Dr Bronwyn Hayward, of the University of Canterbury political science department, ran the last workshop of the Open Air University forum run by Occupy Christchurch on #OWS Day 163. Dr Hayward’s emphasis was upon what the young Occupy protest movement has already achieved, and the great importance of ‘endings’: Occupy’s own peaceful control of its protest close is the most powerful statement of Occupy’s intent, and the condition of the camp site at Occupy’s departure is what it will be judged upon. Accordingly, this has now largely been managed and documented, thus:
Day 164 - last O:Chch gear removed - 26Mar12
Day 164 - last O:Chch gear removed - 26Mar12
Video farewells: The Last Tent Comes Down at Occupy Christchurch and The Occupy Christchurch Song.
Day 164 - last O:Chch tent removed - 26Mar12
Day 164 - O:Chch - clear site blessing from on high - 26Mar12
Day 171 – next Occupy Christchurch General Assembly
7pm Monday 2.4.2012 at WEA, 59 Gloucester Street. $2 asked towards venue cost.
Video channels: Occupy Christchurch + Lossenelin etc.
Local context
Housing crisis drives poor to sleep in cars ‘Chch could be turning into a Third World city’ The Press 29/03/2012
Car becomes home for some - The Press 290312
Anti-fracking concert, protest to coincide with inquiry The Press 29/03/2012 BringChange.org.nz concert “A Peaceful Revolution ..all about being a voice for the people, making people aware of key issues affecting our communities and our country Aotearoa. We are especially focused on issues concerning our land and natural environment. Our mission is to bring people together to create and work towards positive change and a greener brighter future. We all have the power to bring change!” 28 April at Clearwater Resort.
International context
Where Do We Go From Here? “On the one month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, I went to Liberty Plaza to find out where the movement will go next” 19 Oct 2011
RTAmerica interview Is Occupy Wall Street dead? “On Saturday the Occupy Wall Street movement will hit its six month mark. Since September of last year, the movement spread from New York to the rest of the world in a matter of days. But whats going on with the movement now? Many of the well known occupation sites are barren and hardly have any occupiers left. So is OWS dead? J.A. Myerson, contributor for Truth-Out.Org, helps us answer this question” youtube 16 Mar 2012 + rt.com/trends/ Occupy Wall Street + Wall Street firms admit poor public image and Occupy impact – survey rt.com/usa/news 27 March 2012
Over a Cliff and Into Occupy With Lenin “The outcome of the period 1912-1917 was that two independent political parties entered the arena of struggle in 1917. The irreconcilable differences between these two parties, which led one to support soviet power and the other to oppose it, led to a Bolshevik victory over the opposition of the Mensheviks, and later to the founding of a new international that was based upon soviet power and the need for revolutionary Marxists to organisationally separate themselves from social-democratic reformism.. Unless we start doing something different, we are not going to end up with anything different than what we have now, no matter how badly we want it or how hard we work.. If there’s anything we can learn from Lenin and apply now, it’s that if we rise to the tasks before us and get our act together, we can turn our movement around and make it a factor of the first order in American politics again.” Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist 27 March 2012
Fault Lines: Occupy Wall Street: Surviving the Winter “follows key Occupy organisers through the winter as they continue to build a movement even after violent evictions across the country” 27 Mar 2012 AlJazeera.com youtube + ‘The riots haven’t changed a thing’ “As an official report into the 2011 London riots is released, an angry, troubled generation is being ignored.. Riots ‘will be repeated’ ..discussion paper, Austerity and Anarchy: Budget Cuts and Social Unrest in Europe, 1919-2009 [PDF], found from the end of the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1930s to anti-government demonstrations in Greece in 2010-11, austerity has tended to go hand-in-hand with politically motivated violence and social instability. The paper, released by the Centre for Economic Policy Research, examined the extent to which societies become unstable after budget cuts. The results show a clear, positive correlation between fiscal retrenchment and instability.” 28 March 2012
Occupy the Internet: Protests Give Rise to DIY Data Networks Social Unrest techland.time.com 28 March 2012 The Free Network Foundation + Occupy.net Ideas + InterOccupy.org “provides channels of communications between GAs, Work Groups and Occupiers across the Occupy movement” + Z Magazine “The Spirit of Resistance Lives ..radical print and online periodical dedicated to resisting injustice, eliminating repression, and creating liberty.. addresses international relations, ecology, economics, gender, race, culture, politics, etc.”
Occupy Wall Street: Surviving the winter “Fault Lines follows some of Occupy’s key organisers as the movement fights to stay relevant over the winter months” 24:39 video aljazeera.com 29 March 2012
Ignoring Empire: King, Gandhi, and the 99% Spring “silence on the root of the problem, the military industrial congressional complex, will prove fatal to its ends” Common Dreams .org 29 March 2012 in #occupy article list + The 99% Spring .com “April 9-15 100,000 Strong ..in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to train ourselves in non-violent action and join together in the work of reclaiming our country” + Occupy Wall Street Activists Respond to the 99 Percent Spring “happening through MoveOn.org Civic Action.. co-option accusations” thenation.com/blog 6 April 2012 + New Radical Alliances for a New Era “Last month, a broad alliance of organizations from across the progressive spectrum came together to train 100,000 people in nonviolent direct action in the hopes of supporting a wave of action targeting corporations and the politicians that own them. It was called 99% Spring. Some also called it ‘co-optation.’ We call it ‘alliance building.'” NationofChange.org 14 May 2012
Occupy May 1st General Strike “calling upon the people of the world to take this day away from school and the workplace, so that their absence makes their displeasure with this corrupt system be known” May Day 2012 maydaynyc.org New York City General Assembly NYCGA.net + Occupy.com “a new media channel that will amplify the voices of Occupy” – Occupy – Still Free (Take a Chance on Me) 17 March 2012 video “#M17 marks six months of American occupation and raising of social consciousness. Tents are a medium of expression, nodes for social services. We have so much yet to communicate, so much yet to give. When you’re ready, we’ll still be here; we’ll still be free.” + ‘Occupy Wall Street’ pulls off elaborate prank youtube: free subway rides during MTA industrial dispute
Notes on the Spanish General Strike “reports say that the general strike led to a fall in electricity consumption by 16.3 percent compared to a fall of 16.9 percent in the general strike of September 2010, it doesn’t account for the vast mobilization of the indignados, the unemployed, the students, and the iaiaflautas. What it underlines is that a new politics is emerging, a politics that as Ferran Pedret has put it ‘is characterized by the absence of leaders, by assemblies as a form of organization, and a diversity and transversality'” After US Hegemony blog 31 March 2012
Occupy 2.0: The Great Turning “building a movement to build a new reality.. encampment culture is ‘both necessary and inadequate.’ It’s time to step back, take stock of the situation we’re in, and work out a roadmap of the way home.. some kind of world unity was possible: ‘Globalization from above’ awakened the old dream of ‘globalization from below,’ the dream of world unity without world domination.. ” YES! Magazine 5 April 2012 + Activist Toolkit occupy roundup: the tools you’ll need to #occupyspring rabble.ca/blogs 11 April 2012 /issues/occupy + After their failures: the meaning of occupation “Occupation stops the endless present and puts bodies together to make politics possible. It stops, if only for a moment, the events and processes of daily life. Ultimately, occupation presents itself at the level of appearance, meeting neoliberalism there, confronting it as a world of choices with a refusal to choose. A non-choice, a choosing differently. It turns the mirror around and shows the world to be a place without choices, empty.” Shift Magazine UK October 2011 + Thoughts about strategy “The strength of our group is its diversity, and when we honour our many and varied voices, we broaden our ability to be heard” Occupy ToolKit 17 Apr 2012 + occupytheory.org/read/communique-2 “We want no part of any [social] contract that produces a world like this; we do not consent to be governed; we take responsibility for our own lives. Any powers of attorney are hereby terminated. If we want you to do something in our name, we will tell you. When you come to collect on the fruits of your arrangements, we will not comply. We will go out of our way to thwart the efforts of the 1% to take what does not belong to it, to wipe away the old orders of oppression, to change the world for the good.” Tidal Mar?/12 “We believe we can’t have radical action without radical thought. Tidal offers theory and strategy as a means of empowering occupiers, whether actual of potential, to envision actions that ultimately transform existing power structures” + NYPD Arrests Occupiers For ‘Sleepful Protest’ The Nation 17 April 2012 + The Occupy Movement: Personal Reflections, Origins, Actions & Future Intentions Standing Stone U-Know! 26 March 2012 + 12.M WorldrEvolution – Notes of International Meeting 12/17/11 “The date of May 12th 2012 was agreed unanimously as next date of BIG BIG global day by people from 10 countries, most of them international coordinators. So it has become official.” interoccupy.org 19 Dec 2011 + Occupy Wall Street 2.0: A Conversation with Kalle Lasn “Founder and editor of Adbusters magazine.. largely credited for conceptualizing and starting the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park, New York, which eventually spread around the world.. his vision for the future.. a soft regime change.. apples from New Zealand would have a different price” Solutions Journal Apr 2012
CitizenGlobal.com “software platform.. transforms social media chaos into social media capital, enabling the audience to become the authentic voice behind the company” : StudioOccupy “a ‘movie studio in the cloud’ that’s entirely dedicated to the Occupy movement. This free application can turn any Occupy location into a film studio.. seeks to empower a whole generation of new storytellers. We recognize that amazing openings occur when we consciously choose to be co-creators of our future, not its victims. This is just such a moment. This platform enables everyone to take back the airwaves for naming and reflecting back to all of society what we are for, what we are capable of, and what we collectively believe is possible. StudioOccupy hopes to serve in connecting the Occupy movement across many locations through stories and emerging narratives of alignment” e.g. A Conversation with Noam Chomsky by Prout Research Institute of Venezuela + youtube.com/user/OccupyTVNY.org channel / Occupy search e.g. Occupy Boston dissolves 1 Apr 2012 😀
New beginnings?
Occupy Christchurch .tumblr.com “Ask Us Anything Submit Your Own Experience of Occupy Christchurch. We are the 99%. Occupy Christchurch.” 25/11/11
Quick guide on group dynamics in people’s assemblies takethesquare.net 07/31/2011 + the Occupy Party .wordpress.com NZ + M. King Hubbert & The Technocracy technate design blogspot.co.nz + Technocracy movement Wikipedia + You say you want to build a solidarity network? “notes for a new workerism” Recomposition.info 1 April 2012 + Introduction to Anarchist-Communism Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement 10 June 2010 libcom.org – participatory economics 11 Apr 2012 – The Occupy Movement in Aotearoa “one of the current Occupy movements differs from the rest in that it does involve an occupation of a physical location that the occupiers are fighting over – Occupy Pomare.. of an area that formerly contained state housing, and the occupiers are the former state housing residents. The Government is proposing to rebuild houses on their site, but only a small number of these will be state houses – most will be sold to private landlords. The community at Pomare is made up predominantly of working class Maori families, many of whom will not be able to afford new homes at market rents. They are demanding that the Government commit to rebuilding their homes as state houses, so that they are able to stay in an area where many have lived for decades. Because of this, Occupy Pomare is perhaps the most important of all of the current Occupy locations across New Zealand. While creating spaces for political discussion and action is important, the struggle for a better society must ultimately be based on people self-organising to fight to have their needs and wants met, and in this, Occupy Pomare provides a shining example to all of us fighting for a better world” awsm.org.nz Dec 2011 + City rental demand soars, supply plummets “by 40 per cent” The Press 11/04/2012 + Could Occupy be the next Gap Filler? Rik Tindall tells of group’s ideas, by CATE BROUGHTON, Christchurch Mail 11/04/2012:
MEMBERS OF Occupy Christchurch left homeless two weeks ago are hoping they could become the next Gap Filler project. Former Environment Canterbury councillor Rik Tindall said the group had put forward two proposals to Gap Filler founders Ryan Reynolds and Coralie Winn. One of the proposals was for a “Gap Filler tent city or Occupy Gap Filler”, Mr Tindall said. The other proposal would see the group set up an information tent on vacant city land. “It would refer people on to housing opportunities like the council leaflets, and tell them about what Occupy is globally, ” he said. The global protest movement set up in South Hagley Park in October last year was forced to leave the site last month after the council threatened legal action. The movement had attracted a number of homeless people. Safety concerns for members of the public and hospital staff had been raised in a staff report to the council. About 16 protesters were either living at the Christchurch City Mission or were homeless, Mr Tindall said. “They don’t aspire to own their own home. They are tangata whenua and they see it as their right to live where they choose.” Occupy Christchurch had given those people who ordinarily lived rough an advantage, since they had the opportunity to live in a community. A temporary campsite could also benefit tourists and others who found themselves without accommodation, Mr Tindall said.
“Rent or mortgage payments were always the biggest weekly domestic cost, making housing the main driver of poverty: this is escalating locally now. Both Labour and National government ministers participate in unproductive investment in house speculation, make policies to benefit themselves, push land values beyond most families’ reach and narrow our economy destructively. Real jobs in real production diminish while the interests of the few advance this way, reducing the general stake in society with many negative effects. Mortgage foreclosures in the USA began the Occupy movement in response to housing crisis, and Christchurch’s earthquakes have had the same effect here. Authorities need new partners and innovation to resolve our dire housing shortage quickly, because recovery of the city – and the country – is not guaranteed without it, due to depopulation and the inability of the housing market to deliver fairly. Bulk, quality temporary accommodation is easy to do – using tents and organised low-impact amenities.”
Gap Filler “creative urban regeneration initiative started in response to the September 4, 2010 Canterbury earthquake” + City’s rental crisis ‘at breaking point’ The Press 12/04/2012 + Housing crisis: State must step in, says economist “Tenants Protection Association manager Helen Gatonyi.. ‘The Government is responsible for the wellbeing of its people and housing is fundamental to a person’s wellbeing, it underpins absolutely every other aspect of their life, and if the market isn’t able to provide that housing or accommodate that need, then isn’t it the Government’s responsibility to do so?’ As the crisis deepened, more people would become homeless, which Gatonyi said would be far more costly than immediate intervention..” 13/04/2012
Occupy denied by Gap Filler: Tent city not a ‘good fit’ CATE BROUGHTON, Christchurch Mail 18/04/2012 : Gap Filler has declined – politely – a proposal from Occupy Christchurch for a tent city project, saying it is not “a good fit” with their creative vision. Christchurch Mail reported last week that the protest group had put forward a proposal for a “Gap Filler tent city or Occupy Gap Filler”. Gap Filler’s Trent Hiles said he and fellow project managers had since decided against the idea. “It’s not a good fit with our purpose which is to activate vacant sites with temporary creative projects.” Despite the decision, Mr Hiles said Gap Filler was sympathetic to the global Occupy movement. He had encouraged the group to develop their proposal independently. “We’re not saying ‘get lost’. “We’ve been very happy to give some advice and share our documents, where appropriate.” The proposal highlighted the broader need for “brokers” who could help people use vacant sites. Gap Filler had written to the council highlighting this last year but had received no response. The group could not facilitate the many ideas they received each week, as it had an extremely small team and depended on volunteers, Mr Hiles said. “The needs of the community are far greater than anything Gap Filler can meet.”
Occupy “Since packing up camp last month, Occupy Christchurch have been laying low. But now they’re on the look out for a new place to pitch their tents” metronews.co.nz/2012/04/23/occupy/ CTV
Previous posts: Christchurch occupation over, Occupy 2.0 begins + Occupy Christchurch speak + Occupy Christchurch update + Find land for economic refugee camp activity + Occupy left, right? + Occupy ~ what and why October 2011
natural autonomy N/A 
awsome brother rik mean photos
good one bro. how’s life round town – everyone doing ok?