For immediate release
Press release: Radical Youth
27/10/07

Radical Youth: The State is the Real Terrorist - Free the Urewera 18!

Since Monday the 15th of October there has been a nationwide assault on Maori activists, anarchists and other political activists. These people are not terrorists but people known to voice their political dissent against the terrorism and oppression of the state.

Radical Youth support the political prisoners' struggle for freedom and self-determination, for mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga. "We believe, for too long the Government and police have been able to get away with political repression and harassment of activists. We want a free and equal society, and the violence of the state is in the way of the liberation of the oppressed," says a Radical Youth member.

"The intense harassment and terrorizing behavior of police towards the residents of Ruatoki is reminiscent of the shocking colonial violence against Maori in the 19th century,"  she continues. In the 1860s, the colonial government falsely accused Tuhoe people of killing a church minister.  Colonial troops used this as an excuse to invade Tuhoe land, burn crops and village and murder innocent people.   The actions of armed paramilitary style police pointing guns at Maori children and elderly people in Ruatoki clearly shows that the NZ state has never lost its racist colonial mentality.  

These people have been active in campaigns against racism, war, poverty, confiscation of Maori land, violence against women, the destruction of our environment and the exploitation of workers. They are not terrorists but dissenters, revolutionaries, daughters, sons, friends, lovers, fathers, sisters, brothers and comrades.

"We call on the youth of Aotearoa to take a stand on October 27th - the global day of action to support the political prisoners". A protest march will be held at Aotea Square at 12noon on this Saturday in Auckland, organised by the Civil Defence Committee.

Free the political prisoners now! 

ENDS

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