Don’t undermine NZ – march today!

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, May 1st, 2010 - 27 comments
Categories: activism, Conservation, Mining - Tags: ,

Today, May the first, is the day to march for NZ. Very literally, for the hills and mountains, the bush and the wildlife, for the sustainable future, and the clean green image of our country. March to oppose mining in the most precious regions of our National Parks.

The banner has been at the top of this site all week, so I’m sure we all know about the march by now! Rally at Lower Queen Street (Auckland) at 11am. If you don’t live in Auckland there are carpool options on the Don’t Undermine New Zealand website. Brought to you by Greenpeace, Coromandel Watchdog, Forest and Bird, Federated Mountain Clubs, ECO, and Save Happy Valley.

At time of writing (Friday night) the weather forecast is spotty, hope it’s a good one on the day, and I hope that we see an excellent turnout for this important march! Get there if you can….

27 comments on “Don’t undermine NZ – march today! ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. bahandhumbug 1
    1 May 2010 at 7:25 am

    I would be tempted but kids soccer means t’is impossible to attend.

    • freedom 1.1
      1 May 2010 at 10:06 am

      not wanting to piss anyone off, but this is exactly the poor excuse apathy that gives governments the power to get away with the actions like mining in our parks. Take your kids to the march.

      It is a march to try and protect their future. This is a peacefull and important opportunity to take action.

      It is hardly like the May Day marches i was in the front of in Berlin last year.

      I realise it means the team is possibly left short and perhaps a forfeit is the result, but with a little foresight the team could have been at the march. The kids could all be showing the attitude that i see so many of them holding onto. From six to sixteen i see it everyday. They know the world is in trouble and they want to do something about it. Democratic responsibility has to be taught. It is not a natural state it grows like all things of goodness, and this is a way to at least raise focus on the issue.

      Democracy demands involvement and personal action by its voters to remain accountable

      Your team amd every other team should be there, and all cliches aside
      it is time to think of the children

  2. lprent 2
    1 May 2010 at 8:07 am

    Lyn and I will be there (she started insisting before I did 🙂 ). It is worth the effort (I don’t bother with going to most protests), because I’ve tramped most of the places that they’re proposing to mine.

  3. CnrJoe 3
    1 May 2010 at 8:59 am

    alright, coffee, ferry, demo, lovely day for it – lets hikoi!

    • vto 3.1
      1 May 2010 at 10:21 am

      hmmm, lets see…

      coffee… from where the indigenoues vegetation has been stripped and coffee plantations put in.

      ferry… made from iron mining, rubber tree mining, oil mining sulphur mining and lordy knows how much else mining.

      demo… hot air. pretty much free from environmental degradation.

      lovely day… warm sun. who would want to mine the sun for goodness sake. all good.

      Get into the demo re national parks but remember that mining is the second oldest industry mankind has indulged in. Don’t tag all mining as bad.

      • NickS 3.1.1
        1 May 2010 at 10:42 am

        coffee from where the indigenoues vegetation has been stripped and coffee plantations put in.

        Just get some tasty shade grown, fair trade/organic (and obviously arabica) stuff and she’ll be right 😛

  4. lprent 4
    1 May 2010 at 11:18 am

    Wow. Big big demo. Getting crowded. Hope they let us march shortly. People still arriving.

  5. lprent 5
    1 May 2010 at 12:15 pm

    Finally at myers park. This is a BIG protest

    • r0b 5.1
      1 May 2010 at 12:55 pm

      Thanks Lynn – I was hoping someone would blog it live!

    • Jim Nald 5.2
      1 May 2010 at 4:24 pm

      Can some people help circulate this wider among the international media?

      There might be coverage about May Day (ie Labour Day) for other countries
      but our NZ protest today might give another angle
      and also rescue back our reputation: common people of NZ do care despite the Government

      captcha: greens
      (goodness!)

  6. r0b 6
    1 May 2010 at 1:16 pm

    Radio NZ are reporting 14,000 at the march.

    Excellent.

  7. r0b 7
    1 May 2010 at 1:30 pm

    Oops – 14,000 is the number of submissions on mining.

    The march isn’t 14,000 after all.

    NZPA reports 50,000…

    Source: NZPA Thousands turn out to march up Auckland’s Queen St protesting against the Governments mining plans

    An estimated 50,000 marchers joined one of the biggest protests in Auckland for decades today, to give the government a firm message to stay away from mining on conservation land.

    • Marty G 7.1
      1 May 2010 at 1:36 pm

      that’s incredible. That puts even the foreshore and seabed hikoi in the shade. this would be one of the biggest protests in nz history. I don’t now if even the springbok tour protests would match that.

      • r0b 7.1.1
        1 May 2010 at 1:59 pm

        I must admit I was somewhat in fear that the turnout would be poor. I often wonder if we in NZ have forgotten how to protest. Become too numb.

        Count my faith as restored. There are still some things that will turn us out in force!

        Hands off our Conservation land!

      • Lew 7.1.2
        1 May 2010 at 2:13 pm

        I heard 40,000 on the wireless as well, and thought I’d misheard.

        Marty, no individual Springbok tour demo matches it — but there were more than a hundred demos, so on aggregate it still gets the crown. But this is simply massive. Bigger than F&S, bigger than Molesworth St, bigger than the 1975 land march, waaay bigger than the Enough is Enough rent-a-crowd.

        L

        • lprent 7.1.2.1
          1 May 2010 at 2:15 pm

          I would have placed it between 30 and 40k. It is pretty hard to estimate from inside the crowd. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was 50k though.

          Was having problems hearing the speeches because it was hard to get close.

          • exbrethren 7.1.2.1.1
            1 May 2010 at 2:44 pm

            Great to hear of such a good turnout in Auckland. Nelson Mail put the number marching here last Saturday as 2000, which isn’t bad for a provincial town.

  8. Jilly Bee 8
    1 May 2010 at 1:35 pm

    Radio N Z are reporting 40,000 on their website. N Z Herald has photos up on their website, but no report though – wonder why!! Are you listening Gerry?

  9. ianmac 9
    1 May 2010 at 2:09 pm

    Good on yer the marchers! Wish I was there. I rather hope that the Protest marches of the past become reinvigorated so that other issues like “Democracy lost” become active and used to moving again.

    Pity that only 500 turned out in Christchurch for the water Ecan Protest!

  10. ianmac 10
    1 May 2010 at 2:13 pm

    Herald :http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10642083
    “An estimated 50,000 marchers joined one of the biggest protests in Auckland for decades today, to give the Government a firm message to stay away from mining on conservation land.

    Police, however, said the number of protesters was closer to 20,000, although no arrests were made. ” Huh? The last sentence is a bit strange?

  11. Marty G 11
    1 May 2010 at 2:19 pm

    Anthony C. I moved your great comment to the new post.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.