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2013 November Fightback Publication information Becoming a sustaining subscriber Table of Subscriptions to Fightback are available for $16.50 a year, this covers the costs Contents of printing and postage. At present the writing, proof reading, layout, and 3 Editorial distribution is all done on a volun- 3 In brief teer basis. To make this publication sustainable long term we are asking for 4 Union movement gathers for people to consider becoming ‘Sustain- ‘Fairness at Work’ ing subscribers’ by pledging a monthly 6 Bid for recognition of first official amount to Fightback (suggested $10). climate change refugee Sustaining subscribers will be send a free copy of each of our pamphlets to 7 Pacific migration: Climate thank them for their extra support. The change and the reserve army of name of the magazine will change to labour Fightback, but current subscriptions 8 A discourse on brocialism will remain unaltered. To start your sustaining subscription 15 Education and Capitalism: set up an automatic payment to 38- Behind the Massey-McDonald’s 9002-0817250-00 with your name in partnership the particulars and ‘Sustain’ in the code 17 National youth wellbeing and email your name and address to research highlights the impacts [email protected] of increasing poverty 18 Palestine: Queer Liberation vs Pinkwashing Get Fightback each month 21 Love and Marriage: Queers, Capitalism and Equality Within NZ: $20 for one year (11 issues) or $40 for two years (22 issues) Rest of the World: $40 for one year or $80 for two years Send details and payments to: Fightback, PO Box 10282 Dominion Rd, Auckland or Bank transfer: 38-9002-0817250-01 Donations and bequeathments Fightback is non-profit and relies on financial support from progressive people, supporters and members for all its activities including producing this magazine. To financially support us please deposit to 38-9002-0817250-01 with your initials and surname (or anony- mous.) Large and small, regular and one-off donations are all appreciated and listed in Fightback from time to time. Fightback magazine is now in its 20th year as we continue the long-term fight for socialism. Readers and supporters may consider re- membering us in their will with assets or money that will help the struggle in the long-term. If this is you please put in your will ‘Fight- back, PO Box 10-282, Dominion Road, Auckland’ as well as what you would like to leave to us. 2 Fightback November 2013 Editorial Welcome to the November 2013 Aotearoa/NZ also entered the About issue of Fightback. spotlight for slavery at sea, with In mid-October, the Walk Free foreign ships (contracted to local Fightback Foundation released the first companies) using slavery and Global Slavery Report. Draw- forced labour. This approach Under our current system, democracy ing data from UNICEF and the by employers ultimately works consists of a vote every 3 years. Most US State Department, the report undermines conditions for all of our lives are lived under dictator- estimated that around 30 million workers, and can only be over- ship, the dictatorship of bosses and people are enslaved world-wide. come by demanding full rights for all workers; including local and WINZ case managers. Fightback No report is unbiased, and it migrant workers. stands for a system in which our is worth noting that the Walk workplaces, our schools, our universi- With 30 million enslaved world- Free Foundation was founded ties are run democratically, for social wide by the Walk Free Founda- by Andrew Forest, an Australian need rather than private profit. mining magnate who has made tion’s definition, and the majority Fightback participates in the MANA billions through exploitation and of the world’s population enslaved Movement, whose stated mission is ecological degradation. The report by a revolutionary socialist defini- to bring “rangatiratanga to the poor, defines slavery as “the condition tion, the global situation looks Editorial the powerless and the dispossessed.” of treating another person as if pretty dark. It’s worth noting the Capitalism was imposed in Aotearoa they were property — something irony of one glimmer of light in through colonisation, and the fight to be bought, sold, traded or even late October, celebrity Russell for indigenous self-determination is destroyed,” and also includes Brand calling for revolution on a intimately connected with the fight forced labour defined as “work widely circulated Jeremy Paxman for an egalitarian society. We also taken without consent, by threats interview (available on YouTube). maintain an independent Marxist or coercion.” Arguably the threat Critics have noted Brand’s record organisation outside of parliament, to of poverty and starvation works as of sexist behaviour, (discussed offer a vision of a world beyond the a coercive measure even in cases further on P8-14) and sexism parliamentary capitalist system. of legal wage labour, as practiced must be opposed along with all by Forest in the mining industry. forms of oppression. However the Fightback stands against all forms of oppression. We believe working-class However, just as no source is significance of Brand’s challenge power, the struggle of the majority unbiased, it’s important to draw is more in its resonance with for self-determination, is the basis from a range of sources. The thousands of people; over 10,500 for ending all forms of oppression. report is illuminating from a people liked the Facebook page However, we also recognise that daily socialist perspective. “I Support Russell Brand’s Call for Revolution” within a couple inequities such as sexism must be The highest-ranked nations were of days. addressed here and now, not just after majority-world nations, exploited the revolution. by the minority world. India, A Facebook page is not a revo- Fightback is embedded in a range of China, and Pakistan are the lution, but it captures a social struggles on the ground; including highest-ranked in absolute terms. moment. Capitalism sows the building a fighting trade union move- Contrary to narratives of abolition seeds of its own destruction, and ment, movements for gender and and progress, the United States Fightback aims to play a part in sexual liberation, and anti-racism. has as many as 67,000 slaves. that creative destruction. Fightback also publishes a monthly magazine, and a website, to offer Coordinating Editors Layout: a socialist perspective on ongoing Byron Clark, Ian Joel Cosgrove struggles. Anderson Assisting Editors Monthly magazine published Fightback stands for struggle, soli- Proofing/Content Mike Kyriazopoulos, by: Fightback darity and socialism. Jared Phillips Kelly Pope, Daphne Fightback November 2013, Vol.1, No 9, Issue No 9 Lawless, Grant Brookes. Fightback November 2013 3 Unions Union movement gathers for ‘Fairness at Work’ Adapted from an article for Kai Tiaki speech to the Conference by Green (especially in the private sector) are still Nursing NZ. By Grant Brookes, delegate Party co-leader Metiria Turei, is that we without union protection. for the New Zealand Nurses Organisa- are heading towards election year with As a result, New Zealand had the fastest tion (NZNO) and Fightback member. the momentum to create a different growing gap between rich and poor of future. any developed country over the last 20 Former NZNO organiser Jeff Sissons, years. 132 delegates, representing nearly now working as the CTU General 300,000 union members, met in Wel- Jeff Sissons discussed international Counsel, began by giving an overview of lington on 9-10 October. research by two British epidemiologists, where we’re at now. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, The Council of Trade Unions Biennial The proportion of workers belonging to showing that this inequality is behind Conference 2013 examined the issues a union fell from 50% to just over 20% many of today’s public health problems, facing working people in New Zealand during the 1990s, he said, as the Na- from obesity, to mental illness and child since the last gathering in 2011, and tional Government removed the legal mortality from accidents. And New debated how to promote “Fairness at right to belong to a union, in breach of Zealand’s income gap is still growing. Work” as we face a fork in the road over our international human rights obliga- the next two years. The Conference also launched a major tions. new CTU report on the silent epidemic Down one possible path, our future will The Employment Relations Act, passed of insecure work (http://union.org.nz/ see the end of guaranteed meal breaks, a by the Labour-led government in 2000, underpressure). Under Pressure: Inse- loss of bargaining power, rising inequal- enabled unions to halt the decline. But cure Work in New Zealand shows that ity and growing insecurity at work. it wasn’t enough to generate any real at least 30% of New Zealand’s workers But the good news, conveyed in a recovery, and workers in many jobs – over 635,000 people – are now in jobs 4 Fightback November 2013 Unions without guaranteed hours, ongoing cer- violate the principle of equal pay for liffe’s response to a question from the tainty of employment, or employment equal work. We will work to ensure pay Conference floor about the Trans-Pa- rights like sick leave, holidays, safety equity. Labour will extend paid parental cific Partnership. He expressed support at work and freedom from discrimina- leave to a minimum of 26 weeks, as set for PHARMAC, but also reiterated his tion. These workers often lack sufficient out in Sue Moroney’s Member’s Bill. party’s conditional support for the free income and are powerless to change “The Labour Government I lead will trade deal threatening our state drug- their situation. turn back the tide of anti-worker leg- buying agency.
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