It was a proud moment attending today’s SHAKTI event: “Rise Up Against Rape Culture – a silent protest in solidarity with women’s struggle in India.” This 20 second video of the circle of silence shows staunch anti-rape supporters of all colours, shapes and stripes, together in solidarity, demanding an end to sexual violence and sexual crimes.
We were lucky to get a number of amazing photos of the action and to live tweet it. The live-tweet of the event is available on @OccupyNZ on Twitter.
The event was organised on short notice but carried off without a hitch. It was good to see some conventional media there – actually attending an event is a pre-requisite to writing about it, as far as we are concerned!!
We tweeted a number of great pics of various signs and hope that if you weren’t able to attend, that they make you feel like you were there.
This panorama shot is our pick of the day.
UPDATE: hearing that there was a sister event held today in Wellington, in solidarity. Awesome!!
Auckland protesters fly Palestinian flag from the U.S. Embassy flagpole!
Yesterday’s Global Peace and Justice “Solidarity With Gaza” march from Aotea Square to the U.S. Embassy in Auckland, New Zealand, was one of the most exciting Auckland actions to date.
The turn-out was huge despite short notice and pouring rain that had us all soggy in no time (causing slippery cellphone syndrome for us citizen journalists!) with as many as 300 or more protesters in attendance.
The march visibly swelled as it snaked its way down Queen Street towards the U.S. Consulate on Customs Street, near Auckland’s Princes Wharf.
Umbrella’s of every colour of the rainbow shielded the crowd from above, while colourful costuming and signs galore provided ample eye-candy to accompany the consistent chanting of people’s voices in protest at the atrocities of the never-ending Israel-Palestine conflict.
The most astonishing and unexpected aspect of the event was the disparate if not entirely invisible police presence. There were in fact NO marshalling police vehicles on the Queen Street march (a first-time experience for us, in every action we have covered there have been police marshalling and/or mustering and/or significant police and private security presence, sometimes into the many hundreds of officers.)
We assumed (the mother of all…) that the police must be amassed at the Embassy yet once we all arrived there, only 2 police vehicles and a half dozen police emerged and were VERY low key about their presence.
At the Embassy the crowd watched in awe and amazement as a Palestinian flag was raised above the Consulate, on their very own flagpole!
Approximately 30 protesters threw old shoes at the Embassy to display their disgust at U.S. foreign policy. There were several speeches from the soundtruck and a song.
That an action on such a contentious topic as this could go virtually unattended by the NZ Police is a massive shift in tactics on their part.
That the events ended naturally with protesters peacefully dispersing of their own accord, entirely unmolested by authorities, makes a pleasant change from the constant brutality exerted against the public at the student’s Blockade The Budget protests, and at the Glen Innes House Defense protests, throughout 2012.
It was certainly nice to see the police film squad also absent. At least, the uniformed ones anyway!
We hope this signals a new focus for police; away from unnecessarily expending resources on suppressing democratic dissent and shadowing activists to instead funneling those resources on fighting actual crime, and surveilling actual criminals.
Video of Palestinian flag flying above embassy: (clarification; we did not see the U.S. flag come down so flagpole may have been empty with no ambassador in residence however Palestinian flag was raised and flown above the consulate!!!)
Protesters throwing their shoes at the U.S. Embassy in protest:
We are still processing pics from the event, and will insert a gallery here ASAP. In the meantime, tons of pics of the event are already published in our online newspaper; The Occupied NZ Herald
On the first day of May 2012 there is a call for a General Strike. A call for workers across the globe to unify against the oppression of the 1% and to remind them that they rely on US for their survival.
Ben and Jerry’s, the well known ice cream company based in Vermont, has come out as an ally of the Occupy movement.They denounce unlimited corporate spending on behalf of politicians and advocate a “more conscious form of capitalism”.
NYPD arresting peaceful unarmed non-violent protestors en masse… go about 2:30 into it to see the people sitting down & linking arms & still getting assaulted/arrested by the police. TV1/TV3/1ZB etc -STILL- not reporting this. Shame on you MSM.
Take a walk with me down memory lane: Northcote College, 1997 SFC Music end of year final performance exam, I ate breathed & slept with my bass guitar at that time so I put together a band & performed the song “Freedom” by Rage Against The Machine with my childhood friend Dave playing electric guitar. Back then he was the boyfriend of the NZ soul singer Hollie Smith (she was 4th form, we were 6th) & we rocked it for a class that included the only other chick bassist at NC, Maree Thom, most recently of Don McGlashan & the Seven Sisters. Watching this video clip after YEARS of not having heard the song… I still remember every word & every note. We are the 99%.
Word is spreading fast, support is growing fast, do your part by making sure everyone you know on Facebook has “liked” Occupy Wall St. & understands what is happening in New York and why. We are the 99%.
Mayor Jean Quan aka the mayor that sent in riot police with flash bang grenades rubber bullets & tear gas to fire on unarmed civilians then recanted apologised & said they could stay, then last night sent in MORE riot police to do it all over again – has just lost her legal advisor. Resigned in protest, at the abuses of her office.
