A group of local Otago students sent it up to Ōtautahi Christchurch last Monday to join forces with environmental justice and peace activists there and protest the Aerospace Summit. As the name suggests, the conference was about space. The conference was sponsored in part by Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer. While the activists agreed that space is cool, militarism and the massive carbon footprint of the industry is not so cool.
The conference was held over two days at Te Pae Convention Centre, with protests on both days. Being dedicated journalists, Critic Te Ārohi sent a reporter to Ōtautahi Christchurch (yikes) to cover the action. Not to throw shade, but Canterbury Uni’s student mag Canta was nowhere to be seen.
Protesters congregated at around 12:30pm on Monday 11th outside Te Pae with banners, music and kai to stage an ‘Unwelcoming Party’. Perhaps the greatest asset of the protest were two very large penis rockets named PEN15. The artistic interpretation of space rockets certainly succeeded in giving off some big dick energy (heh) as protestors got inside them and shuffled around the entrance of the convention center.
John*, third-year Otago student, was one of the brave souls inside a PEN15. “The PEN15 is a fine rocket and we’re sure to penetrate deep into this conference to show that we’ve got bigger dicks than them,” said John. From inside the PEN15, he continued: “It’s been worth it to travel all this way ‘cos it just always feels good to [come] to something.”
At one point, the PEN15s made a valiant effort to storm the entrance, held back only by their extreme lack of mobility and visibility from inside the rockets. And also the five police officers physically pushing them back. A police officer told one PEN15-suited Otago student to “not be a dick”. Good one.
The more light-hearted big dick energy of the first day transitioned into a classic protest action on Tuesday. Activists arrived bright and early to block entrance ways with banners and generally just make a bit of a racket. At one point, a group of half a dozen attempted to get through the entrance with a banner reading “No New Airports, Climate Crisis” but were promptly shoved back by police. When they went to stage a sit-in in the entrance way, they were trespassed.
Jonty, a fifth-year Masters Ecology student at UC, said that the aim of the protest was to “disrupt the Aerospace Conference as much as possible.” Jonty said it was “gutting” that UC was co-sponsoring the event alongside Lockheed Martin: “The Uni has sustainable development goals which they are breaking by being involved in this conference.” Meanwhile, Jonty said that, as of right now, the Aerospace industry has no viable means of emissions reduction. Given the latest climate science, we have only between one to two years to turn things around, so “regardless of how sustainable the industry could be, we need emissions reductions now,” said Jonty.
United States company Rocket Lab, based in Māhia, also sponsored the Aerospace Summit. The East Coast group Rocket Lab Monitor, who are composed of Rongomaiwahine (mana whenua of Māhia Peninsula) iwi members said in a media release: “Rocket Lab serves military clients and launches a range of weapons targeting systems for the US military and foreign companies from Māhia.” The group said that “Peter Beck [CEO of Rocket Lab] lied when he told Māhia locals, including mana whenua, the proposed facility would not include military launches [and] launches would not include weapons.”
Rocket Lab Monitor also said, “Government commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry are lies given the hundreds of millions spent supporting a new industry with high emissions from launches, but no information collected on the emissions produced by the sector.” The media release concluded that “if the Government won’t restrict their activities then it is up to citizens to do so” and threatened “property destruction… to stop the militarisation of Outer Space.” Rocket Lab Monitor also supported the kaupapa of the protest.
*Name changed.