Last week the Waikato Times ran a ‘Raglan’s Strong Voice against Mining’ story. This week’s Times is likely to show again that Raglan is way ahead of the rest of the country on opposing the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). The first of the international rallies against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement at 10am on Saturday, on the Jetty at the foot of Bow St, is likely to have at least 1 in 19 of Raglanders there.
https://www.facebook.com/events/835063413190548/ shows that 144 Facebook followers plan to come to the Raglan rally.
Facebook links to other rallies are at https://www.facebook.com/ItsOurFutureNZ/events and show that 654 are going to the Hamilton rally, 2,565 to Wellington and 6,716 to Auckland. Raglan’s population is 2,736 (1 in 19), Hamilton’s 141,612 (1 in 216), Wellington’s 471,315 (1 in 183) and Auckland’s 1,415,550 (1 in 210).
The TPPA was mentioned to the seabed mining hearing last week by several Raglan objectors, who linked the seabed mining with legal cases being taken under similar legislation by several corporations against governments trying to protect their citizens’ health and environment. At present Australia, Germany, Egypt and Canada are involved in cases where companies are claiming their actions to protect health, labour law, safety, or environment are damaging company profits.
The plan for Raglan is to start at the Jetty –
- 0930 – 1015 Music from Cornerstone Roots
- 1015ish Angeline Greensill
- Malibu Hamilton
- Evelien Gilbert
- March up Bow St/Town Hall and back to the Jetty
Anyone keen to travel to the Hamilton rally can carpool or catch the 11.30am bus.
More information on the TPPA is at http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/resources/.