At the height of Christchurch's BUSKERS FESTIVAL Food Not Bombs activists refused to move when council staff and police bullied them to do so. Stating Council Health and Safety standards, bylaws and traffic laws, these officers tried to get the group to move on, but to no avail.

Food Not Bombs is an autonomous group of people who share free food every Friday in Cashel Mall to whomever wants it. To them, serving up free food is a statement against capitalism and the corporatisation of a basic human right,food.

"Food is a right not a privilege, and poverty is violence,so if someone goes hungry today we are at war." said Edith, one of the people at the "Anti-capitalist" kitchen.

"We have been sharing our food with the people of Christchurch for over two years on a regular basis and this is an escalation in the harrassment and attempts by the Christchurch City Council to shut Food Not Bombs down.We have received visits from council staff before and have been fined for parking on Latimer Square as part of the Food Not Bombs Kitchen at the Really Free Market.We are to appear in court next Wednesday (21 January) to challenge this so called infringement" said Al,one of the group.

As the harassment of the police was in progress, a young man continued to give away soup, bread and sandwiches to a variety of people who gathered around. At one point, another person dishing up soup was told by a police officer to put down his ladle and pack up, but he refused to do so.

"If this stuff isn't gone in 10 minutes we will bring in reinforcements and remove it ourselves" said one police officer.

At this point the officers moved off and the group continued to share their food until it was all gone. No further incident occurred, however it appeared that the council had made their intentions clear. They wanted the group gone.