Occupy Otautahi Christchurch

General Assembly Consensus

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Kia ora koutou,

We stand in commemoration of the millions of workers sacrificed in the 1914-1918 imperialist war, and all workers so needlessly lost, at the antipodean marking of ANZAC Day. We memorialise Fred Evans, the first New Zealand worker killed in political action for a better world and working conditions, struck down by a police baton at Waihi in November 1912. Equally, we remember Ernie Abbott and Christine Clark, and wish the world to know their names too, so that New Zealand does not forget them along with workers’ struggle. We point out that Aotearoa-NZ led the world by implementing – in the same week – the eight-hour workday alongside the Treaty of Waitangi and preceding the first electoral votes for women, in February 1840. By that under-respected heritage we proudly stand, against all the dishonoured promise.

For May Day 2012, we urge workers worldwide to look to the traditions and methods of direct democracy, workers’ councils, syndicated economic management and political revolution, and celebrate that the time for ordinary working people to govern our own lives has finally arrived.

We join with workers worldwide in calling corrupt governance to account, through the occupation of workplaces, public spaces and streets, with general strike action to bring the rule of injustice down. The failing mismanagement by the 1%, of all the world’s resources and accumulated wealth, is very clear for all to see. We no longer accept it or support it in any way. We do not accept your wars or false borders, your racist, sexist, ageist, homophobic, gender and disability oppression, your corporate greed or the destructive competition to exist by which you thrive. We defend freedom of thought, belief and expression that respects all people’s identical human rights. Your reign and controls – those of the monopoly capitalist class – are at an end.

We are the future – your future. We are your children and your grandchildren, and the powers of wasteful capital are over. We refuse them. We are environmentalists, socialists and the aware. We are anarchist and communist, and we are neither – we are the sustainable transition of society that no-one can avoid. We are the 99%, and we are moving.

We hereby evict your wealthy elitism and abusive authority – your bad attitude and naughty behaviour – in the name of justice and all that is communally fair and right. A far better world is possible, and we, the people, are building it. Rise up! Kia kaha! Welcome home!

Occupy.

We’ve moving indoors for the winter but keeping up with our monthly Open Air University.
Location: Workers Educational Association (WEA) 59 Gloucester Street (Map)

2PM: The Arab Spring – The movement that inspired Occupy
3PM: May Day – From 1886 to 2012
4PM: Peoples history – recording Occupy Christchurch for the future

At 5pm there will be a potluck dinner followed by a screening of the film ‘Gasland‘

Wow what an amazing Open Air University with so many great speakers. It was so inspiring what Dr. Bronwyn Hayward had to say about the O:Chch and the global movement and I hope she will publish it soon so we can all read it again.

Today is day 164. The site has been cleaned up and handed over this morning. O:Chch has now officially moved on to the next phase.

The GA is at 7pm at WEA tonight, 59 Gloucester St, central Christchurch.

All welcome. See you there :)

Rob

Media release: Occupy Christchurch

Date: 25 March 2012

Subject: Day 163 at Occupy Corner – Open Air University

Their final day at South Hagley Park is an Occupy Christchurch educational. Workshops organised for Occupy Corner start at 10am and end at 7pm. These cover Occupy politics and connected themes, thus:

10am: General intro: Why are we here? – Occupy Christchurch.

11am: The Food Bill by Steffan Browning – Green Party MP.

12pm: Fracking (Hydraulic fracturing) by Danielle O’Halloran.

1pm: Energy, economics and the environment by Akash Singh – Activist and business student.

2pm: The Big Picture: 12 Necessary Transitions to an Open Future by John Veitch – Internet pioneer and Environmental and social activist.

3pm: Break.

6pm: Learning from Occupy: Challenges for the future by Dr Bronwyn Hayward – Senior lecturer in Social and political sciences at the University of Canterbury and author of a controversial forthcoming book “Children Citizenship and Environment: Nurturing a democratic imagination in a changing world” which looks at the issues of how to sustain democracy, social and environmental, in a world of growing child poverty, social inequality, and unstable, extractive economic growth.*

Bridges are being built and repaired by the controversial movement, addressing important topics of the day.

“Occupy Christchurch apologises to the Canterbury District Health Board, its staff and its funders, for focusing street demand on public services in their vicinity,” spokesman Rik Tindall says.

“Occupy sprang up with the best of youthful intentions, to protest constrained opportunity and economic injustice, but wasn’t prepared for the reality of it. The shelter camp created by these outdoor residents outran their ability to sustain or even manage it,” says Tindall.

That led to problems at Christchurch Hospital across the road, because council toilet facilities in the park are usually locked against vandalism.

“Numbers of assorted travellers occupied the camp through the holiday period, including less-socialised elements who ruined it for everybody else. Things got pretty rough for a while and the hospital bore the brunt of it, unintentionally” Tindall explains. “For that we must apologise. The episode highlights the corrosive nature of the vandal’s mindset and how society can no longer afford it. Pride in community must be rebuilt, which we want to help with determinedly.”

Cheaper housing is in short-supply in the earthquake-hit city, which fed solid demand into the Occupy camp, much of it young.

“We see no need to apologise for highlighting and trying to resolve such social pressures,” Tindall says. “We seek to work with local authorities to improve the conditions faced by outdoor residents and low income households, in ways that show all generations better ways of being. Therefore we decided to close the Occupy protest camp.”

Wet weather venue for the Open Air University is the WEA, at 59 Gloucester Street. Self-catering is required for the day. This venue is where the Occupy Christchurch governing body, the General Assembly continues, each Monday at 7pm, as an open meeting.

“Occupy has grown through its trial by fire in the social housing dynamic of Christchurch,” says Tindall.

“An Occupy 2.0 will follow. Please help us shape that.”

[Ends]

http://www.occupychristchurch.org

* http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781849714372/

Media coordinator: Rik Tindall – 027-406-0077 or 03-332-1069 – rik@infohelp.co.nz

Occupy Ōtautahi Christchurch has agreed to de-camp coming Saturday. This is by no means the end of Occupy Ōtautahi Christchurch! Please join us for the Open Air University on Sunday the 25th in South Hagley Park. Thank you for all your support.

…to be continued. 

Short summary by Pops:

“Rik, Werimu and Gary spoke at the council meeting. they were all awesome. The council considered the report and what had been said by us and then reached a unanimous decision to evict the camp… but not without honouring our intentions to some degree. They gave us no deadline to go, since we made it clear that we were happy to peaceably de-camp at this stage. We had a hui after at O corner and agreed to de-camp on saturday. The park manager came later and offered to take away any stuff we didn’t want to keep. So they’ll be coming tomorrow to do that. And the next day if needs be. So if anyone has stuff down there that they want to keep ‘please’ come and fetch it or organise for someone else too, tomorrow or saturday. Then yes on sunday we have the Open air Uni on site starting at 10:00. yes if the weather permits. if not it’ll be at the WEA 59 Gloucester st:)”

Some inspiration by Joseph R.:

“Happy Semi Anniversary Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Christchurch )). We’re so proud that the people’s movement is gaining ground in the wider civil society in America, New Zealand and globally. Thanks to all the Occupy movement supporters from NZ to NY and Boston, London, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Austin, Sydney, Aucklan, Melbourne, Frankfurt, Roma, Madrid, Chicago and all the rest of you brave hearts. We are One People in a contest of wills with corporate banksters & greedsters. We the People shall reclaim our governments, our elections, our democracries, our universal equal human rights, our media, and our economies so that all enterprise is cooperative, profit-sharing and sustainable. It is either going to be We the People who own our lands and homes and countries and freedom again, or it is sadly going to be the Int. Corporate State, anti-democratic, anti-universal equal human rights, and anti-freedom. Time to depersonhood all int. corporations.
Thanks to the vets, and workers and students and citizens & gays and womens’ equal rights activists and greenies and 1st Nations & hippies & spiritualists and men & women everywhere helping forge a new broad alliance of unions, wharfies, firefighters, young and elders jobless and homeless and hopeless til OWS came along. WOOHOO marchers and occupiers, carry on and know you are much loved and revered.”

Kia ora all.

Members of the Christchurch general public in support of the local, national and global movement for a fair and sustainable economy, against corporate greed and political corruption, are holding a formal meeting on the evening of Monday 19th March 7:30pm – 10pm at the WEA 59 Gloucester St. in Christchurch, to discuss the current Occupy protest camp at the eastern corner of South Hagley Park.

We have sent a warm invite personally to each of our locally elected representatives, the Christchurch City Council, and are in the process of hearing back from each of them. If you would like to and are able to attend this meeting then please do feel very welcome.

We would also like to send a warm public invite to the CCC and all members of the Christchurch general public to attend our ‘Open Air University’ on Sunday the 25th March. This event consists of the following :

Morning and afternoon- (5 minute snack/drink/toilet time between each)
10am: General intro: Why are we here? – Facilitated by Occupy Christchurch.
11am: The Big Picture: 12 Necessary Transitions to an Open Future by John Veitch – Internet pioneer and Environmental and social activist.
12pm: The Food Bill by Steffan Browning – Green Party MP.
1pm: Fracking (Hydraulic fracturing) by Danielle O’Halloran.
2pm: Energy, economics and the environment by Akash Singh – Activist and business student.
3pm: Munch break.

Evening-
6pm: Learning from Occupy: Challenges for the future by Dr Bronwyn Hayward – Senior lecturer in Social and political sciences at the University of Canterbury and author of a controversial forthcoming book Children Citizenship and Environment: Nurturing a democratic imagination in a changing worldhttp://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781849714372/ which looks at the issues of how to sustain democracy, social and environmental, in a world of growing child poverty, social inequality, and unstable, extractive economic growth.

This event will take place on Sunday 25th March at the Occupy protest camp South Hagley park. If weather is not suitable for an outdoor event we have the WEA on Gloucester st booked just incase. Please use your initiative on the day regarding the weather.

Hope to see some of you there.

Kia Kaha Christchurch.

Regards,

Occupy Ōtautahi Christchurch.

www.occupychristchurch.org
facebook.com/occupychristchurch
occupychristchurch@gmail.com

Published in e-democracy.org

Author: Rik Tindall

Of course Christchurch Hospital and its staff must not be impeded, in their normal work or sense of safety getting to and from there. So when news-media beat up a story based on misinformation and past problems of previous weeks, the whistle of community well-being must only be blown even louder. This is lazy and incendiary journalism, where it is not based on current facts:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/6527727/Occupy-camp-unsafe-after-dark

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/regch/634265639-Occupy-protestors-problematic-for-hospital

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/100242/hospital-takes-security-precautions-over-occupy-campers

The Occupy Christchurch camp has taken action to establish better behaviour from every resident – “Safer Spaces” policy update. Those too young and silly to avoid attracting interest from police have just recently moved on. Those homeless and/or alcoholic have been brought into focus through aggregation into a community opposite the hospital - that is what’s new, since summer. A very real housing need and challenge is being addressed by Occupy Christchurch, where no one else would.

It is the Christchurch City Council’s aggressive neglect that created the problem for Christchurch Hospital. The homeless – always with us and whose living situation has been improved through integration into Occupy ”tent city” – have values as a community that resolved the expired complaint list above. New visitors from all over the world join and leave the Occupy Christchurch protest every day, without any harm or concern – the shortage of accommodation in Christchurch often drives them there. They have been universally safe within the protest camp. But the Christchurch City Council very early chose to lock the only public toilets nearby in South Hagley Park, after the weekend cricket each week. It is truly amazing to share this sunny space on sports days, and witness the privilege afforded select citizens only (of Christchurch south, north and west?) No mess or problems have ever occurred from those toilets being open, so it’s a politically vindictive policy to lock them down. Not only that, it is substandard care for Hagley Park provided for CCC – what are visitors supposed to do there for ablutions? The CCC is morally obliged to reopen the South Hagley Park toilets, for so long as the LEGAL PROTEST of citizens remains an actual fact. Please act accordingly now, CCC. Please! Further:

“Sexual assaults” plural? – there has been one well-known incident: the police know all the parties involved and charges are not being pursued; (yet?) So what is this scare-mongering really about?

Occupy Christchurch is now “eighty percent Maaori” – in the appraisal of one resident last Sunday. These residents have no homes, and rents have become unaffordable.

What the racist New Zealand news-media are wanting to do here is to use recent difficulties displaced onto Christchurch Hospital – from a previous set of  less responsible neighbours and CCC – to sweep the homelessness question back under the carpet. But the growing issue of homelessness here – in “God’s own country” and especially in earthquake-ravaged Christchurch – is not going away, any time soon.

This inequity of prospects, under banker exploitation internationally, is exactly why Occupy Wall Street began!

Listen up, ChristChurch, please.

Kia ora ~ Rik

Hi my names Richard Baker.

I’m a member of the general public who has been visiting Occupy corner on a regular basis and supporting other members of the general public who make up what we call Occupy Christchurch. I’ve been visiting since its inception and have been at most of the general assemblies over the past almost 5 months now. I did stay a good few times around the first couple of months but family and work commitments have meant me choosing to Occupy (so to speak) from offsite, like many other supporters of the local branch of this truly global movement.
I’ve been keeping up with whats going on there at twice weekly general assemblies on Wednesdays and Sundays and also on impromptu visits whenever I can. I am active in Occupy online. I’ve been documenting the movement through photograph and have also made a couple of short ‘home movies’ about it too (if you fancy a peek http://vimeo.com/36594372 :) .

Anyway I hear your are interested in whats going on with us at the moment so I thought i’d mention a few things we have coming up.

On the 25th of this month we are hosting what we call our Open Air University, on site at Occupy corner… and will be hearing from Green Party MP Steffan Browning about public concerns regarding the Food Bill and the need to clarify, amend (or end?) the current draft of it to remove the general publics fears about it so that we can all celebrate the bill as something that will in fact encourage, enhance and protect our Well-Being. Something we all obviously instinctively value highly despite any appearances to the contrary.

We will also enjoy other lectures and facilitated discussions on various topics from around 10:00am till 7:00pm on that day and all members of the general public are very welcome to come along and experience any part of it for themselves. Details to be announced.

We are very pleased to hear that Dr Bronwyn Hayward, senior lecturer in political science at Canturbury University has expressed her pleasure in being invited to share her knowledge with us, either on that same day or another day yet to be confirmed. All welcome.

We are also supporting the upcoming Bring change/Frack no/peaceful revolution concert against hydraulic fracturing, headlined by Tiki Taane. The details of this event are currently in process of being finalised and you will no doubt hear more about it soon.

Oh and we are holding some general assemblies indoors at the WEA, 59 Gloucester St, over the autumn/winter period from now on, for anyone interested, beginning on Monday 12th at 7:00pm.

As you know we have a relatively small but strong core of people occupying Occupy corner at the moment. These people have not ‘taken over’ or anything of that nature as I hear is the current rumour, they are occupying the space as they have been invited to do by the rest of us. These are the people who are physically available to occupy the space on a regular basis as most of them are unemployed and many homeless, so are therefore also people who most understand what the protest is actually all about, since it is they who are in some ways most disadvantaged by the decisions of corporate dominated governmental policy, though they may not be as articulate in the explanation of it as those, most of whom were students, who started it. They are holding the local banner of the global Occupy protest march. As far as we are concerned they don’t need to be perfect to do that. They just need to be present… to Occupy. And that’s what they are doing. Of course… there are always challenges to meet, issues to be addressed. Obviously all the issues that we find in all the other areas of society will also be present at Occupy Christchurch. It is after all somewhat merely a microcosm of what is happening in the wider society perhaps? So if some of them are committing crime as has been expressed by some other members of the public then of course they need to be dealt with according to the law like every other member of the public. Otherwise they need to be respected like everyone else.

Incidentally Hone Harawira paid them a visit on the anniversary of the earthquake of 22nd Feb. Good to see there are some politicians with their hearts in the right place when it comes to this economic injustice/justice issue. I’m sure we will see great things happen in the halls of power over these coming years. Viva la Occupy. Viva la Greenpeace, Viva all Love and Justice movements. And maybe think about what Lucy Lawless said on TV recently… something like “The Mothers of the world are the sleeping giants”. Arise oh great ones ( Dads and kids too please :)

Thanks :)

Richard (pops) Baker