The crew recently used what little money they have to appeal their looming deportation. Not currently working and not eligible for welfare in New Zealand the workers are reliant on donations of food and money. Workers Party Christchurch branch organiser Byron Clark and branch secretary Kelly Pope met with the crew on Saturday (Aug. 13) and delivered 20kg of rice donated from the Christchurch Workers Party branch and a bag of vegetables donated by the Okeover community garden.

“These young men- and I was surprised by how young they all are- really demonstrate the way migrant labour is exploited in New Zealand” said Clark. “These sailors suffered beatings, overwork, sexual harassment and inadequate pay while working in this country’s economic zone, and now the state wants to deport them before those grievances have been addressed”

The Workers Party is planning further solidarity work with the Indonesian crew. The Canterbury Indonesian Society is collecting donations for food and other expenses incurred by the crew, such as accommodation and the school fees of their children in Indonesia. they can be made to the account 12 3147 0278609 00 with the reference ‘Fishing Crew’.

On World Refugee Day, the 19th of June 2011, hundreds of people marched in Melbourne under the slogan “unite to end mandatory detention.” After the march Ian Anderson who is on the editorial team of The Spark caught up with leading members of the Socialist Party of Australia, Mel Gregson and Anthony Main.

The Spark: So the movement against mandatory detention of refugees has made headlines in recent months. Could you go a bit into the background of this?

AM: Australia has practiced mandatory detention of refugees since 1992, when it was introduced under the Labor government. Refugees arriving by boats are placed in detention centres while their claims are processed. Often this takes months, and in some cases 6-7 years to process, while the refugees are kept like animals. At various points the mass anger and frustration over these brutal conditions have led to protests and riots. There is also a small but growing solidarity movement on the mainland.

MG: The Howard government tried to negate Australia’s obligations under the UN treaty by processing refugees offshore, at detention centres on Christmas Island, in Nauru, Papa New Guinea and elsewhere. The Rudd government was elected in 2007 on a platform of a “more humane” refugee policy, but ultimately reverted to a similar policy to the Howard government. Most recently, the Gillard government announced a policy of sending refugees to Malaysia. Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN convention, and even deploys state-sanctioned militias to cane refugees. There are numerous deaths and tens of thousands of canings a year.

The Spark: Can you talk about the World Refugee Day march, and the wider solidarity campaign?

AM: World Refugee Day is organized by the Refugee Advocacy Network, which is a broad coalition dominated by NGOs, as well as members of the Labor Party and so on. On a week-to-week basis action tends to be coordinated by another group, the Refugee Action Collective, which involves more left groups and individuals. They organize very regular actions.

MG: The solidarity movement was bigger under the Howard’s time, with more detention centres on the mainland.  There were a number of breakouts, which led to detention centres moving off-shore. However the Labor government has begun opening detention centres on the mainland again, and the solidarity movement has resuscitated a little. Protests tend to focus on the mainland detention centres. Groups can also organize tours and it’s easier to get information.

The Spark: What approach has the Socialist Party taken to agitating for refugee rights?

AM: We’ve had a long history of involvement going back to the 1999-2000 period. We were involved in all the major convergences, in particular the Woomera convergence in 2002, which had a big impact on the movement and the government; that detention centre was ultimately closed down. We’ve tried to take a different approach to the moralism of the NGOs, which isn’t sufficient to deal with the mass of workers. Right now there is no mass left party, the unions are largely silent on the refugee issue, so many workers with genuine concerns are influenced by right wingpress..

MG: Workers have genuine concerns about access to jobs, to housing, to healthcare, and the ruling class puts the blame onto refugees.

AM: We argue that refugees are not responsible for these deteriorating conditions. The deterioration is driven by the economic crisis, by privatization, profiteering, not by a few thousand refugees. There were only about 14,000 refugees processed last year, and 90% of them were found to be genuine. Moreover a great bulk of those refugees come from Iraq and Afghanistan, where the occupation, supported by the Gillard government, is driving people to leave their homes. There are also many refugees from Sri Lanka, where the Australian government has backed a genocidal regime.

First and foremost we demand an end to mandatory detention. But we also relate it back to the system and demand access to jobs and services for all, make the point that these things are achievable, but held back by the profit-driven system of capitalism.

The Spark: What views do you encounter in day-to-day agitation?

AM: It’s very polarized. There’s a minority of people who support the refugees, but the majority have concerns fuelled by right-wing populism. These are genuine concerns, about rising unemployment and underemployment, housing more expensive than ever, and people are looking to blame someone. We point out that the system is to blame.

The Spark: What links have been developed with international groups?

AM: We’ve built a number of links mainly around practical campaigns. Particularly in late 2009 when the Rudd government sent refugees to Indonesia, which is also not a signatory to the UN convention. One set of refugees refused to leave their boat, and occupied it for over 6 months. I visited to build links with left groups and unions in Indonesia, to provide practical support for those refugees.

The Spark:  What role does international law play and should socialists uphold it?

AM:  We have no illusions in capitalist law. However, when laws are achieved that provide some relief to people, it can be tactically useful to use those laws.

MG: It’s also a good propaganda point, when the Australian government claims to uphold human rights, to point out both their abuse of refugees and their support for policies which force them to seek refuge. We have no illusions in the UN, but its good propaganda to point out the hypocrisy of the Australian government.

AM: The solution lies in solidarity between poor and oppressed people world-wide. The capitalist class will not solve a problem they’ve created.

The Spark: What are your strategic priorities in fighting border controls?

Mel: We try not to focus on border controls in isolation. We connect the situation to military interventions overseas, and the need for full access to provisions.

AM: We link the refugee issue to the transformation of society. We currently have open borders for capital, while workers’ movement is restricted. We support the right to free movement by workers, not restriction or movement under duress. There are a lot of prevalent myths about border controls, that they exist to protect workers from terrorism and various other things. We aim to undermine those myths and explain the real dynamics of the situation.

Open Borders Pamphlet (PDF)

Ni-Vanuatu migrant worker

Fijian migrant workers who paid up to $17,000 for visas to work in New Zealand ended up foraging maize from a paddock to feed themselves. Stacey Watson, of Piopio, Waikato, who sourced workers from recruitment company ‘Til Da Cows Come Home’ told Waikato Times journalist Nicola Boyes “We were noticing that the guys didn’t have anything to eat and they didn’t have any supplies and they were foraging for maize to eat.” Til Da Cows Come Home is one of two recruitment companies ran by Mike Neil Molan, who recently pleaded guilty to one charge of forgery and one charge of misleading an immigration officer after a sting at the offices of his company and other related Auckland-based immigration consultants. According to what the company told Stacy Watson, the workers wages were paid into a trust that they could access after they had completed their twelve weeks training and their work visas had been approved. In reality, the visa applications were forged and the dairy industry jobs that workers were promised would be waiting for them at the end of their training never existed. Molan’s ex-wife Nikkie, who was a director of the now defunct second company, Cow Tech, said she got wind of the scam in about November 2008 and confronted Molan. The scam had been going since June or July of that year “It was just a way of getting cash out of people.” she said.

Manju Pillay was employed as accounts and administration manager at Cow Tech for three months. She paid $6000 of Molan’s $12,736 bill for residency and a work permit before questioning its legitimacy and returning to Fiji. She was never paid for her work. Cow Tech went into liquidation three months after she started working for it and she contacted the Immigration Department. Molan worked with Auckland based IMAC Recruitment and Romy’s Immigration, which have since been struck off the company’s register. This is not the first case of its kind, last year four Hawkes Bay men were sentenced to three years in jail for running a multi-million dollar operation that employed hundreds of undocumented workers to pick fruit and vegetables at well below the minimum wage. Between 2007 and 2010 eighteen people in Hawkes Bay, Nelson and Marlborough were prosecuted as a result of Immigration New Zealand investigations. In 2007 it was estimated that there were 20,000 undocumented workers in New Zealand.

There has also been concern about migrant workers who have worked legally under the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme. Such workers have been left with little money in the hand after deductions are made from their wages and large sums are paid to unscrupulous accommodation providers- last year a 4-bedroomed house calling itself a “backpackers” housed eighteen Ni-Vanuatu workers and charged them $115 each per week. Lina Ericsson a Swedish political scientist who conducted field work among RSE workers in the rural areas near Tauranga in 2007 found many stories of mistreatment and violation of employment rights. The majority of farm workers (60%) are employed without contracts, almost a year ago the Council of Trade Unions highlighted the need for a farm workers union. At the moment such a project seems elusive when over 85 percent of private sector workers aren’t unionised.

Not only are the conditions of migrant farm workers morally
outrageous. It’s beneficial for all workers in New Zealand to support the cause of such workers because the employment standards set by these most immoral employers impact on the conditions of the whole working class.

A protest organiser  spoke of how 254 Tamil Asylum Seekers refused to leave the boat for fear of being locked up in an Indonesian detention centre or being deported back to Sri Lanka.

Returning to Sri Lanka is not an option, as one man who had returned to see his ill mother had been thrown in prison, without charges being laid, and is still locked up.

“The refugees are rightly demanding that they be given basic human rights and that Australia, as a signatory of the UN Refugee Convention, adhere to its international responsibilities” Priyaksha said.

The treatment of the Tamil asylum seekers highlights all the more the need for open borders. The Workers Party view is that while capital, commodities and rich people get to travel more freely around the world, workers’ freedom to move is increasingly restricted. Big companies can move freely to where labour is cheaper, for instance, but workers can’t move freely to where wages are higher. Labour and National governments favour free trade agreements, for instance, while imposing new racist immigration restrictions.

It’s in the interests of workers to support each other and make common cause for the maximum freedom possible.

Protests on 18 January for the Tamil’s cause are also being held in Australia, Canada and Britain.

Speaker: Byron Clark
5:30pm, Wednesday September 2
WEA, 59 Gloucester St (map)

In a press release on 4 June 2009 the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions deplored the Government’s removal of the minimum wage protection for workers on the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.

“There have been significant examples of unauthorised and unfair deductions from RSE workers’ pay even under the existing regulations,” said Wagstaff. “Relaxing the minimum wage rule will only result in more blatant exploitation of already vulnerable workers as unscrupulous employers shift costs onto them.”

“Allowing employers to make deductions which will reduce pay rates below the minimum of $12.50 per hour will significantly increase exploitation of RSE workers and undermine the credibility of the scheme”, said CTU Vice-President Richard Wagstaff.

Richard Wagstaff is dead right about the exploitation, but from a workers point of view, RSE has no credibility to be undermined.

The New Zealand Labour Department says:

“The RSE scheme facilitates the temporary entry of overseas workers, mainly from the Pacific, to plant, maintain, harvest and pack crops in the horticulture and viticulture industries to meet labour shortages in order to remain competitive with the rest of the world.”

In other words, grape picking in this country is so shit paid that it can only be done by abusing desperate Third World labourers.

Workers under the RSE Work Policy may return to work in New Zealand at a future time provided they have not previously breached the conditions of their RSE work permit conditions.

The Labour Department smugly observes:

“The possibility of returning the following season will encourage workers to play by the rules”.

There’s no corresponding obligation for the employers to play by rules that disadvantage them.

Employers “may choose to pay their workers’ entire airfare”.

But the bosses’ other legal option is that:

“During the course of employment deductions may be made from workers’ wages for half of that airfare.”

Such deductions are the means by which minimum wage protection is torn away.

Overseas employees are not eligible for free New Zealand health care except under ACC. The Labour Department washes it hands of any responsibility by suggesting:

“Employers are encouraged to organise health insurance for their workers.”

Wages and conditions for workers in New Zealand horticulture have been atrocious for years. Underpayment and non payment in the industry has caused local workers to avoid the fields and orchards of this country. Even in a recession.

The International Trade Union Confederation’s 12 June 2009 report on Core Labour Standards in New Zealand comments: 

“Cases of forced labour continue to be reported in horticulture, viticulture and in prostitution. Additional government inspections are required to eliminate such core labour standards violations. Minimum wage protections need to be reinforced in respect of workers on the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.”

The pro boss New Zealand Labour Department policies’ quoted in this article show the futility of “additional government inspections”. Until there’s some serious union organising on the sites in New Zealand horticulture the injustice to all workers will continue and most likely get worse.

The RSE scheme is nothing less than brutal racist capitalist oppression.

The Council of Trade Unions should follow up their criticism of the scheme by creating some new paid organiser positions to work among local and immigrant horticultural workers.

 Dennis Maga spoke on behalf of Migrante Aotearoa, a trade union-supported project that actively defends migrant workers. He discussed two widely-reported cases where employers had made dozens of workers redundant, but retained migrants on work permits. Migrante is concerned that the right wing backlash unleashed in the wake of such cases could further marginalise migrants, and in future, migrant workers may be prioritised for redundancy.

 Laila Harre, of the National Distribution Union told the meeting: “It is not the job of the trade union movement to become immigration police. We have a responsibility to defend all workers. Otherwise, we become complicit in the exploitation of workers in the boom and bust cycle of capitalism.”

 Mike Treen of Unite union argued that: “Capital has unlimited freedom of movement, but labour does not, and that’s not right.”

 After the speakers from the platform were taken finished, a lively discussion followed. Jared Phillips, of the Workers Party, pointed out some of the contradictions in the the NDU’s stance. On the one hand, Harre’s statements in support of migrants were very welcome, but on the other hand, the union has supported campaigns such as “Buy NZ made”, which imply that Kiwi workers have more in common with their own bosses than with other workers overseas. We cannot be too surprised when such commonplace economic nationalism spills over into political nationalism.

 Most of the panel took issue with the Workers Party’s opposition to all immigration controls.  Mike Treen of Unite counterposed fighting for freedom of movement for workers across the Pacific to “open borders”.  The suggestion was advanced that the latter position was too advanced for workers in the current conditions. Conversely, the Workers Party argued that this radical demand was necessary to drive forward the interests of both migrant and NZ workers. In the face of globalisation it is necessary for the working class to develop an outlook that is based on internationalism. The union movement should concentrate its energies on resisting redundancies root and branch, rather than encouraging workers to fight amongst themselves over who gets the few remaining crumbs.

 But despite the political limitations evident in the speeches from the trade union leaders, the meeting was an overwhelmingly positive initiative for the movement. The spectre of organised migrant labour is one that has the potential to revitalise the whole working class.

Iranian asylum seeker Ali Panah won refugee status in February 2009, after a protracted and public struggle, which began in mid 2007.

Panah was part of a larger group of Iranian immigrants who came to New Zealand as either refugees or asylum seekers, who were denied residency, and locked up inside Mt Eden remand center indefinitely.

Panah and four others came forward publicly after a prior campaign for the release of Thomas Yadegary was successful. They refused to sign documentation divesting the New Zealand government of accountability for their safety once deported back to Iran. They did this because they were in danger of becoming subject to state persecution in Iran for having converted to Christianity.

Panah undertook a hunger strike whilst in state custody. A public campaign giving solidarity and support to the Iranian detainees and calling for their immediate and unconditional release was undertaken by Global Peace and Justice Auckland, International Hope and Peace, Workers Party, anarchists, and other activists and community groupings.

This attracted significant media coverage, which escalated after 5 protesters locked themselves onto prison property and were arrested.

Panah won bail into the custody of his church in September 2007 after 53 days of hunger strike. Since then Panah has made three appeals to the Refugee Status Appeals Authority, the third being successful. The campaign was a real opportunity to forge unity with one of the most oppressed sections of the working class – the migrant community.

Recently there have been decisions by companies to make NZ workers redundant while continuing to employ migrant workers on temporary visas. There have been calls by both the Labour Party, National and some unionists for these migrant workers to be laid off first. The immigration service has revoked the work visas of some workers who kept their jobs. Migrant advocates have raised concerns that racist sentiments are being fostered and ask the question why migrant workers shouldn’t have their rights protected. New Zealand-born or permanent residents ask why they should be sacked when temporary visa holders keep their jobs.

 This raises questions on how unions should be approaching migrant workers when there may be conflicting claims for support from different groups of workers who are their members.

 Addressing these questions will be speakers involved in the union movement and in advocating for migrant workers. These include:

 -         Laila Harre, National Secretary of the National Distribution Union

-         Dennis Maga, Migrante Aotearoa

-         John Minto, Organiser, Unite Union

-         Mike Treen, Global Peace and Justice Auckland (Chair)

 For more information contact Dennis Maga,  021 971 070 , dennis.maga@yahoo.co.nz