The Aotearoa Independence Movement (AIM) was CAFCA’s new campaign in 2017 and was a real return to our roots in the 1970s. The idea was to capitalise on the global and national revulsion at Donald Trump and to build a campaign for a non-aligned, truly independent Aotearoa. It was not intended to be a new party or organisation, nor did it have a list of policies which people had to sign onto. It was hoped that it would build a life of its own, of which CAFCA would simply be one component (as opposed to the be all and end all of it).

The lack of any kind of breakthrough became obvious from the outset – AIM just did not get traction. I think one major reason was that people did not make the connection between revulsion at Trump and the need for New Zealand to get out of the US Empire. We tried to build a national committee and invited a whole range of groups to be represented on it – with a couple of exceptions, we got no response.

It became plain that we were putting the cart before the horse i.e. that not enough people were convinced of the need for such a new campaign and therefore felt no reason to get involved. What was needed was a grassroots, bottom up, method of campaign-building, not a top down one. But the fundamental problem was that not enough people saw the need for it at all. And that they thought we were trying to create a new organisation, despite our assurances that the goal was a campaign only. In fact, the goal was to have a national dialogue to build such a campaign.

There were other, more specific, criticisms of AIM and I have itemised them in a more detailed account which is in my annual CAFCA/ABC Organiser’s Report, elsewhere in this issue. The national launch of AIM was set to take place in Blenheim on the same January 2018 day as the Anti-Bases Campaign’s latest Waihopai spy base protest.  It was obvious long before that date that AIM was buggered but we decided to proceed with the launch, primarily because we had gone past the point of no return with it.

So, it proceeded as scheduled, with 40-50 people in attendance (which was more than we’d expected to show up). I was the MC and one of the three key note speakers, the other two being former Green MP, Keith Locke, and CAFCA’s own Bill Rosenberg (but in his capacity as Economist of the Council of Trade Unions).

Voted Out Of Existence

After the speeches were over I, as facilitator, raised the question of the various criticisms of AIM and the group felt that the best way to resolve whether to proceed with AIM or not was to put it to a vote, by an open show of hands. This was duly done and there was a very clear majority of 2 to 1 against AIM proceeding any further. Thus, it was born and died on the same day.

It is important to note that the discussion and vote were all held in a very friendly spirit, there was no disagreement, arguments, rancour or bitterness. The vote against AIM was because it was felt that there is no need for another, separate, campaign when people are already campaigning on different aspects of what AIM would have been about. It was felt that what is needed is more networking among existing groups and campaigns. The group felt that Anti-Bases Campaign (ABC) should have a special role in any such network, specifically via its regular Waihopai protest serving as an occasion for a national activists' gathering.

All AIM material on the CAFCA Website has now been archived. You can find it at http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/aotearoa-independence-movement.html There’s some worthwhile material there, including the three keynote speeches from the Blenheim (non) launch (Bill Rosenberg’s is available both as a PDF and a Powerpoint). CAFCA tried something, it didn’t work, so we’ll learn from that and move on. We’ve been around for 40+ years now, we have plenty to keep us busy and we have plenty of experience with networking to call upon. We may be AIMless but definitely not aimless.