Many people recognise that National is no friend of the workers, but should workers and unionists be called on to vote for Labour? They have been in government for the past 9 years but are workers better off as a result? Check the record:
Labour – not so worker friendly
October 15, 2008
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NZ 2008 Elections, NZ Labour Party, Workers in Struggle | Tagged: NZ Labour Party | 
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Not much done, lots more to do
October 14, 2008- John Edmundson
As election day nears, you’d think it would be time for union leaders to raise workers’ needs in front of the politicians. The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU) has released its spin on the latest statistics summarising the socioeconomic state of New Zealand in the last decade.
The CTU’s assessment of the Ministry of Social Development’s 2008 Social Report, headed “Social Report: Lots done, more to do”, could best be described as a pro-Labour spin on some pretty mixed statistics for the last decade, a period dominated by the Clark Labour government.
“The social wellbeing of New Zealanders has improved since the 1990s with most social indicators moving in the right direction,” enthused CTU vice president Maori Sharon Clair. “Clearly there is more to be done. Low wages are still holding back the country, and 13% of households in poverty is 13% too many. In many indicators the trends are good, however,” Clair said.
Of course, she is right, in a “lies, damned lies and statistics” sort of way. But what does “most” social indicators actually mean? A look at the actual report reveals a much less praiseworthy result than the CTU spin would suggest. I encourage anyone interested to go to www.socialreport.msd.govt.nz and make their own assessment of it.
Leave a Comment » | NZ 2008 Elections, NZ Labour Party, Poverty in New Zealand | Tagged: CTU, Ministry of Social Development | Permalink
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Secret donations: the real concern
September 2, 2008Winston Peters, leader of the xenophobic New Zealand First party – and, ironically, the Foreign Minister as well – has been caught accepting secret donations from various rich businessmen, in particular Owen Glenn, a New Zealand millionaire based in the tax haven microstate, Monaco.
Peters has been slithering around the issue, first denying it, then saying he “only just found out about it”, then claiming there is a “big difference” between NZ First getting secret donations and other parties getting secret donations.
In typical capitalist parliamentarian fashion, both Helen Clark and John Key have pulled their punches when it comes to denouncing Winston Peters, in the hope they’ll get his support in the next coalition government.
It is interesting to note that at the same time as they were backing the anti-democratic Electoral Finance Act, which stipulates that all donations and campaigning costs must be accounted for, they were accepting secret donations themselves!
Leave a Comment » | Electoral Finance Act, National Party, NZ 2008 Elections, NZ First Party, NZ Labour Party | Tagged: Winston Peters | Permalink
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EPMU leaders’ strange behaviour
September 1, 2008- Don Franks
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Labour’s Goods and Services tax, Listener columnist David W Young wrote:
” The reason GST is much-loved by right-of-centre policy wonks in New Zealand and marvelled at by their colleagues overseas, is that it’s “pure”. (Finally, a tax that right-wingers like!) GST wasn’t adulterated to make it palatable to the masses. Calls to exempt food, education and health were rejected by Douglas and Brash’s committee. The few exceptions are rents on residential rental properties, donations and financial services.”
Young noted:
“The biggest concern about GST was that it would disproportionately harm the poor. That argument, made strenuously by unions and mainstream politicians in the 1980s, has shifted over time to the fringes of debate. It’s based on the fact that GST is effectively a regressive tax, because poorer people spend a greater proportion of their income than the rich, who put more into savings.”
(“Happy Returns”, Listener Dec 1 2006)
Today, argument about GST is continuing inside the trade union movement, but with some union leaders opposed to the wishes of their rank and file.
Leave a Comment » | Campaign Against GST, NZ 2008 Elections, NZ Labour Party | Tagged: EPMU, GST | Permalink
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ACTs of hypocrisy
September 1, 2008- John Edmundson
So the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union has suspended one of its workers because he is standing for parliament on the Act ticket. Shawn Tan, a former Green Party member who became a convert to Act, has been suspended (on full pay) because there is a clause in his contract which prevents his running for parliament without the permission of the EPMU national executive.
The Workers Party has a very clear view about this case and others like it. Regardless of the reactionary trajectory of Shawn Tan’s politics, we believe it is essential that any worker has the right to express his or her political views and to run as a candidate for political office without the interference of an employer. To take any other viewpoint would be to concede additional power to the capitalists over their workers, not only within the workplace but also in their employees’ lives beyond the workplace.
7 Comments | Civil Liberties, NZ 2008 Elections, NZ Labour Party | Tagged: ACT Party, EPMU, Shawn Tan | Permalink
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Casualisation: real jobs and con jobs
August 7, 2008- Don Franks
For those of us in the working class, few things are more important than having a real job. A real job produces stable predictable earnings. It pays enough for us to support ourselves and our dependants, with a bit left over for some luxuries, savings and fun. A real job is also a big part of our social life. For many people their workplace is a sort of secondary family; in some cases the community of an individual’s job provides their main social connections. In every case a proper job gives us a feeling of social worth, a feeling that we belong, and that we count for something because others count on us.
Leave a Comment » | CTU, Economy, NZ Labour Party, Poverty in New Zealand, Workers in Struggle | Tagged: Casualisation | Permalink
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Immigration and citizenship: Labour versus workers
July 14, 2008
The article below originally appeared in revolution magazine, #21, August-October 2003:
Samoan protests for the return of their NZ citizenship point up the need for a campaign for open borders and workers’ solidarity as against Labour’s denial of Samoan (and other migrants’) rights, argues Philip Ferguson.
In late March, thousands of Samoans protested in Wellington, Christchurch and in Samoa itself, calling for the repeal of the NZ Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act of 1982. This legislation, introduced by Muldoon’s National Party government, had stripped 100,000 Samoans of NZ citizenship rights. The abolition of these citizenship rights was part of a miserable 70-year record of NZ dealings with the Samoan people.
NZ had invaded Samoa in 1914 and was the colonial power there for the next five decades. Just after WW1, the NZ administration bore responsibility for an influenza epidemic that wiped out a quarter of the population. The NZ government then viciously suppressed the mass movement for Samoan independence, including gunning down unarmed independence protesters in 1929.
After independence, NZ continued to act as lord and master of Samoa and other former NZ-ruled countries in the Pacific. For instance, in the 1970s NZ governments masqueraded as generous aid donors to the Pacific. Yet, at that very same time, for every dollar of aid the Pacific countries of the Commonwealth received from New Zealand, they lost $3.74 in trade with this country. Most of the NZ aid was actually spent on NZ commodities, services and personnel. Moreover, it had little impact on expanding Pacific island exports to NZ. The 1970s also saw mass raids on Pacific Island ‘overstayers’ in NZ and large-scale deportations.
Leave a Comment » | Civil Liberties, Immigration & Open Borders, NZ Imperialism, NZ Labour Party, Samoa | Tagged: NZ Citizenship, Western Samoa | Permalink
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Immigration Amendment Bill: limiting workers’ freedom
July 10, 2008- John Edmundson
In the years following the September 11 2001 attacks, the world has seen a massive tightening of immigration controls. In this country, many New Zealanders’ first experience of this trend was the overnight quadrupling of the cost of maintaining a passport. In one fell swoop, the life of a passport was halved, from ten years to five, while the cost doubled as new “anti-terrorism” identification security features were added. In the US, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has gained, and proceeded to use, sweeping new powers to raid and subsequently deport “illegals”, mostly from Latin America.
The latest round of policy change comes with the Immigration Amendment Bill currently being debated in select committee. While this Bill was introduced by Labour, it appears to have support from National, ACT, New Zealand First and United Future. The Bill, if passed in anything remotely approaching its current form, will represent a massive attack on basic civil rights in New Zealand, not only for would-be immigrants or refugees but also for New Zealand citizens.
2 Comments | Civil Liberties, Immigration & Open Borders, NZ Labour Party | Tagged: Immigration Amendment Bill | Permalink
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WP leaflet on increased road user charges
July 4, 2008Below is the text of a leaflet distributed by members of the Workers Party Auckland branch at the protest earlier today by truck drivers against the recently announced increase in road user charges.
Independence from the bosses – A workers’ response required in the campaign against rising cost of living
The boss class is to blame for the recent barrage of rising costs that is hitting working people in New Zealand and internationally. The following leaflet puts forward the Workers Party’s basic position on the increase to road user chargers.
Major companies are required to pay within the market system Should the major companies pay for the costs of maintaining the roads? We think that under a market system the major companies should be forced to pay but this should not be at the expense of their employees’ wages and conditions which such companies have been driving down for decades. If they were not called to pay, then the public would be bearing costs incurred while the companies make profits. However, it should also be understood that, within a market system, the employers’ profits come from the work that their employees do for them. Therefore, even if the companies lose profits, the main issue is that workers are able to increase real incomes.
Leave a Comment » | Campaign Against GST, NZ Labour Party, Workers in Struggle | Tagged: Road User Charges | Permalink
Posted by Tim B
A damning report – and a cowardly response
July 1, 2008- Don Franks
Activist and author Anne Else was the keynote speaker at a public meeting of the Campaign Against Rising Prices held on Saturday June 7 in the Wellington suburb of Newtown.
Anne spoke as a member of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), a non-profit group formed in 1994. CPAG believes that “New Zealand’s high rate of child poverty is not the result of economic necessity, but is due to policy neglect and a flawed ideological emphasis on economic incentives”.
Anne told the meeting about CPAG’s case against the government currently being heard by the Human Rights Review Tribunal. CPAG contends that Labour’s in-work tax credit breaches New Zealand’s human rights legislation by discriminating against children of beneficiaries.
“Current policies ensure that people are trapped in poverty,” Anne said. “The damage done by poverty in childhood never goes away. People are precluded from having a decent life.”
She argued that it is “totally unjust and discriminatory” not to help beneficiaries: “Unpaid work is still work. Bringing up children is work. And it now takes a much bigger investment to produce a child for modern life.”
Anne’s talk inspired this reporter to find out more about the work of the Child Poverty Action Group. Below are some quotes from the CPAG’s legal case against government discrimination of beneficiaries at the Human Right Review Tribunal.
3 Comments | NZ Labour Party, Poverty in New Zealand | Tagged: Child Poverty Action Group, Working for Families | Permalink
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