Joe talks to Unite Union organiser and Socialist Aotearoa member Kathryn Tucker from the picket lines in Waikato as the McDonald's strikes spread south.

Kathryn, could you tell us a bit about the mood of the fastfood workers in Hamilton?
They are frustrated by McD's response to their claims. McDonalds have said that they won't get back to us with an offer until sometime in November. It has been 6 months since our collective expired. The 25 cents that was offered is seen as a bit of a joke.

25 cents an hour is an insult. Are the stores in Hamilton owned by the company, or franchisees?
Company owned. Outside in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato, the stores are franchisees. [More]

Animal rights activists have liberated two lambs, two broiler chickens and ten battery hens from pastoral and factory farms to mark both world vegetarian day (Oct 1st) and world farm animals day (Oct 2nd).

"The animals were rescued to spare them from slaughter and challenge the assumption that animals are food", states the communiqué Animal Liberation Aotearoa (ALA) received from the activists involved.

Citizens Against Privatisation announce public meeting:

7pm, Wed October 8, Wesley Community Centre, Mt Roskill

The government continues to ignore public rejection of road tolls and so-called road pricing, privatised roads, and commercialisation and privatisation of public infrastructure and services. National threatens massive spending on public private partnerships (PPPs) - for roads, schools, hospitals, prisons…

"In 1996," Rose Hollins, co-spokesperson for Citizens Against Privatisation (CAP) says, "construction of the Mt Roskill/Waterview section of SH20 was costed at only $72 million. Now, the projected tunnel price is $1.89 billion, to be built by a PPP that's been decided over the heads of the public, and followed by up to 45 years of road tolls until it's handed back, probably in poor repair, to our great grandchildren. This is a massive rip off."

Links: George Monbiot on PPPs: Private Affluence, Public Rip-Off | Private Public Partnerships

On Sunday 14 September in Waitangi Skate Park Wellington’s top graffiti crew Triple S (TS) painted a mural supporting indigenous rights. In the month when the 'October 15th' deposition hearing is taking place involving members of Tuhoe and other New Zealand activists who supported Maori indigenous struggle for self determination, this mural could not have come at a better time.

Triple S Crew were approached to paint this mural by Dean Hapeta (Te Kupu – www. tekupu. com) on behalf of a USA-based activist music group, IR (onewatchman.wordpress. com), that uses music to support indigenous rights. This had been a worldwide call-out to help remember the horrific death of the Pataxo Indian Galdino Jesus dos Santos, an indigenous man who while he lay on the streets sleeping, was murdered by a group of rich children, who as a “joke” to poured gasoline on him and set fire to him. Their treatment in the justice system was privileged and they only received mild sentences, as the life of this indigenous man was not seen as that significant. It has been ten years since his death but Galdino’s murder will not be forgotten. Due to political pressure, none of the traditional murals that are painted in Brazil to represent such a loss in a community were allowed. This is why Triple S Crew decided that they would step up and honour this life.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – Harmeet Singh Sooden, who was held hostage in Iraq for four months in 2005-2006, has filed an official complaint to the governments of Canada and New Zealand and the United Nations for human rights violations committed against him by the Government of Israel in the course of denying him entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Mr Sooden travelled to Israel on 14 June 2008 to work as a human rights defender with International Solidarity Movement (ISM). ISM is an international human rights organisation composed of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals who monitor the human rights situation and protect human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

After declaring the purpose of his visit, Mr Sooden was assaulted and injured, threatened, held in solitary confinement, denied the right to legal counsel and consular representation as well as the right to appeal his deportation order in a court of law, and unlawfully deported on 18 June 2008—all in contravention of Israeli and international law. [More]

Danyl Strype takes a nervous look at the past record and likely future of a parliament controlled by either National *or* Labour, and proposes a drastic rethink of what democratic governence means in practice.

Kia ora koutou

I recently got an invite to a group on FaceHook called Vote With Both Eyes Open, which focuses on reminding voters in this year's New Zealand General Election about the past crimes of the National Party? Seems to me like they've just got the Other Eye Open to the One-Eyed, Helen-hating anti-Labour cheerleaders.

If they really want people to have Both Eyes Open, they'd need to be critical of Labour as well - on point of policy and past actions, not shallow personal attacks (Helen is a bossy, nanny-statist, John is smarmy, corporate-raider etc). [More]

The last five days of the depositions hearing has been endless, mysterious, boring, interspersed with nano-seconds of excitement. Unfortunately the suppression orders still stand so I can’t tell you about the nano-statements of excitement. Possibly they only seem exciting in comparison with read-back guy, who continues to mangle Te Reo in a way I didn’t was know possible. When a friend said his favourite readback-guy mispronunciation was: why-care-moan-a, I couldn’t figure out what the original word was supposed to be (waikaremoana).

The big question people keep asking me is whether or not the crown will meet the prima facie case on all the charges, or whether some will be dropped. A couple of the lawyers are optimistic that a prima facie case won’t be met against their clients. [More]

The Go Wellington Lockout
By Nick Kelly: Wellington Tramways Union President

As most of you know on Monday the Tramways Union (who cover the Wellington Bus drivers) and the Manufactoring and Construction Union (who represent the workshop workers) voted to reject the latest company offer. We began limited industrial action on Wednesday morning with a 1 hour strike. However before this first strike had happened the company issued and indefinate lockout notice starting 5am Thursday September 25th.

For the 1 hour strike we decided to hold a stopwork meeting at the Wellington Railway Station to discuss the lockout. Management tried to claim that the strike action we were taking was illegal. Drivers at Kilbirnie got on a couple of buses and drove to the station. The acting depot manager told me as Union President that I should tell the workers to get back to work, and that we weren't to take a bus to the rail. The workers ignored this threat and now I face some sort of retribution for disobeying "lawful instruction from my employer". The union now as a new claim that on settlement the company will drop all retribution against workers involved in the dispute. [More]