Anarchists and the Convoy 2022 Protests

sike! you thought (this was about Canada)

From Aotearoa Workers’ Solidarity Movement (AWSM)

By Pink Panther

They call it Freedom Convoy 2022.

They claim it’s all about freedom.

A mishmash of groups who are fighting for contradictory “freedoms” have been camped in and around the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington since February 6th.

They range from Maori nationalists to New Age conspiracy theorists, white supremacists to religious fundamentalists, and other fringe groups including the extreme right sovereign citizen movement. Their flags flutter everywhere. Their banners, which peddle pseudo-science and conspiracy ‘theories’, litter the grounds of Parliament and decorate many of the vehicles that are blocking key roads around it. Inflammatory rhetoric, including calls to kill leading politicians and journalists, is being broadcast online and repeated in banners and posters. Their vitriol is clear for anyone who is walking past Parliament. Yet, because there is a variety of motivations for involvement, some are not aligned with dodgy groups and many of the protesters are counter-culture and anti-Establishment types who are upset about vaccination mandates, some Anarchists and others on the Left have decided to support the protesters.

Those Lefties are misguided.

Just because some protesters are dancing to Bob Marley and smoking joints doesn’t make their involvement defensible. It doesn’t mean we give the whole thing our endorsement. It doesn’t make the conspiracies any more acceptable. The anti-Semitic claptrap about the Rothschilds bankrolling the mainstream media, Bill Gates and Jacinda Ardern being part of a plot to use the Covid-19 vaccination programme to microchip the world’s population and that the pandemic was planned by “the deep state” or similar bogeyman lurking in the background.

Let’s not forget we are in the midst of a pandemic that has killed over 5.877 million people worldwide. It has crippled health systems around the world as they’ve been overwhelmed with patients. Normally, I would be the first to protest against the imposition of any laws that curtail our freedoms to move about and to gather with others, including comrades, family and friends. However, this is one exceptional time when we probably need to accept the necessity of such restrictions, with caveats. As long as the restrictions are proven by relevantly qualified scientific experts to be essential and are restricted to as short a time as necessary, so that the Covid-19 virus can be combated and its spread curtailed as much as is practical.

This does not mean we should simply accept whatever the powers-that-be are saying. Our point of view should be rooted in the implication of the science, not influenced by the additional agenda of the state. We must do everything in our power to make sure that they do not use the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to broadly crack down on civil liberties and human rights, as has happened in countries like Brazil, China and Hungary. On this point the anti-vaccination protesters do have a valid point. There should be some indication as to when the mandates could be lifted that can be measured, such as the number of cases coming down to less than ten a day for a month. We must retain our critical independence.

There is also the thorny question of how to address the many tangata whenua who have joined the ranks of the protesters. Should we be supporting them? On this occasion the answer is a blunt no.

Local iwi have condemned the protests and the use of Maori sovereignty flags by the protesters. The key reason is because of the number of Maori who have died in past pandemics because they weren’t vaccinated and because Maori soldiers who fought overseas in the Second World War were vaccinated. To oppose vaccinations is seen as dishonouring those ancestors. (Wellington’s Tangata Whenua want protesters to leave, Stuff, February 17th, 2022.) In response, many of the Maori protesters have condemned these leaders – and Maori who oppose them – as traitors, especially on Twitter.


When it comes to addressing how to deal with Covid-19 we must let the science and facts do the talking. Those facts include:

1. The Pfizer vaccine, along with other Covid-19 vaccines, were developed from existing SARS vaccines because Covid-19 is a variant of the SARS virus. (It’s officially called the severe respiratory syndrome coronations 2 or SARS-CoV-2.) It’s not an experimental medicine or vaccination in which we’re all unwilling guinea pigs.

2. As of January 31st, 2022, a total of 9,461,496 vaccinations were administered in New Zealand. 49,412 resulted in non-serious side effects and 2,460 resulted in serious side effects. That’s 0.54% of doses that resulted in any side effects. (Source: Medsafe.)

3. Comparing New Zealand’s death rates on a per capita basis our Covid-19 current death rate is the lowest in the OECD and in actual numbers. This is due almost entirely to the lockdowns and severe restrictions on entering and leaving this country.

4. There are no 100% guarantees that a person won’t get Covid-19 if they are fully vaccinated. I personally have a friend who got Covid-19 despite being double vaccinated. However, this does not mean people shouldn’t get vaccinated because it does protect over 95% of those who get the Pfizer vaccination from getting Covid-19. (Source: Comparing the Covid-19 vaccines: How are they different? Kathy Katella, Yale University, January 31st, 2022.)

5. Homeopathy, alternative or traditional “medicines” and various super foods will not prevent anyone from getting Covid-19. Just because something isn’t manufactured by Big Pharma it doesn’t make it safe.

Looking at the class composition of the protest, there is no doubt a range of people involved. Regardless of who is involved, those who are unemployed have lost their jobs because they have refused to take a vaccine that is free, widely available, has been around a while, has caused limited severe reactions, has been thoroughly tested and which will keep them out of hospital. It’s not mandatory to get the vaccination. However, as with all things, not getting vaccinated carries consequences.

It’s also not just about them. They often talk about herd immunity to validate their arguments. Herd immunity is not about protecting selfish people who refuse to get vaccinated. In part its about protecting those who can’t get vaccinated for genuine medical reasons, such as cancer patients with compromised immune systems and people with diseases like Hashimoto Disease that compromise their immune system.

You can sometimes do good things for poor reasons. Perhaps some people have become vaccinated out of fear of the government. Though I doubt there are many real people like that. I think and hope the best among us who have been fully vaccinated and got our boosters aren’t doing it because of government instructions or mandates. We did it because the science stands up and we actually give a damn about our communities, our comrades and our families and friends. We’re vaccinated to protect others, not just ourselves. Not all the participants of the protest are anti-vaxx. There are some who are double vaxxed but oppose the mandates. To them I’d say a better approach than joining the convoy would be to convince their unvaccinated friends to get vaccinated and thus take the teeth out of the mandates. This convoy protest highlights a clash between ideologies that are solipsistic and selfish and those with a sense of fundamental social, collective responsibility.

And that is the problem with the protests outside Parliament.

When Anarchists march to Parliament it is because we are advocating for a greater cause than ourselves. We join a hikoi because we want to see change aimed at improving (or radically changing) society for the betterment of working people. We march because we oppose wars of neo-colonialism and imperialism. We march because we are appalled by various “isms”, such as racism and sexism, that have blighted the world.

What we don’t engage in a hikoi for, is the “freedom” to do whatever the hell you want, to peddle conspiracies largely devoid of any proven facts and to ignore and undermine science.

Just because some of those protesters are listening to Bob Marley while smoking weed or belong to the working classes it doesn’t make them harmless. The fact they’re willing to stand side by side with racist and religious bigots peddling harmful conspiracies, means these people have made poor choices. Tailing uncritically behind such participants is not the answer. The wero this situation throws down for us is to offer better alternatives rooted in science, logic and true transnational solidarity. It is a perspective that should also not just silently fall in with the government but challenges the state from a principled view where we can on this issue. It is one that simultaneously continues to challenge the government on other issues such as rising food, fuel and rent prices etc and other harmful aspects of the capitalist system the state props up. The people in the protest are not idiots, they’ve made bad choices and its partly because we haven’t done a good enough job of suggesting something better. Rather than join the current protest, we should be putting our efforts into that. Anarchists should oppose the protest, oppose the government and build better social and economic alternatives to either.

There are 5 Comments

The convoy coming to my (soon to be ex) home town will include some serious hard fash. The MD/VA convoy leader is a Proud Boy. Proud Boys are like cockroaches-there's never just one of them. They are due here on March 6, which might mean a bunch of folks having to (in the Proud Boy's own lingo) earn their "4th degree antifa" to keep the Proud Boys from beating up random folks on the streets like on Nov 14 and Dec 12 2020.

The Bethesda 'Karens' on that Nextdoor website have been complaining that that trucker convoy that claims they're gonna shutdown 495 (da beltway 1.0) is made up of "minorities." Now you're saying the trucker convoy are associated with the Proud Boys. So I'm confused because I was under the impression the Proud Boys are white nationalists and didn't like minorities. I can't imagine that Arab/black/hispanic/Indian truckers and white nationalist truckers would get along with each other and team up. I'm confuzzled.

Regardless, I think it'd be funny if these truckers somehow manage to shutdown 495. I don't think it's possible because they'd have to block all the feeder roads and ramps. If they did manage it it'll piss off commuters to no end and perhaps a car riot or road rage riot will break out. Who knows. I'm thinking it'll be uneventful and'll indistinguishable from the regular traffic jams. People have tried shutting down 495 before and failed. Perhaps the truckers will try to shutdown both 495 and 695 (da beltway 2.0 Balmer edition), but that'd be virtually impossible to accomplish.

I don't recall the Proud Boys and Trump bootlickers beating up random people in DC on 11/14/2020 and 12/12/2020. If I recall correctly, it was the other way around and folk in DC beating them up and stabbed a few them. The Proud Boys and Trump bootlickers even had police protection, but were still getting beatings by people. People in DC don't need antifa protection and that's a fairly paternalistic thing to suggest. They're not helpless children. Besides, what protection could antifa folk provide?

Coming from NZ myself and having been to the protest I can safely say this article is pretty much nonsense. The main church and right group tried to get involved and asked everyone to go home after day 1, and they were ignored and had to leave with their tails between their legs. I have seen no evidence of right wing flags and banners at the protest itself. If the Nazis are there, they are keeping a very, very low profile. Instead, I have been marvelling at the power of the people to organise with no clear leadership and keep themselves dry and safe (there was a cyclone pass through in the first few days of the protest). They are cooking and feeding themselves every day with donations from large swathes of the population. At one stage the protestors had to appeal for people to stop sending donations of food, clothing, and tents because they were being inundated. They have set up a first aid centre, a media centre, a dance stage, a cinema, and generated a festival like atmosphere.

Then there is this..."Inflammatory rhetoric, including calls to kill leading politicians and journalists, is being broadcast online and repeated in banners and posters. Their vitriol is clear for anyone who is walking past Parliament. "... are anarchists really against inflammatory rhetoric and vitriol against the politicians and media/ What type of anarchists are we dealing with here?

The article claims that the local Māori have asked people to go home, but this consists of self-appointed leaders representative of the business community more than the ordinary people they claim to be speaking for. One of the most quoted "leaders is actually involved in a long-running dispute with one of her own people over the purchase and sale of land that the majority of the locals don't agree with.

The schilling for Big Pharma here is just embarrassing, especially this "because it does protect over 95% of those who get the Pfizer vaccination from getting Covid-19", which is just blatantly untrue. Omicron is taking grip in a country where 95% are vaccinated and it is being spread in places where only the vaccinated can go - which of course makes a complete mockery of the whole passport system.

Perhaps the greatest faux pas in the article is the seeming cheering for people losing their jobs for not getting the vaccine. Again, what kind of anarchists are these? What ever happened to an injury to one is an injury to all? Do they understand the precedent this can set in the government forcing medication on people and withholding the ability to work if they don't obey?

Towards the article they say "This convoy protest highlights a clash between ideologies that are solipsistic and selfish and those with a sense of fundamental social, collective responsibility. " ... yeah -nah, I would agree it highlights a clash between ideologies, but one who actively seeks and supports authoritarian methods and one who recognises there is no authority but yourself.

NZ "organised'"anarchist have dug themselves further into a pit of irrelevancy by siding with the state and parroting the mainstream media.

Power To The People

Death to the Liberals (or is that too inflammatory and vitriolic)

You can be against the people behind the trucker convoy, be it nationalists, statists, or whatever Ideology, but the second you start agreeing with the government/state, wanting police action, and wanting more government control, you are no longer an anarchist

I recall reading that the Auckland police arrested and imprisoned several different people for trying to enter Auckland while in possession of fast food. This article reads like a liberal minded person masquerading as an anarchist telling people to do as the state and capitalist says, and if not, it's these people fault for any actions the state and capitalist takes against them.

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