STRUGGLE A MARXIST APPROACH TO AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

No: 117 : $1.50 : June 2005 Cullen Delivers Bosses’ Budget As the capitalist media seeks to present the assisted superannuation to the rich than the Yet while Government strategy is to reduce latest Cullen Budget as a ‘yawn’ (Herald) or poor, as we seeing Bush do in the US (see ‘Government’ debt this is almost entirely to ask ‘Is That It?’ (Dominion) they desper- story on page 18). being achieved at the expense of students, ately want to avoid more searching analysis. whose own ‘debt’ is rocketing and expected Such analysis would reveal that Cullen’s The Clark regime introduced the ‘Super to surpass public debt by 2020. The Clark latest Budget, like those before it, is a budget Fund’ in order to limit calls for increased regime, despite promises to make education for bosses and that, at its core, is a policy social spending at what has been a high- more accessible for students, is privatising of redistributing wealth away from working point of the capitalist ‘economic cycle’. To be its debt by transferring debt from all New New Zealanders and making Aotearoa New able to argue that there was no money for Zealanders to those students who cannot Zealand more, not less, vulnerable to interna- hospitals, education or elsewhere, the Clark afford to pay for their education upfront, and tional capital. regime has shuffled hundreds of millions it like no other New Zealanders, are forced to has left over from taxes away out of sight. borrow to live from week to week. SURPLUS KEPT FROM WORKERS Worse, anyone who demands decent health, The vast tax surplus is being used to build education or other social services will be ‘ECONOMIC GROWTH’ A MIS- up the “Cullen” superannuation fund which accused of trying to rob the retirement future MEASURE is mostly invested offshore. As has been of the current generation. pointed out elsewhere (see Red Flag June Measuring growth in terms of ‘gross domestic 2001), the fund is entirely unnecessary as The Cullen Fund is at best a high risk venture product’ are themselves highly problem- superannuation payments are easily paid out heavily dependent on fickle international atic and distortionary. GDP measures the of current taxation. As the population ages, financial markets. amount that gets produced (measured as it government spending on younger sections is consumed) in an economy, regardless of of the population (like prisons, mental health DEBT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY who owns the productive capacity, as if, in services) should decline correspondingly. The BAD FOR WORKERS the capitalist fantasy, this doesn’t matter. only reason for setting up a fund, outside Paying for capital spending out of current acting as the constraint on social spending, is operating revenue is contractionary, forcing GDP does not take into account the exces- to pave the way for reduced taxation (which consumers into greater debt. Money used sive current account deficit which has is always seems to amount to reduced taxation for capital projects becomes less available for funded through borrowing and selling assets for the rich). household consumption. off-shore. Nor does it take into account consumption of fixed capital. Including these Providing superannuation from a dedicated Repaying public debt as a percentage of GDP and net transfers from the rest of the world fund is much more risky than the current is contractionary unless it is replaced by corre- gives what the country really has to spend. tax-based approach because the payments sponding new private debt. Debt repayment It is called the national disposable income, depend on returns on investments in unsta- reduces the total deposits in the financial or National Domestic Product less deprecia- ble financial markets. We have seen this system . New private debt is issued at higher tion. from the government’s own superannuation rates of interest than the government pays fund (for government workers) which lost and is thus economically inefficient, although As assets are sold and loans are taken out more than a hundred million as soon as it it creates greater profits in the foreign-owned the returns on those assets, and interest, also started speculating in international currency financial sector. flows overseas. As this moves the Current movements, an activity that also caused the Account further and further into deficit more bankruptcy of the BNZ, ‘requiring’ its sale The Clark regime’s strategy is to push Capital inflows are needed. This and the by the Fourth Labour Government. A dedi- Government debt below twenty-percent of Government’s debt repayment strategy keep cated fund is also easily privatized, converting GDP while increasing the Cullen Fund and interest rates high as New Zealand needs universal entitlements to individual accounts, boosting NZ foreign reserve funds. high interest rates to attract foreign bank allowing the accumulation of greater state- deposits - Capital inflows. It has been sup- INSIDE: STRUGGLE ON... Tax Lies...... 2 Venezuela ...... 13 Budget 2005 ...... 3 China on Latin America ...... 14 Labour's History ...... 4 Nepal ...... 15 Oil-for-Food Corruption ...... 5 NZ Women's Convention...... 16 Roger Awards 2005 ...... 6 Castro Strikes a Nerve ...... 17 Japan/China Dispute ...... 8 US Economy ...... 18 CTU Visits China ...... 10 UK Elections ...... 19 Green's Protest Tibet ...... 12 STRUGGLE : June 2005 1 EDITORIAL Brash and Hide Either Lying or Ignorant National Party leader Don Brash and his accordingly. Given the current state of to take advantage of higher wage rates, crazed right-wing fellow-traveller Rodney the New Zealand economy, cuts in taxes had regular annual increases ahead of Hide are either economic ignoramuses or would undoubtedly be followed by an both inflation and national income over deliberately mis-leading voters with their increase in interest rates and only those the period - so an increased portion of the calls for immediate tax cuts paid for from without debt would end up any better national wealth was owned by workers. the Government surplus. off. The difference? National awards, regular Brash, with his time mis-managing New Tax-cuts would disproportionately ben- increases in the minimum wage and a Zealand’s monetary policy at the helm of efit high income earners and increases much slower re-orientation of the national the Reserve Bank behind him, must know in interest rates would disproportionately economy towards domination by foreign better. Capitalist economists respond to disadvantage young working families. So capital. an economy moving towards full employ- despite his rhetoric it’s clear whose interest ment by increasing interest rates. This slows Brash serves. The Howard Government of course has growth and thereby maintains unemploy- national awards, minimum employment ment and keeps a downward pressure on It’s very clear that the way to improve standards, and destroying workers’ rights in wage levels and a ‘disciplined’ labour force workers’ wage packets in New Zealand is Australia in his sights, so Australian work- (who can be easily replaced if necessary). to improve wages. It’s also very clear that ers have a fight to maintain the conditions it is the policies of successive governments that have led to their advantage over New There’s no doubt that the current Governor that have held down wages - with virtually Zealand contemporaries. As we join in of the Reserve Bank Alan Bollard, although no wage growth over the decade from the solidarity with them we can learn much not given to quite the same outrageously introduction of the Employment Contracts from each other’s struggles and each oth- outspoken right-wing rants as Brash was Act to 2001. In contrast Australia, where er’s histories. when he was at the tiller, would respond New Zealand workers are now rushing COVER CONT. plemented by a steady diet of reducing the is not enough to keep pace with population is untrue in the wider sense. What’s impor- restrictions on foreign investment. growth. tant is the total debt (public and private) not just the public debt. Under the present There has been practically no growth in THE PEOPLE GET POORER privatised money system total debt must the productive capacity of assets owned by expand to avoid deflation. If the Government New Zealanders for the past twenty years. The Government’s own reports show a reduces its debt, then private debt has to Through the current account deficit, this decrease in core spending from 32.4% of increase. Private borrowing is much more measure of ‘New Zealand’ has borrowed GDP in the June 03 year to 30.6% in June expensive than Government borrowing. That all its recorded GDP growth. New Zealand year 04 and 30.8% in June year 05, rising to makes Government debt more appropriate has, in aggregate, produced nothing extra for 31.5% in 2006 and 31.6% from 2007 on. for the Government to use than private debt decades. It has become a nation of takers obtained indirectly through taxes. instead of makers. The profligate lifestyles The Government has decreased funding in of the super-rich, and their appalling savings GDP terms. The strategy paper claims reducing govern- rates (even though they are the only New ment debt now will enable it to increase debt Zealanders who can afford to save), means THE CURRENT ACCOUNT again later to pay for Superannuation. The that investment in New Zealand’s productive DEFICIT Government’s bizarre strategy is to squeeze capacity has been entirely funded by foreign- the economy, preventing growth, so there is ers for nearly twenty-years. The strategy paper and executive summary less income to distribute later. Then, having are dishonest in failing to disclose the achil- destroyed the growth that could help pay The GDP figures mask the ghastly truth that les heel of the New Zealand economy. By for Superannuation it will resort to borrow- most New Zealanders have gone steadily 2007, New Zealand’s accumulated current ing again - or cut spending in the face of an backwards over the years. The truth most account deficit will exceed $100b. In March entirely predicable and constructed ‘crisis’.. people have long known but not been able 2003 the accumulated deficit was already to put their finger on. The truth many people 64% of GDP making New Zealand one of WHAT IS THE ANSWER? have had to go further into debt to buy the the most indebted countries in the world. consumer goods they need. There are no ready-made solutions to the The budget does nothing to address the problems faced by social-democrats in man- THE BUDGET HOAX foreign debt which has masked the country’s aging capitalism. The economic burdens of failure to produce more goods and services. the system will become more, not less, crush- The strategy is to keep core expenses around The current account deficit will continue to ing for ordinary workers, in Aotearoa and 32% of GDP by 2007/08 to maintain expand, leaving the nation exposed to the globally. The search for a rational, sustainable ‘structural operating surpluses of around 3% vagaries and risks of exchange rates and society offers no alternative but socialism—i.e., of GDP’. burdening the next generation with ever the new society that will emerge from the increasing foreign debt and more and more struggle to replace this one. It is of an old This means there can be very little increase debt servicing. idea, but one that refuses to die and that in government core spending in real terms is now taking on new revolutionary forms. over the immediate time horizon. Even at GOVERNMENT DEBT Understanding the limitations of capitalism is GDP growth of 3% per year (the average only the first step; the second has to take us expected over 2004/2005/2006), the tax The government’s claim that reduced gov- beyond it. on that growth is just 1% of GDP , which ernment debt will reduce debt-servicing costs 2 June 2005 : STRUGGLE NEWS Big Budget Beneficiary: Business EXTRA MONEY FOR HEALTH on past spending rather than spending ILLUSORY from the 2005 budget. Not satisfied with the Fourth Labour Virtually all the ‘additional’ spending Government’s gutting of trades training announced in the Budget had been Government spending initiatives in edu- and forcing the cost of apprenticeships previously announced and previously cation are being made on political from businesses to individual students committed. grounds rather than being designed to the government wants to transfer the solve educational problems. rest of the tertiary sector into the hands Most obviously, the Government failed of business too. to honour the commitment made by Because there is no pressure from Prime Minister, Helen Clark, in this National to spend more on public edu- SUMMARY year’s opening statement to Parliament cation the government cynically con- This is a cynical election year budget to make aged-care funding a “top prior- tinues to underfund public education – designed to shift Labour further into ity” this year, according to the country’s and spend money elsewhere where it National Party territory rather than largest health sector union, NZNO. perceives a threat from National Party assert the right of all New Zealanders policy. to high quality education. Almost half of the $71 million promised this year would be needed to make SPECIFIC EDUCATION It appears clear also that public educa- up the funding shortfall that occurred SPENDING INCREASES: tion suffers in this budget in having the when district health boards took over EARLY CHILDHOOD Minister of Education also being an funding of aged-care services from the Like the 2004 budget this area appears Associate Minister of Finance. Ministry of Health last year. to be the best serviced area of educa- tion. At this stage however it appears HANDOUTS TO BUSINESS According to NZNO spokesperson the big winners will be the private sec- While desperately needed social spend- Laila Harre: “The rest of the money tor early childhood centres as opposed ing is restricted there continues to be will be needed to cover inflation and to community provided centres. plenty of money to be handed out the growth in demand for aged-care to business. The Clark regime contin- services. That leaves almost nothing SCHOOLS ues to spend millions to suck up to for pay increases for nurses and car- 420 teachers spread over 2600 schools big foreign capitalists, begging them to egivers and for the essential training amounts to just 1/7 of a teacher per allocate some of their fortunes in New and staffing needs acknowledged by school – and only after 4 years! Zealand. the Government to improve quality in the sector. The chronic undervaluing The $77.8 million increase in operations The big news of this budget was a bil- of nurses and caregivers in residential funding appears to be over 4 years lion dollars of tax cuts to businesses. aged-care facilities will continue, despite which would equate to less than 2% Like the tax cuts that Brash and Hide the acknowledgement by everyone that per year over this time – less than even call for (see article on page 2), these will their pay is so low, in comparison to the rate of inflation. Additional funding be over-whelmingly consumed by big nurses and caregivers working in public for ICT in schools will help offset the capitalists, despite the claims that they hospitals, as to be insulting.” derisory increase in school operations are targeted at medium-sized capitalists. funding however. The immediate impact of tax-cuts for “Every single person who has looked at business is a fall in profitability, as busi- this problem has come away appalled TERTIARY EDUCATION ness-owners can make as much money at the plight of caregivers who work The lowest point in education is the in their hands from a smaller surplus. As for an average of $10.80 an hour doing failure to address the crippling levels of many local businesses are owner-oper- a complex job and who earn little or student debt and the increasing costs ated this means that the owner doesn’t nothing in extra pay to recognise formal of tertiary education. There are some need to work so hard - it seldom trans- qualifications or night and weekend tinkering improvements such as in the lates into a smaller surplus-value being hours of work.” eligibility criteria for student allowances extracted from the workers! and some “bonded merit scholarships” The carers, and the cared for, will con- ($13 million) which are apparently tinue to suffer because the Government focused on those from predominantly has failed to deliver any real funding high income communities. increase to the aged-care sector in this Budget. Overall there is no change to the policy of placing the burden of spending for EDUCATION THE BIG LOSER the baby boomer generation on the IN 2005 BUDGET shoulders of their children and grand- The small spending increases on educa- children. tion mean it is the big loser in the 2005 budget. Yet even the increased funding for universities is tied to courses that can So thin is education spending that the be identified as being of benefit to busi- most interesting point about the govern- ness - commodifiable research, science ment’s many media releases on budget and technology courses that are closely education initiatives is their emphasis related to business needs. STRUGGLE : June 2005 3 STUDY Remembering Labour's History To coincide with the Labour Party mon enemies.” member of this House, or as any per- conference in Wellington this year, son or party in the country, to maintain Wellington student activist Nick Kelly “...Labour has had a long history of racial purity here in New Zealand. gave a speech on the history of the undermining or actively attacking There can be no question at all about Parliamentary Labour Party. the working class movement in New that. . . I desire to say further, in con- Zealand, and continued this shameful nection with the discussion, that the In the most recent Parliamentary elec- history in the last 5 years of Labour-led Labour party are wholly in accord with tions Struggle’s line has been that the government.” the desire to reduce Asian immigration best strategic position for revolution- to this country; we are satisfied that aries to take has been to support the “The NZ Labour Party as it is today was there is too much of it already.” election of a Labour Government so formed in 1916. This was three years that its class perspective can be exposed after the defeat of the waterfront strike “If anything in the debate on immigra- through its actions. Under MMP a in 1913. The NZ Labour Party was tion in the 1920’s Labour supported Labour Government supported by formed during World War I, where the even tighter controls on Asian immigra- parties to its left will more obviously second international, particularly the tion that the Massy government.” achieve this objective. It is clear that a German Social democrats had betrayed large number of workers, and certainly the socialist movement has supported “In 1947 the objective of ‘the socialisa- the majority of organised labour, sup- the inter-imperialist rivalry that was tion of the means of production, dis- port the Parliamentary Labour Party. WWI. In its original constitution the tribution and exchange’ was dropped. Exposing the Labour Party through its NZ Labour party had the objective: By comparison the British Labour Party actions will serve to break these historic ‘the socialisation of the means of pro- didn’t drop this from their constitu- ties. duction, distribution and exchange’. tion until 1994 when Tony Blair took However they saw that this fundamental the leadership, though like most leftist Some other groups claim that Labour change could come through parliamen- rhetoric or objectives from the Labour is a better option than other parties, or tary change, so from its outset Labour Party this was not taken seriously by the that we need to consolidate support was bourgeois-reformist and had strong party leadership.” behind Labour in order to prevent links with international reformist parties other, more oppressive parties com- who’d already betrayed the workers NO SURPRISE ing to power. NZ First leader Winston movement.” No surprises then, given this analysis Peters’ recent attacks on Asian immigra- Nick Kelly has provided of the his- tion, in particular the Iraqui community, “It didn’t take long for Labour to show tory of the Parliamentary Labour Party. is raised as a reason for supporting the its true colours once it was in parlia- In the face of seeming support from Parliamentary Labour Party. ment. In 1920 the Massey government the electorate for Peters and Brash’s extended what has been termed a attacks on migrants, the Labour-led However, as Nick exposed in his ‘White New Zealand’ policy in their Government has itself adopted racist speech: immigration legislation. The legislation anti-immigration policies and rhetoric. was supported by Reform and Liberal “WHY LABOUR ISN’T FOR parties, but also by the Labour Party. Dividing worker against worker serves WORKERS:” Rather than taking a principled inter- the interests of the ruling class. A work- “I’ll begin this talk by quoting the nationalist stand against the racist and ers’ party seeks to explain this and seek myth believed by various other leftists xenophobic policies of the NZ state, working class unity on the basis of class, When we were organising for the pro- Labour argued for a more extreme form against the capitalists that steal our test outside the Labour Party election of restrictions on Asian immigration and labour power day after day. Labour’s year congress, an activist from Socialist a ‘White New Zealand’ policy. Michael J history in contrast, and its current activi- Worker (the remains of the old CPNZ) Savage in the parliamentary debates of ties, expose it as a party for the bosses. claimed that we “shouldn’t be attacking the 1920s argued that education tests Labour because it would alienate work- needed to be made more severe. He ers”. Implicit in this statement is the also claimed that “the more educated mistaken belief that a) Labour is a Party section” of Chinese and Indians agreed which the majority or a considerably that measures needed to be taken “to section of the working class actively prevent the indiscriminate influx of support, b) that somehow Labour is a Asiatics to this country.” When accused lesser evil to other forces in NZ politics by members of Liberal or Reform of such as National, Destiny church or the being soft on Asian migration Labour National Front or c) that the Labour MP Dan Sullivan argued: Party is something we should unite with or at times even support against com- “Labour party is just as keen as any

4 June 2005 : STRUGGLE REPORT Oil-for-Food Scandal? Galloway Opens Door to Expose US Crimes By Tony Murphy for Workers’ World bombing,” is a chillingly typical quote. cate a Jordanian business executive who helped him with the Mariam Appeal. British Member of Parliament George This genocidal campaign, waged to get Galloway’s stinging anti-war testimony before control of Iraq’s oil resources, is the true DEMONIZATION OF IRAQI a U.S. Senate committee in Washington crime behind the oil-for-food “scandal” now LEADERS May 17 electrified progressives. Galloway making headlines. In addition to infiltrating Iraq’s economy, stunned the U.S. media—which are unac- the oil-for-food program was a public-rela- customed to seeing anyone, and certainly WASHINGTON’S OIL GRAB tions ploy. It was designed to make it look not members of the timid Democratic Party In 1996, world outcry against the sanc- like Iraqi people were starving because “opposition” to the Bush administration, tions—overseen and renewed every three Saddam Hussein was taking money from match the right wing blow for blow. months by the Clinton administration— the “humanitarian” program. became so great that the United States The Senate committee, chaired by set up the “oil-for-food” program. Now This line falls apart when you remember Republican ideologue Sen. Norm Cole instead of an outright embargo, Washing that it wasn’t until 1996—six years after man of Minnesota, is part of a Bush ton arranged for UN officials to monitor sanctions were imposed—that the United administration campaign targeting British, the sale of Iraqi oil, specify how much Iraq States allowed a crack in the UN’s total French and Russian politicians as people could sell, and repeatedly use the specter of blockade of commerce in and out of Iraq. to whom Saddam Hussein supposedly “weapons of mass destruction” to veto Iraqi That crack, the oil-for-food program, was “allocated oil” for “political favors.” It is a attempts to buy equipment on the world structured top to bottom by U.S. strategists witch hunt designed to discredit opposition market. themselves, who would have organized, to the war as the United States becomes overseen and overlooked any skimming of increasingly embroiled in Iraq and isolated It wasn’t a humanitarian program. It was money from oil sales. in the world. outrageous harassment, an attempt to take over Iraq’s economy. It certainly had noth- Because of the Saddam-is-Hitler campaign, Behind the committee’s bogus allegations ing to do with helping the Iraqi people, who anyone could be forgiven for thinking that is the long war U.S. corporate interests continued to die at the rate of thousands Iraq was under sanctions because of tyrant have waged in order to seize Iraqi oil. The every month. Saddam Hussein. devastated state of Iraq today is not only due to the aftermath of 2003’s shock-and- Naturally the Iraqi government did every- But sanctions were part of the “Desert awe campaign. It’s the result of decades of thing it could—politically, legally and other- Storm” war strategy—the 1991 invasion of U.S. intervention, war and CIA operations wise—to get around the sanctions. Iraq by the United States started supposedly against the Iraqi people. It’s long past time because of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Israel for the United States to get out. In the late 1990s, Galloway mounted a cam- invaded Lebanon with U.S. equipment, but paign called the Mariam Appeal, designed President George H.W. Bush declared that Before 2003, more than a million Iraqis had to both publicize the crime of sanctions and Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was “naked aggres- already been killed by U.S.-imposed sanc- raise money for Iraq. He was ousted from sion,” and launched a blistering air war, tions. After Washington’s 1991 bombing Tony Blair’s Labor Party in 2003 for inviting which crippled Iraq’s electrical grid within campaign against Iraq—which wiped out British soldiers to disobey illegal orders. He 48 hours and lasted another 40 days. its electrical grid and water-purification sys- now represents the anti-war Respect Party. tem, as well as schools, roads, hospitals and The first President Bush’s first act after the bridges—the United States used the United In 2003, the British Daily Telegraph and the Aug. 2, 1990, Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was Nations to prevent Iraq from rebuilding. It U.S. Christian Science Monitor said docu- to sign an executive order, dated the same accomplished this by preventing it from sell- ments had been uncovered in Iraq showing day, freezing Iraq’s assets in the United ing oil, virtually its only commodity, or from that Galloway was being bribed by Saddam States. Within two months, he had coerced buying anything on the world market. Hussein to oppose sanctions by receiving the UN into imposing an economic block- “oil vouchers.” Galloway successfully sued ade on Iraq. By December 1990, babies The previously wiped-out diseases typhoid the Telegraph over this story, winning a were already dying in Iraqi hospitals from and cholera made a stunning comeback 150,000-pound award and proving that the lack of medicine that had recently been among Iraqi children, because water was “documents” were forgeries. plentiful. (“The Fire This Time,” Ramsey contaminated and hospitals were deprived Clark, 1992) of medicine by sanctions. By 1996, UN The Christian Science Monitor attempted agencies reported that over half a million to avoid the same fate by formally apologiz- One Pentagon planner quoted in a June Iraqis had died. ing to Galloway—who sued them anyway 1991 Washington Post article put it bluntly: and won an undisclosed settlement. “People say, ‘You didn’t recognize that it The 2001 declassification of 1991 Defense was going to have an effect on water and Intelligence Agency documents showed The corporate media coverage of his Senate sewage.’ Well, what were we trying to do that the Pentagon’s conscious goal was testimony captured his articulate defiance— with sanctions—help out the Iraqi people? to cause widespread illness throughout but all left out the part of his statement that No. What we were doing with the attacks the Iraqi population, through water-borne was most damaging to the frame-up. Almost on the infrastructure was to accelerate the disease. “Conditions are favorable for com- universally, the bourgeois media wrapped effect of sanctions.” municable disease outbreaks, particularly up coverage of Galloway’s testimony by in major urban areas affected by coalition focusing on the fact that he wouldn’t impli- STRUGGLE : June 2005 5 REPORT Roger Award 2004 The Worst Transnational Corporation in Aotearoa in 2004 WINNER: TELECOM – and its insidious placement of food from its impact on Papua New Guinea outlets in hospitals. This demonstrates and all the other countries where it There were seven finalists for the Roger an unhealthy political influence with is active. The judges expressed their Award for the worst transnational cor- area health boards etc support for the PNG communities and poration operating in Aotearoa/New • environmental damage – through pro- Greenpeace campaign against Rimbunan Zealand in 2004. The finalists in alpha- Hijau. duction of massive amounts of unre- betical order were: Contact Energy, Ernslaw One, McDonalds, Mitsubishi, cyclable wrappings and the resultant Throughout Asia Rimbunan Hijau is asso- Telecom, Toll Holdings and Westpac. The littering ciated with illegal logging and theft of judges (John Minto, Maire Leadbeater, • “cultural imperialism” through their natural resources. To its credit the New Alister Barry, Edwina Hughes) considered efforts to destroy small food businesses Zealand Timber Importers Association the activities of these seven corporations and food diversity. They exhibit a expelled Lumberbank – a wholly owned against the criteria for the award which “US-centred-ness” in their operational subsidiary of Ernslaw One – from the cover areas such as unemployment, abuse practices rather than acting like a New NZTIA for breaking rules concern- of workers, profiteering, political interfer- Zealand enterprise ing importing illegal timber into New ence, cultural imperialism, and negative • high fat and high sugar foods impact- Zealand. impacts on tangata whenua, women, and ing on community health in negative the environment. ways – in relation to low income com- RUNNER-UP - CONTACT The runner up to the Roger Award win- The judges believed that each of the munities particularly. This company has ner for 2004 is Contact Energy. Contact finalists exhibits policies and practices rightly become an international symbol was nominated for its vociferous opposi- which are well outside the behaviour our of low quality, large volume fast food tion to the Kyoto Treaty (formerly the community has a right to expect from and its multi-million dollar campaigns Kyoto protocol) - a treaty important to life any company operating in New Zealand. – paid for by its customers – to buy its on the planet. The judges were convinced Unfortunately, as with past years, it was a way into community favour. on the evidence that Contact has run an particularly strong field of candidates and ideological campaign against Kyoto and it is unfortunate also perhaps that there 3RD PLACE - ERNSLAW ONE the use of renewable energy sources. For can be only one winner! In their own Ernslaw One has forestry and milling example they have spent some $2million unique ways each of the finalists deserves operations in New Zealand. It scored running a crusade to convince the public the denunciation of the community. highly on abuse of workers, environmen- that coal-fired power stations are the only tal damage and cultural imperialism. This option for a secure future energy sup- GOVERNMENT PROTECTION company is an offshoot of the gargantuan ply. This is in sharp contrast to its lack of In reading through the evidence against Asian logging company Rimbunan Hijau, investment in education on the impact of each company however, what struck owned by the Tiong family of Malaysia. coal-fired electricity generation. Their aim the judges was not just the nastiness of Rimbunan Hijau is well known through- is to control the direction and define the the companies’ practices but the lack of out Asia for its abuse of sustainable log- terms of the national debate over sustain- government action to curb their worst ging practices and massive environmental able uses of energy. excesses. It seemed clear that if we were damage. Ernslaw One’s clear felling prac- to have a government focused on the tices here are entirely in keeping with It has demonstrated strong lobbying power protection of people and the environ- their overseas activities. with the government and has consistently ment, rather than on protecting corporate dictated to the Taranaki Regional Council profit making then there may be no need Here in New Zealand Ernslaw One is what it expects from what should be a for the Roger Award. having a big impact on workers – Maori responsible community watchdog. on the East Coast especially – with thou- For this reason the judges would like sands of job losses projected. These East Contact was also in the news in 2004 to issue a special award to the govern- Coast forestry workers have managed to for the lies it told customers about the ment. This award is entitled the “Special stave off massive jobs cuts – one third of need for price rises for electricity. No less Roger Award for Protection of Profit and the workforce was to be scrapped - in the that 8,250 customers were involved! It Privilege” and is awarded to the Prime short term by a campaign of united action blamed increases in electricity prices on Minister on behalf of the government. in the face of this ruthless multinational. increased charges from the lines com- panies when in fact the line charges had 4TH PLACE - MCDONALDS Ernslaw One also scored highly for its decreased. This resulted in a prosecution The judges were appalled at the extent to impact on health and safety of the public under the Fair Trading Act and a settle- which McDonalds fits the Roger Award - based on their proposal for a saw mill- ment award made against Contact. categories. McDonalds involves: ing complex near Whangapoua Harbour. • high stress, low pay, low security Waste discharges from large saw milling The evidence viewed by the judges also employment operations are generally harmful to public exposes Contact as responsible for envi- • serious political interference through health. ronmental damage and wilful negligence its advertorial funding of dentistry in regarding health and safety of the com- poorer communities – the Far North It is difficult to separate its impact here munity. These conclusions came from the 6 June 2005 : STRUGGLE REPORT impact of Contact’s existing operations nications industry. Because of their domi- to interconnect; exorbitant charges to on the Waikato river, its apparent lack of nance of the New Zealand sharemarket rural customers; a 15% hike in line rent- concern about how its newly converted the government kow-tows to them as if als; misleading advertising to lure custom- oil-fired power station will impact on the their economic health rests the economic ers from competitors; boosting non-regu- health of nearby New Plymouth resi- health of the sharemarket! lated wiring maintenance costs as part of dents, as well as the global impact of its residential bills; bringing the billing cycle CO2 emissions. This is a company whose name is a forward a week; and disconnecting 8000 byword for the failure of privatisation. It customers without warning at the very The judges were not convinced of is the largest community parasite in New end of 2002” Contacts claims of no responsibility for Zealand and its stifling, negative impact the land subsidences occurring around cannot be underestimated. The same practices outlined a year ago the Wairakei area and were alarmed at its were also evident throughout 2004. The plans to increase geothermal extraction. Despite the massive profits the true com- company’s fleecing of New Zealanders munity colour of Telecom comes through stands in sharp contrast to the obscene WINNER - TELECOM with its impact on low income commu- salary of $2.82 million paid to CEO The massive profit figures which this nities. For example it refuses to reduce Theresa Gattung. She now receives week- company posts year by year are a national charges for not-for-profit organisations - ly earnings of $53,270 – earning more scandal. including those with charitable status. This in a single week than the average New has a negative impact on all community Zealand earns in an entire year. Last year this company made another groups such as those working with youth, massive profit which amounts to $188 Maori and women. Telecom has betrayed the trust and hopes for every man, woman and child living placed in it to run our telephone and in New Zealand. This is staggering. The Their real “community concern” is empha- telecommunications systems. It is a New $750 million involved should be in the sised with a quick look at their “mefirst” Zealand made disaster rather than an community coffers but instead is in the sponsorship criteria. imported one and has been allowed to back pockets and under the control of run unchecked for 15 years. This is a wealthy foreign and local shareholders. Last year the Roger judges gave a “Special friendless, rapacious company with well Award for Monopoly Profiteering” to established and unmediated parasitical Telecom is given free rein by the govern- Telecom. In making the award the judges practices. ment to set their own operating rules and commented – “Factors in this award pricing structure as an effective monopoly include their monopoly of telephone Telecom is a worthy winner of the Roger over much of New Zealand’s telecommu- lines; outrageous charges to competitors Award for 2004. Anderton Stoops to New Low The following letter was forwarded to Struggle good job for New Zealand workers’. the mill at Whangapoua is also incorrect. by a reader: There is currently an appeal before the There’s nothing ‘unsustainable’ and they’re Environment Couirt relating to this opera- Every year the organisers (and sometimes not ‘allegations’. The people leading the tion, but for the record, the company is not the judges) of the annual Roger Award Environment Court case against Ernslaw’s using chemicals as alleged, and having the for the Worst Transnational Corporation plans for a sawmill at Whanagpoua in the mill inside the forest means that the envi- Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand get Coromandel have already been in touch ronmental impact has been significantly approached before, during or after (or pointing out the mistakes in Jim’s May 12 reduced with less visible impact and fewer all three) the selection of the winner(s) letter. logging trucks on main public roads...’. by Corporate Communications Managers or PR firms, wanting to know why their This would just mark another chapter Our advice to Jim is, get a new letter employer is a finalist, trying to persuade us in the sad decline of Jim Anderton, not writer. Or should that be, Songwriter? not to pick their employer as a finalist, or worthy of comment, if it wasn’t for a expressing outrage and issuing threats after startling coincidence that I happened to And, “for the record”, the Coromandel the event. Contact Energy and Westpac notice when I read Jim’s letter alongside campaigners confirm that the company maintained this noble tradition for the the Gisborne Herald story (May 3, ‘Attack has applied to use highly toxic fungicides; 2004 Roger Award (won by Telecom; you on Ernslaw One “grossly unfair”’) quoting the mill will not be situated in the for- can read the Judges’ Report at www.cafca. the company’s managing director, Thomas est but on a farm bought for the pur- org.nz , follow the Roger Links). Song. It was then that I realised that, in pose; the mill will increase traffic on the places, Song and Anderton, were word Whangapoua hill road, which has no pass- But this time there was a new and unique for word. ing bays, by seven times; and will cause component. We got our first ever approach such vibrations at the Te Rerenga School from a politician, writing in support of one Song: ‘Information relating to the pro- that the only solution suggested by the of the placegetters (Malaysian forestry TNC, posed Coromandel mill was also incorrect. Thames Coromandel District Council is to Ernslaw One, which came third). Not just This was now subject of an appeal in the shift the school. any old obscure backbencher, either. Our Environment Court. The company was correspondent was none other than Jim not using chemicals, and having the mill All in all, it sounds like another win-win, Anderton, who wrote in his triple capac- inside a forest meant there would be less Jim. For Ernslaw One, that is. Pity that you ity as Minister, MP and Leader of the visible impact and fewer logging trucks on couldn’t leave them to do their own dirty Progressives. ‘... You should issue a public main roads...’. work. withdrawal of your unsustainable allegations Muray Horton against a company which is actually doing a Anderton: ‘...Your information realting to Secretary/Organiser STRUGGLE : June 2005 7 NEWS Why Asians Fear US-Japanese Militarism By Fred Goldstein soldiers who had been interned in the Published Apr 14, 2005 11:30 PM Japan invaded and occupied Korea in safety zone were shot in masses. ... A 1910 and held that country until 1945. favorite method of execution was to A steadily ascending campaign of provo- The Japanese militarist regime in 1931 herd groups of a dozen men at entrances cations by the increasingly outspoken invaded Chinese territory and seized of a dugout and to shoot them so the militarist wing of the Japanese capitalist what was then called Manchuria. Japan bodies toppled inside.” ruling class has raised political tensions to then steadily expanded its invasion and the boiling point in East Asia and touched occupation to the entire Chinese main- This massacre went on for days and off a storm of anti-Japanese demonstra- land, and remained until the end of similar crimes were committed as the tions in China and South Korea. World War II in 1945. Japanese imperial army advanced deeper into China. It is understandable that the At the instigation and with the encour- The current Japanese government of Chinese regard this invasion as their agement of its overlords in Washington, a Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has holocaust. revived Japanese imperialism has moved refused to disavow the textbook revi- to shed its so-called “pacifist” camouflage sions, which removed all references to It has been an added source of outrage and bared its teeth in brazen defiance of “comfort women,” a term for women that Koizumi has gone to the Yasukuni the peoples of the region it once con- forced to become sex slaves for the shrine, a military burial ground that con- quered and enslaved. Japanese military during the occupations. tains the remains of 14 condemned war It is estimated that up to 200,000 women criminals, to pay tribute. Furthermore, The immediate event which touched suffered this fate during the Japanese there is a move afoot to turn the emper- off the wave of mass demonstrations occupation of China and Korea. or’s birthday, which was changed to was the approval by the Japanese gov- Green Day, back into an imperial com- ernment of revised textbooks which All references were removed to the memoration. removed references to the wars of con- infamous “rape of Nanking” in 1937, in quest and the atrocities committed by which up to 300,000 Chinese were sys- Previous Japanese governments have Japanese imperialism during the period tematically slaughtered by Japanese impe- been more conciliatory about acknowl- of 1895 to 1945. rial troops when the emperor Hirohito edging Japan’s war crimes and previous ordered everyone in what was then the textbooks have had references to them. The Japanese Embassy in Beijing was Chinese capital city to be killed. But the Japanese Society for the History stoned and Japanese stores were attacked Textbook Reform, with right-wing nation- when thousands came out at a govern- All references to the forced labor of mil- alist and militarist politics, began revising ment-approved demonstration on April lions of Chinese and Koreans was omit- the textbooks in 2001. The new revision 9. The demonstrations spread to more ted as well. goes further in obliterating references to Chinese cities the next day, “with a crowd Japanese war crimes and takes a new of 10,000 chanting anti-Japanese slogans CHINESE REGARD INVASION aggressive stance. in Shenzen. Earlier in the day another AS HOLOCAUST 10,000 demonstrators surrounded the A glimpse of some of the atrocities in The largest newspaper in Japan, Yomiuri Japanese consulate in Guangzhou.” (Los Nanking was given in a Dec. 17, 1937, Shimbun, has applauded the textbook Angeles Times, April 11) dispatch to the New York Times. changes and declared that the “publishers had good reason to remove the referenc- TEXTBOOK WRITTEN BY After referring to “wholesale atrocities es” to “comfort women.” (International MILITARISTS and vandalism,” the Times correspondent Herald Tribune, April 7) The Chinese ambassador in Tokyo, Wang continued: “The killing of civilians was Yi, was summoned to the Japanese wide spread. Foreigners who traveled The weekly magazine Guoji Shengqu foreign ministry by Foreign Minister widely through the city Wednesday found Daobao, published by Xinhua News Nobutaka Mashimura, who asked for civilian dead on every street. Some of the Agency of China, ran an article accus- an apology and restitution for damages. victims were aged men, women and chil- ing Mitsubishi Motors, Ajinomoto Co., Wang said that the Chinese government dren. ... Many victims were bayoneted Hino Motors Ltd., Isuzu Motors, Chugai did not endorse the violence, but refused and some of the wounds were barba- Pharmaceutical and Asahi Breweries, to apologize and would not shake hands rously cruel. among others, of being supporters of the with Mashimura. Wang was quoted as new textbooks. saying that “the Japanese side must ear- “The Japanese looting amounted almost nestly and properly treat major issues to plundering of the entire city. Nearly But the demonstrations are about more that relate to Chinese people’s feelings, every building was entered by Japanese than textbooks and more than history such as the history of invasion against soldiers, often under the eyes of their alone. It is about the present and the China.” officers, and the men took whatever future plans of Japanese and U.S. imperi- they wanted. The Japanese soldiers often alism in the region. The textbooks reflect In fact, the word “invasion” was not men- impressed Chinese to carry their loot. ... a new aggressive posture by Tokyo, tioned in the revised history textbooks which is taking advantage of the fact approved by the Japanese Education “Thousands of prisoners were executed that Washington is playing the Japan card Ministry on April 5. by the Japanese. Most of the Chinese against the People’s Republic of China. 8 June 2005 : STRUGGLE ANALYSIS

TAIWAN AND THE ANTI- to none.” historic agreement to settle its border CHINA ALLIANCE dispute with India and an accompanying On Feb. 19, Secretary of State Condo Rice added, “On both the regional and set of pacts on trade. If this new partner- leezza Rice and Secretary of Defense global levels, the U.S.-Japanese alliance ship can sustain itself, it will defeat a 40- Donald Rumsfeld met with their Japanese is modernizing, most recently through year campaign by the U.S. to manipulate counterparts to renew U.S.-Japanese mili- our agreement on Common Strategic India against China and set the two most tary ties. For the first time the two Objectives.” populous former colonial peoples against imperialist powers included the secu- each other. This would be a major blow rity of Taiwan as “a common strategic After talking about how the U.S. military to U.S. imperialist geo-strategic policy. objective.” According to the Feb. 21 will keep forces in the Pacific second to Washington Post: “In addition, the U.S.- none, she then vowed to uphold the When the Bush administration first Japanese statement drew attention to Taiwan Relations Act, which declares came into office, it turned its aggressive China’s rapid military modernization pro- U.S. intention to defend Taiwan militarily intentions to the East and to China. It gram, calling it a matter of concern. ...” and told the Chinese to restrict them- embarked on setting up a Theater Missile selves to peaceful means. Defense System encompassing South This aggressively challenging statement Korea, Japan and Taiwan. It equipped represents a sharp departure for the Japan has the second-largest navy in the Taiwan with advance missile destroyers. Japanese government, which has up until Pacific, after the U.S. Its so-called Self It carried out provocative spy flights into now avoided taking a position on the Defense Force has a military budget Chinese airspace and created an interna- military defense of Taiwan. larger than England’s. It is ordering new tional crisis. helicopter aircraft carriers and is working The island of Taiwan was part of China on a joint missile-defense system with It was after Sept. 11, 2001, that for centuries before a rising Japanese the Pentagon. And there is a movement Washington had to shift its attention to imperialism, in its first major colonial afoot to revise the famous Article 9 of the Middle East and seized the opportu- war—the so-called Sino-Japanese War of the Japanese Constitution which forbids nity to try to reconquer that oil-rich and 1895—annexed Taiwan and made it a Japan from settling international disputes geostrategic region, where three conti- prefecture of Japan. The fact that Taiwan by force. nents converge. was part of China was recognized by all the imperialist powers after World War II, For the secretary of state of U.S. imperial- While trying to manage the crisis in when it was returned to China. ism to go to Tokyo, the seat of Japanese Iraq, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice imperialism, and brazenly bask in a are now also returning to their original Only after the U.S-supported counter-rev- new military alliance while lecturing the aggressive orientation towards China, olutionary armies of Jiang Jieshí (Chiang government of one-fifth of humanity on which has grown more urgent in light Kai-shek) retreated in defeat to the island how to conduct its affairs is the height of of world economic tensions: the crisis of in 1949 did Washington make Taiwan, imperialist arrogance. It took the greatest declining U.S. exports, the loss of markets then called Formosa, into a U.S. protec- anti-colonial revolution in history, the to China, China’s growing political influ- torate and a base from which to threaten Chinese socialist revolution of 1949, to ence and the implications of all this for the newly formed People’s Republic. In gain independence from the two impe- U.S. capitalism as a whole. fact, Washington demanded that its pup- rialist powers that have now formally pet government in Taiwan be diplomati- moved to “contain” China. The Middle East, while certainly a vitally cally recognized as “China.” It forced the strategic region of the world, is too limit- UN Security Council to give China’s seat After dropping the atomic bomb on ed an arena for the adventuristic, expan- to the Jiang clique instead of to the one- Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, inciner- sionist militarists in the Pentagon and on fourth of the human race represented by ating hundreds of thousands of Japanese Wall Street. While they hope to reap vast the Chinese socialist government. This civilians, Washington rapidly moved to oil profits there and get great military and arrangement lasted until 1971. revive Japanese imperialism as a base to economic leverage, the gigantic produc- contain the Chinese Revolution and to tive forces of U.S. high-tech capitalism The current demonstrations in China are threaten the Soviet Union in the east. require a much larger arena. also aimed at blocking Japanese mem- Japan, with all its U.S. military bases, was bership in the United Nations Security known as a virtual “U.S. aircraft carrier” This is why the growing threats to China Council. To that extent they are also in the Pacific. and North Korea must be taken seri- directed against the U.S. ously. This is why the drive to the East Since the collapse of the USSR, China is so fraught with danger and why the Condoleeza Rice, speaking at Sophia has emerged as a growing power that is anti-war movement must carefully watch University in Tokyo on March 19 in her challenging the U.S. and Japan economi- U.S.-Japanese provocations in the Pacific first visit to Asia as secretary of state, cally in Asia, Latin America and Africa. and be ready to expand the anti-milita- declared that “the United States unam- It has signed major pacts with Brazil and rist, anti-imperialist struggle. biguously supports a permanent seat for Venezuela. It is becoming a dominant Japan on the United Nations Security force among the Asia Pacific Economic Council.” Cooperation (APEC) countries. It has assisted the Sudan, Zimbabwe, Kenya Rice demanded that China pressure and Rwanda and is modernizing its navy North Korea to reenter six-party talks on and military to meet the growing threat its future. She spoke of U.S. “concern” of U.S. and Japanese imperialism. about a “Chinese military buildup” and said that the best way to deal with this “is DESPITE IRAQ, BUSH to keep strong alliances and make certain LOOKS EAST that America’s military forces are second In addition, China has just signed an STRUGGLE : June 2005 9 INTERVIEW CTU Visits China Interview with Robert Reid of the Clothing Workers' Union

A delegation from the New Zealand ing for the formation of autonomous Council of Trade Unions visited the RR: First the Hong Kong Council of unions in China outside of the ACFTU. Peoples Republic of China at the invita- Trade Unions is a fraternal union of He has therefore strongly opposed inter- tion of the All China Federation of Trade the NZCTU being a fellow member of national unions having any contact or unions in April of this year. Struggle inter- the International Confederation of Trade relations with the ACFTU. In recent viewed Robert Reid from the Clothing Unions (ICFTU) so it is right and proper times Han has changed his emphasis sig- Workers Union who was a member of that we should meet them while in Hong nificantly. He sees the new labour laws this delegation. Kong. Although we may not agree with in China as good on paper but not being all of the HKCTU’s views on China, implemented. He no longer calls for Struggle: Who was on the delega- the HKCTU has a very good record of the establishment of autonomous unions tion? organising workers in Hong Kong before in China, but is urging Chinese work- and after hand over to China. Second, ers to establish unions under the new RR: The President of the Council of the ICFTU has a very ambivalent atti- laws and affiliate these to the “official” Trade Unions, Ross Wilson, Vice President, tude to China and the Chinese trade union centre, the ACFTU. He talks of Helen Kelly, Rosalie Webster from the unions. As someone described it; in Chinese workers “taking back their union Engineers Union (EPMU) and myself relation to China, the ICFTU has still not movement”. Han therefore no longer from the Clothing Union (CLAW). realised that the cold war is over. The campaigns for “freedom of association” ICFTU does not support contact with in China in terms of China allowing alter- Struggle: What was the purpose of the the “official” Chinese trade unions calling native trade union centres but campaigns delegation? them Government and Party controlled. for the practical organising of workers However it is finding that many of its and assisting Chinese workers with their RR: From the NZCTU side, the main affiliates are wanting to build relations legal rights so they can improve their reason to go was to hold discussions with with the “official” Chinese trade unions situation. the Chinese Unions regarding the pro- for no other reason than China is now posed NZ China Free Trade Agreement. such an important economy in the world Struggle: So how did this view com- From the Chinese side, they wanted and the ACFTU is the biggest trade pare to the view of the ACFTU leaders to re-build the relationship with the union in the world. This being the case, in Beijing? NZCTU that was strained last year when the ICFTU now recommends that any the Chinese Government postponed unions that go to China meet with the RR: That is a most interesting point. an international trade union seminar in Hong Kong unions and labour groups Although the Hong Kong groups and the Beijing and cancelled the visa of NZCTU before going into China. ACFTU are at loggerheads, they probably President Ross Wilson, who was on his have a closer understanding today than way to attend the seminar. Struggle: So were these Hong Kong at any time over the last 16 years. In all meetings useful? of our discussions in China the ACFTU Struggle: What was the programme officials also placed huge emphasis on of the visit? RR: Yes very. It is always good to the need to promote worker rights, the look at things from a number of differ- need to make sure the new labour and RR: We spent one day in Hong Kong ent points of view. The former Chinese trade union laws are implemented and talking to Hong Kong unions and other leader Mao Zedong placed great empha- the need for unions to organise workers groups who undertake worker rights sis on looking at things all sidedly. We in the new private sector companies that activities inside China. We then went to had useful discussions with the HKCTU are rapidly proliferating. Beijing for four days where we met with about China including the effect of low senior leaders of the ACFTU, representa- cost Chinese manufacture on workers Struggle: So what form did your dis- tives from the International Committee in Hong Kong. Our most interesting cussions with the ACFTU take place? of the Chinese Communist Party, the discussion was with the Chinese “dissi- NZ Embassy, and a NZ investment firm dent” Han Dongfang. Han was a worker RR: Our major discussions were at operating in China. We were also taken activist and protester at the time of the the level of Vice Chairman and General to Rewi Alley’s House and shown the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989. Secretary of the ACFTU. The Chairman Forbidden City and the Great Wall. We He was arrested and jailed in China but of the ACFTU, Wang Zhaoguo hosted were in Shanghai for just two days and then was allowed to leave the country us at a banquet in the Great Hall of the met with the Shanghai Municipal Trade on medical grounds. After his health People. Chairman Wang is also a Vice- Union Council and visited a NZ owned improved he tried to return to China Chairman of the Standing Committee leather tannery and a local textile plant. but was deported to Hong Kong where of the National Peoples Congress and he has been working ever since, as a a member of the Political Bureau of Struggle: Why did you visit the groups Chinese labour rights activist. the Communist Party of China. He is and unions in Hong Kong who take a therefore very influential in Government, very anti-China position? In the past Han Dongfang has been call- Party and Union affairs. The New 10 June 2005 : STRUGGLE INTERVIEW

Zealand Ambassador also attended this if you have less than 10% unionisation, banquet. Struggle: So what role does the what can we learn?”. ACFTU play in this situation? Struggle: And what were the main Struggle: What is the Chinese unions’ issues for discussion? RR: The ACFTU is proud of the rela- greatest challenge? tionship that it has with the Communist RR: The ACFTU were very keen to Party of China. They reject the criticism RR: I think it is organising in the private brief us on the Chinese economy, the of this from the west. “Every trade union sector. Since the Chinese Government work of the ACFTU and international in the world has a party behind it” they has allowed capitalism or the market trade union relations. We were keen to told us, “but only a few admit it”. The economy to operate in the manufactur- learn these things, to brief the Chinese ACFTU sees its role of supporting a ing and service sectors, the ACFTU has side on the NZ economy and trade growing economy to provide work for the added challenge of organising work- union movement and to open discus- the Chinese population and protecting ers in enterprises where the owners are sions between the two trade union cen- rights of workers in China. The ACFTU antagonistic to trade unions. While we tres on the likely impacts of the proposed has 130 million members. Last year were in China the story of Wal Mart was NZ – China Free Trade Agreement. it aimed to recruit 6.6 million workers very much a discussion point. Wal Mart into the union. It achieved recruitment is a US owned retail company that is The greatest impression that any discus- of 13.5 million new members. The completely antagonistic to trade unions. sion on China leaves is the size of the ACFTU has been very active in drafting It does not allow unionisation in any of country and the size of the problems and promoting the new labour and trade its plants in the United States. It recently that the country is trying to address. At union laws at the level of the National closed down a plant in Canada on the one stage NZCTU Vice–President, Helen Peoples Congress and Provincial level. sole basis that a union had been formed. Kelly, asked “don’t you have any num- The ACFTU is also concerned that these Yet the US Government and unions bers less than a million?” laws are not operating consistently across lecture China on freedom of associa- the country. They told us that there is tion! A number of Chinese provincial China is a country of 1.3 billion or 1,300 much violation of these laws by private Governments are now refusing to let Wal million people. We were told that over companies. The ACFTU is an active pro- Mart operate in their provinces unless it the last 25 years it has averaged a growth moter of Occupational Health and Safety agrees to recognise a union. An agree- rate of 9.4%. However even this growth and are especially concerned at the large ment had just been made in Shanghai to and the plans to quadruple GDP to number of accidents and deaths in the do this a few days before we arrived. USD 4 trillion per year over the next 20 mining sector. Finally the ACFTU runs years will still leave China as a develop- many training and worker assistance pro- Struggle: So what were your impres- ing country. Creating jobs for the new grammes for unemployed workers across sions of the factories that you visited. entrants into the workforce and for the country. The ACFTU leadership is those workers laid off from the old state genuinely hurt by some of the attacks RR: We were not shown, nor did we owned enterprises was the key issue for made on it by some unions in the west. expect to be shown the worst factories the ACFTU. Last year 9.8 million jobs They told us, “some trade unions in some in China. China is still a third world were created but there are still 24 million developed countries are always giving country and there is plenty evidence that workers unemployed in the urban areas. orders to developing countries and do sweatshops and poor working conditions It is also estimated that over the next few not see the achievements that have been exist. However we were impressed that years a further 100 million farmers will made. We say to them, if you are doing the Chinese Government, Communist be looking for urban jobs. a good job we can learn from you, but Party and Trade Union movement are Marxist-Leninist Literature Available: Books by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong. Full catalogue available, Write to: Books, PO Box 807, Whangarei.

STRUGGLE : June 2005 11 INTERVIEW

working hard to try and create jobs and Free Trade Agreement with China. In held accountable. raise the wages and living standards of fact it is hell bent on securing a free Chinese workers. trade agreement with any country in Both before and after our delegation the the world. NZ trade policy comes NZCTU has been raising our concerns However after visiting the two factories in from an extreme free market ideology with the government and with the trade Shanghai we were completely depressed. that is a carry over from the years of negotiators. We are still unhappy but Not because of the bad working condi- Rogernomics and Ruthenasia (and back feel that our message is starting to be tions but the very opposite. Working to where Don Brash wants to take us). listened to. conditions in the tannery and textile The main forces pushing the free trade mill that we visited were far better than agreements are finance and agricultural Interestingly when we discussed these in New Zealand. Of course the wages capital. Finance capital is transnational issues with our Chines counterparts, they were much lower but they had been anyway and simply wants to pull down thought NZ would be stupid (as they increasing by 13% per year over the last any barriers that prevent its unquench- would) to move to free trade on every- five years. The depressing thing was that able lust for greater profits. Agricultural thing overnight. the machinery and technology were all capital, especially through companies state of the art from Germany and Italy such as Fonterra want to break down all So it looks like the so-called Free Trade and left NZ for dead. barriers to the export of their products Agreement will go ahead. But it may and are prepared for our trade nego- be more a Trade Agreement than a Our NZ Government is telling us that tiators to give away whatever it takes free trade agreement. This is what the we cannot compete with China at the (including thousands of NZ manufactur- union movement will be pushing for. “low end” but that we must be high ing jobs) in order to get a deal. And didn’t Mao Zedong also advise us skill, innovative, high tech. But China is to try and “turn a bad thing into a good there already. It has already beaten us. I am very worried about the proposed thing”! NZ economic development policies are Free Trade Agreement with China going to have to be much smarter than because there is no corresponding indus- they are at the moment. try and economic development planning going on in NZ to deal with the potential Struggle: So what is your attitude to downsides of such a deal. But we can’t the NZ – China Free Trade Agreement blame China for that. As we have dis- as a result of your visit. cussed China has huge problems of its own that it has to overcome. If we get a RR: It is obvious that the NZ bad deal then it is the NZ Government Government is hell bent on securing a and our trade negotiators that should be Green Party MP's Misguided Protest (contributed) include his strident denials of any interest in the same way) that the CIA ‘stopped’ in politics or posts. direct funding of the Bay of Pigs ‘fighters’ Green Party co-leader Rod Donald’s – the CIA saw that the expenditure no apparently individual protest against sen- As an article in August 16, 1999 longer yielded any ‘bang’ for the bucks. ior Chinese politician Mr Wu Bangguo, Newsweek, ‘CIA - A Secret War on the Chairman of the Standing Committee Roof of the World’ explained: When confronted with evidence that of China’s National People’s Congress, is his guerrillas were funded through the part of a large orchestrated campaign by ‘In 1958, the Dalai Lama was a 23-year- CIA, the Dalai Lama stated his brother the United States against China’s 1949 old god-king on the verge of losing his had kept the operation secret from him. revolution, albeit this is probably not realm. The Chinese communists were Reagan’s I-was-out-of-the-loop excuse known by Rod Donald himself. closing in, and Tibet’s spiritual leader was during Contra-Gate testimony involved desperate. That’s when he first heard that not only perjury, but plagiarism! We all know that Taiwan became the the Central Intelligence Agency was step- base of the reformation of fascist forces ping up its activities in his domain. ... Any calls for the U.S. government to ‘pres- in the so-called ‘Anti-Communist League’, sure’ China to change its policies are reac- but Taiwan’s rulers are not the U.S. gov- ‘By the mid-’60s, the Tibet operation was tionary to the core. Washington (which ernment’s sole surrogate warriors against costing Washington $1.7 million a year, feigns concern’ about national rights as it China. The U.S. government did not (and according to intelligence documents. That provides bullets and bull*** to attack the does not) want to pitch its anti-China included $500,000 to support 2,100 guer- rights of Palestinians) and its allies are the propaganda solely to conservatives, but rillas based in Nepal and $180,000 worth #1 enemy of the rights of ALL victims to liberals as well. Few have served that of “subsidy to the Dalai Lama.”’ of discrimination and national oppression role better or more willingly than the – inclduing Tibetans. Despite the croco- Dalai Lama, whose personal claim to be a Although $180,000 doesn’t seem like all dile tears shed by the Dalai Lama for ‘his’ pacifist and solely interested in defending that much in today’s dollars, the CIA’s people, the U.S. (and the Dalai Lama’s) his people (Tibetans) is taken at face value payment to the Dalai Lama was greater anti-China campaign is NOT a campaign and repeated loudly by many liberals – by than the combined annual income of to ‘introduce’ or restore ‘democracy’ or Richard Gere for example. 1,000 typical Tibetans. national rights – it is part and parcel of a propaganda campaign by those who wish Prior to 1959, Tibet was a feudal theoc- The CIA eventually stopped funding this to restore capitalism (and the ‘influence’ racy lorded over by the Dalai Lama -- the project - not because the Dalai Lama of Wall Street and Washington) in China. same one whose chants for the press objected, but for the same reasons (and

12 June 2005 : STRUGGLE UPDATE US Continues to Interfere in Venezuela's Politics With the failure of its three previous attempts since 2002 to topple the Bolivarian Revolution of President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Washington has recently announced a new “contain- ment” strategy for crippling the demo- cratically elected and socialist-oriented government of Latin America’s leading oil power.

In April 2002 the Venezuelan people rose up and reversed a U.S. supported military coup against Chávez, who had been elected president in 1998 and then again under a new more democratic constitution in 2000. In winter 2002–03 Chávez’s government overcame with popular backing an oil industry shut- is accused of supporting insurgents in es could touch off an arms race in the down and general lockout to which Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. Venezuela region (Jonah Gindin, Venezuelanalysis. Washington had given its blessing. And in is also being criticized by the Bush com, April 1, 2005). August 2004 the Venezuelan poor mobi- administration and the corporate media lized to deliver Chávez a resounding for threatening to cut off the supply of What has really drawn Washington’s ire, victory in a recall referendum in which Venezuelan oil to the United States if however, lies elsewhere: in the accel- Washington had done everything it could force is used in any way against it, and eration of the revolutionary process in to bolster the opposition. for working at building a global alliance Venezuela since the failed U.S.-supported against what Chávez calls “the imperialist coup of three years ago. Chávez now Unable to instigate another coup because power of the United States.” speaks openly of the need for “inventing of the military’s allegiance to the Chávez the socialism of the 21st century.” Worse government, and prevented from intro- But the strongest U.S. criticisms are still from a U.S. ruling class standpoint, ducing a full economic blockade by the aimed at recent defense purchases by the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela fact that Venezuela supplies 15 percent Venezuela, which has acquired 100,000 is seeking to show the rest of the world of U.S oil imports, the Bush administra- Kalshnikov rifles from Russia and military the way forward, by introducing a revo- tion’s current options for destabilizing the aircraft from Brazil. It is also seeking to lutionary democratic strategy geared to Venezuelan revolution are limited. It has obtain radar equipment from China. In the real needs of the population. At the therefore turned to declaring Venezuela a trip to Brazil in March, U.S. Defense same time Venezuela is attempting to a military threat to the hemisphere and Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stated (as break out of the U.S. economic orbit hence to the security of the United reported by Richard Benedetto in USA by working on diversifying the markets States. By calling its new policy one of Today, April 1, 2005) “that he ‘could not for its oil, signing energy deals with “containing” Venezuela, it seeks to jus- imagine’ what Venezuela, with an army France, India, and China—in a move tify a more nakedly imperialist policy of of 34,000, was going to do with 100,000 that is viewed as deeply threatening regime change, building the case for U.S. assault rifles.” The insinuation is that to U.S. oil interests. Venezuela is also military intervention if necessary in order Venezuela means to use these Russian seeking a stronger economic coalition to secure U.S. hemispheric dominance. rifles to arm revolutionary movements in among Latin American countries, and other countries. Yet, given that Venezuela is actively promoting a global alliance The lead role in articulating this new is being directly threatened by the larg- against U.S. imperialism. No wonder that more aggressive posture has been taken est and most aggressive military power U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by Roger Pardo-Mauer, deputy assistant on earth, it has every reason to want to has declared Venezuela a “negative force secretary for western hemisphere affairs purchase weapons with which to arm its in the region” and Otto Reich, former in the defense department, and a former population for a guerrilla-based struggle assistant secretary of state in the first state department representative to the against a potential invading force—some- Bush administration, has declared the Nicaraguan Contra terrorists, who with thing that should not surprise Rumsfeld Venezuela-Cuba connection the “Axis of U.S. backing helped bring down the at all. Evil: Western Hemisphere Style.” democratically elected Sandinista govern- ment in Nicaragua by 1990. In an inter- Still, it appears that the new containment For the peace movement in the United view with the Financial Times (March policy is already bearing fruit. In a climate States and throughout the world there 13, 2004) Pardo-Mauer hypocritically of intense U.S. pressure on Argentina can be only one response to current U.S. stated that Chávez has adopted a “hyena regarding Chávez, the Argentinean min- attempts to corner and then move in for strategy” in Latin America and is guilty ister of defense José Pampuro recently the kill on its revolutionary Latin American of “downright subversion.” Venezuela suggested that Venezuela’s arms purchas- neighbor: Hands Off Venezuela! STRUGGLE : June 2005 13 ANALYSIS China Sees Latin America as Taking a Left Turn Xu Shicheng writing for official Chinese President Ricardo Lagos, from the Party polarization have remained.’ publication Beijing Review describes the for Democracy, and Argentinean President election of ‘Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay’s Nestor Kirchner, from the Justicialista ‘Some Western observers conceded that Broad Front-Progressive Encounter (Peronist) Party, who both took office in it was public discontent and disillusion- Coalition’ as ‘the latest winner in an 2003, are also labeled as center-left politi- ment with the neoliberal policies that ongoing political shift toward the left in cians by some observers.’ have given birth to the leftward-leaning Latin America.’ governments in Brazil and Argentine. The The article continues: ‘Many experts on defeat of Venezuelan opposition forces to The article is not only a useful review of Latin American affairs agree that the inau- challenge President Chavez, some believe, developments in Latin America, it also guration of the Broad Front government has demonstrated support and confidence reflects a developing trend in Chinese for- in Uruguay can been seen as a symbol of in left-thinking leaders.’ eign policy, towards developing a broad the consistent strengthening of left-leaning ‘unity’ with parties in particular ‘ruling par- governments in Latin America in recent ‘In the meantime, a sweeping worldwide ties’ that could be identified as ‘leftist’ years and a good example of how they anti-globalization campaign that particu- have come to assume power peacefully larly targets Western dominance, as well The article noted that ‘Vazquez stressed through democratic elections.’ as the strong critiques of the U.S.-based equality, freedom, human rights and economic theories practiced in Latin friendship, and pledged to give his nation ‘In other Latin American countries, leftist American countries, have added to the a thorough facelift that will focus on pro- parties are also playing an important role influence of leftist parties.’ duction and development. According to in state affairs as the dominant party or a two-year emergency plan, the Vazquez as the major opposition party. For exam- ‘First of all, Latin American leftist parties government will annually budget $100 ple, the Nicaragua Sandinista National as a whole stand firmly against neoliberal million to address the food, health and Liberation Front, Mexico’s Democratic economic policy and globalization, as well educational needs of the nation’s 200,000 Revolution Party, Salvador’s Farabundo as the establishment of an American households living in poverty.’ Marti National Liberation Front, Bolivia’s free trade area. They have also opposed Movement Toward Socialism and the the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. sanctions ‘Regarding international diplomacy, the National Revolutionary Union of against Cuba and the U.S. military pres- new president, who is firmly against for- Guatemala have all become the second or ence in Colombia, which they blame for eign intervention, put forth the principles third largest party in their respective coun- only serving to destabilize the country. of independence, justice, peace and self- tries. In Mexico, Colombia and Salvador, They promote a fight against government determination that will guide his adminis- mayors of their state capitals are currently corruption and for a restoration of public tration. Three hours after his inauguration, leftist politicians. The Nicaragua Sandinista interests.’ Vazquez fully resumed Uruguay-Cuba dip- National Liberation Front won a landslide lomatic relations by signing a framework victory in the country’s local elections last ‘To maintain social stability, almost all left- agreement on trade with the Caribbean November.’ ist governments of Latin American coun- country. He also signed an agreement to tries have continued existing neoliberal enhance economic and trade integration ‘FUTURE PROSPECTS’ policies, while paying more attention to with Brazil, Argentine and Venezuela, poverty alleviation and the eradication of whose leaders were present at his inau- The Chinese journalist continues, ‘In the social inequalities. In diplomatic relations, guration.’ last decade of the 20th century, Latin they have distanced from the United American leaders experimented with neo- States and instead are more enthusiastic to According to the Chinese media, Brazilian liberalism as the solution to the problems develop relations among Latin American President ‘Lula’ predicted that leftist par- of poverty, unemployment and underde- countries, and with the European Union ties would assume power in the majority velopment. Supported by the International and Asia-Pacific countries.’ of Latin American countries within six Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the to eight years. Beijing Review claimed U.S. Treasury Department, neoliberal eco- Beijing Review noted however that the that ‘Lulu’s prediction has become par- nomic policies are supposed to promote ‘leftist’ governments of Latin American tially true. He was sworn in as Brazil’s free trade through the reduction of tariffs, countries will inevitably face a series of president on January 1, 2003. Hugo the elimination of subsidies, public spend- internal and external challenges; Chavez, candidate of the Movement of ing cuts, privatization of state assets and the the Fifth Republic Party, began his ten- devaluation of currencies. However, grow- ‘including a mountain of foreign debt, pov- ure as Venezuelan president in February ing evidence has shown that the prescrip- erty, social polarization, different approval 1999. Despite strong challenges, he won tion has failed to revitalize Latin American ratings at home and potentially conten- a recall referendum last August that will economies. The per-capita gross domes- tious relations with the United States. They allow him to remain in power until early tic product of Latin American countries are very likely to suffer some setbacks. In 2007. In Ecuador, Lucio Gutierrez of the plummeted from 1998 to 2003, creating addition, their attitudes also vary toward Patriotic Society January 21 was sworn another losing streak for the region after the establishment of a free trade area, in as president on January 15, 2003. the “lost decade” of the 1980s. Though the World Bank and the International (The Ecuadorean president was removed the regional economy saw a rebound last Monetary Fund. In this sense, it is still from office by congress for dereliction year, such prominent problems as wealth too early to predict the trend of a further of duty in April.) In addition, Chilean disparity, distribution inequality and social political shift leftward in Latin America.’

14 June 2005 : STRUGGLE REPORT Despite Crackdown on Opposition Nepal King Faces Growing Revolution By David Hoskins

King Gyanendra of Nepal has announced the lifting of a state of emergency he imposed on the country at the beginning of February, but many repressive meas- ures remain in force in the impoverished Himalayan kingdom.

Following the emergency declaration, Nepal’s government was dismissed and all civil liberties were suspended as the Royal Army occupied cities and towns and enforced strict curfews.

At the time he enacted his royal coup, Gyanendra indicated he would give himself 100 days to contain the revolutionary proc- ess led by the Communist Party of Nepal against government dissenters. Military units be false. According to the revolutionary forc- (Maoist) and destroy the fighting capacity of and armed police continue to be mobilized es, dozens of police and army troops were the New People’s Army. against protesters and opposition party lead- killed in fierce fighting both during and after ers. The offices of the youth wing of the the state of emergency. On May 10 several Gyanendra’s one-man rule made it hard legally recognized United Marxist-Leninist hundred Maoist revolutionaries launched for the governments of the U.S., India and Party continue to be forcibly occupied and simultaneous armed attacks on three joint Britain to continue their open support for the Royal Army recently fired on crowds security bases at Bandipur, Chorhawa and his regime. So he declared that the 100 days of student protesters. Additionally, high- Mirchaiya. All three bases are along the had been successful and that the revolution- level officials from the parliamentary parties east-west highway that links the rest of the ary forces were significantly diminished. He remain under indefinite detention and there country to the capital of Katmandu. (Nepal also wants to give the appearance that civil is continued police harassment of the king’s News, May 10) political opponents. (BBC News, April 30) This is backed up by BBC accounts of the Nevertheless, the U.S. and India are expect- situation in the country. ed to resume military aid to the king’s belea- guered regime. There is little doubt that this Even during the state of emergency, the aid is much needed to prop up the royal Maoists demonstrated their strength in defi- government after its expenditure of a great ance of the virtual military lockdown by amount of military power failed to destroy calling general strikes in certain regions and the revolution. closing down all private schools outside of Katmandu. In April the All Nepal National U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Free Student’s Union (Revolutionary) suc- Asia Christina Rocca paid King Gyanendra cessfully closed thousands of private schools and other government officials a visit in for several weeks. It was protesting the lack early May. Rocca’s visit was viewed by of quality public education and the high regional analysts as a sign that Washing ton cost of private education that prevented is interested in expediting the resumption of poor workers and peasants from attending arms shipments in order to fight the insur- school. The ANNFSU-R is the student wing gency. (Nepal News, May 09) of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The CPN(M) and its affiliated organizations Rocca spoke openly about the Maoist revo- appear to be operating at full capacity, lution, intimating that a people’s republic despite months of state terrorism. This places in Nepal would be viewed by the Bush King Gyanendra in the awkward situation of administration as a threat to U.S. hegemony either admitting that his military has greatly in the region. She also spoke highly of inflated the number of casualties it claims to liberties and freedom for opposition parties Gyanendra’s decision to rescind the emer- have inflicted on the revolutionary forces, or have been restored, so the three govern- gency declaration and encouraged the king admitting that the size of the revolutionary ments can justify the resumption of military and the parliamentary parties to unite to forces and their support among the masses aid the monarch needs to fight the popular defeat the revolutionary movement. is stronger than even many of the Maoists’ insurgency. sympathizers have suspected. The monarchy’s contention that it has con- It appears that Gyanendra was wrong tained and diminished the armed strength on both counts. Armed action continues of the revolutionary forces also appears to

STRUGGLE : June 2005 15 COMMENT Convention Exposed and Challenged to Front on Issues Affecting Women The first national Women’s Convention ests of the women getting paid $9.50 tant for rural and low-income women, in thirty years was held in Wellington an hour to sweep up their discarded “ said Nikki Burrows, another of the over Queen’s Birthday weekend. This chicken bones. meeting’s organisers. was marketed as an opportunity for women and the feminist movement The national Women’s Convention Those attending both meetings were to assess their achievements and plan claimed to represent all women in New outraged that the Convention did not for the future. However, the organizers Zealand. But the high costs imposed address the concerns women had about priced the event well beyond the means on attendees and the way in which the discrimination they faced in their of working class women. it has been organized means that it’s lives. Women still felt discriminated really only representative of a privileged against on the basis of their race, sexu- For a woman to attend, she had to pay few who have the financial and time ality, ability, class and work-status. The a registration fee of $337.50. While this resources to participate in this elitist commodification of women’s bodies price tag might seem little more than ‘pin event. Unfortunately, it seems that this and the sexualisation of children were money’ to some, it is nearly two weeks convention is yet another example of other concerns raised. worth of the mean woman’s income in the hefty price to pay for so-called New Zealand. “Don’t be shy” though, ‘feminism’. These issues need to be prioritised in informed the convention’s website, the government policy, and given more organizers have generously established Instead a group of women met in resources to make real changes to a poor fund for those earning less than response outside the convention, also women’ lives. The women meeting $30,000, which working class women in Wellington, to discuss their con- outside the Convention challenged can appeal to for exemption from fees cerns about the United Women’s it through a leaflet to address these and travel costs. Convention. issues.

This attitude to working class wom- The meeting resolved to circulate a ...... en’s participation made a mockery out leaflet inside the convention pointing of the convention’s proffered themes: out that it did not represent the reality When something claims to represent “Changing Faces” and “Changing of women’s lives in New Zealand and ‘women’, feminists should ask: “which Workplaces”. Convention chair Hon noting out that only 550 women are women?” Women who can afford $200 Margaret Shield’s “Welcome Message” attending the convention, far fewer than for a conference, and $50 for a confer- further reinforces this sort of soup kitch- the 2,000 expected. ence dinner, or the women cleaning en-style democracy, ridiculing any real the toilets in which that dinner will be integration of the issues salient to work- Women at the alternative meeting said later deposited? New Zealand’s best- ing class New Zealand. that the organisation of the convention paid women, or workers on minimum had actively excluded many women, wage? Shield stated that she is “full of admi- by ignoring their requests to present ration at the way so many women workshops, and failing to reply to letters Women like Theresa Gattung, Rosanne have grasped the opportunities that are and emails. Meo and Mai Chen, who spoke at the now available”, and points out that the convention, are not to aspire to. They intention of the convention is to come They identified issues that were relevant are simply standing on the top of a very up with recommendations that can to women’s lives and that urgently large pile of women who suffer as part be actioned. Half-a-dozen ‘monitors’ need to be addressed and resolved to of the patriarchal system, a system these (including the likes of Telecom CEO take these issues into the convention to ‘leaders’ don’t challenge, but one they Theresa Gattung) have been appointed prevent them from being ignored com- have simply made their own. to “report back on your celebrations, pletely. These issues included the status concerns and action plans”. No prizes of unpaid work, discrimination, poverty Feminism and feminists have made huge for guessing what sort of issues are likely and violence. gains for women, which should be cel- to feature high on their agenda. ebrated, but we need to be wary of any “Women’s work in the home and com- claims this Convention might make to The stage was set, then, for plenty of munity is not valued, we are told speak on behalf of all women. pats on the back and champagne, as that we only contribute to society by the cover girls of bourgeois feminism being in paid employment” said Jasmine congratulated one another on having Freemantle, one of the organisers of the ‘made it’. What’s fairly unlikely is that meeting. these women, enjoying entertainment options including a convention dinner “Women are still fighting to access good (an additional $51) would give more health care, education and welfare serv- than cursory consideration to the inter- ices. These issues are particularly impor-

16 June 2005 : STRUGGLE STUDY Castro Strikes a Nerve By Jill Soffiyah Elijah, Deputy Dean in 1974. The BJS reports that as of had to obtain a court order to get Harvard Law School. December 31, 2001, there were an esti- access to her client. Lawyers for the mated 5.6 million adults who had ever Cuban 5 were limited to brief desig- In April 2005 the international com- served time in state or federal prison, nated time periods when they were munity began to take a closer look at including 4.3 million former prisoners allowed to meet with their clients prior the United States justice system as its and 1.3 million adults in prison. to trial. government attempted to explain and or deny the presence of admitted ter- At every stage of the criminal justice Such interferences compromise the rorist, Luis Posada Carriles. As news system in the U.S., blacks, Latinos, ability of the defendants and their stories sprouted from even mainstream Chicanos and other people of color counsel to develop trial strategy, pre- media calling for the extradition of and the poor are disproportionately pare testimony and make crucial deci- Posada to Venezuela, a country with impacted. Decisions by law enforce- sions about witnesses and evidence. In which the U.S. has had a longstanding ment personnel concerning who to the case of the Cuban 5, independent extradition treaty, Washington went stop, who to arrest and how to charge, polls showed that it would be impossi- into a frenzy. are all infused with racial bias. Decisions ble for them to get a fair trial in Miami. regarding indictments, plea offers and Despite this objective evidence, the After some false starts concerning what requests for enhanced sentences and judge denied the defendants’ motion it was going to do about Posada, the death penalty, are similarly guided for a change of venue, even to Fort Washington “defended” its position by considerations of race and class. Lauderdale, just 30 miles away. by hurling barbs at Cuban President Fidel Castro about the political asylum Sentencing decisions regarding proba- Assata Shakur’s requests for a change granted to Assata Shakur by the Cuban tion and incarceration reflect the same of venue were initially denied and then government. President Castro retorted racial overtones as the earlier stages finally granted with a move to Morris that Ms. Shakur had not received jus- of the system. The racist practices County, one of the richest and most tice in the United States and that she, of prosecutors was so prevalent that conservative overwhelmingly white like many other political prisoners, had in 1986 the United States Supreme counties in the state of New Jersey. been persecuted and denied a fair Court finally outlawed the practice of Further, the hysterical pretrial publicity trial. routinely removing blacks from the assisted in creating an atmosphere that jury in Batson v. Kentucky (476 U.S. guaranteed the defendants would not By aiming the spotlight on the criminal 79). Prior to 1986, the courts routinely get a fair trial. justice system in the United States, ignored the practice. Following Batson, President Castro exposed a tender prosecutors simply offered pre-textual Last month President Fidel Castro nerve for Washington. My more than reasons for their racist challenges to delivered a calculated series of public 20 years as a criminal defense lawyer potential jurors and the courts turned addresses that have been heard around and professor of criminal defense advo- a blind eye. the world, including in the United cacy confirm the widely known assess- States. The arduous campaign to obtain ment that every aspect of the criminal Prisoners in the U.S. are systemati- justice for the Cuban 5 and to expose justice system is ripe for criticism and cally incarcerated hundreds, and in the hypocrisy of the criminal justice laden with hypocrisy. many instances thousands, of miles system has been the backdrop to these away from their families and loved presentations. The United States incarcerates more ones. Family contact is discouraged and people per capita than any other devel- thwarted. Frequently family members President Castro’s expose of the system oped nation on earth. The population travel hundreds of miles to visit their rings so very true to the millions of of the United States comprises 5% of loved one and they are denied entry on Americans who have been incarcerated the world’s population but its incarcer- minor technicalities. in the United States and the more than ated population is equal to more than 100 political prisoners who are cur- 25% of the world’s prisoners. U.S. prison officials regularly create rently held in its prisons. The millions obstacles when attorneys seek to visit who have had their lives interrupted by According to the Bureau of Justice their clients. Memos authorizing the the criminal “justice” system know that Statistics, based on current rates of first visit mysteriously disappear on the day fairness is usually an illusion discussed incarceration, an estimated 32% of the attorney arrives for the visit. Use widely in classrooms but not men- black males will enter state or federal of private attorney-client conference tioned in courtrooms. They know it’s prison during their lifetime, compared rooms is denied. Visits are inexplicably unjust. Castro’s pronouncements bear to 17% of Hispanic males and 5.9% of cut short and routinely monitored by witness to the fact that “justice” in the white males. In other words, one third video camera and roaming guards. United States, isn’t justice at all. of black men can expect to be incarcer- ated during their life times if they live Similar tactics are often employed in the United States. against political defendants during pre- trial proceedings. The cases of both Incarceration in the U.S. is a growing Assata Shakur and the Cuban 5 are industry. In 2001, an estimated 2.7% reflective of the unconstitutional obsta- of adults in the U.S. had served time in cles created to interfere in trial prepara- prison, up from 1.8% in 1991 and 1.3% tion. Shakur’s lawyer, Evelyn Williams, STRUGGLE : June 2005 17 ANAYSIS US Economy: Stagnation and Lies Behind Privatisation Plans David Wyss, chief economist for Standard It is now considered common knowl- & Poor’s, recently opened an article, edge that the Social Security trust fund “Good, Gloomy or Grim in 2005?,” will no longer be able to meet its total with the words: “Growth tops the wish obligations by 2042. However, this “fact” list [for the U.S. economy], but even is based on long-run forecasting by the recession wouldn’t be all that bad, given Social Security Administration claiming that recovery always follows. The big that the average annual rate growth of fear? Stagnation” (Business Week Online, the economy will drop precipitously from January 10, 2005). 3 percent in 2005–10 to an abysmal 1.8 percent in 2015–80. The 1.8 percent Stagnation is usually understood as a long growth forecasted here is lower than the period of slow growth, weak employ- growth rate in any two decades of U.S. ment, and weak investment. Stagnation history, including the Great Depression. represents the underlying economic trend in which the normal business cycle ups With economic growth rates only a little and downs occur. It does not lead auto- above this, Social Security would not be matically to its own reversal, and can in any peril and would have the funds to linger on endlessly—no wonder it con- cover its beneficiaries indefinitely. More stitutes, according to Wyss, “the scariest telling, however, is the fact that if stag- scenario.” nation as deep as the 1920s and 1930s Capital’s response to these exigencies has were actually to extend out for decades But if the specter of stagnation is haunt- been threefold: (1) a stepped-up class U.S. capitalism as a whole would be in ing the U.S. and world economy this is war; (2) an attempt to increase the size serious jeopardy and the class struggle downplayed in the Bush administration’s and activity of the pump (but, consistent enormously intensified. Social Security, own assessment in the 2005 Economic with the class war from above in terms which could still cover three-quarters of Report of the President. The introduc- that primarily serve capital); and (3) a its benefits in that situation, would be the tion proclaims that “the United States is growth of imperialism (including eco- least of the problems of the system. enjoying a robust economic expansion.” nomic globalization) and war. Nevertheless, economic growth of 3.3 Those who claim that Social Security can percent, only a little above the average All three methods of confronting the be partially privatized through the crea- annual rate for the last thirty–five years, crisis have been used by the Bush White tion of individual private accounts and is projected by the administration for the House, which has gone further than any that those accounts will then earn high rest of the decade. Indeed, if the 2.8 per- other administration in promoting the rates of return are shuffling two different cent growth rate for the years 2000–04 is class war; has pumped up the economy sets of books. High rates of return on combined with the administration’s own in every way it can that it is consistent the stock market are extremely unlikely projections for the next five years the with direct adherence to ruling-class inter- in a severely stagnating economy. “If annual growth rate for the 2000–09 dec- ests; and has launched a global war to economic growth is slow enough that ade would be 3.1 percent, slightly below back up an imperialist strategy of world we’ve got a problem with Social Security, the average for the last three decades domination. then we are also going to have problems and far worse than the 1960s. Recent with the stock market. It’s as simple as economic history and the administration It is a sign of capital’s strength that Social that,” according to Douglas Fore, direc- projections therefore point to the likeli- Security has been chosen as the first tar- tor of investment analytics for TIAA- hood of continuing slow growth in the get of a renewed offensive in the battle CREF Investment Management Group years ahead. to eliminate all New Deal and 1960s era (Washington Post, February 9, 2005). social programs. Social Security has thus At the root of this problem is the effective far been largely impregnable since its own What is the answer? There are no ready- banning of price competition in the more regressive payroll tax gives workers the made solutions to the problems raised mature, consolidated industries. Prices as sense that their Social Security benefits here. The economic burdens of the sys- a whole tend to go only one way—up. are owed to them. The plan for partial tem are likely to become more not This means that competition is not elimi- privatization of Social Security through less crushing for the ordinary populace, nated but channeled into areas such as the creation of private accounts, which nationally and globally. In the search for cost-saving innovations and marketing. would be based on carve-outs from the a rational, sustainable society there is no Increases in productivity do not gener- Social Security payroll taxes and would alternative but socialism—i.e., the struggle ally lead to lower prices or increased require benefits cuts in turn, is a Trojan for a democratic, egalitarian order. It is of real wages, instead they end up feeding horse introduced by the Bush White an old idea, but one that refuses to die the surplus in the hands of corporations House as a device for destroying Social and that is now taking on new revolution- and the wealthy. The result of all of this, Security from within. But in order to ary forms. Understanding the limitations however, is to create overaccumulation frighten the public it was necessary to of capitalism is only the first step; the and a shortage of effective demand in the claim that Social Security was facing a second has to take us beyond it. economy as a whole. severe crisis, making it untenable in the long-run.

18 June 2005 : STRUGGLE OVERVIEW Faced with Scylla-Charybdis Choice British Voters 'Punished' Blair Over Iraq War By Deirdre Griswold

The world had a chance to see the deep contradictions in Western capitalist democracy with the recent British elec- tions. Yes, the electors “punished” Prime Minister Tony Blair by costing his Labor Party parliamentary seats. There is even talk that Blair may have to step down as party leader. His successor, the present Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown—roughly the U.S. equivalent of Treasury secretary—has already been cho- sen, it seems.

But the punishment is light, indeed, for the monstrous crimes of Blair and the rest of the British imperialist government. want their nationalized medical system Galloway had been an early and strong Blair is hated by the British working class and retirement plan restored to health. opponent of the war. He was expelled for his servile support of George W. Bush So, despite the war, they elected the from the Labour Party in October 2003 and the U.S. wars and occupations in Labor Party to office once again, but with after what he termed a “kangaroo court” Iraq and Afghanistan. Huge demonstra- a much reduced plurality. of the party found him guilty of inciting tions even before the war on Iraq started Arabs to attack British troops, urging showed how much the people were The dilemma they faced was: how can British troops to defy orders, congratulat- against these imperialist adventures. you get what you want at the ballot box ing a Socialist Alliance anti-war candidate when the party that claims to be for social who defeated Labour in a local election, Since then, perhaps 100,000 Iraqis have welfare and greater equality is also the and threatening to run against Labour died. Almost 1,700 young worker-sol- party that is waging a cruel war? himself. diers from the U.S. and Britain—the only other significant partner of the U.S. in the The voters faced a Scylla-Charybdis After his expulsion, Galloway had told ludicrously labeled “coalition of the will- choice. The snobbish Conservatives ham- BBC, “The Labour Party will rue the day ing”—have also perished in Iraq, according mered away at Blair for lying to the they took this step. ... With every bone in to official sources. people about Iraq, but everyone knew my body, I will fight to hold to account a they would also hammer away at social lying, dishonest Prime Minister.” Iraq’s modern infrastructure has been programs. And they made no promise to destroyed. Its once admirable health sys- bring the troops home. And so he did. tem, schools, industries and culture have been set back to the days before its Blair and Company tried to steer the Britain’s Labor Party has been part of revolutionary independence struggle. An discussion away from the war and talk the imperialist political establishment for ugly anti-Muslim chauvinism has been about how they would improve housing, many, many years, even though it has unleashed, culminating in barbaric acts of health and so on. maintained a weak social democratic torture and humiliation by both U.S. and stance on domestic social policy. During British soldiers. Britain’s third party, the Liberal Demo the Vietnam War, Prime Minister Harold crats, just hoped people would be so fed Wil son, also of the Labor Party, shame- Revulsion over all this resulted in sharp up with both Labor and the Tories that lessly capitulated to economic and politi- opposition to Blair and his ministers they’d go for the fuzzy middle ground. cal pressure from Lyndon Johnson and wherever they campaigned. They didn’t. endorsed that dirty war in exchange for massive loans. As much as the multinational working One interesting race was in London’s class in Britain rejected the war, however, East End, where George Galloway, run- The working class, now infused and invig- they found it very difficult to get what ning on the newly created Respect Party orated with many people of color from they wanted at the polls. They want ticket, defeated the pro-Blair candidate in Britain’s former colonies, has spoken, but to restore the social programs that the a working-class district that normally is a it has not won any real victory. That can Conservatives took an ax to, beginning shoo-in for the Labor Party. only come in the streets and in the class with the Tory government of Margaret struggle. Thatcher in the 1980s. In particular, they STRUGGLE : June 2005 19 ABOUT STRUGGLE Strive to Unite! Ka Kohi Te Toe Ka Whai Te Marama Tanga (through the sharing of knowledge, enlightenment will follow) Struggle is published quarterly ing class contradictions, classes a party that develops its strat- representing the viewpoint of and laws of social develop- egy, tactics and methods cor- the Organisation for Marxist ment. The more comprehen- responding to the needs of Unity. Struggle aims to provide sive the competition of this the situation in Aotearoa/New a Marxist analysis of class strug- stage, the more favourable will Zealand by concrete analysis: gle, politics and economy of be the situation for the further a party free from doctrinaire Aotearoa/New Zealand. advance to a socialist society. Marxism, sectarianism and the influence of social democracy, The immediate task is to Struggle emphasises the neces- a party whose members are encourage working people and sity of studying the history of committed to serving the peo- all possible forces to unite in a class struggle in Aotearoa/New ple. Patriotic and Democratic United Zealand from the stand-point Front led by the working class of the revolutionary work- PLEASE NOTE: Send all editorial to remove the stranglehold of ing class science of Marxism- material, opinions, criticisms (with foreign monopoly capitalists Leninism, in which the writing date and source) to OMU, Box and their local agents, by estab- of Mao Zedong have made 807, Whangarei. lishing a People’s Democratic a major contribution. Struggle State System. This stage of the works for the building of a Published by Struggle Publications, advance to Socialism is deter- Communist Party based on the ISSN 07 10-7623. mined by the objectively exist- ideology of Marxism-Leninism, Subscriptions: Post this coupon to Books, PO Box 807, Whangarei. Rates: Individual $8.00, Institutions $10.00, Overseas $12.00. Please make cheque payable to Struggle Publications.

I enclose $______for 12 months subscription (4 issues).

Name: ______Address: ______

20 June 2005 : STRUGGLE