Democracy suspended in Auckland- John Minto and four comrades arrested at Palestine Solidarity Protest

VIDEO OF ARRESTS HERE

Activist John Minto and four other protesters were arrested outside the ASB Tennis Centre in Auckland today.

An organisation calling themselves Global Peace and Justice Auckland continued their demonstrations during Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer's matches at the WTA tournament for a third straight day.

Today was Peer's first match on centre court and the protesters' numbers doubled to 16, again using loud hailers to call for Peer to withdraw from the event because of Israel's occupation on Palestine.

Minto and one other protester were using loud hailers while an elderly woman had a microphone and speaker.

After police had given three warnings they stepped in to arrest Minto and two other protesters and also confiscated their loud hailers.

The demonstration continued without Minto with one man climbing a tree with a loud hailer to continue to blast out the group's message. The police were forced to climb the tree to bring him down while the woman with the microphone and speaker was also arrested.

One of the protesters from Global Peace and Justice Auckland, Joe Carolan said it was likely the campaigners to be back again tomorrow for Peer's semifinal match.

"Yes, I think so," he said, when asked if they'll be back.

"Obviously we're going to have to talk, all the leaders of the movement have been singled out today, if that's not political policing I don't know what is.

"We looked to those people who had years of experience in this movement for guidance and they've singled those out.

"It's obvious that we're just a small group of people here but there are obviously thousands of New Zealanders who do feel that protesters and peace activists have the rights to voice their opinion.

"That's become the major issue of the last three days, the over the top policing here.

"The first day there was a bomb scare for someone leaving their handbag behind."

Where are the Palestinian tennis players?

JOHN MINTO's STATEMENT BEFORE TODAY'S PROTEST

For the past few days I've been part of a protest outside the ASB Tennis Centre in Auckland where Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer has been playing in a women's international tennis tournament.

We have been calling for her to leave the tournament just as protests in earlier decades sought to have Springbok tours to New Zealand abandoned. In South Africa's case it was the apartheid policies of the ruling regime which legally discriminated against black and coloured South Africans and brutally suppressed dissent. In Israel's case it's the Zionist policies of the Israeli Government which discriminates against the Arab population of Israel and uses military might to oppress the wider Palestinian population and deny them freedom and any semblance of civil, political or human rights.

After South Africa, Israel is just the second country in recent times where an international consensus has developed that a boycott is the best way to bring pressure for change. Other forms of pressure have failed. Israel has ignored numerous United Nations resolutions and rulings from the International Court of Justice. It continues to oppress with impunity the indigenous population of Palestine and viciously attacks those who dare to fight back.

This is not to say Israel has not been the subject of terror attacks. It plainly has, but the driver of terrorism is the regime itself and not the sticks and stones of Palestinian youth or the suicide bombers who in anger, despair, frustration and powerlessness throw their very bodies at their oppressor.

So what has all this to do with tennis in Auckland? Everything. The BDS campaign (Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions) against Israel includes sport so Shahar Peer is being asked to make a sacrifice and give up international competition. This pales beside the sacrifices Palestinians are forced to make every day of their lives as they live under Israel's iron fist. Where are the Palestinian tennis players who'd love the chance to learn and compete internationally?

The most surprising aspect of the protest for me has been the measured and thoughtful reaction from most tennis patrons. When I grew up most New Zealanders saw Israel as a plucky little country surrounded by fanatical Arab hordes determined to overrun it and throw all the Jews into the Mediterranean. We believed we were on the side of the underdog.

It was a myth of course. Israel has always had enormous military might courtesy of the annual billions in "aid" from the US. The latest technology has been provided on a plate and Israel now has a formidable nuclear arsenal - also courtesy of the US.

New Zealanders have moved a lot in attitudes towards the Middle East over recent years. The 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and last year's invasion of the Gaza strip in which 1400 Palestinians were killed (13 Israelis lost their lives) have helped New Zealanders see the Middle East with fresh eyes.

The most common question I've been asked by patrons has been why we aren't protesting the presence of Chinese and Zimbabwean players. I've responded that the organisation Global Peace and Justice Auckland, to which I belong, has protested against both governments. We led an unsuccessful protest to try to stop the Black Cap cricketers from touring Zimbabwe a few years back. However, the main opposition group the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) doesn't support boycotts as a tactic. We've also protested human rights abuses in China and marched against the Clark government's free-trade agreement with the Chinese regime.

Shahar Peer will not be stopped by the protests this year but increasingly the boycott will tighten on Israel in trade, investment, cultural and sporting ties. Among these the sports boycott will be the most important because it has a higher profile and is most closely linked to a country's sense of itself and in Israel's case this is what needs drastic change.

Crappest Political Arrest in NZ? Stand up for Free Speech

Socialist Aotearoa supporter Malcolm France was arrested today protesting Israeli apartheid for holding a megaphone. That he might use agin in the future. That constitutes offensive behaviour. Disorderly contact. A breach of the peace.

Here the Commanding Officer justifies his arrest. See if you can follow the logic here.
We'll be protesting tomorrow again at the ASB Tennis Centre and at 9am this Friday Morning Jan 8th, at the Auckland District Court, 65-71, Albert Street.

Stand up for Palestine and Freedom of Speech.

Protest for Palestine and Free Speech tomorrow!

S.A. supporter Malcolm F set upon by Auckland cops at Freedom for Palestine protest

Protest to step up

GPJA (Global Peace and Justice Auckland) and the PHRC (Palestine Human Rights Campaign) will step up protests against the presence of Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer in the ASB Womens’ Classic tennis tournament.

Protest will resume tomorrow (Thursday) at 11am at the Stanley Street courts where we expect a larger protest as people return from holiday etc.

The protest is targeting Peer because there is an international consensus that the best way to challenge Israel ’s brutal oppression of Palestinians is through an international boycott – termed the BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions) campaign.

This is just the second time in recent history when such a consensus has developed – the first being in respect of apartheid South Africa . In that case the international boycott had a powerful and positive impact in bringing pressure for change. The same pressure can be brought to bear on Israel which follows policies remarkably similar to apartheid South Africa.

This morning police arrested one of the protest group in extraordinary circumstances. The protest had broken up at 12 noon and was leaving the stadium and returning to vehicles when police arrived and asked for an assurance we would not be protesting again at the tournament with either a drum or a loudhailer. Giving such an assurance was politely declined whereupon the police sought to seize the loudhailer. The person holding it was astonished at the request, declined to give it up and was arrested.

Meanwhile reports from Gaza in the past 24 hours indicate an Israeli airstrike has killed one Palestinian and wounded another three. Such attacks are a common occurrence. The absolute impunity with which Israel rains death and destruction on Palestinians underlines the importance of international pressure on Israel.

Auckland's Climate Change protest before Copenhagen- Red Bloc

Just over 2,000 people joined the Planet A march against Climate Change today in Auckland, calling for a 40% reduction in emissions by 2020. Socialist Aotearoa went on the march along with other Leftists and unionists as a Red Bloc, and gave out hundreds of leaflets on why climate change can only be stopped with anti capitalist politics. We then helped get over 1,000 signatures for the Campaign of a Living Wage, and most of the protesters made the links between a system that exploits workers and exploits our planet.

TVNZ footage HERE
TV3 footage HERE

Hopenhagen? Plan B for Planet A

We are everywhere

Ten years ago on the 30th November 1999, tens of thousands of people shut down the World Trade Organisation summit in Seattle showing the world the power of globally coordinated people power. The word on the streets of Seattle and in the minds of people struggling against profit driven greed was 'Another World is Possible'. Ten years on, as we collecively teeter on the brink of climate chaos the word on the streets of Auckland and in the minds of those on the front lines of Climate Chaos is 'Another World is Neccesary'. Socialist Aotearoa would like to say good on you for joining in solidarity with the billions of people all over the world who are standing up for action on Climate Change at this historic point in the history of humanity!

a Plan B for Planet A
Fortunately, we can do a lot better than this – history has shown that changes can be made by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. As our politicians fail us, we need deeds and not words. We need to step up and fight for future generations. We need to do this ourselves - and that means YOU!

Real solutions to the climate crisis are being built by those who have always protected the Earth and by those who fight every day to defend their environment and living conditions. Our best chance lies in supporting the struggles of oppressed people, workers and participatory movements from below. Movements have the ability to be infectious. They have changed the world before – and can do so again. We need to globalise these solutions and work for a just transition towards a zero-carbon future, not in 2020 or 2050 but right here, right now!

In China, the State reports around 50,000 protests annually on pollution related issues, which have forced industrial factories to close. In South America, indigenous communities are mobilising strongly around environmental attacks on their land. It could be these kind of actions, sometimes leading to the closure of important greenhouse-related infrastructure, that makes the difference in preventing temperature rises that lead to runaway climate change.

Hopenhagen?
We are no closer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than we were when international negotiations began fifteen years ago: emissions are rising faster than ever, while carbon trading allows climate criminals to pollute and profit, many anticipate a “business as usual” approach that will yield little more than giveaways to corporations and a continuation of the failed Kyoto Protocol. This year's Copenhagen Climate Summit is set to be the fifteenth international talkfest on Climate Change thus far. It is now clearer than ever that the UN climate talks are incapable of solving the climate crisis.

No more false solutions
We cannot trust the market [emissions trading schemes] with our future, nor put our faith in unsafe, unproven and unsustainable technologies. Contrary to those who put their faith in “green capitalism”, we know that it is impossible to have infinite growth on a finite planet. Instead of trying to fix a broken system, we should be:

* leaving fossil fuels in the ground
* organising in our workplaces for climate justice
* pushing for free and frequent public transport
* socialising and decentralising energy
* relocalising our food production
* recognising and repaying ecological and climate debt
* respecting indigenous peoples’ rights
* regenerating our eco-systems

Millions of people around the world are not sitting back quietly, politely asking people like John Key to act on their behalf and they're not sitting down and putting up with environmental and economic injustice. We should try and work with them: their struggles are ours too. There is potential for a climate justice movement to follow in this tradition. But this will only happen if we trust one another, rather than people like John Key and the corporate polluters that put them in power.

Join the Red Block on the Climate Change March
this Saturday 12 noon, Albert Park, Auckland.

2025 Aotearoa - An alternative vision

By Omar Hamed, Socialist Aotearoa

2025 Taskforce? More like the 1984 Taskforce, if you ask most people. Even Prime Minister John Key has stated that the policies being promoted by former Reserve Bank Governor, National Party Leader and hollow man Don Brash and the 2025 Taskforce in their recently released report are those that opened up the wage-gap between New Zealand and Australia in the first place. Yet the increasing gap between Australian and New Zealand wages and the burgeoning public debt remains a critical issue for young Kiwis and the lack of real public understanding, engagement and discussion with the politics of these issues leaves policy space open to the dinosaurs of the radical right, who even have the gall to tell us,
"The case for any minimum wage at all is questionable."

The crisis in world markets, rising unemployment, the collapse of Government surpluses and the rising tide of climate change will force us to make some tough decisions in coming years. Unless the ideas of Brash et al are challenged and contested by the left armed with a realistic and alternative popular programme, they will gain traction in the media and with an increasingly tax-burdened and wage-poor public. As the Herald editorial said today of John Key and Finance Minister Bill English response to the report, “Both of them would have known the remedy Dr Brash, their former party leader, would prescribe. If they cannot bring themselves to embrace it, they ought to have alternatives to offer.”

The following 5 proposals are offered here up by the author in the interests of presenting New Zealanders with a clear alternative to Brash’s proposed reforms. They do not represent an exhaustive list but merely the beginnings of an alternative program that picks up on the work being done by the Council of Trade Unions to provide an alternative economic strategy and by environmentalists to meet the need for a transition to a low-carbon economy.

1. Lift the minimum wage to $15 an hour and then set it at two-thirds of the average wage

I cannot understand how Dr. Brash and the 2025 Taskforce arrived at their conclusion that, “The case for any minimum wage at all is questionable” and that the Government should slash the minimum wage. Why? Because Australia has a minimum wage of AUD$14.31 hr, while New Zealand has one of just NZD$12.50 hr. When the Australian Fair Pay Commission converted our minimum wage to AUD using purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates it came out at $11.76. This proves that our minimum wage workers in terms of their purchasing power are a full $2.60 hr or $5400 pa behind Australian minimum wage workers. If we seek to reduce the gap between our nations incomes we should be seeking to increase our minimum wage by at least 18% to meet this gap between the purchasing power of our minimum wage and that of our neighbours. Australia has a minimum wage that in purchasing power terms is higher than many other OECD countries including Luxembourg, France, Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Canada and the United States. How can Dr. Brash et al. reconcile this with their report? The reality is they cannot. Lifting the minimum wage to $15 hr and then setting it at 66% of the average wage as the Unite Campaign for a Living Wage aims to do would begin to significantly close the gap between Australian and New Zealand wages.

2. Bring the troops home from Afghanistan and close Waihopai spybase

Around $40 million is being spent each year on New Zealand’s military deployment in Afghanistan to support a US occupation that Afghan MP Malalai Joya describes as having sandwiched Afghans, “between three powerful enemies: the occupation forces of the U.S. and NATO, the Taliban and the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai” where “Life for most Afghan women resembles a type of hell that is never reflected in the Western mainstream media”. New Zealand’s international spying agency the Government Communications Security Bureau and the Waihopai spybase eats up another $40 million each year. So that is $80 million a year that is being spent on supporting the US military’s ongoing quest to control central Asia through tactics like the bombing of Kunduz in September killing 200 civilians.

3. Institute a Capital Gains Tax

A Capital Gains Tax will have a three-fold positive effect on the New Zealand economy. Firstly it will raise a significant amount of tax revenue, secondly improve housing affordability and thirdly discourage speculative investment. Australia has a Capital Gains Tax and because we do not have this tax, we have a taxation distortion about which the Productive Economy Council has said, “The net effect of this taxation distortion is artificial asset inflation, one that reduces productive investment and job creation, increases the national debt and creates one of the lowest levels of housing affordability in the western world.” A study of housing affordability in six developed countries ranked New Zealand second most unaffordable just behind Australia. No urban areas surveyed were considered affordable by the study. The Capital Gains Tax would also discourage property speculation at the expense of investment into productive economic sectors. As the Manufacturers and Exporters Association Chief John Walley says “We need to balance the tax treatment of all gains and income to encourage more investors into the productive sector of the economy where jobs and wealth are really created”.

4. Tax on very-high incomes

The Council of Trade Unions has called in a recent document for a new tax rate of 45% on incomes of over three times the average wage, currently $150,000. In 1988 households sitting at the 80th percentile (households with exactly 80 percent of household incomes below and 20 percent above theirs) had 2.24 times the income of households at the 20th percentile ((households with exactly 20 percent of household incomes below and 80 percent above theirs). By 2008 the 80th percentile households had increased their income to 2.59 times more than 20th percentile households, an income inequality increase of 14.5%. The highest income inequality increase in the OECD over that period, the CTU tells us. “The richest 10 percent own over half - 51.8 percent – of the country’s wealth owned by residents.” An increase of the tax responsibility on those earning over $150,000 could allow further tax-credits to be set aside for low-income households especially those with children. Or alternatively we could do as John Minto has suggested in the wake of CEO increases for corporate sector bosses and wage cuts for their staff and legislate a maximum wage. As Minto wrote, “My pick would be to set the maximum income at 10 times the minimum wage. This would mean a maximum income of $250,000. The easiest way to enforce this would be setting a 100 per cent income tax rate for the combined income from all sources (including share allocations, allowances etc) above this level.” Again this new tax responsibility could be used to alleviate our awful levels of child poverty. 1 in 5 New Zealand children grow up in families of sever or significant hardship and 20,000 school children go hungry to school each week because of not enough food at home.

5. Ban the import of illegally-logged timber and paper products

In 2007 the NZ government estimated that the import of illegally logged timber products cost the New Zealand forest industry NZ$266 million a year in lost revenue. Recent redundancies in the forestry sector show how the New Zealand forestry sector is being undercut by those who import illegally logged timber including for use in decking and furniture. Of these illegally-sourced wood products sold in New Zealand 80% is Kwila, a tropical rainforest hardwood from Indonesian occupied West Papua, Papua New Guinea and Malaysia used in decking and outdoor furniture but also on the International Conservation Union’s red list of threatened species. The import of Kwila and other rainforest hardwoods into New Zealand accelerates rainforest clearance and thus climate change. As the Rainforest Action Network reminds us, “Scientists agree that the world's rainforests are the best natural defense against climate change because they store vast amounts of carbon. For example, Indonesian old-growth rainforests store almost 750 tons of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of 620 flights between New York and London – per acre. When cleared, rainforests release that carbon into the atmosphere, furthering global warming rather than curbing it.” Rainforest destruction is the number one cause of climate change. Banning the import of illegally logged timber products, as Green MP Catherine Delahunty’s Private Members Bill recently tried to do, would not only boost the economy by a quarter of a billion dollars a year but also go some way to ending New Zealand complicity in rainforest destruction.

Unfolding an alternative vision and strategy for income growth and lowering public debt levels is essential in the times. The Key-English Government and any future governments will have to make tough decisions about New Zealand’s economic trajectory. If the only options on offer are a renewal of the failed policies and programmes of the neo-liberal assault on our welfare-state then they will gain currency. The five proposals above will not be enough in and of themselves to close the income gap with Australia or reduce public debt but they would be a step in the right direction and left-wing blogs, organisations, unions, parties and movements should encourage further debate on more advanced policy options. These could include some uptake of the Green Party’s Green New Deal which calls for state investment and regulation in the areas of energy efficiency, transport efficiency, waterways protection, state housing and community sector initiatives. It could entail some degree of rental price control to deal with overcrowding, a move towards public recontrol of Telecom and the electricity sector as the CTU has suggested or a ban on pokie machines outside of casinos to remove a major drain on low-income communities. We could even look forward to a ban on the import of clothing and footwear products made in sweatshop conditions, a move that could significantly bolster the cause of unionisation and campaigning for workers rights in developing nations. There are plenty of alternatives to Brash’s cup of sick, but it will require boldness to take leaps in new directions.

The Battle of Seattle

Ten years ago, a coalition of environmentalists, trade unionists, student and radical activists faced up to a militarised police force and shut down the World Trade Organisation summit in Seattle. The Anti Capitalist movement was born. To celebrate ten years of resistance, and to discuss where now for the movement against capitalism, join us for a screening of the film BATTLE IN SEATTLE today Tuesday 1st December at 7pm in Unite Union, 6a Western Springs Road, Morningside.





“Those who were arguing they were going to shut the WTO down were in fact successful today.” That was the frank admission of Seattle police chief Norm Stamper after the events of November 1999.

A huge protest had disrupted the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in the city.

US president Bill Clinton, government ministers from across the globe, and the heads of the world’s mightiest corporations were there to plan how they could increase their domination of the planet.

Instead, tens of thousands of protesters gave a glimpse of the power of ordinary people to challenge the rule of this global elite.

Demonstrators were met with pepper spray, beatings, rubber bullets, armoured cars and billowing clouds of teargas. But the demonstrators won – and they won because of a unity forged between trade unionists, students, environmental activists and many others.

The WTO opening ceremony was cancelled. Delegates simply could not reach it through the protest-filled streets.

And the “Battle of Seattle” opened up a new chapter in politics.

It became a focus for issues from child labour to debt, the environment, working conditions and union rights. The power of the protest showed millions that the corporations can be halted.

The first protests took place on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 November. On Sunday, as WTO delegates began arriving in Seattle, there were two somewhat larger demonstrations. There was also a rolling programme of teach-ins and meetings alongside the demonstrations.

On the Monday the sea turtle costumes that would become an iconic image of the Seattle WTO protests made their first appearance, in an environmental protection and animal welfare march. Other groups of protesters demonstrated outside the WTO’s evening reception.

The demonstrations and meetings had a carnival atmosphere. Diane Lively, a student from Alabama, had travelled thousands of miles to be there. “I just want to tell the WTO to get their hands off our planet,” she said. “I want people before profits.”

Tetteh Hormeku, from Ghana, asked, “How can there be a ‘level playing field’ between the US and, say, Burkina Faso in Africa? There, 86 percent of the population depends on agriculture, but there are fewer than 200 tractors in the whole country and 87 percent of the agricultural population is illiterate.”

Corporations

Mike Ellison, a Seattle health worker and union shop steward, said, “The WTO is about corporations brushing us aside and seizing everything. Its rules mean poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America – and in the US as well.”

The defining moment of victory came early on Tuesday morning, when the direct action protesters out-manoeuvred the authorities and shut down the WTO.

The police assumed demonstrations and blockades would not start before 8am, and so did not deploy their forces until 7.30am. However, demonstrators gathered much earlier. Well before 8am protesters occupied intersections on all sides of the conference centre.

The police began using teargas and pepper spray to force demonstrators away.

Labour organiser Verlen Wilder said, “The cops told them to sit down. They shot percussion bombs into the crowd and they teargassed them. And they brought buses around and arrested them all.

“That’s when we said, enough, that’s it, we’re going to protest with them, we’re going to go right down the middle of downtown.”

A workers’ march moved off towards the town centre, but the trade union leaders were determined to keep the demonstration away from the convention centre.

Union officials tried to channel the demonstrators down a side street. Unwillingly the first group obeyed their instructions. Then came the longshoremen (dockers). Their large contingent was packed with people who had stopped work in protest at the WTO – 1,200 were out in Seattle, a similar number at Tacoma and hundreds more in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Long Beach.

“We’re going to the convention,” shouted one crane operator. “I’m going to help those turtle kids,” said another docker, referring to the environmental protesters on the receiving end of police brutality a few streets away. For a minute the line of marshals held and then, slowly, it began to part. Chanting, cheering, the trade unionists swept straight on.

The two groups, the workers and the young protesters, met. “Union!” screamed the trade unionists. “Power!” replied the students and youth. “Solidarity! Solidarity!” they chanted together.

So in the centre of Seattle, by the citadels of corporate power, stood Boeing workers and students, post workers and people with floral headscarves – all together. “Disperse or you will be subject to riot control measures,” announced the police. Were they going to teargas the teamsters (truck drivers), steel workers and machinists (engineers)? They were not. They chose defeat on the day instead of risking wider rebellion.

For the two hours while the union-led march went past, the police fired no gas or rubber bullets. They were beaten. The WTO opening ceremony was cancelled. Only later, after the trade unionists left, did the police unleash their fury. Dozens of protesters fell choking, their eyes and noses burnt by the gas and pepper sprays. Others suffered wounds from the rubber bullets.

In 1968, when police smashed demonstrators against the Vietnam war at the Democratic Party convention, the protesters had chanted, “The whole world is watching”. Now the same chant was taken up.

Protester Tom Gorlick said, “I was part of the Chicago ’68 demonstrations. That defined a generation and Seattle will as well.”

Grenades

That afternoon in Seattle, the mayor declared a state of emergency and a curfew. Large squads in riot armour and gas masks, backed by armoured vehicles, began sweeping through downtown using percussion grenades, rubber bullets, and tear gas to force remaining protesters and bystanders alike off the street.

Several hundred protesters retreated to a residential area and, when police followed, angry residents joined the protests.

The National Guard was called in before daylight the next day. Troops and officers lined the perimeter of the “no protest zone”. Throughout the day, police used tear gas to disperse crowds downtown, although a permitted demonstration organised by the steelworkers’ union was held along the waterfront.

President Clinton was unable to address a delegates’ reception.

By the Friday the protests continued and the police had essentially backed off. The WTO talks collapsed and thousands marched together again through Seattle.

Cory Mckinley was a worker at Kaiser Aluminium who was locked out by his employers for 14 months. He said, ”Never in a million years did I think I would be walking with these sort of people. My motto has been there is nothing more beautiful than a big redwood deck. Now I have learnt about ecology and those things.”

Protester Cynthia Smith said, “We are fighting for real justice in a world that denies justice to billions. Something is changing in America when you can have a day like this.”

Bob Hasegawa, secretary of Teamsters union Seattle local 174, said, “It was a once in a lifetime thing. I was amazed how seriously we kicked their butts! They still can’t get their shit together. They have been trying to have meetings, and they just can’t seem to.”

The following should be read alongside this article:
» The 1999 Seattle protests gave birth to a global movement
» Voices from the Seattle protests

Brash can't tell Up from Down

Unite, the union that organises thousands of low paid workers in workplaces such as cinemas, fastfoods and call centres, thinks that Don Brash needs a lesson on which way is up and which way is down.

Brash has proposed to reduce New Zealand's income gap with Australia by cutting the minimum wage to $10 an hour, re introducing youth rates for workers under 18, and slashing public services and conditions that benefit the working poor.

The union's Campaign for a Living Wage spokesperson, Joe Carolan, says-

"In order to reach Australia's income levels, we should increase our minimum wage to $15ph this year, and to two third's of the average wage afterwards. The poorest Australian workers benifit from a minimum wage of NZ$17.50 an hour, just over $200 more a week than their Kiwi counterparts.

We've been out gathering thousands of names in support of this demand every week on the streets and in the workplaces throughout New Zealand. 4 out of 5 people agree with us- Workers are sick of a low pay economy, and Brash's Taskforce 2025 shock therapy is the opposite of what Kiwi battlers want.

Economics 101- $15 per hour is a lot closer to $17.50 than $10 an hour. If there are cuts to be made to close our income gap with Australia, it should be in the inordinate amount of funding given by government to neoliberal has-been illiterates who can't tell up from down. "

Celling Out

Commentary: Cameron Walker, Socialist Aotearoa

It is sad that National, ACT and the Maori Party have voted to privatise prisons. Overseas experience shows that prisons run for the purpose of profit are incredibly open to abuse of inmates, poor treatment of staff and corruption. Earlier this year it emerged that two judges in Pennsylvania, USA, had been receiving payments from the owners of a youth prison in return for passing harsh sentences. One girl was sentenced to three months simply making a satirical Myspace page about her teacher.

The Corrections Minister, Judith Collins, claims that the experience of Auckland Central Remand Prison under the management of GEO Group Australia, earlier this decade, shows that private prisons are a success. However, the prison was brand new and utilised the latest developments in prison design and security system technology. Disruptive prisoners could always be moved to Mt Eden prison next door. As the American prison researcher Christian Parenti notes, private companies break into the prison market by taking on easy to handle contracts. If powerful interests profit from more people being imprisoned I doubt society will make strong efforts to tackle crime and its causes.

Cameron, SA.