Article by Robert Read, a Workers Party supporter based in Christchurch.

James Froch will present a talk on Queer Liberation and Socialism at Socialism 2012.

On Saturday the 26^th of May 2012 at around 7pm an 18 year old, Zakk Davies, was walking home after dropping some friends off at The Viaduct. He was approached by three males.

These males began to flirt with Zakk which he believes is because they had thought he was a female. Even though he was dressed like any other teen male on a Saturday night in jeans and a t-shirt, once they realized he obviously wasn’t they very quickly became aggressive towards him. They began to punch him until he fell to the ground at which point they proceeded to punch and kick him mainly in the abdomen.
He remembers, while they were kicking and punching him, they were shouting some of the most disgusting homophobic comments he had ever heard. He recalled that they were “Calling me disgusting and a burden on society”, but the worst comment he can remember was that they “wish they could do to the gays what Hitler did to the Jews”.

At some point they were kicking him in the head and he must have been knocked-out, as he awoke 3 and a half hours later in gutter. Bloody, crying and bruised he got up still not sure entirely of what happened and walked to the next place he knew would feel safe, his friend’s place.
He has posted on his facebook account a picture of his face, battered and bruised, with this statement.
“I am uploading this not for sympathy, but as a warning to the gay community. When in town at night, always stay as a group because homophobia is still around, and there are people out there that want to hurt you. Thank you to the 3 guys that decided to beat me up last night, for taking it out on my body and avoiding my face.”

His facebook profile has been flooded with messages of support and outrage that this is still happening not only around the world but in our own back yard. Zakk said his “spirit will never be broken” and that he strives to use his experience to help the gay community.

A comment from Gay Bi NZ online community personality Ricardo Edwards says “It saddens and angers me greatly that atrocities such as this continue against members of the gay community. Against members of the HUMAN RACE. This incident has further fuelled a desire that has already been burning in me for some time, and that is to rid our beautiful country of the hatred and bigotous attitude that still lingers in ugly pockets throughout our society. Our goal, our dream, and it WILL be our reality. True equality.”

Patty Boy and Zakk d’Larte performing at Out in the Square in Wellington

1pm Saturday 3rd June
Newtown Community & Cultural Centre

International support for Tally’s AFFCO workers

Global support for the struggle of meat workers at Tally’s owned AFFCO plants is grew when the
International Union of Food Workers passed a resolution of support and solidarity from their Geneva
Congress last month. A resolution supported the workers has also been passed by the Australian Council of
Trade Unions (ACTU). 450 workers were locked out and a further 700 are engaged in strike action in a
dispute lasting the better part of three months.

Eight migrant workers detained in northland

After a joint operation with the police Immigration New Zealand has detained eight migrant workers;
seven Thai nationals and one Malaysian. The workers came to New Zealand under the Recognised Seasonal
Employer (RSE) scheme but were allegedly working in breach of their visas. While their former New Zealand
employers could face fines up to $50,000 the workers themselves will likely be deported.

Employment law changes announced

The government has announced changes to the Employment Relations Act which will mean that employers
are not required to conclude a collective agreement, and will be able to opt out of multi-employer
bargaining. A provision that sees new employees covered by a collective agreement for the first 30 days of
their employment will also be removed. The changes have been roundly criticised by the union movement.

55 manufacturing jobs go in Auckland

55 jobs are gone with the closure of Auckland based tube and wire products manufacturer, Wire by Design.
The company had been embroiled in a three year long legal wrangle with Transit New Zealand over a
compensation claim for the relocation of its factory following Transit’s building of the Onehunga motorway
extension. During that time Wire by Design had fallen behind with his tax payments to Inland Revenue and
went into voluntary liquation. The EMPU which covered workers at the business says that the government
is at fault as the job losses have resulted from government mismanagement.

Foreign charter vessels banned

In a surprise move the government has banned foreign charter vessels from fishing in New Zealand waters.
It has legislated a ban that will be transitioned over the next four years. Last year all 32 Indonesian crew on
the Korean owned Oyang 75 walked off the fishing vessel in Lyttelton alleging sexual and physical abuse.
The Oyang 70, owned by the same company, had earlier sunk claiming the lives of 6 fishermen. Labour
conditions in some instances are akin to slavery on some vessels. Allegations of illegal fish dumping have
also been made against foreign charter vessels.

Byron Clark

After more than three months of hardship for over 5000 people the Talleys-AFFCO lockout has been brought to an end through pressure by iwi leaders. Sections of the trade union movement and key individuals within it were able to generate support from a majority of iwi leaders in the impacted areas where the workforces were often than 70 percent Maori.

The chairman of Waikato-Tainui executive Te Arataura, Tom Roa told Radio New Zealand last month that there was a consensus among iwi leaders to put pressure on AFFCO and its owners, the Talley family, to end the three month long industrial dispute which is having a huge effect on Maori communities. This followed similar comments from Ngapuhi leader Sonny Tau, who suggested farmers from his and other iwi should stop supplying animals to AFFCO unless the dispute is settled.

The union movement has been grateful for the support. Laurie Nankivell, a Shed Secretary for the Meat Workers Union said on Triangle TV’s The Union Report “it’s a huge bonus for us up North ‘cause we all know Sonny Tau up North, he worked with us in the freezing works in the ’80s- ’70s and ’80s, it was good to see him on our picket line.”

“We also want to acknowledge the work the iwi is doing to support the locked-out workers and their whanau” stated CTU Vice President Maori Syd Keepa. In a press release he said, “The support centre opened by Ngati Kahungunu in Wairoa …provides much appreciated food and other services from the community to the locked out workers and their families.”

Not every iwi leadership came on board however- the farming arm of Rotorua iwi Ngati Whakaue came out publically against a supplier boycott, saying the iwi had “long-standing and on-going “ relations with the company, and claimed it was “not its place to take a political stance.” But of course, it is impossible not to take sides in an industrial dispute like this, and by continuing to supply AFFCO the leadership of Ngati Whakaue took sides against the workers.

Even if they and other suppliers had wanted to continue to supply AFFCO they may have be forced to sell their livestock to other plants as AFFCO didn’t have the skilled workforce required to continue processing. At the time Meatworkers media spokesperson Simon Oosterman told the New Zealand Herald that he knew of farmers who couldn’t hold on to stock any more, due to the expense of feeding them over winter, and were sending them to other plants.

A consumer boycott of Talley’s products was also called for by Mana Party MP Hone Harawira, “The locked out workers have been forced to band together to survive and to keep the working conditions they’ve won through years of negotiations and they’re being locked out because the $300 million Talley family want to bash the unions”.

The role of iwi has been so significant because they came to it with their the ability to hurt the employers production process. Putting a stop to supply and production is again shown to be the key aspect in resolving an industrial dispute.

1:30-3pm Sunday June 3rd
Newtown Community and Cultural Centre

Byron Clark

The crown has decided not to retry the Urewera 4 on the charge of Participation in an Organised Criminal Group. The group were originally threatened with charges under new terrorism laws after being arrested in a series of raids on October 15, 2007. 13 others were arrested but charges against them have been dropped. The only charges the state could make stick were minor firearms offenses against Tame Iti, Rangi Kemara, Urs Signer and Emily Bailey.

“The whole case should never have gone ahead.” Commented Ana Cocker from the October 15th Solidarity Group, adding that the firearms charges should also be thrown out. “The charge of Participation was laid specifically in order that the crown could use the illegally obtained evidence. The crown needed to justify Operation 8 and their invasion and spying on Te Urewera, by bringing convictions at any cost” said Crooker “Nothing in this case has been about so-called justice, it is all about criminalising dissent and halting aspirations for Tuhoe autonomy.”

On May 24 Iti, Kemara, Signer and Bailey were sentenced on the firearms charges. Signer and Bailey were sentenced to 9 months home detention while Iti and Kemara were sentenced to more than 2 years in prison. Along with other people and organisations we support their immediate release.

Meeting 12pm at the Hunter Courtyard, VUW (Wellington) to march on parliament.

3pm Sunday June 3rd
Newtown Community Centre

Facebook event here.

Friday 
5.30 registration

6 – 8pm: Class struggle today (Aotearoa/NZ)
Mike Kay – Port-workers’ struggle, meat industry lockouts and industrial conditions
Jared Phillips – Neo-liberalism and class composition
Sue Bradford – Unemployed and beneficiary fightback
1 hour discussion

10pm
Fundraising gig: Bodega
Kittentank, Big Rick, Man/Woman

Saturday
9.30am registration

10 – 11am
Revolutionary organising in current conditions: combat propaganda group
Mike Kay
40 minute discussion

11am – 12pm: Safer spaces on the left
Kassie Hartendorp
40 minute discussion

12-1pm
Lunch

1-2.30 pm: Eco-socialism in Australasia
Grant Brookes, Eco-Socialist Network Aotearoa
Ben Peterson, Socialist Alliance (Australia)
Ian Anderson, Workers Party
30 minute discussion

2.30- 3:30pm: Socialist electoral work
Anthony Main, Socialist Party of Australia
40 minute discussion

3:30-4:30pm: The fight against casualisation
Heleyni Pratley – organising casualised workplaces
20 minute discussion

4:30-6pm: Against the capitalist education system
Joel Cosgrove, Workers Party
Jai Bentley-Payne, Auckland student activist
Rowan MacArthur, International Socialist Organisation
30 minute discussion

Sunday 

9.30am registration

10-11:30am
The world situation: imperialism
Paul Hopkinson – Imperialism and Palestine
Byron Clark – New Zealand’s imperialist role
30 minute discussion

11:30am-12:30pm
The world situation: Europe and the global financial crisis
Mike Treen
40 minute discussion

12:30-1:30pm lunch

1:30-3pm: Tino rangatiratanga
Scott Hamilton – Pre-capitalist societies and Marxism
Annette Sykes – The politics of the Brown Table
30 minutes discussion

3-4pm: Queer liberation and socialism
James Froch
40 minute discussion

4-6pm: Left perspectives
Derwin Smith, International Socialist Organisation
Rebecca Broad, Workers Party
Ben Peterson, Socialist Alliance (Australia)
Anthony Main, Socialist Party of Australia
1 hour discussion

6pm
Close and thanks

This report on the Wellington Peoples’ Centre, by Ian Anderson, will be published in the June issue of The Spark. Sue Bradford, who helped set up the Peoples’ Centres, will be speaking on unemployed and beneficiary fightback at our Socialism 2012 conference.

After 20 years of support for unemployed and low-income workers, the Wellington Peoples’ Centre (WPC) closed its doors on the 28th of April 2012. However most services continue to operate independently, and by decision of the membership the WPC remains as a legal entity.

Background: by the people, for the people
Peoples’ Centres first formed in the early ’90s, out of the radical unemployed workers’ movement. In an interview for the April Spark Sue Bradford explained, “This was partly because things were getting tougher, and partly because having a paid membership base made our work with unemployed workers more effective. Peoples’ Centres provided services, including hair-dressing and medical services.”

The WPC itself formed out of the Wellington Community Law Centre, Wellington Unemployed Workers Union, DPB Action and Downtown Community Ministry in 1992. The only centre to last for two decades, by early 2012 the WPC provided cheap dentistry, counselling, Social English classes, Workers’ Rights advice and benefit rights advocacy.

Isolation of the Wellington Peoples’ Centre
In recent years the WPC has become isolated. In the late ’80s and early ’90s the unemployed movement was galvanised by large-scale redundancies, however with the near-destruction of the left & organised labour movement this ultimately waned. The movement’s retreat undermined the membership base of people’s centres across the country.

Most WPC services, while necessary, were not profitable. Given the unprofitability and fluctuating paid membership base, services became dependent on diminishing grants funding. Ultimately the centre was unable to meet its rent obligations, and was evicted.

Services continue in new forms
Each of the services has had to find a new home. Given its cashflow issues the WPC was already restructuring prior to the eviction, but the eviction demanded far more drastic changes.

The management committee consulted with membership on how to restructure services. A well-attended Special General Meeting on Wednesday the 28th of March saw discussion of priorities, and some amendments to remits proposed by the management committee. The membership overwhelmingly passed motions that the WPC continue as an incorporated society, and that the management committee seek to sell the dental service to an appropriate like-minded organisation.

The dental service could only continue in its location under new ownership, but the membership sought to ensure it remain low-cost. By selling to the highest buyer, the WPC would sacrifice the lowest cost dental service in the region: 80% of dental services in Wellington are owned by the corporation Lumino, which sets targets incompatible with maintaining a low cost service. Staff are aiming to set the practice up as an independent trust.

Other services such as benefit advocacy and worker’s rights advice have found new homes in the community. Details for these can be found at wellingtonpeoplescentre.org.nz

The WPC retains a membership base, a website and a bank account. By maintaining the existence of the Peoples’ Centre as an incorporated society, the membership is leaving the door open for future developments.