2011 Year of the Protester: What Next?
5pm, Monday March 12th
SU19, Student Union Building
Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington event: 2011 Year of the protester
February 18, 2012 by
Leaflet: No to asset sales
February 13, 2012 by
If assets are in private hands, whether foreign or New Zealand owned, they only care about three things – (1) profit, (2) profit and (3) profit.
-Hone Harawira
State-owned enterprises, originally introduced under Rogernomics, are a backdoor to privatisation. Run primarily for profit, they don’t care about:
- Cost of living: cutting your power off if you can’t afford to pay.
strike against Solid Energy contractor
- Workers’ rights: contracting out employment to avoid accountability. 1000 mine workers went on strike in 2009 against sub-contractor HWE Mining.
- Ecological destruction: Solid Energy is the largest coal mining company in New Zealand.
- Tino rangatiratanga: they carry all this out on enclosed, confiscated land.
By selling controlling shares in State-Owned Enterprises, National plans to remove further barriers to smooth, unaccountable business operations.
Ombudsman investigation revealed no evidence for National’s claims of a 10% cap on shares held by any one company, or 85-90% control by ’mum and dad’ investors. With greater control by private business, social and ecological impacts will be externalised.
One million non-voters, the lowest turnout since women won the right to vote, is no mandate for this.
Yes to community control
In the short term we must organise to stop asset sales.
In the long term, we need workers’ and consumers’ control of public utilities.
If you agree, get involved.
Auckland hui on asset sales: “One million non-voters is not a mandate”
February 11, 2012 by
Mike Kay
The Auckland Māori consultation hui on state asset sales took place yesterday at Tainui’s Airport Novotel under heavy police and Māori warden presence. The hui revealed universal dissatisfaction from Māori about the government’s plans, but also exposed important class divisions within Māoridom itself.
In his opening presentation, Minister for SOEs Tony Ryall stated that the controversial Section 9 will stay in the SOE Act, and that the government had “got the message on that.” Section 9 provides that “nothing in this Act shall permit the Crown to act in a manner that is inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.” Whilst the audience made it clear that Section 9 should also apply to the new legislation enabling partial sell-offs of state assets, the debate that followed rapidly broke out of the bureaucratic parameters that the government had laid down for the hui.
A Mana Movement member asked Ryall what guarantees that, after these sell-offs, the government wouldn’t sell more. His response was that the government only had a mandate to sell a 49% stake in each of the power companies, and the rest of its stake in Air New Zealand. The questioner replied that they were already privatising further by selling off state housing in her neighbourhood of Glen Innes. Ryall reiterated that the general election had given them a mandate, whereupon a Workers Party member interjected that “one million non-voters is not a mandate!”
Rally: For Public Assets
February 10, 2012 by
If assets are in private hands, whether foreign or New Zealand owned, they only care about three things – (1) profit, (2) profit and (3) profit.
2pm Wednesday, February 15
Te Puni Kokiri – Ministry of Maori Development
Te Puni Kokiri – Ministry of Maori Development
Corner of Lambton Quay & Stout Street, Wellington
Mega Conspiracy: Kim Dotcom, SOPA and capitalism
February 7, 2012 by
Byron Clark
A large section of the world wide web went dark earlier this year. Websites including Wikipedia (4th most visted site in the world) removed access to content for 24 hours in protest of two bills on their way though the US congress- the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). The laws would have given the old entertainment industries, represented by organisations like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) greater control over the internet. Foreign websites accused of copyright infringement could be made inaccessible to American internet users.
The online protest, which prompted a massive amount of lobbying from American citizens (and overseas), was a success, SOPA and PIPA are dead in the water- at least for the time being. Within 24 hours however it seemed as if those two laws had passed and were being enforced- New Zealand Police, colaborating with the American FBI arrested Kim Dotcom, the founder of the website MegaUpload in his mansion north of Auckland. Several other men involved with the site were also arrested. [Read more…]
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