The Official AOTEAROA IS NOT FOR SALE Campaign Site

This site is dedicated to ensuring that every peaceful, democratic means available to us is used to prevent the sale of New Zealand’s assets.  Because once they are gone, they are gone for good.

The protest we plan is an excellent start.  But we are aware enough to know that one protest, no matter how big it is, will not accomplish our goals.  We do not expect that this government is going to simply walk away from Aotearoa’s remaining assets unless we show them we are very serious, that we are not going to give up, and that it is just not worth the trouble in the long run to continue down this course.

That means we are not talking about a single protest.  We are talking about a full campaign.

Ghandi taught us that basically, all governments become arrogant and lose their respect for the people they are supposed to be working for.  They become deaf to all ordinary pleas by the citizens. Ghandi demonstrated that it is necessary to remind our governments that the people giveth, and the people taketh away.  For it is the people, and only the people who enable the government to exist and function at all.

The only thing the government has in its favor is that the people sometimes go to sleep, or forget their power.  But it only takes a couple of truly arrogant acts to wake the people up again.  After that, it is training and education which remind the people of their power once more.  There are not, nor could there ever be enough politicians, public servants, police or soldiers to run all of the power stations, buses, trains, ports or other essential services the government needs to govern if the people were of a mind to shut it all down.

The more people who are trained and able to understand this, the better it is.  Campaigns like this work best when hundreds, indeed thousands of people work together, not just to march, but to back up their protest with peaceful, democratic action.  And yes, that includes acts of civil disobedience if necessary, as Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr showed, and as many great Kiwis of the past have confirmed time and again in our own history.

Therefore, we are calling on all activists to get trained.  Activism training helps to ensure the ethical application of People Power.  It helps to minimize harm, and to maximize the clarity and effectiveness of the message.  It shortens the time and effort it takes to get results.  It improves the chances of success on every level.

We are indeed fortunate therefore, to have such training provided on-line now, through the collaboration of a very large number of highly distinguished civil rights groups in the United States.  These groups include the AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers of America, MoveOn.org, Greenpeace and many others.  The program is called “The 99% Spring”,

The purpose of the 99% Spring site is to train 100,000 (yes, 100 thousand) activists in the United States.  With 100,000 activists trained in this manner, it is expected that the entire political landscape of the United States will change for the better.  Social justice and income equality in America can only be restored when Americans have a renewed sense of personal responsibility as citizens, and are equipped with the non-violent resistance tools they need to peacably defend their liberty.

Activists who are trained in this manner are no longer simply protesters, they are activists-proper, able to act ethically, to conceive, create, and lead groups into successful direct actions of their own, and to train others in doing the same.

In New Zealand, scaling this number to our smaller population, we would hope to eventually create 1,500 trained activists as part of this Campaign.  With such a nucleus of newly trained activists, we too could expect to see a new Spring in New Zealand.  This would reasonably turn back the tide of apathy and learned helplessness which has crept into the activist community in recent years, and re-establish “social justice” as the governing ethos of New Zealand, as it once was.

This is perhaps the most exciting new development since the rise of the Occupy Movement, which re-envigorated activism throughout the world.  This is the next logical step for the Occupy Movement, and those who support it.

Having said that, this training program is still relatively new, and has only recently become available to New Zealanders.  It is currently in the process of being reviewed by our Members.  Consequently, the “Aotearoa Is Not For Sale Campaign” cannot officially endorse it yet.  However all indications are so far positive.

Naturally, anyone can examine the program for themselves if they wish.  It’s very easy; to get started, have a look at the site and sample some of the materials already available. You might like to especially look at the Tools page, which describes a number of techniques which have proved successful in the United States.  You can register for training on the Home Page.

Of course, if you do get trained, we hope you will comment on what you learn and share your experiences with us here.

We look forward to hearing from you.