Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
A collective of Waikato artists and activists have come together to open a free media workshop in downtown Hamilton under the working name 'the Commons'.
The aim of The Commons is to create a communal workshop space for non-profit community campaigns and creative projects including a micro-radio station, shared internet access, computer recycling, skillshare events and independent publishing.
The collective involves Hamilton residents who have been involved with a number of groups here including Waikato Indymedia, Hamilton Animal Rights Defence, Hamilton CORSO, Fightback Waikato, Hamilton Safe Food Campaign, Waikato GE Free Network, Under the Rader radio show and the Above and Below arts collective. The first space for the group will be a set of rooms in the former Railways building above Trax Records on Victoria St. The rooms became the domain of The Commons today, but quite likely a formal launch will take place in a few weeks once some working bees have taken place.
The Commons have become a group member of the Waikato Environment Centre in Ward St and this is where our meetings and other functions requiring access to hot drink and cooking facilities will take place. The next meeting will be on Wednesday at 6:30pm, all welcome.
Comments
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
cool!
I'll definetly come down and visit!
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
What a wonderful thing! I hope it goes well and grows!
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Hamilton representing aye? Heaps good!
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Hamilton representing aye? Heaps good!
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
go hard guys need more things like that!
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
i meant "go hard guys, WE need more things like that!" cheers
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
One of the purposes of the centre is to provide resources to make it easier for people to post on this site. Now that we have a reliable site on better software we need lots of people posting news and helping with newswire clerking and features work.
I'd like to propose some kind of website that networks between different groups like ours running activist media spaces, but we are already using it! Although maybe we could put something on www.enzyme.org.nz too.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Finally hamihole comes alive again. It's good to see, good luck. It’s a pity about all the rednecks and ruggers that live there. Still love the city though.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
excellent stuff daniel!
and fightback waikato, still kicking some ass up in the uni?
you should get in contact with Anna from
Socialist Worker, at
queenoffrankton@hotmail.com
from your old comrade Joe
far far across the sea
http://www.swp.ie
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
I remember last year someone proposing something like this for Auckland on Indymedia last year. Did anything become of that idea?
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
that was me... we had several meetings, but i went on a ge free hikoi, and in my absence things dissapeared. i then assumed there wasn't enough interest/dedication. if anyone was seriously interested i would jump at the drop of a hat... basically there aren't enough groups in ak to sustain it!
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Hey Joe, fightback died along time ago, I think just after you left in fact. Free education is a long way away, especially when it looks like National is going to win the next election.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Fightback is no longer a functioning group but there have been a number of important strategic victories at Waikato Uni:
1) Universal Membership of Student Union
2) Editorial independence of Nexus (student paper) from the WSU Exec
3) Resurrection of Contact (student radio) as a non-profit affiliated to the Union
4) No McVomits on campus (although they dozed the Pumpkin Planet at 5 X-roads to build a new one dammit)
5) Booting out of most of the neo-liberal exec and WSU workers that wreaked all the havoc in the first place
I very much doubt National will win this election (although possibly they will do better next time). They played the Maori-bashing card far to soon in the campaign and people will have plenty of time to get educated on Maori issues and Brash's more loopy policies (like abolishing the welfare state) before the election comes.
To be honest I think national election are declining in importance as more and more powers are either passed up to the WTO and other global bodies or down to local bodies, especially regional councils.
Desperately Seeking Anna...
Kia ora Anna of SW Hamilton,
Your Hotmail address doesn't seem to be working. I suggest you get an address at RiseUp, a server run by and for activists: http://mail.riseup.net/
Anyways, can you contact me if you want to get involved in The Commons.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
wicked! yay h-town! be back there soonish, love from cambodia.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Hey Strypey, which WSU worker was fired?
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Kia ora Mike,
Carl Watkins from Nexus would be the man to ask. All I know for sure is that there have been huge changes in the organisational culture of the WSU since the return to universal membership and a number of expensive law suits against WSU and Nexus by people who I presume were part of the neo-liberal cabal that ransacked the WSU after voluntary membership came in.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
I am not sure if you can call those involved in the law suits against the WSU and Nexus neo-liberal. In fact they were pro-compulsory union membership. It was a very messy time, with violence and racism thrown into the mix.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
I am not sure if you can call those involved in the law suits against the WSU and Nexus neo-liberal. In fact they were pro-compulsory union membership. It was a very messy time, with violence and racism thrown into the mix.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Good to see an initiative like this occuring
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
hey tush, good point. Most of the lawsuits were initiated by compulsory supporters. that exec was useless and this one is all most as bad. they're too moderate. theyve only made a noise about international students. what's happened to the occupations like fightback did? i don't see why students should have to join wsu now it's gone soft.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Although the last few WSU exec's have not been the greatest, (excluding the 2002 exec, which was real shit), I don't think you can blame them. Since the return of compulsory membership, it should have taken a few years to become an affective union. In the first year, 2001, the exec was great, most were doing their best for students, and then after that it turned to shit. The following year, a few exec members saw that it was easy money, so after that, it became a battle to fix the problems of 2002. This year’s exec might be concentrating on international students, which might seem unfair, but it is a just cause, and it must also be noted that in this neo-liberal era of education, international students basically pay for the entire education system in this country.
Also, from what I know, the reason why the MacDonald’s shut on campus, was not due to any actions, no matter how much someone like Ben Cooney may like to claim victory, but to the fact that it was losing money, and the other 5 food outlets were racking it in. I guess, in this case, the free market was a good thing. The irony of it all, but thankfully, MacDonald’s shut down.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
tush - you're totally wrong to say international students "basically pay for the entire education system in this country". NZ taxpayers pay $8.2b a year for education. NZ tertiary students pay about 25% of the cost of their education, and international students pay 20-80% more than local students. You're just making stuff up.
Re: UofW McVomits closure
Tush,
The McVomits monopoly on campus was one of many examples of the damage caused to Waikato Uni students by the voluntary/ neo-liberal exec. This travesty was always an important target of the resurgence of student activism that Fightback was part of.
Perhaps this constant negative attention had something to do with the poor financial performance of the restaurent, perhaps not. Either way it is gone and this is a victory for taste whatever way you look at it.
Now the real challenge is to wrest control of the Contact frequency back from the Genericator and get the Bongo back up and running.
Re: Hamilton Group Opens Media Activist Space
Although the last few WSU exec's have not been the greatest, (excluding the 2002 exec, which was real shit), I don't think you can blame them. Since the return of compulsory membership, it should have taken a few years to become an affective union. In the first year, 2001, the exec was great, most were doing their best for students, and then after that it turned to shit. The following year, a few exec members saw that it was easy money, so after that, it became a battle to fix the problems of 2002. This year’s exec might be concentrating on international students, which might seem unfair, but it is a just cause, and it must also be noted that in this neo-liberal era of education, international students basically pay for the entire education system in this country.
Also, from what I know, the reason why the MacDonald’s shut on campus, was not due to any actions, no matter how much someone like Ben Cooney may like to claim victory, but to the fact that it was losing money, and the other 5 food outlets were racking it in. I guess, in this case, the free market was a good thing. The irony of it all, but thankfully, MacDonald’s shut down.