Peace, Action, and Anarchist Organising for Aotearoa

Abstract

Valerie Morse has been a central figure in organising anarchist spaces, organisations, and actions in Aotearoa New Zealand for the past two decades. A core part of that work was the establishment of nationwide peace-action groups, in particular, Peace Action Wellington and Auckland Peace Action. Morse was the author of Against Freedom: The War on Terrorism in Everyday New Zealand Life (2007) and was the principal writer of Profiting from War: New Zealand’s Weapons and Military-Related Industry (2015). She is perhaps best-known to a wider audience in Aotearoa New Zealand in connection to the Operation Eight case, for which she was never put on trial, and the trial for burning a flag on Anzac Day, for which she was eventually acquitted. Trained as a historian, employed as a librarian, and based in Tāmaki Makaurau, she sat down at Rebel Press in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington with Murdoch Stephens to discuss organising in Aotearoa New Zealand. From that discussion came these questions and answers.