The petition against homosexual law reform was not only found to be full of fraudulent signatures, it was hugely resourced and it ran for months and months before being presented. To get 200k+ signatures in a matter of weeks, even with technology to help, is a whole different thing.
The first march I walked in was a CND one - probably not the 1961 march described in Te Ara as I'd only have been five, more likely 1962 or 63 - where we joined the marchers who'd come from Featherston over the Remutaka hill and walked from Ngauranga Gorge to Parliament where Shirley Smith spoke from the front steps. (I'd love to hear from anyone who has recollections or information about that march). My (probably unreliable) memory is that I was very proud of myself because I walked the whole way while my toddler brother was in a pushchair or carried on my dad's shoulders.
Do marches change politics? Probably depends - I'm 100% sure the 1981 Springbok Tour marches did. What I do know from the many, many, protests I've been in between the 1960s and now is that they help build and sustain community energy and get international interest which can support other movements. At the very least the bastards can never claim we didn't tell them.
Ka whawhai tonu mātou - and as long as I can walk or ride, I'll be there.
I wrote this on 30 May, Dunedin: It has been forty three years since I last felt the need to march against institutionalised raciscm. I hoped our society would never again elect a mongrel such as Muldoon was. But it is worse this time, because it is my country, and not the far off South Africa, being defiled! Luxon, Seymour and Peters, and what they represent, are a disgrace to humankind.
All those years ago marching was dangerous with jeering rednecks and cop with batons they were happy to use. Today all there was to hear were masses of cars and trucks tooting in support. And the cops were peaceful.
I joined my first march in 1965, against our involvement in the Vietnam War. This hikoi felt positive, joyous even, declaring our support for Te Tiriti, the founding document of our country. Don't mess with it!
You covered an amazing number of very important topics - a great range - and they were all important - thank you!
The petition against homosexual law reform was not only found to be full of fraudulent signatures, it was hugely resourced and it ran for months and months before being presented. To get 200k+ signatures in a matter of weeks, even with technology to help, is a whole different thing.
The first march I walked in was a CND one - probably not the 1961 march described in Te Ara as I'd only have been five, more likely 1962 or 63 - where we joined the marchers who'd come from Featherston over the Remutaka hill and walked from Ngauranga Gorge to Parliament where Shirley Smith spoke from the front steps. (I'd love to hear from anyone who has recollections or information about that march). My (probably unreliable) memory is that I was very proud of myself because I walked the whole way while my toddler brother was in a pushchair or carried on my dad's shoulders.
Do marches change politics? Probably depends - I'm 100% sure the 1981 Springbok Tour marches did. What I do know from the many, many, protests I've been in between the 1960s and now is that they help build and sustain community energy and get international interest which can support other movements. At the very least the bastards can never claim we didn't tell them.
Ka whawhai tonu mātou - and as long as I can walk or ride, I'll be there.
I wrote this on 30 May, Dunedin: It has been forty three years since I last felt the need to march against institutionalised raciscm. I hoped our society would never again elect a mongrel such as Muldoon was. But it is worse this time, because it is my country, and not the far off South Africa, being defiled! Luxon, Seymour and Peters, and what they represent, are a disgrace to humankind.
All those years ago marching was dangerous with jeering rednecks and cop with batons they were happy to use. Today all there was to hear were masses of cars and trucks tooting in support. And the cops were peaceful.
I joined my first march in 1965, against our involvement in the Vietnam War. This hikoi felt positive, joyous even, declaring our support for Te Tiriti, the founding document of our country. Don't mess with it!