This November, coinciding with the New Zealand Navy\u2019s 75th birthday celebrations, is the annual NZ Defence Industry Conference and Arms Expo, that includes
\n approximately 500 international weapons companies.<\/p>\n
The Navy \"celebration\" is a stage-managed marketing event to secure public support for future ties with the US, sanctioning wars, with ever-increasing
\n budgets, and the recruitment of young men and women who are asked to fight and die. \u2028\u2028<\/p>\n
This is proposed for 16th and 17th November 2016 in Auckland, sponsored by the world\u2019s largest weapons manufacturer and maker of nuclear weapons, Lockheed
\n Martin. Also sponsoring are Thales, Babcock, ThyssenKrupp, and Cubic Defence (all in the top 100 list of international arms companies), along with
\n the NZ Defence Industry Association, itself an industry trade promotion group consisting of another approximately 60 members involved in weapons and
\n military-related production.<\/p>\n
Lockheed Martin currently has a $446 million contract with the NZ Navy to upgrade New Zealand's two frigates, Te Mana and Te Kaha; boats the Government
\n has already indicated it plans to replace as part of its $20 billion boost to the NZ Defence Force, announced as part of the Defence White Paper released
\n earlier this year. This enormous injection of cash into the military is happening despite the NZDF's own evidence that \"the country does not face a
\n direct military threat in the foreseeable future\".<\/p>\n
The New Zealand military has been continuously at war in Afghanistan alongside the US for 15 years; it is conducting regular training with the US Marine
\n Corp, and it participates in the largest maritime war games in the world, the US-led Rimpac.<\/p>\n
The NZ Defence forces original deployment to Iraq was aimed at helping a broader coalition, headed by the United States, to defeat Islamic State and reduce
\n the threat politicians say it poses to New Zealand. Now the deployment has been extended.<\/p>\n
New Zealand has clearly come under pressure from the US to stay on in Iraq. It is not just about the extra resources, it's about having more countries
\n in Iraq as part of the coalition, giving greater legitimacy to the US-led \"Operation Inherent Resolve.\"\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n
Valerie says, \u201cWe\u2019ve had enough of the politics of fear and austerity. We aren\u2019t going to stand by while those who profit from misery, murder and repression
\n meet to make new deals and congratulate themselves on their successes. We need YOUR help to blockade the weapons conference and to create a peace flotilla
\n on the water to resist the warships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valerie Morse is a writer, librarian, peace activist and anarchist. She is the author of two books: \u201cAgainst Freedom: the war on terrorism in everyday
\n New Zealand life\u201d, and \u201cThe Day the Raids Came: Stories of survival and resistance to the State Terror Raids\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2028She has worked on a range of grassroots community issues including war, arms dealers, climate justice, prison abolition and public transport. She loves
\n to garden, and pet fuzzy animals.\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n
Valerie is passionate in her opposition to war. She writes - \u201cThere are two broader interconnected issues that arise in opposition to the Weapons Conference.
\n First, if there is a military, it needs weapons. Therefore, the issue of the Weapons Conference goes to the heart of the military project in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Does New Zealand need a standing army? The peace movement with a long trajectory back to the First World War would say no. Contemporary academics and commentators
\n reject the very idea of the \u201cDefence Force,\u201d instead decrying New Zealand\u2019s history of offensive engagement in foreign wars of empire and conquest.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n
Both journalist Nicky Hager, and Russell Norman of Greenpeace, agree that New Zealand\u2019s Nuclear-Free Act will not be threatened by the US Navy bringing
\n a warship to be part of the NZ Navy's 75th birthday in November.\u2028 Oh really? \u2028Think again!\u2028 The US position on neither confirming nor denying whether
\n its warships are nuclear powered or nuclear armed remains the same. What has changed is the position of the New Zealand Government. It is now perfectly
\n happy to use what is publically available and known as to the ships background, and so it is not going to ask anything further!<\/p>\n
This is the first time in 32 years the US has been invited to send a warship to New Zealand. This event is the culmination of many years of work by those
\n who wish to bring the New Zealand military back into the fold of US empire.<\/p>\n
The New Zealand government has signed both the Washington and Wellington Declarations in recent years, re-committing the country to joint military cooperation,
\n and conveniently side-stepping the nuclear-free issue altogether.<\/p>\n
We as a country need to decide who we are. \u2028Wellington was declared a nuclear free zone on April 14 1982 and 40 local authorities in total had declared
\n themselves nuclear-free by the end of 1984.<\/p>\n
It is an affront to this country\u2019s nuclear-free status that a naval exercise with United States ships will be taking place in the waters of the Aotearoa
\n New Zealand this November. \u2028\u2028Are we a country that sits under the US military and nuclear umbrella, supporting foreign wars that have nothing to do
\n with us; or are we going to stand up for our own sovereignty declaring that war is never a solution, and that we will insist on staying nuclear free.<\/p>\n
Here is a link to Auckland Peace Action Group where you can get involved!\u2028 https:\/\/aucklandpeaceaction.wordpress.com<\/a>\n<\/p>\n Link to Valerie\u2019s article \u201cNew Zealand\u2019s Homegrown Military-Industrial Complex\u201d. \u2028http:\/\/www.converge.org.nz\/abc\/pr\/50\/pr50-005.html<\/a>\n<\/p>\n Link to Valerie\u2019s book \u201cAgainst Freedom - The War on Terrorism in Everyday New Zealand Life\u201d.
\n
https:\/\/www.rebelpress.org.nz\/files\/againstfreedom.pdf<\/a>\n<\/p>\n