Syd Keepa

Syd Keepa

Syd Keepa is an Auckland, New Zealand activist.

Background

Keepa has 10 brothers and sister, all went to private Maori secondary school.

1999 - Working at Fletcher Wood Panels in Penrose.

Treaty

According to Keepa "I have spent 36 years working on construction sites within the forestry and pulp and paper industries, where workers are able to secure good conditions and pay rates. This is attributed to the workers struggle it was not by cuddling up to the boss. The worst example of partnership is the Treaty of Waitangi".

Maori Apiha

2000/03 National Distribution Union organiser Auckland, Apiha (officer) Maori.

"Freedom to Strike"

2000 - one of leftists and unionists signing a Socialist Workers Organisation petition, Freedom to Strike.

SPA connections

• September 2000 - Article in Socialist Party of Aotearoa's Red Flag on Maori Child Abuse.

• September 2002 - Article in SPA's Red Flag on the accountabilty debate.

• On the 6th August 2002, spoke at a Workers Institute of Scientific Education/Maritime Unionist Socialist Activities Association seminar at Rotorua's union owned Willowhaven Lodge. Spoke on "importance of unions taking an active role in the struggle for the rights of the Maori people"

• December 2003, wrote report in SPA's Red Flag on CTU conference, has worked 36 years on construction sites and pulp and paper industry.

• 2004 article in Red Flag February issue on Don Brash's race speech.

• 2004 letter in June Red flag "the working class maori has two struggles, the struggle for their rights as the indigenous people and their struggle for their rights as workers" anti capitalist.

SPA sympathiser

In 2006 Keepa wrote a comment on the Trevor Loudon's New Zeal blog;

Kia ora Trev

Just looking up your website I noticed that you and my partner Sue Murray were debating about me being a spa sympathizer.

Well you would be pleased to know that I am .I consider the late Bill Andersen the greatest union leader this country has produced

He stood up for his principals to the day he died. If there were more people like him this world will be a better place if you went through

The crap he went through hoisted on him by people of your persuasion you would be a crumbling wreck so my advice to you trev is don’t Look for reds under the bed because there is none they are all out in the open fighting for social justice indigenous peoples

Rights and trying to save the world from Bush Howard and Blair the leaders that you and your mates admire.So why don’t you do me a Favor start organizing now for the annihilation of your political party at the next elections

Ma Te Wa'Italic text

Syd Keepa Spa sympathizer'Italic text.

Supporting Palestinians

In the Anti-Imperialist Coalition we have been trying to link Maori oppression to imperialism overseas by talking about Stephen Wallace - we've had stalls and so on with anti-war leaflets on one table and the petition for an independent inquiry into the killing of Wallace on another. It was interesting that Syd Keepa, one of the members of therunanga of the National Distribution Union that has taken up the Wallace case, spoke at one of last week's pickets of the US consulate in Auckland in solidarity with Palestine, and basically said "I'm here as a Maori person to support the Palestinians because the same thing is happening to them as has happened to us".

Hikoi

From a Wednesday, 5 May 2004, Press Release: National Distribution Union

Distribution Union Supports Hikoi

The National Distribution Union Rununga supports the foreshore and seabed hikoi. It’s about rights, said Syd Keepa, Apiha Maori organiser of the National Distribution Union.

He also called on other unions to come out and support the hikoi. Their silence is deafening, he said. There are 300,000 union members in Aotearoa. Between 15% and 18% are Maori so unions owe it to those Maori members, most of who would support the hikoi.

My union has been involved in the hikoi since it started. In fact three of our Maori delegates, and many Maori members of the National Distribution Union carried placards over the Auckland Harbour Bridge stating that fact and will be present when the hikoi arrives at Parliament. Hopefully other unions will also become involved.

Seabed and foreshore

In 2004, the NDU was part of a big public meeting held in Auckland just before the Waitangi protests, where unionists like Syd Keepa who was part of the drive to put the foreshore and seabed on the union agenda. In Auckland, the International Women’s Day Committee included the seabed and foreshore in its platform and had SFWU activist Helen Te Hira as one of its official speakers.

Civil Unions

In 2004 Keepa signed a newspaper ad in SST 21.11.04 supporting Civil Union Bill, with Sue Murray.

Workers charter

Keeper was listed in Unity September 2005 as endorsing the Workers Charter, NDU Apiha maori.

Mana Party launch

At the launch of the Mana Party, in 2011, on the stage with Hone Harawira to express their solidarity and support were some of the most well-known names from the left, union, Maori rights and social justice movements. They included Annette Sykes (Ngati Pikiao, lawyer and activist), Matt McCarten (general secretary of Unite Union), John Minto (leader of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s and spokesperson for Global Peace and Justice Auckland), Sue Bradford (unemployed workers rights leader in the 1980s and 1990s and former Green Party MP), Syd Keepa (Maori vice-president of the Council of Trade Unions), Nandor Tanczos (former Green MP), Margaret Mutu (Ngāti Kahu’s chief negotiator, the chairperson of Te Rūnanga-a-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu and the professor of Māori Studies at Auckland University). Most groups that describe themselves as socialist, such as Socialist Aotearoa, the Workers Party, Socialist Worker and the International Socialist Organisation, have also generally greeted the emergence of this new party positively.