Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
Australian Prime Minister John Howard was harassed throughout today by protesters primarily opposed to his involvement in the Iraq war.
A small group of protesters greeted him at the airport this afternoon with abuse and insults while he was welcomed by Clark and other high ranking MPs. There was a heavy policy presence.
Tonight, about 50 protesters gathered outside Premier House to further harass Howard, but were greeted a similar number of police who were more brutal than normal. Up to three rows of police barred entrance to the Premier House grounds.
Smoke bombs were let off in numbers and at times lobbed into police lines. One protester jumped the fence and was was arrested, while a futher two were subsequently arrested. Another is suspected of having had a rib broken, and still one more had his glasses broken.
Comments
plus one more
lotsa great footage on TV3 website
lotsa great footage on TV3 website
more photos
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
saw the footage,the pigs ,were obviously abusing there power again,whats the deal helen?why werent these people allowed to protest without harrasment and assault from the filth,shame on you and your sold out ,so called left
Re: Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
Good footage from TV3 site. Interesting.
I have two questions.
1) On the news today (radioNZ) there was a citizen grisling that his car had 5 panels punched in. What is the truth about that?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200702161213/annual_leaders_talks_w...
2) From the TV3 footage it looks to me like the cops and protesters were getting very busy arguing with each other. The thought that kept occuring to me was "the object is John Howard, not the cops". Does anybody else think that there is a stratagy of provocation (on the part of the cops and perhaps some foolish citizens) to provoke conflict as a way of putting off the general public and eroding support? If so do you think there is any way of countering it?
cheers
Worik
Re: Re: Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
" Mob turns on car
Last night, anti-Iraq war protesters disrupted Mr Howard's arrival at a dinner at Premier House. About 50 people stood face to face with police officers to protest Australia's involvement in the war in Iraq.
A Wellington man was shaken when an angry mob turned on his car. Island Bay resident Cooper Gyles says he was driving home from work when the protesters turned on him without provocation, beating his car and damaging five panels. He says it was a very frightening experience.
Three people were arrested during the rally, organised by Peace Action Wellington to protest the war in Iraq."
i guess driving through a crowd of people with their backs to the car, some sitting on the ground, without even using his horn, or refusing to stop when people were clearly trapped between his car and police lines wouldn't be provocation?
Re: Re: Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
yup Cooper Gyles was whining in the media all day about how his car got damaged. he provoked it, he deserved it, and more. he tried to drive thru the crowd and was very aggressive and dangerous and deserved everything he got
Re: Re: Re: Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
That's interesting.
On the radio it sounded like he was just passing by, and the crazed mob turned on him! Not surprising that that did not turn out to be quite the case...
Worik
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
The police had set up a roadblock, however for some unknown reason they decided to let him through to attempt to drive straight through us. He deserved all he got.
..:::...
...
...
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
Bloody hippy scum! Don't you know that Cooper Gyles is a prominent member of the elitist group of capitalist landlords and company directors, more commonly known as FUCKWITS. He was simply wanting to join the other FUCKWITS at Premier House.
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
Seems like the protesters were primarily interested in being assbites...
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
Seems like the protesters were primarily interested in being assbites...
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
good one for giving Howard a hard time
if some fucker drove at me at a protest i'd lay charges. not smash his car. if he was going to meet howard and was convicted of dangerous driving, this would be more powerful than kicking his car.
fighting the police is just a distraction. the masters of the capitalist universe just love that ....slaves fighting serfs...
if you rise to the police bait, sorry, but you're acting just as ignorantly as they are. and yeah.. i do have convictions for obstructing and resisting (from an encounter with that cop shown sitting on top of a wrapped up activist in the photo below - sadly, i think he might have got promoted to the anti protest squad after that.)
Duncan
historical precedent
historical precedent
historical precedent
historical precedent
historical precedent
(stupid buggy cms)
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
The demo against scum Howard and Clark was worthwhile.
On the other hand, booting in a passer bys car, even if he was being aggressive and is a local capitalist (the latter was not necessarily known before hand) seems like the typical agro masculine "beat the shit out of them" approach that the rest of us sadly have to put up with from some activist men in Wellington.
It probably would have been best to focus on breaking the Police line and getting into Prem House.
The heartless line 'he deserves all he got" is the sort of cold approach that anarchists should think twice about before using. It's too reminiscent of the reactionary "lock em up and throw away the key" or "put them to work in the fields" that we sadly hear from other groups - ranging from conservatives, socialists and capitalists.
Re: Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
"It's too reminiscent of the reactionary "lock em up and throw away the key" or "put them to work in the fields" that we sadly hear from other groups - ranging from conservatives, socialists and capitalists."
I agree entirely.
Cam
Re: Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
"It probably would have been best to focus on breaking the Police line and getting into Prem House."
With the numbers we had vs. the numbers the cops had, there was no way that was going to happen. There was a lot of focus while waiting for Howard to arrive on trying to work out if and how we could break through the lines. The conclusion reached by all that I talked to was that we couldn't. A few people tried, but nothing resulted .
"even if he was being aggressive"
He had two choices - reverse, or drive through us and attempt to run people over, people who were clearly not facing his car and had no idea he was coming, including people stuck between his car and the police lines. Thats not merely being aggressive.
One of the first things that was done when his car hit some of us was the opening of his driver's side door and someone grabbing the keys out of the ignition - this was great as it stopped him driving into us further. Upon return of the keys, rather than reverse away, he again drove into us.
"The heartless line 'he deserves all he got" is the sort of cold approach that anarchists should think twice about before using."
I wasn't saying there was nothing he didn't deserve - on the contrary, there are a number of things that could have been done that were not, and I'm happy for that. What was done, however (some minor damage to his car, and despite some talking it up, it was rather minor) was certainly well deserved considering his actions. One would imagine that he wouldn't contemplate doing the same again, which can only be a good thing.
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
Name: Mr Cooper Gyles
Position: CEO
Work phone number: 04 3849918
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
"seems like the typical agro masculine "beat the shit out of them" approach that the rest of us sadly have to put up with from some activist men in Wellington"
you have got to be joking? ITS A CAR! It has no feelings! Its not violence. Cars cause more violence than that! 'Activist men' well I know some aggresive 'activist women' too. And kudos to then, anger and action are normal responses to this shit.
Passivity is consent.
Re: Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
Hell yes.
Let's get this in perspective. Gyles put people in danger with his behaviour, he hit people, actual real people, with his car. He was using his car as a weapon. It wasn't that long ago that another dickhead killed a woman at a protest doing just this.
No-one hit gyles (although I personally think that would have been a reasonable action to stop him endangering people's lives), some people temporarily stopped him by grabbing his keys, taking his car out of gear, pulling on the handbrake. Some people did some damage to his car.
Why would you criticise the people who he hit with his car, or the people who attacked his car? What would you do? Sit back and let him run over your friends? Let him drive off in his car and use it against other people?
Re: Re: Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
I was on pavement, able to see clearly what happened, and the car did not attempt to stop at the wall of protesters.
Gyles was trying to ram the backs of people's legs. They ended up on his bonnet instead of under his bumper/wheels, and then he got shitty about denting the paintwork.
Stupid fucker should know that if you run people down, it WILL dent the paintwork.
I have no sympathy for him, and I hope his loud bleating in the papers means that the insurance company fails to pay up. He brought this one on himself, silly bastard. The Dompost even quoted the Police saying that they did not reccommend that members of the public behave in this manner.
Katie
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
Join the worlds majority. It seems those who wage unjust, illegal wars are winning, but the facts remain that the anti-fascist side fought to end aggressive war as foreign policy globally. That these unjust wars against Iraq are occuring is the direct fault of George W. Bush, who as world leader of the Imperialist nations,and an oil millionaire magnate is guilty of war crimes for pushing for more oil pollution while dismissing the green power movement as irrelevant to the American economy. No blood for oil. Bush and Blair lied and six hundred thousand died. Howard, Blair, and Bush are illegal war criminals and must be impeached and put on trial internationally for the war crimes they have done against the anti-fascist side in the Geneva Conventions of War (1949) Namely these three war crimes, 1) targeting and killing of civilians, 2) torturing and killing of prisoners of war and civilians.3) collective punishment, the destruction to rubble of cities, towns and villages throughout Iraq and the middle east. Aussies ought therefore to remember lest we forget that this unjust war by the Imperialist nations is fought inspite of the green ecological revolution that would re-tool the entire industrial revolution to wind, tidal, and solar power out of coal, gas, oil, and atomic energy. Viva socialist liberation. End war, not endless pollution wars.
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
I <3 the Village People look alike in blue...nice power mustache
Re: Anti-Howard Demos Brief Report
As the owner of the car I can only say that those protesters were an organised group that had only one thing on their mind. To create as much possible trouble and insitement as they could muster. If that ment smashing up my car to vent their misguided spean or fighting with Police to capture public attention then thats their stated aim. Police told me that the majority are professional protesters and well known to the authorities. Their total disregard to the rights of the public to go about their business is alien to any normal citizen's standard of civil conduct