Socialist Aotearoa

A video by Billy Hania of the protests at Auckland Uni on 26th September 2011.

On 17th September 2011, I decided to join about 2000 people descending onto Wall Street. They called themselves the “99 percent”. People came from all over New York and other cities in the US. However, protesters were not the only ones who came to occupy Wall Streets. NYPD were there first. Hundreds of police officers blocked off parts of the Wall Street, making sure no one gets near the financial headquarters. Police even guarded the legendary raging bull! As unemployment is climbing above 9%, and recent statistics showing that poverty is on the unprecedented rise, there is little surprise that there are angry people who feel cheated and left out. Though, it is surprising that the occupation had little or no mainstream media coverage here. Many New Yorkers probably aren’t even aware there is an occupation of the Wall Street. Seeds, for the protest, were planted by Adbusters and Anonymous, other groups and individuals added water. Anonymous and Adbusters don’t get much exposure on l

a university is the people in it, not the profits it makes. Detonation- the Student Struggle rises like a Phoenix from the ashes of apathy at AK Uni video, photo story and commentary from Joe Carolan, www.socialistaotearoa.org 3news report HERE "The racist profiling used by the private cops on campus to trespass two leading Maori students, is an indictment of the warning given by Professor Margaret Mutu the security guards have senior leadership from a South African background who apparently think that the University of Auckland is a private area where premission must be sought to engage in political activity. The University of Auckland is on Ngati Whatua land. The University of Auckland is funded by the taxpayers, who in this capitalist society, are largely the working and lower middle classes. Workers and Maori have every right to be on University. Without our land and taxes, it would not exist." BACKGROUND READING: Why was our comrade Marcus trespassed from Au

"We should be voting on whether there should be apartheid or not," said Palestinian in Aotearoa, Billy Hania. Listen to the full RadioNZ interview with Billy here. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has quoted Gilles Deleuze in his letter of support for a Palestinian state to be recognised by the UN, The Palestinian cause is first and foremost the set of injustices that these people have suffered and continue to suffer. And I dare add that the Palestinian cause also represents a constant and unwavering will to resist, already written in the historic memory of the human condition. A will to resist that is born of the most profound love for the earth. Mahmoud Darwish, the infinite voice of the longed-for Palestine, with heartfelt conscience speaks about this love: We don’t need memories/ because we carry within us Mount Carmelo/ and in our eyelids is the herb of Galilee./ Don’t say: If only we could flow to my country like a river!/ Don’t say that!/ Because we are in the flesh

Annette Sykes and Willy Jackson were at the Otara Rally to support John Minto Mana leaders Hone and Annette are welcomed by local Mana South Auckland branches Abolish GST- Tax the Rich. Jobs for All at a Living Wage. Honour the Treaty. Pasifika Welcome Here. Free dental Care, Free Education. A fighting alternative to Labour in Otara Local branch leaders Sisters in the Struggle! The Big Three Mana- Movement of the People John Minto Launches His Mana Campaign I’ve always believed that political activists can be more effective out in the community than in parliament so I’ve never joined any political party before. However this changed on 19 May this year when I joined the Mana Movement. I joined because the struggles of working New Zealanders must be taken to the heart of parliament and the Mana Movement is the best opportunity for this to happen in a generation. The Mana Movement is Maori inspired and Maori led but with policies for all New Zealanders. We know that if we get

12 pages of news, analysis and opinion on the student spring that is sweeping campuses across Aotearoa and the world. Read it online or email aksocialistaotearoa@gmail.com to order copies or the full pdf.

As staff unions and the student movement prepare for renewed struggle and protest this coming Monday, the role of the Cops on campus, both state and private, will be under intense public scrutiny. The Cops have no right to stop political activity, no right to trespass political activists, and no business taking the side of the VC and Management against the students in their own University. The racist profiling used by the private cops on campus to trespass two leading Maori students, is an indictment of the warning given by Professor Margaret Mutu the security guards have senior leadership from a South African background who apparently think that the University of Auckland is a private area where premission must be sought to engage in political activity. The University of Auckland is on Ngati Whatua land. The University of Auckland is funded by the taxpayers, who in this capitalist society, are largely the working and lower middle classes. Workers and Maori have every right to be

On Monday 26 September at Auckland University, Victoria University and Otago University and Polytechnic hundreds of students are expected to turn out in a nationwide day of student action. We are the University , a group organising in Auckland has listed a number of demands. 1. STOP ATTACKS ON STUDENTS The Act Pary's 'Voluntary Student Membership' bill will destroy student unions and services nationwide. Stop the bill before it passes on Wednesday 28 September. Three students were arrested and two trespassed last week for taking part in peaceful protest during Human Rights week. Stop the militarisation of campus. 2. STOP ATTACKS ON STAFF Vice Chancellor Stuart McCutchoen is trying to remove key working conditions from union agreements. Democratise the university and stop the corporatisation of education. 3.FREEZE FEES, FULLY FUND EDUCATION Students are burdened with tens of thousands of dollars of debt by the time they graduate. Freeze fees, cancel the debt and fully fund

At 8pm on Wednesday 14 September we began a teach-in with about 100 people in the University of Auckland basemen by watching video of students at Victoria University of Wellington breaking through security to deliver a letter to their Vice Chancellor. When security came to shut down our teach-in having watched that video played a big part in inspiring us to put up barricades and stay. About 60 of us stayed behind barricades for a few hours and 2 people were arrested for standing outside in support and refusing to leave their own university. Both were freed without charges at about midnight after we had marched to the police station chanting in solidarity. When the police eventually got inside we gave them a list of demands which we had just written and we decided to leave together, but only because we would come back stronger and with more people. When we left one person was picked out and arrested and has been charged for allegedly damaging a window. On Thursday at a Students for Just

A mass haka at the end of the Waikato Uni occupation in 2000. The following interview is with Joe Carolan, Socialist Aotearoa member and the leader of an occupation at Waikato University in 2000. Could you give me a brief explanation of how you came to be involved in the Fightback campaign for free education? I’d been active in the student movement in Ireland when I’d been in college there. And I had to go to Northern Ireland there was no free education in the south. So a lot of people who were from poorer backgrounds went to university in Northern Ireland which was still like the UK, a welfare state. Where it was free, even though it was under Thatcher. And Thatcher tried to start the ball rolling on privatising education and bringing in fees. My mum had warned me when I went to Northern Ireland, don’t get involved in politics. Within about 4 weeks I was part of an occupation in the University of Ulster in Colhrane with people from the Labour Party, Sinn Fein, lots of different social

Building through practice and discussion a living, organic alternative to the authoritarian tendencies of VUW. Students at Victoria University have started to fight the cuts and redundancies that have become commonplace over the last five-seven years. The most recent attack that started the current fightback was a change proposal put forward by the University to radically change the focus and academic content of the School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations. The past modus operandi of VUW management has been to make some sort of half-arsed pseudo-academic or financial justification of the changes management want to make. This is window-dressing at best. What it amounts to is the domination that management have over the university as a whole i.e. staff, students and the wider community. They feel that they can change the perspective and direction of the university at their whim. Previous management shut down the Russian Studies programme in the mid-90&

In 1784, Kant responded to the question ‘what is enlightenment?’ by asserting that it is ‘human being’s emergence from his self-incurred minority’. [1] Minority, which also translates as ‘immaturity’ or ‘tutelage’ is a kind of mental cravenness, an abject identification with authority as the possessor of truth. In the face of persistent ignorance and profound immaturity in our own time, the relevance of this question should be clear to us. For Kant the project of enlightenment is above all concerned with an inquiry into freedom, something that will emerge in effect from thinking freely. However there is a catch, to emerge from ‘minority’ requires character, and specifically the character of courage. To consider our contemporary situation against this challenge we must first look again at what it is we mean by enlightenment. Here the focus will be on defining enlightenment as aesthetic education, considering the importance of the relationship with critique and identifying with the ‘cou

“Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.” When we look at the world it can seem that the problems of the world are too huge to do anything about. Often you’ll hear people say, ‘What can I do? I’m just one person.’ It’s true that the amount of change one person can make is small. There are some things that every individual can do to make the world a better place but they are small compared to the problems the world faces. The most important things that revolutionaries can do is to work together with others to transform the world. Every revolutionary should be involved in their union at work, fighting for better pay and conditions for all workers, showing support for other workers in their industry or city who might be on strike or protesting for better pay and conditions or improving their workplace to make it more environmentally sustainable, connected to the community and with more workers’ control of decision making. Socialist Aotearoa also believes that revolutiona