June 15 2012

Aotearoa NZ Is Still Not For Sale. National Day of Action against Asset Sales, Saturday July 14 2012

Aotearoa New Zealand is STILL not for sale! A NATION-WIDE action is happening on Saturday July 14th, with marches and festivals occurring all around the country to demonstrate the widespread and coordinated public opposition against the sale of our state assets.

The bill has passed its second reading in the House this week, yet the majority of New Zealanders oppose the Government's plan to sell our SOEs. We will make it clear to potential buyers that if they purchase shares, they do so against the wishes of most of the population.

This is the winter of our dissent. The movement continues after the hikoi and protest actions of April and May. We have been talking to the people on the streets, listening to what they have to say about the National-led Government selling our assets under the mixed ownership model. Their concern is real, and will be voiced on Saturday July 14 around the country. What Parliament does, the streets can undo.

The people DO have the power! The teachers, students and parents around the country have recently won a great success when their loudly expressed concern made the Education Minister Hekia Parata back down on the regressive proposals to increase class sizes. We can learn from and be inspired by this!

We will be coming together again, a diverse range of people, groups, unions and movements to break down the walls between us, just as the prisoners of the Bastille broke down the walls of their jail on July 14 over 200 years ago, beginning the French Revolution against the opulence of their monarchs. "Now we will be joining in unity to once again do more than just "like" a status on facebook. While social media activism is important and spreads the message, this is an opportunity to really make a tangible difference by building on the viral messages and using our voices and feet to march on the streets," says spokesperson for ANFS Miriam Pierard. "We all have one message that binds us: Aotearoa New Zealand is STILL not for sale!" Across the country, we will see people putting aside all differences and showing the strength of us as one on July 14, 2012.

Saturday July 14 will see a march and people's festival with stalls and music happening in Auckland from 2pm, meeting at Britomart and marching with defiance up Queen Street to reclaim our streets once more. We will bring the march to Myers Park to enjoy festivities into the late afternoon. We warmly call upon all other areas of Aotearoa New Zealand to organise actions on this day as well, and coordinate with the Auckland group to gain support, inspiration and information. Artists and musicians, please get in contact with us.

The following weekend, July 20-22, is the National Party conference in Auckland, which will be met with protest by a range of groups that are angered by the many regressive policies that the Party has been proposing and pushing through Parliament.

Keep informed, lend a hand and begin a dialogue. Visit www.aotearoaisnotforsale.com to find out what's happening, join groups, talk to people around the country and get some support in setting up your own action for July 14. If they take our assets, we will reclaim our streets.

We will not be divided like our assets. We will be united, we will not be silenced, we will resist this together.

ENDS

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