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mayday 2001 national roundup |
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wellington auckland
hamilton christchurch dunedin
Wellington - May Day UprisingHundreds of anti-capitalist protesters managed to (temporarily) shut down six branches of multinational corporations in Wellington during the May Day Carnival Against Capitalism. Two branches of McDonald's, two Star Marts, a Kentucky Fried Chicken, and a Burger King were closed. Whilst protesters chanted anti-corporate slogans outside, police formed barricades in front of the businesses (just "doing their job" of protecting capitalist exploiters I guess). One Star Mart had already closed down "for stocktaking" before protesters arrived to picket the store.
PARTY, PANDEMONIUM, PROTEST...The Wellington Carnival Against Capitalism consisted not only of a few shut downs but five hours of roving protest and party against various capitalist nasties throughout town. The turnout for the event was huge, much bigger than last year's impressive May Day carnival. Numbers were hard to judge, with many people coming and going throughout the day, but maybe about 700 people attended the day's events (some estimates were as high as 1,000). This was fantastic for a demo which had overtly radical aims, and for a small city which in recent times hasn't had much of a protest tradition. The carnival had two starting points: one at the Freedom Shop (272 Cuba St) - an anarchist bookstore celebrating its sixth birthday - and the other in the Victoria University Quad. I joined the carnival at the Freedom Shop, where about 120 people kinda sedately enjoyed some free food provided by Food Not Bombs and listened to some music. We then set off down Cuba St to join up with the students from Victoria Uni in Cuba Mall. There we met up with the tail end of a May Day CTU union rally of about 100 people who were listening to boring speeches by union bureaucrats (who care more for the safe functioning of capitalism than the workers they are supposed to represent). The contrast between the two protests was interesting: the carnival was more energetic, noisy, and colourful; the rally looked dull in comparison.
FASHION SHAMEIn Cuba Mall, a sweatshop fashion parade was performed for an audience of about 300. Models paraded clothes by transnationals like Nike, Gap, Adidas etc. whilst we were informed of how these clothes are produced by super-exploited sweatshop labour in the "developing" world. Then Wellington's water was auctioned off in a mock auction outside the Bucket Fountain. This was to highlight the probable privatisation of Wellington's water supply - local politicians are trying to sneak through a plan to integrate Wellington's water supply into a trust, a first step along the road to privatisation. "How can they privatise something from the sky [ie. water]?" said one speaker.
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THERE IS NO BUSINESS LIKE NO BUSINESSThe biggest crowd of the day, maybe 400 to 500, converged in Manners Mall to shut down the Manners Mall KFC and Star Mart. People were in general enjoying themselves, eating free food, listening to music...but the "Shut down Star Mart" bit of the demo puzzled me. I saw signs like "Star Mart: Small business vs big business" and a sticker "think locally, end corporate domination, shut down star mart"...hang on, I thought this was a carnival against capitalism, not a carnival in support of capitalist small business. Some even claimed that in opposing Star Mart, a chain of 24-hour stores run by oil giant Caltex, we should support local dairies!! But small business is just as exploitative as big business, dairies pay just as shit wages to their wage slaves as Star Mart. Sounds a wee bit utopian maybe, but to get rid of capitalism, we need to get rid of all business (big or small), all working for an employer (and all classes that result from that relationship), all buying and selling, everything that reduces life to the commodity form, and instead have production for use rather than profit. The Carnival ended outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade building after marching through the financial centre of the city, spontaneously shutting down a few multinationals along the way. There about 300-400 of us protested against the proposed Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement, an agreement which will benefit only a few Hong Kong and New Zealand capitalists. A puppet of Mike Moore (head goon of the WTO and former Labour PM) was burnt to the delight of the crowd. Then things got a little tense when the police arrested one protester. There was a bit of argy-bargy, and we surrounded the arrestee, demanding she be released. This was a minor victory: we stopped the police from taking her to the station but she was still charged. She was the only arrest of the day.
FULL TIME REPORTOn the negative side, the carnival displayed many of the inadequacies of a movement which claims to be anti-capitalist but in reality only opposes parts of capitalism. Capitalism will not end even if we shut down a few fast food joints and clothing companies. Capitalism is much more than a few garish examples of corporate consumer capitalism. We need to create a social movement which is based upon people's everyday struggles against capitalism, both in the workplace and community. On the positive side, the carnival was fun, people partially overcoming the alienation of class society for a day and questioning some of its worst excesses. A real success of the carnival was the way it was organised. A coalition of a diverse range of groups - the Committee for the Establishment of Civilisation (CEC, a Wellington anarchist group), Aotearoa Educators, the Residents Coalition, Eco-Action (a Victoria Uni group), the Radical Society (also a Vic Uni group) and Wellington Animal Action - organised the event along the lines of the affinity group structure developed overseas in places like the Seattle riot against globalisation in 1999. The decentralised co-ordination between these groups worked remarkably well.
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AucklandBetween two and three hundred people marched in this year's May Day celebration in Auckland. Between 15 and 20 anarchists/libertarian socialists took part, including members of the @pathy! group who had travelled north from Hamilton especially for the event. In the week leading up to May Day, Libertarianz guru and Radio Pacific talkback therapist Lindsay "I Am The Cosmos" Perigo had been urging his disciples to disrupt the celebrations, so it was no surprise that half a dozen baby-faced Commerce students in dungarees turned up at the starting line in QE 2 Square armed with some ridiculously small signs covered in freshly felt-tipped mantras. This little group, which gave itself the unlikely name Prebble's Rebels, formed a loose sort of United Front with a single Libertarianz supporter, a tall and grave man armed with a magnificent, flowing grey beard and a pack of free membership cards. While some of the anarchists/libertarian socialists present occupied themselves with the threat posed by the gathering of the right, others were dealing with the enemy on the left, distributing free copies of a leaflet attacking the bureaucratic misleadership of the wharfies' struggle against Carter Holt Harvey, as well as bureaucratic attempts to suppress an article written by an Auckland university worker which called for solidarity with the wharfies (see article on p.6). Along with free copies of Thr@ll, the leaflet was accepted happily by marchers battered by the paper-selling and recruitment drives of the usual Trot and Stalinist sects. The march ended in Aotea Square, where Green MP Keith Locke distinguished himself from a slew of dreary orators by talking movingly about the life and recent death of his mother, children's author and longtime radical activist Elsie Locke.
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HamiltonThis year's small May Day demo in Hamilton was a nice change from the SWO dominated event of last year. Organised and run by the newly-formed anarchist group from the Waikato University, this year's demo was based on the university campus itself. The day was mainly of educational purposes. Tables were set up by several different activist and unionist groups to bring alternative education to the apathy-stricken campus. Response was generally positive, with lots of people asking for information. And there was the well spoken, but not so well read lad, who loudly proclaimed the glory of global capitalism, with quotes like: "I know that McDonald's is a greedy, multinational corporation, but the only difference between you and me is that I have no problem with that." The main corporate target for the day was the McDonald's on campus, which provides enough controversy over its contract with the university, which allows only five other food providers on campus, none of whom are allowed to sell burgers. This limit apparently also applies to the giving out of free vegan burgers. The climax of the day was the flash occupation of the restaurant during its busiest hour of the day, which resulted in a good picture - and a not-so-good article - in the local paper. Not a bad first effort for this newly-formed, small group.
Ronald McDonald Abducted
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Christchurch
The rally was part of a campaign to reclaim May Day "from the lazy workers who are doing nothing with it". Passers by were urged to support the bosses and to "spend more to help the poor." Unfortunately for the Reverend, the good people of Christchurch didn't swallow his line that buying luxury goods helps the poor and that "leaving it to the bosses" is the best way to solve industrial disputes, and sent him packing with a pie in the face! They then urged people to go to a meeting to find out about the real history of May Day and learn what's happening around the world on May 1. Everyone then enjoyed a free meal provided by Food Not Bombs. The May Day street theatre was organised by Christchurch's Anarchist Round Table (ART), which was reformed late last year after an extended period of hibernation. ART is now holding regular public meetings on the first Thursday of each month. The first two meetings have been well attended and attracted thought-provoking debate. ART can be contacted c/o PO Box 22-076, Christchurch, or by email at: anarchistroundtable@anarchist.com. DunedinDunedin's May Day activities began with a handful of trade unionists standing along Dunedin's motorways sporting "I'm union" placards in the early morning drizzle. Later, about 30 folk gathered outside McDonald's on George Street chanting anti-capitalist slogans, before moving on to Starbucks and DEKA. At lunchtime, community radio carried a one-hour show about May Day. A few folk then leafleted Speights after they had the audacity to claim May Day as "Foundation Day". The Wobblies rounded off the day with a free evening of live music and food that attracted a crowd of about 50 people.
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The Reverend Jeremiah Lovebucks of the International Church of the Almighty Dollar entertained a crowd of around 50 people at a "Celebrate Capitalism" day in Christchurch.