The new Labour-led government arrived last Friday. We were there to greet them. It’s been 18 months of Fridays now, and it was nice to get some company.
http://etu4future.nz/ continues it’s vigil on Wednesdays. You can come and join them at the statue any time. There’s more happening during the week! Sue, Francesca and the team had many conversations with activists of all kinds.
This Monday we’ll be joining activists from Extinction Rebellion in highlighting the injustice and destruction caused by the importing of phosphates. Come to Fertiliser Association, Ballinger House, 58 Victoria St Wellington at 12:30 on Monday
From their event:
Ravensdown and Ballance fertiliser includes synthetic nitrogen (made by burning gas, a fossil fuel), and “blood phosphates” taken from Western Sahara under military occupation. When used, synthetic nitrogen emits nitrous oxide which is a greenhouse gas 400 times worse than carbon dioxide.
For decades Ravensdown and Balance fertilisers have propped up industrial agriculture in this country, which contributes half of all our emissions, mostly as methane which while short-lived is over 80 times worse than carbon dioxide. Together fertiliser and industrial farming are also causing massive damage to our soils and waterways, killing off native fish and kaimoana.
On the social front, Western Saharan communities bear the brunt of Morocco’s military invasion to steal the phosphates. New Zealand is the last Western country to allow the importation of blood phosphate making Ravensdown and Ballance the only companies in the Western world that buy it. (A Chinese company, Sinochem, also buys it).
— Extinction Rebellion, Te Whanganui A Tara
https://www.facebook.com/events/731967434067082?active_tab=about
You can also come along to their placard-making workshop before the event, Sunday 15 November at 2 pm, at Aro Valley Community Centre 48 Aro St.
Sunday, 15 November: Campaigning 101 with Marnie Prickett
Marnie has been defending freshwater in Aotearoa for years with the Choose Clean Water campaign. She’ll be teaching us how it’s done at Aro Community Hall, Sunday at 3pm.
https://www.facebook.com/events/4072632949429761
If you are wanting to get into any kind of campaigning; or want to build skills to make your campaigning more effective, this is the event for you!
Marnie Prickett from Choose Clean Water will introduce 5 building blocks for effectively advocating for change and how to use them. These building blocks are:
* Telling the story in a way that matters
— Tui Climate Community
* Amplifying others’ voices
* Creating opportunities for people to act
* Getting a commitment from those in power
* Making sure those in power deliverThe workshop will be followed by tea, snacks and mingling!
See you Friday!
(or Sunday, Monday and Wednesday)