The US-NZ partnership forum met in Auckland for the second of what has become an annual meeting between business interests and politicians from the United States and New Zealand.

After 10 such partnership forums between Australia and the US, a free trade agreement was signed, the implementation of which has seen the loss of government sovereignty and devastation to Australia’s agricultural and textile industries. With this in mind, both the intention of the meeting and the urgency to organise against the agenda being pursued were clear.

Therefore, a day of action was staged on 10th September, the second day of the three day forum. The action’s main intention was to increase public awareness around the issue of free trade, with leafleting and disruption of the forum being used to meet this objective. Disruption, it was thought, would be useful in as far as it increased the media’s coverage of the event.

The aim of increasing public awareness however went by the way-side throughout the day as anger was directed at the police, rather then being used positively to raise the public’s consciousness on an issue which is having a universal impact.

The day began with a large banner being held outside the Hilton on Auckland’s waterfront, the accommodation for many of the forum’s attendees. The banner read: NOT FOR SALE.org.nz – No Free Trade Deal with the USA making it clear to passers by what we were there for and where more information could be accessed. This was accompanied by leaflets being handed out to passers by. At this time we found out that we had successfully disrupted the conference by forcing a venue change and there was a feeling that we were on track to fulfilling our objective.

However, the morning turned out to be the high point of the day as the midday march to the forum’s new venue at the Hilton (as opposed to the Museum) saw the involuntary shift of the protest’s focus, from the education of the public to confrontation with the police as many activists allowed their personal grievances towards the institution of the police force to take centre stage.

Upon arrival at the entrance to the Hilton, the march was met with a heavy police presence. It was not long until the protesters had formed a line to counter that of the police. Speeches then began and it was during the impassioned speech by social justice activist and Law Professor Jane Kelsey that the first scuffle between activists and police occurred.

The march had concluded across the road access from the Hilton so the police decided to move the protesters off part of the thoroughfare to allow vehicle access. What ensued was a push from the police to move protesters aside, and resistance from the protesters to prevent being moved.

However, the police quickly got their way.

The second scuffle occurred around half an hour later, moments before the majority of the protesters were planning on leaving, as the police decided to move protesters from the location all together. The police used heavy handed tactics to move protesters, throwing punches, kicking and forcing protesters against barriers as they pushed the crowd into a bottle neck so there was no where to retreat. It was at this time that the three arrests occurred. Following this incident, the protesters disbanded and the protest concluded.

In hindsight, it is clear that the atmosphere hijacked the intended objectives of the march. Our position on the thoroughfare was not disrupting the conference itself, which continued unaffected behind closed doors at the opposite end of Princess Wharf. Resisting the police calls to move were affective in showing the protesters’ distaste for this wing of state authority, but were of little benefit to our objective. The time spent confronting the police, and the added time spent behind bars of three activists, would have been better used engaging those around us on free trade, and handing out information to promote the discussion of these important issues.

From this experience, it appears clear that while protesting, the question ‘are we promoting our objective?’ should be running through our minds constantly. Unfortunately this was lost on the day, but it is something worth considering next time.