tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352650242024-03-19T20:39:02.380+13:00Socialist AotearoaJosephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11960995458664423354noreply@blogger.comBlogger1184125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-34339444690613772142023-02-06T13:54:00.000+13:002023-02-06T13:54:05.753+13:00 Jacinda Ardern’s Resignation Is Anything But Simple - It’s Time For The Left To Organise<div data-draftjs-conductor-fragment="{"blocks":[{"key":"am4ak","text":"Interview with Joe Carolan by Jennifer Pannell. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":27,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":30,"length":18,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"e7hhe","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}}],"entityMap":{},"VERSION":"9.3.6"}"><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="foo-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="foo-0-0"><div data-draftjs-conductor-fragment="{"blocks":[{"key":"3errt","text":"Interview with Joe Carolan by Jennifer Pannell. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":27,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":30,"length":18,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"esk13","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"e87ba","text":" ","type":"atomic","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":1,"key":0}],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"61f40","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"3sj6l","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"655j4","text":"The sudden resignation of Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand and Labour Party Leader, on the 19th January this year was a shock to many around the world. She was held up by the global mainstream press as a beacon of strong and empathetic leadership in the face of numerous crises throughout her two terms. In her emotional resignation speech, she gave little hint as to why she was stepping down, stating “having reflected over summer I know I no longer have that bit extra in the tank to do the job justice. It’s that simple.” '","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":544,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"2cmle","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"s27a","text":"As a socialist, Joe, what’s your analysis of why Ardern resigned? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":68,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"1qufc","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"5tqgs","text":"There is a narrative that as a female Prime Minister, she experienced vicious, relentless trolling - death threats and attacks from a deeply misogynistic far-right led mob, who thought she was a dictator, a tyrant, a Communist. This is similar to the ideology used by the far-right in many other countries; in America, in Ireland, etcetera, to demonise anyone in any government who put restrictions on during Covid. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"cshm","text":"She said herself that her tank was empty, that she didn't have the energy to continue with leadership. What surprised many was the contrast between her resignation and the elation when, only 2 years ago, this government was re-elected with an unprecedented turnout of around 50% for Labour alone. This freed them from having to be in coalition with New Zealand First. It was a huge mandate to have a transformative government, to do all the things she said she wanted to do - abolish child poverty, have our nuclear moment on climate change, to build houses and take care of the poor. It’s very clear, now beginning the 3rd year of this government, that we have done very little on climate change. We have not built enough houses - the housing crisis is arguably worse than ever before, because the economic policies of Labour during Covid pushed up house prices. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"8oe33","text":"Towards the end of her leadership, the government began to push policies that nobody really understood or weren't explained to the electorate when they got that 50% mandate, and it appeared that they were now doing things that people had never agreed to. Like, for example, the Three Waters Reform and co-governance - these are all concepts that many people are just learning about in the last few months, even if there were Labour voters they couldn’t defend the policies because they don't even know what they are. And the flagship policy, the Covid response, was used against her. We saw the numbers of lives saved by that action, but resistance started to grow during the 2nd lockdown. The far-right had a successful street movement that defied the law, that defied the police, and put Parliament under a siege that ended in a riot. That movement smashed the hegemony that we were a team of 5 million, all united in a common fight together against the pandemic. That was a strategy to undermine her. Some of the mainstream right joined in on that, and it has now proven to be a successful strategy to “dislodge the Queen”, to break that halo around her. So I think that factored into her resignation. It was easy to be loved but very different to be hated. She has, I think, 50 active and serious death threats - she’ll probably have police protection for the rest of her life. The international far-right hated her because of her Covid response and singled her out as a target of hate. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"1kk2n","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"3ke7p","text":"Thanks for your insight, it’s clear there were multiple factors behind Ardern’s decision to step down. Her resignation has made global news - what has the reaction been from the left in Aotearoa? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":195,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"fok3s","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"8ndi3","text":"First of shock, then second a somewhat false hope, in my opinion, that we've now got a competent team leading Labour (laughs). I didn’t know Chris Hipkins’ [the new Labour leader] nickname was Chippy until last week! We have this attempt by the Labour Party to rebrand him from an apparatchik yes-man, who has only ever followed orders, into a hero of the non-woke, “Westy”, Cody-drinking working class, complete with baseball hat and shades. I'm not sure if that's actually going to wash. The front page was; “It’s back to bread-and-butter issues”, “back to basics”. We've got a cost of living crisis running out of control here, loads of people are still going on strike under a Labour government - nurses, teachers, doctors and loads of private sector strikes. Just to keep up with the cost of living. And there's been no serious moves to dismantle the unfairness of neoliberalism in New Zealand. Housing has got more expensive, rent’s got more expensive. The main damage done to the working poor at the minute is trying to keep up with the rent. I think that the party is out of touch with the people who could or should vote for it. They have done little to nothing to control the private rental market and the cost of buying a house is unreachable for working people. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"2rd5e","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"2n8il","text":"Could they turn this around in the next few months? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":51,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"7ge2o","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"e56h9","text":"They'd have to be big reforms - Corbyn/Sanders-style reforms that I don't see in that political leadership. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"jkr9","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"8kcfo","text":"So, who is Chris Hipkins, and what does he represent? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":53,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"948fq","text":"Good question! I wonder if he looks in the mirror every morning and asks himself the same thing (laughs). ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"fj275","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"ffsdl","text":" So, a fairly forgettable candidate then! Looking back at the last two terms, what legacy do you think Ardern will be leaving behind? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":135,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"e8qlb","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"ao9h7","text":"Covid. She defended people from Covid as well as she could, we were zero-Covid for a long time. She built the “team of 5 million” ethos, and we were fairly united as a country during the first year. So that's the good side of the Covid legacy. There was also her reaction after the Christchurch attack, she demonstrated inclusive leadership of a New Zealand where we were united with our Muslim community against a fascist threat. \n","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"8gte9","text":"Many other political leaders fan the flames of Islamophobia, so Ardern donning a hijab and hugging Muslim people was a strong response. It helped to build an anti-racist majority in this country. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"fnkv9","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"6d054","text":"Are there any negative aspects to her legacy? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":47,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"biinm","text":" The negative was Covid, too. It allowed the far-right to brand someone who was seen as compassionate and kind as a dictator, a tyrant. They were able to build an ugly movement of… the lumpenproletariat, I suppose you could say (laughs). It was an angry crowd, but it didn't know what it was angry at. I wouldn't go as far as to say, like many have, that most of the people in the Covid-denial movement were fascist, but it’s the same pool of disgruntlement that the fascists recruit from. We've got to be able to stare down that threat, not let it think that it’s won. The far-right will celebrate Ardern’s resignation as a victory, that they got their way by misogynistic hate and bullying - that that sets a dangerous precedent that may embolden them and they may use those tactics on others. Two sides of the same coin, I suppose.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"6go1","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"c2c3u","text":"Now looking forward, what do you see happening in the next election? What are the key issues for the public and how well do you think they'll align with the major parties’ campaigns? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":183,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"d78r8","text":"We’re back to an argument about economics, poverty, and the cost of living. National will say that this is Labour's mishandling of the economy, that they don’t know anything about business, etcetera. If anything, Labour probably did the most to support business during the pandemic. Many people fell behind on rent and lost their jobs during lockdown. In addition we will see negative campaigning by the right wing against these policies that Labour really hasn't explained to people, like Three Waters. I think Hipkins will try and dump them in the next few weeks, but there are rumours that some groups such as the Māori caucus, which is strong inside the Labour Party, are not prepared to compromise on co-governance or Three Waters. So this could represent a problem for the Labour Party. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"62k5q","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"er0p6","text":"What do you think the outcome of the election will be? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":56,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"bb0dk","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"d2inj","text":"I think the support for Labour will be reduced. At the minute they are polling at 32%, and I don't think anybody expected to hold their 50%, and the 10% for the Green Party on top. Most left-wingers will be voting Green (or Te Pāti Māori, but I think that will be a smaller percentage, maybe 2 or 3 percent). But the chance for the Greens to cannibalise some of that Labour vote on the left is strong, and I think the socialist left would prefer that to a Labour-only government with 50% of the vote that ignores the Greens. Probably a lot of the left will campaign for the Greens and a more balanced coalition with a Labour party that might be tilting to the left economically, to relate to working class people, fight the cost of living, to protect things like the recently-won Fair Pay Agreements. If those changes happen, I think it will be close. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"36kk4","text":"We need to get our teeth into a parties like ACT, who are the likely coalition partners with National, and who talk about freedom and liberty but actually were the ones who ripped up the Award system with the Employment Contracts Act of 1991, ripped up the health and education system, who now want to steal 5 sick days from workers [Labour doubled the number of sick days in 2021 from 5 to 10 days per year]. They also want to steal the new Matariki holiday, our first indigenous public holiday in the world. The radical left and the Union movement will defend those, but that's just where they're going to start! So I think that socialists have a lot to fight for this year.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"6tgq5","text":"\nThat’s a good segue into my last question. What should socialists be doing in the run up to the election? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":1,"length":108,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"1nfdc","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"80f7d","text":"We will probably campaign for the Greens. We've worked well with a lot of individual Green MPs - Jan Logie is very strong when it comes to industrial policy, Ricardo Menéndez March was part of the migrant movement alongside the radical left, which won significant immigration reforms last year. In the unions we will be pushing the Labour Party for policies that are honestly pro-working class, such as the potential of Fair Pay Agreements to deliver statutory overtime, weekend rates and night rates like you have in Australia, but parties like ACT stole from us here in Aotearoa in the 1990s. Big reforms will mobilise people, so we'll be fighting for Labour, Greens and the unions to up their game. \n","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"5m26d","text":"An exciting challenge for the socialist left to rise to. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to leave us with? ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":116,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"fsbii","text":"Well, if your hopes are pinned on an individual inside a party to deliver reforms for the people, be it Jacinda, Jeremy Corbyn, or Bernie Sanders, the real danger is what happens when that individual goes. What happens when the powers of the state, of the right wing, of the media who are unrelenting, break that person? Do all your hopes and dreams go down with that person too? What socialists argue is we need to build a more sustainable movement where people build power, autonomy and confidence in ourselves, and we don't hand that power over to individual politicians who are vulnerable to attack, and then the whole edifice behind them disintegrates. We argue for building durable grassroots organisations that can survive now and under National. Unite Union, for example, that socialists helped to build, fought for 9 years under John Key’s National Government. We succeeded in pushing up minimum wage and defeating zero hours contracts. All things that would be deemed impossible under a National government by reformists. So that shows the strength of the independent grassroots movement, led by working people. And that’s what we will continue to do.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}},{"key":"9sco0","text":"\n","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{"textAlignment":"justify"}}],"entityMap":{"0":{"type":"wix-draft-plugin-image","mutability":"IMMUTABLE","data":{"config":{"alignment":"center","size":"content","showTitle":true,"showDescription":true,"textWrap":"wrap"},"src":{"id":"1299d8_06f1f4716a2b49d1b788d00e72844d4d~mv2.jpg","height":656,"width":1050,"original_file_name":"4LI3SUJ_ardern2_jpg.jfif","file_name":"1299d8_06f1f4716a2b49d1b788d00e72844d4d~mv2.jpg"}}}},"VERSION":"9.3.6"}"><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="foo-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="foo-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="foo-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Interview with Joe Carolan </span><span data-offset-key="foo-0-1">by </span><span data-offset-key="foo-0-2" style="font-weight: bold;">Jennifer Pannell. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="2gqak-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2gqak-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="2gqak-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><figure class="_2zSkX FSEVs" contenteditable="false" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="7vkvh-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1BaDs _2OtS3 CKAfH _1CBud Dsu-b _1au4D f3bms4w _3eCPQ undefined kWFic" data-focus="true" role="none" style="cursor: default; position: relative;" width="20"><div class="_2kEVY" data-hook="imageViewer" role="button" tabindex="0"><div class="_3WJnn _2i-Gt f3bms4w" id="new-image26" style="--dim-height: 656; --dim-width: 1050; text-align: justify;"><wow-image class="S8OAb " data-bg-effect-name="" data-has-ssr-src="" data-image-info="{"containerId":"new-image26","displayMode":"fill","isSEOBot":false,"imageData":{"width":1050,"height":656,"uri":"1299d8_06f1f4716a2b49d1b788d00e72844d4d~mv2.jpg","name":"","displayMode":"fill"}}" data-src="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/1299d8_06f1f4716a2b49d1b788d00e72844d4d~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1050,h_656,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/1299d8_06f1f4716a2b49d1b788d00e72844d4d~mv2.jpg" id="1299d8_06f1f4716a2b49d1b788d00e72844d4d~mv2.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/1299d8_06f1f4716a2b49d1b788d00e72844d4d~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1050,h_656,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/1299d8_06f1f4716a2b49d1b788d00e72844d4d~mv2.jpg" style="height: 462px; object-fit: cover; width: 740px;" /></wow-image></div><div class=""></div><div class=""></div></div><div class="aWTlU" data-hook="componentOverlay" draggable="true" role="none"></div></div></figure><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="1e5ab-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1e5ab-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="1e5ab-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="cubmj-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cubmj-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="cubmj-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="1db11-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1db11-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="1db11-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">The sudden resignation of Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand and Labour Party Leader, on the 19th January this year was a shock to many around the world. She was held up by the global mainstream press as a beacon of strong and empathetic leadership in the face of numerous crises throughout her two terms. In her emotional resignation speech, she gave little hint as to why she was stepping down, stating “having reflected over summer I know I no longer have that bit extra in the tank to do the job justice. It’s that simple.” '</span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="fs7tr-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fs7tr-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="fs7tr-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="7g1b3-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7g1b3-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="7g1b3-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">As a socialist, Joe, what’s your analysis of why Ardern resigned? </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="5q0gi-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5q0gi-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="5q0gi-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="fhvg5-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fhvg5-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="fhvg5-0-0">There is a narrative that as a female Prime Minister, she experienced vicious, relentless trolling - death threats and attacks from a deeply misogynistic far-right led mob, who thought she was a dictator, a tyrant, a Communist. This is similar to the ideology used by the far-right in many other countries; in America, in Ireland, etcetera, to demonise anyone in any government who put restrictions on during Covid. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="52enh-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="52enh-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="52enh-0-0">She said herself that her tank was empty, that she didn't have the energy to continue with leadership. What surprised many was the contrast between her resignation and the elation when, only 2 years ago, this government was re-elected with an unprecedented turnout of around 50% for Labour alone. This freed them from having to be in coalition with New Zealand First. It was a huge mandate to have a transformative government, to do all the things she said she wanted to do - abolish child poverty, have our nuclear moment on climate change, to build houses and take care of the poor. It’s very clear, now beginning the 3rd year of this government, that we have done very little on climate change. We have not built enough houses - the housing crisis is arguably worse than ever before, because the economic policies of Labour during Covid pushed up house prices. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="90q4l-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="90q4l-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="90q4l-0-0">Towards the end of her leadership, the government began to push policies that nobody really understood or weren't explained to the electorate when they got that 50% mandate, and it appeared that they were now doing things that people had never agreed to. Like, for example, the Three Waters Reform and co-governance - these are all concepts that many people are just learning about in the last few months, even if there were Labour voters they couldn’t defend the policies because they don't even know what they are. And the flagship policy, the Covid response, was used against her. We saw the numbers of lives saved by that action, but resistance started to grow during the 2nd lockdown. The far-right had a successful street movement that defied the law, that defied the police, and put Parliament under a siege that ended in a riot. That movement smashed the hegemony that we were a team of 5 million, all united in a common fight together against the pandemic. That was a strategy to undermine her. Some of the mainstream right joined in on that, and it has now proven to be a successful strategy to “dislodge the Queen”, to break that halo around her. So I think that factored into her resignation. It was easy to be loved but very different to be hated. She has, I think, 50 active and serious death threats - she’ll probably have police protection for the rest of her life. The international far-right hated her because of her Covid response and singled her out as a target of hate. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="fa7v0-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fa7v0-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="fa7v0-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="dd000-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dd000-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="dd000-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Thanks for your insight, it’s clear there were multiple factors behind Ardern’s decision to step down. Her resignation has made global news - what has the reaction been from the left in Aotearoa?</span><span data-offset-key="dd000-0-1"> </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="cefer-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cefer-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="cefer-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="d60m1-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d60m1-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="d60m1-0-0">First of shock, then second a somewhat false hope, in my opinion, that we've now got a competent team leading Labour (laughs). I didn’t know Chris Hipkins’ [the new Labour leader] nickname was Chippy until last week! We have this attempt by the Labour Party to rebrand him from an apparatchik yes-man, who has only ever followed orders, into a hero of the non-woke, “Westy”, Cody-drinking working class, complete with baseball hat and shades. I'm not sure if that's actually going to wash. The front page was; “It’s back to bread-and-butter issues”, “back to basics”. We've got a cost of living crisis running out of control here, loads of people are still going on strike under a Labour government - nurses, teachers, doctors and loads of private sector strikes. Just to keep up with the cost of living. And there's been no serious moves to dismantle the unfairness of neoliberalism in New Zealand. Housing has got more expensive, rent’s got more expensive. The main damage done to the working poor at the minute is trying to keep up with the rent. I think that the party is out of touch with the people who could or should vote for it. They have done little to nothing to control the private rental market and the cost of buying a house is unreachable for working people. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="8gl7h-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8gl7h-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="8gl7h-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="e16br-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e16br-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="e16br-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Could they turn this around in the next few months?</span><span data-offset-key="e16br-0-1"> </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="45kuo-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="45kuo-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="45kuo-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="f9hns-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="f9hns-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="f9hns-0-0">They'd have to be big reforms - Corbyn/Sanders-style reforms that I don't see in that political leadership. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="530nt-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="530nt-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="530nt-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="7490g-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7490g-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="7490g-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">So, who is Chris Hipkins, and what does he represent?</span><span data-offset-key="7490g-0-1"> </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="96kkl-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="96kkl-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="96kkl-0-0">Good question! I wonder if he looks in the mirror every morning and asks himself the same thing (laughs). </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="5029p-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5029p-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="5029p-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="2fff1-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2fff1-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="2fff1-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"> So, a fairly forgettable candidate then! Looking back at the last two terms, what legacy do you think Ardern will be leaving behind? </span><span data-offset-key="2fff1-0-1"> </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="85bd1-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="85bd1-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="85bd1-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="eakra-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="eakra-0-0"><div style="text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Covid. She defended people from Covid as well as she could, we were zero-Covid for a long time. She built the “team of 5 million” ethos, and we were fairly united as a country during the first year. So that's the good side of the Covid legacy. There was also her reaction after the Christchurch attack, she demonstrated inclusive leadership of a New Zealand where we were united with our Muslim community against a fascist threat. </div><span data-offset-key="eakra-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="185gs-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="185gs-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="185gs-0-0">Many other political leaders fan the flames of Islamophobia, so Ardern donning a hijab and hugging Muslim people was a strong response. It helped to build an anti-racist majority in this country. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="4d184-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4d184-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="4d184-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="11f4l-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="11f4l-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="11f4l-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Are there any negative aspects to her legacy? </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="do5lh-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="do5lh-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="do5lh-0-0"> The negative was Covid, too. It allowed the far-right to brand someone who was seen as compassionate and kind as a dictator, a tyrant. They were able to build an ugly movement of… the lumpenproletariat, I suppose you could say (laughs). It was an angry crowd, but it didn't know what it was angry at. I wouldn't go as far as to say, like many have, that most of the people in the Covid-denial movement were fascist, but it’s the same pool of disgruntlement that the fascists recruit from. We've got to be able to stare down that threat, not let it think that it’s won. The far-right will celebrate Ardern’s resignation as a victory, that they got their way by misogynistic hate and bullying - that that sets a dangerous precedent that may embolden them and they may use those tactics on others. Two sides of the same coin, I suppose.</span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="7m3lh-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7m3lh-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="7m3lh-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="524q7-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="524q7-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="524q7-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Now looking forward, what do you see happening in the next election? What are the key issues for the public and how well do you think they'll align with the major parties’ campaigns? </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="38sli-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="38sli-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="38sli-0-0">We’re back to an argument about economics, poverty, and the cost of living. National will say that this is Labour's mishandling of the economy, that they don’t know anything about business, etcetera. If anything, Labour probably did the most to support business during the pandemic. Many people fell behind on rent and lost their jobs during lockdown. In addition we will see negative campaigning by the right wing against these policies that Labour really hasn't explained to people, like Three Waters. I think Hipkins will try and dump them in the next few weeks, but there are rumours that some groups such as the Māori caucus, which is strong inside the Labour Party, are not prepared to compromise on co-governance or Three Waters. So this could represent a problem for the Labour Party. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="59cle-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="59cle-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="59cle-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="ap09t-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ap09t-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="ap09t-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">What do you think the outcome of the election will be? </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="2g3af-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2g3af-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="2g3af-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="bem5n-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bem5n-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="bem5n-0-0">I think the support for Labour will be reduced. At the minute they are polling at 32%, and I don't think anybody expected to hold their 50%, and the 10% for the Green Party on top. Most left-wingers will be voting Green (or Te Pāti Māori, but I think that will be a smaller percentage, maybe 2 or 3 percent). But the chance for the Greens to cannibalise some of that Labour vote on the left is strong, and I think the socialist left would prefer that to a Labour-only government with 50% of the vote that ignores the Greens. Probably a lot of the left will campaign for the Greens and a more balanced coalition with a Labour party that might be tilting to the left economically, to relate to working class people, fight the cost of living, to protect things like the recently-won Fair Pay Agreements. If those changes happen, I think it will be close. </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="660gf-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="660gf-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="660gf-0-0">We need to get our teeth into a parties like ACT, who are the likely coalition partners with National, and who talk about freedom and liberty but actually were the ones who ripped up the Award system with the Employment Contracts Act of 1991, ripped up the health and education system, who now want to steal 5 sick days from workers [Labour doubled the number of sick days in 2021 from 5 to 10 days per year]. They also want to steal the new Matariki holiday, our first indigenous public holiday in the world. The radical left and the Union movement will defend those, but that's just where they're going to start! So I think that socialists have a lot to fight for this year.</span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="2h9-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2h9-0-0"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><span data-offset-key="2h9-0-1" style="font-weight: bold; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="2h9-0-1">That’s a good segue into my last question. What should socialists be doing in the run up to the election? </span><span data-offset-key="2h9-0-2"> </span></div></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="8j8bc-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8j8bc-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="8j8bc-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="c734v-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c734v-0-0"><div style="text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">We will probably campaign for the Greens. We've worked well with a lot of individual Green MPs - Jan Logie is very strong when it comes to industrial policy, Ricardo Menéndez March was part of the migrant movement alongside the radical left, which won significant immigration reforms last year. In the unions we will be pushing the Labour Party for policies that are honestly pro-working class, such as the potential of Fair Pay Agreements to deliver statutory overtime, weekend rates and night rates like you have in Australia, but parties like ACT stole from us here in Aotearoa in the 1990s. Big reforms will mobilise people, so we'll be fighting for Labour, Greens and the unions to up their game. </div><span data-offset-key="c734v-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="2neuo-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2neuo-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="2neuo-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">An exciting challenge for the socialist left to rise to. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to leave us with?</span><span data-offset-key="2neuo-0-1"> </span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="3bh8d-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3bh8d-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="3bh8d-0-0">Well, if your hopes are pinned on an individual inside a party to deliver reforms for the people, be it Jacinda, Jeremy Corbyn, or Bernie Sanders, the real danger is what happens when that individual goes. What happens when the powers of the state, of the right wing, of the media who are unrelenting, break that person? Do all your hopes and dreams go down with that person too? What socialists argue is we need to build a more sustainable movement where people build power, autonomy and confidence in ourselves, and we don't hand that power over to individual politicians who are vulnerable to attack, and then the whole edifice behind them disintegrates. We argue for building durable grassroots organisations that can survive now and under National. Unite Union, for example, that socialists helped to build, fought for 9 years under John Key’s National Government. We succeeded in pushing up minimum wage and defeating zero hours contracts. All things that would be deemed impossible under a National government by reformists. So that shows the strength of the independent grassroots movement, led by working people. And that’s what we will continue to do.</span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="aghhd-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aghhd-0-0" style="text-align: justify;"><span data-offset-key="aghhd-0-0">
</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J _34Sk8 public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="2gqak-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2gqak-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2gqak-0-0"></span></div></div></div>Jimmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474486233317950960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-50202562633243260882018-12-10T21:42:00.000+13:002018-12-10T21:44:53.118+13:00The Rainbow Rejects the Thin Blue Line<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="810" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4nLuDJBcFu7cbynqqtnIRQfdrdVl5iHo_rcKMD4u1mfgyCzimSmMhdXSqwP6Fc2LgUhUieUpCpKGaUKhcY3tVJv1Hcg2VfvxvEzFRETkIl60ppZ9KgMC35LN0liarbvpL7YDG/s640/PRIDE-SGM-810x497.jpg" width="640" /></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While <a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/47621/Yellow+Vest+protests+unbroken+by+state+violence" target="_blank">the French are rising up against their government and being confronted with armed police and tanks</a>, Auckland’s queer community are in the midst of a small battle of their own. Thursday December 6th saw the debate about whether or not to allow an oppressive force to march in full uniform in a parade commemorating the struggles of the queer community against a colonial state reach its zenith.</span></span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-5f489a5c-7fff-1f87-d93b-135d6bb8ce03" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Last month, <a href="https://aucklandpride.org.nz/media-centre/media-releases/auckland-pride-board-update/" target="_blank">after multiple opportunities for community consultation</a>, the Board given the task of organising February 2019’s Pride Parade let police know that they are welcome to march alongside the LGBTQ+ community, under the one condition that, if they choose to do so, they are not welcome to wear their uniforms.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This kicked off a series of melodramatic but necessary events which have seen <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/21/new-zealand-pride-parade-in-chaos-after-ban-on-police-sparks-mass-withdrawals" target="_blank">the withdrawal of the Police, military, and several major corporate sponsors from the Parade</a>. For some reason, this is considered controversial. The culmination of this supposed crisis has lead to the overwhelmingly wealthy, white, male, cisgender members of the queer community — a group who themselves only became socially accepted very recently — to try and have the Pride Board dismissed. Large groups of people from this side of the debate banded together to try and reinforce their argument.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many have forgotten the <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/homosexual-law-reform/homosexual-law-reform" target="_blank">not-so-distant days</a> in which being gay was an arrest-able, sack-able offence. They’ve forgiven those who would have arrested or fired them for stepping outside the closet doors. They’ve seemingly lost their memories of the very recent arguments about the legitimacy of their own relationships. They’ve become so rapidly assimilated into the presentable that they’ve left behind their former comrades-in-arms, blinded by their own desire to be accepted into “polite society”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Auckland Pride saw a massive upswing in membership registrations, with people from both sides of the debate joining to vote either for or against the no-confidence motion against the Board. In defence of the Board, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AucklandPride/videos/309104446613309/" target="_blank">a slick video was made</a>, while <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/108821654/rupauls-drag-race-star-films-video-in-support-of-auckland-pride-parades-uniform-ban" target="_blank">a queen from Ru Paul’s drag race sent a message of support</a> to those of us who would stand by the victims of police and systemic brutality. The media started on one side of the fence (pro-police, pro-white gay man), then moved to the middle, then many started to understand the arguments posed by the other side.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Special General Meeting (SGM) to vote on the motion was held on Thursday last week. A small group of protesters from left-wing organisations <a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialistlgbt/" target="_blank">Socialist LGBT</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialistaotearoa/" target="_blank">Socialist Aotearoa</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/peopleagainstprisonsaotearoa/" target="_blank">People Against Prisons Aotearoa</a> (PAPA) stood outside, handed out <a href="http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-pride-in-police.html" target="_blank">booklets presenting our argument</a>, and spoke to the media who were present. <a href="https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/story-john-campbell-pride-divide" target="_blank">John Campbell appeared sympathetic</a>. Pictures of the massive queues to get into the meeting and of the small protest outside were taken for posterity, and to enhance interest in later articles.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTf7yZG6AotdIWLKhft7uaZ8IxanqfjylCkOCTUYk82ihziGTDeniviM2dorEPzyoYzmU6-0qOq0ZgIl8tH8WL-X6hRvizC6MpPn-rQ1adUxOaaXEpdHyc5BEgECDDv16OZoSj/s1600/1308227299001_5976166090001_5976167599001-vs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1213" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTf7yZG6AotdIWLKhft7uaZ8IxanqfjylCkOCTUYk82ihziGTDeniviM2dorEPzyoYzmU6-0qOq0ZgIl8tH8WL-X6hRvizC6MpPn-rQ1adUxOaaXEpdHyc5BEgECDDv16OZoSj/s640/1308227299001_5976166090001_5976167599001-vs.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Comrades from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialistlgbt/" target="_blank">Socialist LGBT</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialistaotearoa/" target="_blank">Socialist Aotearoa</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/peopleagainstprisonsaotearoa/" target="_blank">People Against Prisons Aotearoa</a>, demonstrating outside the Special General Meeting</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Inside the meeting, both sides were given the opportunity to speak. The meeting was chaired by an independent individual, who managed to maintain tight control of what could have become an unproductive, even more highly charged, emotionally distressing encounter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first speaker, a well-dressed, white, cisgender male, the epitome of the pro-Police faction, spoke to the motion to have the Board dismissed. He opened with arguments which were echoed by his cohort throughout the meeting: “if we exclude Police now, who will we exclude next?” “Exclusion fuels hate, though with People Against Prisons leading the opposition, perhaps that’s the point”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This man, clearly never having faced a day of state sanctioned oppression in his life, used the idea of “removing barriers” to Pride. Pride, apparently, is about the inclusion of all; it’s about celebrating and embracing who we are. He conveniently forgot that the whole reason in the first place for this division inside the queer community is that for many, celebrating and embracing who they are has lead directly to them having the proverbial beaten out of them, by the same people this man proposes to include.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The targeting of PAPA as an “anarchist group” (a hilarious accusation for those who know the politics of PAPA) of weirdos, who want to destroy the Police, prisons and justice system, was also repeatedly echoed through the night — as was blaming the Board for inadequate consultation (seven hui anyone?), and calling the Board arrogant.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The seconder to the no confidence motion was in no ways different. Again white, cisgender, well dressed, male, though he went a step further and to try and disrespect PAPA by calling them “No Pride in Prisons”, <a href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1709/S00010/no-pride-in-prisons-is-now-people-against-prisons-aotearoa.htm" target="_blank">a name no longer in use</a>. One speaker even suggested that Police in uniform, wearing a rainbow pin, may be PAPA’s greatest allies, a suggestion met with much laughter — clearly showing he and his friends rather miss the point.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The only non-white cisgender speaker for the motion to remove the Board was an African gay man who also self identifies as a drag queen. He spoke of his history of being disowned by his family and his community, and used his examples of how being gay was better in Aotearoa than his country as a reason to dismiss the experiences of other members of the queer community. There was only one woman who spoke to roll the board. She reiterated the same arguments.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There was one speaker who indicated she’d prefer to abstain from the vote. She supported the Board, but not their decision to exclude Police.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On the side in support of the Board and of defending victims of Police violence, speakers were a lot more varied. Gay white males, with all the privilege afforded them as the socially acceptable pinnacle of queerdom, stood up beside women, trans and non-binary people, and those of colour who are also part of the community, to remind their supposed comrades why it isn’t appropriate for the Police to show up in force. The arguments varied as much as the speakers did, in sharp contrast to the other side.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Charlotte — a member of the Green Party, not of PAPA — called for empathy in remembering the victims of Police brutality. She asked those who have not experienced it to listen to the voices of those who have, including her own. She stated that she would not be able to march in the next Parade, in fact has not been able to in the past, because of Police uniforms, as it was a trigger point in reigniting the trauma she herself has experienced.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alexander — a real live PAPA member! — spoke very briefly about how if PAPA had been as successful in hijacking the Board as they’ve been accused of, then Police and Corrections officers wouldn’t be allowed to march at all, let alone in uniform.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Joel, who, like Charlotte, is also not a member of PAPA, spoke of the effects of traumatic experiences on the body. He talked about how the idea of inclusion is an idea for the elite, and he shared his experiences of injustice and inadequacies within the justice system. As a victim of sexual assault, and a high school student at the time of <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/facebook-teen-sex-shaming-exposed-2013110317" target="_blank">the Roast Busters debacle</a>, he has seen first hand <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10674764/Roast-Busters-case-No-charges-to-be-laid" target="_blank">the lack of justice which can be served when it suits the justice system</a>. He reminded us that marginalisation of LGBT is not in the distant past — on the contrary, he pointed out, poverty, drug use, and homelessness are all still illegal, and far more likely to be experienced by people of colour and transgender members of the queer community. He encouraged the Police to walk with us as equals, not hiding behind their uniform.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sharon, who works with her local iwi — remarkably, another non-PAPA member! — reminded us of <a href="https://e-tangata.co.nz/history/moana-jackson-facing-the-truth-about-the-wars/" target="_blank">this country’s colonial history</a>. She spoke of the Police being the “tool of the Crown” in helping steal Māori territory and oppress the Tangata Whenua (“people of the land”) of Aotearoa by any and all means. “I want to echo my people who have stood against the Crown and the Police”. She said that she hopes that someday all parties can march in solidarity, having acknowledged and resolved the wrongdoings of the past. However, she made it clear, to the head shaking and denial of Pākehā in the room, that <a href="https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/moana-jackson-understanding-racism-in-this-country/" target="_blank">these wrongdoings have not ceased, nor have the wrongdoers acknowledged their part in the atrocities which have occurred</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The final speaker on the pro-Board side was Jenny. She is an older, white, cisgender, gay woman, who, again, isn’t a member of PAPA, and who has fought for her own civil rights before even the Hero Parade was a thing. She pointed out the obvious: that to include one group is to by necessity exclude another, and that that including Police was a “touchstone of exclusion” for many members of the rainbow community.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She came armed with facts which highlighted — at least, to those with compassion and a willingness to listen — that Police are hugely guilty of the ongoing discrimination which continues to this day. <a href="https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/native-affairs-racism-nz--seeking-justice" target="_blank">Māori are twice as likely to be stopped by Police before a crime has even been committed; the Police’s own statistics from 2017 show that Māori are four times more likely to be arrested for the same offences as Pākehā</a>, and <a href="http://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/tactical-options-research-reports" target="_blank">eight times more likely to be treated with violence</a>. The Police are “enforcement arms of the state, and are still Colonial”. <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2015/11/commissioner-police-addressing-bias-in-maori-relations.html" target="_blank">The police themselves have acknowledged that they have “unconscious bias”</a>, and that they “go looking for a brown face”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Her final message was a reminder that if we adhere to consensus, then Pākehā voices are the ones which will be heard, at the expense of Māori voices. She wants us to “leave no-one behind” in casting our votes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After a tense two hours of clapping, cheering, disbelief at the views expressed, and heartening empathy displayed by many in the room, votes were cast. Half an hour of vote counting was brought to a close when the Chair announced, for all the world to hear, that the Board will stay!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://gayexpress.co.nz/2018/12/auckland-pride-board-remain-after-a-majority-vote-against-no-confidence-motion/" target="_blank">The majority of people — 325 to 273 — had agreed with the Board’s decision that Police should not be marching in their uniforms of oppression.</a> Sorry wealthy white gays — empathy for those who still suffer at the hands of the state has won out over the wilful ignorance of those who would place Police uniforms above the voices of the marginalised.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">By Danni Wilkinson — <a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialistlgbt/" target="_blank">Socialist LGBT</a> member, <a href="http://nursingreview.co.nz/activists-seeking-nzno-reform-following-dhb-deal/" target="_blank">nurses' union activist</a>, and Co-Chair of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialistaotearoa/" target="_blank">Socialist Aotearoa</a></span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Socialist Aotearoa invites you to our end-of-year hui, 2018: The Return of Class Politics, where we will be hearing from Danni Wilkinson as well as Wayne Baker from Socialist LGBT, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Anu Kaloti from Love Aotearoa, Hate Racism and Migrant Workers' Association, and Socialist Aotearoa organiser Elliot Crossan, about the successes of union, anti-racist, and LGBT struggles this year, why they give us hope, and what we must do to build a movement for transformational change going into the future. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/374049489805766/" target="_blank">You can RSVP here.</a></span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>When:</b> 7pm, Thursday 13th December</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>Where:</b> Unite Union, 6a Western Springs Rd, Morningside, Auckland</i></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialistaotearoa" target="_blank">Please like Socialist Aotearoa on Facebook</a>. Contact us on <a href="mailto:aksocialistaotearoa@gmail.com">aksocialistaotearoa@gmail.com</a>.</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You can <a href="http://lgbtresistance.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">read Socialist LGBT's blog here</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialistlgbt/" target="_blank">like S-LGBT on Facebook here</a>. Contact S-LGBT on <a href="mailto:slgbtaotearoa@gmail.com" target="_blank">slgbtaotearoa@gmail.com</a>.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We would like to express our solidarity with one of our allied organisations in this dispute, People Against Prisons Aotearoa, especially given all the attacks leveled at their organisation over this. <a href="https://papa.org.nz/" target="_blank">Their website is here</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/peopleagainstprisonsaotearoa/" target="_blank">their Facebook page is here</a> if you are interested in finding out more about what they do.</span></i></div>
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Socialisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16624709243949394083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-23511685485591742162018-11-21T17:24:00.002+13:002018-11-25T20:55:07.093+13:00No Pride In the Police<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Part “Hobson’s Pledge”, part “Blue Lives Matter”, with a thin rainbow veneer. Their rhetoric appears to be lifted straight from talkback radio. Intimidation, gas-lighting the victims of police violence, and outright assault of a Māori trans women — this is what the loud majority in the LGBT community have stooped to in order to defend the right of a largely heterosexual police contingent to dominate the Pride Parade.<br />
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The core argument appears to be one of inclusion — but if we want to talk about not excluding straight allies, then how about we talk about not excluding Māori allies, whether cis and straight or LGBT? During my time working with the Mana Movement, I never once encountered discrimination due to my gender identity. When I am a guest on a Marae, even as a Pākehā, my gender identity is always respected — a stark contrast to the Pākehā establishment, who many in the LGBT community wish to make peace with. Naturally, Māori LGBT people have expressed concern with the police marching in uniform, so by including the police (who, let's be honest, are really lousy allies), we exclude a large portion of the Māori community — a community whose support for us is genuine.<br />
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Perhaps it would be prudent to take a quick look at the history of the New Zealand Police as an organisation, to remind ourselves just why so many are uncomfortable with a police presence at Pride. Founded in the early days of colonisation, the organisation that became the New Zealand Police assisted in the colonial conflict against tribes which the settler government judged to be rebellious. Of course, the force was open to high ranking Kūpapa males (Māori who fought on the side of the Crown), as it followed the model of the Royal Irish Constabulary.<br />
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Māori were displaced from the land in the 20th Century, and moved into working class communities. The police moved towards an English model, while systemic racism remained in the background. Working class Māori communities remain the main targets of police violence; LGBT Māori and other LGBT workers living in these communities are subject to police violence throughout most of their lives.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ICK1CjzGiHcPEoaLYfv1fv_XYc3kcdUXlDh9DUKBnQOjtanWC-_N_HotAIymcnpmSR50n7-8UrUw8eBruHFLTHsY92vRcN2uw8HdJRq6uWGm0DD4nsx2ulXP_rGHqUJHTp2Q/s1600/images+%25281%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="616" height="515" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ICK1CjzGiHcPEoaLYfv1fv_XYc3kcdUXlDh9DUKBnQOjtanWC-_N_HotAIymcnpmSR50n7-8UrUw8eBruHFLTHsY92vRcN2uw8HdJRq6uWGm0DD4nsx2ulXP_rGHqUJHTp2Q/s640/images+%25281%2529.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Marsha P. Johnson, the gender non-conforming queer liberation activist who was one of the leaders of the Stonewall Riots against the police</span></i></td></tr>
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At the core of the current dispute is a failure of the privileged within the LGBT community to compromise in order to allow wider participation in what should be a more open, less pinkwashed Pride Parade. This is a continuation of the old politics of respectability, where wealthy LGBT people largely ignored the plight of the less well off in the community during the days of riots such as Stonewall and Compton's Cafeteria — until and unless the latter brought gains that the former stood no chance of getting.<br />
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The privileged in the LGBT community have ridden on the back of the hard-fought struggle of women such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera to a comfortable place in the establishment. They take pride in pissing on the legacy of Stonewall with rainbow police cars, glittery ATMs, and war criminals with rainbow banners. We must bring Pride back to its roots. That starts with gay police officers leaving their uniforms on the racks, and marching with us as equals — something that would never be possible if they forced us to let them march as a systemically oppressive organisation.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TgGtFKBoR8JdkJrCoGRe5zTQL6qOP8J5wJVurREjT6pmbqOvaOx2exu8N4YrHFvVaKnqVecCt4rCrk8EWv9btI5BgYi5cuLwbEkqyegbjDYdMXgPFIysDqQarhZZJNt6YY2p/s1600/received_202080514002853.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TgGtFKBoR8JdkJrCoGRe5zTQL6qOP8J5wJVurREjT6pmbqOvaOx2exu8N4YrHFvVaKnqVecCt4rCrk8EWv9btI5BgYi5cuLwbEkqyegbjDYdMXgPFIysDqQarhZZJNt6YY2p/s320/received_202080514002853.jpeg" width="213" /></a><br />
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<b><i>By Eva Allan, SA member and organiser for Socialist LGBT</i></b><br />
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<i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialistlgbt/" target="_blank">Like Socialist LGBT on Facebook</a></i></div>
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<i><a href="https://lgbtresistance.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Read our blog</a></i><br />
Email Eva if you are interested in getting involved in Socialist LGBT: <a href="mailto:0121bd@gmail.com"><i>0121bd@gmail.com</i></a></div>
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Socialisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16624709243949394083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-24904960812485139972018-11-12T04:49:00.003+13:002018-11-12T14:37:22.800+13:00Trade Unionists Support Our Teachers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5IJ9KyvitMrZqUfx1kBluYh5aCQgnk_2ad0nqcc2tnTDtqQ7pm8swVStPYQBVgoY-L157WgPo-YXgDnq4Fysy8dj6NWe2Qxqgp5jTqT24FfJqnDEybJZd3FlnJSFjkF9RoHdo/s1600/Teachers%2527+strike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="620" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5IJ9KyvitMrZqUfx1kBluYh5aCQgnk_2ad0nqcc2tnTDtqQ7pm8swVStPYQBVgoY-L157WgPo-YXgDnq4Fysy8dj6NWe2Qxqgp5jTqT24FfJqnDEybJZd3FlnJSFjkF9RoHdo/s1600/Teachers%2527+strike.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can We Afford to Pay Teachers and Nurses?</span></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5cdc35cf-7fff-fca3-0b33-c652db78ef81" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This year has seen a remarkable upsurge in workers' struggle. Union members, largely but not exclusively in the public service, are demonstrating loud and clear that they are sick and tired of decades of low wages and precarious conditions, especially with the cost of housing so toweringly high these days. The level of inequality between ordinary workers and our bosses and landlords has become utterly unsustainable — tens of thousands of people are not prepared to tolerate this anymore.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5cdc35cf-7fff-fca3-0b33-c652db78ef81" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have heard, more and more as these workplace disputes have escalated, cries from the government that the pay claims workers — especially primary teachers and nurses — are making are impossible to pay for. This is not true. The much deserved pay rises demanded by teachers, nurses, and other public sector workers could be paid for, with billions of dollars still to spare, through:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></span></span></div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spending just a portion of the $5.5 billion surplus the government recorded in October, which was the biggest surplus since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008;</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taxing the super-rich even slightly — the top 10% of New Zealanders own 60% of the country's wealth, and would still be filthy rich, even if they were made to pay significantly.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br class="kix-line-break" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5cdc35cf-7fff-fca3-0b33-c652db78ef81" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So why is this government, supposedly elected to serve working people, pretending they can't afford to give teachers and nurses a raise? Why aren't they injecting urgently needed money into schools and hospitals put under such strain by years of underfunding?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5cdc35cf-7fff-fca3-0b33-c652db78ef81" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The answer is that the Labour Party either do not want to or are not brave enough to challenge our rigged economic system. Keeping public spending low means taxes can stay low, and privatised utilities can outperform cash-starved public providers, benefiting the wealthier classes. The government are not willing or able to take on these vested interests.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5cdc35cf-7fff-fca3-0b33-c652db78ef81" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The only way to challenge this system is for working people to come together and build a movement so strong that the power of the bosses, the landlords and the government cannot stop us. The early stages of this are already happening, with the biggest strikes in decades giving new hope and energy to so many. But we must go further. We must connect currently disparate struggles, and come together to demand higher wages, better conditions, properly funded public services, and cheaper housing. We need a movement which instead of asking politely for concessions, demands that we put people before profit; that we build a society for the many, not the few.</span></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Written by Elliot Crossan on behalf of the Socialist Aotearoa Action Committee</span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">You
are invited to an event on Friday night to celebrate the hard work
teachers do day by day, year by year in educating and caring for each
generation of young New Zealanders. There will be music and a BBQ.
Speaking to us will be rank-and-file members from the NZ Nurses
Organisation, the Public Service Association, and other unions which
have taken industrial action so far this year. They will be sharing
with us the lessons they have learnt from their struggles, and
messages of solidarity for the current teachers' strike.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We
will be having a dialogue about bringing together 2018's new
generation of strikers around a kaupapa of worker leadership in both
the union movement, and in society as a whole — because when we
stand together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish, and no
struggle we cannot win.</span></span></div>
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<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.08cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>When:
</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">6pm, Friday 16</span><sup><span style="font-weight: normal;">th</span></sup><span style="font-weight: normal;">
November</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.08cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Where:
</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Unite Union, 6a Western Springs
Rd, Morningside</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Food provided, bring
your own drinks and kōrero!</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1955162634599061/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">RSVP HERE</span></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span></span>
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<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
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Socialisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16624709243949394083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-50232265800535272342018-11-05T21:37:00.002+13:002018-11-06T22:44:52.158+13:00Where’s the Justice? MoJ Workers Fight For a Fair Deal<div class="app-container" style="height: 3426.66px; margin-top: 57px; overflow: auto;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-style: italic;">Staff at the Ministry of Justice have been amongst the tens of thousands of workers who have gone on strike this year. Read a report on the struggle so far, and what is coming next, as PSA members demand justice.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2zHHpPHBQHDEZLmH7R8bzH3fucnGIto4nHisMro3eg4vgXZ7zRNejB-HcCBRnIVhXB23-tdpb0i-buDgmVskIXPvFp20hMG9RqJKVm23Hsewemv9-Hro8iET-pJ2IT2TzAhvZ/s1600/Christchurch-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2zHHpPHBQHDEZLmH7R8bzH3fucnGIto4nHisMro3eg4vgXZ7zRNejB-HcCBRnIVhXB23-tdpb0i-buDgmVskIXPvFp20hMG9RqJKVm23Hsewemv9-Hro8iET-pJ2IT2TzAhvZ/s640/Christchurch-4.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">MOJ members on strike in front of Christchurch District Court. Photo credit: PSA</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.15; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">Often when we talk about workers’ struggle, people think about physical labour — miners, factory workers, dock workers, hospitality or customer service, or jobs which are known to be difficult, such as teaching and nursing. Workers in the public service — especially in a place like the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) — are entirely different. I believe there are a couple of key reasons for that:</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The MoJ is seen as a necessary evil</b></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div style="line-height: 1.15; margin-left: 36pt; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">Even if you have absolutely no criticism of the current justice system, having contact with the courts is rarely, if ever, something people want to do. That being said, everybody understands that having workers dedicated to administering justice is required for a fair society.</span></span></div>
<ul style="font-family: sans-serif;">
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>People don't understand the job.</b></span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">If you ask the average person what a Court Registry Officer, Court Transcriptionist, or Victim Advisor does, they most likely won't have an answer for you. All people really see is the queue at the counter, or the wait time trying to call a case manager. They don't see the person comforting a victim throughout the legal process; the case manager slogging through seemingly endless files to get them ready for court; the workers clocking up days worth of overtime a month because they work through lunch and stay late to get everything done.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">So, in sharing the struggle that members of the Public Service Association (PSA), the union which covers workers in MoJ, are going through with their employers, I hope at the very least to share an understanding with you. An understanding that under capitalism, the struggle of one worker is the struggle of all workers, and that the oppression and undervaluing of labour is prevalent wherever you may go.<br /><br />To clarify, this writing is not representative of, nor endorsed by either the Ministry or the PSA.</span></span></div>
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">The Dispute</span></span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />Collective bargaining between the two parties started many months ago, with several claims from the union. Key amongst those were:</span></span></div>
<ul style="font-family: sans-serif;">
<li style="line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">An across the board pay increase;</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li style="line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">Transition from the current performance pay model to a step based pay scale;</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: sans-serif;">
<li style="line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">Safe workloads; and</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li style="line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">A commitment to addressing the gender pay gap.</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">What follows is a timeline of events up until now.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: 700;">24 July</span><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />A pay proposal was put to the PSA, only to be swiftly rejected by members. The bargaining team took the workers’ demands back to the Ministry, until an impasse was reached, with MoJ saying the pay claims were "unaffordable."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">3 September</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">Staff were informed of the PSA's decision to hold a ballot for a one hour nationwide strike on 19 September, and work to rule actions from that day through to 19 October. Members were overwhelmingly in favour.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: 700;">19 September</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">The strike went ahead. This was the first taste that many MoJ workers had ever had of industrial action, and successful action at that.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">26 September</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">The PSA led out Court Security Officers across South Auckland on their first lightning strike — a tactic where members are balloted on short notice, and employers are given 30 minutes notice of industrial action. A second lightning strike followed two days later in Christchurch, and again in Northland a few days after that.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">3 October</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">The Ministry came back with another offer. Bargaining resumed until 18 October where again, the Ministry said they simply could not afford to meet the bargaining claims.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">29 October</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">The bargaining team went into mediation following a request from MOJ. The Ministry still had nothing further to offer.<br /><br />The last few weeks since bargaining failed once again have seen a successful ballot for further work-to-rule actions, and a huge increase in lightning strikes, including:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">All court reporters nationwide;</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">All security officers in the South Island;</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Contact centre workers; and</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Many of the courts throughout the country.</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">The workers are sending a clear message: we're here to fight. The strikers are done with having their future salaries determined by moderators who don't know them; they're done with consistently being amongst the lowest paid Ministries; and they're done with a gender pay gap of about 15%. You would think that this is good news.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><i>"The workers are sending a clear message: we're here to fight."</i></span></span></span></b></span></h3>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />However, throughout this entire dispute, workers have faced an employer that is just as unwilling to back down.</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">During court security strikes, the Ministry has brought in Police as strike-breaking scabs. They claim that they have legal grounds due to "health and safety risks”. In reality, a scab is a scab.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Ministry has filed an injunction against the lightning strikes. They claim that the actions taken are "unlawful," "irresponsible," and "unsafe." Yes, you read that correctly: the courts are using the power of the court against their workers’ right to industrial action.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Throughout the entire process, managers at the Ministry have taken time to thank the non-members covering for their PSA colleagues. This, alongside emails to all staff which attempt to undermine the union’s position and paint their offers as reasonable rather than rubbish, is starting to take a toll on morale among the members, who are not being heard and not being respected.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<div style="line-height: 1.15; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">These are attacks on the union movement, which betray any idea of good faith, and signal a willingness to go to extreme lengths to win the right to undervalue their workers. In a year which has seen MBIE, IRD, and MoJ workers in struggle, it is increasingly clear that even what were once considered "cushy government jobs," are no longer. Neoliberalism takes no prisoners in the war against the working class.<br /><br />However, today saw a victory in favour of the union movement. Today saw the Employment court rule that the injunction sought by Ministry would be denied. Today saw some justice won — but the battle at MoJ is far from over.<br /><br />If you'd like to tautoko Ministry of Justice workers, they are balloting for a nationwide strike on Wednesday 7th November from 12:30-5:00pm. Actions will likely be at or near your local district court, so please attend if you are able. Socialist Aotearoa sends all of our solidarity to PSA members. The workers united will never be defeated!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><b>By Jane Doe, SA</b></i></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14534305913629433589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-18156928157463442592018-10-26T14:10:00.000+13:002018-10-26T14:10:43.171+13:00Democracy For Sale<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Many adjectives have been used this week for the unfolding saga between Simon Bridges and Jamie Lee Ross in the National Party – racist, ugly, disgraceful, corrupt, jihadi Jami……..<br /><br />One Chinese, two Indians, a Filipino etc. etc. This kind of talk grossly offends me as a human being first and foremost, then I feel insulted as an Indian and finally I’m outraged as a resident and a taxpayer in Aotearoa paying fat salaries to money making thugs in the guise of public servants! But I’m not surprised at all as a Socialist.<br /><br />The National Party is at present in opposition but their core philosophy remains unchanged; a core philosophy that obviously views people as votes and dollars instead of hard working citizens who create the dollars for them through their labour. Therefore, whether in government or not, the political parties of a profiteering capitalist system are always the ruling class. As described by Karl Marx, the ruling class is like a “band of warring brothers” in constant competition with each other, giving the system a relentless drive to expand.<br /><br />Another point of disgust to be noted is that the 2 unelected (aka List) Indian MPs from the National Party are so spineless that one has not been available for comment and the other is satisfied with the explanation given by Simon Bridges for being equated to 2 Chinese MPs. There can never be any explanation or justification for supremacy, there can only be outrage, resistance and the will to fight.<br /><br />Anu Kaloti<br /><br />Migrant Workers AssociationUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-8404446930636650142018-08-15T18:49:00.000+12:002018-08-15T18:49:20.906+12:00Class Wars... Teachers Strike Back.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjomH4Dn6phOsGLiSb9i1A0hvMxn-TJgXtjV6p5NMLl9nH8q6KJfLx7odDLpuatVBcd9Zq9UHZfpPywwq-5qJ8ZlgbnveiJGjVh_p46CVOFk9EoKxl1WedSq2BrKMwjKqrFSxQEvQ/s1600/38918412_10155524797937601_6562794123747655680_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="607" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjomH4Dn6phOsGLiSb9i1A0hvMxn-TJgXtjV6p5NMLl9nH8q6KJfLx7odDLpuatVBcd9Zq9UHZfpPywwq-5qJ8ZlgbnveiJGjVh_p46CVOFk9EoKxl1WedSq2BrKMwjKqrFSxQEvQ/s400/38918412_10155524797937601_6562794123747655680_n.jpg" width="252" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWMLA4X7BKb1_vzTot0mZeaIZ7UGNS3lKqoby9kjUJZNNL0fu_OCzX0Ee_daNC1WgBliwI7i9SVktQ455fQzapNPqJNw9t7MjRCTcItM0LraEPE5yZkODtiYnYSzli2Bwir2KQZg/s1600/39096455_10155524797407601_8037092706670870528_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="466" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWMLA4X7BKb1_vzTot0mZeaIZ7UGNS3lKqoby9kjUJZNNL0fu_OCzX0Ee_daNC1WgBliwI7i9SVktQ455fQzapNPqJNw9t7MjRCTcItM0LraEPE5yZkODtiYnYSzli2Bwir2KQZg/s400/39096455_10155524797407601_8037092706670870528_n.jpg" width="193" /></a></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-14439961955306758622018-08-15T17:59:00.000+12:002018-08-15T17:59:55.569+12:00Strike Wave Continues<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On a cold and windy day primary school teachers and principals hold a day of strike all over New Zealand.<br />It was one of the biggest marches on Auckland's Queen Street. Some say 7000, others say 10,000 teachers marched. Aotea Square was overflowing with people willing to stand up and fight back for their rights.<br />Over whelming support for the teachers from a broad spectrum of New Zealandrs is a positive sign too.<br />Recently we have seen the nurses, bus drivers, IRD staff and many private sector workers fight for their work rights.<br />Something is in the air, people will have various labels for this something, I have my own.<br />Amidst the workers of Aotearoa uniting and rising, someone tells me that Socialists must be driven out of trade unions. How bizarre!!<br />Unions without a Socialist backbone are like a human being without oxygen.<br />More importantly, how do you stop the kind of Socialism we have recently seen among striking workers of Aotearoa?<br /><br />Kua tae te waa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Anu SA</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-57981492552669950292018-07-15T10:06:00.000+12:002018-07-15T10:06:18.043+12:00A wake up call: the Far Right in Aotearoa<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Today around 80 supporters of the far right gathered in
Aotea Square brandishing placards in support of Tommy Robinson. Robinson is a
former member of the fascist British National Party, and founded the English Defence
League. He and his cronies are committed to fighting the ‘Islamisation’ of
Europe. Robinson is currently in jail for contempt of court.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I turned up at the rally to join a counter-protest, I
felt sick to the stomach to hear these people talking about ‘free speech’, and
then proceeding to hand out leaflets and tell passers-by to educate themselves
about the threat of Islam. Make no mistake, Robinson and his ilk – though some
of the supporters at the rally may indeed have been hoodwinked into thinking
they were defending the right to non-violent freedom of expression – are toxic,
racist and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>their ‘freedom of speech’ is
in fact hate speech. They want the ‘freedom’ to label Islam a ‘rape culture’ –
yes, that is what they were saying today – to pose Muslims as the great evil
and to use scaremongering as a tactic to achieve their ends. Their poisonous
‘free speech’ is a threat to the cohesion and unity the Kiwi working class
needs in order to fight the true evils – homelessness, lack of housing, a crumbling
health service, the pollution of our land and waterways, climate change. The
list goes on. What we need is to unite – regardless of religion, ethnicity,
country of birth, or sexual orientation – to take on a system that sees big
corporates pay zero tax and the rest of us with below inflation wage rises and
taxed to the eyeballs when many can barely get by on their wage.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the 90s I was a proud member the Anti Nazi League and
Media Workers against the Nazis. We tackled the far-right on the streets and in
our organisations, with a broad united front that included church groups,
unions, political groups with what appeared to be petty differences in the face
of the fascist far right and many more. As media workers we tackled the
inassailable right to free speech for those who abuse free speech to incite
violence against certain ethnicities and religions. As a journalist I
absolutely am against censorship; however, we should not give a platform to
those who hide behind an agenda of ‘freedom’ when they want to deny the freedom
of safety, the right to walk safely down a street as a Muslim family, to those
they tar with the brush of rapists and terrorists.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We must not allow their toxic hate speech to win over hearts
and minds. 80 to 100 far right activists is 80-100 too many. It’s time to
unite, to rally in numbers and said loud and clear ‘Fascism is not and never
will be tolerated in Aotearoa New Zealand’.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09790180386784602803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-80991743920996826722018-07-07T09:53:00.001+12:002018-07-07T09:55:24.024+12:00A Perilous Position<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation working at the country's public hospitals and DHB provided services are in a perilous position since the union's leaders abruptly cancelled one of the two strike days last week. The strike which should have taken place tomorrow, was cancelled last week after the union leaders said it had received a better offer. The union sat on the offer for the weekend before revealing it to be much the same as the previous offer. There was no increase to the percentage of 3% offered as an annual increase, and there was still no backpay but instead a lump sum of $2000 for full time nurses, and proportionally less for part time nurses. The ultimate solution to the short staffing plaguing the hospitals was the same funding of another 500 nurse vacancies for hospital wards only (not DHB funded community nurses or clinics). According to the Nightingales for Fair Pay spokesperson Danni Wilkinson, this amounted to less than 10% of a nurse per ward. The DHBs already have the funds for hundreds of nurse positions but they are unable to fill them due to the national shortage of nurses. The other aspect to the latest offer was that the DHBs had taken the money allocated to improving the registered nurse rate specifically on step 5 and 6 and had redistributed the same money over all nursing categories (enrolled nurses and patient care assistants), and then delayed the introduction of the new rate by several months. On their member facebook page, angry NZNO members lambasted the decision of the union leaders to call off the strike and recommend this offer, threatening to vote no. The vote ends on Monday 9 July and the next strike date is set for 12 July and will only go ahead if a majority of NZNO members vote no.<br />
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The union bureaucracy is appearing to be increasingly unnerved at the prospect of their membership going on strike at all and so there are only a few likely scenarios that may unfold over the coming days. The most unlikely scenario is that members vote yes to the new offer and so there is no need for a strike. There is almost no chance at all of this happening. The other scenarios are all quite bleak for the membership - the first is that the union leaders, even after a no vote to the new offer, will invent another ruse to cancel the strike on 12 July. This is quite likely. Since members were only asked to vote yes or no to strikes on 5 July and 12 July, the union leaders would not be able to propose another strike unless they ran another strike ballot. The power to run a strike ballot is controlled centrally and the union leaders are very unlikely to call off a strike on 12 July and still run another strike ballot. This would leave the members in limbo and disempower them for a few weeks at which point the union leaders would announce that if no better deal was likely and that they were accepting the 3%.<br />
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The next likely scenario is that the union leaders strike a secret deal with the DHB leaders to allow the one day strike on the 12 July to go ahead but for there to be no improvement to the offer thereafter. The union leaders will then wash their hands of the membership after the strike, and send members emails stating that they warned the membership a strike would achieve nothing. This would pave the way for the DHB leaders to unilaterally implement a 3% increase. As chief negotiator Cee Payne set the stage for this possible scenario this week by saying in the NZ Herald, "The NZNO negotiation team has made a recommendation on this offer because they really do believe there is no additional funding that can be achieved by taking industrial action at this time". This is a classic Stalinist tactic that has seen many strikes derailed in the same way in the past. It is also a betrayal of the members democratic rights. The NZNO members have already voted to strike and they should be allowed to strike.<br />
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Following either of these scenarios, the union bureaucrats would wait a very short time for the dust to settle and then begin a backlash against dissidents in their own ranks, dismissing many union staff. At this point, many of the union delegates would already have quit their roles as delegates in disgust at the sellout of the members and so the union would be extremely weak which would allow the union bureaucrats to resume the work of striking poor deals for the members. There would be a high level of disillusionment amongst the members who would revert to not bothering to vote on wage offers which in turn would allow the union bureaucrats to say that the members were apathetic and that this apathy is the reason why the union is not strong.<br />
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The solution to these imminent problems is for the rank and file of NZNO to rise up and demand a new democratic governance structure where members have a direct say in how decisions of the union are made. The current DHB MECA negotiating team must be recalled and replaced with a democratic and accountable team made up of the locally elected union leaders from each DHB coming together as one force. To achieve this, NZNO members will need to organise across the country in support of their demands for internal union democracy.<br />
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SAUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-18521402133844676832018-07-01T02:32:00.000+12:002018-07-01T02:32:39.923+12:00The Rank and File mobilize time to listen to the workers.The nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants have been on a what is now turning out to be a long and windy road to getting their work rights. Long and windy to the detriment of the workers as the first of two 24-hour strikes gets called off by the union bosses under the guise of a newly negotiated deal. But highly advantageous for the union bureaucrats and the government that is all about budget responsibilities and running budget surpluses.<br />
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Throughout this struggle the small minority of well-paid bureaucrats have been dominating negotiations with little regard for the needs of the health sector workers who pay them. The Union is the workers and the bureaucrats they pay are not working for them. The health sector has been neglected by subsequent capitalist governments. The backroom deals favoured by the bureaucrats are not in the interests of the workers who are the union. The bureaucrats must step aside and let the union exercise their labour rights and speak the only language the capitalist bureaucrats in the DHB understand, hit them in the pocket and strike.<br />
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Strikes are only unfortunate for the capitalist class. The idea that workers can exercise power over the relentless exploitation of capitalism is a challenge to the hegemony of the capitalist class. Whatever offer is on the table simply isn't good enough given the totally dilapidated state of the working conditions in the health sector. The DHBs and this government must stop stealing from Peter to pay Paul. We must Tax the rich to fund our essential public services.<br />
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Lets have less of the budget surpluses. Instead lets have more than 500 (0.07 per ward) additional nurses for Aotearoa, lets have the billions of dollars stashed away in ACC trust (not for accidents and injuries) poured into our crumbling public health system, lets listen to the nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants, teachers, bus drivers and all the workers of Aotearoa. Lets do this!<br />
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SA Editorial Team.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-21187885885674891762018-06-23T02:25:00.004+12:002018-06-23T08:57:53.461+12:00Solidarity With All Immigrants.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Just as you don’t have to be Palestinian to understand the brutality of Israeli policy in Gaza and the West Bank, or gay to feel the horror the cleansing in Chechnya, so you don’t have to be a parent to be outraged at what is happening on the US border. But it helps.<span style="background-color: #010198; color: #b3b3b3; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span>In the past week the second of my daughters left home, albeit temporarily. She is 19 and going to live with family overseas, and still I cried. So it’s unfathomable to me, totally and utterly incalculable, the human suffering these parents torn from their children – some just babies - must be enduring. As a mum their pain is my pain. And that of tens of thousands of others, judging by the protests and solidarity actions which forced Trump to ‘retreat’. That much we can celebrate, that compassion and humanity has a voice that can make itself heard. But…. <span style="background-color: #010198; color: #b3b3b3; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span>Yes Donald Trump has reversed this inhumane policy. He did so by signing an executive order – even though he earlier claimed this was not possible. But however the policy was reversed, it was only through strong pressure, from fellow politicians and the American people, that he was forced to back down. However, as Richard Wolffe ominously put it in The Guardian, this is not the end of the story. “Just like the botched Muslim travel ban, we know that Trump’s worst instincts don’t simply disappear. They metastasize into other forms of immigrant persecution and racial politics.” What’s more, there are still some 2300 children who will remain separated from their parents under Trumps zero-tolerance policy.<br />
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</span>The executive order to everyone who crosses the border illegally will continue to be prosecuted, but they’ll try to find or build facilities that can hold parents and children together, instead of separating them while their legal cases are before the courts. But where will they be detained? In what sort of conditions? For how long? And once the political pressure is off, will the remaining separated children just languish in detention? The racism of the Trump administration can’t be allowed to thrive. Trump’s linking of all non-documented immigrants with violent gangs is ugly, cheap, and dangerous. Gangs which, by the way, are themselves the product of racism towards refugees fleeing violence in El Salvador; youth who tried to make the US their home but were greeted chiefly with hostility and marginalisation. The White House is using the oldest trick in the book, using sensationalism and lies to make certain peoples and ethnicities appear alien and dangerous. In an off-script outburst, Trump said “We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — we’re stopping a lot of them ...you wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people, these are animals, and we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before.”<span style="background-color: #010198; color: #b3b3b3; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span>Calling these people ‘animals’ gives fuel to the racist vigilantes, far right groups and even the authorities themselves. It gives them licence to commit further murders like that of Claudia Patricia Gomez Gonzalez, 19, from Guatemala who was shot and killed by Border Patrol in May while crossing into the U.S. We must keep up the protests, we must continue to counter the lies that undocumented immigrants are a threat to national security. And we must oppose loudly and clearly the separation of children from their families. We’ve called for the closing of the Israeli Embassy because of the country’s treatment of Palestinians. It’s a long shot… but how about we close the US Embassy too. Why should we dignify the Embassy of a Fascist administration with the right to representation on our soil. This demonizing of immigrants is not just immoral; as socialists we stand opposed to all such tactics to blame one group of workers for the problems created by the system<br />
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Solidarity with all immigrants.<br />
Maria SAUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-60890704396937631482018-06-12T00:27:00.003+12:002018-10-28T01:13:27.223+13:00Stop the False Compromise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<i>Workers are gaining confidence since the election of the new Government. Now is the time to push forward.</i></div>
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There is a pervasive myth on the left that while we may want to see
significant, systemic change to society, we have to constantly tone down
the demands we make and the reforms we argue for, because doing so will
win support from business and the media and neutralise the arguments
that National and their outriders try to make. This argument has been
disproven time and time again, and <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/104594397/jacinda-ardern-must-pause-radical-reforms-or-risk-economic-consequences-of-falling-business-confidence--national" target="_blank">this article</a> demonstrates precisely
why. Simon Bridges is saying that Ardern and her Government "must pause
radical reforms or risk economic consequences of falling business
confidence".</div>
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Now, which of the policies that the Government is
proposing are "radical reforms"? Apparently, the main "radical reform"
is the ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling <span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">— </span>a supposed
environmental win which in reality is tiny and fairly meaningless, given
the likely expansion of onshore drilling, and given the difficulty at
this stage of finding anywhere else to drill in our oceans since all of
the low hanging fruits for offshore drilling have already been handed
out in decades-long permits, which Labour have committed to honouring.
The other concern Bridges mentioned is the minor changes the Government
is proposing to industrial relations.</div>
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We saw this exact same
thing during the election. National didn't care for a second that
Labour and the Greens had committed to neoliberal, small government
economics with the Budget Responsibility Rules. They accused Labour of
having an $11 billion hole in their manifesto, the media endlessly
repeated it as if it were true, and the kind of people who fall for that
kind of rhetoric were convinced. The kind of people who aren't
inclined to believe National didn't. Labour didn't fight back, they
conceded ground, and did a u-turn on their tax policy.</div>
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It is so
important for those of us who do want real change to understand that
moderating all of the reforms we propose, that giving up on hope of
significant progress in favour of tinkering around the edges to blunt
the worst aspects of the system we live under, never actually works. A
supposedly progressive Government can put forward the most pathetic,
milquetoast platform, and still get attacked by business, the media, and
of course the National Party, with the exact same lines they would use
if we were actually fighting for a transformational agenda: business
confidence is down, the economy is going to collapse, stop these
"radical reforms", the left are crazy radicals, etc.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Both the
National Party and the corporate-owned media exist to perpetuate the
interests of the business and property owning class. They will fight
tooth and nail against the tiniest concession to the working class or
the environment if it at all harms the capital accumulation of the
wealthy. They will NEVER compromise with us.</div>
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So we need to stop
compromising with them. Call their bluff. See how ordinary people feel
about a programme which fights for the interests of the many, not the
few. And stop paying attention to the lies, smears and attacks of those
who will never, ever stop howling that we are ruining everything every
time we take any action, no matter how small, against the vested
interests of the establishment.<br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>By Elliot Crossan</b></i></div>
Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11960995458664423354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-25505904147114895742018-06-11T17:36:00.002+12:002018-06-11T17:36:48.021+12:00May 68: The year that Paris erupted<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />It’s 50 years since Paris witnessed the incredible power of workers and students united, as millions took to the streets to challenge the reactionary French state, and shook the very class system to its core. We look at how events unfolded, and why the demands and action at their heart remain relevant today.<br /><br />On the 22nd of March 1968, 150 students, far left groups, poets and musicians occupied the administration building of Nanterre University outside Paris to protest /discuss class discrimination in French society and political bureaucracy that controlled university funding. The university was still under construction, and some 12,000 students were expected to study in what was effectively still a building site. Not only that, but there was strict segregation between male and female students – which didn’t go down well at a time of growing sexual emancipation. In response to the occupation, the administration called the police. After announcing their demands, students left without incidence. But then they took their protest movement to the Sorbonne in the very centre of Paris.<br /><br /> On the 2nd of May, following months of conflict, the administration shut down Nanterre university. Students at Sorbonne university met on the 3rd to protest the closure and expulsion of several students at Nanterre. On May 6 the national student union (UNEF) and the union of teachers called a march. More than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched toward the Sorbonne, which was still sealed off by the police, who charged wielding their batons. As the students dispersed some started building barricades and throwing cobble stones, forcing the police to retreat. The police responded with tear gas and charged again. Hundreds of students were arrested The following day the protest numbers swelled as high school students joined in. Students, teachers and workers gathered at the Arc de Triomphe with three demands. First, that all criminal charges against arrested students be dropped. Second, that police leave the campus. And thirdly, that the authorities to reopen the university. On Friday another huge crowd congregated on the Rive Gauche, when they were blocked from crossing the river. Again they threw up barricades. Police attacked at 2.15 am, there were hundreds of injuries and arrests, fighting lasted until dawn the events were covered on television and radio with allegations that police provocateurs burned cars and threw Molotov cocktails, causing sympathy for the students. After initially being very critical of the students, the major unions, the CGT and the CGT-FO – embarrassed by the support from rank and file worker for the students, contrasted with their own inaction - finally called a general strike and demonstration for the 13th. Well over a million people marched through Paris on that day. The police stayed out of sight – clearly vindicating Marx’s view that the workers are the only group in society capable of overthrowing the bourgeois capitalists. Alone, the students had been victim to police violence; with the backing of the workers, their power was unstoppable.In a very telling interview with the head of police afterwards, he said “The real danger was when the workers took part… when the large forces of the CGT and the [union federations], understanding that their credibility was at stake, call for the generalization of the strike. It is then that the fragility of the state appeared clearly. The police could disperse a demonstration, overturn 10 or 20 barricades. It could not clear out 100 or 500 factories, workshops, department stores, banks and train stations, less still get them back to work."<br />The prime minister announced the release of all the detained students, the reopening of the Sorbonne, and the students moved in and occupied, naming it the people’s university.A total of 401 action committees were set up to take grievances to the state and French society. The workers started occupying factories - 50 by the 16th May, 200,000 on strike on the 17th, 2 million by the 18th. Then 10 milion – two-thirds of the workforce and 20% of the population of France – took part the following week.<div>
<br />The CGT tried to channel the energy into wage demands, but the workers and students demanded the ousting of the government and President de Gaulle, and attempted to run their own factories. The CGT negotiated a 35% increase in the minimum wage and a 7% increase for all workers, but the workers and students jeered at the officials. This is another important lesson, demonstrating the follies of reformist parties.The French communist party was a Stalinist reformist organisation that had ambitions of being in a coalition government with the socialist party. It was wedded to the parliamentary system and did not want revolution because it would destroy their privileged position in the capitalist system. It was their influence on the workers that discouraged them from going the whole hog and achieving a workers’ and people’s democracy based on workers’ soviets and people’s councils as opposed to the fake so-called democracy based on voting every few years. And then leaving the lying politicians to look after the interests of the corporate powers . The general strike continued for 2 weeks until finally De Gaulle fled the country and most officials believed the revolution was a fait accompli. On the 30th May, thousands of protesters marched through the streets chanting ‘Adieu de Gaulle!”. That same day, de Gaulle announced an election on the 23rd of June, which he won by a large majority. But the lessons of May 68 remain clear and relevant. First, the importance of having an organised group of socialists ready to respond when these events erupt - which they can at any time. Workers will, and should, be the ones to make the revolution but the role of an organised group that can cut through the fakery of reformism and guide workers to taking power, is key. A group which has won the confidence of workers well beforehand by supporting them in their struggles. Another important point, often discussed among socialists and anarchists, is the question of violence in a revolution. In May 68, when a small group of radicals were involved, the state used violence against them, but once the workers came out en masse, the police were nowhere to be seen.This has been demonstrated repeatedly in history; the police and army are very brave when they outnumber you easily and obviously but when revolution is imminent they start reconsidering there options.A la victoire!<div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-78216370569188178892018-05-01T22:41:00.000+12:002018-05-01T22:41:10.633+12:00Health sector workers pay dispute and Labour's "Independent" pay panel. From Middlemore to Whangarei Base and in little old Waitakere hospital the health sector workers have been making their voices heard in recent weeks. At Middlemore over 300 nurses and health sector workers rallied, supported by Unite Union, First Union and Etu. Notable was the absence of many public sector unions, though PSA did have a limited presence. At Waitakere, Auckland Action Against Poverty were there in solidarity, while in Whangarei there was a chorus of car horns as the public enthusiastically voiced their support.<br />
What is clear from the strong turnout is that the 2% pay offer offered by the District Health Boards (DHBs) is not even close to what is required by our nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants.<br />
In a bid to ward off strike action, Jacinda Ardern proposed an independent panel work with the NZ Nurses Organisation (NZNO) and DHBs to find agreement on pay equity and working conditions.<br />
NZNO members are currently in the process of making a decision on industrial action should the independent panel not provide a desired outcome.<br />
But exactly how independent is the ‘independent panel’?<br />
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Margaret Wilson is the ‘independent’ chair of this panel. She has held various positions in Labour governments of Geoffrey Palmer and Helen Clark as well as being the director of the Reserve Bank from 1985 to 1989. She is a member of the Labour Party of NZ. With such strong ties to the Labour party her independence and neutrality must be questioned.<br />
<br />
Geoff Annals is representing the NZNO but he is the former chief executive of NZNO. At present he is the chief executive of Accuro Health Insurance. While Accuro, according to its website, is a not for profit health insurer, it is an insurance company that provides cover for private healthcare. Such organisations can only thrive if the public health sector is in decline. New Zealand’s public health sector has been run down over the years and now the workers in this sector and NZNO members have decided enough is enough. The fact that NZNO members are being represented by a non NZNO person who has a direct conflict of interest with the public health sector casts doubt on that proposed 2% increase shifting much in a positive direction.<br />
Then there’s Julie Patterson, former Chief Executive of Whanganui DHB, who is representing the DHBs. She was Whanganui DHB’s chief executive until October 2017. One of her main achievements has been turning around Whanganui DHB’s $10 million deficit from nine years ago to being on budget before she resigned. It is notable that NZNO members from Whanganui DHB have also been holding pickets recently to demand a higher than 2% pay rise like their fellow members from other DHBs. It would not be surprising at all if Julie prioritises DHBs’ budget responsibilities over needs of nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants.<br />
So it seems all the panellists on the ‘independent’ panel are well placed to look after the dollars at the expense of workers in the public health sector. The outcome of panel negotiations, due mid-May, looks bleak for the working class.<br />
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Instead of running budget surpluses the government needs to invest in our public health system by employing more nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants.<br />
The government must provide and adhere to timeframes for delivery of these demands.<br />
And after all this carry-on at tax payers’ expense, “the panel’s recommendation is not binding on either side, but it is based on a joint approach and submissions and reflecting the views of both sides,” says panellist Wilson.<br />
Meanwhile, the call is growing for ’18 in 18’ – an 18% pay rise for nurses to make up for years of underfunding. Strike action would be the first in decades by health workers, and they wouldn’t be doing it lightly. It is not industrial action, but ongoing underfunding of the health service, that is putting patients’ lives at risk. To offer 2% is not just to disrespect the nurses, but the ordinary Kiwis whose wellbeing depends on them. A victory for the nurses is a victory for all workers,<br />
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SA Editorial<br />
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Waitakere</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-55206616478447091492018-04-17T12:12:00.002+12:002018-04-17T12:18:08.881+12:00Rising in the North, South, and West Heath Sector Workers Reject 2%.From Middlemore to Whangarei Base and in little old Waitakere hospital the health sector workers are making the voices heard. At Middlemore over 300 nurses and health sector workers rallied supported by Unite Union, First Union and Etu. Notable was the absence of many public sector Unions though PSA did have a limited presence. At Waitakere Auckland Action Against poverty were there in solidarity while in Whangarei there was a chorus of car horns as the public enthusiastically voiced voiced their support for their nurses.<br />
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Turnout has been rather good With the Whangarei picket notably stronger than expected with around 50 people present. What is clear from the strong turnout is that the 2%pay offer is not even close to what is required by our health sector workers. Rather a figure closer to 18% would address the needs of the diligent heath sector workers.<br />
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Our workers deserve more 18% in 2018.<br />
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SA.<br />
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Middlemore</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-55113473208487017982018-04-13T12:22:00.001+12:002018-04-13T16:32:45.536+12:00A Return to the "Oppositional Behavior of Last Century"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />A couple of months back, PSA union leader Erin Polaczuk told the Listener magazine she was glad to be operating in a ‘mature era’, where battles are won in court rather than on testosterone-fuelled picket lines. Okay, so those weren’t her exact words but that’s pretty much the gist. That thanks to the ‘feminisation of unions”, that “stupid oppositional behaviour” – ie strikes – are a little bit, you know, last century.<br /><br />She cited the case of the huge settlement last year for care and support workers, led by the amazing Kristine Bartlett. That it was won in court. And yes, kudos to Kristine for taking her stand. But, crucially, Kristine had behind her the mass power of her union, and the real source of that power? The ability to strike.<br /><br />Strikes – and I say this as a longtime female unionist – are not macho, they’re not old-fashioned, they’re not “stupid”. They are, quite simply, the only real firepower we have. The ultimate expression of the power of collectivity.<br /><br />I have been a union member for almost 30 years and in that time I’ve heard a lot of different reasons why striking, even belonging to a union, isn’t smart or modern. As a sub-editor on London’s Daily Mirror in the early 90s, I heard ‘ah but we’re white collar’, ‘we’re part of the new middle-class’ ‘we’re creatives; we don’t clock on and off… unions are for blue collar workers’; ‘we should form a staff association; they’re less confrontational’. Lol. Why not form a book club while you’re at it.<br />I haven’t heard the ‘it’s not ladylike’ before. But hey.<br /><br />So Erin, you think strikes are macho? Tell that to those American women teachers who, despite living in a country ruled by an arch-sexist, recently went on strike for nine days and won a pay rise for all state employees in West Virginia.<br />Tell it to the all-female kindergarten workers in New Delhi who last year won a doubling in their salary after a strike by their, also female, union leader Shivani.<br /><br />Closer to home, tell that to <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/nga-uniana-maori-and-the-union-movement/page-3">Joyce Hawe</a><a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/nga-uniana-maori-and-the-union-movement/page-3"> of Te Arawa</a>, a machinist at Progress Manufacturing in Porirua who organised a successful strike for higher pay. Or <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/employment/news/article.cfm?c_id=11&objectid=11602452">Bertie Ratu</a>, who organised a protest when Talleys sacked her for being a unionist. Or any number of women throughout labour history. The Dagenham machinists whose action in the 70s led to not just pay rises for them, but a pay equality law change. The many women throughout history at the forefront of revolutionary action, from the Paris Commune to the Russian Revolution.<br /><br />Striking is a proud and mighty tradition – for men and women, side by side. And strikes have often been led by women because in a world where we suffer discrimination and sexism, we understand that it’s by withdrawing our labour that we can really be heard. We understand that while the 1% hold the wealth, it’s us - ordinary men and women - who create it.<br /><br />Why do I mention this now? Well, we’ve just seen a week of strong, vocal rallies by nurses from the NZNO union, many of them women. They are on the brink of strike action after rejecting a paltry 2 per cent pay offer. They feel undervalued. They feel their work conditions are jeopardising quality of care for patients. They don’t want to strike. They’re in their profession because they care about sick people, so of course a vote to withdraw their labour – however minimal the risk to patients – is not taken lightly. But they know, as I and millions of women before me have known, that strikes make the bosses sit up and listen.<br /><br />All power to them.<br />Maria SAUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-84412676607962023962018-04-13T10:18:00.001+12:002018-04-13T10:18:04.882+12:00<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A couple of months back, PSA union leader Erin Polaczuk told
the Listener magazine she was glad to be operating in a ‘mature era’, where
battles are won in court rather than on testosterone-fuelled picket lines. Okay,
so those weren’t her exact words but that’s pretty much the gist. That thanks
to the ‘feminisation of unions”,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that
“stupid oppositional behaviour” – ie strikes – are a little bit, you know, last
century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">She cited the case of the huge settlement last year for care
and support workers, led by the amazing Kristine Bartlett. That it was won in
court. And yes, kudos to Kristine for taking her stand. But, crucially,
Kristine had behind her the mass power of her union, and the real source of
that power? The ability to strike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Strikes – and I say this as a longtime female unionist – are
not macho, they’re not old-fashioned, they’re not “stupid”. They are, quite
simply, the only real firepower we have. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ultimate expression of the power of
collectivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have been a union member for almost 30 years and in that
time I’ve heard a lot of different reasons why striking, even belonging to a
union, isn’t smart or modern. As a sub-editor on London’s Daily Mirror in the
early 90s, I heard ‘ah but we’re white collar’, ‘we’re part of the new
middle-class’ ‘we’re creatives; we don’t clock on and off… unions are for blue
collar workers’; ‘we should form a staff association; they’re less
confrontational’. Lol. Why not form a book club while you’re at it.<br />
I haven’t heard the ‘it’s not ladylike’ before. But hey. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
So Erin, you
think strikes are macho? Tell that to those American women teachers who,
despite living in a country ruled by an arch-sexist, <span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">recently went on strike
for nine days and won a pay rise for all state employees in West Virginia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Tell it
to the all-female kindergarten workers in New Delhi who last year won a
doubling in their salary after a strike by their, also female, union leader
Shivani.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Closer to home, tell that to </span><a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/nga-uniana-maori-and-the-union-movement/page-3"><span style="color: #c72730; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Joyce Hawe</span></a><a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/nga-uniana-maori-and-the-union-movement/page-3"><span style="color: #c72730; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> of Te Arawa</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">, a
machinist at Progress Manufacturing in Porirua who organised a successful
strike for higher pay. Or </span><a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/employment/news/article.cfm?c_id=11&objectid=11602452"><span style="color: #c72730; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Bertie Ratu</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">, who
organised a protest when Talleys sacked her for being a unionist. Or any number
of women throughout labour history. The Dagenham machinists whose action in the
70s led to not just pay rises for them, but a pay equality law change. The many
women throughout history at the forefront of revolutionary action, from the
Paris Commune to the Russian Revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Striking is a proud and mighty tradition – for men and
women, side by side. And strikes have often been led by women because in a
world where we suffer discrimination and sexism, we understand that it’s by
withdrawing our labour that we can really be heard. We understand that while
the 1% hold the wealth, it’s us - ordinary men and women - who create it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Why do I mention this now? Well, we’ve just seen a week of
strong, vocal rallies by nurses from the NZNO union, many of them women. They <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are on the brink of strike action after
rejecting a paltry 2 per cent pay offer. They feel undervalued. They feel their
work conditions are jeopardising quality of care for patients. They don’t want
to strike. They’re in their profession because they care about sick people, so
of course a vote to withdraw their labour – however minimal the risk to
patients – is not taken lightly. But they know, as I and millions of women
before me have known, that strikes make the bosses sit up and listen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">All power to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09790180386784602803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-14308687636198163842018-04-09T21:55:00.001+12:002018-04-09T22:30:46.893+12:00A Return to Union Solidarity.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To attempt a gargantuan struggle alone is a mammoth task indeed. Just as we unite together to fight the bosses unions must band together in solidarity when the negotiations break down and the struggle hits the streets. As the Nurses struggle intensifies the class is faced with the cruel reality that what eventuates here will set the tone for the worker's struggle under this somewhat misleadingly named Labour government.<br />
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For my generation the class struggle under a Labour government is a totally new game far more insidious than the cut throat front stabbing nature of the struggle under National. And many of the freshly graduated nurses are younger still. This it is vital that we stand on the shoulders of giants and knowledge the mighty struggles of the past. Wihi, and the Waterfront strikes, to Mc Strike and the Zero hours campaign we must struggle together and stand in solidarity with the nurses.<br />
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Nurses wages have stagnated in relation to inflation. Care has become a commodity under the cut throat regime of recent health policy with flow on impact in the community. With patient care not up to standard. Inexperienced nurses forced to perform to a standard far beyond their years resulting in inordinate strain on our youngest healthcare workers. Nursing has become a low wage job which is totally unacceptable. Middlemore is falling apart DHB's are rotten to the core. The government won't do it we must get out on the picket lines and support the Nurses.<br />
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So where is the money going to come from? Put simply there is only one way to collect the funding to sort this colossal mess the current tax system is skewed to extort funding from those who can least afford it while the capitalist classes pay little to no tax on the surplus value that they extract from our tireless labour. We have the money to fix this it is simply sitting captive in the pockets of the wealthy. We must Tax the Rich to Sort the hospitals. Pay the nurses a living wage and fund the care to standards that will be the envy of the world.<br />
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Solidarity Forever<br />
Comrade Eva.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-9811534477151413812018-04-07T16:19:00.000+12:002018-04-08T17:06:19.261+12:00Why is the Media Silent About This... Aotearoa Rallies for Justice in Palestine<b>"Why is the media silent about this"</b>... The words of Palestinian refugee Billy Hania echoed through the town square as about 100 people rallied for justice in Palestine. That morning 10 people killed on the border of Gaza including one journalist according to Rodger Fowler from Kia Ora Gaza. Gaza the largest open air prison under constant attack while our government is silent. Fowler proposed that the government should shut the Israeli embassy.<br />
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In the aftermath of the good Friday massacre Auckland rallied for Palestine where Israeli snipers killed 18 with highly train snipers targeted journalists and civilians while the blockade of Gaza continues to affect the lives of millions of Palestinians who were cleared out of the land occupied by Israel. The Labour government continues to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel regardless of the human rights abuses said rouge state continues to perpetuate. The perpetrator of the violence continues to claim to be the victim.<br />
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As we approach the 50th anniversary of the notorious Nakba day we must build in solidarity to send shock waves around the world to bring this rouge apartheid state of Israel to it's knees. To stop Israel we must make the world say no to Zionism. The two state solution is dead Israel had no intention of honoring it. The only course of action is a single secular Palestinian state where Jew and Arab alike have an equal stake.<br />
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Solidarity and Freedom for Palistine.<br />
Comrade Eva<br />
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LGBT For Palistine</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-46205233102015397102018-01-25T14:01:00.001+13:002018-01-25T14:01:20.388+13:00Can we save Capitalism or should we save the world?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Capitalism has a problem. This is rather universally believed, with the main dispute being what that problem is. <br /><br />For many capitalists, the problem is an image problem or perhaps a more substantial problem to do with endless restructuring & staff reductions, outsourcing, commoditisation, price competition driving down wages, declining innovation and slow profit growth. Others think capitalism is under siege – with social problems de-legitimising business i.e. businesses have lost their ‘social contract to operate’ leading to social unrest and popular movements against capitalism.<br /><br />However, capitalists tend to suggest a tweeking of capitalism is required rather than a wholesale system change: i.e. there is simply a need to re-invent capitalism. At least four of these “re-inventions” are currently blossoming in the NZ context:<br /><br />Shared Value - which proposes to transform social problems relevant to the corporation into business opportunities, thereby contributing to the solving of critical societal challenges while simultaneously driving greater profitability. Lion Nathan are strong proponents of Shared Value, led by their parent company in Japan.<br /><br />Conscious Capitalism - which proposes that the free market capitalism is a powerful system for social cooperation and human progress; and seeks to build on the core foundations of capitalism such as voluntary exchange, competition, freedom to trade and the rule of law, by adding elements like trust, compassion, collaboration and value creation. Starbucks and Patagonia are proponents of Conscious Capitalism.<br /><br />Capitalism 3.0 – which proposes a revolution in management thinking focused on "delighting customers" and redefining managerial roles, coordination mechanisms, values and communications so that everyone and everything in the corporation is oriented towards accomplishing this goal. It proposes starting from what would delight the client and focusing the entire organization on that goal. Amazon and Salesforce are said to be leaders in Capitalism 3.0.<br /><br />Eco-Capitalism / Green Capitalism – which proposes that capital exists in nature as "natural capital" and market-based government policy instruments can be used to resolve environmental problems. Basically, despite the global social and ecological crisis, the capitalist system can continue to expand by changing to a new ‘sustainable’ or ‘green capitalism’, bringing the efficiency of the market to bear on nature and its reproduction. Green Capitalism tends to put the onus of solving environmental problems on changing individual life styles. The Green Party is a proponent of Green Capitalism.<br /><br />The appeal of all four systems is that they do not challenge the fundamental political and economic systems we have. They provide a nonthreatening re-invention of capitalism palatable to many political and business leaders, as well as the mainstream public. <br /><br />However, re-invented capitalist ideologies have four main flaws in common:<br /><br />They continue to assert that endless growth can occur in a finite ecological system i.e. that capitalism can find a way to profit from the problems created by capitalism. They assume that by profiting from addressing planetary destruction, inequality and social disfunction we can somehow solve these problems. By seeking to cherry pick profitable solutions they simply create a few islands of change within a sea of issues.<br /><br />They tend to ignore the trade-offs that are required between social, environmental and economic goals unless a profit can be identified. In particular, social and environmental problems caused by the corporate are simply ignored. For example, in a recent forum discussing Shared Value, Lion Nathan was asked the question of how they could say they were following a Shared Value ideology when their product (alcohol) caused such harm. Their response was there was nothing they could do about that so they would ignore it and focus on areas they could find value.<br /><br />They presume compliance with legislation and ethical standards, while ignoring substantial evidence of widespread non-compliance. Basically, if you pretend it’s not happening you don’t need to factor it into your ideology. Non-compliance and unethical business behaviour are ‘messy’ to try to account for. It’s simply easier to ignore this element than to ensure corporations pay their fair share of taxes, halt environmental harm caused by their activities and respect international labour standards.<br /><br />They continue to incorrectly define the corporate role in society. A fundamental flaw in capitalism is that corporations are not responsible to society. Re-invented capitalism is still capitalism – with all the same focus on profit, corporate self-interest and the tensions between capital and labour; and between capital and the environment. Re-invented capitalism does not provide us with new insight into the systematic nature of many social and environmental problems; but instead ignores the basic understanding that what is needed to avoid environmental collapse and significant human tragedy is a contraction in global use of resources. <br /><br />Re-inventing capitalism is truly the equivalent to shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. Maximizing profit and saving the planet are inherently in conflict and cannot be systematically aligned. <br /><br />Proponents of re-invented capitalist ideologies point to the reduced ozone hole over Antarctica as an example of how capitalist measures have been successful in addressing an environmental issue. By incentivising the use of non-ozone depleting products, they claim, the ozone problem has been solved. However, this example conveniently forgets the solution required an unprecedented global regulatory intervention, against industry lobbying, and the environmental improvement has taken 20 years and counting. <br /><br />Addressing the even more complex social and environmental problems we currently face will require a rapid, substantial and immediate global regulatory response in the hope that in 20-30 years we may again see an improvement in the situation. This despite substantive corporate opposition to such global regulatory change – corporate opposition which is considerably stronger than in the mid 1990’s when the ozone layer was addressed.<br /><br />We no longer have the luxury of incremental change or tinkering around the edges. In order to address the scale and urgency of our social and environmental problems, we need to systematically subordinate the pursuit of profit. We need to abandon capitalism. <br /><br />There is no capitalist solution to our ecological crisis. <br />Either we save capitalism or we save the humans. We can’t save both.<br /><br />System Change not Climate Change <br />Lavinia SA<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-13602383816157156372018-01-14T12:28:00.000+13:002018-01-14T12:28:09.330+13:00History of the Russian RevolutionJust reading Trotsky’s the history of the Russian Revolution. A large book with huge detail and amazing insight into the psychology and treachery of the counter revolutionary forces, and of course western industrialist interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation, surprise, surprise<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
What I find fascinating is the similarity between this and the normal workings of a so-called democracy in an imperialist world with all the usual lies and treachery. While the workings and treachery are nothing new, it gives a great insight and understanding into how it all works and a great education for people interested in changing the world order and achieving a real people’s democracy.<br />
<br />
While reading it I took time out to read a small Socialist Aotearoa pamphlet called ‘In Defence of October’. This was a debate between four historians on whether Leninism led to Stalinism. An interesting debate with a lot of good points made in it, but by the end there seemed to be one glaring omission – and I think this is true in general about the debate on this subject worldwide – and that is:<br />
<br />
Did western industrialist interference in the revolution lead to Stalinism? Did Churchillism lead to Stalinism? Did Churchillism lead to Hitler? Did it lead to Franco? Did it lead to Mussolini? Did it lead to the Greek generals? Did it lead to Pinochet? Did it lead to Pol Pot?<br />
<br />
The list goes on and on. I could list about 50 countries where the US alone has been instrumental in installing horrible dictators, which ultimately has led to the fucked up capitalist world we live in now, with its perpetual wars, starvation poverty, persecution, real threat of climate disaster and nuclear war.<br />
<br />
While the academics argue about the deck chairs on the titanic.<br />
<br />
The question really should be: if western industrial countries had kept their blood stained hands out of Russia’s revolution, would Leninism have led to a utopian world socialism? And I think the answer would be, quite likely.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I think these academics lack imagination or empathy. They don’t seem to be able to fully comprehend the situation Lenin found himself in after the revolution and after the civil war. They don’t seem to be able to comprehend the magnitude of being invaded by the most powerful countries in the world, and the devastating effect of this on the revolution and on socialism. They seem to think that Lenin could just make socialism out of the remnants of the people left – basically a bunch of illiterate peasants with no idea of socialism, the ruling class, and their hangers-on who had already proved the level of their treachery, treason and butchery.<br />
<br />
Doug SAUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-56031868371420337352017-12-08T22:15:00.000+13:002017-12-08T22:15:54.301+13:00Migrant Workers Fight Back.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
Migrant workers are among the most vulnerable and exploited sections of the working class. The system and its laws conspire to put them in a position where they are easy targets, often too afraid to take on exploitative bosses for fear of losing even their meagre income. They are frequently used as slave labour, and it’s common for them to be bonded to a particular company for the duration of their visas. But recently a group of migrant workers in Tauranga showed how unity and direct action can give them strength, dignity and the resolve to stand up for their rights. Sunny Sehgal of the Migrant Workers Association tells the story, which came to his attention when he was approached by a worker in a liquor store<br />
<br />
“The owner of the liquor shop had five other liquor shops across the North Island, paying workers below minimum wage, with no basic entitlements. These migrant workers had been used for a long time as slaves. They became friends and colleagues and planned among themselves, without the help of any union, that on the same day at the same time they would hand over the keys of the shops to the boss and not open the stores. They did this with no support. They walked off the job there and then. After this they hired a consultant to represent all of them to get their money back from the employer. In total, the six of them were owed around $400,000 (in under-payment, holiday pay etc). The consultant got a deal from the owner saying he would give them $10,000 each. The workers rejected the offer. Now the associate has sent a bill of $2000 each to every worker. So now they are even more in debt. They’ve turned to the Migrant Workers Association to take on their case.”<br />
<br />
We salute these brave and principled workers for fighting for what is rightly theirs, and for calling an exploitative employer to account. We’ll keep you updated on developments in their case.<br />
<br />
SAUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-5039135909459627122017-11-19T18:13:00.000+13:002017-11-19T18:31:13.666+13:00Bring Them Here<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“In the West there was panic when the migrants multiplied on the highways. Men of property were terrified for their property. Men who had never been hungry saw the eyes of the hungry. Men who had never wanted anything very much saw the flare of want in the eyes of the migrants. And the mean of the towns and of the soft suburban country gathered to defend themselves; and they reassured themselves that they were good and the invaders bad, as a man must do before he fights. They said, Those goddamned Okies are dirty and ignorant. They’re degenerate, sexual maniacs. Those goddamned Okies are thieves. They’ll steal anything. They’ve got no sense of property rights.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
– John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
Sex with underage girls. Rampant violence. Tables awash with gambling money. No, it’s not the latest Netflix blockbuster, but allegations against the 370 men detained on Manus Island. the claims.... some of them by Australian intelligence - are yet to be proven, or disproven, but it smacks of yet another outrage against vulnerable, desperate people whose only ‘crime’ is to have sought asylum and a safe haven. You can’t help but be sceptical of the claims. Smear campaigns against refugees is nothing new… but more of that in a moment. And the timing of the leak is suspect. If this behaviour was rife, how come it’s only just been revealed hot on the heels of PM Jacinda Ardern offering - to Australia’s immense displeasure - to resettle 150 of the men in New Zealand?<br />
<br />
First up, who are these men? They are asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat from various strife-torn countries throughout the Middle East and Asia. In 2012, Australia began offshore processing of those seeking refuge on its shores under the rather chillingly named ‘Pacific Solution’. A washing-of-hands, more like, and certainly not a ‘solution’ for the refugees themselves. The policy was condemned from the start for its ad hoc nature, and for the removal of desperate people to facilities that were barely inhabitable, with unreliable water and power supplies, poor medical facilities, as well as the mental impact that remaining in limbo would have on a population already fleeing dire situations in their home countries.<br />
<br />
Since July 2013, about 1500 people have been transferred to Manus, in Papua New Guinea, from Australia. As The Conversation reports, ‘The number of asylum seekers on Manus Island has slowly reduced over the years as people have either accepted packages to <a href="https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2017/10/29/Media_Release-Minister_Thomas_on_Closure_of_Manus_RPC.pdf">return to their country of origin</a>, been <a href="https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2017/10/29/Media_Release-Minister_Thomas_on_Closure_of_Manus_RPC.pdf">deported</a> from PNG, been resettled in the US or temporarily settled in PNG. Six others have died.” A war of attrition, designed to do anything but welcome these people to Australia, to do the decent thing and resettle them. The very act of shipping them to a detention centre suggests they have committed some crime. ‘Asylum seeker’ seems almost synonymous, in some minds, with ‘outlaw’.<br />
<br />
And then in October, the Manus detention centre was closed. Ever since, they’ve had limited food, water and power supplies. The men were offered relocation to premises that have been deemed unacceptable by both the refugees and humanitarian experts - not least for well-founded fear of attack by local townspeople. So the men have refused to budge from their current place. A case of better the hell you know, if ever there was one. The UN has said of the situation: “The abrupt ending of services and the closure of the regional processing centre needs to involve the people who have been in this regional processing centre for years in a very vulnerable state… It is really high time to bring an end to this unconscionable human suffering.”<br />
<br />
Human suffering. To address human suffering, you do one of two things. You either take steps to end it. Or you somehow make those involved appear less than human. You accuse them of crimes that alienate them from sympathy.<br />
<br />
As stated at the start, smear campaigns against refugees are hardly original. Just think back a couple of years to Germany, where it was claimed a ‘mob’ of asylum seekers assaulted women on one of Frankfurt’s main shopping streets during New Year celebrations. Leading German newspaper Bild was forced to apologise earlier this year for the the false allegations. <br />
<br />
Again in Germany, a Muslim ‘mob’ was accused, falsely, of burning down the country’s oldest church. <br />
<br />
In Hungary, migrants have been portrayed as a danger to society. A government-sponsored poster campaign on billboards around the country claimed sexual harassment of women has risen sharply across Europe since the beginning of the migrant crisis.<br />
<br />
In 2015, Amnesty condemned UK foreign secretary Phil Hammond for his ‘shameful’ comments about migrants. Speaking during a visit to Singapore Hammond said those migrants arriving in Europe were undermining its “standard of living”.<br />
<br />
He said Britain’s “number one priority” was to find a way to send back would-be asylum seekers to where they came from. He attacked the freedom of movement laws with the European Union and warned that in Calais, "there are large numbers of pretty desperate migrants marauding around the area".<br />
<br />
Steve Symonds of Amnesty was rightly shocked, saying: "Rather than throwing up the drawbridge and talking about how Europe can 'protect' itself from migrants, Mr Hammond should be working with our EU partners to ensure that people don't drown in the Mediterranean or get crushed beneath lorries at Calais.”<br />
<br />
This contempt for those genuinely seeking safe haven goes way back. Reel back to post-war Britain, when you’d think fleeing Jews would have been welcomed with open arms - and it’s a similar story. There was widespread intolerance by the media at the notion of accepting refugees. As Tony Kushner and Katharine Knox write in their book Refugees In an Age of Genocide, "Of all the groups in the 20th century, refugees from Nazism are now widely and popularly perceived as 'genuine', but at the time German, Austrian and Czechoslovakian Jews were treated with ambivalence and outright hostility as well as sympathy." Adds Kushner, "People feel that the country should maintain asylum for genuine asylum seekers, but they're always in the past, never today."<br />
<br />
The fact is that capitalism creates wars, and dire poverty and fuels climate change, engendering the conditions that give rise to refugees in the first place. And then it closes or opens its borders to them as it suits. Capitalism has a long history of moving people around the globe, sometimes forcefully - aka slavery - to meet the needs of the system in its expansionary phases. And yet when the system is in crisis, and struggles to provide houses or feed ‘its own’, migrants are a convenient scapegoat for the ills that capitalism creates.<br />
<br />
As socialists we say there should be no borders dividing workers. We should welcome all immigrants with open arms - and especially those who are fleeing war, genocide, terror, the loss of land thanks to climate change, poverty and political persecution. Workers are not pieces on a chessboard to be picked up and put down at will. These men on Manus, and all migrants/refugees/asylum seekers, are human beings with hopes and dreams just like the rest of us. Above all we should reject the notion that some refugees are somehow ‘unworthy’ of a place in our society. <br />
<br />
Bring the Manus refugees here and let’s stop demonising migrants - both those wishing to come here and those already in our midst. <br />
<br />
<br />
Maria SA<br />
<br />
<h3>
<br />Manus Island- Refugees are Welcome in Aotearoa this Christmas<br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Rally at the Auckland Unitarian church<br />1A Ponsonby Road, Auckland</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">November 26th at 2:20pm</span></h3>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35265024.post-47597713905425090022017-10-02T17:24:00.002+13:002017-10-02T17:26:41.637+13:00Uprising in Catalonia <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sqahidFb1h1NzN_2BusrQYl2qqM9zpcoy57Q-W2S0_j-XiVCbdahvFgqcO-jnvADVyxLZUIofEo7u6IfLaMFV92ftAKOuW5I9EIF1d9eDPWxGWA8mMy8J8mNGNOZSTuYBxST/s1600/independence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="480" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sqahidFb1h1NzN_2BusrQYl2qqM9zpcoy57Q-W2S0_j-XiVCbdahvFgqcO-jnvADVyxLZUIofEo7u6IfLaMFV92ftAKOuW5I9EIF1d9eDPWxGWA8mMy8J8mNGNOZSTuYBxST/s640/independence.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<i> <b>Catalonia’s independence referendum – outlawed by the Spanish state –
has been taking place today, Sunday. As voting closed, activist David
Karvala spoke to Socialist Aotearoa from outside a polling station in
Barcelona</b></i><br />
<br />
About 200 people were in front of my local polling station at 8pm as voting ended in the <a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/45402/Catalans+say+they+will+resist+repression+ahead+of+independence+referendum" target="_blank">independence referendum</a>. There was a countdown and huge cheer.<br />
Some had been here since 5am. Others had stayed the night on
Saturday. We then had to stay for hours more to protect the ballot boxes
during the count. The result at our station was an 80 percent vote for
independence. The turnout was 1,300 votes - impressive given the area
and the police repression.<br />
<br />
The paramilitary police brutally attacked a polling station just half
a mile from here and all the ballot boxes were taken away. We are one
of the few polling stations in the area that hasn’t been attacked.<br />
The Catalan government released shocking footage of Spanish police attacking polling stations.<br />
But the final images on its clip show people pushing back the riot
cops. They show firefighters setting up a protective cordon for
demonstrators—a decision they took collectively in an assembly.<br />
The latest reports are that police attacks have injured 761 people with 128 of them hospitalised, including two serious cases.<br />
<br />
There have been horror stories.<br />
<br />
Police used tear gas in small polling station in a rural town. A
village of 250 people was attacked by 60 or 70 paramilitary police.<br />
Elsewhere the police targeted a woman with official responsibilities
in the referendum. They dragged her down stone steps by her hair,
touched her breasts, then broke the fingers of her hand one by one.<br />
They shot a person at close range with a rubber bullet. He’s having emergency treatment and may lose an eye.<br />
<br />
And then there are good stories.<br />
In the county town of Tarrega around 1,000 people filled a square to
protect the town hall as a single place for all remaining voters to
vote. They had closed all other polling stations at 5pm.<br />
Some of our contacts have sent videos of people voting in their towns.<br />
One is from a town in the outskirts of Barcelona where many people
speak Spanish, not Catalan, after migration from southern Spain in the
1960s.<br />
The video shows an almost endless queue, right around the block, of people waiting to vote.<br />
<br />
<span class="crosshead">Beating</span><br />
The Spanish police are beating the Spanish speaking workers towards support for independence.<br />
Another contact in the small town of Pineda explained that a busload of police was sent in—but the people sent them away.<br />
There have been urgent demonstrations elsewhere in the Spanish state showing solidarity against the repression.<br />
Some 3,500 people took to the streets in Valencia. So did hundreds of
people in Burgos—the civil war capital of former dictator General
Franco.<br />
It’s been an impressive day.<br />
For a while this morning we had to wait to vote because the voting
system was blocked for some time. People just got up to speak.<br />
<br />
There were a couple of Scottish people here to support a referendum. A
Polish woman sang a song in Polish that turned out to be a version of
an anti-Franco song from the 1970s.<br />
One of the most emotional things was when old people came to vote,
sometimes with walking sticks or wheelchairs, and being cheered by
everyone.<br />
In the end it seems the police attacks only shut down a tiny
minority of polling stations. The Spanish Interior Ministry said
authorities had succeeded in closing down 92 of about 2,300 polling
stations - or 4 percent.<br />
<br />
But the count will depend on how many ballot boxes survive the evening.<br />
We don’t know how many boxes will reach the stage of being counted.
So the results are hard to predict and in some ways they aren’t the main
thing.<br />
<br />
Now the struggle has been massively intensified by the CCOO and UGT
unions backing a general strike called for Tuesday of this week. Left
unions such as the CGT had already called it - now the two main
pro-independence movements have backed it too.<br />
The main thing is that—in Barcelona neighbourhoods and even in small
towns—people have come out on the street in their tens of thousands to
defy the repression.<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<h1 class="_5gmx" data-testid="event-permalink-event-name" id="seo_h1_tag">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1933176300338320/">From Catalonia to Aotearoa- the Struggle for Independence.</a></h1>
<h1 class="_5gmx" data-testid="event-permalink-event-name" id="seo_h1_tag">
Socialist forum this Thursday 5th October 7pm</h1>
<h1 class="_5gmx" data-testid="event-permalink-event-name" id="seo_h1_tag">
at Unite Union.</h1>
<h1 class="_5gmx" data-testid="event-permalink-event-name" id="seo_h1_tag">
</h1>
<h1 class="_5gmx" data-testid="event-permalink-event-name" id="seo_h1_tag">
<span class="_4n-j _3cht fsl" data-testid="event-permalink-details">Denny
Thompson, Ngati Paoa, and Diego Compa, talk about the struggles of
Maori in Aotearoa and Catalans occupied by the Spanish State for
Independence, and how the socialist movement should support and
interact with struggles for national liberation.</span></h1>
https://www.facebook.com/events/1933176300338320/Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11960995458664423354noreply@blogger.com0