GPJA Press Releases
A rally in Aotea Square at 12noon today will call for the dropping of all charges against the 17 people arrested in the so-called anti-terror raids on October 15th last year.
The protest is part of an International Day of Action against the threat to civil liberties posed by the police surveillance and subsequent raids. This is the biggest attack on civil liberties since the regulations to defeat the wharfies in the 1951 waterfront lockout. (Protests will take place in several centres around the world by New Zealanders and overseas activists)
With his bizarre media statement yesterday Police Commissioner Howard Broad confirmed the police don’t want consultation with MPs or anyone else over taser deployment. Instead they want political cover for an unpopular decision.
On Wednesday afternoon Minister of Police Annette King made a statement to parliament saying Police Commissioner Howard Broad had decided to arm police with tasers but he wanted MP approval before confirming the decision.
However there were no invitation to MPs to discuss the issue, no submissions sought and no meetings held.
The police decision to deploy tasers, subject to MP approval, is a predictable but deplorable decision.
The decision represents another move along the path to policing by force rather than policing by consent.
The decision to consult with members of parliament is a sham. A majority of MPs will support the decision as the police cynically know that neither Labour nor National will dare seem to be soft on “law and order” in the lead-up to the election.
25 July 2008
Media Release:
Protest against war criminal Condoleezza Rice
Global Peace and Justice Auckland is co-ordinating a protest directed against US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on her visit to Auckland tomorrow.
Condoleezza Rice is the soft public face for the infamous Bush regime. She fronts a host of aggressive, immoral policies to expand the US empire which have resulted in numerous appalling war crimes. The most notorious of these has been the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq through which more than one million Iraqi civilians have died.
The New Zealand government must move on from condemnation of the brutal Mugabe regime to take some simple steps to put real pressure on the dictator.
If we have learnt anything from the regime to date it is that Mugabe takes notice of actions – not words.
It is encouraging to see international cricketers taking the lead. Governments must now take effective action to support work for the total sporting isolation of Zimbabwe. In New Zealand’s case it means ending the proposed black caps tour to Zimbabwe next year.
Global Peace and Justice Auckland is appealing to the Prime Minister to extend the proposed controls on alcohol to also cover pokie machines and loan sharks.
We have written to the Prime Minister pointing out that alongside alcohol, pokie machines and loan sharks are also “parasites on poverty”.
Together this “terrible trio” are having a devastating on low-income communities. They are putting the quality of life for whole communities such as Manurewa under serious threat.
Police escalate arms race without democratic oversight
It’s all in the timing!
Today’s announcement in the New Zealand Herald that police are proposing trialling fully armed mobile patrols in Auckland is another blow to New Zealand’s democratic control of the police.
The announcement has been clearly timed to cash in on the public outrage at the callous brutality of the murder of Navtej Singh in Manurewa last week. The community is right to be sickened at this senseless killing but a kneejerk reaction to permanently arm police patrols is opportunistic and short-sighted.
5 June 2008
Media Release:
New Zealand is guilty of receiving stolen goods with the arrival this week of the cargo ship Cake from Morocco.
The ship is delivering a cargo of phosphate stolen from the Saharawi people of Western Sahara by the Moroccan government.
30 April 2008
Media Release:
Congratulations to ploughshares activists on deflation of Waihopai dome
Global Peace and Justice Auckland congratulates the activists from the Ploughshares group who entered and deflated one of the domes at Waihopai spybase near Blenheim early this morning.
The photo of the deflated dome is a powerful symbol of resistance to New Zealand’s role in supporting the so-called war on terror being waged by the US.
The government decision to increase New Zealand troops in Afghanistan is deplorable and can only compound the chaos and violence across the country.
The 18 additional New Zealand troops, like the existing contingent, have no place in Afghanistan.
In the six and a half years since New Zealand took part in the illegal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan that country has been plunged into violence and chaos for which New Zealand must share responsibility. We are part of the problem in Afghanistan.