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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 25. 2nd October 1975

Lower North Island Resistance Ride — New Zealand for the New Zealand People

page 7

Lower North Island Resistance Ride

New Zealand for the New Zealand People

The Lower North Island Resistance Ride has been organised in response to the great enthusiasm that was generated for such a ride after the South Island Resistance Ride of last summer As with the South Island Resistance Ride this years ride is being organised by the Campaign Against Foreign Control in New Zealand and in particular the Wellington Branch which was set up earlier this year.

CAFCINZ aims to awaken New Zealanders to the alarming extent of foreign capitalism in this country. In the words of Dr Sutch, New Zealand's people will never be able to control their own social and economic progress if they do not control their finances. Our finances are increasingly being placed in the hands of foreing investors and multinational companies for whom the welfare and long-term interests of the New Zealand people matter little New Zealand fought against the militant imperialism of the Japanese during World War Two. Today, however, many large imperialist powers have infiltrated New Zealand in much more subtle ways than open war. The loyalty of these foreign concerns is to their head offices overseas which see New Zealand solely as a source of profit. New Zealanders have no say in the activities of these concerns.

CAFCINZ does not only indict foreign monopoly capitalism. We also condemn local monpoly capitalism. Many of the places that the Ride will visit are examples of the way in which local and foreign monopolies work hand in glove. We concentrate on foreign monopolies in New Zealand because we want an economically independent New Zealand. We don't want foreigners dictating through their economic power what our Government's policies will be.

As well as visiting Comalco the South Island Resistance Ride visited many other examples of resource exploitation... e.g. the beech scheme and Mt Davy coal. However it is not only New Zealand's precious resources that are being ripped off by foreign investors. The New Zealand working people suffer under the profiteering motives of foreign capitalists.

Places we will be visiting

The Lower North Island Resistance Ride will be visiting two foreign owned meatworks in Palmerston North and Masterton as well as Fords and General Motors in Lower Hutt and will attempt to assess how the incidence of foreign ownership affects the workers in these places. Strong criticism has been levelled at the foreign owned home appliances industry in Masterton which the Ride will also visit. Exploitation of South African blacks will be a subject incorporated into our visit to Corbans in Hastings. Corbans is related to Rembrandt/Rothmans of white South African notoriety. A Japanese owned pulp mill will also be a target in Hawkes Bay. Ivan Watkins Dow of New Plymouth (a subsidiary of the huge US chemicals company, Dow Chemicals) also enjoys a notoriety that the Ride will be drawing attention to. Dow Chemicals manufactured napalm for use in Vietnam and Ivan Watkins Dow is known in New Zealand for its manufacture of the birth deforming poison 245-T. Examples of the foreign exploitation of lower North Island resources that the ride will be visiting are the Waipipi iron sands near Waverley, and Maui and Kapuni gas. The Ride will also visit the Turoa Skifields development which is taking place under a 50% local/50% foreign ownership. Just as the Maori people are rightfully concerned at the loss of their land to Pakeha exploiters so should the New Zealand people concern themselves with the protection of their land against foreign acquisition. Two large tracts of North Island farmland that have been sold recently to two respective American millionaires will be visited. These are the 6,000 acre tract of land called Koiro Farms Ltd near Taumaranui, and the 20,000 acre block El Rancho Poronui off the Napier-Taupo highway.

The Resistance Ride will start on Wednesday morning, January 21st, and will leave from the US Embassy. Here Resistance Riders will gather to protest at the unscrupulous nature of international capitalism which has been exemplified by the activities of the US in Vietnam over the last decade. On Tuesday, January 20th, a full day will be spent in Wellington picketing New Zealand's SIS and leafletting downtown Wellington on the subject of foreign ownership of finance companies. New Zealand's SIS is known to be an operative arm of America's CIA who in turn serve to protect American economic interests throughout the world.

New Zealand must be developed by New Zealanders. The total wealth created by New Zealand workers must accrue back to those workers and not into the pockets of a minority of foreign millionaire capitalists.

The Lower North Island Resistance Ride will take place over two weeks and will be both an 'educational tour' and a publicity exercise. We will be camping out as much as possible. If you cannot come on the Ride CAFCINZ would welcome any donations that will help make this Resistance Ride as much a success as the last. See you in January.

Resistance Ride Committee

Kevin Swann

Diane Hooper

Geoff Savell

Mark Derby

Leonie Morris

LOWER NORTH ISLAND RESISTANCE RIDE ITINERARY