Workers Power 2011, the national conference of Workers Party was held over Queen’s Birthday weekend (June 3-6) at Hamilton’s Trade Union Centre. Over 45 people registered for what was the first socialist conference to be held in Hamilton for some decades. The conference featured a wide range of presentations delivered by speakers belonging to the Workers Party, by members of other left organizations, and by others who have participated in substantial struggles against the state and the injustices of capitalism.

Clockwise from top left: Guest speakers Annette Sykes, Bernie Hornfeck, David Neilson, Mike Treen.

Friday
The opening night featured a debate between Jared Phillips (WP) and Sue Moroney (Labour Party MP). Phillips’ case defined Labour as no longer even claiming the centre-left, quoting EPMU and leading LP figure Andrew Little’s reference to Labour and National “managing the centre”. He listed examples of active attacks that Labour has carried out against the working class and progressive forces including Operation 8 and restricting the right to strike. He outlined reasons as to why ‘lesser evilism’ was not a justifiable reason to support Labour. Moroney embraced the term ‘lesser evilism’ and said she would rather have ‘small pragmatic changes’ than a ‘glorious defeat’ by National. In reality, the speakers were clearly talking at cross-purposes.

This was followed by a presentation and lengthy discussion led by Marxist academic David Neilson who has been published in Capital and Class and Journal of Radical Economics. In summary, he outlined the need for a deeper appreciation of the shift of emphasis from the reserve army of labour to the relative population that is surplus to the requirements of capitalism. He related this to the burgeoning slum-dwelling class in under-developed countries as well as to the second tier of peripheral workers which is ever-increasing in proportion to core workers in advanced capitalist countries. In summary, he argued that this led to the current ‘workers of the world compete’ scenario rather than a ‘workers of the world unite’ scenario, and that the left had to take this into account in attempts to redefine a strategy.

Saturday
The first panel, on international struggle, was lead by Paul Hopkinson (WP) who focused on the PFLP Solidarity Campaign, Mike Treen (Global Peace and Justice Auckland – GPJA) who gave an overview of working class and progressive activity in Europe and Latin America, and Josh Glue (WP) who discussed North Africa and the Middle East with a particular emphasis on Egypt and Libya.

This was followed by a panel on “30 years since the Springbok tour” which featured highly entertaining presentations by local men Karl Crook, Ross Crook, and Ian Grant who recounted events on the day the game was stopped at Hamilton’s Rugby Park. Whilst entertaining, these recounts also made obvious the highly serious nature of the struggle with stories of serious physical injury (including that done to speaker Ian Grant) and serious death threats, including from workmates in industrial jobs. John Minto gave an account of the neo-liberal changes made by the ANC since it came to power and since the end of apartheid. He emphasized that the economic policy of the ANC shifted right, that sections of the ANC had been bought off one by one and that the issue of class oppression has become central. He gave an interesting account of the how the ‘black empowerment’ economic policy operates in practice, with small capitalists bidding for jobs – for example to paint a school – and delivering a poor service whilst paying extremely low wages to the workers.

Top left: Josh Glue at registration. Top right: Joel Cosgrove. Bottom: Guest speakers Ian Grant, Karl Crook, and John Minto, with Kassie Hartendorp as chair.

In the following panel, WP national organiser Bex Broad gave an analysis of capitalist exploitation which was followed by WP member Mike Kay analysing the finance sector-based crisis and its impacts on New Zealand. This was followed by Ross Crook – a militant Unite delegate working at the Waikato Hospital – who assessed the weakening of the trade union movement and pointed to the strategy and tactics of Unite Union as a way forward.

Anthony Main (Socialist Party Australia) and Paul Benedek (Socialist Alliance) concluded Saturday’s activites by discussing campaigns in Australia. Both highlighted the struggle for the release of refugees from detention centres. Main went on talk about local community work the SP is involved in, giving the example of work around provision of needle exchanges. Benedek gave an outline of the role that Socialist Alliance is playing in the campaign against climate change.

Sunday
The first panel was comprised of Ian Anderson (WP), prominent Maori justice activist and lawyer Annette Sykes, who is involved with the leadership of Te Mana Party, and Bernie Hornfeck, a long-time Socialist and current member of Socialist Worker with deep links amongst Maori. They contributed their experiences of Maori and working class struggles, and Maori-led working class struggles, which led to discussion on class struggle and Maori liberation, the foreshore and seabed, Iwi corporatism, and the antagonisms which led to both the formation of the Maori Party in 2008 and then the recent split that created Te Mana Party.

The concluding panel of the conference, ‘Strategies and Tactics for rebuilding the left’, featured Derwin Smith (ISO), Joe Carolan (Socialist Aotearoa), Joel Cosgrove (Workers Party), Paul Benedek (Socialist Alliance – Australia) and Anthony Main (Socialist Party Australia). The focus was not just on rebuilding working class organisations such as unions, but also how to go about rebuilding the confidence of the working class. There was a good indication from all tendencies that the far-left needs to engage with Te Mana Party. These presentations helped to highlight common ground as well as some differences but it would require a whole article to touch on these presentations and the subsequent discussion.

Internal meeting of WP
At the internal meetings of the WP on June 6 a majority of participating members passed i) a finance resolution adopting members’ guidelines for regular contributions to the WP, ii) a resolution to formalise the role of the organisation’s Disputes Committee, and iii) a political resolution in relation to Te Mana Party, stating that ‘We welcome the formation of a Maori-led class-based party and intend to engage with it in a constructive manner’. A further resolution outlining WP membership criteria was held over for further refinement over the next four weeks.

Thanks!
We would like to sincerely thank all conference participants, particularly guest speakers and those – including members – who paid to travel from afar to participate. We found the event to be a useful centralisation of various experiences in class struggle and a good opportunity to discuss issues of unity and ongoing debate amongst far-left activists. We can also announce that we raised between $700-$750 through our raffle and social fundraiser which is approximately double the cost of conference promotion and venue hire. The winner of the raffle for the Koru wall-feature was Wellington branch organiser Kassie Hartendorp. We had made a tactical decision to hold conference in Hamilton to lift the profile of our organisation (and far-left politics in general) in that city. In many respects this has paid off.

The structure of the debate will be that each speaker will have 10 minutes to present, followed by 5 minutes each to respond to one another, followed by questions and contributions from the audience.

Sue Moroney is the 10th-ranked candidate on Labour’s party list for the upcoming election.

The Workers Party requested the debate which will be the opening item of its annual national conference from June 3-5 in Hamilton. The full schedule is viewable at http://workerspartynz.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/full-shedule-leaflet-image1.png

On the weekend of the 6^th-8^th of May this writer attended the national conference of the Socialist Party Australia (SPA), in Melbourne. This facilitated face to face discussion of experiences around organising and promoting socialist ideas in Australia and New Zealand.

Both similarities and differences exist in terms of the economic, social and political conditions of the two countries. The policy of mandatory detention of refugee and asylum seekers is currently at the forefront of Australian politics (See The Spark May issue). On Friday afternoon a demonstration was organised at the offices of CIRCO, a company contracted to run detention centres. The entries to the building were blocked by lines of protesters for an hour, preventing access in and out. Around 100 people supported the protest, and despite pressure from the heavy police presence there were no arrests and the picket line was not breached.

Centre, at the secondary gate during anti-detention protest , Workers Party member Jared Phillips.

The conference consisted of three public sessions: the international situation, perspectives for class struggle in Australia, and the recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. The SPA is an affiliate to the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), which is an international body consisting of socialist organisations in many countries across the world. Kevin McLoughlin, a leading member of the CWI Ireland affiliate, presented on the international situation. He discussed the economic tumult occurring in Europe and the USA and how the consequent political programs of cuts against working people are opening up opportunities to win a hearing for socialist ideas.

Stephen Jolly presented on the economic and political situation in Australia. That country is unique in that its economy has not entered recession. Jolly discussed reasons for this, whether it could continue, and the outlook for an up-turn in the level of class consciousness and struggle. A central point touched on was the China Factor. A significant portion of the Australian economy is made up of raw-material exports to China. As such the construction and mining industries in Australia are experiencing a boom period. However, as the current mushroom of expansion occurring in China is significantly fuelled by direct foreign investment, the Australian economy too will not be protected from future downturn and recession. Additionally a finance sector and housing bubble currently still exists. Having its foundation on financial and speculative transactions and not real value growth means the laws and tendencies of capitalism will ultimately end growth in this sector, as has occurred already in many other countries internationally, including New Zealand and the USA.

The SPA is engaged in building a new trade union in Melbourne. UNITE union is based on class-struggle principles and organising previously unorganised and poorly organised sections, such as areas of the youth-dominated service sector. Australian industrial law means that there are different conditions for trade unions compared to New Zealand. For instance, state awards still exist, as do penalty rates for overtime and weekend work, and the federal minimum wage is $15/hour. However Youth Rates exist for workers under 21, and unions have no guaranteed right of access to the workplace. Unite has been running a campaign on Brunswick St, an important cafe and restaurant street in central Melbourne. Through this several new workplaces have become unionised and the workers have been able to win back- pay for being paid under the award rate.

The SPA has contested the council elections in Melbourne on an openly socialist slate, using this as a forum to carve out a hearing for socialist ideas. Currently they have two elected socialist councillors.

That their organisation has been successful in beginning to forge real links with the working class is reflected in the growth of the organisation and its capabilities. Seeing this first hand is among the main benefits to be taken from attending the conference from New Zealand, where the revolutionary left is still small and dealing with important organisational tasks.

Resistance is the youth wing of the Socialist Alliance (Australia). Topics covered during the conference included Palestine, uprisings in the Middle East, refugee detention in Australia, and the environment. The conference began with an acknowledgment that we were on stolen Aboriginal land. Around 100 people attended this conference from all over Australia. Guests included Matthew Cassel from Chicago, former assistant editor of Electronic Intifada; Antony Loewenstein, a Sydney-based independent freelance journalist and author of the book My Israel Question; and Ravindran, a youth leader from the Socialist Party of Malaysia. Overall there was a positive welcoming environment, which is important for young people to be able to debate and ask questions freely. The workshops over the weekend echoed this sentiment.

Heleyni Pratley speaking at Resistance conference

The conference began with a panel discussion ‘People Power confronting the empire’. Speakers included Kate Ausburn, Green Left Weekly journalist and Resistance member, Antony Lowenstein, and Matthew Cassel. Cassel spoke about the recent Egyptian uprising where he was an eye witness to the recent revolutionary upsurge. He documented this with photographs which he presented during his talk accompanied by the stories that went along with them. Cassel mentioned that the upsurge was not surprising to the Egyptian people and that it didn’t ‘come out of nowhere’ as many in the main stream media put it. Coming out of the uprisings five new left political parties have formed in preparation for the upcoming elections. Cassel has also spent time in Palestine and is currently based in Lebanon.

I attended the ‘Feminism today’ workshop and ‘Stepping up the campaign for refugees’. Other workshops covered topics included the Green Party, defending civil liberties, Marxism and religion, left struggle in the Middle East, Aboriginal rights and the Northern Territory intervention, refugee campaigning, youth and trade unionism, Palestine, and the struggle for socialism in Malaysia.

The ‘Feminism today’ workshop addressed that women’s rights have come a long way in the last 100 years, but real equality still hasn’t been achieved. It was discussed how young people have to deal with the rise of raunch culture, the unprecedented access to porn and what effects this has on our relationships, the unattainable beauty ideal and the self esteem problems it can create, and social pressures to get married and have kids that women still face. The workshop had roughly 19 women and 7 men in attendance. Discussion was around these issues but also sexual harassment and increasing levels of domestic violence in Australia. There was good debate as to how we orientate ourselves and address these issues as socialists. The discussion ended with the Marx quotation: “Social progress may be measured precisely by the social position of the fair sex”.

The Workers Party’s ongoing solidarity campaign with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is a concrete campaign through which progressive New Zealanders can support the people of Palestine and participate in the struggle against imperialism. Imperialist countries continue to seek to dominate resources in the developing world, extracting super profits at the expense of people.

This solidarity campaign allows people in New Zealand, a junior-imperialist country, to support one of the key international struggles against imperialism.

Since the National Campaign Launch there have been local launches in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland. These launches have been followed up by street stalls, university campus meetings and film showings. These events have seen a demand for PFLP fundraising t-shirts designed and sold by the Workers Party. This has included international interest from Germany, Malaysia, Denmark and the United States which means we are required to order another production run of the t-shirts.

The PFLP has requested we transfer the funds raised from the campaign in as large amounts as possible to save on international wire transfer costs. Given the current rate of sales we hope to make the first transfer of funds to the PFLP before late December.

This is an ongoing campaign that will be re-launched nationally every year on the anniversary of the Nakba, where a new t-shirt design will be produced. We are currently looking for organisations in Australia that wish to join in the solidarity campaign and help bring a PFLP speaker to tour Australia and New Zealand in the near future.

Any body interested in being a part of this solidarity campaign or ordering a t-shirt can go to www.workersparty.org.nz and follow the PFLP campaign link.

The three-day conference started off on the Friday evening with debate between Workers Party National Secretary Daphna Whitmore and Council of Trade Unions secretary Peter Conway.

Saturday’s schedule started off with Don Franks presenting on the Unite-led campaign for a $15 minimum wage. The Workers Party then launched its campaign of solidarity with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Workers Party member Paul Hopkinson presented the background to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Mike Walker, also from the Christchurch branch, spoke of more recent developments before outlining the political and stategic position of the PFLP .

In the afternoon John Edmunson then made a presentation on the world economy and the financial crisis. He pointed to the need for a sober analysis of the state of the economy in terms of the ability of capitalism to recover from such crises. In this context, Philip Ferguson, Workers Party’s National Organiser, gave a presentation on the nature of the current National government which facilitated a broad discussion on the content of the government and the approach that needs to be taken towards it.

International speakers at the conference included Roberto Jorquera of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (Australia) and Mel Gregson of the Socialist Party Australia. Roberto addressed an audience at Wellington’s Bar Bodega where he compared the experience of the socialist movement in Chile and the counter-revolution in 1973 with the ongoing experience of social transformation under the Chavez leadership in Venezuela. Of particular interest was the following discussion around the role of the army in the revolutionary process, which was discussed in some detail. The presentation was well-received and as attended by members of the Wellington’s Latin America solidarity group.

The final day of the conference began with Mel Gregson delivering a presentation on the Australian economy . She highlighted Australia’s shrinking export market, and rising unemployment and underemployment, and pointed to the complete inadequacy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Keynesian talk and infrastructure-based stimulus packages. It was shown that Rudd’s return to discussion around Keynesianism has been a cynical attempt to distance the Australian Labour Party from public anger. While working people are suffering the government has announced a military spend-up, with $26.6 billion being spent in 2009-2010 alone.

Philip Ferguson and Jared Phillips led the final sessions of the public conference, with Jared speaking to the topic of how we approach common arguments against socialism and Marxism, and Philip speaking to the concept of historical specificity that was developed by German Marxist Karl Korsch.

The Workers Party’s annual internal conference elected and re-elected national positions within the party to form the national steering committee. While maintaining other party-building and broad front activities, it was formally decided to give strong emphasis over the next year to the solidarity campaign with the PFLP and to help develop the broader campaigns for workers rights, including Unite’s living wage campaign.

Why burn the New Zealand flag?

The New Zealand flag is a symbol of imperialism. This is most obvious in its design, a tribute to the British Empire. This design was adopted after the Second Boer War, which devastated South Africa but resulted in a surge of Kiwi patriotism.

Lest we forget

A simple re-design, while reflecting our emergence from the shadow of the British Empire, would not change the imperialist nature of the flag. It’s a tool of the ruling class, inseparably linked with militarism. From the Boer War through WWI and II, right through to armed involvement in Vietnam and Afghanistan, the flag has marked New Zealand’s presence. Flags mark military conquest, the subjugation of nations.

Flags and borders divide the working majority. ANZAC soldiers had more in common with their Turkish counterparts than with the bureaucrats who sent them to Gallipoli. The working majority has interests in common worldwide, including an end to imperial war. Ruling class nationalism is a barrier to recognising this.

What purpose does ANZAC day serve?

Kevin Rudd used ANZAC Day to facilitate a new ANZAC Task Force.

Many argue that ANZAC Day is not a glorification of war, but a commemoration of those who’ve lost their lives. However, the rhetoric of ANZAC Day does not simply honour the soldiers who lost their lives, it justifies those who sent them to die. This facilitates moves such as Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s decision to form a new ANZAC Task Force.

Every year we are told that the young men whose lives were snuffed out at Gallipoli died gloriously for our freedom. We are told that the liberties we enjoy in New Zealand today exist only because of the sacrifice of these soldiers. The message is that the soldiers’ deaths were worth it, and that the cause they died for was just.

Gallipoli was not about defending democracy or free speech. The Ottoman Empire did not pose a threat New Zealand. The Allied High Command ordered the invasion of Gallipoli for strategic reasons, primarily opening a supply route to arm their then ally, the Tsar of Russia. This battle served ruling class British interests.

If we truly wished to avoid a repetition of these horrors, we would use Anzac Day to teach this basic truth: Do not believe what you’re told. Imperialist war is never glorious, and the soldiers who bled to death in the Belgian mud and at Galipolli died for nothing.

To honour the men who lost their lives, we must condemn imperialist war. Only when ANZAC Day facilitates disarmament and solidarity with those resisting imperialism, only when the War Memorial is showered with white poppies, when speeches are made about a generation of men slaughtered to serve imperialist interests, only then will the Workers Party support it.

Afghanis burning NZ flag.

New Zealand: an imperialist nation

While New Zealand has eked out a degree of independence from the US, it remains a junior imperialist nation. Contrary to popular myth, New Zealand was a member of the coalition of the willing which legitimised the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, sending troops to both countries.

Afghanistan is in the mess it is today because of Western involvement. Since the nineteenth century, Britain and the United States have deliberately stirred up communal divisions in the Middle East in a bid to prevent the formation of any united resistance to their plans for plundering the economic wealth of the region. During the Cold War, the CIA funded and recruited an army of Islamic mujahideen fighters based in northwest Pakistan to fight the Russians and their Afghan allies. Sectarian violence was exacerbated by this and by the subsequent occupation. The pro-Western government that replaced the Taliban has shown its stripes by legalizing rape within marriage. Yet the US and its NATO allies continue to peddle the line that the only solution to the worsening violence is greater Western military intervention.

Imperialism in the Pacific

More locally, we have treated Pacific neighbours as sources of cheap labour and trade, often interfering in governance.

While capital may flow freely across borders, workers only move when it suits the ruling class. When the post-war boom ended in the 1970s, the NZ ruling class turned to shutting off working class immigration, especially from the Pacific. 100,000 Samoans were stripped of citizenship rights, in a piece of legislation that has been maintained ever since. The Workers Party calls for open borders and full rights for migrant workers.

Despite the line of “democracy promotion” in the Pacific, the ruling class is primarily interested in having stable elites to trade with. In 2006, New Zealand and Australian troops were deployed to quell pro-democracy riots in Tonga. Only 9 of the 34 seats in the Tongan parliament are elected, and Tongans have voted for pro-democracy candidates in all 9 of those seats. However, New Zealand backs the monarchy, a major source of trade.

Yet paradoxically, New Zealand has isolated Fiji since the coup carried out by Bainamarama; why advocate democracy in Fiji and not Tonga? We did not isolate those who carried out the Fijian coups in 1987 and 2004. In fact, Fiji has never been a full democracy, with a voting system that entrenches a tribal elite, at the expense of Indo-Fijians. The current interim government however, is pledging to hold elections once there has been electoral reform, disestablishing the racially segregated voting system and instituting one person one vote. This may yet be shown to be empty rhetoric, indeed some of the actions of the interim government seem rather undemocratic and should be of concern, but New Zealand’s stance is clearly not based on democracy. There are powerful New Zealand interests in Fiji, which is New Zealand’s largest export market amongst the Pacific Islands. New Zealand’s attitude to Fiji is not based on humanitarian interests, but on the interests of capital.

*      *      *      *      *

Accompanying every justification of New Zealand militarism and imperialism is the national flag. It stands for unthinking obedience to orders and the false god of nationalism – the idea that working class New Zealanders share common interests with their bosses against the rest of the world.

Workers and all oppressed people of all countries , unite to resist imperialism.

Click to enlarge.

Note that Friday’s debate, Which Way Forward For Workers Today, has moved to the VUW Student Union Building.

The CPP has led the struggle against feudalism, capitalism and imperialism in the Philippines for four decades. Having withstood the Marcos dictatorship through to the current brutal regime of Arroyo, the CPP has been sustained through its deep roots among the masses. When many other communist parties around the world collapsed in the 1990s, the CPP carried on the struggle, constantly reassessing itself and further developing its strengths.

 The CPP’s commitment to internationalism has given confidence to many organisations and individuals in the struggle for world revolution.

 We hope that 2009 will bring much success to the comrades in the Philippines.

 In solidarity
Workers Party of New Zealand