Aotearoa Independent Media Centre

So what’s all the fuss about the Search and Surveillance Bill?

THE SEARCH AND SURVEILLANCE BILL is before Parliament now. It has been through its second reading, but its passage has been temporarily stopped because of what was considered widespread public misunderstanding of the bill. The October 15th Solidarity group does not believe that there is any misunderstanding of the Bill- it enhances state powers and fundamentally alters some core concepts in law to such a degree that even the Law Society and the Chief Justice have serious criticism of it.

So much is hidden within the 197 pages and 316 clauses of the Search and Surveillance Bill, it’s hard to know where to start.

The bill is meant to streamline search and surveillance, by redefining not only police powers but also the powers of over 70 government agencies- called ‘enforcement officers’ in the bill. However, the bill does much more than that. It effectively gives police powers to agencies such as Work and Income and the Pork Board.

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.

"His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. "When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide."For Dr. Zinn, activism was a natural extension of the revisionist brand of history he taught. Dr. Zinn's best-known book, "A People's History of the United States" (1980), had for its heroes not the Founding Fathers — many of them slaveholders and deeply attached to the status quo, as Dr. Zinn was quick to point out — but rather the farmers of Shays' Rebellion and the union organizers of the 1930s.

Links: HowardZinn.org | An Interview with Howard Zinn on Anarchism

A devastatingly courageous photo exhibition is opening at Thistle Hall in Wellington on February 2nd. Showcasing the daily experience of Palestinians living under occupation, the exhibition features bold images from the front line of the struggle for justice in Palestine.

2-7 February 2010 at Thistle Hall, Wellington

This exhibition is a rare opportunity for New Zealanders to see a different side of the conflict. “We want to show the different ways in which Israel destroys people’s livelihoods, homes, land and hope” says Israeli peace activist and exhibition organiser Kerem Blumberg. “But we also want to emphasise that Palestinians and Israelis continue to work together towards real peace and justice, through non-violent resistance to the Israeli state and military. Now that I am living in New Zealand, it feels like something that I can share.” continues Kerem “I have found other people here who have been witness to the occupation who wanted to make the exhibition happen”.

These moving images are the work of the widely published group ‘ActiveStills’ a collective of photographers, based in Israel, who believe in the power of photography as a tool for social justice. Formed in 2005, they have since held and participated in exhibitions in Munich, Olympia, Bil’in (West Bank), Tel Aviv, Toronto, Montreal, Malmo, Lund and Amsterdam.

Today protests continued at ASB stadium during the tennis match of the Israeli tennis player, Shahar Peer. The vocal crowd of about 30 protestors, had become emboldened by five unlawful arrests on the previous day. Consequently, two further arrests occured for simply yelling into a megaphone.

In an effort to drown out the protester's message, ASB stadium had gone to such lenghts as to hire a live band to perform across from the picket line.  Unforunately for them not much could be done once Shahar Peer's tennis match began.  Two protesters on a magaphone were quickly warned by police that if they did not stop the disturbance they would be arrested. Officers then moved in, and considerable media presence led to a dramatic arrest.

The police were very intent on keeping any sound device from being used in the area. After a couple of hours, it seemed as though the police were moving in to make further arrests of those left chanting.  People by this time had began to disperse so it was decided amongst us to move along before potential further confrontation.

Shahar Peer lost her match shortly after we left.

Free, free Palestine!

Today five pro Palestine protesters were arrested outside the New Zealand Tennis Open, heres my account of what happened.

The protest had been going for about ten minutes with protesters holding placards, chanting and using a megaphone when police approached a protester. Whilst I could not hear exactly what they told the protester the general gist seemed to be that the protester should stop using his megaphone. A few minutes later they approached a second protester who had been using a microphone and told her something similar.

About 150 people took to the streets early this morning in Wellington as two banners were hung overnight in prominant locations. First stop was the Stock Exchange, to disrupt business as usual and tell the profiteers of climate change that our climate is not their business. While people entered the building a samba band, radical cheerleaders and a kids block were outside all main entrances. There was also a vocal bunch from a group claiming to be counter-protesting for the right to profit from exploiting the environment. Nine people were arrested in a sit-in blockade but later released with no charge.

Meanwhile, a banner was dropped off the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) on Lambton Quay. The action was taken to draw attention to the fact that 51% of New Zealand's climate changing emissions come from agriculture. The protesters who were initially at the stock exchange, marched down Lambton Quay to support the two activists hanging off MFAT. The two climbers came down later and were not arrested.

Articles: Climate Camp Day of Action first report | Report on banner drop in Wellington | Some Photos from climate protests in Wellington | Street theatre hammers climate message home

Yesterday Indonesian Police shot Kelly Kwalik, a leader of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), while conducting a raid on a house in Timika, West Papua.  Kwalik later died in hospital.  Five others, including a 10 year old boy were arrested during the raid.

Kwalik, aged 60, had been a leader of the Timika region OPM since 1977.  The OPM has been struggling for the rights of indigenous West Papuans since the Indonesian Military invaded in the 1960s. The Indonesian Military and Police continue to commit serious human rights abuses in Papua.  A large number of West Papuans have been imprisoned for simply flying the West Papuan flag, the Morning Star.  Papuans live in poverty and lack access to basic health and education services, while their land’s natural resources, such as copper, gold and kwila rainforest wood have been sold off to multinational corporations. 

During the 1990s Kwalik had been involved in the kidnapping of foreign nationals in Papua.  However, in recent years the OPM, along with other Papuan groups, have called for dialogue with the Indonesian government and for Papua to become a demilitarised ‘land of peace’.  The Indonesian Police claimed that Kwalik had been responsible for a number of killings of civilians in recent years around the infamous Freeport McMoRan copper and gold mine, including the 2002 shooting of two American teachers and the 2009 shooting of an Australian Freeport employee.  A number of human rights activists and Papuan leaders have disputed these claims.  The attacks were carried out with high powered assault rifles commonly found in the arsenals of the military and police.  The OPM is a poorly armed force.  Some believe the attacks may have been carried out by Indonesian soldiers, in order to justify their continued presence around the Freeport mine. [Impunity at the Freeport Mine: Will Indonesian Security Forces Get Away with it Again?] 

Preparations for New Zealands first Climate Camp are going well with people moving onto the site yesterday. Campers spent the day setting up some of the infrastructure required for the camp including the kitchen and storage tents. As the day progressed water lines could be seen snaking across the field, solar panels popped up next to tents and by the end of the day hot food was being prepared in the kitchen. The site is perfect, large trees dot the field, a river with swimming holes runs beside the camp and there is easy vehicular access.

Climate camp officially kicks off tomorrow (Wednesday) and will be going until the 21^st.

Saturday 12th began with the NOAH Flood for Climate Justice Demonstration which started at 10am and marched, danced and waved to Christiansborg Slotsplads (the Parliament Square) [photo report] where at 1pm it merged with the 12dec Demo which included a CJA group.  It soon became clear that it was a massive concentration, with estimates quickly reaching 100,000 protestors; it was a part of a Global Day of Action on climate change.  Meanwhile a separate action called by Never Trust a COP (NTAC) initially gathered in Højbro Plads.

Police Make Indiscriminate Mass Arrests

At around 3.15pm the police charged into the march near to where the CJA System Change not Climate Change group had joined the march, as well as people from the Ntac called demonstration. They cut off hundreds of people including many who were marching as part of Libertarian Socialist bloc [Pics 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | report | personal account | video: 1 | 2 | 3]. By 5pm several hundred had been handcuffed and made to sit on the floor, where they remain in the cold for hours. The police's press office reports that those arrested today are between 700-900 people - See AerialTwitpic. See CJA Press Release

For updates see Indymedia Timeline | icop15 aggregation | cop15live video

More timelines: Modkraft.dk [dk | en] | Motkraft. net [sv | en] | La Haine [es] | nocop Italy imc

Meanwhile, Climate Camp will start in Moonshine park (Upper Hutt) on Wednesday with the set-up of the camp and a first camp meeting at 4pm that day. [ More Information ]