The following interview is with Kassie Hartendorp (Wellington Workers Party branch organiser and Schools Out facilitator and chair of Queer Avengers).  And Jason Frock (Wellington Workers Party branch education officer, Schools Out facilitator, and trainee-coordinator of the Wellington Gay Welfare Group and member of the Queer Avengers). Both have been in highly involved in the recent Queer the Night demonstration and in the formation of the Queer Avengers campaign organisation.

The Spark: What was Queer the Night?

KH: Queer the Night was a march organised in response to the day-to-day violence that members of the queer community face while in the streets.  The fear of verbal insults and physical attacks is something queers constantly carry with them everywhere.

JF:  The streets are especially dangerous places for queers. Twice as much near bars at night which are highly sexualised areas where concepts of ‘masculinity’ need to be protected.  They are often impossible to pass without having aninsulthurled your way if you’re visibly gay.  It was also becoming normalised in Wellington to have regular queer bashings. Within our own friend networks it was becoming roughly 1 every other month.

KH: The purpose of the march was to call-out the queer community for its general silence towards the pervasive homophobic and transphobic street culture.   We wanted people to realise that “enough is enough” and to begin to think about how to collectively organise beyond the march itself and to actually fight our continued oppression.

JF:Homophobic and transphobic violence is something experienced by queer community as a whole, but the responses to it are generally acted upon at an individual level.  We wanted to break that atomisation by having a visible, militantand proud march through the centre of town and opening up a place where queers can come together and talk about our social oppression.

KH: What we needed was a celebration, a big bang to break the silence.  We needed a powerful event which could break through the general apathy towards collective action.  We needed an event which would empower people to take ownership of the queer community.

The Spark: How did the march itself go?

JF and KH: Overwhelming success.

KH: The energy was amazing.  For many of us it was the most militant march we’ve been on. There was a good turnout, of about 400 people. The militancy, size and feelwere much greater than the numbers. I’ve been on bigger marches that weren’t nearly as powerful. There were four official guest speakers; all were received well by the crowd. It was a very emotional and raw event. People were crying. Actually making the streets a queer space was a very powerful experience for people.

[Read more…]

Marika Pratley , PFLP Solidarity Campaign Coordinator for Wellington and member of Vic Palestine Group

Over August Vic Palestine Group organised a series of events to create awareness and build support  around Victoria University and Wellington for the Palestinian struggle. This included a film screening of Occupation 101, a Student Representative Council (SRC) on the right to education for Palestinians, a panel discussion on Israel and Palestine, and a fundraising gig to prepare for the photography exhibition “Unrecognised”, which is opened on Friday 19 August. Despite Zionists ripping down posters in an attempt to censor the campaign, there has been strong support and all events were well attended.

The SRC happened on the 29th of July in the Victorai University student union building, with over 140 people.   The motion was put forward: “To affiliate to the Right to Education Campaign at Birzeit University as a public show of solidarity and support to all Palestinian students and teachers who are struggling to live,work and study under the illegal Israeli occupation.”, as part of the right2edu campaign*

John Minto from GPJA in Auckland was there to talk in support of the motion, and referenced the struggle of abolishing apartheid in South Africa as a reason for supporting the issue. There were also speakers from Vic Palestine, the Greens and other radical left organizations on campus.  Debate on the motion was based mostly on people not understanding the need for international solidarity, rather than being Zionist supporters. However  the outcome was an overwhelming majority of students in support of the right2edu campaign, and the motion was passed.

The SRC was followed by a panel in the first week of August. Nigel Parsons, a Political Scientist from Massey University opened the panel by discussing the Israel Palestine situation.  Dr. Parsons used Foucault’s theory of Bio-politics as a basis fo  discussing how the state functions in controlling people’s lives. He then proceeded to apply this through historical development of Israel, and how this control has impacted on the Palestinians as invidividuals and their community as a whole. He went onto discuss how the Oslo agreement relied on incorporating the PLO, leading to the Palestinian Authorities controlling their own resistance, and allowing for the development of settlements in the West Bank. He ended his talk pointing out that when demanding for ‘the right of state’ for Palestinians, its absolutely essential to consider what this means in practice, and what ‘type’ of state the Palestinians would be demanding.

This was followed by Hone Fowler from Kia Ora Gaza. He gave a skype presentation of photos from the Kia Ora Gaza convoy that visited Palestine in December last year, with other international organizations. Kia Ora Gaza are organising another group to go at the end of 2011 and are looking for volunteers.

The final part of the panel was presented by Nadia Rhiannon from Vic Palestine. She focused her talk on the experiences of Palestinian youth, and how they relate to the occupation. This included accounts of people in Palestine as well as her own experiences, being apart of the Palestinian diaspora that were born and raised outside of Palestine. She included example of how her cousin fell in love with an Israeli Conscientious objector, and what it feels like to have a displaced identity due to the denial of rights for the Palestinian community.

The final part of the Palestine Solidarity fortnight was a fundraising gig at Garett street in Wellington. This was done on behalf of the Concerned Citizens, to fundraise for a photo exhibition, which is intended to raise awareness of the UN meeting in September, which will decide whether or not Palestine will be recognized as a state. The photo exhibition is opening tonight in Wellington, and will be in the following cities on these dates.

Wellington – Garrett Street: 19th – 21st August

Dunedin – Tangente Cafe: 19th – 21st August

Hamilton – The Void: 19th – 21st August

Whanganui – The Arc Theatre: 19th – 21st August

Auckland – Te Karanga Gallery: 22nd August – 1st September

Gisborne – Dome Cinema: date TBC

East London (South Africa) – Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University: August-September

 *Further information can be found at http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/

By writers for The Spark

Workers Party members and branches were active in a range of events in July. In mid-July the Wellington branch had a good independent presence on semester two orientation day at Victoria University. This led into another event on Sunday July 17 – the Big Left Radical Fair – which was held at Crossways Community Centre in Mt. Victoria, Wellington. Workers Party member Joel Cosgrove who has helped to form ‘Mutiny’ – a local left networking group – was a key organiser of  this event. It was attended by approximately 200+ people and 15 local organisations, including Palestine solidarity groups (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Wellington Palestine Group, and Students for Justice in Palestine), climate change groups, and other Marxist and anarchist groups.

For many of the people who attended this event it was their first exposure to radical politics. Cosgrove gave a speech on the topic ‘What is the Workers Party?’ The Queers Avengers – a recently formed GLBT group in which Workers Party members are participating – was another organisation that was represented at the fair (see interview page 8).

Also on Sunday July 17 Workers Party members in Hamilton and Auckland, plus party contacts/supporters, met for a day of study and political discussion. For the first part of the day the group studied a small work by American Marxist leader James P. Cannon. This was followed by an appraisal of the situation of the Workers Party in New Zealand and subsequent discussion. Time was assigned for the Mana Party/Movement to be discussed in the final session for the day. This was a serious political discussion about the political nature of the Mana Party and its class composition. The discussion also touched on aspects of Marxism and Maori liberation. It was very interactive as between six and eight young Mana activists asked if they could join in the discussion.

Matt Billington playing his Myth of Democracy acoustic set.

In Auckland and Hamilton Workers Party members have become involved in the Mana Party/Mana movement. In June of this year Workers Party members resolved that Mana is a Maori-led working class movement that our members would engage with in a constructive manner. In Auckland that has meant door-knocking and contributing towards policy ideas. In Hamilton Workers Party members and some rank-and-file workers are going about forming a workers’/socialist branch in Hamilton West with a view and proposal to look after Mana activity on a weekly basis at the Frankton markets and as such have been involved in Mana Hauraki/Waikato formative meetings so far, with one member being elected to the interim committee of that branch. Workers Party members in Hamilton also helped to organise for a GPJA-initiated (Global Peace and Justice Auckland) public meeting at the 30th anniversary of the anti-apartheid protest in Hamilton which stopped the game between the All Blacks and South Africa.

Auckland activist and musician Matt Billington played his Myth of Democracy acoustic set in Hamilton as a fundraiser for the Workers Party.

Byron Clarke has again been elected as branch organiser for the Workers Party’s Christchurch branch. Activity in Christchurch has continued to be limited because of the earthquakes and the heavy snowfall in the area.

The following is a small set of articles about the England riots published by Marxist organisations in the UK.

Committee for a Workers International (socialistworld.net): Inner cities erupt (10/8/11)
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5221

Socialist Worker online: Reports from the urban revolt spreading across Britain (10/8/11)
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=25694

Revolutionary Communist Group: Eyewitness report of the Manchester uprising, 9 August 2011 (10/8/11)
http://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2291:eyewitness-report-of-the-manchester-uprising-9-august-2011&catid=82:britain&Itemid=87

Committee for a Workers International (socialistworld.net): Tottenham riots (8/8/11)
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5219