People from all over the country are preparing to head to Wellington for a non-violent blockade of the annual NZDIA Weapons Expo next week.
The Expo is being held this year at the Westpac Stadium. People interested in participating in blockading are invited to meet at 90 Waterloo Quay at 7:30 am before proceeding to the stadium.
“New Zealanders are travelling from far and wide to stop weapons dealers from peddling death in their capital city, ” said Peace Action Wellington spokesperson Jessie Dennis.
“The products on sale, the delegates attending, and the companies they represent are part of a killing machine that profits from death and the ruination of whole countries.
“War is a money-making industry and the deals made at these expos are deadly. In 2015, then-defence minister Gerry Brownlee claimed that there were nothing more deadly than socks and paper cups on display. Socks and cups aren’t killing people in Yemen, Syria, and Palestine but the weaponry sold at this expo is.
“We invite people from all walks of life to join us in resisting the militarisation of this country.”
Groups including Auckland Peace Action, Peace Action Hamilton, People Against Prisons Aotearoa, Palestine Solidarity Network, Whanganui Positive Activists, It’s Our Future Manawatu, Oil Free Wellington, Shakti Women’s Refuge, Unions Wellington, Pacific Panthers, Quakers, Catholic Workers and many other individual social justice activists will join the blockade.
“It’s time the government recognised that the money spent on ‘defence’ could be better spent on reducing the disgraceful levels of child poverty in this country, or on addressing the housing crisis,” said Dennis.
Hopefully there are people of conscience who will close their Westpac accounts. Unfortunately we don’t have any.
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