Socialist group joins successful Ihumātao blockade
Press release - [07:00pm 24/07/2019] - For Immediate Use
PRESS RELEASE: Organise Aotearoa
Socialist group
joins successful Ihumātao blockade of police
Land
protectors at Ihumātao successfully repelled the police
today, says socialist group Organise Aotearoa. Despite a
series of arrests this morning, the crowds continued to grow
over the day. Kaitiaki built barricades and blocked
construction equipment from being brought onto the land.
When approximately a hundred police officers attempted to
push through, they were opposed by hundreds of protesters.
Unable to pass, the police had to leave.
“There is
a groundswell of opposition to the development of
Ihumātao,” says Emilie Rākete, Māori caucus coordinator
for Organise Aotearoa. “With drumming, waiata, and aroha,
we repelled the effort to destroy
Ihumātao.”
“This land is a precious taonga, and
the people of Aotearoa are standing together to protect
it.”
“The land is completely unassailable and the
police had to scamper through a field to leave. The people
have spoken, Ihumātao will not be sold.”
OA was
disgusted by comments by Jacinda Ardern and other members of
the New Zealand Labour Party.
“Jacinda Ardern’s
Labour government has betrayed ordinary people. Ihumātao is
a treasure for future generations. The Government has a
moral mandate, an obligation, to buy this land from
Fletcher.”
“It would be utterly spineless for
Ardern to allow Fletcher to profit from destroying this
taonga,” says Rākete. “Ihumātao is a heritage for all
of Aotearoa to share, not an opportunity for the rich to
extract a profit.”
Members of Organise Aotearoa were
living at Kaitiaki Village on the land at Ihumātao. Now
that the police have evicted them, the organisation has
joined the mass occupation at
Ihumātao.
ENDS