By Lloyd Burr
The Wellington Occupy activists occupied a popular central-city park at lunchtime today and chanted using a ‘human microphone’ technique to “show their solidarity to the global Occupy movement”
The Wellington Occupiers, who have occupied the pedestrian bridge by Civic Square for the last month, wanted to tell the public they were still there and not going away.
They used their ‘human microphone’ technique – inspired by the US Wall Street Occupiers who have been banned from using actual microphones and amplifiers – to get the message across.
The technique has come to symbolise the movement around the glove and involves a speaker shouting out sentences and the rest of the crowd repeating it.
• Click ‘View Video’ for footage of the ‘human microphone’
They marched into a packed-out Midland Park, full of people enjoying their lunch in the sun, to make their point.
Occupier Reuben De Haas says today’s ‘human microphone’ had the point of “opening a discussion for people about the problems in the world and to ask people what they think about it”.
“We are not allowed to have microphones and amplifiers so we just use each other’s voices to amplify and communicate with other people,” he says.
“We have our voices, we have our brains, why don’t we just come up with solutions rather than just asking people to make decisions for us,” he says.
Mr De Haas says the movement is about true socialism – “a horizontal power structure where everyone is working and collaborating with each other instead of working and competing against each other”.
Fellow occupier Tali Williams says today’s protest marks the two-month anniversary of the Wall Street occupation and to raise awareness about its violent eviction this week which resulted in more than 200 arrests.
"There has been a string of violent evictions around the world visited on Occupations but the Wall Street eviction is particularly poignant, as the birthplace of the movement,” she says.
“Our action today is not only a statement in support of Occupy Wall Street but also of more than 2,000 Occupations worldwide inspired by it.”
The Wellington City Council asked the occupiers for a date when they will leave but Mr De Haas says leaving is not an option.
“We had a general assembly with a round 70-80 people and we came to the conclusion that we are not going to give them an end-date because unless we see change in the world, we are just going to keep occupying and we are really happy to do that,” he says.
3 News