1968 — A year of Revolution?

There was something in the air in 1968. A wave of revolt spread around the world. In France, workers and students famously almost brought down the government. Occupations, strikes, riots and mass protests occurred in the USA, Czechoslovakia (the Prague Spring), Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan and elsewhere. In Vietnam, the Tet offensive was launched.

This mood of rebellion spread to New Zealand. A major workplace revolt occurred against the nil wage order issued by the Arbitration Court. A worker-student protest, legend has it, almost ‘stormed’ parliament. Major—and successful—protests were held against a proposed US military installation called Omega. The Peace, Power, and Politics counter-conference was held against the Vietnam War and SEATO. And there was much other activity too.

1968 symbolised the hope of a new generation that they could radically change the old establishment. In New Zealand, it led to a blossoming of struggle by workers, students, Maori, women, Pacific people, environmentalists and others. Whether 1968 was a year of revolution remains a matter of debate. Come along and discuss it.

SATURDAY 6 DECEMBER, 1-6pm

At the Loaves and Fishes Hall, Wellington Cathedral, Hill Street, Thorndon (opposite Parliament), Wellington.
Organised by the Labour History Project (formerly the Trade Union History Project). Read more for the programme.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME:

12.30pm – Registration

1pm – What happened in 1968? Including a French perspective on the events in France, May-June 1968

1.30 – The movement against the nil wage order (Peter Franks) and Union matters in 1968, Wellington and National (Ken Douglas)

2.30 – Film and television footage from 1968 in NZ

3.10 – Afternoon tea

3.30 – The worker-student alliance in NZ and the ‘storming’ of parliament (Toby Boraman)

4.00 – The Resistance Bookshops in NZ (Pat Bolster and Graeme Whimp)

4.30 – Barry Lee (Auckland Progressive Youth Movement) remembers 1968

5.00 – The Year that Shaped a Generation (documentary)

6.00 – LHP Christmas party – celebrate like its 1968 again! (BYO and please bring a plate too!) All welcome.

Fees: $15 waged, $10 unwaged (including students)
Afternoon tea will be provided.

Prior registration will be appreciated: please pay by cheque or direct credit. Registration at the door is welcome by cheque or cash. Credit card facilities are NOT available.
Please make cheques out to the ‘Trade Union History Project’. Include your name and address, and send to:–
The Treasurer, TUHP/LHP, P O Box 27425, Wellington
Or credit to TUHP bank account:–
02-0500-0624127-00

For further information, contact:donald.anderson.nz@gmail.com

Printmaking

Great video on printmaking, or, how prints are made from woodcuts and linocuts. Have a wee peek at where they say they are from...

Taken from Justseeds

Hamilton bus drivers locked out for planning to offer passengers free fares.

The Hamilton bus company Go Bus has locked out 50 drivers after they took strike action for 24 hours, and were planning a fare strike on return to work.

Fare strikes have seldom been used in New Zealand, but they are a creative form of industrial action that can build public support while putting direct economic pressure on the company. This means that no passengers were to be charged for riding the bus during the strike period.

Today the law says that any alteration to normal work is a strike, so that rubs out any 'creative' work practices.

The company imposed a lockout once it heard a fare strike was likely and has kept the workers locked out despite the drivers withdrawing their notice of a fare strike. The drivers are paid $13.50 an hour and are seeking an increase to $16 an hour.

The drivers’ pay is well below a living wage. The Council of Trade Unions is advocating a minimum wage of $16.30, as that is two-thirds of the average wage.

Support the locked out bus drivers: gather at the Transport Centre in Hamilton at 9.30am Monday 24 November.

More media releases here.

Labour History Project Christchurch

"The struggle of people against power is the same as the struggle of remembering against forgetting".

The Labour History Project is a nationwide group of people keen to promote Aotearoa's vibrant and often militant working class roots. They do things like publish books, put on events and seminars (such as the recent Blackball '08 celebration), workshops, and other events.

Currently, the Trade Union History Project is going through some structural changes, including a name change (the 'Labour History Project') — to take into account regional or thematic branches, womens movements, and the workers and communities not represented by Trade Unions.

This re-structure has opened the way towards forming a Christchurch based group.

A Christchurch based group could do a number of things — from promoting our past and present radical histories (specifically Christchurch, such as the 1932 Tramways’ Strike — or nationwide events), raise class awareness, connect with workers and communities, put on local events such as book releases, film nights, stalls etc — and basically celebrate everyday, working people.

It could be as low key or full on as people wanted it to be, and as a TUHP member you could do as much or as little as you wanted.

If you think you might have the slightest of interest in becoming a member, or even just to check things out, there is a mailing list set up to keep people informed on the Chritschurch group and its formation.

To sign on, simply go to the following link and subscribe. This means you can receive further info, take part in online discussion, be informed of physical group meetings, and get involved.

Subscribe here:
lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/labourhistorychch

Or you can email the list at:
labourhistorychch (at) lists.riseup.net

Or you can email Jared at:
garage.collective (at) gmail.com

TUHP can be found online at www.tuhp.org.nz

Cheers!

Type rest of the post here

The emperor has new clothes

Another interesting election critique from the ICC:
The deafening propaganda blitz of the electoral campaign has finally come an end after almost two years. The ruling class media mouthpieces tell us that this has been the most important election in American history, demonstrating yet again the power of "democracy." This propaganda holds that not only do we have an African American president for the first time in American history, but also, above all, the Obama victory embodies the desire for change.

We are told that the "people have spoken," and that "Washington has listened," thanks to the "wondrous" workings of the ballot box. We are even told that America has now overcome racism and has become a land of true brotherhood.

So now Obama is president. But what does it mean? Obama promised to deliver change, but this promise was nothing but ideological sophistry. The whole campaign was a hypocritical lie, that captured the hopes of a population, and above all of a working class increasingly fed up with misery and war, but still unclear as to its own role in society and as yet unable to dispel the ruling class's mystifications.

The real victor in this election was not the fictitious "Joe Blow" of middle America, not the African Americans who are part of the US working class, but rather the ruling class. It is clear that more of the same and worse will be dished out to the workers, increasing the weight of misery. Obama was not a "peace" candidate. His criticism of Bush was that the latter got bogged down in Iraq, spread the troops too thinly, and left American imperialism incapable of responding adequately to future challenges to its dominance. Obama plans to send more troops to Afghanistan and to be ready to strike back against threats to America's imperialist interests. He was fiercely critical of the Bush administration's inability to respond to the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer. Such a peace-nik, is he!

During the presidential debates, Obama explained that he supports strengthening education in America, because an educated workforce is vital to a strong economy and no country can remain a dominant militant power without a strong economy. In other words, he sees education spending as pre-condition for imperialist domination. Such idealism!

For the ruling class this election has been a success almost beyond its wildest dreams.

It has managed to rejuvenate electoralism and the democratic myth, which has taken so many hits since 2000, especially amongst the younger generation, and left so many people disenchanted with the "system".

The post-election euphoria - the literal dancing in the streets that greeted Obama's victory - is testimony to the extent of this political victory. The impact of the election is comparable to the ideological victory that occurred immediately after 9/11. Back then the bourgeoisie benefited from a surge of nationalist hysteria, binding the working class to the bourgeois state. Today, hope in democracy and faith in a charismatic leader, binds large sectors of the population to the state.

Within the black population the weight of this euphoria is particularly strong; there is now a widespread belief that the oppressed minority has now been empowered. The bourgeois media even celebrates America's overcoming of racism, a ridiculous claim if ever there was one. Almost overnight, the black population in the US has gone from being one of the most alienated, disenchanted sectors of the population, to one that is firmly behind the state, through the persona of the new president-elect.

On the international level, the bourgeoisie has benefited almost immediately from a successful distancing of the new administration from the failures of the Bush regime on imperialist policy and the opening up of opportunities to reestablish American political authority, credibility, and leadership in the international arena.

On the level of economic policy, the new Obama admnistration's ability to carry out necessary state capitalist measures to shore up the system of oppression and exploitation will be unsurpassed. Its rhetoric will be that of providing "relief", whereas what will be provided is the highest debt in US history, and a trillion dollar budget deficit, which is placed on the back of future generations of the working class. Local and state governments are already planning to slash social services and programs because of the economic crisis, at the same time that Obama advocates yet more "bailouts" for major corporations and banks and insurance companies, to be financed out of the sweat of the working class.

Almost startled by its own success, aware that it will not and cannot deliver the changes promised in the campaign, the ruling class is already developing a rhetoric that will help "temper the enthusiasm". We have already heard things like "Obama can only try to straighten Bush's crooked policy" "There's a legacy of mistakes." "Change will not come immediately", "sacrifice will be needed."

Wobblies!

I just watched the classic documentary 'Wobblies' for the first time, which was great because it's near impossible to find here in Otautahi. Ironically, it was free on the internet! Anyway, the doco is filled with great stories of protest, the history of the International Workers of the World (Wobblies), and a hell of a lot of song, which inspired me to download the 'Little Red Song Book' (again, free on the internet).

Here's one of the songs from the 'Little Red Song Book', called 'Workingmen, Unite!' (sorry for the sexism implied).

Conditions they are bad,
And some of you are sad;
You cannot see your enemy,
The class that lives in luxury,
You workingmen are poor,
Will be for evermore,
As long as you permit the few
To guide your destiny.

CHORUS
Shall we still be slaves and work for wages?
It is outrageous --has been for ages;
This earth by right belongs to toilers,
And not to spoilers of liberty.

The master class is small,
But they have lots of "gall."
When we unite to gain our right,
If they resist we'll use our might;
There is no middle ground,
This fight must be one round.
To victory, for liberty,
Our class is marching on!

Workingmen, unite!
We must put up a fight,
To make us free from slavery
And capitalistic tyranny;
This fight is not in vain,
We've got a world to gain.
Will you be a fool, a capitalist tool,
And serve your enemy?

For more songs check out the link above.

Knowledge in action

The Radical Activism Visual Archive is a great collection of radical posters, zines, books covers and more. The site encourages people to upload and share work from all around the world, across a wide range of issues.

I really like the image above — its a nice play on the theme, a good use of typography (both as the image itself, and the information below) and uses one colour really successfully.

Check it out and more visual work at Radical Archive.

'Black Tuesday' — Waihi Nov. 12, 1912

The above poster is from a series I'm undertaking on radical history, specifically New Zealand events. I was asked by Justseeds, a radical co-op in the US to contribute to their People's History Project, and I decided to concentrate on Waihi. However, we decided it was kind of negative and that victories by labour/radical movements are often overlooked, so I think I may do a new poster on the 8 hour work day and NZ. Not sure yet…

The text on the poster reads:
AOTEAROA / NEW ZEALAND On Black Tuesday — November 12th, 1912 — the New Zealand Police and their ‘organised thugs’ stormed the Miners Workers Union Hall, stronghold of Waihi unionists on strike against the existence of a rival union, believed by many to have been assisted by the Waihi Gold Mining Company. Frederick George Evans was beaten to the ground by a policeman and left to die in the local police cell — resulting in New Zealand’s first official death during an industrial dispute and effectively ending the Waihi Strike. Loyal unionists, women and children were then rounded up and driven out of Waihi by ‘scabs’ while police looked on and did nothing.

For more info on the Waihi Strike, check out the following books and sites:
"The Red and The Gold" by Stanley Roche
"The Red Feds" by Erik Olssen
The Tragic Story of the Waihi Strike" by NZ Federation of Labour

nzhistory.net.nz

Nov. 11 and the Haymarket Affair

On this day, November 11, 1887 Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel and Adolph Fischer were hanged for their alleged part in the 'Haymarket Affair', widely acknowledged as one of the most unjust court actions in American history.

From Anarchist FAQ.
The history of Mayday is closely linked with the anarchist movement and the struggles of working people for a better world. Indeed, it originated with the execution of four anarchists in Chicago in 1886 for organising workers in the fight for the eight-hour day. Thus May Day is a product of "anarchy in action" -- of the struggle of working people using direct action in labour unions to change the world.

It began in the 1880s in the USA. In 1884, the Federation of Organised Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada (created in 1881, it changed its name in 1886 to the American Federation of Labor) passed a resolution which asserted that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886, and that we recommend to labour organisations throughout this district that they so direct their laws as to conform to this resolution." A call for strikes on May 1st, 1886 was made in support of this demand.

In Chicago the anarchists were the main force in the union movement, and partially as a result of their presence, the unions translated this call into strikes on May 1st. The anarchists thought that the eight hour day could only be won through direct action and solidarity. They considered that struggles for reforms, like the eight hour day, were not enough in themselves. They viewed them as only one battle in an ongoing class war that would only end by social revolution and the creation of a free society. It was with these ideas that they organised and fought.

In Chicago alone, 400 000 workers went out and the threat of strike action ensured that more than 45 000 were granted a shorter working day without striking. On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of pickets at the McCormick Harvester Machine Company, killing at least one striker, seriously wounding five or six others, and injuring an undetermined number. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality. According to the Mayor, "nothing had occurred yet, or looked likely to occur to require interference." However, as the meeting was breaking up a column of 180 police arrived and ordered the meeting to end. At this moment a bomb was thrown into the police ranks, who opened fire on the crowd. How many civilians were wounded or killed by the police was never exactly ascertained.

A reign of terror swept over Chicago. Meeting halls, union offices, printing shops and private homes were raided (usually without warrants). Such raids into working-class areas allowed the police to round up all known anarchists and other socialists. Many suspects were beaten up and some bribed. "Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards" was the public statement of J. Grinnell, the States Attorney, when a question was raised about search warrants. ["Editor's Introduction", The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, p. 7]

Eight anarchists were put on trial for accessory to murder. No pretence was made that any of the accused had carried out or even planned the bomb. Instead the jury were told "Law is on trial. Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected, picked out by the Grand Jury, and indicted because they were leaders. They are no more guilty than the thousands who follow them. Gentlemen of the jury; convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and you save our institutions, our society." [Op. Cit., p. 8] The jury was selected by a special bailiff, nominated by the State's Attorney and was composed of businessmen and a relative of one of the cops killed. The defence was not allowed to present evidence that the special bailiff had publicly claimed "I am managing this case and I know what I am about. These fellows are going to be hanged as certain as death." [Ibid.] Not surprisingly, the accused were convicted. Seven were sentenced to death, one to 15 years' imprisonment.

An international campaign resulted in two of the death sentences being commuted to life, but the world wide protest did not stop the US state. Of the remaining five, one (Louis Lingg) cheated the executioner and killed himself on the eve of the execution. The remaining four (Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel and Adolph Fischer) were hanged on November 11th 1887. They are known in Labour history as the Haymarket Martyrs. Between 150,000 and 500,000 lined the route taken by the funeral cortege and between 10,000 to 25,000 were estimated to have watched the burial.

In 1889, the American delegation attending the International Socialist congress in Paris proposed that May 1st be adopted as a workers' holiday. This was to commemorate working class struggle and the "Martyrdom of the Chicago Eight". Since then Mayday has became a day for international solidarity. In 1893, the new Governor of Illinois made official what the working class in Chicago and across the world knew all along and pardoned the Martyrs because of their obvious innocence and because "the trial was not fair".

The authorities had believed at the time of the trial that such persecution would break the back of the labour movement. They were wrong. In the words of August Spies when he addressed the court after he had been sentenced to die:

"If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labour movement . . . the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in misery and want, expect salvation -- if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread on a spark, but there and there, behind you -- and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out." [Op. Cit., pp. 8-9]

At the time and in the years to come, this defiance of the state and capitalism was to win thousands to anarchism, particularly in the US itself. Since the Haymarket event, anarchists have celebrated May Day (on the 1st of May -- the reformist unions and labour parties moved its marches to the first Sunday of the month). We do so to show our solidarity with other working class people across the world, to celebrate past and present struggles, to show our power and remind the ruling class of their vulnerability. As Nestor Makhno put it:

"That day those American workers attempted, by organising themselves, to give expression to their protest against the iniquitous order of the State and Capital of the propertied . . .
"The workers of Chicago . . . had gathered to resolve, in common, the problems of their lives and their struggles. . .

"Today too . . . the toilers . . . regard the first of May as the occasion of a get-together when they will concern themselves with their own affairs and consider the matter of their emancipation." [The Struggle Against the State and Other Essays, pp. 59-60]

Anarchists stay true to the origins of May Day and celebrate its birth in the direct action of the oppressed. Oppression and exploitation breed resistance and, for anarchists, May Day is an international symbol of that resistance and power -- a power expressed in the last words of August Spies, chiselled in stone on the monument to the Haymarket martyrs in Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago:

"The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today."

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

There seems to be quite a lot of genuine excitement in the English language media following the election of Barack Obama. Various commentators are talking about it as if it signifies real change within America and even the world, rather than just the end of another of America’s four yearly electoral circuses.

If one were to believe the media it, would appear that after eight long years of Bush America has undergone a real transformation, the first Black President, and a commitment to real radical change.
It sounds like it is too good to be true. Obviously it is.


So what can we expect from the new regime in the US. Let’s look at foreign policy first. Of course, it is possible to look back at the last Democratic Government in the US, that of Bill Clinton. This was a government that fired cruise missiles almost indiscriminately at its enemies. From factories producing medical goods in Sudan to residential areas in Iraq, not forgetting to fire a few at Afghanistan in-between. We call also mention the two air bombardment campaigns in ex-Yugoslavia, which was referred to at the time as Humanitarian bombing. We could also point to his continuation of US sanctions against Iraq, which according to UNICEF caused the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children, the fact that he was the first to introduce the ideological basis of Bush’s terror campaign. It was Clinton who first used the terms ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ and 'rogue state'. There was also the little matter of an invasion of Haiti…

But let’s not damn Obama on the past record of his party in Government. Let’s allow the man to speak for himself. In April 2007 in his first major foreign policy speech, Obama stated that "We must lead by building a 21st century military.... I strongly support the expansion of our ground forces by adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines.” One would wonder what he wants nearly 100,000 new soldiers for. Well, when he was asked on Fox News last month about the possibility of bombing Iran he stated that he “would never take a military option off the table.” He also wants to put an extra 10,000 troops into Afghanistan where he said that President Bush had ‘responded correctly’ in fighting the ‘good war’, a ‘good war in which between 20,000 and 60,000 civilians have been killed. He also believes that Pakistan is “the right battlefield ...in the war on terrorism”, and has threatened to attack it.

To be honest all this puts him right at the centre of the Democratic tradition from Kennedy and Johnson in Vietnam via Clinton in Somalia, Kosovo and Iraq.

And what does he offer to the working class in the US? One of the things that was clear about the election campaign was that despite the background of the deepening crisis neither of the candidates had any proposals to deal with the crisis. This is because neither of them had any answers to offer. Nor are there any answers to offer. All that the politicians can hope to do is to bring in austerity measure to attack working class living standards. The first rule of the crisis is always that the ruling class will try to make the working class pay the cost of it. For all his words about ‘workers rights’, he must still implement austerity programmes. There can be no difference between the results of the economic programmes of different parties. Indeed generally there is no difference between the actual programmes.

So what Obama offers is more war abroad, and more attacks against the working class at home. Everything must change so it can stay exactly the same: meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

From Libcom.org.

RIP Steve Luke

Steve Luke, an Otautahi / Christchurch based anarchist, has tragically passed away. He was 52 years old.

Steve first got involved in anarchist politics and activism in the 1970s while at Massey University in Palmerston North. In more recent times, he has been a welcome presence at Otautahi / Christchurch protests and meetings, and has in the past year been involved in groups and projects like the Otautahi / Christchurch October 15th Solidarity group, the Otautahi Social Centre and the Otautahi Men’s Hui.

Steve had a car crash on Tuesday. He suffered broken ribs, collarbone, deep cut, concussion / fit, fluid on the lung and bruising. The hospital discharged him after less than 20 hours. He was at home with his cats and frequent visits from friends, but sadly and tragically he died Friday night. A friend found him Saturday morning.

Steve was a great talker…at pot lucks and parties you could easily start chatting politics with him and, before you knew it, it would be a bottle of wine and 2 hours later.

He will be sorely missed…
Asher

Yesterday we had a really nice wake with friends and family — a really wide diversity of people shows the amazing work Steve had been apart of.

Steve was a driving force in a lot of groups, as well as much needed conflict resolution. I know myself and everyone in Otautahi will miss him a great deal.

Indymedia discussion and Otautahi organaising won't ever be the same without you Steve.

More commemorations about Steve can be found at indymedia.

EnageMedia: alternative video and documentaries

I was put onto this site by a friend, and I am super glad I was!

EngageMedia is a video sharing site focusing on social justice and environmental issues in South East Asia, Australia and the Pacific. It is a space for critical documentary, fiction, artistic and experimental works that challenge the dominance of the mainstream media.

The growth of digital distribution tools mean distributing video online has become a viable option for artists and activists looking for ways to get their work out there. Huge potential exists within these new technologies to bypass the control of big media conglomerates and create our own distribution channels.

EngageMedia aims to demystify and provide access to these new technologies, create an online archive of independent video productions using open content licenses and form a peer network of video makers, educators and screening organisations.



Fittingly, the 16min movie above is about the lack of independent news and media in Aotearoa, made by Auckland Indymedia. It examines who owns the main newspapers and radio in New Zealand, and shows that our media is not as objective as many believe. Sit back and watch, or check out the website where this and many other films live at EngageMedia.

Against domination

From Martha A. Ackelsberg's Free Women of Spain, a great book on feminism, anarchism, and the history of Mujeres Libres in the Spanish Revolution.

Domination in all its forms — whether exercised by governments, religious institutions, or through economic relations — is for anarchists the source of all social evil. While anarchism shares with socialist traditions a radical critique of economic domination and an insistence on the need for a fundamental economic restructuring of society on a more egalitarian basis, it goes beyond Marxist socialism in developing an independent critique of the state, hierarchy, and of authority relations in general. While socialist have traced the roots of all domination to the division of labour in the economy, anarchists have insisted that power has its own logic and will not be abolished through attention to economic relations alone.

Anarchism aims to abolish hierarchy and structured relations of domination and subordination in society. It also aims to create a society based on equality, mutuality, and reprocity in which each person is valued and respected as an individual. This social vision is combined with a theory of social change that insists on means must be consistent with ends, that people cannot be directed into a future society but must create it themselves, thereby recognising their own abilities and capacities. In both its vision of the ideal society and its theory on how that society must be achieved, anarchism has much to offer...

Satire on the anniversary of Parihaka

Wellington Police are becoming concerned by reports of a number of land thefts occurring around the Upper and Lower North Island and South Island over the last one and a half centuries.

Most victims have been Maori. Perpetrators are an organised group of mostly Caucasian criminals. In recent years a faction of the gang under the control of gang boss ‘Helen’ Clark has moved its attention to the seabed and foreshore and water. The suspects have international links with a criminal association known as “The British Government”, allegedly connected with the theft of English, Scottish, Irish, African, American, Indian and other lands over a lengthy period.

Gang associates frequent areas around Lambton Quay and Thorndon. Patched members of the gang have a headquarters on Victoria Street. Some suspects are known to, and are, the police.

Investigations are continuing and police hope to make arrests shortly. In the meantime, those owning land should take sensible precautions and keep it out of sight when people of European ethnicity are around.

Igor Blimey
Inspector
SX453
Very Well Organised Crime Unit
Wellington Police Station

(Facts, grammar and spelling corrected by Sam Buchanan)

Lifted from Aotearoa Indymedia.

Parihaka remebered today

On 5 November 5 1881 a force of almost 1,600 Armed Constabulary and volunteers, led by Native Minister John Bryce, invaded Parihaka. The Maori inhabitants, numbering about 2,000, put up no resistance. Instead they greeted Bryce and his men with bread and song. They were read the Riot Act, dispersed and Te Whiti and Tohu were arrested. The soldiers then systematically wrecked the settlement, and Maori tradition speaks of brutality and rape.


Parihaka
Parihaka became a centre of peaceful resistance and a rallying point for many Maori. Parihaka was led by Te Whiti and his relative and fellow prophet Tohu Kakahi. The main focus of Maori discontent was land confiscation and the government's failure to set aside promised reserves.

In 1879 the government began to survey 16,000 acres of the confiscated Waimate Plain without setting aside Maori reserves. In response, Maori, led by Te Whiti and Tohu, began ploughing land occupied by settlers. Arrests followed, but the pace of protest continued to grow. Parihaka became a symbol for many Maori, and its people received food and other supplies from many tribes throughout the country – including those as far away as the Chatham Islands.

On 5 November 5 1881 a force of almost 1,600 Armed Constabulary and volunteers, led by Native Minister John Bryce, invaded Parihaka. The Maori inhabitants, numbering about 2,000, put up no resistance. Instead they greeted Bryce and his men with bread and song. They were dispersed and Te Whiti and Tohu were arrested. The soldiers then systematically wrecked the settlement, and Maori tradition speaks of brutality and rape.

Te Whiti was charged with 'wickedly, maliciously, and seditiously contriving and intending to disturb the peace'. Held without trial, he was not released until 1883, when he returned to the ruined Parihaka settlement. Te Whiti and Tohu continued to lead peaceful Maori protest, and Te Whiti was imprisoned again for six months in 1886. In 1892 the West Coast Settlement Reserves Act brought in a system of renewable leases to settlers on over 200,000 acres of Maori land. Maori persisted with the ploughing campaigns in protest at the Act. In 1897, 92 Maori were arrested for ploughing in protest at delays in resolving the grievances over the Native Trustee's management of these leases.

Te Whiti and Tohu died in 1907 within a few months of each other. The white albatross feather, which Te Whiti’s followers adopted as a symbol protecting the mana of the Parihaka settlement, remains an enduring emblem among Te ati Awa.

A more in depth history can be found at parihaka.com.