At long last, some measure of vindication for the countless legitimate protesters victimised by Auckland Council.
At the close of business today March 6th 2013 the corporate media began reporting that the High Court in Auckland has finally found in favour of Occupy Auckland.
The extremely sparse media reports (no more than a few short paragraphs and almost uniform wording across a slew of mainstream news sources) don’t tell you much other than that the violent evictions imposed by the Council despite our pending court appeal “went too far“.
Indeed, lawyer Ron Mansfield suspected as much, when he warned us that the conduct of the Council surrounding the evictions may have breached the terms of their own by-laws. That stealing and storing our belongings in a supposedly “vacant” hangar at the same airforce base the FBI were flying in and out of that very week; miles out of town; may be onerous.
That their demanding private information about anyone who did manage to get out to the airbase to “claim” their belongings; may not be legal.
The human cost of the evictions is impossible to calculate and goes far beyond the dozens of arrests on January 23rd & 26th, 2012.
The evictions crippled the physical presence and daily functioning of the four simultaneous and autonomous occupations in Auckland Central – (Occupy Aotea Square; Occupy Te Herenga Waka at Victoria Park; Occupy Albert Park and Occupy Queen Street)
The occupations created organising hubs for the public to engage in political activism that should be encouraged in any healthy democracy and indeed is enshrined in our Bill of Rights.
From the homeless protester in his 80s who suffered multiple heart attacks and was hospitalised after his heart medication was unlawfully seized by “security”, and the Occupy liaisons who frantically tried to negotiate with the Council for the return of the medication, only to wait 48 hours for a response…
…to the middle-aged grandmother who had never been arrested in her entire life until Occupy, never had a tent or stayed overnight at an occupation, but was named in litigation by Auckland Council and hauled relentlessly through Court, unjustly…
…to the intelligent and sincere young man, of whom images were plastered all over the national media after he was lifted off the ground by his neck by police alongside mercenary corporate private security companies hired by Auckland Council at ratepayers’ expense…
…to his petite girlfriend, trapped outside the temporary fencing Auckland Council erects on a whim at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars, screaming with raw fright and fear as she witnessed what was happening to her partner before her very eyes…
…to a little 5 year old boy, who the police and Auckland Council staff alike, left in the middle of Aotea Square; after they arrested his father in front of him, without even noticing the child…
…to the woman who scooped up the child onto her hip, marched into the congregation of police officers outside the paddy-wagon-filled Auckland Council carpark and publicly scolded the Inspector in charge for the display of utter negligence…
…to the uni student, who was one of the first to feel the cold touch of publicly-funded Council-ordered surveillance, so early on in Occupy that he was not believed; surveillance that, although later confirmed by the Council to have been undertaken, escalated until his entire life fell apart around him. Despite being so young, he was forcefully institutionalised and temporarily drugged into apathy… all on our tax dollars… his persecution paid for by our rates…
…those who suffered profound loss because of Auckland Council are too many to be counted on all our fingers and toes. Thousands of people per week became active in their communities at grassroots level because of Occupy and collectively housed, fed, educated and cared for hundreds residing in the occupations.
…to every person who ever learned something because of Occupy; taught someone because of Occupy; fed someone because of Occupy, was fed by Occupy – to everyone who for the first time in their lives saw that we CAN provide for each other and we CAN provide for ourselves…
…to those who were slandered, libelled, suppressed, oppressed, victimised by many of the mechanisms of the state, most visibly, Auckland Council.
The very body that is supposed to represent our interests.
Whether there can ever now be reparation remains to be seen. So much was lost that cannot be returned. Many occupiers may now not even be alive. Many have had such financial pressure and mental stress applied to them that they have lost or are losing what assets and opportunities they had.
Many have been served with questionably legal trespass notices; intimidated out of returning to the CBD or outright threatened in various forms.
Last October 15th, 2012, the 1 year anniversary of Occupy Auckland, protesters performed flash occupations at the original sites and at other places of significance to our movement.
But of course, Auckland Council got a visit.
As did TVNZ, the national broadcaster who had participated in the corporate media blackout, and then smear campaign against Occupy.
TVNZ, who utterly failed to fairly represent the voices of the people, or to sufficiently educate the public as to the global and viral nature of the movement, found their staff entrance temporarily occupied.
But also on the flash occupation list was the High Court in Auckland.
Yet this recent ruling begins a process of restoring the faith instilled in us by the human rights lawyers at Occupy Auckland, so long ago.
We DO have the right to the basic necessities of human life even though Auckland Council denied us water, power and the tools of communication.
For we do and should have the right to peacefully assemble. The right to free association.
The right to dissent and the right to seek redress from our systems of Government.
We have the legal right not to be discriminated against on the basis of our political opinion.
We have the right to participate in our democracy. All of us.
And we must. For the viability of the continued existence of our entire planet, depends upon what we do now.
E tu Aotearoa. Stand up and fight back. Don’t let them sell what scraps they have not already stolen. This is our country. It is priceless.
If you remember Schapelle Corby being plastered all over the media but you haven’t seen the Expendable.tv website archives or viewed the “Expendable: The Political Sacrifice of Schapelle Corby” free documentary, please bookmark this page & watch it ASAP.
You will be astounded at the injustice & at the vast cover-up that has maintained it.
There is an International Day of Solidarity for Schapelle Corby on February 28th.
Please make contact with the wonderful admins at the CIAbook group “People For Schapelle Corby” if you can help with organising an action in your area.
Our F28 event: “ONE DEMAND: FREE SCHAPELLE CORBY” will be held at Aotea Square, Auckland, February 28th, 6.30pm
PRESS RELEASE: Monday 18 February 2013
For immediate release:
New Zealanders In Solidarity With Schapelle Corby are hosting a candlelight vigil at Aotea Square, 6.30pm on February 28th, 2013.
The hit free documentary “Expendable” (www.expendable.tv) compiles countless official government documents to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that Schapelle Corby is NOT guilty.
Despicably, the powers that be went to great lengths to blind the public to that fact.
Even despite it emerging that her suitcase (which was discovered 5kg overweight) was actually underweight when she checked it in, she has so far served 8 years of an outrageous 20 year sentence, in appalling conditions in a Balinese jail.
As if that wasn’t enough to topple the balance of resaonable doubt; as recently as December 2012 an drug-trafficking ring was arrested, for operating customs-side at Sydney Airport. Corrupt airport employees were using the baggage of unsuspecting passengers to ferry drugs around Australasia.
As the “Expendable” documentary spreads around the world, exponential numbers of people are discovering the truth about what really happened to Schapelle Corby.
An international day of solidarity will be occurring worldwide. With only one demand.
Free Schapelle Corby immediately. Let her out now, and the international events will be cancelled!
Julia Gillard: Act in good faith and give Schapelle back her life. She has lost so much of it already.
Event also endorsed by: the 14,000-strong Facebook page “People For Schapelle Corby” & Occupy Auckland, New Zealand.
This week the NZ corporate media, in concert with the NZ police, put forward a young female protester as a scapegoat for the repeated violence demonstrated by officers & security guards at the December 8 TPPA Shutdown protest at Sky City, in Auckland.
But never did we dream that the protesters written about so libelously in the national media would now be suddenly exonerated in so spectacular a fashion as has unfolded!
The tape is of internal police conversations regarding the approval of the U.S. Embassy of the police actions that day, a tape of which GPJA says;
In the recording the officer acknowledges Saturday’s melee was sparked when an officer “broke ranks” and ran into the crowd.
The admins on Occupy Auckland & Occupy New Zealand have had a hell of a week. Not only have they had to deal with constant paid trolls on You Tube videos posting false “witness testimony” (sure they were there! With a uniform on…) we have also had to deal with many of our own loyal supporters who weren’t present, and who took the corporate media/police line at face value.
It seems the entire country forgot our track record of a year straight of non-violent protest actions.
As with the violence displayed at the Occupy Auckland evictions and the constant bashings dished out by police at Glen Innes Housing protests, there was already a mountain of evidence that the blame for the TPPA unrest lay at the feet of authorities.
For an organisation that has promised to change its culture surrounding the handling of crimes committed by its employees, it needs to take a serious look at why it is expending its resources targeting normal legislative democratic dissent and not dealing to the abysmal social issues that continue in Auckland seemingly unabated.
When the police make the general public the enemy, who is left for them to protect and serve?
It is difficult for someone not involved to realise the full significance of this now-famous photo of Motorbike Cop – NZ’s own version of Pepper Spray Cop.
“What kind of a cop is this? No ID, No badge, No uniform, A crash helmet. He roamed around beating up on young girls.” says an eye-witness http://t.co/eFWWrKH9 #tpp #tppa #d8
The member of the public in the above photo is wearing a Power Shift t-shirt. Power Shift had an event at the university on the morning of the TPPA protest, and are a very straight-laced coalition of climate change protesters, many of whom then attended the TPPA shutdown on a whim.
While to corporate eyes the young man’s skin colour may condemn him, as with the other victims of Motorbike Cop he was quite obviously undeserving of the ill-treatment so publicly meted out to him.
Likewise some police may have been fooled into thinking it is an accomplishment to hit John Minto. To us, it is the utmost shame to beat a man of his age. Those who physically abuse someone they can’t outmatch intellectually are the definition of thugs.
The city cops that policed Occupy Auckland for the first four months of our occupations, were the opposite of the thuggery displayed at the TPPA negotiations.
It seems whenever police are imported from other locations there is brutality, but the regular city cops especially under the guidance of Inspector Danny Meade, have been constantly affable, supportive and generated goodwill amongst activists.
To have those efforts so callously destroyed for the sake of testosterone and blatant political discrimination, let alone on the world stage where it is being played out, is pure embarrassment.
This month we have worked so hard to move the world to analyse and reject the TPPA, with great success. Even going so far as to host foreign citizen journalists, to spend money filming and documenting the momentous events here, creating a pure historical record.
It seems this is precisely what has played out here. Despite the police and corporate media machines being set firmly against us – the truth has slipped through the cracks and the perpetrators have revealed themselves and their intentions, to the world.
(Updated D10 2012) The frequently foolish John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand, has a long track record of outright “ignoring” mass dissent amongst the population, boiling for over a year now.
When 8,000 protesters amassed on the steps of Parliament in May, John Key claimed from inside that very building, to be unaware of their presence.
Today those protesters showed that they will not be ignored.
The mainstream media version of today’s events is that a rogue female protester assaulted a cop, resulting in the unrest. However, eye witness testimony from those on the ground paints a vastly different picture.
As does the extremely valuable live video coverage of the event, broadcast by Occupy Eye (NYC, DC) and Redstar309Z (Auckland, NZ) from the ground. Their streams are a must-see.
Below is a mash-up of media from the day – videos, photos, and tweets. We will continually add links and information as able.
These boxes contained 750,000 signatures from people worldwide who are against the TPPA
After Professor Jane Kelsey from Auckland University School of Law was denied entry to hand over the petition, the boxes were set alight in protest. #d8 #tpp #tppa
(Last two photos by @keyweekat of Occupy Auckland Media Team)
Keyweekat’s video of the symbolic burning of the rejected petition signatures:
At this point, several scuffles broke out between police and protesters with livestream footage showing officers throwing punches, kicking & shoving & using various tactics against protesters of all ages and walks of life.
There was much furore after the cop in this photo allegedly attacked a number of protesters including women. He was then intercepted by a group of protesters who began to return the favour, at which point according to Occupy Eye, the rest of the cops “came in swinging” to get him out. (Refer to the livestreams to see these events for yourself).
“What kind of a cop is this? No ID, No badge, No uniform, A crash helmet. He roamed around beating up on young girls.” says an eye-witness http://t.co/eFWWrKH9 #tpp #tppa #d8
The protesters then scattered with a large group gathering for debrief at Aotea Square, which was quickly surrounded by police, apparently intent on kettling those still within the vicinity.
However the display of violence against the young female had infuriated the crowd, who openly confronted the police, telling them to stand down & leave immediately, which they apparently wisely chose to do.
This 12 minute video filmed & edited by Occupy Eye is a must-see.
For a thorough time-stamped analysis of the above video please read this viewing guide.
Police Walk Of Shame from Aotea Square after assaulting protesters incl. young women:
Eye-witness testimony regarding police assaults on protesters:
2nd eye-witness testimony regarding police assaults on protesters:
Middle-aged protester shows her bruises from being physically grabbed and thrown by police #d8 #tpp #tppa #anfs
3News (who have a long track record of misrepresenting protest actions in New Zealand) claim there were 30 police present. In reality, there were a multitude of squads of 30-45 police each and likely in excess of 30 police vehicles.
We might wonder where TV3 and the other corporate media get their information from. However, we know full well where they get it from. In fact, we captured them getting it!
Is this why the NZ corporate media are reporting fiction?
3News report there were 30 police present. You be the judge.
Intersection of Albert & Wellesley, #d8 #tpp #tppa
Albert Street #d8 #tpp #tppa
Intersection of Albert St & Victoria St West
Victoria Street West, Auckland #d8 #tpp #tppa
Federal St, Auckland. Entrance of the Sky City Grand Hotel #d8 #tpp #tppa
Intersection Federal St & Wellesley St, Auckland #d8 #tpp #tppa
There were squads of cops like this at each corner/entrance to Aotea Square, blatantly attempting to kettle the protesters who had fled to Aotea to escape the violence at Sky City
Also check out this must-read blogpost with more commentary and pics & vids shot from different angles.
Thank you to the world for watching. Special thanks to Global Rev & Ustream for carrying the livestreams today. Big boo to Sky News for stealing Occupy Eye’s stream without permission. More to come about that!!!
We were pleased to be invited to attend the Mana Movement Glen Innes Branch AGM last Thursday 15th November at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Puau Te Moananui-a-kiwa in Glen Innes, Auckland.
Having attended and covered many of the Glen Innes Housing Defense protests in G.I. (as Aucklanders call it) it was important to us to have a chance to hear the korero (talk, messages) from the speakers present, many of whom have openly supported Occupy in New Zealand, since our inception.
As with such events, it is the finishing touches that really count, and we were extremely impressed by the organisation and generosity of the members, many of whom were familiar faces from protest actions.
Despite being “outsiders” we have been embraced by the G.I. community, with Mana granting us spontaneous filming, photographing and reporting rights, even allowing us to livetweet the event.
It is, to our knowledge, unprecedented for a political party, to be so open and transparent at an annual General Meeting. We certainly weren’t extended the same privileges at the recent (ruling) National Party Convention!!
What impressed us the most is how down-to-earth the proceedings were. Informal yet intimate setting, combined with grassroots marketing ingenuity; instead of glossy brochures and expensive advertising, hosts furnished the attendees with bags of kai (food) and asked us to make sure it went to people who needed it, if we ourselves didn’t.
That finishing touch reflected the drawing in Parliament of Mana Movement’s “Feed The Kids” bill – a piece of legislation that aims to bring New Zealand in line with other foreign countries by having our public education system be responsible for providing basic nourishment to children within school hours.
Web search “Child Poverty In New Zealand” to read about our appalling track record, with 100s of 1000s of children living below the breadline. Congratulations to Mana for seeking to address this and as they say, truly “Walking The Talk”.
Highlights from the livetweet:
Just heading in2 te mana AGM 2 see hone harawira annette sykes & john minto speak Will ask permission 2 film/interview @occupysydney#saveGI
Here is the video interview with John Minto – highly suggest viewing it from mobile phone!! Because for unknown reasons when we “rotated” it to the correct appearance in the video editor it cut the video in half! The conversation is great though and well worth listening to. Kia ora everyone involved in the AGM. You did a great job.
48 hours out from #O25 Occupy Oakland is in turmoil. It needs our help.
We, who have eye-witnessed on their behalf. As they in turn did for us, during the evictions of Occupy Auckland, here in NZ.
How can we help? By speaking the truth. Fearlessly.
By regurgitating the sum of our knowledge gathered over this past year and trusting in each other’s mutual sincerity enough to ALWAYS keep an open mind.
We who have now, finally, become adept at picking out the true of heart and conscience, from the wolves in sheep’s clothing. For by their actions, they are known.
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The geographic difference between Oakland, CA & New Zealand belies the closeness of the socio-economic circumstances and the pop culture. Listening to the Port Shutdown II soundtruck on Oakfosho’s livestream, we knew (and raucously sung along to) every song played.
Whether it is the ‘Pac connection (revered as a deity in the NZ hip-hop/rap scene) or the fact that I, a white Kiwi woman, can rap the entire of Luniz “I Got 5 On It”; at street level we feel Oakland, like a distant older sibling. “Up in the O-A-K the town; homies don’t play around, we down to blaze a pound…” “Holla if ya hear me!”
Activists and musicians from Oakland have been naming all of our social ills and nailing the root causes of them for decades before Occupy spawned. They, and the newer generations of activists who collectively founded Occupy Oakland do have so much to be proud of.
Proud that people were fed, that people were housed, that people were roused from their slumber and reunited in community. Proud that because of the sheer determination of citizen media; the whole world IS watching.
We will never forget the night the chopper’s cut & ran.
We were screaming obscenities at the @ABC7newsBayArea “refuelling” lies, while watching both the CBS and ABC7 helicopters cut & run SIMULTANEOUSLY… from the livestreams on the ground.
We don’t need to retell that story… it was already done beautifully in this absolute must-read blog post, authored by an Oakland resident who witnessed the same sequence of events as us.
The writer talks of leaping out of their chair and running out of their house to join their community on #O25 ’11, explicitly because of what they witnessed through the livestreams. Yet another testament to the invaluable ability of People’s Media to reach an audience otherwise literally CUT OFF from participation, by the complicity and corruption of the mainstream media.
Witnessing the chopper cut-and-run & the events that followed, instantly turned us into by-proxy Occupy Oakland activists. As with activists the world over, we amplified & collated the media response and from sheer outrage at the injustices, absolutely hammered the public interfacing (read: P.R.) channels of the officials responsible for the debacle.
Mayor Jean Quan’s Facebook page was receiving 14,000 – 20,000 comments per post on her page, lambasting her (to put it politely). ABC7 was forced to pull their twitter feed off their website after it erupted into abuse at their obvious lies and omissions, bailing right as everyone was gassed.
The following are some of the tweets that transpired from our end, within the first 24 hours. (Note: 26th in NZ was 25th for OO)
The reference to “OPD lies” in one of the tweets above is due to the OPD holding a press-conference on #O25 itself stating to the corporate media that they had not used flash-bang grenades against the demonstrators. Once the deluge of citizen media came out proving them liars, the footage of their press conference was removed from the web.
The fall-out was immediate and swift. Mayor Jean Quan’s inner circle soon began to crumble.
Oakland mayor legal advisor Dan Segal: I am not the mayor, I don’t agree with mayor, I got tear-gassed last night #occupyoakland
Petitions sprang up; including a recall petition. A “Recall Mayor Jean Quan” Facebook page got thousands of likes almost instantaneously. Even, of all people, the police union, got on her case.
Astonishingly, Quan’s response (other than to shirk an appearance at a General Assembly for not being given priority in the speaking order) was to spill the beans about PERF‘s “18-city” eviction co-ordination.
This Oakland Tribune live-blog of O25 tells of the beginnings of the idea to shut down the Port of Oakland as part of a General Strike.
“Protesters are calling for a general strike in the city of Oakland on Thursday and are telling people to gather at 5 p.m. in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. They say their hope is to shut down the city. They’re telling businesses to close their shops and will be going into businesses to promote the idea. Protesters say they are trying to mobilize unions and turn this into a strike movement.”
“An estimated 2,000 protesters are on hand, and they’re discussing the mechanics for a strike on the city next Wednesday. Protest leaders are trying to galvanize unions, students and businesses into taking part. Ideally, protesters want students to skip school, businesses to shut down and hundreds of thousands of citizens to mobilize at the City Center.”
One week later, on the day of the Strike:
#OccupyOakland estimates = 20-50,000 at Port of Oakland. 100% organic, non corporate sponsored PEOPLE POWER!
You can tell when the 99% backs an action. Because it looks like this.
You can also tell who really backs the 99% and not just their own agenda, by their level of tolerance.
True Occupy Media amplify for all issues and for EVERY faction in a spirit of inclusion.
We cover the religious organisations that support the 99%; even though we do not personally ascribe to any of them. We cover the student movement, although we are not all students. We cover Rainbow Youth & LGBT issues, regardless of our own sexuality. We advocate for the elderly, the young, no matter what our own age.
We cover indigenous issues, because the mainstream media deliberately distort both history and the present, and above all we seek to give voice to those who often go unheard.
We cover the entire 99% to the best of our ability, and strive to strengthen the movement, to decentralise and grow the chorus of testimony horizontally across our society.
But the true mark of Occupy Media is that we never fucking quit sharing movement information. No matter what is thrown our way.
The drive to share the information and grow the awakening outstrips any personal discomforts we are forced to endure. Be it financial through deprivation, or through being targeted for bullying and derision by others.
Those who truly believe – who truly love Occupy – act to grow the movement. Not to pigeon-hole it into one fixed method or ideology.
Thus it was with shock and dismay that we witnessed the beheading of the Occupy Oakland Media team.
Proposals to disband entire media teams were surprisingly common across the movement. There was an asserted drive, especially in Oakland, to:
a) alienate livestreamers – even going so far as to accuse them of being “narks”, while outright ignoring/turning a blind eye to the vastly superior surveillance capabilities of the state
b) control the key infrastructure of the Occupy
c) usurp the resources of the Occupy
d) discredit the Occupiers and alienate the public from them
We suffered the same thing at Occupy Auckland, though by good fortune managed to mass block the destructive proposals to fire our media team and they never passed. Although it poisoned our G.A. process & succeeded to some extent in alienating people from the movement, those who pushed for it have since proven their colours many times over in the wider activist community, and we are now rightfully acknowledged for having, through fierce loyalty and dogged determination, kept Occupy Auckland alive, despite their constant claims that “Occupy is dead!”
To go through that experience immediately prior to witnessing the same proposal actually PASS at Occupy Oakland, was horrifying. On live chat on Oakfosho’s stream, the day of that fateful General Assembly, no less than a half dozen cities were screaming warnings that the same proposal had been made at their occupies. We were all begging Oak to warn the G.A. not to do it. No proposal should EVER be passed which undoes the work of dozens of people who have given so much of themselves and their lives to the movement. Sadly due to the absence of much of the already beleaguered media team and the first-in-history successful use of the word ‘terrorist’ as a deterrent to further investigation… it was all over.
I had a particular memory of said ‘terrorist’, from months prior. Where I had stumbled across a Kickstarter page that successfully fundraised $3,200 for the creation of a definitive “Oral History of Occupy Oakland“. (The project delivery date was January 2012 yet we cannot find any trace of it.)
The page makes the astonishing claim;
“Especially in the earlier period of the plaza, my reporting has been at times, and for most of this period, the only in-depth narrative work done on the camp, and by any estimate the most accurate.” -Jamie Omar Yassin
It then lists a bunch of links to the apparently WePay-funded blog Hyphenated-Republic whose last update was August 27th, 2012.
However it does have a very active Twitter feed on it – one which is filled with daily hate messages about OOMedia, courtesy of @Hyphy_Republic.
Despite his account’s “protected” status (another sure sign of someone spreading the awakening!) his twitter feed populating on his dormant blog site means his vitriole is able to be witnessed live.
Which seems to be a vast departure from the story told here most notably, in the comments section.
Ironically, one thing Occupy Oakland definitely DOES have is great websites. Both OccupyOakland.org & HellaOccupyOakland.org have high usability and polish.
Unfortunately the “official” website appears to have no news updates between August 8th and October 22nd. The official Facebook page, which has a huge reach with over 24,000 likes on it, has been dormant for months. Suggesting the “new” media team that “replaced” OOMedia is all but AWOL.
One of Jaime Omar Yassin’s anti-OOMedia Twitter compadres is @OccupiedOakTrib who appears to control the infrastructure of the media teams print publication. (Or at the very least its social media accounts). From which he has made very clear his public position, while continuing to, still seven months later, be snapping at the heels of OOMedia. Despite having personally announced the “Emergency GA” to present a proposal to depose them.
— Occupied Oak Trib (@OccupiedOakTrib) March 4, 2012
Watching that OO assembly all we could see was ourselves mirrored in it. The same ringleaders. The same stooge saboteurs. The same cat-calling, negativity-cheering, rent-a-mob. The same slanderous terminology slung about to inflate emotions and utterly DISTRACT everyone present from action-planning, instead making them unwitting participants in devolution.
Now, seven months later, the writing is on the wall. As we would say, “the proof is in the pudding”. HellaOccupyOakland is posting exponential articles from around the globe, to every 1 by the Occupied Oakland Tribune. Meanwhile Jaime Omar Yassin is blaming Occupy Oakland for his not having uploaded an audio file to the G.A. archive in forever, despite having gloated over the historical value of it on the Kickstarter page that apparently netted him $3,200.
For all the cries of “transparency” and “accountability” between the two of them; the online record IS transparent. It shows no uploads of G.A. minutes or audio for the “emergency” G.A. that voted to fire the media team. Nor any in the seven months since.
Twitter is also transparent. If you search “OOMedia” in Twitter, with no # or @ in front, what you will find is @oomedia relentlessly sharing and spreading movement info, while being blasted with constant time-wasting trolling, by the same group of people, over and over again.
IF YOU’RE FACING FORECLOSURE, METRO CITATIONS ARE NO JOKE:… bit.ly/WwhNNm via @occupyla
It quite frankly sucks, but is no wonder, that those actively spreading the awakening are being hated on. By people whose timelines are filled with narcissistic, vitriolic bullshit by comparison.
While others claim credit for actions of the 99%; yet heap scorn upon the founding principles that brought the 99% together.
Non-Violence. Global Solidarity. Local Governance.
Thus the self-styled “Oakland Commune” appears to be a remanifestation of OO that is an attempt to mask the failure of those behind the firing of the media team, at doing any better.
The “O.C.” is now wearing the Port Shutdowns as a badge of honor while showing little interest in the original agreement to “mobilise the unions and make this a strike movement” as per the statement of the Port Shutdown Committee.
They are instead writing angsty teenage revolutionary would-be manifestos, advocating “smashy smashy” and deriding “pacifists” as lesser beings, completely ignoring the roots of Occupy; of Tahrir and the Battle of Qasr Elnil Bridge that turned the tide of the Egyptian Revolution and brought down Mubarak.
As in other examples of recent successful revolution, it was achieved by large-scale acts of non-violence.
We watched it live, thanks to brave Egyptian livestreamers.
It is not possible to claim to be Occupy, or to lay claim to Occupy’s support base, if you do not believe in using peaceful methods to obtain societal change.
You will never convince the 99% to support the use of violence. The second you do, you EXCLUDE the elderly. The young. The disabled. Those with children. The 99%!
The enemy of the 99% is the banks. Not the police, not the Councils, not the Mayors, not the myriad of distracting middle-layers of the pyramid: but the TOP OF THE PYRAMID!
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No-one knows what is coming this #O25 though it is bound to be historic. We will witness, support & amplify regardless. For as was done for us, so shall be done for you.
Two of the final sources for this article are filled with memories for those who ate, slept and truly lived, at Occupy Oakland.
Bella doesn’t know it, but she made a grown woman on the other side of the world, cry her eyes out. Not just any woman. A woman that had survived years in prison. Who said about it; “they should have just put me in the men’s prison. I would have been better off.”
I showed the woman the video of Bella speaking at #OakMtg. She couldn’t even get through the entire video without breaking down. She got about two thirds the way through then turned it off and made a hasty and teary departure.
And this ain’t no spring chicken; she is a staunch lady. Just like Bella. But the truth rings so true to those of us who have been trying to tell it our whole lives, that to hear your every thought, feeling and wish come out of another person’s mouth, saying all the things you’ve ever wanted to but couldn’t, is a profoundly moving and emotional experience.
The recognition that at our core we all have the same wants and needs, just varying ability to express and achieve them. Within a system weighting itself wholly against our success.
Well that system is formulaic. It isn’t able to apply different methodologies at a micro level, everything must always be centralised and all instruction uniform. That is its inherent weakness.
For it means that with effective communication between the Occupies; we can connect the dots and learn from each others mistakes, with the omniscience of a hive mind.
Knowledge based on experience is our greatest asset, along with each other.
For a year now, OOMedia team have provided us with support and covered issues that were of no direct benefit for them to, other than in pure solidarity for a fellow Occupy.
For that we are so grateful to them.
Solidarity EVERYONE at Occupy Oakland. Wishing you a safe #O25.
THE INFILTRATION OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT IN NEW ZEALAND, AND THE WORLD.
FOIA responses from the DHS have revealed exactly that which we feared in earlier days of the Occupy movement; the existence of a federally/nationally and likely internationally coordinated (probably through co-operation agreements) attempt to dismantle Occupies from the inside and otherwise infiltrate and sabotage related non-violent democratic groups.
This counter-democratic practice extends to the use of private contracting corporations performing traditional police and military intelligence functions, is now undeniable and even more sophisticated than we “conspiracy theorists” had dared suspect.
It is unsurprising considering the scale of the opposition to the success of Occupy; but our nemeses are moles of superior resources and co-ordination, spreading constant disinformation and infiltrating organisations of social change, to disrupt and subvert.
We watch in horror as the tales of the sabotage of various international occupations emerge – and in 99% of cases the events parallel precisely what occurred here in New Zealand.
Any who still doubt that the methods employed against Occupy overseas were used here, need only look at the surrounding political landscape.
collectively set the dramatic backdrop to this monumental phase of New Zealand’s sociopolitical history.
With the benefit of hindsight & the FOIA releases a more clear picture of how methods of suppression are applied globally, and of what Occupy has endured and still is enduring, is emerging. The end result of these methods, can be analysed by their narcissistic echoes in social media; open destruction and negativity in a movement entirely based on the opposite – a new possibility; positivity. Creation. Change.
These historic internal sentiments within the movement can be mapped by repeated fixed narrative or attitude shifts at a given time. Attitudes that in retrospect, are without merit.
While initially triumphant and embracing its quick spread to nearly 2,000 cities and towns worldwide, the Occupy movement was rocked by the month-and-a-half-late emergence of the “Oakland Liberation Front” Black Bloc leaflets, shown in countless You Tube videos to be the tactics of infiltrators. This time in Occupy history represented the first major effort by the 1% to tar Occupy as a violent movement; prior to the forceful violence inflicted upon it during the evictions that occurred later.
Despite this, the founding principle of Occupy that brought people together was in fact non-violence. This was stipulated time and time again in the founding documentation of Occupies throughout the world. It was the basis for the solidarity occupations. Those who claim Black Bloc are a core component of the movement, forget the founding premises.
They similarly need to question the gap in time between the inception of the movement in September 2011, and the appearance of organised Black Bloc immediately prior to the 1st West Coast Port Shutdown/General Strike in November.
The targeting of livestreamers for suspicion was one of the many minor successes of the counter-Occupy COINTELPRO. With Black Bloc they neutralised the “peaceful protester” images from their Antony Bologna/Brooklyn Bridge P.R. disasters; which had recruited countless thousands more occupiers to the cause.
However with the attacks on livestreamers, saboteurs in several cases successfully dismantled some Occupy Media groups or sufficiently pressured key members of legitimate Occupy Media into dissipating, or turning away from the movement.
The Twitter hash-tag #WithoutLivestreamers was our community response to attacks on Occupy Live-streamers as perpetuating “surveillance” or “supplying evidence”. The anti-Live-streamer attacks came from a sector of false-Occupiers within the movement, proven the greatest of folly in light of the #TrapWire revelations, that indeed, security cameras are being actively used against democratic protesters.
Not only by civil and police authorities, but by third parties including corporates/”private” contractors and potentially their subcontractors, as revealed in the TrapWire scandal that implicated “corporate intelligence”, “market intelligence” and “asset tracking” agencies like Cubic Defense, Abraxas Corp, and potentially countless other similar military-industrial-complex interfacing companies around the globe.
We have seen proof that yes, modern surveillance cameras can zoom. Yes, they can pan. Yes, they can tilt. Yes they can target specific individuals/groups for both audio and visual reconnaissance and yes, their footage is potentially going off-shore and/or circulating around private & governmental intelligence agencies worldwide.
Yes, it is all happening on public dollars. Happening TO the public. We are the unwitting purchasers of technology that turns us into international commodities for the incestuous trading of for-profit intelligence agencies.
In this light, the idea that Joe Bloggs filming on his cellphone is going to be of any more use to law enforcement than their military-grade state-of-the-art capabilities, is ironic at best.
The truth is, Livestreams are Occupy’s single greatest recruitment tool.
Droves of new occupiers are brought into the movement by the viral nature of the live-streams, which allow us to eye-witness what the corporate media do NOT put in their made-for-TV fairy-tales dressed as news broadcasts.
Occupy Wall Street was suppressed by the global corporate media for over three weeks.
Those of us eye-witnessing the live-streams then visiting corporate news websites only to discover the blackout, were irrevocably shown that our conventional world view of the status quo is wholly malleable; and indeed is manufactured by corporations.
It appears that blackouts are created whenever events on the ground outpace the information systems that the elite 0.1% rely on, to maintain societal control.
The blackout occurred because the international media monster took time to be fed tactical instructions on how to dress and package what was unfolding in a way that would inhibit or prevent its further growth, creating an information vacuum that was filled by ordinary people.
This was a golden period of time for Occupy, one reflected in its high intake of donations and its fast growth around the globe.
However, the corporates-that-be soon got a handle on the situation and out came the Reuters and A.P. faxes to the international media who used untold thousands of outlets to saturate media markets with suitably derogatory soundbytes and vacant stereotypes, simultaneously.
The constant “24 hour news echo-chamber” post-eviction monotone drone of “Occupy is dead, Occupy is dead, Occupy is dead“, wasn’t just a voice that came from the corporate media. It was a voice which came from within the movement itself. Upon reflection, we notice the individuals who most fervently purport that the movement is over, are the same people who made and/or supported proposals to G.A.’s to deconstruct & not to construct.
To constrain and not to free. To centralise, and not to decentralise. To usurp key infrastructure. To fire media teams wholesale. To control and usurp finances.
Their malignancy flew in the face of the resources, time, care, love and attention poured in by genuine Occupiers around the world.
These subversives are people with names (albeit often fake ones), and often self-styled titles, who court an obviously corrupt corporate media for their own ends. Who stage Astroturf events, who create new media that ostracises participants, derides/degrades the movement or violates its core principles.
Sometimes even the alternative media that we love so dearly and promote with such fervour, and in all fairness have largely legitimately served us well under the most trying of circumstances, still, in some cases fail us.
Photos like this make it unlikely DHS participation was limited to an advisory role.
Joshua Holland subsequently publicly raked Naomi Wolf over the coals for suggesting as much, then after she responded over the sourcing of an article questioning DHS in an Occupy context, he did so again, through Alternet.
Witnessing the exchanges on-line, a member of Occupy Auckland Media Team made a short video questioning the vitriolic nature of Joshua’s “articles”, and noting the stark discrepancy between the 24/7 Occupy info spread by Naomi, by comparison to the relatively benign “going to walk my dog”-esque timeline of Joshua Holland.
Indeed, search @NaomiRWolf on Topsy.com then sub-search “DHS” and you’ll find a wealth of fascinating related information, whereas if you search @JoshuaHol then “DHS” you’ll see 6 total tweets, three of which are denials of stories. Search @JoshuaHol then “Dog” & there’s 6 pages.
Mysteriously, our direct Twitter exchanges with him from that time, have disappeared from Topsy entirely. So has his most recent tweet on the subject; a 180 degree turn that suggested he had been somehow vindicated by the March & May 2012 FOIA responses.
Time warp back to this Counterpunch article: “there was and is a nationally co-ordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy movement.” A far cry from Joshua’s original position; spot on Naomi’s.
Well Joshua is right that the FOIA’s cleared up the issue. Indeed they did. With the added bonus of exposing that even some members of the alternative media were involved in suppressing what was happening, as it was happening.
That even the most extreme of “tin-hat conspiracy theorists” couldn’t concoct the full extent of the reality on the ground.
Yesterday’s Vinny “GuerillaMedia MrNews” Eastwood interview of activist Penny Bright in the wake of her expulsion from several major Auckland movements, is another example of the alternative news that should represent us, being used to promote a personal agenda that is ultimately detrimental to the interests of the movement as a whole.
The interview with Penny is billed as “Exposing NZ Cointelpro”. Unfortunately it does nothing of the sort. Just harps on about her beef with one woman. Completely ignoring the larger geopolitical picture, and wasting the opportunity to inform listeners of it.
As with Holland’s Alternet pursuit of Naomi Wolf, Penny Bright’s use of an alternative media source postured as friendly to Occupy, as a tool of revenge in her personal crusade against Occupy and the uber-successful “Aotearoa Is Not For Sale” campaign, completely and utterly misses the wider plot.
Occupy does not face the work of singular saboteurs; unless they are of the unwitting variety. What it faces is the systemic application of state-sanctioned public-funded anti-terrorism networks and resources; whole “Fusion centres” co-ordinating teams of operatives infiltrating meetings and surveilling activists’ convergence points, staging events and arrest situations, and reporting back to the central government hive for resources and further instruction.
Whether Occupy is infiltrated by these teams of paid saboteurs is no longer a debatable question. Whether or not we can re-embrace our core concepts of non-violence and decentralisation sufficiently to (non)combat it; is.
Chris Hedges said that as high as it was, the ratio of Stasi informants to genuine protesters couldn’t prevent the fall of the Berlin Wall. In articles like this, Hedges defines Occupy with every fibre of his being.
Hedges, Wolf, and Occupy New Zealand share something in common. All are compelled to speak, spread and share the messages of Occupy. To awaken others as we ourselves awoke. Therefore related information bursts from us at every possible opportunity.
The infiltrators demonstrate no such compulsion.
They live by sound bytes, endlessly self-promote and betray themselves in their own speech and actions.
It takes less than 2 minutes of the Vinny Eastwood interview for Penny to give herself away. “I’ve never been treated this way by police. By local or central government. These are people who want to have a better society? I think I’d rather have what we’ve got now actually.” Penny Bright. Self-styled #1 NZ anti-corruption campaigner and ex mayoral candidate.
Sound anything like Chris Hedges? Or Naomi Wolf? Or Occupy Media? Or even, as she claims to be, “a professional protester”?
Not even slightly.
Hopefully reading this article will bring her up to speed with what Occupy has REALLY been facing, and we will include the rest of the Cointelpro links we harvested at the end of the article for reference.
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Occupy needs to leave the “anti-livestream”-type whining in the dust. To stop giving traffic and hits to corrupt corporate/MSM news sources. Even when they outrage us with their widespread and all but transparent self-hypocrisies.
We must find a way to re-engage the purity of our original mission – to find and institute a better societal framework for humankind and for the sake of the entire Earth, in order to attain lasting progress for Occupy.
We have long-since said that Occupy is a “true truth-and-reconciliation process” due to its ability to bridge massive social, racial, ideological and geographic divides.
We have also long said: “Global Solidarity – Local Governance”.
The decentralisation of power and control guarantees sovereignty at a local level & the rights of the inhabiting peoples as being above the rights of corporations. It also insulates against a “One World Government” scenario, while we break down the walls of prejudice and competition, built by our corrupt modern materialist/consumer social conditioning.
Global Solidarity is what has ultimately held the Occupy movement together. It is the super-glue that once experienced cannot be unstuck. It pushes the snowball of the awakening, and makes Occupy invincible to the types of pettiness above.
Because Occupy is not a single person; who can be pressured to quit. Permanently smeared or culled.
Occupy is an idea that never stops evolving. An idea that belongs to all of civilisation.
An idea that has spread like a virus. An idea which cannot be killed.
This afternoon, NZST, Occupy New Zealand posted THIS update, threatening a corporate media boycott due to the mainstream media blackout of #TrapWire – the private for-profit global surveillance & analysis network exposed by Wikileaks in the continuing Stratfor “GI Files” data dump.
Pointing out that it had been 5 days since #Trapwire broke, and that Google searches on “TrapWire” had returned 34,400 results yesterday, and over 240,000 results today, we asked how many million results must be returned before corporate media would address it.
Shortly thereafter (by sheer coincidence no doubt) the New York Times have posted THIS scrub article – denouncing the email evidence as “stolen”, the TrapWire program as “Counter-Terrorism Software” and then quoting a New York Police Department source as assuring the NYT that they do not in fact use TrapWire.
Unfortunately the article raises more questions than it answers. Most notably:
If everything is fine and we should trust our governments, which is the general feel of the article, why did it take 5 days & a quarter million Google results for the New York Times to acknowledge the concerns of the public & assuage them?
The NYT quote “Paul J. Browne, the New York Police Department’s chief spokesman” as saying “We don’t use TrapWire.” Which immediately begs the apparently unasked question; then what DO they use?
If, like the NYT says, TrapWire is “Counter-Terrorism” software, how do we explain THIS 2nd August 2010 internal Stratfor email, which states, “they (San Francisco) need something like TrapWire more for threats from activists than from terror threats. Both are useful, but activists are ever-present around here.”
The NYT claims “TrapWire was originally developed in 2004 by the Abraxas Corporation, which was founded by several former C.I.A. employees. It later spun off TrapWire, but the C.I.A. connection, along with the company’s vague but impressive descriptions of the program’s capabilities, appears to have fueled the furor on the Web that it was a sort of automated Big Brother.” This makes it sound as if the CIA connection belonged only to Abraxas and is some kind of archaic stigma carried over to TrapWire. Yet THIS dox of TrapWire management shows clearly that there are pervasive connections between TrapWire (NOT just Abraxas) management and the CIA. Similarly, THIS second dox of TrapWire distributors/partners with global reach, exposes a management hierarchy steeped in intelligence agency service/connections?
The NYT carries on to say “TrapWire’s marketing materials say it uses video cameras and observations by security guards to develop a 10-point description of people near a potential terrorist target and an eight-point description of vehicles.” Actually, TrapWire’s marketing materials said a whole lot more than that, before they scrubbed their website (five days prior to NYT even uttering the word “TrapWire) clean of any incriminating or traceable information, however if you visit the websites of their distributors/on-selling agents such as New Zealand’s Cubic Defense Systems (an apparent subsidiary of Cubic International) you will discover not only the same executive connections to intelligence agencies, but clearly advertised services such as “Competitive Market Intelligence” and “Asset Tracking”. Which we take to mean that there are plenty of other uses beyond counter-terrorism, for this kind of software?
While the NYT is convinced one statement from an NYPD official is enough to go on, THIS leaked email confirms that the City of Los Angeles, at least, is a client of TrapWire. It also discusses a meeting with a “Senator Williams” & says it passed on recommendations for “TRAPWIRE and 100% digital CCTV upgrades for the entire Capitol”. So surely this issue goes a lot deeper than the NYT’s extremely shallow article?
As if all the above weren’t enough, the major question that WE have, is how can private companies access, commodify and on-sell data from publicly-funded surveillance systems? If this is what has been occurring, then taxpayers are unwittingly funding a structure in which they themselves, unknowingly become the product? A product which they then receive no profit from?
The icing on the cake has to be the final line of the NYT article, which quotes a “Jay Stanley” who “studies threats to privacy at the American Civil Liberties Union.”
“We live in a democracy,” he said, “and that’s what security agencies are here to protect.”
Well according to the corporate management profiles of TrapWire Inc., Abraxas and Cubic Defense, that’s what security agents are here to profit off.
OCCUPY NEW ZEALAND MEDIA TEAM.
CALL TO ACTION: Please download everything linked to here & store multiple copies wherever you can (lest it mysteriously disappear). Please reblog this post anywhere you are able, you have our full permission to do so. Please, most importantly, start filing Freedom of Information Act requests to all relevant local/national/civil authorities and let’s get to the bottom of what they’ve been doing, once and for all.
(This post is now complete. Please share far and wide. Thank you so much for supporting citizen journalism. All credit to Occupy New Zealand Media team. Redstar’s livestream footage of this event is available here.)
Saturday 21st July 2012 was another awesome day for NZ students; who used the opportunity of the ruling National Party Conference hosted at SkyCity Casino (yes, THAT Sky City…) to push their message that education cuts, privatisation and forced austerity measures were NOT going to be taken lying down.
They did a brilliant job of organising this public event, which had many new features including NLG-style Legal Observers, free ‘Red Square’ pins for everyone and a welcoming crew that approached & chatted with members of the public throughout the day. The level of thought that had gone into the event really impressed us.
Below is a People’s Media mash-up of photos, tweets & our experiences on the ground. Non-commercial organisations (ie. other Occupy pages, citizen journalists, charities, organisations who openly endorse/support Occupy) are welcome to reprint/reblog/download/share any of the images below but we ask that you please credit Occupy New Zealand Media Team/Occupy Savvy. As usual the “big crowd” photos are about halfway down the post.
Kia ora koutou. It is a privilege to present this to you Aotearoa.
These guys were the first thing I saw heading into Britomart. The mat was roll-up & they would jump into the intersection when the pedestrian crossing turned green – roll out the mat – drop a freestyle to some old school b-boy blaring from their beatbox and then roll it back up & jump back out when the lights turned green. So cool.
These girls came straight up to me with big smiles and a free red square pin before I could even get to where the march was assembling.
Having such a friendly welcoming/outreach crew definitely made the difference, as I saw more and more members of the public enticed off the sidewalks and into the march proper.
The sound truck from last Saturday’s Aotearoa Is Not For Sale march made a reappearance, except instead of King Kapisi on the back, it was bearing a coffin!
Initially the police presence appeared minimal – probably a dozen cops. We found out later why so few were at Britomart… when we got to Sky City Convention Centre.
Looking towards the port, where the beleaguered MUNZ workers spent much of the last year fighting for basic work conditions and respect from their well-heeled employers.
They had this road truck follow them around dropping road cones opening & closing roads.
The march begins to form – with the familiar BLOCKADE THE BUDGET banner from the last Blockade The Budget student protest, which suffered mass arrests and police assaults on peacefully protesting students and faculty at Auckland University.
Our Occu-Mama & Occupy Media member Lyn repping Socialist Aotearoa. She is an inspirational wahine toa who is one of the 8 arbitrarily-selected members of Occupy Auckland to be personally persecuted and mercilessly prosecuted (at ridiculous ratepayer expense) by Auckland Council. (Who we prefer to refer to as Auckland Corporatouncil!)
^^^ Take a good look at the above photo. It was one of the most telling & hilarious parts of the event. We slipped in behind the Socialist Aotearoa banner with Lyn (despite the fact I’m actually not a socialist, S.A. have done a lot to support Occupy in NZ) and was immediately descended upon by the above reporter & cameraman for TV1 News. “Can we interview you?” They asked. “Sure” we said. “But we’re just going to grab a quick pic of you first.” Camera already out, within a microsecond the shot was taken. The reporter surprised & amused – the cameraman not even slightly amused. They asked us a few questions and we answered eloquently and fluidly enough that the reporter was surprised and exclaimed, “thanks, that was great!” while the cameraman scowled bitterly at us. They disappeared off for a quick huddle and then reappeared. The dinosaur cameraman demanded that we re-shoot the piece due to having had sunglasses on (it was 1pm). We politely refused and got told that the footage “wouldn’t be used then”. Why is this significant? Wait and see what happens with these two further down this post.
People begin to move onto the street as the march begins to fill up.
It soon becomes apparent that there are vastly more people in the middle of the street than there are on the pavement.
A lone motorbike cop in front of the march assembly.
People turn to face a small stage where speakers address the crowd and the street theatre commences.
School children hold up signs representing different types of employees and students effected by austerity measures and education cuts, then a man with a huge pair of fake scissors jumps out and literally cuts their signs in half. Pre-planned, they all laugh.
Naomi – performed a passionate piece of spoken word poetry, beautifully.
Jai Bentley-Payne spoke on behalf of the students, warning us “Austerity is a SCAM!!!”. We quoted him on livetweet on #BTB and #Showandtell hashtags as well as the Canadian student movement hashtags #ggi #casseroles #manifecours and within minutes, his quote was retweeted around the world by students in solidarity globally.
And finally – we were off. The march up from the bottom of Queen Street begins.
There was all different kinds of New Zealanders marching; of every colour, shape and background.
“They Take Our Education – We Take The Streets!”
The giant red solidarity square was out again – which the kids loved playing under.
John Key….. is a duck? LOL.
One of the greatest things about today was the brand spanking new student-provided legal observers. This is something sorely lacking at previous protests mainly due to the lack of NLG-type organisation in New Zealand to support democratic peaceful protesters. Looks like thanks to the students, this is changing. Kia ora students!
This iconic Auckland intersection (Victoria & Queen) once again occupied by the public – for the second time in eight days.
5000 post-grad students are estimated to be unable to continue study due to changes made by the ruling National Party and the austerity measures they are imposing upon education (and other public sectors).
The “Fuck The Rich” guy was back and very pleased when we told him our photo of his sign at last Saturday’s Aotearoa Is Not For Sale march was picked up by a Spanish-language online newspaper with 94,000 likes on their page. Pretty impressive.
I guess this is what they call civil disobedience! Though really, its exercise. The exercising of our democratic rights!
The mood quickly turns from jubilant to appropriately solemn as students bear the coffin all the way up Victoria Street from Queen Street as a funeral march plays.
Protesters observe a minute of silence but their signs speak on regardless.
We finally make it to Sky City Conference Centre….. and arrive at a shocking sight. Police officers wall the inside of the entrance two deep. People stand around with literally mouths hanging open at the wanton display of force. Yet still it is only a fraction of what will later greet us outside the casino itself.
Despite the police presence, protesters put signs and stickers up on the glass and the coffin is carried up to the entrance.
The crowd begin to chant enthusiastically. Most of the chants are recorded on the livetweet which can be found on Twitter
At first we thought they might be there to enforce the No Smoking policy…
Until we saw these guys.
As we clearly were not going to be able to enter the convention centre, off we went around the block, the long way to Sky City Casino. Completely unawares of what awaited us.
As we hit Federal Street, we realised the bottom over-street Skywalk was filled with Casino executives and the top Skywalk was filled with cops. Being towards the back, it took a few minutes to realise what was blocking the march at the front line…
It was awesome to see random members of the public out walking their dogs join the march… wonder what he thought of what was in front of him…
Tried to get closer to the front to find out why no one was able to move any further…
Passing ASB bank on Federal Street the cops were shoulder to shoulder but we still had no idea what lay ahead of the march…
As we reached this point the jackets in front of the march gave us some indication of what was ahead..
The police were walling off the road in Federal Street which explained why the march had ceased moving – however – we were not at all prepared for the sight of what was behind that first wall of police… take note of the far right cop in the above picture for a reference point…
The woman pictured to the bottom right wasn’t a cop or a protester. She was actually a member of the public who found herself stuck and couldn’t get through. We politely asked the police if they could please let her through as she wasn’t with us and was genuinely being prevented from accessing public space. They initially refused outright but after we insisted they should have an officer escort her through they relented and did so. Then – to our shock – remember Mr. grumpy dinosaur mainstream media cameraman? Well he showed up to our immediate left and says to the cops “let me through for a shot.” To our utter astonishment the police immediately stand aside and allow him through the line.
We were flabbergasted and immediately request to also be allowed through to take some shots to which we were told “that is for media only”. When we identified ourselves as media, the police supervisor told us “STAY WHERE YOU ARE” in an extremely rude and abrupt manner. We were puzzled – wondering why mainstream media could access the blocked area but not citizen journalists? Then we realise what the mainstream media camera was seeing from back there. Or more importantly – what it wasn’t.
From where they filmed – they couldn’t see the cops above them. They couldn’t see the cops behind them. They couldn’t see the barricaded forcibly closed street nor that all of the aforementioned collectively stopped the march from proceeding, ending and dissipating as quickly as planned by organisers. It soon became clear that they were tailoring their vantagepoint.
Apparently it wasn’t only MSM that got free access to behind police lines. There were also Sky City staff – assumedly supervisors – taking holiday snaps behind the front line. Not sure why they have more rights than the citizen journalists who were prevented from entering – would love to put in an official letter to the NZ Police to find out why corporate staff have greater access and rights when in the middle of a public street photographing a democratic protest, than our public independent media do? Ridiculous.
Perhaps blinded by the sight of so many flourescent vests, after some spirited chanting of “Army of the rich, enemy of the poor!” at the hundreds of police present, the march turns around and heads back to the Convention Centre; where there had seemed so many cops; but now seemed few by comparison!!
Even though by that point we were all using the sidewalk… the police preferred the road and trailed us all the way back to the convention centre…
…helpfully again lining the streets all the way around…
…and again blocking the entrance. Awesome.
The protest was officially called and we were really happy to meet this cheery lady and get this great pic of her Aotearoa Is Not For Sale t-shirt. Shout out to everyone who attended and supported today. Good on you for braving the intimidation tactics and having your say.
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Leaving the site of the protest we had one last bizarre experience – we noticed a huge blacked out SUV parked across the pavement with two Sky City employees guarding it. As it is an unusual sight to see a vehicle parked on the pavement, with not a single police officer ticketing it, we stopped and took a photo. At which point the supervisor on the right hand side started to have a complete fit at us, demanding “NO PHOTOS, NO PHOTOS”. Before we could even begin to respond several members of the public interjected, with one screaming at him that he had no right to prevent the public taking photographs on public streets and essentially, who did he think he was for attempting to interfere with us. We asked him whose car it was and he snapped “it’s MY car”… because quite obviously Sky City supervisors park blacked out SUV’s across the pavement then guard them personally, with staff security guards also present? We don’t think so, buddy
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We spotted some pretty awesome signs throughout the day. Below is a collection of them. Thank you to everyone for being so friendly and happily having your signs photographed.
Auckland Action Against Poverty are hosting tomorrow’s protest at the same location – click here for the Facebook event details.
Unite Union have been a big supporter of Occupy, Aotearoa Is Not For Sale, and the student movement.
Socialist Aotearoa, another huge supporter of Occupy and other protest movements in NZ.
Taking the piss out of the National slogan: “Shit policies = Shit edacation. National 4 a Brighta Futur”
Students have scrawled micro-messages to John Key all over their main “Blockade The Budget” banner.
Some of the language is pretty colourful and spirited but the message is clear. Invest in the future of New Zealand. Not finance companies and privatisation of public assets.
A pissed-off parent has their say.
A serious question…
Are you listening, “Mr” Key? No doubt your lackeys are…
Students are often under-appreciated by our government, who like to depict them as lazy.
in our naive shock and disbelief at the inaccuracies, favouritisms and false representations made to the international public concerning the inception and continuation of the Occupy movement globally; we have wronged YOU.
You, the individual corporate media employee, denied the right to unionise in a meaningful pursuit of the BARE MINIMUM in appropriate work conditions – encouraged, institutionalised and coerced to the MISpursuit of truth by the industrial framework and management environment that rewards false things over integrity, covets facets and image over substance, and above all covets the almighty advertising dollar..
You work in a broken, defunct system that is being made collectively redundant by the indisputable NEED of the people to obtain and ratify and share, when you don’t, the TRUTH of what is happening to our world at ground level – to the extent that of sheer desperation, members of the public band together and against any natural inclination embrace REAL journalism, UNPAID… replacing & exposing hypocrisy and whistleblowing on the facts you won’t report..
Even we the public see the lay-offs happening to you, the media being fed like minced meat grinding through the insatiable machine of corporate takeovers, mergers and asset-stripping. We see the patriarchy and the old boys club. We see 4 white males & a white female on slick 1ZB promo pics. Even to those of us born “white”, these things are no longer able to be ignored or tolerated, they are unneccesary relics of an ignorant past.
To you the “media”, we the “new media”, say:
You are the intended voice of the people.
Not your employer. Collectively, you.
You need no longer be the voice of the corporations. Nor of a specific ruling Government.
Your objectivity and veracity for truth-seeking and your moral indenture to the public you service should be on par with that of a scientist or a medical professional; your duty of care and ethical obligations the same.
Lives and deaths and the fate of nations depend on you and your collective influence is beyond the ability of even any Government to challenge; let alone any corporation. You could shame a corporation and end its profitability overnight as easily as you are now regurgitating the AP or being fed stories by corrupt Government officials, undisclosed conflicts of interest abounding…
You can bring down a Government, with the truth, and the power of a UNIFIED and RELENTLESS media is untamable.
We think you know it has reached the time where if you do not respect the core values of journalism we will replace you. What you haven’t yet realised is that we do not actually want to.
The purpose of Occupy is NOT to destroy it is to build. Occupy is about resolution not destruction.
But until you report on what is common knowledge amongst YOURSELVES but not amongst the public at large – for example the 380 cities protesting May 15th globally – and begin to explain to the public truly why the vast majority of the planet is simultaneously erupting against austerity measures, asset sales, privatisation, racism, against colonialism and the never-ending imperialistic wars to blatantly steal resources -
we have to do your job for you. Even suffering the full weight of local/national/international Government slander, surveillance and sabotage, the information is already too widespread to suppress. The cat is out of the bag.
You have a unique opportunity right now; to be amongst the first to recognise and embrace it; or to make yourselves defunct.
You need not fear becoming Julian Assange. Exposing yourselves to the pressures and invasions of privacy that many involved initially in Occupy around the world have. For even Governments are limited in their ability to interfere with revolution; and every day the snowball grows bigger. It has long since gained its own momentum, perpetual motion. As each mind is awakened to the hive, the potential to suppress it diminishes.
As you watch, “enthralled” by us, we will continue to watch you. But we do so as colleagues of conscience.
Awaiting your awakening. For you must
“rise like lions after slumber, in unvanquishable number, shake your chains to earth like dew: which in sleep have fallen on you: Ye are many — they are few.” (Shelley)
Your time is now. Contact us in good faith and you can write under the Occupy banner. You need not be shackled by professional limitations. Journalism is not merely a profession it is a mindset, and a quest. Embrace it.
As did TVNZ, the national broadcaster who had participated in the corporate media blackout, and then smear campaign against Occupy.
But also on the flash occupation list was the High Court in Auckland.
