Marxists Meet to Oppose Freedom and Prosperity

Omar Hamed of Radical Youth and Students for Justice in Palestine is organising a public forum on the effects of “Globalisation”.

A wide spectrum of Aucklanders ranging from the extreme left to the ultra left will be speaking on the dangers of the free flow of goods and ideas and the consequent prosperity.

Presenters are:

Ingrid Beckers an organiser for the National Distribution Union and previously with the Unite! union will talk about community unionism in a time of globalisation. Ingrid will, using her experience from SuperSizeMyPay.com and the recent lock out of 500 supermarket distribution workers, give reasons why unions must build a community base to challenge and resist the increasingly powerful and flexible multinational corporations.

Dr David Bedggood from the university’s Sociology Department will talk about the recent struggle of Bolivian miners to take back their mines from multi-national corporations. Bolivian miners have been engaged in vicious class warfare with the mine owners and scabbing workers for control of the mines.

Penny Bright, spokesperson for the Water Pressure Group, will talk about using direct action against the privatisation of water in Auckland city. The Water Pressure Group has for many years been using direct action, including boycott of paying and water reconnections, to disrupt the council’s privatisation of water.

Joe Carolan, from the Workers Charter Movement and a veteran of the Battle of Genoa (in 2001, 300 000 people marched in Genoa against the G8 and came head to head with violent state repression) will talk about contesting neo-liberalism at world leaders summits and the lessons of past mobilisations.

Fala Haulangi, campaign organiser of the Clean Start campaign for the Service and Food Workers Union. She will be talking about the effects of globalisation on cleaners and the global campaign that has been started to get wage justice for cleaners. Fala’s home of Tuvalu will be the first casualty of the warm world that corporate globalisation is creating.

Jo McVeagh and Josephine Newman from ClimAction will be discussing why Kyoto just isn’t good enough, the effects climate change will have on Aotearoa and the Pacific, what people can do to stop climate change, what is being done in Aotearoa to stop climate change.

Mark Muller: Mark is a member of the Workers Party and was part of a solidarity mission to the Phillipines this year and will talk about the challenges to capitalism in the Phillipines, grassroots movements and the struggle for communism in the country; between resistance and revolution.

Mike Sousa, from the Dry River Collective, an anarchist group in Tucson, Arizona will outline the mobilisations against the US-Mexican border and the work of activists and organisers in the United Stated to challenge the border and ‘Fortress America’.

Mike Treen, secretary of the Unite! union, and spokesperson for Global Peace and Justice Auckland, will discuss his experiences in a solidarity delegation to Chavez’s Venezuela this year, and the growing mobilisations against capitalism and imperialism that is happening in Venezuela.

Cameron Walker from the Indonesian Human Rights Committee who will talk about the ongoing colonisation of West Papua and the links between Freeport mine in Papua and the New Zealand government.

Omar Hamed from Aotearoa Indymedia, Aotearoa Radical Youth and a participant of the ‘Pacific Youth Festival’ 2006 in Tahiti will talk about the emerging framework of regional dominance in the Pacific through neo-liberal trade agreements. Omar will discuss the motives behind Australasia’s agenda in the Pacific and offer solutions of how we can ‘reel’ in our rogue state from continued plunder of the Pacific.

When: Thursday, 9th of November 6pm-8pm

Where: Room Arts 716, on the 7th Floor of the Arts Building
University of Auckland, Corner Symonds St & Grafton Rd