CHRISICHURC.H.R£GISTERED AT .

WELlINGTON PO

,.' . ~ . . i

IN fl'RIS ISSUE

1 . Rqporton Comnlico Demo.

2. v i s : t by Mu Ldoon to Cb-Ch ,

3. Cafcinzlcaf}e,t on Nuc l c ar oue s t ion .

4. Special thanks to readers.

5. Soc c i al report on Fishing NZ.

Ano t.hor- US V.isitor.

7. Future WOrk.

,TOU1~NEY '1'0. THE DEEP i.30U'I'H

On the evening of Jiily 30th, 40'people left Christchurch by bus heading south. The next morning in Dunedin they were joihed by another

, and the collection o:fvehicles continued on t9 the southern end of New Zealand, to the home of one ~fthc biggest and most blatant examples of foreign e xp.Lo.it.at f.on in the country. j,'he exploit.er isN .Z. Aluminium Smelters Ltd. or, as it i commonly known, Comalco, and it Has this

company that was the tar of the tra~ellets.

The police soon let us know \4111ch side t h eywer-e on. A pr-oc e s s.i.on of seven po Li.c.e vc ar-s and wagons paradedosten13ibly .past the firEt bus

just astt reached Inverciargill. ItwEls1:m obv Lou s tatt emp t at intimidation1

bui;theeffe.ct was theopposd_ -. the whole bus rocked with Lauglrt e-r and

(iveryonc'13 spirits rose mark(:idly. '1'ho1'e Wer(:) other' police at t ernpb s intimedation and harassment later in the day, but again its only effect was to ,st:r:.enthen our-v pur-po ee ,

Saturday afternoon was SIlent doorknocking- talk,ing to the. people of Inve.rcargill about ComaLc.o and surveying thei,I' opinions about the smelter. Apublio meeting that night aas attended by sozne 50 people.

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The next day we marched on the smelter itself. The buses drove out to Tiwai Point t stopping ab ou t a mile from the sme L tel" I s main e

for everyone to get out. Behind a banner reading "N.Z. People

Before Coma.Lc o!' , we then mar-c h ed to the enemy's front door, passing

on the way the huge potrooilla which consume 10% N.Z.'S power; and

the transmission line which carry it in. At the gate we burnt the national flags of Britain, the U.S.A. and Japan (the 3 countries from which the sme Lt e r te owners Game) for the benefit of the police, Comalco security men and Co-mal·coboss8s who were watching Us. Then for our

Own benefit an excellent guerilla theatre was staged. Ttshowe·d the Government taking money from N.Z. workers, who already had barely enough to meet their basic necessities, whilst simultaneously handing over

huge sums of money to Comalco.

From the main gates ~e proceeded across country to the smelter's cathode dump. We found it guarded by several police, three wagons, police dogs and a 10 foot fence (lhter the company said it had nothing

to hidet-. Unable to take sampled from the dump directly, we instead picked up pieces that had fallen off truQks outside the dump, and carried them away for later analysis. If Comalco has nothing to hide, some

of the things we found at the cathode dump were quite remarkable - no sign of the our.Le t pipe from the d unrp ," but fresh bu l.Ld.oz e r tracks on

the sand where the sump on the outle~ was situated.

There the weekend's activity ehded. It was midday on Sunday, Christchurch was 10 hours away.

New Informa tic:..:r:._!:.r:.2~_~,___1riE.

Very important side-benefits from the 'public mBeting and doorknocking are learning in a general way how peop~e are thinking about power shortages and Comalcoj and m~eting peo~le with new information about

the smelter. A Comalco worker who came to the meeting told us that

when anyone starts work.ing <01.t the smel tf:.r, they first receive 6 days

of training and Pl"Olxlganda, 'I'h ey a.r e to}d where thealumini.um ore

comes from, how it is produced, and they ar-e t.o'Id of the 500/0

par t ner sh.l p in the smelter between Coma.Lco and the two Japanese companies. But interestingly, they are not told that Comalco itself is controlled by .t.hE?~. two.bip;Bri.ti,sll.-.a.nd .. ~AmeTican companies, Ri,o Tinto Zinc and Kaiser. Cl'heeffect ~ .ofCOil}alco IJrOI)agandawasshown by one Comalco worker Vl(ho defende.d the cheap electricity u[dng the C onrpany ' sown arguIl'\ent) • Inside. the smelter there are 2 niachines pr-od ucd.ng ingots

one for Coma Lco and one for· the .la pa n e-s e e ompani.ee , If one machine

gets ahead it .. is.c'lowed down until the other c a t.c'hes 111" -this is the

manner in which Co:nalco and t.he se c omparri.e s ,sh:are the output

of the srne Lt e'r , .

This worker also told u s that there is a regular interchange of jobs

between foremen and union del ec L e. foremen become un'i on delegates

.a.nd vice versa (In another se11-out, the unions have agreed as part of their agreement with the comrany that their officials will do all in their :ppwp:' to stop the wor-ker-s. from taking !lrrecipitat~actiontl) •

. Another' worker met during the doorkn.ocking ha.d Eiomevery interesting information. He said that spp.cial lighting was used to hide the dust

in the atmof3phere inside the smelter. He ha.d en told by the company 9,oc;:tpr t.ha t there were a large number of upper ~espiratory· comp.La Ln t s , an d also ear. o omp.LaLrrta., There were a fairly large amount of accidents, mainly burns.

An Invercargill supporter told UB much interesting information~

Smoke from the big smelter chimney, barely visible during day, had been seen pouring out thickly at night. Cattle near the smelter have died

of unknown causes, he said. And he also told us of many close connections between Comalco and the pr e s s , businessmen and localbody politicians

in Invercargill.

3

'pub 1 ic~. t_;y

One result of ComaLc o t r i.p VIElS a fairly large amount oft'ublicity

in the news media, one thing Comalco definitely did'nt like. The Comalco spokesman, M.B. Bennett came out with several statements which deserve some comment.

He said that Comaldo's electricity was not subsidized. Bel~ wrong of course - he comes to that conclusion by looking at Manapouri in isolation from electricity generation in general, by assuming that the owners of Manapouri, the N.Z. people, have no right to its power and by using a fraudulent accounting ~~thod. When he was ch~llenged on the real costs by CAFCINZ, he gave no reply.

Mr Bennett denied that Comalco eve~ promised 10,000 jobs at the smelter (presently employing about 1,000). CAFCINZ has very strong indirect evidenct that Comalco's I(llarent'ccmpany and predecessor, Consolidated

Zinc, did in fact make that promise. We are presently tracking down

the direct evidence and will publ~sh it when we have it. Mr Bennett

also denied that he had ever met the CAFCINZ spoResm2n on Comalco.

For once he was right. the co&fuB~on arising from a reporter's error.

The ofiginal error and Mr Bennett's denial were published in several newspapers around the country, audwe woul~like t6 thank the supporters who aen t the clippings to us, en.abl:\.ng corrections to be sent out.

One interesting and misleading nlain& made by Camalco was that its electricity charges do increase with inflat~on. It is true that inflation does increase Comalco's charges sligbtly, but the impression given in

Mr Bennetts statement in the H2,'mthland· Times", that the charges increase at the same rate as the rate of inflation, is not true at all. The

facts are as follows: about oJ:4e-twentieth only of Comalco's charges

are subject to inflation, so t;hat .:i.f we have an inflation rate this

year of 20",,0, Coma Lc o t s bills, will. go up by only 1%.

Conclusion and Future Activit.;y

The Comalco campaign was ver·y suce e aaf'u L in educating both CAFCINZ supporters and the general iJublic, although the relatively good power situation, and events elsew~re in N.Z, did lessen the overall effectjveness OL t ne compaing. In the im:mediate future, Comalco mU1-3t now take second place to the nuclear warsh~.p iss~e in CAFCINZ~s work, but this is not to say the subject will be nel~lect.d. There is much research work yet to

be done, and work will con'tinue here.

We still have large stocke, of Comalco posters to be spread around the country. If anyone can h.,lp put some of these up, please write ioit all helps to keep up ~he pressure on Comalco.

MULDOON fl1fiELCOMEDlI IN CHRISTCHUHCH

CAFCINZ people in crhristchurch recently participated in a demonstration against MVndoon when he visited the manufacturers' Association Conference Jpere. Se" -al other groups and individuals were also present. CAF CINZ's main concern was against U.S. nuclea~ vessels coming to New tlealand. Muldoon i2 not, of course, personally responsible for this, Iput he symbolises the servility of New Zealand's ruling powers to U.S. 'interests - a servility which recklessly sells out our country's resa~rces and labour and consequently ties us to the murderous U,S, milita!"<J,i'.

Muldoon also Bymbolis~,s the type of repressive regime the U.S. likes to

flproteot its interestrsl11 - like tho;fe it supports in South Korea,

Indonesia, Nalaycd.a ()t c , H,l) is a very good rallying po i.n t for oppos.i t Lon , and will eur e Ly meet n lore ,::O;!\.l,ch I' greetings" aa anger at his policies develops.

a tr. s , [HIe IE, at' .:1. t the :['J.:3

:::1 UU Cl. nuclear 1'1 ca.

any

inst forei end ne ve.r

visit ~oint to our obligations or

l~ the keystone in our defence

ssion~ In fact,this not its OS8,

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of the U.S. overIT

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area to ... prov:tdc) c azmon

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in China ~nd Korea

VI Zu litary,. joint t.her-n Cc:.,LLl

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united Sta

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. ,John 9 near 011U centre"

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t fortJlc ri oo Lo E;][i.ne DET/[ANI,_ ~/I II'BDTU~\iAIJ

EnfPPOliFL1 /\ NON:::A.LI GNED

1y in rea .i ncr-e aD ingly None of these activi \:(C; do not want to be a , and we onlt want to

zus ~ !

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ai Chri.u chu.rch,

t Ji'orei

Control

w Zealand 9

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Aug1J, , t IJ ( , 0

5

rie wish to thank all i.be people who have sent lately. vie lack the resources to ec kriow l edqe but TN'e certainly do eop rec i a t.e what comes i n . ing up our knowledge of the r-enoe and depth of New Zealand. It is also useful in s eei nt; wtie t: the press and people of dif.ferent centres.

Keep up the good work 0' espec i el L:r where Lo re l or: interests have operations peculiar to your region.

us i nt orme tion and c lipp i nas everything sent i rid i v iciue l l y , It is very useful in buildforeign influence throughout attitudes prevail amongst

"Know the enemy, and know yourself,'

A hundred battles, a hundred v i c tzo r ies ,'1'

(Military scientist of ancient CI1J:na quoted by Mao tse tung.)

CO,,,··OPERA nON IN NEf41 ZEALAND P S FISH RESOURCES

(This article is a summary of a report: ,given by a CAFCINZ spokesperson at the Neboa k« Conference on "ProbLems o i: Co-sopc ra ti on in the Pec i ii c Cc eenn , )

Over the years, the fishing i nciue t ry in New Zealand has steadi1.y cie tier i or-: etied , In fact, only one nett! trawler has entered into service i n the last t.hree years, and none of the vessels Lo s t: have been replaced. As far as the New Zealand consumer is concerned, whet: [vas once a cheap meal has now become as expensive as the dearest meat. There are many reasons [or rhi s drastic decline, but the most significant, and the one that concerns our organisation, Campaign Against Foreign Control in New Zealand (CAFCINZ),

is the over~·f.isl7J:ngby foreign vessels just outside our l2,,·mi1e territorial wetie rs (even coming inside this I i mi t: at times). Since the early 1960's, .large foreign vessels have been coming to No! ZeEJ.1and ,vaters i.n CV(;,r increasing numbers: firs t Japanese, t'o I l owed in the early 1970' s by Soviet, South Korean, Te iwenesc, and, to a smaller extent, US ii sb iriq fleets, The increased interest in coming all the ~/av to New Zealand at, once can imagine, considerable cost, can be explained by the fact that the world's fish resources are being ciep l ct.ed anci l erqe concerns are prepared to go to any longths in a hungry bid to snatch up the remaining s t.ocIcs ci' fish.

For New Zea.Zand fishermen, this has meant hav:ing to covcr(yreater distances to Catch their tLsh, greatly increasing t.he i r costs (mainly fuel). The main reason ~Jhy New ZC-c:l1and waters are be.ing fished out is that t orei qn boats are not covered by Nevi Zealand ti she r ics regu.1ations ,'" among the

s t.r i c ties t in the world tho.ir mein concern is to preserve their p ro ti t:s , not our fish stocks. Since many are ab.lc to take and process everything they catch, they are known to use very small mesh sizes, enabling them to Pswcepf the ocean clean o i' .fish of s l L ages and S]:20S. Most of the soewriing grounds for our tradi tiona1 i i sh are: outside the I z-ani l e 1 i mi t .

The ret'ore , these young Fish arc not given a chance to groft! let alone be

caught by local fishermen.

Some hope [or New Zeal and Fishing could ex coming t rom tho ' Law of the See r conference. Wi th the extension ot: a monecement: zone to two hundred miles, New Zce I enci would have the fourth largest fishing area in the

worleI, the terms o.f which arc to be worked out. By extending the limit to two hundred miles, New Ze e l ancl would tihcn have the opportunity to ensure tha t: titii s precious resource is developed Eor: t17(; beneti t: of all

New Zealanders iri a planned and re sporis i bl:c way.

6

At present the New Zealand qovernteent: is acting in an irresoons ibi way i n regard to the introduction of two hundred mile limit. They are ng i.he t: we should al.Low others to catch t: we don f ti . They also say there are plenty of fish off our coast, de tiermi n i no this t rom the large numbers of .foreign vessels off our coast. This i s again em incorrect conc1us on:

fish are not an ncver=c nci irio quantity wh i ch is [-IhV foreign vessels are

here and not i n t.heir own countries. The last ten years of fishing off the Cerit.erbu rv Coast of New Zet:dand have seen a decline from an average of 1,100 tons annually of tarakihi to less than half that amount. In fact, New Zealand and Japanese fishermen toqcther have failed to catch more than 950 tons in any of the last tow years. This shows that fish.ing grounds cannot take: the oxp l o it at i on t.hoy hevc been SUbjected to, and arc becoming seriously depleted.

Besides supporting the: 200"milc zone of maneooment., CAFCINZ wou l ci like to see co-sopc re t i on by Pec it i c nations in the management of the Pacific fish stocks. An ecological balance must be me i ntio i ned to ensure the abundance of 'the stock's t'or future generatJ:ons.

ANOTHER US VISITOR

In earl'.' August, the US Deputy Sec rct.orv of state, Mr C.W. Robinson,

v i si t.ca New Zealand I o r 3 days on h i s vIC1Y to Australia where he rep reeenticci the US at the 1976 ANZUS Council. Mc;.cting. He had talks vl1:th Muldoon, RowlJ:ng, McCready (MJ:nistero.f Defence), Talboys (Forc:ign Affairs) and the secretary oi: Foreign Affairs (i. c. the permenerit: head of the Foreign A.f.fairs Department), Mr F.lI. Corner.

The major topic of the tal ks r,las probab.Iy tho nuclear rlarsi1ips v i s i t.s ,

Nil' Robinson rovo'alec! that the mef or pu roo sc for the' vis i t s i s not rest and recreation, as Muldoon has been saYl:ng, but: as part o.f a counter to a

sovi c t: bui Ld-sup / and just ai tzc r Robinson had gone, McCready announced that the first nuclear ship wou I d visit No! ;;caland in August, and i t: would

take part in a nev eii ami «i r e x erc ise wh i I e it tvas here. (In the light of EJ Jetter .:prcss s tie t cmenti, tib i s exercise- w i l L not nov? take place un ti.L l at.er i n the year during a subtsequen t: nucLear vis i t , ) Other 1 i ke Iy discussion includes Ner'/ Zealand mi I i tary assistance to the Thai Government against the revo l utri on in tihat: country, and what: No! Zealand coul cl do to help the U'S

in its global struggle wi tib the Soviet Union.

Nothing from Robinson's vi si t: ci i d anything to ciispc I L the notion that New Zealand Y s fore ign pol icy c err i ez the 1 abel ffMade in USA pp.

[mERE IS CAFCINZ HEIlDING?

... , __ ..... ~~, ..... v_

!l t a recent mce ti riq of' CAFCINZ dis cu s e i on ~las 11C.Id concerning priorities in our wo r-k,

The Campaign Against Coma1co has been a top p ri o ri tiv as the most glaring c.x smp l c of .foreign control i n New Zce l ond , It vlC]S felt that now, although ~~c ~/.iLI keep exposing Coma I c o , our p r i o ri Uc;; w i L L be etii t t.ed to the

nuc l ear i s sue. along w l t.t: all the t:Je,'up.s coris equemcc s this brings [or

Nc. ~v Zealand.

CAFCINZ po l icv v'iOu .. Zd be one of show i nc; hOF the US, as a major i mper i al is t: pOvler', want:s to usc New Zea~Zanc7 as a p ewn in its s rru oql e for dominance i n U1C world wi t.b the o t hor=eupc r p ower, This would i nc Iudo CxposJ:ng our

i nvc Lvcmen t: in IlNZUS onci gn}ng against al L US military ec t i v i t.v in

Nc. vv' Ze e l.enci ,