Report from Demo Against Superfund Investments in Freeport

04 Aug 2008

On Friday August 1st, picketers gathered outside the NZ Superfund office in Downtown Auckland to protest against the fund investing taxpayer money in the US mining company Freeport McMoRan. Since 1967 Freeport has been mining copper and gold in, Indonesian Military occupied, West Papua. Every day Freeport’s Grasberg mine dumps 700,000 tonnes of mining waste into Papua’s rivers. The pollution is so bad it can be seen from NASA satellite images from space.

Since it began mining in Papua, Freeport has paid the Indonesian Military to provide security from angry locals. The Indonesian Military is estimated to have killed as many as 100,000 West Papuans since invading in 1963. West Papuans living near the mine have suffered massive human rights abuses.

Action against Superfund Investment in Freeport McMoran

Everyday ordinary West Papuans stare ecocide and genocide in the face with nothing more than their commitment to freedom. Surely we can back them up with a little commitment of our own.

Join the picket of the Superfund office on August 1 and tell the Superfund that our future and the future of the Papuan people is not in Freeport.

Where: NZ Superannuation Fund office, outside the AMP building, on the corner of Custom Street West and Albert Street, Auckland CBD.

When: Friday 1 August at 4.30pm -5.30pm

Organised by: Investment Watch Aotearoa New Zealand | investmentwatch.wordpress.com | nowarp@xtra.co.nz

International Women’s Day for Disarmament 2008: Protests, petition and information

Since 1982, International Women’s Day for Disarmament has been marked on 24 May by women around the world calling for the peaceful resolution of conflict, and an end to the horror and devastation of armed conflict; the destruction of the physical environment by peacetime military training and weapons testing; the diversion of financial, human and other resources into military institutions; and to government support for corporations that profit from death and destruction. This year in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is focusing on the NZ Superannuation Fund (Super Fund) investments in nuclear weapons and cluster munitions producing companies.

There are three sections below: 1) details of the simultaneous protests at the Super Fund offices in Auckland and Wellington on Friday, 23 May; 2) the ‘End government support for military exports’ petition which has just been re-launched for International Women’s Day for Disarmament; and 3) some links to where you can get more information about the Super Fund investments, and about women and disarmament. This message will be available online at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/iwdd08.htm later today.

Media Release: Aucklanders part of global action against Cluster Bombs: Friday

Investment Watch Aotearoa New Zealand (IWANZ)
Box 68-419,
Auckland

17 April 2008

Media Release: Aucklanders part of global action against Cluster Bombs: Friday

Aucklanders concerned over the investment of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund in cluster bombs will take to the street outside the Fund’s Auckland offices, AMP Building, Customs Street West at 5pm on Friday, April 18. The action is on the eve of the April 19 “Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Bombs” which takes place 1 month before the international Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions begins.

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund, set up by the Government to fund retirement pensions currently has investments in at least five corporations involved in the manufacture of cluster munitions.

Photos/Report: Friday action at Auckland Super Fund

More than 25 people braved crisp Auckland autumnal weather to picket the Superannuation Fund office on Friday as part of a co-ordinated day of action against investments in cluster bombs.

Hundreds of leaflets were distributed to passing commuters, and Super Fund employees, and there was a bit of chanting to keep up the energy, “While your shopping, bombs are dropping!”, “Blood, blood, blood on their hands”, “Helen, Helen whats the score? Investing in bombs to kill the poor!”, “Afghanistan needs Food not Bombs!”

Watch this space for future actions to build the campaign for ethical state investment. (More Photos Below)