More from Occupy Wellington

Weather won't dampen protest camp

Occupy Wellington camp grows each day

JACK BARLOW

Stuff,

18 October, 2011

Overnight wild weather struck the Occupy Wellington protest in Civic Square last night with strong winds and heavy rain throwing the camp into disarray.

Tents leaked and fell down while the main dining tent of the protesters - who have set up as part of a global, anti-greed protest movement - was blown over competely.

However, the weather failed to dampened protesters' spirits.

"No-one's bailed," said Mondo Smith, a protestor who has been with the group since its initial march on Saturday.

"If anything, it's given us more support.

"We're growing by about 20 per cent per day."

Occupy Wellington is part of a global protest movement against perceived corporate greed that began with Occupy Wall Street in New York several weeks ago.

Cam Leslie, a law student who has been with the Wellington group since Saturday night, spent this morning cleaning up large puddles around the camp with a pan.

But he is not going anywhere.

"I'm just here on a day by day basis, and I'm just going to see how it evolves," he said.

"It's a nice community spirit. You've got to tough it out."

None of the about 30 people down at the camp could say how long they were planning to keep living in the square, but they all made it clear they were in for the long haul.

"We'll be here for as long as it takes," said Smith. "There's no point in leaving if nothing's achieved."

From Auckland - 

Occupy protesters take over Auck Uni clocktower

3News

Monday, 17 October, 2011

A student protest at Auckland University is still going, five hours after about 80 people occupied the campus clock tower to rally against the cost of education.

Security staff at the university contacted police about 3:15pm on Monday after members of two protest groups converged on the building, a police spokesman said.

Police later left as negotiations took place between the protesters and the university, but they were now returning and would "take whatever action they deem necessary", he said.

There were no reports of arrests.

An Auckland University council fee-setting meeting had to be moved as a result of the protest - with the council later adopting a 4 percent fee hike for domestic students and a 5 percent increase for international students in 2012.

Students' association president Joe McCrory said the protest was "symptomatic of a growing level of student anxiety about their futures".

The protesters included members of a group called We Are The University, and others from the Occupy Auckland movement, Socialist Aotearoa spokesman Joe Carolan told NZ Newswire.

Around 300 members of We Are The University occupied Auckland University's Owen Glenn Building last month, protesting over legislation to end compulsory student unionism and calling for an end to "the commercialisation of education".

The Occupy Auckland movement launched a protest on Saturday with about 3000 marching in the inner city, and 100 sleeping in Aotea Square on Saturday night.

It's one of dozens of worldwide city centre occupations, sparked by the Occupy Wall Street protest against capitalism and corporations in the US.

Calls to the university for comment were not returned.