Posts by binary.heart
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"The harnessing of grievance for its own sake is not exclusive to the political Right (if, indeed, that's how this march can be characterised): it was the keynote to the (much bigger and getter organised) anti-capitalist marches in the late 90s – which saw third-world activists and North American unionists march shoulder-to-shoulder with their profoundly incompatible demands on trade policy."
I really don't understand how the demands of largely industrial workers from the Global North working with largely agricultural-based farmers organisations are profoundly incompatible. The key concern was the neo-liberal agenda whether that was IMF heavying your local economy to cut social programmes or the large-scale outsourcing of jobs in the North. A lot of the union solidarity was also built on raising awareness around the nature of working conditions in the global south i.e. sweatshops and maquiladoras. They had far more in common than they had differences.
The real keynote in terms of the Seattle protests among others was that it was one of the first times people in the Global North picked up the concerns of the South along with their own.The neo-liberal agenda in most peoples understanding caused pain and struggle around the world, in the 1990s. Even neo-liberals generally agreed that this was so, while stating that such market 'corrections' were necessary. I think it's really unfair to mismatch a complex yet far more coherent movement that I think many would agree was driven by a genuine sense of solidarity, and desire to change the current system with a mish-mash of campaigns that are largely against giving other people rights i.e. the introduction of civil unions and repealing Section 59.
What took the wind out of the sails of the anti-globalisation movement was largely 9/11. On the one hand it made organising increasingly difficult and various countries began using anti-terror legislation to bully, individuals groups and gatherings, and on the other as Bush Jnr and his cabal pissed away the mandate given by the public of the US, far greater focus went on anti-war organising.
From my own experience - the single-issue campaigners, biblical-types, conspiracy theorists, and mentally unwell (by no means a comprehensive list, but a good indication) will start turning up after you have your first medium-sized or greater 'success' in the public arena. What was happening on Saturday was to some degree this . In terms of post-October 15th, the above hit Aotearoa Indymedia with a vengeance – although I'm not sure I'd call it a success either.
"The anti-GE movement (which in 2003 managed marches thrice bigger than Saturday's) was undermined by the active presence of the likes of Jonathan Eisen, whose paranoid style is essentially incompatible with civil progress."
While he may have been undermining, but the key undermining factor was that the moderate Green organisations came to terms with the introduction with GE into their countries, and the radical wing moved on. In New Zealand, the Green Party decided not to do anything particular about the moratorium ending other than continue to increase their standing via the ballot box - and a pragmatist would argue there was really sod all else they could do. To my mind, in this country at least the GE movement ground to halt largely because of this key compromise, rather than some individual personalities.
"The grand promise of the global anti-capitalist craze wound up in some of the weird, scary stuff you can find on Indymedia these days."
I agree that the comments on Indymedia can suck almost as bad as comments on Youtube. I would point out that Aotearoa Indymedia now has policies against racism and other forms of discrimination.
However when you look at what is reported there the movement that inspired Indymedia is still going on. Reporting on human-rights in Honduras or climate-change activism in Europe is a bit more than whatever 'weird' and 'scary' comments you might find here and there.
Overall the parallels you tried to draw seemed to be so cartoon-like and inaccurate that they were worse than useless.
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LegBreak: "And the Air NZ ad also features the CEO, which is quite cool."
It would be nice if he put his clothes and actually paid people what they are worth:
http://zealgirl.wordpress.com/
Or stopped developing a nasty little cult of personality
http://www.thestandard.org.nz/the-brand-cult-of-air-new-zealand/
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Craig: Let's get real, they're very expensive non-binding opinion polls. If a pressure group wants to start a petition, or lobby for legislative changes, they're perfectly entitled to. I just don't think given them the spurious authority of being run by an electoral agency means anything much.
I think I am being real. I would rather have this option when raising issues. I think they could be cheaper tied to local and national elections etc, and there should be more oversight over questions, or going further and voting on actually proposed legislation.
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I agree with the idea that the CIR legislation could be substantially improved, but I've been perturbed by the idea some have stated that they should just be turfed out. It is not impossible to write CIR questions that give you nosebleeds as you untangle them. Take for example Unite union's current one:
"Should the adult minimum wage be raised in steps over the next three years, starting with an immediate rise to $15 per hour, until it reaches 66% of the average total hourly earnings as defined in the Quarterly Employment Survey?"
- http://www.unite.org.nz -
I understand that these people all have a right to a fair trial, and that right was clearly endangered by the publication of evidence that would be inadmissible in the arms charges they have wound up facing. But the defendants and their supporters were also making extraordinary claims on their own behalf
In your blog post you seem to indicate that the Dom Post in printing selected parts of the document in November were in some way responding to misinformation by supporters, yet your evidence of this was published months after the 'Terrorism Files' report in the Dom Post.
"There was far more expressed than that by some defendants and, more especially, surrogates such as John Minto.
You have conflated John Minto talking about the evidence from one set of intercepts about the defendant mentioned in his article, to being about all the intercepts. Minto makes it clear that he's talking very specifically here, yet you seem to ignore this. You've done this previously, I'm not sure why you continue to continue to misread the same article.
By and large, I believe most of the criticism of the police at the time was because of their obviously heavy-handed approach in Ruatoki and the increasingly obvious wide-net that they had cast.
And lets not forget this was despite the breathless reporting of IRA-style attacks and napalm which as I understand it did not come from the leaked affadavit, as I don't believe it was yet in the defence's hands.
You might be outraged, but that's no excuse for confusing and clouding the situation further, particularly since your page impressions did so well at the time.
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Danyl said: "I think that if you go to the TV3 and TVNZ web sites you'll see that they spent considerably more than 5 seconds on that aspect of the protest - but that like everybody else in the country that watched the coverage you only remember the sensational images that the news shows lead with, that made the march look more like a Hamas funeral than a Hikoi."
I only watched the late One News and there was no attempt to cover the aspect that I've mentioned. I am not asking for preferential treatment for Tuhoe, but on the day that the media generally have tried to present themselves as serving the public interest by printing cherry picked statements, from a document that was arranged by the police to secure arrest warrants, I expect them to present all sides carefully. The television media I saw, did not do that. However, there was a more balanced article on Stuff which had a headline along the lines of 'Rowdy but peaceful', but it's been pulled, had it's headline changed, or it was worked into another article. So sorry no link.
Just to be absolutely clear, I am not complaining the media showed people in balaclavas etc, and to state that is to misrepresent what I've posted.
For me, the Guantanamo comparison largely sits around the wide net approach that was used on the 16 who were arrested on firearms and TSA charges, and the equating of protest and activism by states around the world with terrorism. The 17th was arrested for having 107 plants of a herbal nature.
As Russell when said:
"...but I don't think the links are entirely arbitrary. On the other hand, I do get the impression that some of the 17 were guilty of no more than an association with others, and that there is an element of the corruption of innocents."
Also, when you look at the overwhelming amount of raids and the lockdown of Ruatoki, there is a pattern which to me is arbitary and completely over the top, which is symptomatic of anti-terrorism operations around the world.
Defence lawyer Michael Bott did go to the media twice and make comparisons to Guantanamo to illustrate the very serious problems he was having gaining access to his client in both Auckland and Wellington prisons. (http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1421362)
RB said:
"I guess so. I thought the fact that quite a number of the Dom Post quotes came from bugged car trips suggested it might have been from the same bundle."
From what I heard the evidence read out against Rongomai was truly laughable, and I think that's best illustrated by the fact that he got bail earlier than anyone else, despite the fact the police still tried to secure the right to pursue TSA charges.
In terms of court procedure, I understand transcripts were literally arriving on lawyers desks in court at the bail hearings. I know one received virtually no evidence beyond a statement of facts (and certainly not the prepared affadavit) in the first couple of weeks. Frankly, he appeared somewhat bewildered by how normal conventions and behaviours were not being followed in many ways during the proceedings of the first two weeks. I don't think the evidence read in court that Minto is referring to was the material printed in the Dom Post.
As an aside, Maia has posted on the evidence, and I think its worth reading:
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To clarify:
"I'm not sure of which iwi they belong to in all cases, but the majority are not Tuhoe."
I was referring to the arrested people here.
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"And I don't think Tainui are going to be too impressed at the way Nanaia Mahuta was humiliated either."
I was standing 15-20 metres away from her as she was giving the speech. She choose to not use the megaphone to talk to hundreds of people. There were calls of 'kupapa', from where I was standing there was just as many calls for her to use the megaphone so they could hear her speak. She got a better reception than most politicians in front of an 'unsympathetic' audience. I don't know anything about the iwi politics though to comment on how Tainui people might feel.
Incidentally before she spoke she wandered through the crowd past me and appeared unconcerned
Sophie Wilson said:
"Can you understand how the haka can be primarily seen as a negative thing in this context?"
I can, but I think people need to reflect more on why that is the case than they have been. I don't find arguments about they should have thought about how the media would present this particularly convincing, but I don't have time to go in to this further other to say that such a march is a political space which you ask people to participate in. Marches about popular issues should not be stage-managed events.
In terms of other comments the whole demonstration/hikoi the whole event took at least 4 hours and despite the anger it was determined peaceful and lawful by the police. Is it too much too much to ask that the tv news media spend 5 seconds on that side of it.
"As a Maori and New Zealand woman I will stand behind it as part of my cultural heritage. But soon as the haka is dressed with real anger and frustration and no clear direction of this anger "
There was a _clear direction_ behind the haka that was done at parliament it was to the politicians at parliament, also I think the people of Tuhoe have every right to be angry at the police and this was the clear direction of anger at the police HQ.
I simply don't agree with this:
"demonstrators over the past month have been unravelling their good work with every placard that says “Activism not Terrorism” and with every young chap in an orange jumpsuit referencing Guantanamo bay."
The activism not terrorism is I think easy to understand. The orange jumpsuit (referencing Guantanamo and what our friends were wearing when we visited them in jail), was the only salvageable action from the media coverage of the Labour Party conference debacle. Hell, even Chris Trotter liked it, and he's frighteningly hard to please these days.
"I'm afraid the 128 open day did not affect the risk of the general public thinking of the activists as over reacting, mis-contextualising terrorists."
I've heard this line once from a conservative farmer who was making a joke at the time. Maybe it's more common that I thought and I'm wrapped up in my Welly bubble, but I think most people here do get there is a difference.
Sophie said "I saw the hikoi and the fleet of cars where all I could see were camo, balaclava, black and red as well as angry shouting at the public. It felt as though the Tuhoe fleet were ready for war, and this had my reptilian brain deciding whether I should fight or run. Yes this reaction reflects on me as a person because I am human."
When I made that statement about how much it reflects on the viewer I hadn't in mind our reptile heritage, and more recently evolved prejudiced and social mores.
The point I wanted to make is that there was more to the march than presented in the media, and I think on a day like this, the media should be nothing short of accurate and fair.
I'm sorry to go through point by point and I don't think I've responded as well as I could have. For what its worth, If you want to talk in person about your thoughts email me on binary.heart1@gmail.com. It would be interesting to hear more.
Bob said:
"That 60 houses were searched nationwide"
That was my personal estimate after reviewing most of the media reports at the time (there have been some which were reported in local media which haven't been picked up elsewhere ie Wairoa ) and asking around, I then confirmed this with someone who is formally researching this. At least one of the people raided have said they were too intimidated to make a fuss because the police had said they'd come back and arrest them. I imagine that story is fairly common.
"but of the 16 arrested only 3 were Tuhoe and only 3 others Maori."
My current count is 10 are maori or have maori ancestry. Three of these people are more publically identified with peace and social justice concerns. The raids were predominantly against those who were involved in Maori politics (or their friends and relatives). I'm not sure of which iwi they belong to in all cases, but the majority are not Tuhoe.
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Some thoughts on media...
Sorry I couldn't post earlier, but I was on the hikoi and then needed to go to work.
It's been clear from the beginning that the police have fully involved in a media war. There were strategic leaks of 'napalm' on the Tuesday after the raids, the gist of the text messages about 'assassination' on the Sunday, along with the police source in the Sunday news who leaked talk of 'assassination of Maori public figures. The leaked affidavit is likely to come from the police. Despite what one commentator reported that Tony Ellis said, I don't believe that the defence have had the affidavit (although they may have had some of the evidence contained within it), although presumably political figures would also have it from the briefings so it may not have just been the police.
I think also the bail hearings were a chance for the police to cherry-pick evidence for the purpose of not just the judges ears, but also to whet the appetite of the media. Certainly in a bail hearing I understand the judge pulled up the police on this, as he picked out another quote from the transcript which directly contradicted the interpretation the police were trying to construct.
I should also point out the police wouldn't hand over full transcripts that they used in court to the defence on the basis that the transcripts might change as they were only rough drafts.
It is interesting to note that the police media unit ( incidentally like local police on the East Cost) according to Alastair Thompson on Scoop were not briefed. Trying to get accurate public information from the police has been particularly tough.
The leaked affidavit contains the most inflammatory material and is cherry picked from the evidence. The media have cherry picked themselves to get the most dramatic material.
The Dom Post report clearly only covers the dramatic 'evidence', and not what they call 'comical', which I believe provides important context to the seriousness of some of the claims. On the evening news, it was breathlessly reported that people wanted to shoot the propellers off George Bush's helicopter. Yeah, those jokes aren't that funny anymore, but they were clearly jokes.
The Dom Post 'expose' was also not at pains to point out what John Campbell said after reading the material that it was only 5-6 people who were talking in a 'disturbing' way. They have happily smeared 16 people and whole communities and movements with this stuff, without feeling the need to put it in even the most basic of context.
The Dom Post wants to be seen as a defender of the public interest still have not asked basic questions like how many raids took place (our estimates are sixty and almost all were Maori)?
In terms of some of the comments by Sophie Wilson about Wellington activists and the media, I think it's worth pointing out that there generally has been good media liaison by Wellington anarchists. The people who have been doing that weren't at the meeting, and we do actually do a lot of media work for campaigns - the people who have spoken are well known to the media ie Lenka Rochford and Sam Buchanan.
While the analysis you mention of a feeling that the media screw you over every time exists, there are plenty of others who are willing to interact. As evidence I'd point to the 128 open day which was extremely successful in terms of presenting the truth of what that community space is about. So much so that the police felt the need to comment in public (as opposed to leak news) that the house was no longer of interest to them.
I understand those meetings have been particularly difficult as there have been mixed understandings of their purpose, a poor venue for the amount of people, and called in a time of crisis where people's homes had been violated and friends taken from them. I heard that last Tuesday's meeting was a lot more focused.
In terms of the media will screw you every time. I participated in the hikoi and I don't believe that there was a fair representation of what went on. I counted around 1500 people tightly packed together for a march. There were kids in strollers, people joining us from the street, and construction workers who made there own placards supporting Tuhoe waving them from building sites.
The New Zealand state is very, very happy to put on a show of haka and Maori martial prowess at any event it can get away with it. The New Zealand public is generally happy with haka being used to start sporting events.
Why is it so disturbing to see the Tuhoe crew using their culture to express their (in my view righteous) feelings of unhappiness, anger and determination.
As for the claim made here that everyone was wearing balaclavas I would estimate there were about 40-50 masked up.
The front of the march was brash, exuberant, and at times angry, but I would ask anyone who say honestly why they felt intimidated by it. I think the answer would reflect more on the person than the nature of the march.
In terms of using Indymedia to determine the state of mind of the activist community is extremely unfair. It is an anonymous open forum which has a very wide editorial policy which can be read on the site. I regularly follow news from it and have done for years, the majority of comments I believe are people who don't normally post there, and are generally not representative of current debates in the community. By and large the majority of people working on this issue are too busy to post there right now. or feverishly working on main features.
I think Asher and the Indy crew are doing a great job of updating the main features and these have been one of the most accurate and up to date sources of information for following what's been going on.