Loomio
Mon 19 Nov 2012 6:49AM

What kinds of activities can Occupy Aotearoa support in the coming months?

DS Danyl Strype Public Seen by 9

I hope that the occupations of public squares around Aotearoa in the summer of 2011 were the first stage in a non-violent democratic revolution against the state-corporate dictatorship in this country. In early 2012 a group in Tamaki Makaurau occupied K Rd for a street party against sales of corporatized chunks of the public commons. Occupy Wall St are buying back debt and forgiving it. What else can we do?

DS

Danyl Strype Thu 3 Apr 2014 7:36AM

I've been thinking about a tactic some anarchist friends in Ōtautahi were working on a few years ago, inspired by the Seattle Solidarity Network:
http://www.seattlesolidarity.net/

It's similar to an unemployed workers support network, but takes into account that working class people are oppressed by the state-corporate system not only as beneficiaries by WINZ, but by the IRD, landlords, debt collectors, loan sharks, property developers, cops, courts etc. The idea is to mobilize large groups of people, like we did for Occupy, but in defence of people who are being mistreated, and stop people being intimidated into giving up their rights, or going along with unjust processes, even (or especially) those which are government policy. What do people think?

DS

Danyl Strype Fri 11 Apr 2014 6:55AM

One thing this solidarity network could do is contact people who are facing eviction and offer to support them. A good example is there Blenheim couple who have been evicted from their kaumātua flat by a real estate company, supposedly on behalf of the marae committee.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/9924859/Couple-evicted-from-marae

Reading behind the lines, this is clearly an act of partial privatization. I would guess that the real estate company is working with some people who have got themselves onto the committee in order to exploit the resources of the marae, externalizing profits through the real estate company, who can plausibly claim to be "just doing their job".