System Overload: Neil Roberts, Punk Anarchism and 'The Maintenance of Silence'

Abstract

Punk anarchism, a defiant youth subculture that had emerged in reaction to hard times in New Zealand resorted to organized anarchist political activity. As an expression of the punk community's general anti-police sentiment against increasing surveillance of the state, Neil Ian Roberts a punk anarchist, detonated gelignite outside the Wanganui Computer Centre. The film Maintenance of Silence, which tells the story of the bombing is a pointed political comment on totalitarian tendencies in New Zealand society.