And so it ends as it began – in farce. On Thursday morning hundreds of police officers made their move against the “freedom convoy”, a tiny racket of anti-vaxxers, anti-mandaters, and proud fascists who were camping on parliament’s lawn to protest, well, something. Some were arguing for the efficacy of the immune system over the vaccine, as if the mRNA jab does something other than train said immune system. A good number were calling for citizens’ arrests against prime minister Jacinda Ardern and health minister Andrew Little for crimes unknown. And at least a handful were prosecuting their QAnon conspiracies. At the last major “freedom” protest Q’s supporters were on the ground to argue that the prime minister is already under arrest and wears an ankle bracelet to prove it.
With this catalogue of complaints it was impossible for police to do anything other than remove the convoy-cum-campers. In normal circumstances protesters arrive in the capital with a concrete demand whether it’s ending student fees, repealing the Foreshore and Seabed Act, or opposing the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. But the “freedom” convoy came to town as simple catharsis. There were the anti-vaxxers and anti-mandates types, who range from American-style conspiracists to misguided anarchists, but alongside those familiar archetypes were evangelical church leaders, Steve Bannon-backed Counterspin media “journalists”, and people calling for tino rangatiratanga (Māori sovereignty).
Like the Occupy movement, the group was leaderless. But not out of principle or ideology. It’s just the convoy couldn’t agree on anything because most of them were in Wellington to pursue their personal fantasies and grievances. That meant negotiation was impossible. The government was in no position to meet their demands because they were endless and, frankly, psychotic. An end to paediatric vaccinations. The execution of journalists. An end to vaccine mandates. The execution of academics. An end to mask mandates. The execution of health workers. It felt vaguely Trumpian in that a good number of the convoy were clearly taking pleasure in the spectacle of it – the threat of violence, the collective thrill of causing a scene in the most temperamentally conservative of countries.
The scholars would perhaps label it jouissance. This is, in Jacques Lacan’s words, “not purely and simply the satisfaction of a need but the satisfaction of a drive”. The drive to end vaccines, mandates, and the lives of people they don’t like, yes, but chiefly the drive to be heard. What unites “antis” of every type is a mistrust in government. The best research indicates that vaccine hesitancy – which is distinct from and softer than committed anti-vaxxer sentiment – often finds root in institutional mistrust among people who have often found themselves the victims of institutional racism, sexism, and other forms of official discrimination. This is why a good number of Māori turn out at each “freedom” protest despite being at the highest risk of contracting Covid-19.
This makes opposing today’s protest and convoy uncomfortable for many radicals and liberals. Are we further oppressing the oppressed? We must answer no. No one owes solidarity to a group threatening violence against politicians, journalists, academics, and health workers. It’s obviously true that not every convoy participant and protester wishes to execute the prime minister (among many others). But it is true that the movement on parliament’s lawn is cohering around violence. At 3pm on Wednesday a significant number attempted to overrun police lines and infiltrate the parliamentary complex. That same day hundreds of protesters hissed and booed at media covering their protest with one journalist being told, by someone carrying a sign claiming “love is the cure” no less, that they would execute her.
Against these threats police, parliamentary security, and the Wellington city council who sent their parking wardens in to dispense traffic violation notices were right to move against the convoy and the campers. And as soon as they did the “movement”, if we give it that much credit, collapsed upon its own uncertainties. Protest leaders quickly fled the scene to avoid arrest and grandstand from the safety of their online accounts. Misinformation spread soon after with posters claiming police couldn’t undertake arrests unless they were wearing their hats. What was left among this angry, confused, and stupid ruin were the protest diehards. The people who weren’t willing to take the one exit left to them – the parliamentary gate on to Molesworth St – and instead were so committed to their uncertain cause that they would stay to challenge police lines.
But against this moderate display of State force – unarmed police and parking wardens – the “freedom” convoy was exposed for the tiny minority that it is. No major reinforcements arrived, as the protest leaders and posters had promised. One of the country’s principal conspiracists who was encouraging everyone to drive to Wellington in support of the convoy claimed that he couldn’t attend for unspecified medical reasons. There may be calls in the coming days that New Zealand is increasingly divided. Yet the opposite is true: on vaccinations and even mandates the country is united. More than 95% of us are vaccinated and even the harshest policies to control the virus – like the border closure – enjoy huge levels of support.
The people on parliament’s step are the tiniest minority.