Aotearoa Independent Media Centre

Creative resistance against colonial and state oppression will be celebrated in Wellington with an art exhibition and auction at Thistle Hall Gallery, Cuba Street in Wellington. October 15th Solidarity invites everyone to Explosive Expression.

The opening night of the exhibition on October 13th will be followed by a week of events, which will be an opportunity for discussion and debate about the raids on Te Urewera and communities around Aotearoa, the 'war on terrorism', colonisation and resistance. The auction is also an opportunity for the community to support creative resistance and assistance with funds for people affected by the raids.

Bids for all works can be made on-line; visit www.October15thSolidarity.info/artauction to view the works and bids can be emailed to info@October15thSolidarity.info  until 12noon on the day of the auction.

Workers Party Press Release: Workers Party activists Heleyni Pratley and Joel Cosgrove have been trespassed from Victoria University for two years for participating in a student protest against University fee rises of over 90%.

Joel was involved in the throwing of a solitary egg which did not hit anyone.  Heleyni threw nothing and instead stood prominently holding a Workers Party banner calling for ‘free education from kindergarten to PhD’. They and other activists cleaned up the eggshells before leaving.

Let us be very clear. Joel has been trespassed for throwing an egg which he cleaned up afterwards. Heleyni has been trespassed for nothing other than speaking her mind. She is being publicly attacked by the university for exercising her democratic right to protest and express free speech. She is being punished to make an example to anybody else, student or otherwise, who is considering standing up to university injustice.

Jennifer Graham is the woman who was evicted from her housetruck in Central Wellington earlier this year. Jennifer had been parked on Stout St for some 20 weeks when the Council showed up, evicted her onto the streets and sold her housetruck for $3600 worth of unpaid fines. They said she was camping and quoted some obscure council bylaw.

Following this, she was on the streets for 6 weeks and set up house just outside the WCC offices. She was arrested for trespass but when she arrived for court, the police advised her that they were dropping the charges. She said that wasn't good enough – she wasn't even allowed to have her say – so she said she would continue to cause trouble for them. So they then trespassed her from the District court. When she refused to sign her bail bond, they sent her to Arohata for 6 days.

Please note there is another picket at 6am on Thursday 17th at Bridgeman Plant, 55 Crooks Road, East Tamaki. Police presence likely as we block cement trucks again.

“An indefinite lock-out of workers by Bridgeman Concrete in Manukau City shows increasing employer militancy taking advantage of the recession and growing unemployment,” says Robert Reid, General Secretary of the National Distribution Union.

“The Bridgeman lock-out is an appalling example of an employer paying under industry rates with inferior redundancy agreements and trying to starve its workers into submission.  These workers are key for Auckland infrastructure projects and start work early every day while the rest of the country is asleep.  These guys are the battlers.  They are the unsung heroes who help build a better life for us all.  Yet they are shown no respect by an employer who will not even front up to the workers and hides behind his hired gun,” says Robert Reid.

More: Photos | NDU | Warehouse Profits at Expense of Workers during Recession

Other disputes: Polytech strike photos | For workers' control! - Lessons of recent struggles in the UK | Subway workers hold 'no fare' protest and strike in Buenos Aires | Organising the precariat in Israel-Palestine

Upcoming actions: EPMU Telecom picket on the corner of Ponsonby Rd and Hopetoun Street, Auckland at 7.30am Monday 21^st September | NDU Bridgeman picket 6am on Thursday 17th at Bridgeman Plant, 55 Crooks Road, East Tamaki

With the Government forcing a pay freeze on the public sector, minimum wage workers will likely be offered nothing when the Government reviews their pay at the end of the year. The National Party promised tax cuts and rising wages but so far has delivered less than nothing for low wage workers. Each week hundreds of workers are heading out into the street calling for wage increases that meet the rising cost of living, job security and protection from redundancy. They are being met by the neo-liberal corporate class and their lackeys in the state services that wants nothing more than to crush the unions a la 1991 and the Employment Contracts Act.

Get active: Movement for a living wage | libcom.org/organise | Socialist Aotearoa

In the following article Joe Hendren describes the uphill battle that Dairy workers are facing as their company prepares to bring in scabbing farmers to destroy their attempt to gain job security through collective agreement negotiations.

Open Country Cheese, a dairy product manufacturer set up by a couple of former National party cabinet ministers is planning to lock out its 100 staff for the audacity of seeking a collective agreement with basic redundancy and transfer of undertakings protection.

Today Auckland animal rights activists held a protest against the fur trade. The protest outside the Norwegian consulate was in response to a recent expose of Norwegian fur farms. The protest had been widely advertised and was completely public. Around ten of us were holding placards and leafleting passers by. During the protest a photographer for the listener approached us and told us that a photographer was in a car across the road with a long lens taking photos of the demo.

Immediately I headed across the road with a camera. As I neared the car the driver took off at high speed. At the next intersection the driver got stuck in a red light. As pedestrians crossed the road I took a couple of photos of the car and driver. To avoid having his photo taken the driver pulled his shirt completely over his head. While people were still crossing in front of his car he accelerated suddenly and then had to break heavily, coming dangerously close to running the pedestrians over. When he accelerated there were three people directly in front of his car. He was obviously driving blind. After this rather than stopping he sped through a red light.

Recent surveillance of activists: SAS protest. Terror cops – Still lying Still spying. Surveillance of ALA During Farm Tour. Ongoing Surveillance of Activists in Auckland. Video of Surveillance during Rakon demo. Video of Surveillance at Wellington demos.

Support 800 Telecom workers made redundant while their boss pays himself $5 million. Music, drinks, rally for strikers. Bring $10 koha for the workers strike fund. Organised by Socialist Aotearoa.

Read about the dispute here:
Matt McCarten: Can 700 Davids beat a corporate Goliath?
A classic class battle between Corporate Greed and Organised Labour is under way. On the corporate side we have the giant Telecom determined to maximise its profits and on the workers' side is the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). [ Read More ]

Support: facebook | campaign page | youtube

Date: Friday, 11 September 2009 Time: 19:30 - 23:30 Location:
Auckland Trades Hall, Supper Room   147 Great North Road, Grey Lynn    

There is a proposed new law before the Parliament that will greatly expand the powers of the state to conduct surveillance and require people to provide information.

This trend has serious implications for political activists. Recently released information confirms that the SIS has spied on New Zealanders' lawful behaviour and private lives for many decades. A promise that the SIS would be more open in providing access to such information has been short lived. Most people who now ask for their files under the Privacy Act are getting letters that say the SIS will neither confirm nor deny whether it holds a file on them.