AAAP Guerrilla attack on WINZ & is it time beneficiaries started a vandalism campaign this election?

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
15
4

The incredible AAAP who work to help beneficiaries get what they are entitled to and help those beneficiaries fight past the neoliberal welfare brutality of WINZ, have launched their new campaign aimed at Queen street and Manukau…

 

…WINZ are terrified of the AAAP because they are reliant on bullying weak beneficiaries, they aren’t trained to deal with social justice activists who know the beneficiary rules better than they do.

Under National, our social welfare agencies have become sticks to beat those unfortunate enough to need their services rather than carrots designed to genuinely help peoples welfare. These neoliberal state agencies are now the ultimate weapon against the poor, so much so that people in poverty prefer to avoid any Government agency to escape the mass surveillance neoliberal welfare rather then require any help from them.

This creates the illusion that welfare demand is lower than it really is, and the Government’s decision to force every NGO and Community  Organisation to hand over personal details of those who use their services will simply drive the poor deeper underground.

The simple truth is that most of our welfare agencies are now staffed by people without the necessary compassion skills to do anything useful in the lives of our most vulnerable. If beneficiaries really wanted to vent their fury at the manner in which WINZ staff treat them, then they could do that with a vandalisation campaign this year.

Imagine if every WINZ Office in NZ was attacked in the 5 month lead up to the 2017 election.

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Imagine if “REAL WELFARE NOW” was spray painted on every WINZ office,

Imagine how the animosity of those being treated like cattle couldn’t be muted by the Ministry of Social Development any longer.

Imagine night after night the news media updated a new WINZ Office that had been vandalised.

Some might claim that a campaign of vandalising WINZ Offices would be counterproductive, but as any beneficiary knows, they can’t get into these offices without a bloody appointment and when they do go into these open plan offices to discuss the most painful and belittling moments of their life in front of uncaring staff who are there to rubber stamp no, shutting that system down is far preferable to participating in it.

 

Radical action is needed by the poor and those who support the poor to shock the neoliberal welfare system out of its cruel complacency.

#REALWELFARENOW

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15 COMMENTS

  1. Funny world eh Martyn,
    First the ultra right make a mean society into a worse one as they have now, and then when angels come with good intentions to help the weak & venerable the mean arsed pricks make a villain out of the good hearted people.

    Just what society is this they are plotting for us???

  2. I wholeheartedly agree. Great post.

    “This creates the illusion that welfare demand is lower than it really is,”

    Another side-effect of this is that, if a more left-leaning government reverses the direction of their policies, more people arrive at WINZ offices, seeking the assistance they desperately need and genuinely deserve. The right-leaning Nats are then able to spout hateful propaganda, such as the left “encourage people to be lazy”, “beneficiary numbers sky-rocketting” etc. It’s all pretty convenient for the hard-right.

    “Imagine night after night the news media updated a new WINZ Office that had been vandalised.”

    It wouldn’t surprise me if that sort of thing was just not reported in the MSM/media blacked-out though. Or otherwise, they’d try to portray it as “benificiary/criminals” up to no good, and a justification for crack-down on benificiaries/need to increase security.

    I overheard the radio a few weeks back, some popular music station, talking about WINZ office security guards. The radio jockey said emphatically, “Some of the security guards even FEAR for their LIVES!” exactly like he was reading a picture book to a kindergarten class. Fuck it made me so, so angry. Civilians in Syria fear for their lives; to effectively equate WINZ security guards with that should make anyone utterly furious beyond words.

  3. Here are two reasons for the supposed “success” of the government, in getting people removed from benefit receipt, few get employment, fewer go into study, and more go into prison:

    http://www.labour.org.nz/more_beneficiaries_heading_to_jail_fewer_to_study

    I could not believe the answers by that Minister Anne Tolley, she was close to losing her temper, and struggled to find explanations.

    Read the Hansard for question 7:
    https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansD_20170504_20170504

  4. I learned already a few years ago about some WINZ applicants having given up, trying to get the benefit, although they had doctors’ certificates for diagnosed brain trauma, or in other cases serious enough mental health conditions. They were simply fobbed off again and again, and then gave up, and survived by relying on family and friends for support, others going to try and work part time or casually, simply to survive, although their doctor decided they had incapacity to work.

    That is what we never learn much about, as the MSM does not report on this, and rather reports on press releases by the government, at times only by the opposition.

  5. Yep Martyn. I say fight back. Use the same bullying tactics against Winz uses against them. They deserve it. If the beneficiaries all sieged a Winz the security guards could not do a lot…

  6. Good Lord, don’t take that advice!

    If you want revenge do something smarter like learn their systems, the law in this area, review decisions and target their forward liability.

    • It won’t matter soon Winz will be gone along with rest of this governments cronies. This lot cannot continue to do there bidding under a new more progressive government.

    • You are part of the problem those cowards, I mean, you dare not take any action, as it is “against the law”, whatever that may mean. We are not promoting killings or so, we are calling for radical action to beautify the horrible walls of offices that WINZ occupy. Nothing else is suggested, it is cultural activism, peaceful, and that is good. What have they to fear, if they want positive results, let the people speak, give them part of a wall to express their graffiti support or opposition thanks.

  7. Brilliant ! Direct Action ! Finally !

    Remember. They did this. They brought this upon themselves. Hoisted by their own petard.

    Remember too, the NZ multibillionaires who made the fortunes they pretend are theirs from selling off our stuff and things.

    The homeless living in the streets could only dream of paying an outrageous electricty bill.

  8. I am all for citizens acts of art and messaging, on and in public spaces.

    Maybe not break things, but inform, amuse and enlighten other citizens, through posters, stencils etc..while at the same time annoy, infuriate and demoralize the ‘man’

    I have been personally involved in providing this ‘public service message service’ in my local community for many years, and find it empowering and lots of fun.

  9. Shit Martyn!!!. That’s radical – a bit like going and burning all Ron Hoy Fong’s unoccupied houses down, or exposing who the people were that endorsed him as being a ‘firm upstanding citizen’ to enable his appointment as Justice of the Peace.

  10. More needs to be done, people should set real examples across the board, all government departments, if they act against them, I would not pity any of the being boycotted or even burned down. I do no support that, but would not be surprised if people’s anger goes that far. We need civil disobedience, that is what I feel.

  12. Posters and stencils as well as spray paint

    Unions like UNITE, First, Etu, NZNO, Teachers etc. do good work, but the PSA should be told to make a bloody effort at least to educate their members that by and large are the sadistic WINZ frontline (“only following orders-it is our job”) no longer cuts it

    direct action is certainly needed, full marks to AAAP

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