On Wednesday 9 July the Far Right deputy prime minister and ACT Party leader David Seymour paid a visit to Dunedin. He was here for an ACT party public meeting to talk to his supporters (and his supporters only) about ACT’s principles and policy platform. We know what Seymour and his party have to say. From the halls of power to the screens of the media, Seymour has demonstrated exactly what he, the ACT party, and his government are about. We have seen how far they are willing to go, and how many people they are willing to hurt in pursuit of their Far Right neoliberal agenda. We have seen enough. Upon learning of Seymour’s impending visit, ISO Ōtepoti called a protest to “greet” him.
Why protest Seymour?
Where to even begin?! Since the formation of this coalition in 2023, Seymour and his government have been waging war on large sections of society in the interests of the rich and powerful. They have been launching attack after attack on the working class, on Māori, on women, on vulnerable beneficiaries and the poor, on renters, on people with disabilities, on trans people, and on students and education. The list goes on, and is only getting longer as this government’s term continues.
The scale of the attacks on workers is huge. ACT is legislating labour unions into an even weaker position than they were already in. They have penalised partial strike action and are pushing to end the automatic deduction of union membership dues. They have pushed real cuts to the minimum wage, repealed fair pay agreements legislation, cut thousands of jobs from the public service, ended public transport subsidies, offered real pay cuts for thousands of healthcare workers, and have continued with malicious underfunding of the public healthcare system while pushing for privatisation. Further, they have introduced no-cause evictions, allowing landlords to evict tenants for whatever reason they like. This government continues to preside over the housing crisis.
Working class women have been targeted as well. This year, the Government torpedoed pay equity for women-dominated industries. They reset all existing claims, and in doing so threw years of hard work by unionists out the window, raised eligibility requirements, and locked out tens of thousands of workers from receiving pay equity. This was done under parliamentary urgency just before the release of the government Budget. Overall, billions of dollars set aside for pay equity claims were used to save the government’s austerity budget.
This government’s attacks on beneficiaries and the poor have been vile. The Government has cut deep into emergency, social, and transitional housing, leading to even more people being left homeless. They have hiked up the obligations required of beneficiaries and have added new and harsher punishments for those who fail to meet any of these new obligations. A particularly harmful example is the placement of half of someone’s benefit onto a payment card, which can only be used for a select few purchases. Payment cards cannot be used for rent, power, internet, gas, etc. Rent alone is likely to be more than half of one’s payment.
ACT’s racist war on Māori has been relentless. The Māori health authority has been abolished, and the Māori housing program is being defunded. The Treaty Principles Bill (TPB) was an attempt to reinterpret Te Tiriti o Waitangi to further disadvantage Māori. Thankfully, this Bill was crushed by mass mobilisations and enormous pressure from below. The fact remains, however, that the Government, and ACT in particular, have an anti-Māori agenda and we cannot allow them to enact it.
While all this is going on, the Government is lining the pockets of the rich and pouring money into the military. They have given billions of dollars to landlords via tax cuts (who continue to hike up rent), tax cuts disproportionately benefiting high earners, billions in tax breaks for businesses, and $10 billion extra for the military, mainly for new equipment. This is utterly disgusting.
Tragically, this is not a complete list of horrid things Seymour, ACT, and this government have been up to. But it certainly paints a picture. So far, the Government is winning this war on ordinary people. So, what is to be done in the face of this massive onslaught on so many sections of society? The only thing we can do: we stand up and fight back! History shows us these battles can be won, terrible governments can be defeated by ordinary people, after all, we are the many and they are the few. We need to organise our collective strength and demonstrate that we will not be walked all over. That’s why we organised this protest, to add what we can to the fight against these monsters.
How’d the protest go? What was the turnout like?
The protest drew in about 100 people – a very decent number considering the short notice and small advertising window. There was no time for postering or leafleting, just social media and word of mouth. The fact that so many people came at short notice is a clear sign of discontent and of Seymour’s unpopularity. Not only was the turnout good, but the kind of people who attended was also promising. Aside from ISO members, the protest drew people of all kinds, of particular note was a large portion of young people who we hadn’t seen at prior events and protests.
What was it like?
People started gathering near the Distinction Hotel (where Seymour was holding his event) from about 5:30pm. At first, when there were only about a dozen of us, we moved towards our intended protest location which was near the main entrance to the hotel. We noticed a heavy-handed police presence and a police van. As we moved, we were approached by police who stated we weren’t allowed to protest at the front of the building and demanded we move to the footpaths on either side of the street. With our initially small numbers, we had little choice but to move. People continued to gather as music played.
As more people learned of the restrictions the cops had imposed, the growing crowd grew increasingly displeased; it was, after all, a public street. Now with more numbers, we decided to march to the footpath on the other side, in doing so, crossing the area the cops didn’t want us to. There, I gave a short opening speech and started leading chants of “1,2,3,4 bugger off Seymour!”, “When workers/union/Māori/etc rights are under attack, stand up, fight back!”, and several others. The mood was high, and the crowd was fired up. Shortly after, we decided to march back and forth in front of the building. The Police tried to stop us. They yelled about how the hotel manager said we couldn’t be there (on the public street), forming a line to try to physically stop us, but we managed to keep getting around them. As this was going on, I was leading chants including “Whose streets? Our streets!” The cops started to target me; they called me by name, said that if I didn’t tell the crowd to move back, they would arrest me and would start arresting protesters. I ignored them and continued to chant; they did not carry out their threats. Eventually, the police line got too strong and we had to stop, though we did continue to try our luck throughout the protest. The Police are generally on the wrong side of progressive social movements, so there was no surprise here.
We continued to make speeches and chant, and we marched a couple of loops around the hotel. We had one large outdoor speaker and seven or so megaphones. A meeting attendee indicated to the Otago Daily Times that we could be heard from inside the meeting. We finished up at 7:30pm.
Overall, I would characterise this protest as a success. Throughout the event, there was an air of solidarity and collective power. Many connections were made and good conversations were had. I always find protests to be uplifting and empowering; this one was no different. Sure, one small protest isn’t going to bring down capitalism or topple a government, but it is not just one protest. Up and down the country, resistance is mounting. In Ōtepoti Dunedin, over 30,000 people marched to protect our hospital, the hīkoi to parliament about the TPB was the largest protest this country has ever seen. Unions have been moving into action, tens of thousands of nurses are about to strike, the Council of Trade Unions ran protests across the country against the attacks on pay equity, and in Ōtepoti, ISO recently rallied well over 500 people in defence of the trans community. While it is true we are not close to where we need to be, we grow through such struggle. Every protest builds confidence, meetings and rallies build community and foster organisation. Every genuine act of collective resistance pushes our lines forward. We must organise, we must agitate, and we must keep pushing forward until this rotten system of profit over people crumbles.
