[Onthebarricades] Anti-capitalist protests in Australia, New Zealand

[Andy]

In Australia, police continued their campaign of harassment at the APEC 
protests by attacking a solidarity protest with protesters facing charges 
over the G20 protests.  In New Zealand/Aotearoa, activists rallied against a 
summit with the United States, again facing police repression and violence. 
The weekend before the protests, police had used pepper spray in an attack 
on an anarchist convergence event.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Two-arrested-over-G20-case-protest/2007/08/31/1188067330124.html

G20 court arrests 'an overreaction'
August 31, 2007 - 12:49PM
Police who arrested two protesters outside a Melbourne court have been 
accused of overreacting and heavy-handed tactics.
A large police presence greeted about 30 protesters there to support 21 
people who appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court charged over last year's 
G20 riots.
A scuffle between police and protesters broke out outside court when a 
protester was arrested by police for possession of a knife.
According to fellow protesters, the man was attempting to hand a pocket 
knife and nail clippers to another protester outside the court to hold for 
him so he could go inside the court.
Fellow protester Fiona Taylor accused police of "brutally" handling the man 
and described their actions as an overreaction.
"This guy is a traveller and like most backpackers in Victoria he carries a 
Swiss army knife and some nail clippers," she said.
Another supporter outside the court, Anthony Main, said he suffered an 
injury to the forearm during the scuffle.
"This is another extreme overreaction of police to minor protest activity 
and we think that we're going to be taking this further," he said.
"I will be seeking legal advice and a doctor's report today."
In a statement, Region One Inspector Mick Hermens said the police response 
was appropriate with regard to the circumstances and bearing in mind the 
impending meeting of world leaders at the APEC summit in Sydney.
A man in his 20s is expected to be summonsed for possessing a controlled 
weapon and a 31-year-old English resident will be summonsed to court for 
hindering police in the course of their duties, the police statement said.
Meanwhile, inside the court, 21 people charged over last year's G20 protest 
faced a magistrate for an appearance concerning their impending committal 
hearing.
They face various charges including riot and affray that stem from the G20 
summit of the world's financial leaders in Melbourne on November 18 last 
year.
Prosecutor Chris Beale told the court some lawyers for the accused had 
expressed a desire to resolve the matter.
He said in at least one case a plea offer was made to some of the lesser 
charges.
However, he said the offer flagged was inadequate and was rejected.
A warrant for the arrest of one of the accused, Akim Sari, 28, was issued 
after he failed to appear in court.
Magistrate Sarah Dawes extended the bail of the other 21 defendants to 
appear at court again on February 18 next year for a 10-day committal 
hearing.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4196939a11.html

Protesters arrested outside US-NZ conference
NZPA | Monday, 10 September 2007
Three protesters were arrested after a scuffle broke out outside the venue 
of the United States New Zealand Partnership Forum in Auckland, protest 
organisers said.
The two-day forum, which is being attended by about 50 American government 
officials and business leaders, is looking at how the two countries can 
strengthen political, business and personal ties.
Our World Is Not For Sale campaign spokesman Ryan Bodman said about 100 
protesters took part in a lunchtime march through the central city to the 
conference venue.
He said the arrests occurred when police tried to move people away, but 
those people found their path blocked by a barrier.
Meanwhile, forum keynote speaker Chris Hill, the US Assistant Secretary of 
State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, had no complaints about the 
presence of protesters.
He said he would have been prepared to talk to them, but didn't see any of 
them when he went for a walk around the waterfront and Queen St.
"People have a right to express their opinions, people have a right to be 
concerned about issues of globalisation," he told journalists.
"We live in very deeply transformational times right now, so it's 
understandable. We have to justify what we are doing, so I don't worry that 
people have concerns."

http://www.indymedia.org.nz/

Actions in Auckland against NZ-US Partnership Forum
10 Sep 2007

by AIMC

Around 100 people marched down Queen Street to the Hilton Hotel to protest 
against the NZ-US Partnership Forum. The forum, which brings together 
representatives of the two governments as well as from major US and NZ 
corporations to work on tightening the economic and political links between 
the two nations, was moved in the last minute from the Auckland Museum to 
the Hilton Hotel.

The protests had begun earlier in the day with a picket at the road corner 
by approximately 20 people, during the time Prime Minister Helen Clark 
arrived at the forum. The main march began at Aotea Square at 12 noon, with 
protesters taking the street, setting off flares and chanting all the way to 
the Hilton. Upon arrival at the Forum venue, a stand-off began with the 
police. After a short period, a scuffle erupted when the police attempted to 
open one lane to allow vehicles to enter and exit the area, an attempt which 
succeeded despite some resistance from a number of people. Some time later 
the police made a decision to open the remaining lane and force the 
protesters onto the footpath behind plastic barriers. In the ensuing 
altercation, three people were arrested and several injured.

The protests highlighted a number of issues. Our World Is Not For Sale 
spokesperson Ryan Bodman stated that the results of a free trade agreement 
between the US and Australia have included "the degradation of environmental 
protection, particularly in relation to genetic engineering of food, the 
degredation of quarantine laws, an economic nightmare for small farmers and 
businesses, a huge increase in australia's trade defecit with the us, 
reduced access to affordable Australian pharmaceuticals and threats to 
australian manufacturing jobs." The same results and others can be expected 
if an NZ/US agreement is signed.

http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/73659/index.php

My account of the US-NZ Partnership Forum Protests

By Cam

The NZ-US Partnership Forum, a closed meeting of hand picked government and 
corporate heads, including Associate US Secretary of State Chris Hill, Helen 
Clark and executives from Nike and Boeing, was meant to be held at the 
Auckland War Memorial Museum. Yesterday morning activists learnt that this 
meeting was no longer going to descrate what is supposedly a war memorial 
and was instead being held at the Hilton Hotel on the water front.
On the March

At midday today around 100 people meet at Aotea Square. Led by marchers 
carrying a huge banner reading 'Notforsale.org.nz: No Free Trade Deal with 
the US we marched down Queen Street. The banner was so big it became a 
little bit impractical at times as it dragged at the bottom so some of us 
carrying it occasionally tripped on it. As one of the banner carriers, I had 
to carry it at neck height so my head just popped over the top.

The Greenpeace mobile sound system, in a wheelie bin, was pumping out Rage 
Against the Machine, Public Enemy, Atari Teenage Riot and other stirring 
protest anthems, giving the march a nice Rhythm to it. One demonstrator 
carried a lit flare making pretty lights. Once we got down to the 
intersection with Victoria Street roadworkers informed us we couldn't march 
down Queen Street so we took an indirect route downtown via side streets. We 
started chanting "hey hey USA, how many kids you killed today", "when 
corporate elites are on the attack attack: stand up fight back!". One member 
of the National Distribution Union (NDU) gave a speech on how a free trade 
deal with the US could well mean Pharmac is no longer able to subsidise 
prescription medicines. This would be good for the big US drug companies, 
such as Pfizer, but bad for us ordinary people having to pay increased 
prices for a basic necessity.

Another comrade led us in an awesome chant that nearly covered pretty much 
every concern that demonstrators had about the extremely destructive form of 
corporate globalization and state repression being pushed by the governments 
of both the US and NZ: "When corporate elites are on the attack - stand up 
fight back!, when innocent Iraqis are under attack - stand up fight back. 
When GE free is under attack., when our environment., when Tonga's democracy 
movement is., when East Timor is under attack., when indigenous people are 
under attack., when the Treaty of Waitangi is under attack- STAND UP FIGHT 
BACK!"

I had wondered why there were no cops following us, until we marched on to 
the feeder bridge that ends at the Viaduct harbour. I could see a wall of 
police in fluro jackets blocking the entrance to the Viaduct (and hence the 
Hilton). I joked with the NDU activist next to me that I could see a whole 
heap of people in fluro yellow but I didn't think they were NDU members. Two 
activists very capably directed traffic, so both the cars could drive on the 
bridge and protesters could safely march along it.

Arriving at the Hilton

When we arrived at the entrance to the Viaduct one demonstrator, with a loud 
hailer, started saying "if you care about the environment take a step 
forward"(I can't remember his exact words). The crowd steps forward. "If you 
care about democracy take one step forward." The crowd stepped forward until 
they were just in front of the police lines. Jane Kelsey, a professor of law 
at the University of Auckland and well known social justice campaigner, gave 
an impassioned speech about how the US-NZ Partnership Forum was such an 
anti-democratic set up that it had to meet behind huge security, in much the 
same way that Sydney was turned into a police state for APEC, in order to 
push an extremely anti-human and anti-democratic form of globalization. She 
also spoke of how a huge number of people's organizations of workers, 
peasants and other poor people in South East Asia and Latin America were 
seriously challenging the neo-liberal corporate globalization order. In the 
Philippines, which has suffered over a century of domination by American 
imperialism* ,popular movements have stopped the government entering into 
free trade negotiations with the USA.

The driveway was blocked. Cars couldn't get in or out so the cops pushed 
people back to create an entrance for vehicles. The police formed a new line 
in front of their entrance way, leaving the demonstrators to occupy the rest 
of the entrance. For the next 20 minutes or so there were some more 
speakers, including ones from the Water Pressure Group and Citizens Against 
Privatisation. People milled around listening to the music, talking and 
sometimes dancing. One young woman started speaking about how a US-NZ Free 
Trade Agreement was a threat to NZ sovereignty and we had to stand up to 
protect our nation, as proud New Zealanders. I got a bit annoyed when she 
got heckled by a few people yelling "nationalist crap!". Considering that 
the poster for the demo had a map of Aotearoa with a caption 'For sale?', it 
did not seem like such an out of place argument for someone to make, even 
though many of us, including myself, dislike nationalism. Nevertheless I 
like the writings of the late Aotearoa nationalist and Marxist, Bruce 
Jesson. He made excellent critiques of neo-liberalism and passionately 
argued that socialism needed to be adapted to suit Aotearoa conditions. I 
imagine if he was still alive he could well have been there with us 
yesterday.

A Police Photographer - just like in Zimbabwe or West Papua!

Behind the police lines this whole time was the ominous presence of a police 
photographer taking photos of us with a huge telephoto lens. I put on a huge 
grin, waved at him and started yelling "I'm smiling for you! Come on take 
the photo!". I stood for a bit longer smiling and pulling funny faces. When 
he appeared to be aiming at people speaking on the mike I stood in front of 
them to try obscure his view. I'm not sure if this worked or not. A couple 
of times he put his camera down when I did and tried pointing at something 
else. However, I doubt this did much good because he had a huge telephoto 
lens and he was behind police lines so I couldn't obscure his view 
completely. I started yelling out to him "Hey did you know that taking 
photos of protesters is something cops do in Zimbabwe? Did ya?" The photocop 
just stared into the distance with a blank expression, as cops usually do. A 
friend next to me said "Nah he probably didn't". I remember watching a news 
item showing a demonstration in Zimbabwe against the vile dictator Robert 
Mugabe. There were police on the sidelines taking photos of people. 
Indonesian Police and Military also do the same thing at peaceful 
demonstrations in West Papua.

Cops Get Viciously Violent

By this stage we were planning on leaving. I was holding up the big banner 
at the front and one of the protester leaders came up to me and said that we 
were about to leave, so bring the banner back out to the front of the march. 
As demonstrators were leaving, the commanding officer of the Team Policing 
Unit (the thugs the police use to break up parties and demonstrations) began 
barking into his loud hailer that the entrance was now a restricted zone and 
that we had to all leave or we would be arrested. He literally did bark, 
sounding like a vicious dog. It took a while for the 70 or so demonstrators 
to file through to the footpath because it had been blocked off by road 
works barriers, leaving only a metre wide gap to get through. All of a 
sudden the cops started barking "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE" and pushed forward in a 
tight line.

The Greenpeace wheelie bin boombox became quite soundtrack like, suddenly 
switching track to "bad boys, bad boys. What you gonna do, what ya gonna do 
when they come for you". Several people fell over and then got crushed by 
other demonstrators being forced back by the cops. The cops were yelling 
"get behind the barrier" but no one could get behind because they were being 
crushed up against the barrier. I put out my arm and said to the cops "stop 
moving there's people on the ground getting crushed". Others were doing the 
same. Someone could have been seriously injured or worse. The cop responded 
"yeah ok" but then kept on pushing forward over the fallen demonstrators. 
What was really disconcerting was the police officers' completely 
emotionless robot like expressions while they were busy forcing themselves 
forward hurting people. I didn't see the arrests but suddenly heard everyone 
chanting "shame, shame, shame".

I suppose they had some 'better work stories' to tell their friends and 
family.

What is to be done

I think everyone who has a chance should write a complaint to the Police 
Complaints Authority about the behaviour of the Police yesterday. While 
probably nothing will happen, it will mean that public disgust at their 
actions will be on the record. If ordinary people acted like the cops did 
yesterday they would have been arrested and put before the courts.

Most importantly we need to continue building a movement against a free 
trade agreement with the US, anti-human corporate globalization, war and 
militarism. The Not for Sale Campaign have made a great contribution. In the 
words of the Australian singer and Aboriginal activist Kev Carmody "out of 
little things big things grow".

*In 1899 the US invaded the Philippines. A 15 year long war ensued in which 
Filipino nationalists resisted US forces. Over a hundred thousand Filipinos 
died. US forces raped, pillaged and even massacred whole villages. Filipinos 
were forced live in controlled internment camps, in much the same as the 
Japanese Imperial army forced people in China to 30 years later and the US 
did in Vietnam during the 1960s and 70s.

http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/73660/index.php

Demonstration in Auckland against US/NZ Partnership Forum
11 Sep 2007 12:50:26 PM

Morning Picket
The protests against the US/NZ Partnership Forum started at around 7:45am 
with a picket outside the Hilton where a press conference was scheduled to 
start at 8.30am. The protest organisers were under the impression that the 
Forum will be held at the Auckland Museum in the Domain. A local radio 
station reported that the venue had been changed to an inner-city venue. 
After further conversation with journalists and a drive-by at the Museum, it 
became evident that the whole Forum would be held at the Hilton.

March

Protesters started gathering in Aotea Square at 12noon. It was decided to 
march down Queen Street to the Hilton. Around 100 people joined the march 
and we left at around 12:30pm behind a huge banner saying 
"NotForSale.org.nz - No Free Trade Deal with the USA". There were a number 
of union activists from the NDU and Unite, people from socialist groups and 
a lot of anarchists from around the country who were in Auckland for the 
anarchist conference organised by A Space Inside. Flares were let off on the 
march, people chanted, music was played.

At the Hilton

Police only started to be visible when we approach the Hilton. They tried to 
"give us an escort" by driving into the demo. An orange smoke bomb was 
thrown towards the policeline. The driveway to the hotel was blocked for 15 
minutes. Then the cops decided to clear half the driveway so cars could get 
to the hotel. Extra cops came in and were positioned at the side. "Move, 
move, move!" And after a short scuffle the protesters were moved.

Speeches were delivered by law professor Jane Kelsey, Penny Bright from the 
Water Pressure Group, a member of Citizens Against Privatisation and others. 
While listening to fantastic music (Rage Against the Machine - yay!) the 
cops started clearing the whole driveway. During that scuffle three people 
were arrested and several activists were injured by the police. The cops 
threw punches and grabbed a woman's breasts. One cop's hat was expropriated.

After the pepper spraying the previous day, it was another violent display 
of the state's army protecting the ruling class.

http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/73669/index.php

Monday: USNZ Partnership Forum Masks A Suspension of Civil Rights

Over the last two weeks state forces in Auckland have attempted to "expose, 
disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the protest activity 
occuring around the USNZ Partnership Forum and around Auckland in general. 
Intense surveillance and repression has been a common feature as well as the 
use of bail conditions to disrupt the expression of political opinions. The 
paragraph's below give a brief summary of some of the ways the police 
violated civil and human rights in an attempt to suppress and disrupt 
dissent.

On Monday morning a Auckland Police Detective attempted to enter my home at 
193a Symonds Street. He demanded that my friend open the door and repeatedly 
asked to speak to me. My friend refused and asked the Detective for a search 
warrant. None was given and the Detective left telling my friend, "We are 
going to lock Omar up".

On Monday afternoon at Princes Wharf I was arrested by police and charged 
with Obstruction. As I was being processed on Princes wharf the police 
attempted to make me sign my property sheet without putting the megaphone on 
it. One officer told me that there was no megaphone, though I was clearly 
arrested with one. After asking repeatedly for it the police brought it 
around from behind a car and put it on the property sheet.

After leaving Princes Wharf we were driven to Auckland Central Police 
Station where I was processed again by officer X180. He began by asking me 
where I was born. When I refused to tell him where I was born he told me to, 
"stop fucking around". I calmly pointed out that I had no legal right to 
offer anymore information than my name, address and DOB. At this point he 
told me he would rip my t-shirt off me. He then asked for the security 
cameras in the processing area to be turned off. The cop standing next to me 
looked away when I tried to make eye contact. X180 and another officer 
behind the counter told me to "play the game". I refused and X180 and the 
other officer took me to a bare cell, which did not have a toilet or a bed, 
to "cool off". I had offered no resistance nor aggression. I asked to 
consult a duty solicitor at this point and was told that I had to wait my 
turn. X180 and another officer X444 as well as other security guards 
repeatedly walked past my cell and I repeatedly asked to consult and 
instruct a duty solicitor without delay. I was ignored. At one point an 
officer with a an English accent told me "I'll get one of the boys to come 
and get that for you." I also asked X180 if i could use the toilet and he 
ignored me. I was forced to urinate twice between the crack between the 
cell-door and cell-floor. I was held in this cell for 6.5 hours. At one 
point the officer with an English accent came and told me that all I had to 
do to get bail was to answer the questions such as my ethnicity. I refused. 
I was eventually released at 7.30pm by officer X444. At no point had police 
allowed me my basic civil right to consult a lawyer. they offered no 
explanation for this. The megaphone was returned sans $70 of rechargable 
batteries.

http://indymedia.org.nz/feature/display/71713/index.php

Activist arrested at Anarchist conference

At 9.30am two police officers arrived at A Space Inside social centre, on 
Symonds Street, and arrested one activist for alleged breach of bail 
conditions, in relation to yesterday's demonstration against the detention 
of Iranian asylum seekers in Mt Eden prison.

They ventured into the stairwell and grabbed the young man. When other 
activists came to his aid the police pulled out their pepper spray and 
aggressively sprayed several people in the eyes. According to people present 
during the arrests the police did not have a warrant. The arrested activist 
was beaten by the cops once they got him outside the building and taken to 
the police station.

This weekend A Space Inside is hosting an Aotearoa wide anarchist 
conference.