Auckland: Report on recent anti-occupation/anti-militarist action

No place to hide for Merchants of Murder
Report on the action againt Rakon Limited, an Auckland company that makes components for United States and Israeli guided munitions.

On Friday the first of September fifteen anti-war protesters made their way to the first-ever shareholders Annual General Meeting at the Ellerslie Racecourse in Greenlane, Auckland. At 1pm demonstrators attempted to enter the compound where they were turned away at both gates by rows of police and security guards.

I drove an ambulance with a Rakon guided missile protruding from the roof to both entrances but was confronted by police both times. After posing for photos with the New Zealand Herald cameraman (a brilliant photo of which was included in the Business section of the Herald today) outside locked gates guarded by ten police a convoy of five cars lead by the ambulance then skirted the perimeter of the compound before meeting up with a Students for Justice in Palestine picketline outside the main entry to the compound.

After parking the ambulance up on the curb and covering myself in blood/red paint protestors formed a picket across the driveway before being cleared by police.

We then moved onto the verge next to the main road where we gave out leaflets to passing cars and held banners and chanted while the sharholders entered the meeting. We receieved a lot of toots in support from passing cars which was awesome.

At around two-thirty we all together marched back down the long driveway chanting "Rakon, Israel, USA. How many kids did you kill today?" and into an adjacent carpark towards a barricaded entry point to the compound. We were halted by security gaurds one of whom had to be restrained from physically attacking demonstrators by a supervisor.

Police and management quickly arrived and threatened us with arrest and no bail until Monday morning. A confrontation erupted between the police and a woman from the Lebanese community who affirmed our moral right to protest Rakons complicitity in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction.

We then marched half-way back to the road and held our ground on a traffic island in front of a dozen police, chanting and making speeches.

Afterwards we marched back to the road, chanting, "Rakon, Israel, USA. How many pigs did you call today?" and "Water won't wash Rakon clean. The're the global war machine." and decided to call it a day.

"We are all Palestinian"-March in solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon
Report on the September 2 demonstration called in conjunction with the national day of action in solidarity with Palestinians and Lebanese.

The day kicked off to a good start with around a hundred and fifty people gathering to watch Ben Swain's dance company perform a hip-hop piece in support of peace and justice. The mainly Pacific dance troop got the rally going on a positive direction after Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property and the timeline of bombings, incursions, attacks and hostage takings for the 24 hours to 8am August 31, 2006 had been read to the crowd-13 attacks – 17 raids – 11 dead – 23 wounded-70 restrictions of movement. The energetic mood continued as the largely youth and student rally proceeded to the US consulate.

On the way down Queen Street we were lead by our bombed out ambulance and banners reading Free Palestine, Justice the Seed, Peace the Flower, Israel out of Palestine! USA out of our Planet! and Stop US funded Weapons to Israel.

As soon as we started marching I read the poem, "The Definition Of Occupation" by Abdelnasser Rashid 11th Grade student in Palestine through the loudhailer. We all chanted the last lines together, Palestine is my land, and I won't let you take it
and while you put the world to sleep, I try to wake it.
[http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0605/S00146.htm]

As we marched we chanted, "Raise our voice, raise our fists. It's our duty to resist!", "Rice, Rice shame on you. Arab lives have value too!", "George Bush, CIA, How many kids have you killed today", "Rakon, Israel, USA. How many kids did you kill today?", "Stop...War!", "Peace...Now!", "Innocent people under attack! Stand up! Fight back!", "Stop the killing, stop the crime, from Lebanon to Palestine!" "Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine; Occupation is a Crime!" and "Aotearoa to Palestine, occupation is a crime!".

It was awesome to hear cries of "Freedom for Palestine[also Lebanon and Iraq]" echoing around the city. Outside the United States consulate burnings of two US flags to chants of "Blood, Blood, Blood on their hands!" bookended short speeches from Maryam of the Lebanese community, Asher from Jews for Justice, Tuma from the Palestine Human Rights Campiagn, Mike from Global Peace and Justice Auckland, Meto from Radical Youth, Max from the Greens, Jared from the WP, Joe from SW and the reading of another poem-"We Shoot Children Too, Don't We" by Dan Almagor an Israeli professor of Hebrew literature and who is famous throughout Occupied Palestine as a lyricist and TV show host. [http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0403/S00141.htm]

We then marched back up Queen Street past ANZ Bank("Blood, Blood, Blood on their hands" and booing), a bank which continues to support and fund the occupation of Iraq because of it's key role in the neo-colonial Iraqi Trade Bank.

The demonstration ended around 3pm with everyone with spirits high and many continuing on to Favona to join the picketlines outside the [Re]gresives supermarket distribution centre.

I think that the demonstration was a good way of mobilising support for Palestine and Lebanon and I think that having annual demonstrations on the first Saturday of September every year in Aotearoa in solidarity with Palestine would be a good way of affirming our commitment that After the winter...Spring will come.

It was inspiring to see lots of people out on the street and not just the activists which shows that the mass postering and leafleting did help mobilisie people. Practical ways to build the movement now is to continue working on cutting institutional relationships with the Israeli state and its organs like the academic and student boycott campaign at Auckland University as well as continuing to raise funds for progressive Israeli and Palestinian organisations as well as raising the level of awareness about the issue in the community.

On Sunday the third of September there is a fundraising dinner for the Lebanese Red Cross at the Auckland University Waipapa Marae on Wynyard Street, behind the Human Sciences building. Feed for $10 a head or $25 a family which is a sweet deal if you ask me, not like the unsweet deal currently being dished out to our brothers and sisters in Palestine.

Mean, arrogant, and dumb.
Who do we think we are?
Who gave us the right
To be so deaf, so dumb?
Ignoring the obvious:
They are as human
As we are, as we are.
At least as human as we used to be
Only forty-one years ago.
No less diligent, no less smart.
As sensitive, as full of hope.
They love their wives and children
As we do, no less.
And our children now shoot theirs
With lead, plastic bullets, and gas.

The Palestinian state will come to pass.
It will.
Not a poet wrote this.
History will.
And seasons may come, and seasons may go,
And life goes on as we very well know.
Weddings, and births, and deaths all the same-
But just the shame of it.
The shame.
Dan Almagor
[http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0403/S00141.htm]

Related

http://www.palestine.org.nz

http://www.gpja.org.nz