Ae Marika! 20 Aug 2013

Posted on August 20, 2013 by admin in Ae Marika

By the time you read this I will have already spoken at the rally against the GCSB bill, held last night down at the Auckland Town Hall, and I can’t help but note that the audience at the last public meeting on this issue, and no doubt the audience at last night’s meeting as well, was mainly people with jobs, homes, and the time to worry about issues like this. And without wanting to sound offensive, mainly middle class Pakeha.

Poor people, hungry people, people without jobs and without security, beneficiaries, don’t have the time, or the inclination, or the energy to worry about things like global spy networks and the gathering of metadata. And chances are most of them don’t know about or care about Bradley Manning, or Edward Snowden, or Julian Assange, or Wikileaks, or even Waihopai.

And it’s not because they don’t care about spying – far from it. Beneficiaries care about spying alright – they experience it every day, they suffer from it, their families are affected by it, they are frustrated by it, and their spirits are broken by the grinding ruthlessness of it all. It’s not the James Bond stuff that we all hear about, it’s not the macho, gun-slinging fiasco either like when the Keystone Clowns smashed their way into the Kim Dotcom mansion, but it is still spying.

Beneficiaries in this country are already spied upon – their life details checked, cross-checked, amended, deleted and dehumanised, without their knowledge and without their consent – by a network of computers run by Work and Income, Housing New Zealand, Accident Compensation Commission, Child, Youth and Family, Inland Revenue, the Justice Department, Corrections, the Police, and no doubt a few other departments and agencies I have forgotten to list.

And yet who marches for their rights, who stands up for them? How many Queen’s Counsel, New Zealanders of the Year, law professors, human rights advocates, political leaders, or even NZ residents of German extraction will stand up for the rights of the poor and the downtrodden in Aotearoa, or do we only gather to express our indignation at the loss of our own freedoms?

I will happily stand alongside all those around the country who oppose moves to expand government’s capacity to spy on its own citizens; but I will also gently remind those New Zealanders comfortable enough to be upset by such moves … that those moves began some time ago, and that many of those in the Auckland Town Hall last night would have nodded, and some even smiled, when those laws were passed to intrude upon and to spy into the lives of our fellow citizens.

Two weeks ago I talked about the global aspect of the GCSB bill. Today I bring it home.

Dawn raids anyone?

AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at www.mana.net.nz.