Six members of the group known as the Raytheon Nine have been unanimously acquitted today of destroying property belonging to multinational arms company Raytheon. They were each found not guilty of causing criminal damage to the building and offices and an employee`s car in Derry, Northern Ireland, in August 2006.

As Midwinter approaches and rain and winds push us (mostly) off the streets and into our homes, why not dash out for an evening to various events that seek to raise awareness about those people left out in the cold by society and those for whom war and colonisation pushes to the margins; homeless people, female factory workers in Mexico, refugees, Tuhoe and Latin American anti-imperialists.

Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland:

• Socialist Aotearoa: Workshop on Che Guevara | 7pm, Thursday 12th June
• Homage to Chilean President Salvador Allende - an evening of music, dance and film | 7pm, Friday 27th June
• Feminist Mafia and Auckland Indymedia Present: ON THE EDGE - a film about the murder of women workers in Mexico | 6:30pm, Tuesday 1st July

Kirikiriroa/Hamilton:

• 'Putting Homelessness in Focus' - Film screening | 6pm, Friday 27th June

Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington:

• Matariki Film Show- Tuhoe: A history of resistance | 7pm, Friday 13th June and Saturday 14th June
• Breaking the Silence - Zapatista Film Night | 8pm, Tuesday 24th June

Otautahi/Christchurch:

• Safe Haven: The Benefits of Refugee Resettlement in New Zealand | 6pm, Friday 20th June

Lorena "Aya" Santos, aged 25 from the Philippines, has written an open Father's Day letter to her father, Leo Velasco who 'disappeared', after being abducted last year by soldiers and has not been seen since. Father's Day occurs in June in the Philippines. Mr Velasco is a consultant for the National Democratic Front Philippines (NDFP), in its peace negotiations with the government. The NDFP is the umbrella political wing of a number of left organisations, including the banned Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Her mother is currently being detained at a military camp. [Abductions and Summary Executions of Suspected Communists]

Since 2001 death squads linked to the Armed Forces of the Philippines have murdered over 900 peasant leaders, unionists, community activists, student leaders and clergy people. Many more have simply 'disappeared' never to be seen again. Brutal counter-insurgency operations, with US backing, supposedly aimed at the CPP and Muslim rebels in the Southern Island of Mindanao, have killed many civilians.

Aya writes to her father: We understand each other how painful it is to long for missing parents. We share the same rage against your abductors and their bosses and this repressive system. We wonder how these people can make our loved ones disappear and can still sleep at night (with their own families beside them, I imagine.)

I know we are all connected because of this tragedy of enforced disappearance, a state practice that should be stopped and never repeated. I feel we are all siblings and that they are also your sons and daughters too. We are the children of the Desaparecidos. We are also the children whose parents have fought for their principles and have served the oppressed. [Aya's Father's Day Letter]

Two dozen workers at Auckland Airport’s foodcourt staged a lightening strike on Saturday 7 June, in protest at medieval working conditions. The strikers marched through the foodcourt calling for their rights and were applauded by the public.

Employers and security tried unsuccessfully to silence the upbeat strikers.

The company is a joint venture between HMSC, a mega-corporation with businesses around the world, and Auckland International Airport. Mike Treen of Unite Union said the workers had the worst employment contract the union had come across.

The workers have a start time but no finish time. They may work for one hour or for 10 hours at the whim of the company. Unite has succeeded in getting breaks established for staff who earlier were working up to 7 hours with no breaks. Most are on the minimum wage or slightly above and have no security of hours. Some have worked 38 to 40 hours a week for several years but are denied permanent positions. The strikers are calling for a pay increase, security of hours for long serving staff and improved breaks.

TV3 News Coverage of Strike

Last Wednesday, June 4 an estimated 200 military units including soldiers, various levels of police, tanks and intelligence attempted to enter la Garrucha Caracol and surrounding autonomous Zapatista communities, territories reclaimed by the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) in 1994. This marks an alarming escalation in violent hostility from the Mexican State that we have seen developing since last August.

Take note also that this mid-year marks 3 years since the Zapatistas put out their Sixth Declaration and called for The Other Campaign, a revolutionary process framed as non-violent. (Obviously it's difficult to be non-violent when the army is killing your people and stealing your land!) Last Wednesday the army was driven away by the strong response of zapatista autonomous support bases (Bases de Apoyo) who blocked the road.

The army did however promise their return in 15 days saying that they have evidence to believe that there are marijuana plantations in Zapatista territory. Outrageous! This is how the army controls Mexico these days: if it's not supposedly chasing drug cartels in the big cities (ie. urban military occupation) it's invading and terrorising rural communities (especially autonomous ones).

Expect a global call out for solidarity actions in the next week or so. The situation is possibly the most serious that it has been since 1995.

For current information in English | Spanish | Anarchist view of EZLN | Chiapas indymedia[bi-lingual] | Narco News

The capitalist media reports that "an Iraqi man convicted of immigration fraud after an investigation by police into possible terror links is fighting to stay in New Zealand."

"Salam Mansoor Abdelabbas Al-Bawi was sentenced to six months' home detention in March after admitting coming to New Zealand on a false Danish passport and later applying for citizenship and a passport using the fake name John Joseph. The Department of Internal Affairs is investigating his citizenship, beginning a process that could lead to his deportation."

It turns out that Al-Bawi was investigated by Detective Sergeant Aaron Pascoe and the Special Investigation Group (SIG). Pascoe and the SIG are of course also behind the raids on Tuhoe and activists around the country on 15th October 2007. In February 2006, detectives from the SIG searched Al-Bawi's Remuera home and found the false Danish passport and other apparently fake documents.

But how did this become an 'anti-terrorist' operation with a potential 'threat to national security'? The Special Investigation Groups were established in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in January 2005. In the year ending 30th June 2006, "Police [were] involved in two regional policing operations that have potential implications for New Zealand's national security in a regional context." (Police Annual Report 2006) Was Al-Bawi one and Operation 8 the other?

Auckland anarchist Ryan Bodman has been travelling through the Pacific ocean in recent months. In the last few weeks Ryan has been living under military dictatorship in Fiji. In the following article, Ryan reports on life under dictatorship for ordinary Fijians and presents an analysis of the situation and the prospects for the future. It contains comments from anonymous Fijians who have become some of the many victims of the cruel and corrupt regime now presently ruling Fiji. It should not be forgotten that rape, torture and arbitrary detention continue to be widely practiced tactics used by the Fijian military against dissident journalists, unionists and activists.

For the rest of the article click More…

This feature is a round up of alternative media from around the planet documenting peoples' struggles and mapping out the contours of the oppressive institutions bent on destroying the planet and enslaving us all. The second AIMC news round up brings you coverage from Berlin to Afghanistan, and from Utah Phillips to child poverty in Aotearoa. This is the second of our weekly features that will keep indymedia visitors, in touch with global social struggles and other alternative media around the planet.