow crates, farrowing crates and fattening pens. Males in the fattening pens live in their own excrement in cramped pens where they await slaughter. The females are treated as machines, being constantly confined to sow or farrowing crates where they can not turn around, comfortably lie down or properly care for their young. Before long their babies are ripped away from them and they are impregnated again. They are treated as though they do not feel pain, as though they do not matter, as though they are profit.

We recently entered a shed containing farrowing crates on an intensive pig farm in Auckland. Along with documenting the heart breaking conditions these mothers are forced endure we also liberated one sweet little piglet.

More: Video | Images | Animal Liberation Front

New Zealand State-Owned communications company Kordia has announced a contract to build cellphone towers for Burma’s ruling military junta.

Use of cellphones in Burma is restricted to members of the ruling elite. To buy a cellphone, a Burmese citizen must obtain a recommendation from a military official and pay a fee of NZ$1500, in a country where average incomes are less than NZ$2 a day. In announcing plans to extend the cellphone network, the Junta has said that licenses will be granted to members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a pro-Junta militia that was used to crush pro-democracy protests in 2007.

Links: USDA Enjoys Favors from Junta | NZ Super Fund aids Myanmar | 10/07: Hundreds march in Auckland against investment in Total

Waitangi Day saw protests in several places across Aotearoa, with Tangata Whenua and Tau Iwi standing together to demand Tino Rangatiratanga and Mana Motuhake.

In Waitangi itself, "thousands of tangata whenua, pakeha and tau iwi marched together in the hikoi to the treaty grounds with Tino Rangatiratanga and Mana Motuhake flags flying behind the Kotahitanga flag. A large contingent from Tuhoe was leading the hikoi, including some of the Urewera 17 activists. Key issues raised during this year’s Waitangi Day were the Resource Management Act, the Foreshore and Seabed legislation and the October 15 "anti-terror” raids." [ Tau Iwi Report of Waitangi Day 08 + Photos ]

In Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland), members and supporters of the sovereignty group Te Ata Tino Toa gathered today to fly the largest known Tino Rangatiratanga flag above the Auckland Harbour Bridge. A slow procession of cars also went across the Bridge flying Tino Rangatiratanga and Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe flags, while a boat went underneath flying a flag. [ Te Ate Tino Toa (TATT) Transcends Tranzit New Zealand's Pettiness + Photos ]

Te Whanganui A Tara (Wellington) saw around 30 people take a "Tour Of Oppression" around various sites in the central city. [ Tour of Oppression: Waitangi Day procession in Wellington + Photos ]

On the other side of the world, the New Zealand embassy in Berlin, Germany, was spraypainted with "Tino Rangatiratanga" and "Drop the Urewera charges". [ NZ embassy in Berlin Spraypainted ]

In Melbourne, Australia, a protest was also held, with speakers including indigenous people from all over the world, from the Mapuche people (Chile) to Australian Aborigines (Jirrbal Nation, Krautungalung, Gunnai Nation and more). [ Waitangi Day-Kulin Nations 08 + Photos ]

In New Plymouth tino rangatiratanga flags flew. [ Photos ] And on February 9, "Orpheus Day", an event to commemorate the shipwreck of HMS Orpheus, a military ship that was bound for land confiscation, cultural genocide, treaty breaches and the bloody and tragic invasion of the Waikato, in Manukau City was disrupted by anti-colonisation activists. [ Report + Photos ]

Waitangi Day also saw the launch of Tu Kotahi - Freedom Fighting Anthems, a double benefit CD. All the money raised will be split between organisations directly supporting those affected by the raids, and also working on consciousness raising around the issue. [ Tu Kotahi - Freedom Fighting Anthems ]

Links: AoCafe | Maori Independence Site | Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe | Conscious Collaborations | October 15th Solidarity | Tu Kotahi - Freedom Fighting Anthems

Workers Party Forum: The politics of Rage Against the Machine

Tuesday February 5, 6pm @ Trades Hall, 147 Great North Road, Grey Lynn, Auckland

Rage Against the Machine, the world’s most popular anti-capitalist band, recently headlined the Big Day Out. At this concert the Workers Party signed up 109 new members. This presentation will explore the politics of Rage by assessing the band’s lyrics and also tracing the progressive causes and revolutionary organisations that the band has supported both financially and through other means such as inclusion on album covers, press releases, benefit gigs etc. More

Rage have been strong supporters of the Zapatistas , whose struggle for justice for the Mayan indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico, has gained international attention since their uprising on New Year's day 1994 against the hugely unjust North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The band has also, both financially and lyrically, supported the campaigns to free US political prisoners such as Leonard Peltier , an American Indian Movement (AIM) member, and Mumia Abu-Jamal , a former Black Panther. The song 'Freedom' tells Peltier's story. Music Video: 'Freedom'

In January 2000 Rage defied a ban, imposed by New York City authorities, to play a free concert on Wall Street, the heart of the US Stock Exchange. The concert shut down the Stock Exchange in the middle of the trading day. Music Video: 'Sleep Now in the Fire'

Video: Rage live at Auckland BDO: 1, 2, 3| Raging Against the System