A-Infos (en) Thral #23 May/June '02 - auckland occupation - capitalism?...no thanks, burn you loser john banks

[Worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>(http://free.freespeech.org/thrall)]

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  Several members of Auckland's Class War Youth Anarchist
  Organisation were involved in the planning and execution of the
  successful open occupation of 33-59 Beresford Street (a block of
  empty pensioner flats) on Feb 27-28. The following is text from
  the leaflet of which several thousand were distributed:

  open occupation

33 & 59 Beresford Street, Ex-pensioner houses, Open Occupation. Auckland is
under a housing crisis, but the housing crisis is not something that affects the
well to do, but affects students, the unemployed and pensioners. John Banks
has no solution to this crisis, in fact he is hellbent on privatising low-income
homes or simply bulldozing them and replacing them with apartments for the
upper crust of Auckland. Banks and his Council don't seem to give a damn about
either tenants or ratepayers (owners of public assets) and what we want done
with these houses. Banks is happy to sell these homes off to investors or to simply
have it turned into yuppie apartments so the poor of Auckland are forced to move
 further from the central city making it more viable for the rich. This is why we,
 the working class citizens of Auckland
  are taking direct action to let Banks and his minority upper class
  support know that we have had enough of being able to start our
  own homes. PLEASE SUPPORT THE OCCUPATION.

  The occupation hardcore was made up of commies, C.W.Y.A.O.
  and local Iwi and residents. The occupation ended the next day
  and most participants ended up at the second meeting of the
  John Banks council. Which was subsequently cancelled due to
  unforeseen direct democracy eg: the council chambers were filled
  with pissed off people protesting by holding placards. The issues
  involved were: no aerial spraying; against censorship of Ike
  Finau; against water privatisation; pensioner housing; and against
  privatisation of public assets. As a reaction against Banksian
  despotism, moderates (together with some radicals) have
  launched a coalition & lobby group with the patronising name
  "Wake Up Auckland". This is mainly made up of GE FREE NZ
  members, well known for their  "confrontational" slogans like
  "keep it in the labs" (sic!),  although it also contains some
  more radical groups like Water  Pressure and the Council Housing
  Action Group. Wake Up  Auckland are mostly liberals
  whose concept of protest equates  to a slap in the face of the
  capitalist class with a soggy  popularist media savvy. The next
  council meeting however saw the  moderates take a back seat and
  the radicals stand up. After  interjections and several awkward
  questions to Mayor 18% Banks, members of Water Pressure,
  C.W.Y.A.O. and a S.W.O. member were assaulted by security
  guards and handed over to the police. No charges were made, and
  the 17 were held for a couple of hours and released. We are now
  pursuing police complaints but since we are "complaining" to the
  same state organ that did the injustice to us in the first place we
  don't hold out any illusion that justice will be done. Banks has
  now reinstated the submission section of the council meetings
  and also catered for the large crowds that now attend meetings.
  We don't accept this as anything but token gestures as the
  council still holds most of their meetings in secret because of
  "commercial sensitivity!" In the time Banks has been in power
  he has complained of being constantly seig hailed on the street,
  receiving hate mail and being sexually assaulted in a public toilet,
  all of which he blames on protestors!

  - Anthony



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