I remember the first time I went to a protest. It was a rally outside Mt Eden prison to free Ahmed Zaoui, an Algerian refugee imprisoned by the New Zealand government for being an alleged “security threat”. I listened to the speeches attentively and admired a banner that said, “No one is illegal: no borders, no nations, no deportations”. As we were preparing to march down the prison road, seven police officers formed a line to prevent us from entering. Ahmed Zaoui’s lawyer, Deborah Manning, asked us not to march onto prison property as it was against the law. Then one protester cleverly shouted into the crowd, “Let’s not forget that it is the law that is keeping Mr. Zaoui in this place.”

From that day forward, the law was never something I had much respect for. It was the law that kept Ahmed Zaoui in prison.

Amir Mohebbi and Ali Panah are two Iranian refugees who were detained under NZ law for refusing to sign deportation papers. They are both converts to Christianity, and in Iran being a Christian is a crime punishable by death. At four years detention, Amir Mohebbi was our serving remand prisoner. He has a wife and three children living in NZ, and he hadn’t seen his youngest daughter who was born while he was detained. Global Peace and Justice and other social justice activists protested regularly outside of Mt Eden Prison for their release and that of several others. Amir was finally released on bail on 4th November 2007 after a high court hearing where the NZ government opposed his bail.

Ali Panah was in a similar position when he began, as he called it, “fasting”. On his 51st day without food, five Auckland anarchists locked themselves onto parts of Mt Eden prison with messages saying “Ali Panah: 51 Days Starving for Justice” and the same banner that was used to free Ahmed Zaoui. Two days later, Mr. Panah was finally (but reluctantly) released on bail.

The story of the refugees may end here for now, but the battles at Mt Eden prison are not over yet.

October 15th 2007 is a day the people of Ruatoki, activists and indeed the whanau and friends of those arrested cannot forget. “Anti-terror” raids were staged all over the country. Police terrorized children and intimidated the residents of Ruatoki with roadblocks, stopping and searching every car that passed and taking photos of people with their number plates. Although only two people were arrested in Ruatoki and six were arrested in Tamaki-Makaurau, 300 armed defenders did not block the streets of Auckland or search any Pakeha vehicles.

This persecution and racism towards Maori is of course nothing new. In the 1860s, the colonial government falsely accused Tuhoe people of killing a church minister. Colonial troops used this as an excuse to invade Tuhoe land, burn crops and villages and murder innocent people. The recent actions of these paramilitary style police clearly show that the NZ state never lost its racist colonial attitudes.

All this talk of terrorism creates a climate of fear among the public - fear of Maori, activists, revolutionaries and each other. The state knows that if you are afraid, you are more likely to obey. But as Angela Davis said in her talks in Aotearoa, why don’t we fear racism? Sexism? Neo-colonialism? Homophobia? George W. Bush? Their re-definition of democracy? Global American empire? Privatisation? Why do we seem to fear liberation more than oppression?

Coming back to Mt Eden Prison where friends and comrades were locked up under the Terrorism Suppression Act was a surreal experience. If these people had not been locked up they would have been protesting right beside us. From Aotea Square, over 1000 people including whanau, friends, Maori activists, Samoans, anarchists, socialists and high school students marched behind Tuhoe people all the way to Mt Eden Prison.

We keep coming back to this same place, a place where freedom obviously does not exist. Most of the people inside are Maori and Polynesian. Most are working class people of colour.

Outside of prison, most people believe we are free. But this freedom is an illusion. Oppression has become internalized, structural and hidden in post-industrial countries. Psychological control is easier to deal with than violence. If you think the way they do, you’ll behave the way they want you to. This is power at its strongest. Violence could be seen as power at its weakest because they have to resort to physical means of control.

Most people spend their waking lives going from one state/capitalist institution to another – school, university, work or prison. If you are unemployed you have even less freedom. Voting every three years is not freedom and it certainly is not going to change anything. That’s why liberation movements exist to further freedom from the bottom up. That’s why Maori fight for Tino Rangatiratanga and Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe. You cannot gain freedom from working within the colonial state system. That’s why anarchists fight against the state and the ruling class. Their authority is illegitimate and oppressive. That’s why feminists fight for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Patriarchy oppresses at least half the world’s population. That’s why environmentalists exist. The pollution and exploitation of the natural world is not only unsustainable, it is killing life on Earth. That’s why animal liberation movements fight for the freedom of all animals. Billions of animals are slaughtered, tortured, and imprisoned in industrial factory farms or vivisection laboratories. That is also why workers movements organise collectively for better conditions at work. Bosses and employers have too much power to exploit workers under the capitalist system.

In the West, we have the privilege of being able to organise ourselves and demonstrate without too much state violence and harassment, especially if you are Pakeha. In countries like China, Aceh, West Papua, Iraq etc. resistance is considered a crime. Friends go missing and freedom fighters are shot or killed, imprisoned and tortured.

The release of Ahmed Zaoui, Amir Mohebbi, Ali Panah and the Urewera 16 are partial victories that we won because we kicked up a fuss and challenged the law, and sometimes broke the law. However, it is important to understand that the law itself is not the root cause of these injustices; it is the power structures that give a few people the power to create laws that affect entire populations. The injustice of the legal system, the prison system, the whole damn colonial capitalist patriarchal system needs to be challenged. Not just challenged either, it needs to be destroyed and replaced with a truly free society; a society without borders, without states, without deportations and a society where no one is illegal.

Ka whawhai tonu maatou! Ake ake ake!