ANZAC Day - biggest wank of the calendar year?

see www.indymedia.org.nz for reports and photos on protests in Aotearoa (NZ). Banners were held at dawn ceremonies in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. 2 people arrested in Wellington.

From Aotearoa Indymedia:

That's really quite alarming. I grew up in NZ but have been away for a decade and a half, and I definitely remember a very strong 'horrors of war' angle every ANZAC day at a variety of different schools (loads actually 'cos I kep t getting kicked out lol). Is it indicative of a general change in culture, or just a govt/media propaganda angle do you reckon?

A general change in culture, I think - nationalist sentiment has been on the rise in recent years, I think. This years ANZAC ceremonies had the largest turnouts in living memory, pretty much - 7000 in Wellington, 15,000 in Auckland, 7000 in Christchurch, 4000 in Hastings etc etc.

I was at the Wellington action - it was really fucking scary, to be honest. By far, the vast majority of people there were young-ish liberal families, lots of kids....people threatened us, yelled at the cops to beat us up more, and at the end a guy in his late 20's with his 4-ish year old daughter told us he should run us over...

Perhaps the coolest comment, though, came from the Auckland action. "Protester were approached by one man who was grateful for our stance on war. He had served in Afghanistan but had returned home and left the armed forces because the war was in his words ‘bull shit’." The ex-soldier then thanked them for being there

The media attention from it (especially the Welly demo due to the flag burning and 2 arrests) has been completely massive...

You people are the true enemy of New Zealand.

Valerie Morse and P.A.W will eventually be dealt with as the race traitors they are.

Nic Miller: International tuff guy and super genius extrordinaire.

I salute you comrade.

to Nic Miller,Grow up !you little fuckwit ,your gutless as well ,maybe you should go to the East Coast of Nth island and spout your drivel,so how far you get there

The following has become a yearly event. My opinion is that protesting against the yearly march is just, in Australia now, another form of "taking part" in it. The activity described below is an alternative strategy. "Strikelets" are red-dyed pikelets or pancakes. More information/discussion can be found by following the links.

Anzac IWW Report [first posted on Melbourne Indymedia]

The real heroes of WW1 remembered.

A dozen-odd people turned up on April 25 outside the old HQ of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies") in Lt Bourke St. We were there to celebrate and remember the defeat of conscription in World War One. Of all the fighting countries Australia alone had no conscription, and without disrespect to the other opponents of conscription this was due to the IWW above all. Nearly 60,000 Australians were killed in WW1 and conscription was intended to raise a force equal in size to the volunteer force. As conscripts in WW1 were freely used in the frontline we can estimate that the defeat of conscription saved about 60,000 Austrlian lives and this is not considering the wounded and maimed.

So we remembered the IWW of WW1. Members of the continuing IWW were present amongst others. We sang songs, displayed placards, handed out leaflets (well, people from the Melbourne Anarchist Communist group did that) discussed anti-militarism and revolutionary unionism in Australia...and destroyed a War Tree.

The War Tree has fruits of pain and death, and roots of profits as symbolized in this particular case by chocolate coated nuts. After destruction of the tree we were of course able to expropriate the profits.

No-one got around to organizing the strikelets this year, so I brought a durian instead which sadly was spurned by all participants. Next year someone had better organize the strikelets.

There were many passers-by, frequently going to or from a military march nearby. Mostly they either ignored us or read our placards from a distance. Some took leaflets, I think only one stopped to talk briefly. A few eyed the durian hungrily. This is broadly, leaving aside the durian, in line with our experience in previous years.

Last year we were informed off the record by a reliable source that ASIO was interested in our activities. This may have been why a young woman (in I swear to god a long overcoat with turned up collar) was photographing us but fled in confusion as soon as noticed. If you are reading this, young lady with an endearing resemblance to Veronica Mars, you should have stayed. We may well have posed a group photo for you. And there was lovely fresh durian going for free, it really tastes delicious once your palate adjusts.

Then there were the "tourists" who got their friend to photograph them with us as the colourful background. Us or the photogenic Seven Eleven which is now the ground floor of the old Wobbly HQ. While the location of this event is historically apt it is not particularly convenient or attractive and perhaps next year we will choose another spot.

To some this yearly IWW remembrance may seem insignificant, even possibly a little strange like the vitamin rich durian. But at present, on April 25, any sign of community sanity in this country is of import. and I hope there will be more involved next year.

For background and previous events follow the links beginning here:
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/04/143843.php