Aotearoa Independent Media Centre

The dangers of primarily organising protests through the social network that is facebook have been highlighted recently in Wellington. On Saturday the 25th June a protest against the Nats proposed re-introduction of youth rates was to be held at the bucket fountain in Cuba Mall from 12 to 1.30pm. See http://www.indymedia.org.nz/event/79703/wgtn-march-against-youth-rates

About a week before the event, e-mails went out telling people about it, for example on the UnionsWellington email list and the Wellington Workers' Solidarity Network email list.

This was part of a national day of action against youth rates.

But it looks like the organisers had a last minute change of mind - I am not sure exactly when, but a post only went out on Indymedia at 11.30am that they had changed venue, and none by email. I assume an earlier notice went out on facebook telling people of the change? Instead, the organisers held the protest outside the National Party office on Willis St.

Details of SAS involvement in an operation in Kabul were scarcely very clear before another story about NZ troops in Afghanistan appears in the news today.

This time it is an improvised explosive device (IED) attack on the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamiyan. There were no injuries, and it seems that the device missed its intended target.

This attack comes just days after a highly secretive hand-over of the PRT mission by New Zealand (acting under NATO) to local Afghan forces in Bamiyan.

The front page of Saturday’s Dominion Post renamed government employment as the ‘Ministry of fear and job insecurity’ and notes that ‘Thousands of state servants wait for axe.’ Indeed, with budget cuts to the public sector close to $1 billion dollars, there are many people who will be getting the proverbial pink slip in the next few months from government departments and agencies.

But one agency who doesn’t seem hard hit by budget cuts is the Government Communications and Security Bureau (GCSB), the country’s electronic spy agency that operates the ECHELON listening post at Waihopai and the signals interception station at Tangimoana.

Remains to be Seen: Tracing Joe Hill's ashes in New Zealand—an easy-to-read account of censorship and radical labour during the First World War—will be launched in Christchurch on Thursday June 30 at Beat Street Cafe (Corner Barbadoes and Armagh), at 5.30pm.

Jared Davidson, author and designer of Remains to be Seen, will share a few thoughts on his research, and copies of the book will also be available for purchase. It is also available to purchase from Rebel Press: http://www.rebelpress.org.nz/publications/remains-to-be-seen

A Facebook page has been created for the event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=230051713673932

Between 600-800 people were on the Queer the Night march in Wellington on Thursday night. The march was a response to recent violent attacks on members of the queer community.

Attacks based on an individual’s perceived sexuality or gender are an attack on us all. The intention is to rein in our various identities and orientations, to keep us off the streets and in the closets. Its intent is to make queer and trans-people live in fear. We do not intend to help maintain this order. The only real way to battle community violence is through community action.

Links: Dominion Post | The Hand Mirror | Video | Queer the Night

The bosses of New Zealand’s biggest companies (including state-owned enterprises) received a massive average pay rise of 14% in the 2010 financial year. This has bumped up their already whopping salaries – some earn as much as $5 million per year – earned by profiting off our labour.

At the same time, the average wage rise for all wage-labouring New Zealanders for the year up to March 2011 has been a paltry 2%. This is actually a pay cut, because the rate of inflation for the year up to March 2011 has been 4.5%. For the million of us who are beneficiaries, our paltry benefits are also being effectively cut, as benefits increased by only 1.96% in April 2010.

Links: Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement

Around 25 people gathered outside the ENEX oil and gas conference in New Plymouth yesterday afternoon to show opposition to the massive expansion of petroleum exploration across Aotearoa/New Zealand.

“We are concerned about our kaimoana and whether our great-great-grandchildren will still be able to gather seafood” said Maata Wharehoka, kaitiaki of Te Niho o Te Ati Awa at Parihaka.

“We are against the mass expansion of petroleum exploration in our area because of the damages of oil spills, toxic drill wastes and climate change” said Climate Justice Taranaki spokesperson Emily Bailey.

New Zealanders from Dunedin to Auckland led globalised protests to commemorate the one-year anniversary of BP's Gulf Oil Disaster by demanding an end to the environmental destruction and climate destabilization created by fossil fuel and other extractive industries. Communities of Aotearoa stood alongside environmental, climate, and social justice groups all over the world in an International Day of Direct Action Against Extraction.

New Zealanders in Taranaki, Wellington, Dunedin, Whanganui, Nelson, Auckland, the East Cape and more were joined by Gulf Coast residents fighting offshore drilling, Appalachians resisting mountaintop removal coal mining, Pennsylvania and New York residents opposing natural gas hydrofracking, Canadians fighting tar sands mining in Alberta and more across the globe.

Reports of global activities are being compiled by Rising Tide North America at the www.extractionaction.net website.

Looks like we've got a movement on our hands...

This past Monday evening, the Auckland screening of the new documentary 'Operation 8- Deep in the Forest' informed, delighted and entertained a near capacity crowd at Skycity cinemas. The film by Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones is a detailed survey of the October 2007 terrorism raids and paints a terrifying (and occassionally a surprisingly comical) picture of police repression of political dissent in Aotearoa. 

The film is currently screening nationwide and you can take a look for  further screenings in your area below;

October 15th Solidarity  | cutcutcut films |  October 15th solidarity Newsletter |  Film Trailer