Wednesday 8th August TC3 Rally

Builders laid off as earthquake recovery falters

     In the past week the pricing allowances for materials has been stripped, leaving painters and plasterers dealing with $19 per square metre - a 20 per cent drop in pay!  CTU president Helen Kelly has labelled it "an abuse of contracted labour"
   
    To top it off we have heard that EQR hubs have explained to contractors that the work flow will be "at best one new job a week" for each firm. With the majori ...

Massive U-Turn's and the Human Rights Commission - could this be the straw that breaks the back?

An unexpected change from EQC has left builders out of work and home owners left with no option but to accept the unpopular Fletcher's deal.
  
     In recent days EQC have announced, When before you could chose to opt out, find your own builder and have EQC cover the cost, home owners are now left to foot the bill. It's anyone's guess when the home owner will be reimbursed. The knock on effects of this decision could be devastating.

     ...

Massive U-Turn's and the Human Rights Commission - could this be the straw that breaks the back?

An unexpected change from EQC has left builders out of work and home owners left with no option but to accept the unpopular Fletcher's deal.
  
     In recent days EQC have announced, When before you could chose to opt out, find your own builder and have EQC cover the cost, home owners are now left to foot the bill. It's anyone's guess when the home owner will be reimbursed. The knock on effects of this decision could be devastating.

     ...

EXCLUSIVE: Residential Earthquake Repairs Grind to a Halt

Action for Christchurch East has spent the past two months speaking with frustrated trades people, building bosses and middle management to discover all is not well with residential repairs.
 
    What started as a chance conversation over a couple of beers at our local bar has become an alarming investigation into how the earthquake recovery is grinding to a halt.

     If we're to believe the official story everything is coming along swimmi ...

EXCLUSIVE: Residential Earthquake Repairs Grind to a Halt

Action for Christchurch East has spent the past two months speaking with frustrated trades people, building bosses and middle management to discover all is not well with residential repairs.
  
    What started as a chance conversation over a couple of beers at our local bar has become an alarming investigation into how the earthquake recovery is grinding to a halt.

     If we're to believe the official story everything is coming along ...

Guest post:

Anyone living in Christchurch couldn’t have missed the build up to the ‘Save the Cathedral’ rally that took place on Saturday 26th May. It had been advertised on the air waves, in the local papers, flyers dropped in our letter box’s and posted on the roadside, the resources behind this project were massive. We were led to believe it would be the mother of all demonstrations since September 4th 2010, that the Minister for the Earthquake Recovery and leaders of the Anglican Church would not ...

Housing Crises - protests, lobbyists and where the power really rests

In the past month the media have finally picked up on the fact that people have been forced to live in condemned homes, and others left no option but to call the car their new home. This is something A.C.E has been reporting since the early stages of the saga.

As the Government continues to of a housing crises Christchurch Mayor - sideshow - Bob Parker was forced to concede "You know I'm not here to justify someone else's words right, but I would say on an individual l ...

Housing Crises - protests, lobbyists and where the power really rests

In the past month the media have finally picked up on the fact that people have been forced to live in condemned homes, and others left no option but to call the car their new home. This is something A.C.E has been reporting since the early stages of the saga.

As the Government continues to of a housing crises Christchurch Mayor - sideshow - Bob Parker was forced to concede "You know I'm not here to justify someone else's words right, but I would say on an individual l ...

The Shock Doctrine: Revisited

Christchurch East Labour MP Lianne Dalziel said she only heard about the "charter" school plans in the media:

The Shock Doctrine: Revisited

Action for Christchurch East published an examining Naomi Klien's book 'The Shock Doctrine'. Her work investigates how publicly owned assets are thrown into the hands of big business and emergency responses are privatised during the chaos synonymous with natural disasters, war and economic turmoil.


This blog has spent the past 15 months documenting the local communities that have been forgotten, under resourced state agencies failures, insurance companies receiving billions of t ...

Things are starting to heat up...

Saturday 19th November saw over 400 Christchurch residents come together to express their frustrations and demand an accountable response for the earthquake ravaged City of Garden's.

After a number of speeches at Latimer Square the crowed marched to CERA's head office. Chants steadily grew louder and angrier as the people got closer to the front doors. The noise was suddenly replaced with a hush as Reverend Mike Coleman read out a statement by the Wider Earthquake Communities Acti ...

Things are starting to heat up...

Saturday 19th November saw over 400 Christchurch residents come together to express their frustrations and demand an accountable response for the earthquake ravaged City of Garden's.

After a number of speeches at Latimer Square the crowed marched to CERA's head office. Chants steadily grew louder and angrier as the people got closer to the front doors. The noise was suddenly replaced with a hush as Reverend Mike Coleman read out a statement by the Wider Earthquake Communities Acti ...

...we spoke too soon!

Kia ora whanau,

Well as the title suggests it would seem the decision to wrap up the A.C.E blog may have been a tad too soon - the blog's site visits and discussions on the ground tell us that the articles and news offered on the page were reaching much further corners than first thought.

We have been contacted by countries across the World, in every continent, wanting to know more of what's happening in Christchurch since September 2010. The blog may have stopped but ...

...we spoke too soon!

Kia ora whanau,

Well as the title suggests it would seem the decision to wrap up the A.C.E blog may have been a tad too soon - the blog's site visits and discussions on the ground tell us that the articles and news offered on the page were reaching much further corners than first thought.

We have been contacted by countries across the World, in every continent, wanting to know more of what's happening in Christchurch since September 2010. The blog may have stopped but th ...

Thank you...

On the day the Action for Christchurch East blog hits 2000 site visits we have the news that no more posts will be posted on this site...
 

Thank you...

On the day the Action for Christchurch East blog hits 2000 site visits we have the news that no more posts will be posted on this site...

National Party Welcoming Committee!

The Shock Doctrine and The EQ Response in Christchurch

Naomi Klein's was first published in 2007 and has since gone on to become a No.1 best seller and made into a . The book explores how a seemingly unpopular strain of economic thought in the early 1970's has become the dominant force in shaping government's, business and the global economy of today.

So what has this got to do with the earthquakes in Christchurch?

Klein's extensive study leads us to understanding a great deal more about the U.S response to Hurricane Katrina in New ...

The "blindingly obvious"

Monday 13 June may be a turning point in the 9 month (and counting!) saga. Questions raised way back in September 2010 and the issues reiterated at the in April 2011 still remain largely unanswered. Deadlines of getting heating to the most vunerable before winter , demolition progress criticised and days before the 5.7 and 6.3 shocks the media were only just beginning to recognise the that has been rippling through our community.

The "blindingly obvious"

Local TV News - real articles, real people

The media have spent an enormous amount of time on Canterbury's crises since September. Tens of thousands of hours of footage, live feeds, interviews and press conferences have been put to press and seen on our screens - yet why is it, after all this time, one of the biggest issues brought up in community meetings is the 'lack of information'?

Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement describe this phenomen as a "sort of spectacle-driven frenzy" in their most recent publication of . ...

Local TV News - real articles, real people

The media have spent an enormous amount of time on Canterbury's crises since September. Tens of thousands of hours of footage, live feeds, interviews and press conferences have been put to press and seen on our screens - yet why is it, after all this time, one of the biggest issues brought up in community meetings is the 'lack of information'?

Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement describe this phenomen as a "sort of spectacle-driven frenzy" in their most recent publication of . ...

Communities Getting Organised!

Since the initial , smaller local community meetings have begun to take place. Inspired by the way in which everyone has been encouraged to speak and put forward their ideas the people of the Inner City East suburbs got together on Saturday 16th April.

Here's a snapshot of what was raised:

The following day the 2nd "Rally for Christchurch" took place. Find a report of that meeting

We intend to continue with the level of energy we have seen so far - information ...

What is a Community Union?

All of the good folk that attended the first on the 2nd of April were given a copy of Organising a Community Union. Published by the team the 3 sided pamphlet offers a "how to" guide, including the tools and means in which to empower your neighbourhoods and communities.


The pamphlet found is possibly one of the most important sources of info to be circulated since this all began back in September. We can not afford to wait any longer. The has proven to be horribly under equip ...

After The Quake - Short film

Recorded in Christcurch between March 29 and April 1, 2011, this short film looks at some of the ways Cantabrians have been affected by the destructive earthquake on February 22nd, and some of the organising that has gone on on a community level to try to help people cope.

It was shot and edited for a public meeting and fundraiser titled After The Quake: Community Organising in Christchurch, held in Wellington on April 8 2011. All funds raised were split 50/50 between th ...

After The Quake - Short film

Recorded in Christcurch between March 29 and April 1, 2011, this short film looks at some of the ways Cantabrians have been affected by the destructive earthquake on February 22nd, and some of the organising that has gone on on a community level to try to help people cope.

It was shot and edited for a public meeting and fundraiser titled After The Quake: Community Organising in Christchurch, held in Wellington on April 8 2011. All funds raised were split 50/50 between th ...

Bursting the Bubble - Christchurch Support!

Bursting the Bubble - Christchurch Support!

RALLY FOR CHRISTCHURCH - Lets get organised!

Following on from the successful first meeting, the people of Christchurch have decided to build on the rapidly growing momentum and sense of urgency that is spreading across the city.

On the 2nd April, Action for Christchurch East and Beyond Resistance helped facilitate the creation of new local groups and offered a free and democratic space where issues were discussed and concerns and problems raised.

6 months ago