Did you see me on the news (channel 3)? Yeah, that was me with the bright pink bra (it’s a symbol of MAdGE).
In general though, the media coverage was shocking. Ok, so I already knew that the mainstream media is a sham, but sometimes I forget just how ridiculous the news can be. On Monday both TV One and TV3 news cameras were there for most of the day. They must have taken hours of footage. They filmed us singing songs, taking part in workshops, and they interviewed lots of us about why we were there. But what did they show on One News that night? A guy pushing a police officer, and the ensuing scuffle. That guy turned up about 15 minutes before the police arrived (most of us had been there for days). Because he hadn’t been there for the weekend, he didn’t know the context for the arrests. He turned up, saw his ex partner being arrested, panicked and jumped in to defend her. And it made a great image for the news. Violent protestors clash with police.
On Monday morning we were given another warning to remove our gear from Parliament lawn. We gathered together to discuss whether or not to take down the tents. The general mood was that we didn’t want to leave – we felt that we hadn’t been listened to on the GE issue, and we didn’t want to be pushed away and silenced once again. Then, suddenly, about 50 police arrived, and some of them started to confiscate tents and gear. Some people took down their tents so they wouldn’t be confiscated, a few people who didn’t were arrested (and the cops were quite brutal, one woman had blood streaking down her face after they pushed her into the ground). They forced us to remove all our gear (food, clothes, sleeping bags etc) and confiscated anything that wasn’t moved off the grounds. Some people took the gear to an activist centre in town, and others went down to the police station to support those who had been arrested. The rest of us stayed on parliament lawn, gathered in a circle, singing GE Free songs, while a huge line of cops stood over us. It was pouring with rain, and without our tents and gear we were freezing and soaked. But we stayed put, and eventually most of the cops left. We were allowed to keep one tarpaulin, but nothing else, so about 15 of us stayed, huddled under the tarpaulin, holding a vigil.
People who heard about our situation over the radio brought down food, hot drinks, blankets and dry clothes, and we started to cheer up. By evening the mood was festive again, and the rain had cleared. We spent the night out under the stars, about 30 of us rolled up in our tarpaulin, with a circle of colourful flags and our GE Free banners surrounding us.
Then yesterday, along with MAdGE, Greenpeace, Take-5 and various other groups, we launched the People’s Moratorium. If the government refuses to extend the moratorium, then we must take matters into our own hands. The pledge of the People’s Moratorium is to keep GE out of the country – by whatever means it takes. I think Allannah Currie put it well; "It's not MAdGE's policy to crop pull but I individually will certainly be trying on the gardening gloves…"
Pictures on Scoop here and here.