Posted on 14-8-2003

Waitakere Mayor In Security
Letter From Citizens Against Privatisation (photo shows Waitakere Mayor Harvey)

On 9th July 2003 Citizens Against Privatisation staged a peaceful occupation of Waitakere City Council chambers in protest at the council having reneged on an undertaking to review the user-pays policy of water charging.  Mayor Bob Harvey has subsequently been reported as likening the non-violent behaviour of the protesters to that of terrorists, and been rash enough to announce that he is taking one protester to the Race Relations Tribunal for a placard slogan he alleges is offensive to holocaust survivors. Harvey has also taken a complaint against C.A.P for allowing the sign to be displayed at a public meeting.
 
Margaret Jones, known to most of you as a veteran protester against all forms of racism and fascism, and honoured by Mayor Harvey himself with a Millenium Medal for services to the community, had been incensed by the expulsion from the Council offices of anti-spray protester Helen Wiseman-Dare and the serving upon her of a two-year trespass order - allegedly for swearing within the hearing of children. As an expression of her disgust, Margaret carried a placard with a slogan clearly using the swastika to compare the council's draconian action with that of fascists. Having lived through the Nazi era she has seen what the suppression of criticism can lead to. Margaret says "A woman has been prevented from speaking which was just what they used to do in Nazi Germany. I lived through all that and I know how Nazism began - with little things like the cutting of free speech. I'm not suggesting that is what is happening here, but people need to be aware that this is just how these things get started." (Margaret's comments from the Western Leader).
 
It is a complete reversal, both of her values and of her intentions, for Harvey to claim that she was intimidating the victims of fascism. Indeed it is outrageous that a lifelong campaigner against fascism should at the age of 83 suffer the indignity of having to defend herself against such a preposterous accusation. All who know Margaret, together with all who value justice, should write to Harvey in protest. Also send copies to Waitakere City Councillors and as a letter to the editor of the Western Leader. If you address your letter after your name and title it an open letter hopefully it will printed in the newspaper. Harvey deserves mass condemnation for this outrage.