October 15th Solidarity

The Labour Party is due to hold its election year conference in Wellington on the weekend of April 11-13. This conference will be the staging ground for protests and demonstrations opposing Operation 8.

Helen Clark, Annette King and Michael Cullen, who will all be in attendance, bear direct responsibility for the Police and Security Intelligence Service attacks on Tuhoe and other activists targeted in the raids. In the week before the raid on 15 October, Helen Clark and John Key met with the Officials Domestic and External Security Committee (ODESC) which includes the head of Police, the SIS, Defence and several other key agencies. At that time, Clark was advised that the Terrorism Suppression Act would be used to raid homes across the country and that activist Tame Iti would be arrested. Subsequent declarations by Michael Cullen that the raids were simply a police operational matter were false. In the first instance, the very notion of ‘terrorism’ is political. These people were not arrested because of what they were doing, but rather because of the ideas and beliefs that they hold. Secondly, a police operation of this magnitude, involving millions of dollars of time and resources, would be closely scrutinised by Helen Clark, who is wellknown for her micro-management of government agencies, and who is, after all, the Minister of the
Security Intelligence Service.

Labour bears much broader responsibility for Operation 8. As the party responsible for the introduction and passage of ALL of the post-9/11
anti-terrorism legislation, Labour is a key ally in George W. Bush’s ‘war on terrorism.’ Acts of Parliament included in this ‘war’ agenda are the Terrorism Suppression Act, the Border Security Act, the Maritime Security Act, the Telecommunications (Interception Capability) Act, the Identity Citizenship and Travel Documents) Act, as well as amendments to the Crimes Act, the SIS Act, the Misuse of Drugs Act, and a major revision of the Immigration Act currently underway. Despite the claims of George Bush and Helen Clark, the agenda of this ‘war’ has little or nothing to do with terrorism. Rather it is the primary means by which those who have power and control over resources to get more. It is very easy to see this in places like Iraq. This same ‘war’ is now being waged here in Aotearoa New Zealand as well.

There are few better examples of this than the Foreshore and Seabed Act of 2004. Since 1840, iwi and hapu have claimed that the foreshore and seabed fall within the exercise of tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) because they are both part of the whenua (land). When the Court of Appeal decided on June 26, 2003 that the eight Iwi in Marlborough could have their claim to their stretch of foreshore and seabed heard in the Maori Land Court, this Labour Government moved swiftly to extinguish the right simply to have the matter heard before a judge. The land and resources involved make this the largest land confiscation by any New Zealand government since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Meanwhile, the right of pakeha to own land was never considered a threat to those in power.

There are a range of reasons why the Labour Party deserves to be held responsible for Operation 8. The sheer racism of the Party must be exposed. Its main opposition, of course, holds many of these same policies, and bears equal responsibility for the pain and horror caused by the police and SIS.

Let’s take back our freedoms. The showdown with Labour happens on 12 April at 12 noon. The demonstration will assemble at Te Aro Park
(Pigeon Park) on Dixon/Manners Street.