October 15th Solidarity: State Terror in New Zealand
Last night’s talk at the Alexander Berkman Social Club was literally a global event. Valerie Morse skyped in from Wellington, New Zealand, to bring us Californians up to date on the ongoing struggle in response to the state’s 2007 terror raids on indigenous, anarchist, environmental, and antiwar activists across that country.
On one level, it’s a familiar story to anyone in the US who is aware of the PATRIOT act, Green Scare, grand jury shit, and the generally ramped-up culture of surveillance/detention/repression in this country since 9/11. At the same time, like state repression everywhere, there are plenty of regional variants (such as the state’s focus on, and fear of, Aotearoa’s indigenous sovereignty movement, and its overlap with anarchist and other movement).
Valerie made a powerful presentation and the wonders of modern technology made our sometimes abstract understanding of international “solidarity” much more immediate and real (right down to Barry Pateman letting Valerie know where she could get a free burger in Wellington). In that spirit, below I’ve pasted a statement from the October 15th Solidarity website, where you can find out more about the ongoing case, and how to lend your support.
While I’m at it, here are two more great NZ links:
http://www.rebelpress.org.nz/. The website of Rebel Press, an anarchist publishing collective in Wellington whose publications are “hand bound with a hatred of the State infused into every page,” not to mention available as free PDF downloads.
http://revoltingbooks.wordpress.com/. Revolting Books, a “little anarchist library” with a thousand books and nearly a hundred zine and serial titles.
Thanks to ABSC for another great event!
Later,
Charles
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On Monday, October 15th 2007, more than 300 police carried out dawn raids on dozens of houses all over Aotearoa / New Zealand. Police claim the raids were in response to ‘concrete terrorist threats’ from indigenous activists. The reality, however, included heavily armed police terrorising an entire township. To date, no evidence of the so-called terrorist plot has been revealed.
Police arrested 17 indigenous, anarchist, environmental and anti-war activists, including people from Tuhoe, Te Atiawa, Maniapoto, Nga Puhi and Pakeha. Police wanted to charge 12 people under the Terrorism Suppression Act (TSA), however the Solicitor-General denied the police permission to proceed. After four weeks in jail everyone was released on bail. On Tuesday, February 19th 2008, police raided further properties, arresting 3 more men. All were released on bail with strict conditions that same day. A woman was arrested on Thursday April 17th, 2008, and also faces charges under the Arms Act.
20 people are facing charges under the Arms Act, in a trial that could take several years. Although out of jail, they have very strict bail conditions that deny them freedom of movement and association. On this site you can find out how to get involved in local support groups, dates and locations of solidarity events are happening and how to make a donation. The struggle continues…