War is Terrorism! Reports from Aotearoa on the National Day of Action against the War

christchurch: anti-US base demo at harewood

On Saturday December the 1st, as part of the national day of action against the war in Afghanistan, over 100 protesters gathered at the US military base at Harewood, Otautahi/Christchurch. The protesters were there to demand the immediate withdrawal of the US and New Zealand military presence in Afghanistan as well as the demilitarisation of Harewood. Harewood is a medium level multi-purpose military transport base that serves the massive US spy bases in Australia, specifically the key one of Pine Gap. Pine Gap has played a major role in every recent US military action and will most likely be providing targeting information for the current war in Afghanistan.
To start off proceedings there were short speeches by an Anti-Bases Campaign representative and a woman from the local Afghan community.

police block protesters

The protesters then marched to the base, but were prevented from getting to their planned demonstration location in front of the base because of a police blockage of a public road. The police rather dubiously claimed that the public road was airport land and that if any of the protesters crossed the barricades they would be arrested for trespass. The decision was made to halt the march at the police line and people took the opportunity to decorate the base fence with brightly coloured pieces of wool and fabric as well as banners and paper cranes. The road was also covered in anti-racism, anti-war and social justice slogans by happy chalkers. While these protesters brightened up the rather drab surroundings, others enjoyed afternoon tea of coffee, tea and biscuits kindly provided by Food not Bombs.
After about 20 minutes a small number of people decided to breech the police barricade. However, they were pushed back and in the process an airport security office assaulted one person. Another of the line breakers asked repeatedly to be arrested for trespass but the police politely refused to oblige.
In the end the protesters marched back to their starting point and then went home, but not before a number of water bombs filled with red dye were thrown at the base buildings. The protest was generally regarded as the most enjoyable and effective action taken by the anti-war 'movement' in Otautahi/Christchurch. It was organised by a coalition of groups including the Anarchist Round Table, Socialist Worker Organisation, ARENA, Women in Black, Anti-Bases Campaign and Food not Bombs.

CONTENTS

from argentina to aotearoa

anti-capitalist uprising in argentina: an analogy

organising against capitalism in the 21st century

conference report

anarchy in the r.k

bac to smog

the 24 milion dollar minute

war is terrorism

aotearoa news round up

auckland: labour party picket and naval base protest

Fifty to Seventy people picketed the Labour Party Conference in Takapuna, Auckland for a couple of hours as part of the national day of anti-war action on Dec 1. The small turnout was perhaps not surprising, given the out-of-the-way location of the conference, the effect on public consciousness of the somewhat illusory 'victory' of the US-led forces over the past two weeks, and of course the extremely weak state of the NZ left generally in 2001. On the positive side of the ledger, the picket had a very good spirit and was able to bring together to some extent two important issues. As well as members of the Anti Imperialist Coalition and the broader Anti War Coalition, the conference doorstep attracted about 10-15 teachers protesting the inadequate education funding that has prompted ongoing PPTA industrial action. We were able to talk to a number of the teachers and to advance slogans that linked their campaign with the anti-war campaign…Another positive feature of the picket was the rowdy, confrontational tone it took…Social democrats as well as loony far leftists were really rarking it up, shouting 'Baby killers!' and 'You've got blood on your hands!' and 'Resign!' as pro-war delegates scuttled in

protest outside the devonport naval base

.After all the delegates had gone inside the AIC, which had 12-15 people at the picket, burnt a copy of the Terrorism Bill (always a good media stunt that one) and headed down to Devonport [a suburb of Auckland]. We canned the march on the naval base because of low turnout and the absence of activity on the base - most of the boats were away - and did a 'speak-in' in the main street of Devonport instead. The place was pretty dead, but we did meet a couple of interesting people, including an Iraqi who took literature to distribute in his community.

the war produces racist scapegoating in auckland

The mass media and the political establishment have begun a campaign of vilification against new immigrant communities of Afghans in Auckland in the wake of the wave of the war on Afghanistan.
The NZ Herald (an Auckland newspaper) has claimed that the local Afghan community is a possible haven for "terrorists". The Labour-Alliance government, which has been busy persecuting overstayers, added its weight to the campaign, presenting its Kafkaesque detention-without-trial of several Afghan refugees as part of the "war on terror" launched by the US ruling elite.
The trigger for this campaign is the pressure the US ruling elite is putting on its allies (like the NZ government) to take a harsh line against terrorism. And it shows us some of the uses the "Anti-Terrorist Bill" will be put to.