Just days before the Prime Minister Helen Clark is due to sign a free trade agreement with the Chinese state, demonstrators will take to the streets in Auckland and Wellington to protest the government's continued silence over the brutal Chinese occupation in Tibet and violent repression of human rights activists and trade union organising.

Auckland: Meet Aotea Square, Queen Street, 12noon, Saturday 5th April. [ More ]

Wellington: Meet Frank Kitts Park on Jervois Quay, 12noon, Saturday 5th April[ More ]

Links: Tibet Info Net | Friends of Tibet New Zealand | Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA | At war with the utopia of modernity | The truth about Tibet
Previous: Tibetans stand watch at Chinese Embassy | Free West Papua! Free Tibet! Solidarity demonstrations in Aotearoa | Free Tibet Protests across Aotearoa - 19th March 2008

Three people were arrested at around 6.30pm tonight (1st April) at the Christchurch Fossil Fools Day protest. One person was released 8.47pm and is charged with disorderly behavior and will appear in court on Friday. One more person was released at 9.28pm. She faces the same charge. A third activist has been charged with escaping custody and possibly more charges and will be held overnight, appearing in court tomorrow at 10am!

Updates: 10.10am - One activist is appearing in court this morning. We will post updates here over the next few hours.

10.31am - The activist has not appeared yet. There is a 5 minute adjournment in the court now and he will appear after that. We still don't know what the charges are.

10.46am - The activist that appeared in court after spending a night in the cells was remanded on bail. The non-association orders were dropped and he doesn't have any other bail condtions.

11.23am - The activist has been processed now. His charges are obstructing a public place and escaping from lawful custody (which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years!). His next court appearance is on 16th April at 10am.

Photos: 1 | 2 Auckland: Air New Zealand Receives Fossil Fools Award Call Outs: FOSSIL FOOLS DAY | Christchurch Fossil Fools Day - 5days to go!!!

"Tonight's ride/walk was a perfectly peaceful, happy event for the first 30 mins when I was there. Blatant police harassment, prosecution of activists, with no possible justification for arrests and brutality."

From the call-out: "Confronted with melting ice caps, unprecedented species extinction, droughts and extreme weather, climate change threatens our very survival. The fools at the head of the fossil fuel empire continue to plunder the earth, with the governments as willing court jesters at their side. […] Celebrate International Fossil Fools Day on 1st April, walking and cycling through the streets of Christchurch. Express your disapproval of the War for Oil, fossil fuel dependency and celebrate the sustainable future for all. Bring your children, it's their future."

Last week the US Third Circuits Appeals Court refused to grant death row inmate, former Black Panther member and journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal a new trial. Mumia has been on deathrow since 1982, after being convicted, in a trial labelled by Amnesty International as 'completely flawed', for the murder of Philadelphia Policeman, Daniel Faulkner. At the time of the incident Officer Faulkner was beating Mumia's younger brother. In Mumia's original trial the Prosecutor claimed that Mumia's membership of the Black Panthers, as a teenager in the 1960s, was evidence that he was guilty. The trial judge, Albert Sabo, had an obvious conflict of interest as he had been a member of the Fraternal Order of Police Officers for many years. A court stenographer testified that she heard him say "I m going to help them fry the nigger." After the trial investigations revealed the Philidelphia Police force was riddled with corruption.

Ever since then Mumia has been held in a cell, the size of a toilet. He has gained international fame as an articulate writer and commentator on social issues. The Third Circuit Appeals Court refused to see new evidence on the case, despite the fact a number of crime scene photos that contradict the police version of events have come to light. The court decision paves the way for a new hearing where it will decided if Mumia is to be executed or held for life in prison without parole. [ PhillyIMC: Decision No Victory ]

Protests against the decision have been held across the US. Mumia's supporters plan to hold a large demo on April 19th in Philadelphia to co-incide with the state's Democrat Presidential Primaries. In Wellington 15 people protested outside the US Embassy. [ Report ]

Links: Mumia's Prison Radio Broadcasts | Amnesty Internationl on Mumia | Mobilisation to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal | NYC Free Mumia Coalition | Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal | Ruling Shows No Justice in the Capitalist Courts

Last Saturday members of the Indonesia Human Rights Committee held a demonstration outside Harvey Norman Manukau to call for the store to stop stocking outdoor furniture made from kwila wood, illegally plundered from the rainforests of West Papua. Kwila is logged from one of the last undisturbed wilderness areas in World. Recently several new species of mammals have been discovered in the pristine wilderness of the Foja mountains. However, logging barons, working hand in hand, with the Indonesian Military continue to defy Indonesian environmental laws, plundering the rainforests, destroying unique eco-systems and displacing indigenous Papuans from their land.

The finished products of this destruction end up for sale as decking material and outdoor furniture in New Zealand. The Indonesia Human Rights Committee calls for a complete boycott of all products made from kwila wood.

Links: IHRC Letter to Harvey Norman Manager | Social and Environmental effects of Illegal Logging | Report on Illegal Logging and Corruption | Greenpeace Good Wood Guide

Student activists of Greens on Campus, assembled outside a council meeting on Thursday 28 March, to protest Auckland City Council’s decision to cancel several climate change prevention initiatives. The students are also concerned that the Council is cutting funding for sustainable transport projects, such as bus lanes and cycle ways.

Using humour to get their point across, the students staged a mock debate on Queen Street between the councilors of 2008, dressed in suits, and the councilors of 2050, dressed in togs, snorkels, and flippers.

Teaching staff at the Kaplan Aspect English Language School in Parnell Auckland went on strike on Tuesday in support of their Collective Employment Agreement claims. The teachers, members of Unite decided to take industrial action after the company announced a “restructuring” which Mike Treen, National Director of Unite, the teachers' union, called a blatant attempt to get around good faith negotiations.

Mediation between Spotless Services Ltd and the Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU) to avoid strike action failed yesterday. As a result over 800 cleaners across the following hospitals will be striking for 24 hours on Wednesday the 2nd April.

Although Spotless agrees with the rates cleaners are entitled to, they are refusing to pay those rates because of a funding dispute with the District Health Boards. "It is totally unacceptable that low-paid workers in our public hospitals are being forced to lose income and put patient safety at risk because Spotless and the DHB's can't do simple arithmetic."

Links:Unite | Service and Food Workers Union | 800 Hospital cleaners locked out after strike action (July 07)

As repression against independence activists in the Chinese colony of Tibet and the Indonesian province of West Papua escalates, activists have been hitting the streets to show their solidarity with indigenous peoples struggling for self-determination and against colonialism and genocide.

In Auckland on Tuesday, activists and members of the Tibetan community shut down Helen Clark's electorate office in Mt. Eden with a noisy twelve hour blockade. Police were called to the office twice, once to remove a chain that had been used to lock the front entrance. [ Report + Photos] As protests build overseas with the start of the Olympic Torch relay, the Tibetan community will protest at the Chinese consulate in Auckland this Friday. [Details | Online Petition ]

Also on Tuesday, activists in Poneke/Wellington paid a vist to the Indonesian Embassy to protest against the Indonesian government's occupation of West Papua, the killing of its people and the destruction of its land. At least sixteen West Papuan leaders have been rounded up on charges of rebellion and subversion. For some their only crime is raising the banned Morning Star flag of Papuan freedom. One West Papuan student is also in hospital after Indonesian soldiers opened fire on a demonstration. [ Report ] This comes the same week that the Indonesian government has approached the New Zealand police for help in implementing community policing in West Papua. [ Article ] The Wellington protest was organised in solidarity with another held outside the Indonesian embassy in Canberra and in solidarity "with those fighting for their lives and freedoms in West Papua". [ Report + Photos ]

Indymedia is a "grassroots organization committed to using media production and distribution as a tool for promoting social and economic justice. It is our goal to further the self-determination of people under-represented in media production and content, and to illuminate and analyze local and global issues that impact ecosystems, communities and individuals. We seek to generate alternatives to the biases inherent in the corporate media controlled by profit, and to identify and create positive models for a sustainable and equitable society." With heaps of cool alternative and indymedia events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next few weeks, there are plenty of opportunities for people to get out there and expose themselves to alternative media and the organisations that are working to create social change. Don't hate the media, be the media!

Otautahi/Christchurch

• Toru Voices, Women speaking on refugees, violence and radical feminism | 7:30pm, Friday 28th March
• Workers Party Forum on Iraq and Afghanistan | 7pm, Monday 31st March

Poneke/Wellington

• (W)indymedia presents Outfoxed, Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism and Big Easy to Big Empty, a documentary on Hurricane Katrina | 7.30pm, Sunday 30th March
• SHVC and WalktheWalk meeting and dinner | 6:30pm, Thursday 27th March
• Latin America Solidarity presents Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad - A little bit of so much truth. When the people of Oaxaca decided they'd had enough of bad government, they didn't take their story to the media… They become the media! | 8pm Wednesday 16th April

Kirikiriroa/Hamilton

• The Power of Community - how Cuba survived the US sanctions | 7pm sharp, Thursday 3rd April 2008

Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland

• Alexandra Halkin of the Chiapas Media Project presents a selection of short videos produced by indigenous video makers from the states of Chiapas and Guerrero, Mexico | 7pm, Thursday 27th March
• Auckland Indymedia presents The Take, an inspiring documentary about Argentinean workers taking back control of their workplaces | 7pm, Wednesday 2nd April
• In Our Own Image - Public Forum on Media and Indigenous Struggle Alexandra Halkin, the International Coordinator of the Chiapas Media Project and Leonie Pihama, a film maker and renowned scholar on Maori education and broadcasting, will discuss the challenges of bringing indigenous self-determination on screen | 6pm, Thursday 3rd April