Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in Wellington
Around 30 people, among them many anarchists, left 128 Abel Smith St in Wellington just before 1pm this afternoon to disrupt a ceremony to unveil the new 'bypass' road signs. We walked up to Cuba St with black flags and a loud sound system. A fence was pushed over where Tonks Ave used to be and we walked onto the motorway.
A stage was setup where Kerry Prendergast (the Mayor of Wellington) along with the Minister of Transport Annette King was supposed to unveil the new road signs. Water bombs were thrown at Kerry P. and people made a lot of noise so that the speeches were not held in the end.
King, Kerry, Marian Hobbs (Wellington MP) and Rex Nicholls (Kerry's husband and Wellington property developer) walked down on the 'bypass' to the Terrace tunnel surrounded by angry protesters. The police showed up with a big paddy wagon and a cop photographer was being rather aggressive. No arrests were made and we disappeared into the afternoon.
photos: slm
Comments
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
Great stuff. Loved the "magic moment" on the TV clip where Rexie babe pulled off the demonstrator's mask with poor wifie looking dismayed in the background- no doubt thinking "A nice shiny new road (to lead to our our nice new shiny motel, gym complex in Cuba St) and still they aren't happy".
Road user charges gone mad
A rather disturbing aspect was that the rotary club members collected $1 for the privilege of walking on a public road. The 'Birch Report' in Auckland a few years ago stated (with some regret) that there was no practical way to charge pedestrians and cyclists for road usage - maybe Wellington is leading the way here?
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
Fuck you Kerry and fuck you Rex and all you fuckhead greedy capitalist fascists.
We will never stop fighting scum like you!
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
Wellington City's roads are dangerous for pedestrians. She stated on TV that people shouldn't cross the roads. The whole city is a road itself, with nothing else.
You need someone like Hubbard to build community friendly projects instead of a desert! She is probably a shareholder in those developers....
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
I absolutely objected to being asked for a donation by Rotary/Karori Wildlife Sanctuary (do they not know the meaning of the word 'donation') so I refused to cough up. After being asked for about one the 4th time I proceeded to have a fairly lengthy row with two elderly gentlemen who did not seem to understand that the thought of paying to walk this monstrosity was at all objectionable. The Sanctuary should be damn well ashamed to be association themselves with it. I was informed that the road closed, thus private, and that they had a 'special licence' to collect money. I said I wasn't paying & that I wasn't leaving, so what are you going to do about it? Nothing, they said, but you should chose to leave. They then muttered something about police. After I stormed off I asked a police woman if I was breaking any laws by not paying, but she was very hostile & intimated that if I didn't leave her alone I would be sorry. What a bunch of fuckers that crew are. Kerryn.
Re: Anoynomous annoyances
Re: Anoynomous annoyances
Hello indy-administrators.
Indys 'new' policy on automating log-in identifications scores a big fat zero.
Practically every contribution on indy appears to be from an un-logged-in source.
So, now instead of people being asked to identify themselves in some way and giving continuity to the discussions (even with if it is with a psuedonym) we get extended discussions between numerous "anonymous" contributors.
anonymous / anonymous / anonymous / anonymous etc...
This is ridiculous people, lets go back to the old system, where you are expressly asked for an id for each contribution, whether or not you are logged in. Ths at least prompted writers to think about ownership of their contributions, and assits the reader in keeping up with who has what point of view.
ALSO while on the subject, this anti-spam number thing gives me the shits.
How many times have people (like me) spent 1/2 an hour writing something then forgot to enter the anti-spam number and the whole contribution dissapears into the void.
Can't it be formatted so that if you forget to enter the anti-spam number, your you get an alert that the anti-spam number must also be completed, but that leaves your comments in the 'comment' box until you do?
In solidarity, and rsi,
IWD
Re: Re: Anoynomous annoyances
hey IWD,
a few things:
1. The upgrade to the newest version of dada (which desperately had to do!) came with the log-in thing. I agree that was better before - but a whole heap of things are better now. Uhm, we don't have enough people in the tech collective; and we do not know how to get rid of that feature. sorry. if you, or anybody else, want(s) to get involved with tech work email the tech list (imc-aotearoa-tech@lists.indymedia.org).
2. The spam filter saves us editors hours and hours and hours. Just before the upgrade we had to close the site regularly as we were spammed like mad by automated spam (a few thousand spam posts over night or so and deleting them is a waste of time!).
If you forget to enter the spam code and click submit you should be able to go back one page and your text should still be there! (I tried that just then and it worked!
Or you could get a log-in (http://indymedia.org.nz/mod/accounts/index.php?function=new)! Solidarity
smush - imc aotearoa ed collective
Re: Re: Re: Anoynomous annoyances
speaking of nz imc getting an upgrade, can we have maybe an auckland meeting regarding some more upgrades of NZ's IMC, it's continually becoming a medium for political parties to spread their propaganda (really, what does alliance say about me having a shit? will it bring out the champagne for that occassion?) and reading on other IMC's they seem to get alot better coverage and layout etc, but it all comes down to organisation etc, and something which I've noticed that NZ's activist community doesn't have enough of (not trying to bag IMC and activists though)
Cheers, nopassword
Re: Re: Re: Re: Anoynomous annoyances
Re: Auckland Indymedia
you could join the email list for Auckland for starters... http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-auckland
Re: Re: Anoynomous annoyances
Kia ora koutou ko IWD
The software that Aotearoa IMC uses is called DadaIMC and is written by one core developer who makes all the decisions about how it will work. To make major changes to the software (like getting rid of the 'anonymous' thing) requires a tech volunteer with advanced knowledge of PHP and risks things breaking with future upgrades because our code is different from what the upgrade system expects.
This situation isn't ideal for a number of reasons and we have talked about changing to different software, eg Drupal, which a number of other IMCs have recently started to adapt for IMC use. This has been slowed down by a shortage of tech volunteers as mentioned by Smush. This is something which will probably be talked about at the Indymedia Convergence in Orkland in Feb (2-4).
If people intend to post regularly on the site it would be great if they sign up for a login and password as Smush suggests. Unfortunately this doesn't get rid of the captcha (anti-spam numbers) but since this is a plug-in module we might be able to get this fixed. Or they could just sign their handle at the end of their comment like they would on an email or a letter, like this:
RnB
Strypey
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
Haha - Redneck Rex was probably so frustrated after being heckled for half an hour that he went home and beat his dog to a pulp with a baseball bat.
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
At least need to have the USERNAME field added back in for guest logins, not that that means a dam thing
Helen Clark
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
30% of most cities are roads. what are cities for? take back public space! I don't want a city to be just a road from mall to work to home.
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
dreams of a world without fences.
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
nice one kerryn. good to hear you're one of many still taking a stand.
yeah! kia kaha e hoa.
i agree, shame on the sanctuary.
em
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
I was able to yell out to Hobbs and King that the only good politician was a dead one. Well worth my gold coin donation.
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
what a bunch of horrible looking people.
they can have their fucking bypass. i suggest you leave them to it.!
Re: Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass'
you got it
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
What rubbish IWD. Indymedia fadministrators spend all their time tracing IP Addresses to identify the authors of posters, then they target their political comments on them.
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
I'm not paranoid oi.
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
Tracing IPs to their ISP became irrelevent when dynamic IPs took the stage. Unless you live in the US where they still give out static IPs for cable type connections
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
wish i was there signed,tonyprotester
Re: Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass'
Breaks me up somewhat to think that you are protesting against signage. Havent been back since 1996 but used to live at 290 Willis and fought hard against the bypass. Thats always been the biggest, stupidest, craziest, least understandable of any roading policy.
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
Fuck the bypass, not that it is actually a bypass but i guess i will call it wat they do, i think $40 million waste is a better summary but what do i know? Kia Kaha keep up the fight, one more road is to many! but we can hopefully stop the next ......
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
Just an aside on the gold coin thing - the fundamental idea of a 'donation' is that it is voluntary; so excluding people unless they give a donation is a contradiction in terms. But then that's the whole bloody bypass for you ;-).
I am just pleased and proud that they did not get away with being triumphalist about the whole thing.
In 1981, southern Te Aro was one of the most densely populated parts of New Zealand. It was a dynamic and spontaneous example of the inner-city living Wellington City now promotes. Then came Victoria St and the "Bypass" - and with them car yards and asphalt.
To all of us who have opposed the bypass over the years, kia kaha.
ka kite ano me te aroha
Roland
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
People should check out the letter written by failed Johnsonville council wannabe Ian hutchings, Dompost today, Dec 29th. That will give you something to write back about.
Re: Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass'
done! letter writing for the revolution
;)
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
Hutchings was too cretinous even to be a city councillor. Being a mate of Kerry Prenderfart did him no good at all and he was soundly dumped at the last council election.
Re: Water bombs for Kerry P. - Protest against the 'Bypass' in W
get a job