A Radical Media for A Radical Movement - A Personal Account of the Aotearoa Indymedia Convergence

Friday

Around fifty-five people turned out to the evening of political documentaries that was the Antidote #15. Smush, premiered the first cut of his 30 minute documentary from Tonga which he peppered with his own insights from his experiences traveling around Tonga in the aftermath of the pro-democracy riots and subsequent repression. We also showed Whose News?, a 30 minute film produced by the Auckland Indymedia Collective in 2004 about the corporate media and the independent alternatives. However our feature was Tuhoe: History of Resistance, an hour long collection of footage and interviews from a people who have long had their views distorted, ignored and misrepresented in the corporate media. Meanwhile in Oamaru, as Indymedistas gathered APN owned Oamaru Mail broke the law and used scabs to undermine a workers strike.

Aperture, radio goon squads and Zorro? All at the AIMC Convergence

One of the most enlivening/exciting/good for something parts of the convergence was the hands-on workshops provided by people wit experience in their fields. Convergence attendees learnt why Aperture is critically important to taking good photos, how broadcasting on the wrong frequency can get you into trouble with the local Low Power FM posses, and that even if your dressed up as Zorro at an anti-GE protest, you still need an escape route when you decide to trespass on McDonalds property to get that beautiful Birds Eye View shot of the crowd coming up Queen Street.

“In March let’s all just drink lots of coffee, take party pills and stare at a screen for hours”

Funnily enough this seems to have been one of the best things to come from the conference. During Senchehes workshop on then state of the website, it was decided that we need more Indymedia folk to have tech skills so they can contribute to the maintenance of the indymedia website. From this was born, IndyGeek Boot Camp, a proposed weekend long intensive geek training school where revolutionary anti-capitalists go survivor style for 72 hours in Oblong (Wellington’s anarchist run infoshop/netcafe), to learn cool shit about software, programming, websites, etc. I think it is going to be March 9 to the 11. Better hurry and book a place now. We all know how popular this is going to be.

Another cool idea, I thought, is to display prominently on the site helpful “How to” guides to do with posting articles, writing html code, uploading video, photos, audio, editing the wiki and not turning indymedia into an uncritical PR site for big city, left wing activists.

Air, Moving and Still

Obviously the worst thing about the convergence for many people was the utter lack of air-conditioning in our relatively small and hugely sunny room with up to 25 bodies crammed inside. However one of the more productive outcomes is that Wellington Indymedia’s long running publication Windy will have it’s distribution, and coverage expanded to Auckland and hopefully around the country.

Even through the heat, people soldiered on and a reborn Auckland Collective has emerged that will look at setting up an Auckland Mult((i))media Group get more people excited about the potentials of multimedia technology, sharing their own stories and empowering their communities, the AMG was formed cause we needed a group that could act as a base in Auckland where people who want to change the world and also want to shoot video/make radio shows/take photos can come to and borrow technology, gain skills, and coordinate on projects.

Onwards and Upwards

Which is a suitably motivating title to remind you all to go and clean up the wiki and update the links section. Also maybe it will also inspire you to check out www.peace.fm or email Baraka, and find out about the fantastic Peace Not War project to use music, dance and creativity to support the liberal peace and green movements. It also is a good title to explain our decisions to remove the Full Copyright option from the options for contributors to our website (You can still, post articles, photo, video under a Creative Commons license). We’ve also now got the skills to push through the translation of Aotearoa Indymedia’s, base documents (Mission Statement, Points of Unity, Ed. Policy) into Te Reo Maori. And well also look into setting up a temporary Independent Media Center at the Umukai over Labour weekend, and supporting any efforts by South Island collectives to reform as part of the Aotearoa Indymedia network. And maybe, just maybe, the site will get a blogwire on the front page, able to syndicate the best of New Zealand’s left wing blog’s onto our site.

Thanks to:

Cooks and chopping helpers throughout the weekend

Dave B. for use of University space for the Antidote

Donators of money cause we came out of the Convergence with a net profit of $80

Freedom Shop folk who came and brought knowledge to the masses

Workshoppers who put in all the time and energy to prepare workshops and give them for nothing more than a free feed.

Unite for putting up with us on Saturday and Sunday

All those who attended cause without you it would have just been me and Strypey, wondering what we’d do with all the food we bought and what we’d say to all the workshopers we’d invited.
Plus, anyone, anywhere, who has ever had anything to do with Aotearoa Indymedia cause you are the folk that are the spirit of the movement for a free, for a democratic and for a revolutionary media that keep us all going.

P.S. See you all in Poneke/Wellington in early ’08 for the next one.

Apocalypse Now?

Apocalypse Now?

Climate change. The two words that just will not go away. They may come to mean in this century what Auschwitz and Stalag meant last century.

I don’t want to frighten anyone. No seriously. Don’t panic. Whatever you do, do not panic. The future of civilization itself rests on the fact that as many people as possible do not panic in the coming years. This may very well be the last five minutes of game time. Just like any sports match we cannot lose sight of the goal, even though the odds may be stacked against it.

Since the industrial revolution the amount of carbon dioxide that we are emitting into the atmosphere has increased astronomically as we pump huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere through everything from cars to fireplaces and fridges and petrochemical use. Gases such as methane, emitted by fertiliser use and animal flatulence help speed up the greenhouse effect. Due to the heat trapping blanket effect of the earths atmosphere the heat of the earth from the sun will be trapped inside the atmosphere unable to be naturally lost into space. The result: the climate will change- it will warm- global warming.

We have reached a critical time with climate change. Either we see what is staring us in the face, act now and attempt to do as much as possible to avoid catastrophe or we go on with our normal lives continuing to treat the earth as an infinite resource and as an infinite garbage can.

The facts we need to see are in the newspaper, on television, on the Internet, in movies, books and in the world around us. Most of them are by now widely known. They include say the makers of the film An Inconvenient Truth; in 25 years 300,000 people will die from global warming a year; global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide; heat waves will be more frequent and more intense; droughts and wildfires will occur more often; the Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050; and more than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.

However, the worst effects of climate change can be avoided if the world responds quickly. The global future of this problem means that a global movement will have to develop to confront the issue. At all levels of society we must act now to tackle the root cause of climate change; the global addiction to fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, CFCs and water vapour.

Around the world the emergence of a mass movement is beginning. In businesses, governments, schools, communities and wherever humans are found living together people are trying to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and fast.

People are planting trees, riding bikes and reusing, refusing and recycling in their communities. Organisations are taking the message to the streets; they are reusing those old tactics of non-violent direct action that have been around since as long as people power. Across the globe people are occupying, marching, picketing, sitting in, dancing in the streets, locking down and rallying for a world safe for humanity and our eco-systems. People are waking up to the fact that climate change will radically affect our ability to live on earth, and the people who are to suffer the most, of course are the most marginalised; poor and indigenous peoples in developing countries, such as our Pacific neighbours.

In New Zealand the Save Happy Valley Coalition have been occupying a remote South Island valley on the west coast since January to stop it being mined for coal, which would be mostly sent to be burnt in China to fuel industrial growth. The pollution caused by the proposed mining of 500,000 tonnes of coal from the mine each year for 10 years by government owned corporation Solid Energy is unnecessary and short-sighted when Aotearoa has such abundant amounts of renewable energy; wind, solar and hydro-electric. On the North Island Greenpeace New Zealand is campaigning to stop another government owned company, Mighty River Power from opening a coal fired power station north of Auckland at a never used power plant called “Marsden B”. The plant if opened would release over 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in its lifetime.

In Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland, climate change group, ClimAction, has taken to the streets in a Carnival Against Climate Change on Queen Street and protests at petrol stations. Across the city, people are realising the immensity of the situation and organising to change it by supporting cycling, planting trees, developing community gardens, raising awareness and promoting recycling among many other initiatives.

If you do nothing else this summer then do this. Join the movement against climate change! Without you and everyone else like you, then we have little hope of more than a bleak future beyond this century.

Get clued up and roped up for humanity’s most pressing task:

www.Greenpeace.org.nz

www.SaveHappyValley.org.nz

www.Climateimc.org

www.4million.org.nz/climatechange/

www.greens.org.nz

The Dummies Guide to Hitchhiking

What’s hitchhiking got to do with the environment?

Well if more people hitchhiked, there would be less cars on the road, thus less choking exhaust fumes silently heating up our fragile planet. So I figure that if I can convince a few of you to hitchhike instead of taking a car on your next long distance trip then I’ve done my bit to educate people on both the great experience that is hitchhiking and to cut down on the greenhouse gases being emitted.

But isn’t hitchhiking dangerous?

No, not nearly as much as you would imagine. I’ve been hitching around the country since I was fifteen and have hitched everywhere from Invercargill to the Bay of Islands and from the East Cape to Milford Sound and have never felt in any danger. I don’t know what the situation is like in other countries but in New Zealand hitchhiking is fairly safe. However I would recommend that females don’t travel alone. Men are pretty safe; only one male hitchhiker has ever been killed in New Zealand and that was around thirty years ago or so. But if you are nervous about hitchhiking then buddy up with someone, or text the number plate of the cars you get into to a friend or family member. And always remember you can turn down rides.

Do people still pick up hitchhikers?

Yeah, its pretty easy to get a ride and although the trip usually takes about 10% longer than a trip in your own car, your always faster hitching than you are catching a bus or train somewhere. Don’t get disheartened when you first start hitching as it can take up to half an hour to be picked up sometimes. However 95% of the time you’ll get picked up a lot faster than that. The longest waits I have ever had for a ride were two three-hour waits. Both of those times were on the west coast of the south island. However quite a few times the first car that drives past’ll pick you up.

Don’t only freaks and weirdoes pick up hitchhikers?

Not in my experience. All sorts of people pick you up. If you want to meet and talk to people you generally wont come into contact with during your life; then hitch hiking is the way to go. People pick up hitchhikers for all sorts of different reasons, but the most common one I feel is that they want someone to talk to while they drive. Often you can learn the most fascinating things while hitching from people. People tell you all sorts of interesting stuff about themselves, what they do, their life experiences and anything you care to ask them about. In a way it is sort of voyeuristic, as you get a chance to look into someone’s life for a short period of time.

Isn’t hitchhiking illegal?

Nah its definitely legal, except if your trying to hitchhike on a motorway. If you’re in a big city like Auckland the best way to get out is to hitchhike from a motorway onramp. Some people who stop to pick you up will only be going halfway down the motorway but that’s okay as you can just hitch from the next off-ramp they drop you off at. If you’re hitching from the CBD and going south, I recommend Symonds St. off ramp; which is right by Grafton Bridge. If you’re going north take the Northern Express bus to Orewa and hitch from there. If you’re hitching out of Wellington I recommend catching a train to Plimmerton, which is out on the Kapiti coast. Most other places are fairly easy to hitch out of.

Should I use a sign?

I hardly ever use signs as I’m pretty lazy but some people reckon they are useful. One advantage of a sign is people who see it and pick you up cause they are going to the same place but one disadvantage with signs is that if you think a ride is dodgy you can’t pretend you are going to a different place they are. I also find I tend to forget my signs and leave them in peoples cars, which I’m sure they find annoying.

Do people still pick you up if it’s raining?

Yeah, I reckon standing in the rain earns you a sympathy vote in a lot of people’s minds, but it sucks being wet s remember your raincoat! Also you want to be as mobile as possible as you can get dropped in out of the way locations and hitching also means you have to do some hiking. So make sure your wearing decent footwear and have your stuff in a pack or backpack.

What’s the proper hitching etiquette?

I like to introduce myself and shake the drivers hand when I hop into their vehicle. Also try not to fall asleep. I find I always fall asleep in the backs of campervans, especially if you’ve been sleeping on just a ground mat for a couple of nights. Don’t be rude to your ride or make fun of them; however quaint and bizarre they are. Remember that you have a duty to all the other hitchhikers this person will drive past in their life to make their ride with you as pleasant as possible.

Is it better to stand in one spot and hitch or hitch while walking?

Most of the time I would recommend just standing and waiting, especially if you are in a good spot with lot’s of room for people to see you and space to pull over. It is often good to stand under signs, and try and be as visible as possible. Smiling is another good thing to do to convince people that you’re friendly to pick up.

Anything else people need to know about hitching?

Be courteous and respectful at all times. Avoid hitching at night. Be safe. Pick hitching places that give people lots of room to stop and pull over. Listen to what your ride says. Ask them questions and think about what they say. The accumulated lessons these people can offer you are worth every moment standing on the edge of a highway in the middle of nowhere.

Have fun!

Published in Craccum, Semester 1, 2007

The Dummies Guide to Bumming Free Food

What’s this about free food?

Not too many people know but it is relatively easy to get free food when you’re living in the city. Three methods to grab a meal are dumpster diving, shoplifting and table topping.

Dumpster what?

Dumpster diving. Literally jumping into a dumpster filled with food and helping yourself. Because of the fucked up way our economy works (thanks capitalism) tones of good food is put into dumpsters across the city every night by bakeries, fruits shops and supermarkets. A lot of this food is still sweet as to eat. For example lots of food gets thrown out because the packaging is ripped or torn, it is just past its used by date, one piece of fruit is spoilt among a whole bag of perfectly good fruit, the bread/bagels are a little hard, or any number of slight imperfections that relegate food to the dumpster.

Surely it’s illegal?

Technically you can get done for stuff like trespassing and stealing but its pretty uncommon. Make sure you go dumpster-diving at night though and go in a group so one person can watch out for cops and security guards. A couple of years ago in Wellington a whole bunch of dumpster-divers got arrested when they were in this supermarkets backyard. A lot of the best dumpsters these days have locks on them and others are behind fences so I’d recommend that if you don’t want to get arrested to be stealthy. (If you are reading this and work at a supermarket/fruit shop/bakery and your boss has a lock on the dumpster, you should leave the lock unlocked at night if you can ; ) )

Isn’t the food gross and /or have diseases?

A lot of the food in the dumpster is useless and people have different limits as to what they will eat from a dumpster. As long as stuff is still in a packet its sweet as, but make sure you give fruit and veges a really good wash at home. Also try to avoid dumpsters with meat in them; cause it smells fucking horrendous and also can give you some pretty harmful food poisoning if you eat it. Other than that enjoy reaping a whole lot of sweet as food for nothing!

What’s table topping then?

Table topping refers to the art of cruising in restaurants and foodcourts and picking over the let overs of people’s meals once they leave their table. Do this surreptitiously to avoid being kicked out and you can usually get yourself some pretty sweet meals, as a lot of people don’t eat half of what they buy. Shame for it to go to waste. If you don’t like the idea of left overs you can always try shop lifting. However I don’t recommend shoplifting as if you do it for a decent amount of time you will get caught and I don’t want you coming and blaming me. But if you do want to find out more about shoplifting or any of the other ways to get free food that I have mentioned in this article check out: www.crimethinc.com

Published in Craccum Issue 1 2007

A Citizen’s Guide To An Emerging Empire

A Citizen’s Guide To An Emerging Empire

By Omar Hamed

“Old colonial powers, freed from their responsibilities for poor and vulnerable former colonies, are flexing their muscles and building new empires”
– Jane Kelsey

No one can doubt that we live in an age of empire and imperialism. The neo-liberal World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) stalk the planet complimented by regional and bilateral free trade agreements. The attempts by the imperialist nations to open up new markets and new resources to their trans-national corporations (TNCs) are intensifying daily. A global trade system is being forced onto the world by the central capitalist nations to secure a flow of wealth and natural resources from the less developed to the developed world.

In the south Pacific the global pattern is repeated. The dominant wealthy nations are seeking to re-colonise what they see as their “patch”. Australia and New Zealand have been colluding to turn the Pacific into their captive market for low value goods, source of cheap and disposable labour and plentiful natural resources.

From PICTA…

PICTA stands for the Pacific Islands Countries Trade Agreement. PICTA is a trade agreement between 14 Pacific Island countries in the Pacific Forum; it does not include Australia or New Zealand. PICTA was designed by Australia and New Zealand to lead to a free trade area between Pacific nations sometime in the near future by eradicating the barriers to free trade between member countries. Barriers such as tariffs and quotas, and import and export licences. It will in the future provide for neo-liberal structural readjustment and fiscal reform to provide for smoother access for TNCs deep into the public and private sectors of Pacific nations.

PICTA came into force in 2003 but is yet to be fully implemented. There has been little public consultation or debate about this agreement. The negotiations are carried out in a secretive and undemocratic way. No thorough or satisfactory social impact assessment of PICTA has been carried out. Amongst many of the negative impacts that PICTA will have the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) point out that, “Far from furthering co-operation among Pacific Island states, PICTA will encourage competition between them and could provoke unanticipated discord and tension among them and their peoples.”

…to PACER…

If the future of Pacific trade seems concerning then wait till you meet PACER. PACER is the next step on from PICTA. PACER stands for the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations and is the regional trade agreement that includes the 14 Pacific nations in PICTA as well as Australia and New Zealand. PACER is about creating a free trade agreement in the south Pacific that would allow Australasian TNCs to dominate across the Pacific. PACER will provide for free trade in goods before also developing into a Pacific free market for trade in services.

Law Professor Jane Kelsey wrote in 2004 that, “PACER is based on an individualised, competitive, self-maximising and exploitive model of free market capitalism.” It isn’t hard to see why. PACER and PICTA will inevitably lead to a loss of Pacific nations revenue from tariffs. For many islands tariffs on imports make up more than half of government revenue. Pacific governments will be forced to seek out alternative ways of income generation. Western consultants are quick to recommend taxes on goods and services like New Zealand’s GST, which will “punish the poor”, and allowing foreign corporations greater access to natural resources and land ownership.

…to the WTO…

PICTA and PACER are only the beginning. They are stepping-stones towards a common Pacific market that in reality will be dominated by corporate power and characterised by a loss of indigenous sovereignty and “marginalisation and impoverishment of vulnerable sectors of [Pacific] populations” as the nation-states involved move towards full compliance with the World Trade Organisation’s neo-liberal trade regime.

The recently averted accession to the WTO by Tonga demonstrates the disastrous consequences that joining the WTO has for the Pacific. Oxfam New Zealand in its report, Blood from a Stone, exposed the reality of Tonga’s accession, which will result in tariff cuts that would, “affect Tonga’s ability to provide basic health care, education, water supply and other essential services for its people.”

…and all the way back home.

“There were times that I felt ashamed to be a New Zealander”, wrote one New Zealand trade negotiator involved in the PICTA and PACER. In fact, New Zealand’s entire role in regards to Pacific trade is something to be ashamed of. Not just something to be ashamed of, but something to change.

It is our role in Aotearoa to echo the noise being made toady and tomorrow in the Pacific, such as the Nadi Statement of the Pacific Regional Civil Society Forum Meeting, held between October 20th and 23rd, 2006, which recommended, “Negotiations on [PACER] should not be initiated unless there has been a comprehensive impact assessment, full consultation and democratic decision making.”

If we seek to build with our Pacific neighbours a fair-trading system that promotes development and sustainability then it is time to mobilise, to organise and to educate. As the cry of the World Social Forum goes, “another world is possible.” Our role as members of civil society is to exert our influence over the government to such an extent that they no longer find it in their interests to pursue trade injustice in the Pacific.

References
Claire Slatter, Will Trade Liberalisation Lead to the Eradication or the Exacerbation of Poverty?, Wellington, February 21, 2003.

Pacific Civil Society Forum, Nadi Statement of the Pacific Regional Civil Society Forum Meeting, Nadi, October 23, 2006.

Pacific Network on Globalisation, A Critical Response to the Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA), Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) and the Pacific Islands Forum's Social Impact Assessment, Suva, February, 2002.

Professor Jane Kelsey, A People’s Guide to PACER, Commissioned by the Pacific Network on Globalisation, Suva, August, 2004.

Oxfam International Briefing Note, Tonga: Blood from a Stone, December 15, 2005.