A-Infos (en) Aotearoa/New Zealand, Thr@l, #21 No to the World Trade Organisation

[worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>(http://www.thrall.orcon.net.nz/21antiwto.html)]

 ________________________________________________
      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
            http://www.ainfos.ca/
 ________________________________________________

 new zealand reports

 Anti-WTO protests were held across Aotearoa and around
 the world recently to mark the start of the latest WTO
 meeting in Doha, Qatar. Because of the repressive nature
 of the government of Qatar, the WTO was spared the kinds
 of protests that disrupted the last meeting in Seattle.
 Anti-globalisation protestors, however, vowed to keep the
 pressure up by organising an International Day of Action
 against the WTO. Below are reports on actions in
 Christchurch and Wellington.
 christchurch report

 Around 200 people joined the November 9 "Tour of Capitalist
 Greed" in Christchurch, which has the dubious
 distinction of being the hometown of WTO Director General Mike
 Moore.
 The day was organised by a broad coalition of some
 half-a-dozen Christchurch lefty groups, including
 everyone from the Anarchist Round Table to Staunch (Alliance
 youth) Given the range of political ideologies represented, the
 planning for the event went surprisingly smoothly,

 although the diversity of groups involved did lead to some
 mixed messages on the day. On the positive side, people of
 all ages and types turned up.
 The day kicked off at noon in the Cashel Mall amphitheatre
 with a short introductory speech about the WTO by Aziz
 Choudry of GATT Watchdog.
 tour of capitalist greed

 We then marched down to the local Nike Shop, where Mathew
 of the Anarchist Round Table talked about the conditions workers
 face in Nike sweatshops in places like China and Vietnam. It was
 stressed that the exploitation of workers at Nike was not an
 exception, but rather an example of how all workers around the
 world are exploited under capitalism. The crowd were then
 invited to step forward and hurl sponge rubber bricks at the
 Nike Shop window. Despite the objections of one

 protestor who considered the action overly violent (!), the
 shop was subjected to a barrage of spongy projectiles,
 much to the consternation of the solitary security guard.
 Next stop was Telecom, where Murray Horton from CAFCA
 drew the crowd's attention to the sucking sound he could
 hear as 98% of the company's profits were being
 channelled offshore from the ex-state owned entity. There
 was then a "people's" auction where we tried to buy back
 Telecom. The highest bid was $20. (We are still in
 negotiations.)
 Our next target was Starbucks, just around the corner in
 Cathedral Square. After a speech from Trade Aid's Simon
 Gerathy, everyone was invited to enjoy a cup of "fair trade"
 coffee, kindly prepared by Food not Bombs.
 It was then back to the Cashel Mall amphitheatre and our
 next target: the WestpacTrust Bank. Predictably, a member
 of the Alliance used the opportunity to give the new Kiwi
 Back a plug. Green Party co-leader Rod Donald continued
 the reformist theme with a lecture on ethical consumerism,
 while a member of the Young Greens gave out fake twenty
 dollar bills with a subversive anti-capitalist message on the
 back!
 overall a welcome change

 Overall the Tour of Capitalist Greed was a welcome change
 from the traditional march and rally. The police presence
 was minimal, which meant we were able to briefly occupy
 the Telecom foyer and occasionally spill on to the road as
 we marched from one venue to the next. There is obviously
 still a lot of confusion out there as to what anti-capitalism is
 (it is not about switching loyalties from foreign-owned
 businesses to locally- or state-owned ones), but hopefully
 we will have another opportunity soon to set the record
 straight!

 Kerry, Grant F & Mathew
 wellington report

 The Wellington Carnival Against Capitalism was a noisy, fun
 demonstration held on November 9 to coincide with the
 meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Qatar. The day
 consisted of a series of rolling demonstrations.
 About 150 people or so attended the carnival, which was a smaller
 turnout than previous carnivals vs. capital held in Wellington, but
 nevertheless a good time was held by all.
 Certainly, we didn't manage to stop capitalism for a day,
 but at least we managed to temporarily shut down
 a few capitalist giants in the form of Burger King and McDonald's.

 Strangely enough the day began with a small Council of
 Trade Unions rally in Midland Park, but the CTU did not
 want to be associated with the carnival, so it was billed as a
 separate event. All the CTU could offer was a tepid speech
 by their chief union bureaucrat opposing some aspects of
 globalisation anyway. Then the carnival moved around the
 corner to the Ministry of "Defence" to protest against the
 war against Afghanistan and the sending of NZ SAS troops
 to fight for the American ruling elite. A few speeches were
 made, and slogans (unfortunately only in chalk) written on
 the walls of the ministry.

 The next stop was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
 to protest against the proposed Hong Kong Free Trade
 Agreement. By now the protest was decidedly noisy and
 emotional, and at least there was a bit of a radical edge to
 the demo. I can remember only one person speaking about
 such shit as fair trade, not free trade and most speeches
 recommended us not to vote, and take control of our
 communities away from the control of capitalism. As well, a
 few people made the link between war and capitalists
 attempting to free up trade for their own profit, as the NZ
 government is asking for a free trade agreement with the
 US in return for them supporting their war. After that, we
 made our way to an anti-Genetic Engineering Rally in Cuba
 Mall, stopping to protest outside the Business Roundtable,
 Burger King, Starmart, McDonald's, Nike, Westpac Bank
 and Starbucks along the way. GE is a big issue in Aotearoa,
 with mass protests up and down the country against the
 attempt by capitalists to control and patent our food and life
 itself.

 wellington's first reclaim the streets party


 The day ended with a moderately successful Reclaim the
 Streets party in Upper Cuba St outside the anarchist
 bookshop the Freedom Shop, where a punk rock band
 entertained the crowd. This was the first Reclaim the
 Streets party held in Aotearoa, and it worked quite well. The
 "party" was quite lethargic, with people sitting down on
 chairs in the middle of the street the order of the day, but at
 least we reclaimed the street for an hour, and the police
 obliged by redirecting traffic for us.There were no arrests
 during the protest. The party was held in Upper Cuba St
 because it is the site of a proposed inner city motorway
 bypass that may be pushed through in the next year, even
 though almost everyone in the local community opposes it.
 It is another example of capitalism at work, with roads
 pushed through to benefit business to the detriment of local
 community.


  So far, the anti-bypass  movement is dominated by a
  mild middle-class group  called Campaign for a Better
  City. The CBC focuses upon  lobbying local politicians and
  legalistic opposition to the  bypass. Their idea of action is
  to send a 1,000 strong march  (the largest demo in
  Wellington for years) to a  meeting to be talked at and
  bored by local body political  candidates. This strategy has
  utterly failed with the election  of a pro-bypass mayor. It's
  time to take more direct forms  of action, and the Reclaim the
  Streets party was an example  of this. Onwards to digging
  tunnels and building  barricades!

  report from the anti-capitalist covergence

  The weekend before the carnival, an anti-capitalist
  convergence was held. This convergence was organised
  by the same loose coalition of anarchists, student radicals,
  and left-liberals (some even from the Alliance!!) who
  organised the carnival vs. capital. About 100-150 people
  attended various workshops on things like Decolonisation,
  Bastion Point, Afghanistan, Participatory Democracy, Free
  Trade, and Anti-Capitalism. A disturbing trend was the
  attempt by many reformist liberals from groups such as
  ARENA (Action, Research and Education Network
  Aotearoa) to move in on the "anti-capitalist movement" and
  turn it into a movement to reform capitalism!


  raging against the machine

  Against them, one could say:  Bollocks to those who prefer fair
  trade to free trade. We do not want  more control over the market, we
  want its abolition. All markets are  based upon our alienation and
  exploitation. Under capitalism ALL  TRADE IS TRADE IN HUMAN
  MISERY. We spit in the face of  those (like the Council of Trade
  Unions or the Green Party) who  wish to represent us. We do not
  speak or act on behalf of anyone.
  Representative democracy is a  sham, concealing the dictatorship
  of capital. ALL STATES ARE  PRISONS. We do not recognise
  capitalism in the meetings of the  various gangsters like the World
  Trade Organisation but in the daily  robbery of our lives in the offices
  and factories. OUR CARNIVAL  AGAINST CAPITAL DOES NOT
  HAVE A BEGINNING OR END, it  is not a predetermined spectacle, it
  does not have a fixed

  date. Our present is an everyday struggle against capitalist
  bosses and their stooges. Our future lies beyond all
  mediations, beyond nation-states, beyond all attempts to
  reform capitalism. Our future lies in the destruction of the
  capitalist economy.
  FOR THE TOTAL ABOLITION OF CAPITAL AND THE
  STATE. FOR THE WORLD HUMAN COMMUNITY.

  Proletarians against the machine.






			********
       ****** The A-Infos News Service ******
      News about and of interest to anarchists
                       ******
		COMMANDS: lists@ainfos.ca
		REPLIES: a-infos-d@ainfos.ca
		HELP: a-infos-org@ainfos.ca
		WWW: http://www.ainfos.ca/
		INFO: http://www.ainfos.ca/org

-To receive a-infos in one language only mail lists@ainfos.ca the message:
                unsubscribe a-infos
                subscribe a-infos-X
 where X = en, ca, de, fr, etc. (i.e. the language code)