Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Reclaim the Streets - Defending autonomous space in Wellington

Aotearoa IMC | 14.04.2008 01:57 | 2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | World

A Reclaim the Streets party took place in Wellington as part of the decentralized days of action for squats and autonomous spaces. After a protest against the Labour Party conference, around 30 people marched through town to Upper Abel Smith Street where a group of people was already setting up for the street party.








The party was just outside 128 Abel Smith Street, a radical social centre which was raided only 6 months ago on 15th October in the so-called 'anti-terror' raids. '128' was covered with various banners and flags all over looking very pretty.

'128' was used as a chill-out space during the party - smoke and alcohol free and child friendly - while bands a DJs were playing on the car park next to the house. Initially, the plan was to take over the street. However, the police showed up very early in the game, and made it very clear that this was not going to happen. The cops drove passed the house regularly.

The party was a great success! Bands were playing open air, DJs were going hard out, and a lot of people showed up. There were even some belly dancers. Speakers talked about the Tuhoe Nation being Aotearoa's biggest autonomous space and the necessity to keep fighting and organising. At around 9pm, the fire brigade showed up to get rid of one of the fires. They made some funny comments about the fire alarm which went off earlier in the day during the Prime Minister's speech at the Labour Party conference and we had a good laugh. A few of the kids got to have a go with the hoses

Later, someone spotted Sergeant Andre (Andrzej) Kowalczyk and 10 members of the Strategic Response Group (SRG) in a nearby alley way. The SRG is the Wellington Police's most aggressive and violent unit which is used to police all major demonstrations. The SRG must have the lowest conviction rate of any Police unit in the country as they have made about 200 protest arrests over the last few years in Wellington but secured only half a dozen convictions. Kowalczyk said that he was there waiting for Noise Control to show up.

Noise Control did show up and served us with a noise complaint. The police were just standing around being obnoxious. Two hours later, Noise Control and the cops showed up again and confiscated an mixing desk, CD player and an amp.

At 6am on Sunday morning, the cops got the residents of 128 Abel Smith Street out of bed and talked to them about a white picket fence that allegedly was destroyed during the party. No one was arrested.

It was a great night out in the street and brought back memories from previous street parties on Abel Smith Street (the Circus and the Pirate Party).

SQUAT THE WORLD

Aotearoa IMC

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech