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Saturday, December 08, 2007

Origins of the Maori Radical/Anarchist Alliance 2

Part 1 here

After its foundation in 1998, Peoples Global Action began a series of mass demonstrations and violent attacks on global financial institutions.

From Wikipedia

Subsequent Global Action Days have included the 'carnival against capital' (June 18, 1999), the 3rd WTO summit in Seattle (November 30, 1999), the IMF/World Bank meeting in Prague (September 26, 2000), the G8 meeting in Genoa (June 21, 2000) the 4th WTO summit in Qatar (November 9, 2001), etc..

Decentralised mobilisations have been accompanied by strong central demonstrations. From the first mobilisation in Geneva, direct action was taken to block the summits, as this was considered the only form of action that could adequately express the necessity, not to reform, but to destroy the instruments of capitalist domination.


By 2000, the New Zealand component of PGA, Foundation for an Independent Aotearoa had morphed into Aotearoa Educators, a small organisation dedicated to training a new generation of Maori activists.


Members of Aotearoa educators took part in the 2000 PGA convergence in Prague and also in the subsequent anti World bank/International Monetary Fund protests.

At the time, New Zealand was working towards a free trade deal with Singapore, a fact that irked the Maori activists then in Prague.

Press Release: Aotearoa Educators, 26 September 2000

"Prague Style Protests to Hit Aotearoa if Singapore Deal Continues"

"Tino Rangatiratanga advocates attending the Prague anti-World Bank, anti-IMF protest say that New Zealand will face the same types of action if the Government pursues the Singapore Trade deal. The Aotearoa delegation is in Prague as part of the People's Global Action group (PGA), a coalition of activists from around the world. The PGA meeting will coincide with that of the IMF/World Bank annual meeting.

"The fight against globalisation and neoliberalism is the continuing struggle against colonisation, and like our ancestors before us we will resist!" said South Pacific Convenor Teanau Tuiono

"Instead of colonisation by countries we are seeing the colonisation by companies this neo-colonisation is being given an easy ride by governments obsessed with 'freeing up' the market. In Aotearoa New Zealand the Government is making moves to take away indigenous rights to lands, rivers, fish because this would be a fetter to foreign investment. This resulted in protest and occupation of lands when a payout called the 'fiscal envelope' was pushed by the Government threatened to extinguish indigenous rights. The irony of this is that it is was less about the theft of indigenous land and more about paving the way for overseas corporate investors. A number of tribal elites have played into the hands of these new colonisers and will one day reap the ill seeds that they have sewn".

Fellow Convenor Waiariki Grace elaborated, "This process moves power from the government to the private sector. This transfer of power to the private sector reduces the role of the government, but does not inherently challenge the statist world, although it does remove much of its monopoly power. The aim behind this is to reduce restrictions on private enterprises to allow them to move factors of production as they wish. The key international institutions which encapsulate and articulate such ideas include, the World Trade Organisation, Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations, World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, reinforced in different areas of the world by their regional offices, this is not about people it is about money"

Action on the 26th of September follows the trend of growing resistance to neoliberal policies worldwide seen most recently in Melbourne, Australia against the World Economic Forum."

The press release listed Aotearoa Educators contacts as;

(Aotearoa/New Zealand) Tauni Sinclair
(Pacific) Teanau Tuiono
(Australia) Maria Bargh
(Hong Kong) Helen Te Hira

All have played a major role in Maori protest actions in recent years.

Part 3 here

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Trevor,

I assume that Maori have the same land rights as non-indigenous people. What is the situation with Maori land title?


The rants against globalisation are touching. They are like the objections of the horse industry to the automobile. Globalization is unstoppable. Not even global nuclear war will stop eventual globalization. It's either lead, follow or get left behind.

11:02 AM  
Blogger Trevor Loudon said...

Maori land is a vexed issue in NZ.

There is dispute over allegedly di=odgy land sales in the 19th century and over government confiscations after various wars.

Some tribes like Nagati porou sided with the british and kept their land. others, like Tainui suffered large scale land confiscation.

This has been exploited heavily by the left to create a "grievance" industry.

Large amounts of remaining land are owned by Maori tribal trusts. Some of this worked efficiently, but a lot is underdeveloped as communally owned land tends to be.

You're quite right Reid-Maori can either join the global community and get on with life or they can try to turn the clock back.

The left pushes the latter view because they get more traction with unhappy people.

11:36 AM  
Blogger raped_no voice said...

Reid from America,

Is this info just for you- why do you want to know? How does our situation in Aotearoa impact you. You have alot of damn opinions, too many actually for one with no interests. Go study the grass in your own backyard.Or are you another investor waiting to put a bid on for a Land thats already 'fully' occupied??

10:40 PM  

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