56 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
56 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
|
All of Sea-Operation Thumbelina
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
On February 7th of this year I took part in a Greenpeace New Zealand whale
|
||
|
|
rescue operation.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Greenpeace New Zealand had learned that a Japanese whaling vessel, the
|
||
|
|
Toshi Maru no. 18, was to come into the Wellington harbour to pick up food
|
||
|
|
supplies and to drop off a crew member ('scientist') for treatment of an
|
||
|
|
injured thumb. While not aiming to prevent the crew member from receiving
|
||
|
|
medical attention, it was decided that here was an opportunity to expose to
|
||
|
|
the public the dire functions of the vessel and of the New Zealand
|
||
|
|
Governments' compliance with the slaughter of the rare minke whale by
|
||
|
|
allowing the ship into its' waters and by providing it with goods and
|
||
|
|
services.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Two Greenpeace zodiacs chased the whaler out to sea, avoiding the police
|
||
|
|
vessels which had been sent out to protect the whaler and to prevent
|
||
|
|
actions of protest taking place. We finally caught up with the whaling
|
||
|
|
ship, got alongside and prepared for six of us to board and to chain
|
||
|
|
ourselves to the vessel. It would most likely have been possible to do so
|
||
|
|
had the New Zealand Government not kindly provided the ship with, among
|
||
|
|
other things, police officers on board the whaler who violently prevented
|
||
|
|
all but two of us from staying on the ship. Boarding demonstrators were
|
||
|
|
kicked, punched and some were thrown into the sea. This was extremely
|
||
|
|
dangerous as we got roughly 50km out at sea in turbulent waters and could
|
||
|
|
have been drowned or sucked under the ship quite easily. Lives need not
|
||
|
|
have been put at such risk in that situation but police chose to do so.
|
||
|
|
They also chose to mash the face of one activist who managed to get on
|
||
|
|
board, cause another to suffer a dislocated shoulder, ! and bruises all
|
||
|
|
round.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
However, despite injuries and despite the fact we didn't manage to hold up
|
||
|
|
Toshi Maru no. 18 as we had planned, we came out of the action pleased with
|
||
|
|
what we had achieved. Once we realised that the police were onto us and
|
||
|
|
that they had boarded before us, we knew our original plans were not as
|
||
|
|
easily attainable as we had envisioned. But we kept at it and got a lot of
|
||
|
|
media coverage in the process both here and in New Zealand and in Japan,
|
||
|
|
the United Kingdom and the U.S.A. The New Zealand Government was put into
|
||
|
|
the embarrassing position of being exposed as having helped to undermine an
|
||
|
|
international moratorium on whaling in this part of the world when in fact
|
||
|
|
it had itself voted for the moratorium prior to this event. Whalers are
|
||
|
|
also given the message that their whaling operations were unacceptable and
|
||
|
|
that they would be hassled everytime they tried to come here.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
As an Anarcha-feminist I am against the exploitation of people and animals
|
||
|
|
and the earth. I am against violence against people, animals, and the
|
||
|
|
earth. The slaughtering of minke whales sickens me. The attitude that we as
|
||
|
|
humans can take what we want, do what we please with little or no
|
||
|
|
consideration of when and what we effect in the process sickens me. The
|
||
|
|
violence and alienation of State controlled society which supports such
|
||
|
|
attitudes, I reject. Therefore I will continue to act to undermine the
|
||
|
|
State and to protect the freedom of the earths' inhabitants, human and non
|
||
|
|
human, for the preservation of our world.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|