You may be excused if this international protest day has passed you by, you’re unlikely to have seen it given any media coverage in New Zealand. It’s not a good look alongside all the positive rugby world cup news and shenanigans going on between the NZ media and the government right now.
New Zealanders will be participating actively in this global event and making their voices heard in locations around the country, in common with the thousands of people involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement which has spread around the globe.
Occupy Wall Street describes itself as a
“leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.”
The protest was initiated by the counter culture magazine Adbusters on 17 September and has been gathering pace ever since. You can read more about the movement and what its doing here occupywallst.org and by following tweets such as #occupywallstreet.
Events planned around New Zealand, that will not be coming to a media outlet near you any time soon, will be:
Occupy Christchurch on October 15
“We stand in solidarity with our friends in New York who have been courageously occupying Wall Street since September the 17th, as well as the many other occupations formed around the world in recent weeks. We support their assertion that endless corporate greed compromises the political system and holds too much influence over our everyday lives. We stand for a truly democratic society of freedom, equality, justice and equity.
The 15th of October is Global Unite For Change Day. On that day we will join countless others around the world to occupy our cities and voice our message loud and clear.
Occupy Christchurch had a meeting on Saturday and decided to occupy South Hagley Park, under the trees to the right of the Temporary Bus Exchange. Come at any time from 10/11am on the 15th, we’ll be marching up Riccarton Avenue and Riccarton Road starting at 3pm before later returning back to the same spot at South Hagley.
We are doing all we can to make this a family friendly event, with music and other entertainment throughout the day.
Please, no alcohol, drugs, or nukes. There will likely be police presence so you are asking for arrest if you bring these things to a public place.
Spread this around as much as you can; this is going to be big. More information to coming in the following days.
At the meeting on Saturday we decided to form teams to organise Legal advice, Communicate amongst ourselves and media, Research our claims, and sort out Transport, Festival activities (music, sport, art etc), and Hospitality (food, medical, shelter etc) in preparation for the event which isn’t far away now! If you have any ideas, feel free to share!!! This is your movement, don’t be afraid to speak up.
Here is the link to the main document which acts as a hub with links to all of the teams. Please help out wherever you can; we need to sort out gear hire and things prior to the day so the more people that help the better! Thanks!
Main Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SRwXMqD3KLsLFwwJ_xWEG1O15hIBOIOEgXn2hJeEPlw/edit?hl=en_US
In solidarity, kia kaha!”
Links to other occupy pages and events for New Zealand
Occupy New Zealand Group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-New-Zealand/229645187093918
Occupy New Zealand Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/OccupyNZD
AUCKLAND:
Occupy Auckland Group: http://www.facebook.com/OccupyAuck
Auckland Preliminary Meeting (8 Oct): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=295715553775619
Auckland Event (15 Oct): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=200962876639610
NEW PLYMOUTH:
New Plymouth Event (15 Oct): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=227956857259804
WELLINGTON:
Occupy Wellington Group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Wellington-Nz/253279161382607
Wellington Preliminary Meeting: 8 Oct, 2pm at St. Johns Convention Center on Dixon street
Wellington Event (15 Oct): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177904738955637
Twitter hash tag is #occupywellington
DUNEDIN:
Occupy Dunedin Group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Dunedin/141220149310691
Dunedin Preliminary Meeting (6 Oct): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=256492137720808
Dunedin Event (15 Oct): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174019599347247
E2NZ.org 
In a sense, this “Global Day of Action” starts to suspiciously sound like a collection of people who made the choice to keep one of two majority-political-parties ruling their countries,
then proceed to say they were lied to and therefore deserve their money back.
The problem with a two-party system, is that the other fellow KNOWS they are your only choice after the current party in power.
Why is there still surprise then, when the country changes political leadership … and things still stay the same?
Probably because, people actually think that leaders are in charge …
when they only make policy.
The real change needs to come from middle management(department heads) and the workers(civil servants) below.
And since those aren’t the people getting replaced – indeed, civil service is seen as a soft touch, easy ride to permanent employment –
the misery continues.
Also, they seem to be ignoring the fact that many of the corporations that they decry for having so much power …
got that way because people GAVE them that power, through their choices of what they bought, and the idea of “get it at the cheapest price”, along with conspicuous consumption.
Corporations would have a lot less influence, if people lived within their means,
and therefore, less money to swindle out or required to be bailed out.
Of course, that would play havoc with fractional banking … and everybody loves the idea of a huge salary (which in some cases is BS, because a large salary in a high-inflation country … doesn’t mean much).
I’d also point out that the soft-touch courses are creating people who think they don’t have to work hard for anything in their life. Or that they just need to live off their physical charms – there is a reason why reality TV is becoming so popular nowadays and people show off as if their life depended on it …
because for many of them, it does – they have no other skills beyond grabbing attention and flashing skin.