STRUGGLE A MARXIST APPROACH TO AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

No: 120 : $1.50 : March 2006 Super-size My Pay Mobilise to End Youth Rates and Demand $12 Minimum Now In the face of widespread demands for an they rose by 28.8% in Australia, 39.5% end to age poverty, the Clark regime’s cob- in Canada, 46.9% in UK and 68.2% bled coalition has said it wants to raise the Finland. minimum wage to $12.00 per hour by the end of 2008 if ‘economic conditions per- • During the same two decades corporate mit’. But 2008 is too late for low paid and profits went from 34% of GDP to 46%. minimum wage workers - there is already a Wages as a share of GDP fell from 57% low wage crisis despite recent growth in the 42%. economy and record corporate profits. • Australian average wages are 30% high- The Unite union reports that tens of thou- er than NZ now when they were the sands of workers live on the current mini- same as NZ twenty years ago mum wage of $9.50 an hour for those 18 and older and $7.60 an hour for 16 and 17 Poverty-wages are increasing the gap year olds. There is no minimum wage for between rich and poor and increasing other those 15 and under. social inequalities. The majority of low paid and minimum wage workers are women, Compare that to Australia where the mini- Maori, pacific nation peoples, disabled, mum wage is $NZ13.85, nearly 50% higher youth, students and new migrants. than in New Zealand. The irony of all the National Party’s electoral claims about WORKING FOR FAMILIES IS disparity with Australian wage rates is that NOT THE ANSWER the wage growth in Australia came about The Government has recognised that the because of Federal Wage orders for the wages for many are too low. It solution is to lowest paid workers - higher paid workers provide taxpayer-funded top-ups for wages system for the large foreign and local corpo- got wage increases to maintain relativities. to people with families through its working rations. They are the major beneficiaries of Yet these are exactly the policies that John for families package. This is no more than a a scheme that crudely shackles wage earners Key is now attacking as damaging to the subsidy to business, allowing it to pay wages to a business friendly state. economy. that are not acceptible if it was all that the worker got. In effect the Government is LOW PAY = According to the SuperSizeMyPay.com picking up a chunk of the wage bill - but LOW PRODUCTIVITY campaign site: Despite once having one only for some workers. Those with families Any delay in increasing the minimum wage of the highest standards of living in OECD get top-ups, others get nothing. sends the message that New Zealand coun- countries, New Zealand now has one of the try can continue to be a low-wage low-pro- highest rates of low pay, child poverty and Working for Families de-couples income ductivity country. We cannot. Low wages income inequality from work the impact being that the general produces a whole lot of low-paying jobs, taxpayers replace part of the wages paid by with little incentive to look at increasing pro- • Real wages dropped in New Zealand the employer. In effect, Working for Families ductivity per worker, either through training by 6.5% between 1980-2001 whilst is a state– controlled and managed welfare continues overleaf... INSIDE: STRUGGLE ON... Air NZ Dispute ...... 2 New Mao Biography ...... 12 Muslims and Communists. . . 3 New Orleans ...... 15 Being Pakeha ...... 6 NGOs in Russia...... 16 Danish Protests ...... 8 Philippines Update ...... 18 Marxism and Labour ...... 10 Rewi Alley...... 19

STRUGGLE : March 2006 1 EDITORIAL Air NZ Workers: Now the Fight is On! Workers have sensibly rejected a union- player in the aged care industry currently only across-the-board concessions from all collaborative effort to slash their jobs, under attack in a corporate takeover bid 2100 engineering workers could see some wages and conditions – now they need to by the Australian McQuarrie Bank. of the heavy engineering jobs saved. Air make the fight a political one and throw NZ management said even changes in off the yoke of their class collaborationist Stiassny told the NZ Herald it was “phe- shift patterns, removal of penal rates and union bosses. nomenal” and an “amazing surprise”, to an ‘hours bank’ to manage the work load see “how far the [union] delegates and would not be cheaper than outsourcing. Rather than confront the Government members have moved on labour reform”. Air NZ is going to outsource all the jobs it (which owns 82% of the company) over It is “unusual”, he crowed, “to see a union wanted to in the first place, and is seeking Air NZ plans to shut-down its heavy engi- make those ... deliverables” and Air NZ ‘savings’ (read increase exploitation and neering aircraft repair operations, unions should take advantage of these conces- extraction of surplus value) from those turned to an anti-union accounting firm to sions. This has been the rhetoric domi- who remain – with no jobs saved at all. come up with a cost-saving scheme at the nating the media – followed by cries of expense of workers’ conditions. outrage that ‘a small group’ of workers The loss of our country’s heavy aircraft have now shafted the deal by refusing to repair capacity would be a major blow The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing take cuts to their hard-fought-for wages to our strategically important transport Union (EPMU) and the Aviation and and conditions. infrastructure. The Labour-led government Marine Engineers Association (AMEA) must be forced to act in the interests of the put up a plan that would save only half of Andrew Little, the national secretary of people who elected it and protect the 600 the 600 jobs that would be lost if the engi- the EPMU, has embraced the account- jobs at risk while ensuring New Zealand neering work was outsourced off-shore. ants’ anti-worker plan. He sees it as ‘a continues to have a viable national airline. viable alternative’, but in selling workers’ Not only would more than 300 jobs disap- conditions in return for an unenforceable NATIONALISE AIR NEW ZEALAND pear, the workers who remain would have undertaking that some jobs will be saved, NOW! WORKERS, THROW-OFF to take a major wage cut and yet still be Little and the unions are playing right into THE SHACKLES OF YOUR UNION expected to do the same or even more the company’s hands. BOSSES! THESE WORKSHOPS ARE work. ASSETS OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF Only a few days before the presentation NEW ZEALAND. OCCUPY TO KEEP Instead of making concessions, the unions of the union concessions to Air NZ, the THEM OURS! should be waging a campaign to force the company said that even a 25 per cent cut Government, to take full control of the in labour costs for the engineers would not airline and ensure the engineering repair be enough to save their jobs. Air NZ said facilities are kept open. Yet instead of tak- ing this fight to the Government – led by COVER STORY CONT. the Labour party that the EPMU spent hundreds of thousands of members dues or investment. As the CPA minimum pro- paign around the fast food industry can helping to get elected - the union wants its gramme published for the election pointed help these workers win a contract for these own members to pay even more, through out: the only way to increase productivity demands. It will also build the confidence their own labour, towards Air NZ’s mas- is to force it on employers, and wean them of low paid and minimum wage workers sive profits. off their dependence on low wages by and be a first step toward winning $12 mini- requiring wage increases in advance of infla- mum wage for all New Zealanders. We agree with Alliance Party co-leader tion. Even Treasury has noted that because Len Richards who says the unions ‘buck- workers are cheaper in New Zealand than As Communists we must build the united led under to the blackmail of the compa- Australia, New Zealand bosses under-invest front against the ruling regime at local and ny’. Air New Zealand is cynically using the in capital and lower productivity results. national levels. We must win over tactical threat of a complete closure of the repair allies. The Communist Party seeks to form workshops to extract ‘voluntary’ conces- Even the rabidly capitalist flag-waving alliances that would lead to more favorable sions from the workers. Dominion Post accepts there is no place for conditions for the revolutionary movement youth rates. ‘No one would argue’, it wrote and advance the interests of the broad Instead of fighting, the unions hired at the beginning of February, ‘that women masses of the people Michael Stiassny of the accountancy firm should be paid less than men for doing the Ferrier Hodgson who has come up with a same job, and it is equally absurd to accept As the people of Aotearoa increasingly plan that will mean far-reaching changes in that a 16-year-old should get less than a 19- mobilize, the Communist Party conducts work conditions in the hope that enough year-old just because of his birth date’. propaganda to make them aware that money can be saved to convince the com- fundamental changes in society will only pany to save 300 engineers’ jobs. Raising the minimum wage to $12 imme- be achieved with the complete victory of diately, removing youth rates, giving secure the socialist peoples revolution that will Stiassny is no workers’ champion. He hours and other minimum entitlements overthrow the entire reactionary and pup- specialises in company restructuring and would be a first step towards reclaiming pet state and system and establish a genuine insolvency. He chairs the Board of the lines the entitlements workers lost under the revolutionary government and system. All company Vector and Auckland’s corporat- Employment Contracts Act and challenging throughout this process, the people must ised water company, Metrowater. He also the poverty and inequality capitalist control continuously wield the weapon of militant holds directorships in a number of other imposes on working class New Zealanders. struggle. They must broadly and actively companies including Metlifecare, a major immerse themselves in economic, political Building a community-wide solidarity cam- and social issues. 2 March 2006 : STRUGGLE ANALYSIS Imperialism is the Enemy: for Muslims and Communists

ISLAMOPHOBIA: A WEAPON OF DIVISION Within the overall attacks on the people Islamophobia is a relatively recent devel- of the Middle East there are a number of opment. It first surfaced as a concept in components: the midst of the Iranian revolution, when Islam emerged as a potent force against 1. Military attacks (Which have been the imperialism. It was used then by the im- subject of news reports and antiwar perialists to condemn the actions of the demonstrations for years now.) Iranian people in their 1979 revolution 2. Economic attacks (Implemented against the US controlled Shah Monar- through neo-colonial puppet govern- chy. It surfaced alongside such wonderful ments and manipulation by the World and ‘helpful’ (for imperialism) concepts Bank and IMF for years before the as ‘Islamic-Fundamentalism’ and like the current era of war and occupation, latter, rose into common currency in the and since the occupations through imperialist world following the events of neo-Liberal privatization plots to steal September 2001. the wealth of the lands that have been pounded with thousand pound All progressive people, including people bombs.) involved in the anti-war movement, and Afghanistan. two of the poorest nations 3. Political attacks (Part and parcel of the especially people who consider them- in the world, two of those most brutal- first and second sorts of attacks, but selves revolutionaries or Marxists, should ized by imperialist war and occupation also used in the build-up and political be clear about these bigoted sentiments and the staging grounds of some of the preparation for the first and second and concepts. They serve only as instru- biggest and strongest condemnations of sorts of attacks, as currently notable ments of division amongst working and the comics. in the political attacks on Iran, Ven- oppressed people, and they are not at all ezuela, and Cuba by the US, EU and helpful in approaching and confronting Why the comics? Why, if they are so bru- the whole cabal of imperialism.) the very real problems that political Islam talized by imperialism, are there not mass 4. Cultural attacks (People in Aotearoa confronts us with as a dominant political protests against imperialism in the streets should be familiar with these sorts of tendency in the Middle East, the Malayan of Kabul and Jerusalem? Are the pro- attacks as these have been the prima- archipelago, and other oppressed regions tests simply being manipulated by local ry weapon used against Maori for the in the world. demagogues; steering the angers of the last hundred and fifty years or so). oppressed masses back under their cloaks PROTESTS AGAINST CAR- of the opium of the people? The racist and imperialist cartoons of the TOONS? Prophet Mohammad are a cultural at- According to the CIA Factbook there are Clearly some reactionary regimes are us- tack on Muslim people. A people who currently around 1.6 billion Muslims in ing the cartoon episode to rally the mass- have been stolen from, killed, tortured, the world. The average income in Mus- es under their flags and corral them safely starved, bombed, and occupied. What lim countries is $1,000 a year, a fifth of in their mosques, but the important dy- does the poor Afghan have left but the that for the rest of the world. In nineteen namics of this struggle reveals that even dignity of being Afghan and the moral of the Organisation of the Islamic Con- this offers us a way forward against impe- strength of being a child of Mohammad? ference’s (OIC) 57 member countries, rialism. These protests are an expression Standing on this last hope, the Afghan, half of the adult population is illiterate. of a mass anti-imperialist sentiment. A the Palestinian, the Iraqi, stands in de- stunted, limited, deformed and perhaps fense of their Prophet. By all accounts, the protests against the mostly unconscious anti-imperialist senti- cartoons humiliating and ridiculing the ment - yes. but an anti-imperialist senti- “FREEDOM OF SPEECH,” THE Prophet Mohammad have been most ment all the same. If we fail to see this “WAR ON TERROR,” AND US enthusiastic and militant in those nations then we miss the most important subjec- VS. THEM that have been crushed most brutally tive factor of the struggle of oppressed We have have faced an hysterical argu- under the boot of imperialism. Palestine, people in the Middle East. ment in every corner of the bourgeois STRUGGLE : March 2006 3 ANALYSIS media since the protests first surfaced: ments and to use this to their own pur- ironically, translates into “The One”, as in “Freedom of speech!” they cry. You poses. And the world ought to call them Hegel’s “One Truth”), a media corpora- would think that there was such a thing. on it.” tion operated out of the US with Donald Prominent pro-war ideologue, Christo- Rumsfeld as executive director. Control pher Hitchens screams about “[The] in- Or, as Ephraim Zuroff, Director of the of the “Truth” is a reflection of the bal- ternational Muslim pogrom against the Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jeru- ance of power in the world, and delivery free press” while he wraps himself in the salem, clarified for us “[The violent rallies of this power is the job of our “Freedom pages of the Washington Post-Newsweek are] the typical Islamic response to any- of Speech” loving liberal journalists. corporation. “Dissident” (in the style of thing that they perceive as an insult or a the Cuban “dissidents”) Muslim Irshad threat.” It is a further _expression of the balance of Manji lectures from her podium on Fox forces in the world today that our “Free- News, flanked by Bill O’Reilly. “Let the In an article published February 6th, Rob- dom of Speech” loving friends’ horror at cartoons fly,” she proclaims. in the name ert Fisk wrote about the selective char- the exercise of the freedom of _expres- of “Free Speech.” acter of freedom of speech, “In other sion of oppressed people (the protests) is words, while we claim that Muslims must what compels their “principled” defense Karl Marx famously wrote that the gov- be good secularists when it comes to free of “Freedom of Speech” for imperialism erning ideas of any epoch are the ideas speech--or cheap cartoons--we can worry and its newspapers. These producers and of the ruling class. Of course, “freedom about adherents to our own precious translators of the governing ideology of of speech” - our hallowed right - exists religion just as much. I also enjoyed the the imperialist war machine reach out to also within that framework. In practice, pompous claims of European statesmen oppressed people with their pens only this “freedom” is as hollow as any others that they cannot control free speech or to cut out our tongues, and with their under bourgeois “democracy” and rests newspapers. This is also nonsense. Had papers only to suffocate us beneath the upon the most fragile of foundations: the that cartoon of the Prophet shown in- sheer mass of their “popular opinion.” relative stability of capitalism. stead a chief rabbi with a bomb-shaped hat, we would have had “anti-Semitism” When the house sets the rules, the house History has already measured the shock- screamed into our ears--and rightly so-- always wins. That is why it is so impor- ingly low melting point of the right of just as we often hear the Israelis complain tant that we carry on our fight outside of “Freedom of Speech” and “Freedom of about anti-Semitic cartoons in Egyptian the house, lobbing in attacks through the Expression”. When the bourgeoisie’s con- newspapers.” windows the same way Afghans attacked trol over the working class is shaken, it the Danish embassy this week. Bour- considers its social contract (constitution) “But if we must write the truth!” the sage geois control of the media means that we and all its subjects’ democratic rights replies. “We must not discriminate!” have made and must make our own. It void. Perhaps our liberal journalists think also means that freedom of _expression that something has qualitatively changed The truth? There is no space in the bour- for oppressed people comes in different since the press of the Peoples Voice was geois media for the truth. The voices of forms than imperialist freedom of _ex- smashed by the police in 1939 (and the the majority of the people of the world pression. They distribute racist cartoons editors gaoled), or since the attacks on are expelled from the newspapers and by the hundreds of millions of drafts and those supporting the watersiders in 1951, television and radio stations of the world defend their wars and occupations over or the agent provocateurs during the because our voices reflect our interests, billions of dollars of airwaves. We are left Springbok Tours, the wire tapping against and the “Truth” is created by the great lie- with the hard work of hand distributing Maori organisations, the spies invading factories owned and operated by those fliers and newspapers and organizing Aziz Chaudrey’s house... with interests that irreconcilably contra- street demonstrations, strikes and ac- dict the interests of us regular folk. That tions. In turn, they attack us for our crude On February 8th, George Bush joined is the truth. The truth is that the world methods; and in turn we must escalate Jack Straw in “condemning” the cartoons, is being ravaged by the dying forces of our effective use of our crude methods. since... the US believes in “tolerance,” but imperialism - and Hegel was right. there is he said, “we reject violence as a way to only one truth. Dominance over the big- WHY THE “TRUTH” MATTERS express discontent with what may be T-official-”Truth” and suppression of the The anti-Mohammad cartoons are a strike printed in a free press.” And then Con- Hegel’s truth is what led the US to ban- against Muslims as oppressed people - it doleezza Rice added, “Iran and Syria have ish al-Jazeera from Iraq and replace them is impossible to understand the reaction gone out of their way to inflame senti- with “al- Huda” (which coincidentally, or to the comics without this understand- Marxist-Leninist Literature Available:

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4 March 2006 : STRUGGLE ANALYSIS ing. Muslims are no strangers to insults tion movement, Hamas was democrati- of imperialism. and humiliation, and these are not the cally elected to control of the PA. This first comics to attack them as oppressed sign of shifting dynamics in this struggle The potentials for mobilizing the Muslim people. But on top of the racism, bombs, indicates the resolution of the majority of community as part of the working and guns, tanks, ridicule, slander, occupation, Palestinians to continue their liberation oppressed class in Aotearoa against im- theft, and daily humiliation at the hands struggle in resolute opposition to impe- perialism will be seen through a strong of imperialism comes these comics - the rialism. unity in action between Muslims and the worst and most extreme anti-Islam car- anti-war movement. Islamophobia cuts an toons ever published - a blow at the pride Along with the quagmire of occupation unbridgeable chasm between “The Left” of every Muslim individually, and at Mus- has come a growing awareness of the or the anti-war movement and this im- lims as a whole community. Do you want injustice of these occupations amongst portant community. If the anti-war move- to see what the collective frustration and working, poor and oppressed people ment is so paralyzed with Islamophobia anger of 1.6 billion people looks like? within imperialist countries themselves. that it is not able to outreach and work And from this awareness comes a grow- together with the Muslim community lo- These cartoons are an instrument of di- ing opposition and the threat of an effec- cally, then how can it expect to work in vision, calculated to drive a wedge into tive opposition. The question rises from an international context with the strong- the Muslim world - between the fictitious the sinking sands of Iraq and Afghanistan est anti-war/anti-occupation forces in the “Good Muslim” / “Bad Muslim.” The “ex- and finds voice on the lips of millions world? tremist” and the “moderate.” The depths gathered around the water coolers and of imperialist scheming is to be found lunch rooms in every imperialist country. On the specific question of the Islamo- here. For the aim of dividing Muslims phobic cartoons, the anti-war movement, into “Good” and “Bad” is not even for With this trick of slander, racism, and Is- and all progressive, working class and Muslims themselves. It is not possible to lamophobia the imperialists hope to trig- “Leftist” forces has a special obligation convince a man whose nephew was shot ger deep fear, resentment, and animosity to help to turn the shame and fear that by a US soldier that his brother is a “Bad” against Muslims in the minds and hearts many Muslims are undoubtedly feeling Muslim for planting a roadside bomb. He of the working class in the imperialist into an experience that they can gain is not a “terrorist” or an “extremist” - he is countries. Overnight, all their mediums confidence from. We are not be in the a human being. of delivery are armed to deliver their business of refusing support to sections payload all at once. The doctor’s needles of the working and oppressed classes The target audience of the “Good” Mus- pierce us as CNN, TVNZ, TV3, the Do- against imperialism. To the contrary, we lim / “Bad” Muslim portrait is working minion Post and the Christchurch Press need to follow the examples set by Fidel and oppressed people who are not Mus- shoot to hit us with a heavy enough dose and Chavez and turn towards the Mus- lim. Imperialists are pulling hard to di- of racism and Islamophobia to reverse lim community with renewed and active vide the oppressed people of the “West” the course of the anti-war consciousness solidarity, support their righteous rage from oppressed people of the “East.” that threatens to grow like a magnificent against the Islamophobic cartoons racist The cartoon is not only a reflection of Is- rainbow across the whole spectrum of attack, and defend them - as oppressed lamophobia, it means to enflame Islamo- the working class. All at once, they hope, people - against imperialism and capital- phobia, just as the coverage of the anti- the people who yesterday were asking ism, the shared enemy of all oppressed cartoon protests and all the heroic “Free questions about the war will be asking people. If we refuse this duty, then we Speech” talk means to do. The “Good” instead, “All this over a cartoon? Those will be abandoning our historical post as Muslim, of course, is one that accepts Muslims are crazy.” the champions of the oppressed and, re- and supports the imperialist domination peating the gravest sectarian and oppor- of the Middle East, keeps their “personal Islamophobia plays a deeply reactionary tunist mistakes of the Left in history. preferences” (like Allah) confined to their role. If imperialist propaganda is able to home, thinks that there’s a “time and a convince revolutionaries in Latin Ameri- Islamophobia is a tool of division between place” and “peaceful, legal channels” for ca, “Look. Iraq, Afghanistan, this is a Mus- workers and it has no place in the ‘Left’. protest, learns English and aims to “start lim problem, it’s not worth your trouble.” a business” someday. The “Bad” Muslim then the anti-occupation fighters in Iraq, For the unity of the oppressed people of is anyone who looks like they might be Afghanistan and Palestine will be aban- the world against the oppressor. from the Middle East and fights for the doned to their existing and inadequate Take a clear line against Islamophobia, rights, lives and dignity of oppressed peo- leaderships - sheltered from the potential and a clear line in defense of oppressed ple against imperialism. Probably they’re experience, influence, sympathy and soli- people against imperialism. angry. Best to stay away from people like darity of the revolutionary movements in that. Right? Latin America. History’s penalties for those who do oth- erwise will be insurmountable. As the imperialist crisis of controlling its ISLAM AND ANTI- “conquests” continues and grows, this im- IMPERIALISM perialist agenda of division take a more Wherever Islam is fighting against imperi- and more important strategic role. Nearly alism, it is a progressive force - and while three years of occupation in Iraq and this is one of our problems, it is not our four and a half years in Afghanistan have greatest problem. Wherever Islam is fight- brought only suffering to the people of ing against imperialism, ‘The Left’ must these occupied nations and a series of join with Muslims in this fight. The alter- greater or lesser quagmires for imperial- native is to abstain from the fight against ism. Just when the imperialists had hoped imperialism and in the best case scenario; that they had gained some ground in the this abstention would result in the victory demoralization of the Palestinian libera- of Islam. and the worst case? The victory

STRUGGLE : March 2006 5 FEATURE Being Pakeha Now (in 2006) Contributed. write in ‘Pakeha’ were recorded and ants and inheritors of the privileges of reported as having said they were ‘Eu- the colonisers of Aotearoa. We are not In the census to be conducted in a few ropean’. Although the 2006 census ‘born again’ New Zealanders, disown- weeks time Pakeha New Zealanders will not have a ‘Kiwi’ box to tick the ing our parents and imagining our- are again to be denied the opportunity statisticians have announced that they selves adopted . . . to declare that identity and in doing will separately report those who write so assert our claim for our desire to ‘kiwi’ or ‘New Zealander’ in the other In the context where we are encour- be part of a decolonised Aotearoa. It category - although will continue to aged to be either a tranplanted Euro- is the political nature of the ‘Pakeha’ refuse to publish the number of those pean culture or an ‘indigenous’ culture identifier that has led to its exclusion anti-colonials who identify as ‘Pakeha’. without a colonial past, it’s little won- from the last two censuses, despite its der that Pakeha New Zealand struggles inclusion before then, and regardless PAKEHA AND with the question of identity, seeking of a NZ Herald/Digipoll survey (of DECOLONISATION to create cultural icons of gumboots, over 7500 respondents) in 2001 in As te Tiriti activist Mike Smith says: black singlets, pavlova, kiwifruit and which 49% of those surveyed referred ‘not all non-Maori are Pakeha, there the buzzy bee toy. Ane Mikaere noted to themselves as Pakeha. In fact, in are some tests to be passed’. For him in the 2003 Bruce Jesson lecture that the census this year, as an attempt to ‘Pakeha are those kids who grew up when travelling overseas, white New promote an alternative, racist, identity down the street, whom we played rug- Zealanders leap forward to perform amongst non-Maori, Pakeha are to be by with, who chased our sisters... or if bastardised versions of the haka and encouraged to think of themselves as they were girls we chased them. Pake- “Pökarekare Ana”, and adorn them- ‘kiwi’ despite that being the name of a ha are those people who speak a sort selves with Maori pendants in an at- flightless bird. of pidgen language comprised of Eng- tempt to identify themselves as New lish and Maori words, and who have Zealanders: when in Aotearoa it is of- In contrast to Pakeha, ‘Kiwi’ is reflec- acceptance in the Maori community. ten those same people who decry any tive and representative of the Brash- assertion of Maori language and cul- like claim that ‘we are all one people’ As Joce Brown wrote nearly twenty ture as a threat to their identity. Their and that there is some transposed Eu- years ago in the Republican magazine cultural insecurity appears to know no ropean-ness that has somehow taken ‘the settler population can really be bounds. root in New Zealand without anything seen in two ways. We are agents of more than token reference to Maori. colonialism, the people who imposed Bruce Jesson saw a connection be- ‘European’ makes no sense to those colonialism on the Maori, but also its tween these shaky cultural foundations millions of New Zealanders who have victims. For as we develop a sense of and the status of coloniser: never been to Europe, or those who belonging to this country and a desire ‘New Zealand had such a shallow cul- have but found it a completely alien to be independent from the colonial ture’, he wrote, ‘that most New Zea- space, and there has been a develop- base, we are temporarily a people with- landers knew little about their coun- ing move from the settler-state to de- out a definite identity’. Pakeha then is try’s history. Amnesia is not a recent velop an alternative. ‘Kiwi’ allows a a term that defines people who are development, but is part of the colonial local-sounding alternative with none here and in the process of rejecting the condition.’ of the political statement contained in colonial baggage that went with being white New Zealanders defining them- European. As Ranganui Walker put it Such sentiments reveal the sizable bur- selves in relation to Maori - to be Pa- ‘Use of the word Pakeha is part of the den of guilt that many Pakeha carry keha means to understand that Maori process by which the descendents of about the means by which they have are the first New Zealanders, that European colonialists achieve a New come to occupy their present position Maori have rights associated with that Zealand identity’. Leaving unsaid the of power and privilege. ‘firts-ness’ (indigeneity) and stands in obvious corollary: not identifying as opposition to the colonial-settler-state; Pakeha means being trapped in some PAKEHA IS NOT MAORI in looking towards a decolonised and other heritage, in particular continuing To be Pakeha is not a desire to be better future. to have the baggage of a colonial men- Maori. An engagement with Maori only tality towards Maori. makes one even more self-conscious It is this latter branch to the Pakeha of cultural difference. Yet the only way identity that the state is seeking to NOT INDIGENOUS of understanding what it means to be head off. First, through the census it is While to be Pakeha means belong- Pakeha in New Zealand is in dialogue denying the identifier. After struggle by ing in New Zealand and longing for with Maori. And it is only through un- decolonisation activists, ‘Pakeha’ was its decolonisation, it does not mean derstanding who we are that we can added to the census questionnaire in to be indigenous. For if Pakeha are to start to understand the cultural proc- 1996 but removed in 2001. In 2001 be indigenous then we are to be cut esses in New Zealand that we are part Pakeha who ticked an ‘other’ box and off from our history as the descend- of. 6 March 2006 : STRUGGLE FEATURE

process of negotiation which is driven pride is up to those who take up the Pakeha are the products of an invading by the principles underpinning tikanga, moniker ‘Pakeha’. All that is required culture. Brash can bluster all he likes a process which Pakeha do not control. is a leap of faith. about the limits to which he can be There is no doubt that many - even made to apologise for the sins of his those who oppose the colonial project FROM THE PROGRAMME ancestors; Mallard can appeal to Maori and identify as Pakeha - will find this OF THE CPA to trust him; Michael King can insist challenging. Giving up such control The struggle for self-determination that the colonisers did not simply take requires a leap of faith, yet nothing by Maori is a struggle for democratic without giving anything in return; these less will suffice if we want to gain a rights denied by capitalism, and which claims mask a sense of underlying un- genuine sense of belonging, the sense shakes it to the core because settler ease, of unresolved guilt pervades their of identity that until now has proven capitalism in Aotearoa is based on sto- words. Beneath the colonial surface so elusive. len land. We must demand full redress is guilt, guilt which manifests itself as and reparation for all grievances stem- denial, self-justification, defensiveness In 1986 Ray Nairn wrote of the need ming from unjust acts committed by and, incredibly enough, a sense of vic- to get Pakeha to “name the fears they the government, and the right to sov- timhood. have about relinquishing control”, and ereignty and nationhood on the basis looked to a time “when we can come of the Treaty of Waitangi and the Dec- WHICH WAY FORWARD? as two peoples: Maori and Pakeha, tan- laration of Independence. The prospect of being forever locked gata whenua and manuhiri, to negoti- into the roles of oppressor and op- ate a basis for our society”. Of course, The Maori struggle for self-determina- pressed must surely be as unfulfilling for non-Maori as it is frustrating for Maori. The foreshore debacle has pro- vided a timely reminder of the ease with which the Crown slips into its time-honoured pattern of threats and coercion, taking for the colonial-state yet again to the role of oppressor. It’s not a role that Pakeha relish and no Pakeha need to wallow in guilt. All of us, Maori and Pakeha hope for a better world for our children and grandchil- dren. If the key to creating that bet- ter world does not lie in forgetting our past, where does it lie?

For Maori partly it is about process. It is never possible for manuhiri or manene to take upon themselves the status of tangata whenua. An outsider may be incorporated into the tangata whenua group, be allocated land and other rights and may even have their place within the community cement- ed by marriage and children. But ulti- mately, it is for the tangata whenua to there are Pakeha individuals who have tion can develop as a mass struggle for determine the way in which they view discovered that the sky does not fall if power only if collaborationist tribal the outsider in their midst. they negotiate their personal relation- leaders are isolated and defeated. We ships with Maori on such a basis. While must establish new democratic politi- Crucial to the acceptance of manene that in itself is cause for optimism, do cal, economic, social and cultural insti- or manuhiri in the domain of an iwi or not to settle for building positive re- tutions to strengthen the fighting abil- hapü is their compliance with the tikan- lationships with Maori on a personal ity of the movement. ga of the tangata whenua: the outsider level only. Use those experiences con- is granted such status and rights as the structively, and bring about the mind- We must strengthen the strategic al- tangata whenua determine. Central shift required amongst settler society liance by winning support amongst to the resolution of a wrong-doing is as a whole - from coloniser to Pakeha workers for the equal social, cultural the commitment of the wrong-doer1s and from their to post-coloniality. and educational rights for Maori in all whanau to submit themselves to the areas and fighting against white chau- measures taken against them by the Perhaps it is Mike Grimshaw who best vinism in all its forms. wronged party. addressed the question of Pakeha iden- tity when earlier this year he observed: The Communist Party must expand For Pakeha to gain legitimacy here, we “I am a Pakeha because I live in a Maori vigorously among Maori to ensure the must place our trust in Maori, not the country”. When you think about it, tasks of uniting and leading the move- other way around. They must accept there is nowhere else in the world that ments of their people and of opposing that it is for the tangata whenua to de- one can be Pakeha. Whether the term narrow interests are carried out. termine their status in this land, and remains forever linked to the shameful to do so in accordance with tikanga role of oppressor or whether it can be- Maori. This will involve sorting out a come a positive source of identity and STRUGGLE : March 2006 7 STATEMENT Denmark Has Lost Its Innocence Excerpted from a statement released ance to the brutal imposition of neo-lib- ish ambassadors publicly criticized the by Sven Tarp, International Relations eral policies at a very specific moment Prime Minister’s refusal to meet with Secretary, Communist Party of Denmark where the Danish economy is momen- representatives of Muslim countries. Marxist-Leninist tarily one of the most thriving within They were backed by former Danish the general framework of a crisis-ridden Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, “Something is rotten in the state of capitalist world economy; a cold warrior and rightist politician Denmark,” Shakespeare wrote in his who, however, is sensible to these famous Hamlet some four centuries - to weaken - by creating an artificial im- kinds of cultural problems. But the gov- ago. The events that have taken place age of the Muslim world as an enemy ernment stuck to its own decision. It during the last weeks and months show - the growing demand among the Dan- apparently was not unhappy with the that Shakespeare’s words have gained ish people that Danish troops should fact that the cartoons caused disunity new actuality. We who live in Denmark be withdrawn from Iraq where they and distracted popular attention from can confirm that everything is not as it are taking part in the illegal occupation the social consequences of its planned ought to be. headed by U.S. imperialism. “welfare reforms” that were announced last autumn. According to the modern myth already From the very beginning, the whole created, it all started in my home town, issue has been treated with a mixture It was only when the national agenda the city of Aarhus, on September 30 last year when the national newspaper with regional name, Jyllands Posten (The Jut- land Post), published 12 cartoons that presented an offensive, stereotypical image of Mohammed.

The official reason for printing the car- toons was, according to the editor-in- chief, to challenge the way freedom of speech is practised in Denmark as it is allegedly being restricted due to a growing Muslim influence. Before pub- lishing the cartoons, they were shown to a series of experts who explained that they most certainly would pro- voke anger among Muslims who would feel offended by the way their prophet of arrogance and stupidity, both by the turned into an international crisis of un- was portrayed. So, the printing of the editors of Jyllands Posten and by the precedented dimensions that the gov- cartoons was from the very beginning Danish government. It soon became ernment and the newspaper decided planned as a malicious provocation. clear that the Muslim peoples did feel to take action. But even then, their ar- offended. The Muslim society in Den- rogance prevented them from saving OFFICIAL AND REAL MO- mark, in early October, organized dem- what could be saved. The editor of Jyl- TIVES onstrations and called on the newspa- lands Posten, for example, apologized It is always difficult to guess the per- per to apologize for the publication. to Muslims because they felt offended, sonal motives of those who take inap- This was refused with the false pretext but he did not apologize for publishing propriate decisions. And these motives of defending freedom of speech. the offensive cartoons, because such an are, indeed, of little interest. What is apology, according to him, would be a important is the historical context in On October 19, ambassadors from 11 violation of his freedom of speech! In which the decisions are taken and the Muslim countries requested a meeting this way, the apology was not enough role generally played by the decision- with the Danish government in order to end the protests and neither was the makers. From that point of view, it is to discuss the cartoons. In a very arro- appearance of the Danish Prime Min- easy to conclude that the publication of gant manner, the rightist government ister on Arab and Muslim television the cartoons is part of a national agenda of Anders Fogh Rasmussen refused to channels where he didn’t deliver the promoted by the Danish ruling circles meet the ambassadors for a discussion message expected from him. with a double purpose: that might have prevented subsequent events. A REACTIONARY NEWSPAPER - to divide the Danish working class into Jyllands Posten is one of Denmark’s nationals and foreigners, Christians and In an action unheard of in the history largest newspapers with a long tradition Muslims, in order to weaken its resist- of Danish diplomacy, 22 former Dan- of rightist policy. In the 1930s, it was

8 March 2006 : STRUGGLE STATEMENT infamous for defending pro-Nazi posi- world during the last weeks has taken tions and manipulations in order to tions. After the Second World War, it the Danish public by surprise. Very few promote their own agenda. turned completely pro-NATO. During expected that something like this could the war in Vietnam, it was a loyal ally of ever happen. For years the Danish peo- In this situation, the arrogant answer of U.S. imperialism. Today, it is an arduous ple have been indoctrinated with the the government is to make a distinction defender of the Zionist state of Israel belief that they lived in the best of all between “good” and “bad” Muslims and the imperialist occupation of Iraq worlds; that they themselves were so and to promote a national organization and Afghanistan as well as the growing very tolerant and everybody else, es- of the “good ones” while at the same pressure on Iran, Syria and other inde- pecially the Muslim peoples, intolerant; time ignoring or slandering the “bad pendent countries. that their country was well-respected ones.” This may solve a concrete prob- and their government well-intentioned lem in the concrete situation where the Jyllands Posten is considered the unof- and generous; that the Danish troops in government is desperately trying to get ficial organ of expression of the Liberal Afghanistan and Iraq did a fine and hu- some allies among Muslims, but in the Party of Prime Minister Anders Fogh manitarian job and were well-received long run it most certainly will add fuel Rasmussen. As such, it is not an inno- by the local people, etc. to the fire. cent player in the present crisis. Its de- fence of freedom of speech is nothing This lie has survived and taken root POSITION OF DANISH but hypocritical. because the Danish press, in spite of COMMUNISTS its own claim to be liberal and broad- The Communist Party of Denmark ML, During the last years, Jyllands Posten minded, has turned into one of the which together with other communist has transformed itself into a national most controlled and regimented in Eu- forces is preparing the founding of a platform of the most rabid attacks rope. This control also explains why the New Communist Party at a Unification against communists and other progres- Danish people haven’t seen what has Congress in November, is taking active sive people. Even the most idiotic anti- been in the pipeline for several years. part in the present class struggle and communist professor has free access battle of ideas. Our main line of activity to its columns. The freedom of speech Denmark, that 20 years ago was known is the struggle for the unity of the work- practised by the newspaper is used to for its social democratic welfare system, ing class and the mobilization of the distort, silence and criminalize commu- its humanitarian assistance to the third local and national trade union move- nist and progressive ideas. The way the world and its footnote policy that of- ment against the dividing policy of the former socialist countries in Europe and fered certain resistance to the most ruling bourgeoisie. At the same time, the Danish communists who were ac- aggressive plans of NATO and U.S. im- we demand that the editors of Jyllands tive during the Cold War are portrayed perialism, has little by little been trans- Posten should make a clear-cut apology is just as insulting as the 12 cartoons. formed into a very reactionary country. for printing the cartoons and that the At the international level, this has ex- government should follow up in such According to legend, the Danish na- pressed itself in Denmark’s subordina- a way that it becomes absolutely clear tional flag, Dannebrog, fell ready-made tion to U.S. imperialism and its partici- that it repudiates the provocation. down from the sky in the year 1219 pation in the aggressive wars against during the battle of Lyndanisse where Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. At Our party is also active in the prepara- the Danish crusaders fought to Chris- the same time, Danish foreign “aid” is tion for the big anti-war demonstrations tianize the pagan Estonians. Eight hun- being still more conditioned by the ac- on March 18, which will take place un- dred years later, Jyllands Posten and the ceptance of neo-liberal and pro-imperi- der the broad banner of withdrawing ruling Danish bourgeoisie is presenting alist positions. the troops from Iraq. At the same time, freedom of speech as a sacred, absolut- we are stepping up our solidarity with ist principle that, in a similar way, fell And at the national level, the so-called the Iraqi resistance movement and the ready-made down from the sky in its “anti-terror” legislation, the attempts Palestinian people while we are con- present narrow-minded and intolerant to criminalize the communists and the demning the imperialist pressure and Danish version. still more intolerant tone in the debate threats against Iran, Syria and other in- on immigration are just some of the dependent countries. We believe that For the Danish communists, freedom of expressions of a reactionary state that the present crisis should be used to speech is a beautiful principle that takes several times has been censured by the strengthen the anti-imperialist move- its concrete form according to the con- UN, the Council of Europe and Am- ment of solidarity with the oppressed crete historical context and the social nesty International for its violation of peoples all over the world. class that practises it. It is a necessity human rights. for the free development of individual Finally, we wish to say to our Muslim human beings and their participation Now the Danish people are paying the brothers and sisters that at the end of in the democratic processes of modern price for the stupid actions of its arro- day we have the same enemies, world society. But it cannot be accepted as gant and reactionary ruling class. Even imperialism headed by the Bush ad- an unlimited right of the ruling class to the journalists who have been telling ministration, and that we should unite insult other people and cause tension, lies for years have, like Hitler in 1941, in a broad international front in order violence, war and destruction. Freedom been caught in their own lies. They to fight this enemy number one of hu- of speech should always be subordinat- apparently believed what they wrote manity. ed to ethics and the rules of civilized and said and are now just as surprised behaviour among peoples and nations. as the majority of the people. But in- stead of being critical of themselves A REACTIONARY and their role, they are now looking for GOVERNMENT scapegoats. And they have found these The extent of the anti-Danish protests among some local Muslim imams who, that have swept all over the Muslim admittedly, have engaged in contradic- STRUGGLE : March 2006 9 THEORY Marxism and the Labour Movement The late 18th and early 19th centuries was work of Kant and Hegel. The most devel- person, so a person’s social knowledge a time of immense social change – not just oped political economy was that of Adam (values, philosophy, religion, political out- political revolution but the dawn of the in- Smith and David Ricardo. And the most look) reflects the nature of the productive dustrial revolution. advanced sociology or socialism as it was or economic system. Thus contemporary known was found in France, among theo- politics, the political system and parties, In the mid-19th century, from around 1840 rists such as St Simon and Fourier. Marx full of superficiality and with little room Karl Marx and Frederick Engels penned and Engels engaged critically with each. for participation by workers, reflects the a series of books that reflected on this capitalist nature of the economy. change, developed a theory for explain- These are the three sources and, at the ing social change and political revolution, same time, the component parts of Marx- Marxist philosophy, then, represents a and drew up a programme for action that ism. Let’s briefly review each of these. much more complete form of materialism. became enormously influential among the Drawing from the most advanced capital- working class worldwide. PHILOSOPHY ist thinking and extending it, Marxist phi- The philosophy of Marxism is material- losophy has provided particularly power- One of the key insights of Marxism was ism. ful tools of knowledge. to identify political revolutions as rooted in wide struggles for power among social This philosophy emerged in France in the POLITICAL ECONOMY classes. On this basis the revolutions above struggle against feudalism. Against religious Having identified the economic system can be distinguished. The earlier ones superstition, materialism asserted natural as central to social organisation, Marx de- are revolutions led by the rising capitalist science and logic. voted most of his attention to the study class against feudalism. The later ones re- of this economic system. Marx’s principal flect the growth of the working class with Marx did not simply adopt the materialism work, Capital, is devoted to a study of the the industrial revolution. The express the of the nineteenth century, he enriched it, economic system of modern, capitalist so- working class struggle for power against drawing from German classical philosophy ciety. the new capitalist rulers. of the time. The major development was integrating materialism with the German Classical political economy, before Marx, Not only did they develop a theory for concept of dialectics. evolved in England, the most developed working class liberation, but they were of the capitalist countries. Adam Smith leading activists in some of the first at- Dialectics is a means of conceiving the and David Ricardo laid the foundations of tempts at working class revolutions in Eu- world in change. Simple or mechanical the labour theory of value. Marx extended rope, founders of the Communist League materialism has a one-sided view of the their work. He argued that the value of in 1847 and the International Working- world; a mechanical view; for every effect every commodity is determined by the man’s Association or First Internationale in there is an external cause; things are or quantity of socially necessary labour time 1864. You can imagine the terror amongst they are not. Newtonian physics is a prime spent on its production. the ruling classes struck by the emergence example. of these organisations among workers, Where the capitalist economists saw a who were viewed as little different from Dialectical materialism sees the world in relation of things (the exchange of one animals. Newspaper commentaries of the constant change; things are and they are commodity for another), Marx revealed a time are full of alarmist warnings about the not. Eg. Heraclitus’ river; knowledge is relation among people. The exchange of “reds”. consequently relative. Modern physics, commodities expresses the tie by which Einstein’s theory of relativity, quantum individual producers are bound through The influence of Marxism, and the fear physics etc. utilises a dialectical view (Ein- the market. Money signifies that this tie and loathing by which it is perceived by stein was a socialist incidentally). is becoming closer and closer, insepara- the powerful, stems from its systematic at- bly binding the entire economic life of tention to the unanswered questions of the Marx further extended philosophy by the individual producers into one whole. foremost minds of humanity. Far from be- developing a materialist approach to the Capital signifies a further development of ing the isolated philosophy of a sect, Marx- study of human society. Against chaotic this tie: people’s labour power becomes a ism, engages with the central problems of and arbitrary accounts of society as the commodity. The wage-worker sells labour philosophy, political economy and sociol- product of heroic individuals, god’s will, or power to the owner of the land, factories ogy, and provides theoretical and practical chance Marx argued that society is system- and instruments of labour. The worker advances on traditional thinking. ically organised around the predominant uses one part of the labour day to cover productive forces, and develops systemati- living expenses (wages), while the other Marxism, then, is a direct and critical suc- cally over time. part of the day the worker toils without re- cessor to humanity’s best thinking in the muneration, creating surplus value for the 19th century. The height of philosophy at Just as a person’s knowledge reflects na- capitalist. This is the source of profit, the this time was found in Germany, with the ture, which exists independently of the source of the wealth of the capitalist class.

10 March 2006 : STRUGGLE THEORY

in Europe, and especially in France, ac- The theory of surplus value is the corner- companying the fall of feudalism, that Transforming unions into fighting organi- stone of Marx’s economic theory. ever more clearly revealed the struggle of sations requires the isolation and defeat classes as the basis and the motive force of of class collaborationist trade union lead- Capital, created by the labour of the the whole development. ers, by uniting left and centre unionists in worker, presses on the worker by ruining economic and political struggles. It is aided the small producers and creating an army Not a single victory of political freedom by winning democratic reforms within un- of unemployed. The advantages of large- over the feudal class was won except ions and in the creation of industrial rather scale production is very clear in industry. against desperate resistance. Not a single than craft-based unions. Class struggle Huge firms with worldwide operations capitalist country evolved on a more or unions must form fighting federations to dominate [Fortune 500]. In agriculture less free and democratic basis except by coordinated militant activity. To transform too, large-scale capitalist agriculture drives a life and death struggle between the vari- economic struggles into political struggles out peasant and small family producers. ous classes of capitalist society. there must be ceaseless politicisation of the issues of the day, both domestic and By destroying small-scale production, capi- The genius of Marx consists in the fact that international. tal leads to an increase in productivity of he was able before anybody else to draw labour and to the creation of a monopoly from this and apply consistently the de- We must establish new unions among un- position for the associations of big capital- duction that world history revolves around organised workers by carrying out social ists. Production itself becomes more and class struggle. investigation, providing political educa- more social as hundreds of thousands and tion, organising workers around majority millions of workers become bound togeth- Marx and Engels repeatedly exposed the demands, and consolidating workers into er in a systematic economic organism. Yet way people fell victims of deceit and self- unions in the course of fighting for these the product of this collective labour is ap- deceit in politics until they learned to dis- demands. propriated by a handful of capitalists. cover the interests of some class behind the moral, religious, political and social To forge the strategic alliance, communists In this situation, economic crises grow phrases, declarations and promises. strive to win workers to oppose all forms ever-greater; the furious chase after mar- of racism and sexism, including upholding kets and the insecurity of existence of the They argued that the supporters of re- and fighting for the just demands of the mass of the population. forms and improvements will always be oppressed for self-determination. Only in fooled by the defenders of the old order this way will the oppressed see that com- While increasing the dependence of the until they realise that every old institution, munists and Pakeha and male workers workers on capital, the capitalist system however barbarous and rotten it may ap- have no unity with the white and male at the same time creates the great power pear to be, is maintained by the forces of capitalist class. of united labour. Marx traced the devel- some ruling classes. opment of capitalism from the first germs Revolutionary pakeha and male workers of commodity economy, from simple ex- They insisted that there is only one way have the responsibility of opposing racism change, to its highest forms, to large-scale of smashing the resistance of these classes, and sexism among workers and winning production. He foresaw ever-greater con- and that is to find in the very society which support for the oppressed. Revolutionaries frontations between capital and labour, surrounds us, the forces capable of sweep- among oppressed workers have the tasks only resolvable by the ultimate triumph of ing away the old and creating the new. of uniting and leading the movements of labour. The task of socialists was not to concoct their people and opposing narrow inter- utopian schemes but to enlighten and or- ests. SOCIALISM ganise these forces for this struggle. When feudalism was overthrown, and These tasks require the conscious organi- “free” capitalist society emerged, it at once TRANSFORM TRADE sation that can only be provided by the became apparent that this freedom meant UNIONS INTO CLASS- Communist Party. The Communist Party a new system of oppression and exploi- STRUGGLE UNIONS must expand in workplaces and unions in tation of the toilers. Various socialist doc- We must promote the strike movement the course of the struggle if the unions to trines immediately began to rise as a reflec- and make it so widespread and intense to become fighting organisations of the work- tion of and protest against this oppression. demonstrate to the entire people that the ing class. At every stage the most advanced But early socialism was utopian socialism. monopoly capitalists are weak and rotten elements from among the revolutionary It criticised capitalist society, it condemned to the core. We must promote the eco- activists must be drawn into the party. and damned it, it dreamed of its destruc- nomic strikes and transform them into po- tion, it indulged in fancies of a better order litical strikes and political demonstrations. and endeavoured to convince the rich of the immorality of exploitation. However, utopian socialism could not Do you want to point the real way out. It had not ex- plained the essence of wage-slavery under capitalism; it did not examine the process contribute to Struggle? of social development; it did not identify a social force capable of creating a new so- ciety. These were developments that Marx All submissions welcome. and Engels provided. Send submissions to: PO Box 6724, Wellington. It was the stormy revolutions everywhere

STRUGGLE : March 2006 11 REVIEW New Mao Biography: Hysterical Right-wing Rant The words of Mao Zedong, “To be to demonize Mao Zedong and destroy where arranged marriages and footbind- attacked by the enemy is not a bad thing his reputation, pure and simple. Even ing were widespread social practices. Or but a good thing” must be among his more they are trying to undermine the that four million people died each year of most valuable. It alters one’s conception very sense of an alternative to the cur- infectious and parasitic diseases. Or that of struggle, and encapsulates perhaps rent disaster of a world we live in - and in a city like Shanghai, young women more succinctly than any other of his to deny all of the incredible successes workers were locked in textile factories sayings, the profoundly dialectical char- of the Chinese revolution. The narra- at night, and one out of five persons was acter of his thinking and strategy. It was tive Chang and Halliday employ is that an opium addict. You wouldn’t know this quality that allowed Mao to exploit Mao was evil from the day he was born that the revolution in power rapidly the contradictions among the enemy, to - and committed evil upon evil until the transformed these social conditions. The “overcome all difficulties,” and to turn day he died. Chang and Halliday recon- Marriage Law of 1950, one of the first defeat into victory over and over again. struct and fabricate history to make their decrees of the new People’s Republic, But it was not the losses and suffering desired case that a scheming and blood- established marriage by mutual consent that such attacks brought that Mao was thirsty opportunist hijacked an entire and the right to divorce, and outlawed referring to—what he called the “bit- people and country. the sale of children and infanticide. ter sacrifice” that revolution required, though he was always determined to To turn this from a bad thing into a good MAO AS REVOLUTIONARY turn it into “bold resolve” (“Shaoshan thing we must seize the opportunity to THEORIST AND Revisited,” in Poems, Beijing: Foreign make the reader beware. Chang and REVOLUTIONARY LEADER Languages Press, 1976, 36). The reason Halliday are telling unabashed lies. ‘Mao: In this aspect the book really does that to be attacked was a “good,” and The Unknown Story’ plays fast and loose border on the absurd. The authors are not a “bad” thing, was that it meant that with facts, offers far-fetched theories consumed with such venom for Mao the revolutionary forces were hurting the based not on careful investigation but that they cannot - in all 630 pages - enemy, were a challenge to their control, unrelenting hatred of Mao, and twists bring themselves to engage with Mao’s and were successfully carrying out the reality to fit an anticommunist agenda. writings and speeches themselves. ‘Mao: struggle. Otherwise, why would those Its message is that the Chinese revolu- The Unknown Story’ doesn’t address opposed to the revolution even bother tion was not really necessary, and that Mao the writer, thinker or speaker at to attack? The less restraint such enemies great revolutionary leaders like Mao are all! For Chang and Halliday, Mao’s ideas showed, the more it revealed their own in fact power-crazed tyrants and perpe- are simply hypocritical and manipulative weaknesses and blinded them to reality. trators of towering crimes. This book is means to attain personal domination. “It is still better if the enemy attacks us a brief against revolution and revolution- wildly and paints us as utterly black and ary leaders. If you swallowed the justify- In fact, Mao analyzed the nature of without a single virtue; it demonstrates ing arguments about “weapons of mass Chinese society and developed pro- that we have not only drawn a clear line destruction,” you’ll adore this book. grams and policies that spoke to the of demarcation between the enemy and real material and social contradictions ourselves but achieved a great deal in our WAS A REVOLUTION NEEDED? of Chinese society; and Mao brought work” (“To Be Attacked by the Enemy is The authors paint a picture of a revolu- forth a vision of moving society beyond Not a Bad Thing But a Good Thing”, tion based on manipulation and terror. exploitation and social divisions. It is not May 26, 1939). The more strongly the They whitewash the incredible misery the personal Mao but the lessons left in revolutionaries were attacked, therefore, and suffering of the old society, and the his writings and notes from his speeches the higher the measure of the success fact that for more than a century China that inspire revolutions in Nepal, India that they must be having, in order to had been beaten down and dominated and the Philippines and that are referred cause such a response from their ene- by the imperialist powers of the West to by Chavez and Morales. He inspired mies. Moreover, a blind thrashing out by and Japan. They deny that tens and hun- and motivated great numbers of people those opposing the revolution, guided dreds of millions of Chinese peasants in China and around the world. It is this only by hatred, would cause them to and workers could possibly take up the that the authors find so reprehensible. make serious errors and discredit them revolutionary cause as their own. The in the eyes of the people. masses of people have no agency in the SHODDY METHODS AND company of Chang and Halliday - they SENSATIONISTIC CLAIMS Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang are but pawns and putty. The authors bask in the glow of a and Jon Halliday reflects these words of vast arsenal of references and sources Mao Zedong. It is not scholarship but You would not learn from this book that - memoirs, hitherto inaccessible archives, hysterical right-wing rant. Its purpose is pre-revolutionary China was a society interviews - and ten years of research.

12 March 2006 : STRUGGLE REVIEW Boasting more than 125 pages of notes PATRIOTISM cover of Unknown Story, not corrections and sources...what the book says must Chang and Halliday seek to challenge of, but ‘praise for Wild Swans’. be true - right? No, this is a snow job, the accepted view that ‘the CCP were and the relationship between claim and more patriotic and keener to fight Japan It is not just the earlier Wild Swans that supporting evidence is shoddy beyond than the nationalists’, which they say is contradicts the argument in Unknown belief. an example of ‘history rewritten’ and Story that the nationalists took on the ‘completely untrue’. They support this Japanese occupiers, or the many other DADU BRIDGE assertion with a nit-picking analysis of sources, but the facts presented in The famous battle at the Dadu River the difference between the CCP slo- Unknown Story itself. Just 20 pages on, Bridge during the Long March is now gans ‘”Down with the Nationalists”, but Chang and Halliday tell us that Chiang declared (pp. 152-55) to be a hoax, a self- merely “oppose Japanese Imperialism”’. Kai-shek ‘mobilised half a million troops’. serving myth invented by Mao and the But before considering the facts of the To fight the Japanese? No. ‘He had Chinese Communist Party. The authors case, it is worth asking who it was that agreed a truce with the Japanese, acqui- claim that “there was no battle” and “no so deceived us. ‘Chiang Kai-shek had escing to their seizure of parts of north Nationalist [Kuomintang] troops at the adopted a policy of non-resistance in the China, in addition to Manchuria, and this bridge.” They cite as a substantiating face of the Japanese seizure of Manchuria freed him to concentrate his strength on source the Kuomintang (KMT) archives. and increasing encroachments on China fighting the reds’, they write approv- The KMT, which set world standards in proper’, according to one account, ‘and ingly (all the time condemning Mao corruption, and which suffered defeat at had concentrated instead on trying to for fighting Chiang, not the Japanese). the hands of the Communist Party-led annihilate the Communists’. Who is the When evidence of Communist opposi- forces, is not exactly the most reliable author? Jung Chang, in Wild Swans, tion to Japan is unavoidable, Chang source. Still, these archives contain use- the best-ever-selling family memoir. To and Halliday insist that it was an excep- ful historiographic materials—but, lo and support this earlier claim, Chang quotes tion, as in the July 1940 campaign behold, other scholars who have studied the KMT archives say they do not at all support the Chang/Halliday rewrite of history. Okay, but the authors furnish what they consider to be additional evidence, and key to this are the recol- lections of a “sprightly 93-year old” local woman they say they met in 1997! The Melbourne Age sent a journalist to the same village when the book was pub- lished - the local villagers said that no one from their village had ever lived to be 93, and that a now eighty year old - ten at the time of the battle - remem- bered the incident vividly. This quality of scholarship would be laughable in any other discipline. But somehow you can get away with this when it comes to Mao and the Chinese Revolution.

EDUCATION Listen to this gem about Mao’s view on education (p. 438): “Mao’s approach was not to raise the general standard of education in society as a whole, but to focus on a small elite, predominantly in Chiang Kai-shek’s maxim, ‘the Japanese against supply lines in northern China to science and other ‘useful’ subjects, and are a disease of the skin, the Communists relieve besieged Chongqing, which cost leave the rest of the population to be are a disease of the heart’. the Eighth Route Army 90,000 men. illiterate or semi-literate slave laborers.” If When Chiang Kai-shek slaughters the that were the case, how can you explain A NEW INTERPRETATION Communist New Fourth Army in 1941, the fact that China’s literacy rate vaulted Indeed Mao: The Unknown Story flatly Chang and Halliday want it both ways: from 15 percent in 1949 to close to 80 contradicts Wild Swans throughout. One minimising the atrocity, but also blaming percent by Mao’s death? Or that educa- revelation in Unknown Story is that Mao Mao for betraying his rival commander tional resources were vastly expanded engineered Chiang Kai-shek’s abduc- Xiang Ying. in the rural areas during the Cultural tion by his junior Chang Hsuieh-lang Revolution, leading to rise in middle- in 1936. But in Wild Swans Chiang It is not the facts that are new, so much school enrollment from 15 to 58 mil- was ‘partly saved by the Communists’. as the interpretation that Chang and lion? Or that with the huge opening up Perhaps Unknown Story is intended to Halliday put on them. Even the interpre- of educational opportunities through the correct the ‘completely untrue’ claims tation is not that new, repeating much Cultural Revolution, worker and peas- made in Wild Swans, and put the 10 of the argument put by the US right, the ant students became the great majority million readers of this best-ever-selling Taiwanese government created by the of China’s university enrollment by the non-fiction paperback right. But there Kuomintang’s retreat to that island, and early 1970s. are no indications that Jung Chang is more latterly by the increasing number correcting her earlier assertions in the of mainland Chinese critics of Mao. text or footnotes. And, on the back page STRUGGLE : March 2006 13 REVIEW/REPORT

THE CHINESE REVOLUTION WH AT’S AT STA K E? issue now is whether the Chinese peo- ON THE SCALES OF HISTORY Basically two things. First, the truth of ple, together with those of the entire The Chinese revolution was a turning Mao and the Chinese revolution--what world, will again turn back toward the point in the history of the 20th cen- this revolution was about, what Mao road to socialist revolution. A full and tury. As Mao said in 1949, “the Chinese stood for and did, and what the Chinese fair evaluation of the record of Mao people have stood up.” They stood up people accomplished. Second, the ques- can only aid in reopening that question to feudal landlords, the Japanese invad- tion of humanity’s future: can we put an and pointing to a positive answer. In ers, the U.S.-financed KMT army, and end to the horrific exploitation, oppres- this sense, being attacked by Chang and foreign powers. Despite the authors’ sion, and inequality of the world as it Halliday is “not a bad thing but a good outrageous claims, it was Mao who led is, and radically transform it—or is this thing.” But this will only be the case if in developing a military strategy to sur- the only world possible? ‘Mao: The those who support the socialist revolu- round the cities from the countryside. Unknown Story’ is character assassina- tion not only in China but worldwide, He led in the development of a socialist society marked by the creative energy and initiative of those who had previ- ously been treated as no more than a pair of hands.

This was a revolution that brought enor- mous social and economic progress to the great majority of people. Life expect- ancy more than doubled, from 32 years in 1949 to 65 years in 1975. China under Mao achieved what the U.S. has proven incapable of coming close to: a universal and egalitarian health care system. Industry grew by more than 10 percent a year during the Cultural Revolution. And by the early 1970s, China had solved its historic food prob- lem. This revolution saved untold num- bers of lives.

The Cultural Revolution, far from being tion with a reactionary moral writ large: embrace the new opportunity that is Mao’s “Great Purge,” was a “revolution dreams of radical and revolutionary offered to them by the publication of within the revolution.” It was a broad change are doomed; long live the status this book, to raise again the goals that movement and upheaval aimed at pre- quo. Mao advanced, and that he spent his venting a new privileged class from tak- entire life struggling to achieve, and ing power and turning China back in Thus the crucial point here is not the renew their dedication to the struggle of time: to a sweatshop paradise riddled rehabilitation or the dismissal of a single the global working classes that he helped with corruption and inequality. leader, however central he was to the to lead, and that is as necessary today as past revolutionary struggle. The critical when he was alive. China Diary with Paul White PAUL WHITE for Morning Star sary of the birth of Mao Zedong. State Translation Bureau spokesman Yang Jinhai said: “A lot of the problems which MARXISM GIVEN A FRESH It is part of President Hu’s Project on have cropped up in the past two decades BOOST the Foundation and Establishment of of the reform and opening-up period President Hu Jintao spent the lunar Marxism. were caused by faulty comprehension of New Year holidays last month in Yan’an, the science of Marxism.” known as the “cradle of the Chinese According to Outlook magazine, the revolution.” propaganda dept of the CPC is in charge He blamed poorly translated Western of the day-to-day affairs of the project, versions of Marxist works for confusion His visit and his call for a renewal of the which has 300 researchers and a budget over, for instance, how to handle China’s “Yan’an spirit” were significant, because for the next 10 years of about £12 mil- private sector and neglect of the interests they come hard on the heels of a drive lion. of the peasants. by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to get back to the basics of Marxism after Some 20 conferences have already been The project indicates Hu’s determination many years of drifting in an ideologi- held on the subject and the project results that the income and opportunity inequal- cal limbo euphemistically described as will be publicised every three years. ities which have reached a worrying stage “pragmatism.” in China will be addressed with a socialist A core element of the project is new consciousness. The Institute of Marxism was set up translations of standard Marxist works to under the Chinese Academy of Social be distributed to schools and among the Sciences on December 26 - the anniver- general public. 14 March 2006 : STRUGGLE REPORT Homeland Security Let New Orleans Down: Katrina Survivors Still Face Hardship by LeiLani Dowell for Workers World Protests were held across the country to in New Orleans, now scheduled for April denounce the evictions. In New York sur- 22 although many residents have not yet While Congressional and Senate investiga- vivors, with the support of legal advocates been able to return. The Washington D.C.- tions expose the bungling of federal and lo- and solidarity activists, have won a reprieve based Advancement Project filed a lawsuit cal authorities in the immediate aftermath on their eviction from hotels in the city. that says the election plan, which plans to of Katrina, current-day negligence has led Using a city law stating that legal evictions use some form of absentee voting to reach to more despair -and resistance-by Katrina must be done through court proceedings evacuees, will in effect freeze many Black survivors. and by court order, 17 families at the Radis- voters out of the process. son won an indefinite stay on their eviction. The draft of a report by an all-Republican Armed with that victory, activists on Feb. 13 The Associated Press notes that, “The most committee on Feb. 12 called the govern- went to hotels across the city to distribute striking aspect of the race is the number ment response to Katrina a “national fail- legal fact sheets to let survivors know their of prominent white business leaders and ure... of initiative.” The draft notes predic- rights, while legal aid lawyers filed the same politicians who have jumped into the fray. tions about the storm that went unheeded motion won at the Radisson to extend to Incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin remains the for up to 24 hours, the lack of preparation all the hotels. only Black candidate among more than half to evacuate people from the area, and the a dozen hopefuls.” The last white mayor in dismissal of a report that a major levee had While evictions continue across the coun- the city completed his term in 1978. been breached. The draft goes on to say try, leaving many with no place to go, that “At every level—individual, corporate, FEMA trailers continue to sit unused. Activ- The AP article quotes New Orleans politi- philanthropic and governmental—we failed ists with the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund cal analyst Silas Lee, who says, “Everything to meet the challenge that was Katrina. In (PHRF) rallied on Feb. 12 at a FEMA trailer reflects the effects of Hurricane Katrina this cautionary tale, all the little pigs built site on a lot in the New Orleans’ Eighth on the demographics of the city.... [T]hat houses of straw.” Ward, where approximately 100 such un- impacted how many white candidates per- inhabited trailers reside. The rally was to ceive their political fortunes.” Meanwhile, Senate hearings on the same demand that the trailers be made imme- issue continue. On Feb. 10, fired and dis- diately available to all those facing eviction. Groups like the National Association for graced former FEMA head Michael Brown According to the group’s press release, the Advancement of Colored People and testified. The New York Times reports, “Mr. “The trailers are apparently hooked up to the National Policy Alliance, which is com- Brown said that he told a senior White power and have plumbing, but are not be- prised of leaders from a number of national House official early on of the New Orle- ing used to provide much-needed shelter Black organizations, have also issued calls ans flooding, and that the administration for the 10,000-plus New Orleans residents against the election and threatened to hold was too focused on terrorism to respond that have come back to rebuild their homes demonstrations and take further legal ac- properly to natural disasters.” And on Feb. and their lives.” tion. 15, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff faced the committee. Senators In Hope, Ark., FEMA placed 10,770 of its Meanwhile, those stuck in the prison-in- questioned, among other things, why he brand-new, completely furnished trailers dustrial complex in New Orleans will be decided to travel to Atlanta to attend a con- at an airport that was once a military base. incarcerated for even longer without a trial. ference unrelated to Katrina the day after The trailers remain empty. FEMA not only A district judge suspended all the cases the storm struck. intends to keep these trailers there, but is in his section on Feb. 10, citing a lack of planning to lay down a 290-acre gravel bed public defenders, on which 80 percent of What is conspicuously absent from media beneath them, at a cost of $6 million, ac- all criminal defendants in the city rely. The reports about these two investigations is in- cording to the Feb. 10 Los Angeles Times. Times-Picayune says that other judges are quiry into current neglect. In response to expected to take similar action, and there- the draft report, a White House spokesper- Under the Stafford Act, FEMA is required fore “More than 3,500 pre-Katrina defend- son told the New York Times that “Presi- to provide local transitional housing and ants and about 1,000 defendants arrested dent Bush was now focused on the future.” rental assistance to the survivor’s workplace since the storm could be thrown in limbo.” However, this does not seem to translate for eighteen months after a disaster. The to relief for Katrina survivors. On Feb. 7 Times article quotes FEMA spokesperson Lorraine Ervin, a returning New Orleans about 4,500 survivors across the country Nicol Andrews, who says that part of the resident, summed up the sentiment and re- were told to evacuate their hotel rooms blame for the distant location of the trailers solve of many Katrina survivors in the press because the Federal Emer gency Manage- lies with the fact that “only eight of Louisi- release from PHRF: “We are refugees in ment Agency would no longer be paying ana’s 64 parishes have welcomed them.” our own country. Where are our tax dollars for their hotel stays. The rest—occupants that we’ve paid all of our lives? Why can of at least 20,000 hotel rooms, according The will of local officials to carry forward $60 billion dollars go toward war in Iraq? to the Associated Press, were given exten- with the gentrification of the region - de- There is no way we should be here [in the sions of only one to three weeks. A judge nying the poorest, mostly Black survivors U.S.] begging... I will fight for my rights.” on Feb. 13 upheld FEMA’s decision to drop the resources and support to return - is survivors from the program. also reflected in the upcoming elections

STRUGGLE : March 2006 15 COMMENT 450,000 NGOs in Russia: U.S. Finances Opposition by Sara Flounders for Workers World higher, saying that “There are at least 600,000 registered non-governmental, Any individual or organization here that A struggle is developing in Russia over non-commercial organizations operat- accepts money from a foreign country legislation regulating non-governmental ing in Russia. At least as many may be must register with the U.S. government organizations (NGOs) that is due to go working in the country without official under the Foreign Agents Registration into effect in April. registration.” Act. Charitable donations are a matter of public record. Imagine Russia, China, The new law was passed by both Duma deputy Alexei Ostrovsky, a co- Cuba, North Korea or Iran pumping houses of the Russian legislature, called author of the new law, estimates up millions of dollars into political organiza- the Duma, and signed by President to a quarter of Russian NGOs receive tions in the U.S. Even U.S. allies such as Vladimir Putin on Jan. 10. Resistance to money from abroad. These include envi- Britain, France, Germany or Japan can- it has opened a window on the level of ronmental groups, human rights moni- not secretly fund political organizations Western and especially U.S. intervention tors and consumer advocates. within the U.S. in Russia today. President Putin, in supporting the legisla- Alexei Pankin, writing in the Jan. 25 Under the new law, foreign organiza- tion, said: “Whether these organizations issue of the magazine Russia Profile, tions and groups receiving funding from want it or not, they become an instru- described his relation with two NGOs. outside Russia have to register with the ment in the hands of foreign states that “I ran a USAID-funded three-year pro- government. Russian officials say the use them to achieve their own political gram supporting Russian media, with legislation is necessary to combat the objectives. This situation is unaccept- a total budget of $10.5 million, and a hundreds of millions of dollars flowing able. This law is designed to prevent Soros Foundation program supporting from foreign governments to organiza- interference in Russia’s internal politi- Russian media with an annual budget of tions in the country. cal life by foreign countries and create $1.8 million. The number of supervisors, transparent conditions for the financing bosses, inspectors and advisers who I An original version of the law was toned of nongovernmental organizations.” had to deal with (or had to deal with down under an intense campaign of me) defies belief. I am sure there were pressure from the NGOs themselves and THE CROSS FOLLOWED intelligence officers among them.” from the U.S. government. Secretary of THE GUN State Condoleezza Rice pressured Putin, When the European capitalist nations Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), expressing concern for “democracy.” first established colonies around the successor of the KGB, on Jan. 23 The legislation was on the agenda at the world, the cross followed the gun. accused four British diplomats of spying. recent G-8 meeting. Thousands of missionaries were an inte- It said it had caught one of them “red- gral part of the machinery of conquest handed” channeling funds to several The law imposes restrictions on the and subjugation. Russian nongovernmental organizations. financing, registration and activities of London denied misconduct, saying it NGOs. This term originally meant any Establishing a colonial administration openly funded NGOs in Russia. non-profit, voluntary, civic, humanitari- meant reorganizing society and the own- an, health, human rights, service or envi- ership of property in a way that ben- Significant foreign funding comes direct- ronmental organization. Now a huge efited the colonizers. It involved schools, ly from U.S. sources, such as the quasi- number of organizations that claim to be training and political orientation for governmental National Endowment for non-governmental, but rely on the U.S. those among the local elite who would Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Agency and other major imperialist countries become collaborators. Religious conver- for International Development (USAID), and on big corporations for their funds, sion helped to pacify a whole section of and from the European Union’s Tacis operate in Russia and in many countries the population, and paved the way for Program. Millions of dollars in funding around the world. They dispense aid, some to become loyal and fervent serv- originates with foundations that repre- set policy and intervene in political life ants of the new power structure. sent the interests of the wealthy elite, based on the political agenda and eco- such as the Ford, MacArthur, Carnegie, nomic interests of the funders. Today in Russia, not just religious organi- Rockefeller and Soros organizations. zations have been flooding into the The sheer number of organizations region. The primary role of proselytizing REGIME CHANGE IN GEORGIA, described as NGOs and the number capitalist values is played by “human UKRAINE AND KYRGYZSTAN receiving foreign funding is staggering. rights” NGOs. The role of U.S.-funded NGOs in trying Since 1991 and the collapse of the to impose “regime change” in Cuba, Soviet Union, hundreds of thousands In response to these new restrictions, Venezuela, Chile, Nicaragua and Haiti of NGOs have sprung up in Russia. the volume of political pressure and pro- is increasingly understood. The role of Members of the Russian Duma say tests from Washington has been turned these same subversive organizations in over 450,000 NGOs operate in Russia up. But it is sheer hypocrisy. Regulations Eastern Europe and the countries that today. The Yale Center for the Study that are far more restrictive and intrusive made up the former Soviet Union is less of Globalization puts the number even monitor organizations in the U.S. well known, even though they operate 16 March 2006 : STRUGGLE COMMENT on an even larger scale there. train civil servants, establish community regime change from below. But is the councils and business associations, and phenomenon as benign as it appears? Russia’s FSB security service chief, push to revise the state budget in their Are the movements who inspire the Nikolai Patrushev, recently blamed for- own interests. ‘color revolutions’ catalysts or sabo- eign-funded NGOs for fomenting coups teurs?” in the post-Soviet states of Georgia, Young people and student organizations Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. are drawn in through campaigns around The author is not criticizing these NGOs; HIV/AIDS, protection of minority rights he is evaluating their effectiveness in The active and open role that foreign- and fighting child abandonment. The implementing “regime change.” A few funded NGOS played in the overturn whole aim of this web of projects, she of his observations give insight into how of these three governments is what explains, is to prevent any “backsliding these political organizations operate as is setting off alarm bells in Moscow. towards the old regime” and to push for just another weapon in the U.S. arsenal. The imperialist media fondly call these “Euro-integration,” meaning integrating coups “velvet revolutions” and some- into international and European organi- “Sabotage can suffice in some countries times “color revolutions” for the colors zations like NATO and the World Bank. while full-scale military offensives may chosen by the opposition forces. be needed in others,” Chaulia says. The overturn of socialist ownership and Ironically, the political leaders who the breakup of the Soviet Union is “These three revolutions—the ‘rose revo- were overthrown—especially Eduard a process that did not end in 1991. lution’ in Georgia (November 2003- Shevardnadze in Georgia and Leonid Shaping the laws on property, the rights January 2004), the ‘orange revolution’ Kuchma in Ukraine—had in the past of foreign capital, justifying the expro- in Ukraine (January 2005) and the been the U.S.-chosen candidates. Both priation and privatizing of the socially ‘tulip revolution’ in Kyrgyzstan (April had carried out policies that brought owned resources, industry and serv- 2005)—each followed a near-identical their governments into the U.S. orbit. ices for individual profit, dismembering trajectory; all were spearheaded by the They had pushed for joining NATO’s social programs, shaping the media, American democratization Ingos [inter- “Partnership for Peace.” Both had agreed education and culture, and undermining national NGOs] working at the behest to send troops to Iraq. any assertions of sovereignty are a much of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. longer process. ... Rarely has the U.S. promoted human Yet both politicians were unceremo- rights and democracy in a region when niously thrown out when they were These funds have an even greater impact they did not suit its grander foreign-poli- not totally compliant with U.S. corpo- in a region where the centralized social- cy objectives. ... Ingos heavily dependent rate demands. Both of their replace- ist planning that once guaranteed pen- on U.S. finances have been found to be ments—Mikheil Saakashvili in Georgia sions, full employment, free health care, consciously or subconsciously extending and Viktor Yuschchenko in Ukraine— free education and subsidized housing U.S. governmental interests. ... had served in the governments of their is gone. Its brutal dismembering has predecessors. affected millions of people, leaving them “NED’s first president, Allen Weinstein, intensely angry with the leaders who admitted openly that ‘a lot of what we Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin betrayed them. do today was done covertly 25 years ago Powell said after attending Yuschchenko’s by the CIA. ... NED was conceived as a inauguration as president of Ukraine FUNDING YOUTH quasi-governmental foundation that fun- on Jan 23, 2005, that he was “proud MOVEMENTS neled U.S. government funding through to have been associated with both A significant part of the U.S. corporate Ingos like the National Democratic events”—in Georgia and Ukraine. funding is to create youth movements. Institute for International Affairs (NDI), The Soros Foundation, USAID and the the International Republican Institute Much insight into U.S. plans for the NED together funded the Serbian youth (IRI), International Foundation for future and evaluations of past interven- group Otpor. Young people were pro- Electoral Systems (IFES), International tions can actually be found on the web vided specialized training and seminars Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), sites of the foundations behind these in Budapest, Hungary, along with t- and Freedom House. ... regime changes. shirts, stickers, posters, office rent and a newspaper, as part of the successful “The U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 40,000 NGOS IN UKRAINE campaign to overturn the Milosevic gov- worked closely with NGOs like Freedom In an article on the World Bank’s website ernment in Serbia. House and the Soros Foundation—sup- entitled: “Civil Society Development in plying generators, printing presses and Ukraine and the Orange Revolution,” Vira In Georgia, the Soros Foundation budg- money to keep the protests boiling Nanivska, director of the International eted $4.6 million for the youth group until President Akayev fled. Information Center for Policy Studies in Ukraine, Kmara, which became a primary weap- about where protesters should gather brags: “Today some 40,000 NGOs in on against the government. In Ukraine, and what they should bring was spread Ukraine involve 12 percent of the pop- Soros budgeted $7 million for the youth through State Department-funded radio ulation—and these organizations have group Pora. and TV stations.” been a key active force in the Orange Revolution.” (www.worldbank.org) The opendemocracy.net web site is Today’s new and developing anti-war funded by the Ford and Rockefeller movement needs an understanding of She describes how international consult- foundations. An article there by Sreeram the many forms of U.S. intervention, ants, policy experts and technical assist- Chaulia analyzes the role of U.S.-funded along with the chaos and instability that ants work in coordination to change NGOs from Georgia to Kyrgyzstan and it breeds. This will build anti-imperialist legislation, develop interest groups, set Ukraine. The blurb for it is provocative, awareness and strengthen the growing up media centers and develop protest saying that “new forms of youthful, tech- global demand of “U.S. out now!” movements. NGOs affect legislation, savvy mass mobilization are impelling STRUGGLE : March 2006 17 UPDATE 'State of Emergency' in Philippines Demonstrates Regimes Panic Republic of the Philippines President Glo- the people’s assemblies in the nationwide ria Macapagal Arroyo is in a state of panic. anniversary celebration of the events of With the prospect of her regime’s ouster 22-25 February 1986 that resulted in the getting more proximate in the months overthrow of Marcos. She is terribly afraid ahead, Arroyo is resorting to every means that the people’s mass actions critical of in its arsenal of dirty tricks to prevent its her rotten and hated regime would en- downfall. courage her own military and police forces to withdraw support from her. Desperately holding on to authority, Ar- royo is unleashing fascist attacks on both Indeed, she has undertaken so-called the traditional and progressive opposition. preemptive actions by ordering the arrest In the countrysides and cities, Arroyo’s of military and police officers suspected minions of fascist generals are responsible of opposing her regime and revoking rally for the murders of leaders and members of permits nationwide and ordering the vio- legal democratic mass organizations. lent dispersal of people in peaceful assem- bly. The proclamation and its immediate Arroyo placates the US imperialist by kow- consequences demonstrate that Arroyo is towing to the latter’s demands for more tyrannizing the people and even her own areas to be covered by the Balikatan ex- military and police officers whom she sus- ercises to make the Philippines a staging pects of siding with the people. ground for the bogus “war on terror.” that the Philippine people endured when Proclamation 1017 is a tyrannical act of But this dictator will fail and will fall sooner the murderous tyrant, Ferdinand Marcos, desperation by an utterly isolated usurper or later. It is now fully isolated from the imposed martial law. The greatest irony is of authority and her small coterie. It ma- broad masses of the people. It is able to that this State of Emergency has been im- liciously misrepresents the movement of hold on to power only because of the sup- posed during the 20th anniversary celebra- the people and the broad united front as a port of US imperialism, a faction of big tions of Marcos’ overthrow by the world mere conspiracy of the so-called extremes business and financial elite, paid hacks in famous People Power. of the Left and the Right. It proves that the reactionary parliament and of corrupt Arroyo will go to any length, including the generals. To know where she gets her sup- There are other troubling throwbacks to bloody suppression of the people and her port, you only have to look at the pathetic the Marcos dictatorship. One of the first opponents. sight of the same politicians and generals people to be arrested on Friday was Rep- trooping to Malacañang whenever mas- resentative Crispin Beltran, who became The root causes of the whole ongoing Phil- sive protest actions stun the Arroyo presi- well-known to New Zealanders when the ippine crisis are massive poverty, inequal- dency. Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa ity, institutionalised State violence and cor- toured him through the country in 1999, ruption. The New Zealand Government History, legitimacy and reason are unques- in his capacity as a national trade union could play a constructive role in the affairs tionably on the side of the Filipino people. leader. He is being held on a 1985 charge of this near neighbour is by offering our This latest Arroyo declaration will further i.e. one that dates from the martial law pe- expertise in brokering peace agreements. inflame them, giving added impetus to sus- riod. The Philippines desperately needs peace tained defiance and intensified resistance. and social justice. The last thing it needs In the end, the weight of the people’s mass The Arroyo regime is now a full-blown is a reversion to a military dictatorship as movement and the revolutionary armed open dictatorship. In one clean sweep, a discredited and desperate President tries struggle will crush this dictatorship. Dictator Arroyo has completely done away to cling to power. At this time of crisis, the with bourgeois-democratic pretenses and Philippine people need all the help they Struggle and the Communist Party of shall henceforth rule only through the co- can get. Aotearoa endorse the Philippines Solidar- ercive apparatus of the state: armed forces, ity Network of Aotearoa’s call for the New police, jails and militarist decrees. The National Democratic Front of the Phil- Zealand government to join us in con- ippines has declared that among the oppo- demning, in the strongest terms possible, The “state of national emergency” is a fa- sition parties, the legal forces of the nation- the declaration of a State of Emergency by miliar fascist tool cloaked in legal-political- al democratic movement and the ranks of Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Ar- military gobbledygook condemned even retired and active anti-Arroyo military and royo. by bourgeois-constitutionalists and lawyers. police officers in the broad united front This aims to quash through brute force any there is a growing common desire to form This latest desperate move by the Presi- and all forms of opposition to the hated a transition council that can negotiate a dent to cling to power in the face of a tide regime. It displays the ruthless and naked just and lasting peace with the NDFP. The of popular protest arising from the blatant use of the reactionary state’s armed forces New Zealand government should offer to electoral fraud that was used to steal the against the people. host and facilitate such talks as would be 2004 Presidential election. necessary to allow for a new Philippines The real malevolent objective of Arroyo that is truly independent, democratic, so- It harks back to the 1972-86 reign of terror in issuing the proclamation is to suppress cially just, progressive and peaceful. 18 March 2006 : STRUGGLE LIVES OF NOTE Rewi Alley, 1897 - 1987 Jung Chang’s ‘biography’ of Mao Zedong flood and famine relief work, provided him per coverage. Brady’s book reflects this Cold (reviewed earlier in this issue) is far from the with direct experience of the poverty and War mentality, and cloaks behind a veneer only attempt to take from the masses a revo- hardship sustained by the Chinese peasantry. of scholarly apparatus the fact that there is no lutionary symbol. He began to directly support the revolution: evidence whatsoever that Alley engaged in allowing his house to be used for a radio any inappropriate sexual activity at all. In October 2002 - appropriately on the day transmitter and transporting comrades using celebrated as Taiwan’s ‘national’ day - a Uni- the safety of his car. Alley traveled widely During the period after China was liberated versity of Canterbury academic Anne-Marie throughout China, gaining the experience that Alley became increasingly immersed in writ- Brady published a scurrilous attack on Rewi ing about China, pamphleteering, writing and Alley. In it she claimed that Alley’s political translating poetry. Alley described his role as decisions were dominated by his alleged ho- ‘interpreting China to the world’ and became mosexuality and that he had been a pawn of known internationally as he described Chi- the Communist Party of China in spreading na’s developmental projects, the creative har- their ‘propaganda’ in exchange for a steady nessing of the full potential of the Chinese diet of vulnerable young men. masses, and its peaceful diplomacy during the building of socialism. It is clear from his The truth is significantly different. records and interviews with those close to him that Alley believed in the revolutionary Rewi Alley was born in Springfield, Canter- project that he assisted through his work, bury in 1897. His father, a schoolmaster, and there was no gun to his head since there was his mother, who was active in the temperance no need for one. He devoted his life to the and women’s rights movements installed in Chinese revolution because he supported it. him respect for hard work, discipline, a desire for education, and a willingness to challenge Alley undertook tours of New Zealand in authority. He was christened Rewi out of the 1960, 1965 and 1971 – in all he met with family’s respect for Ngati Maniapoto leader hundreds of students and workers even and anti-colonial fighter Rewi Maniapoto. though the first two drew no coverage in the His academic record was indifferent and capitalist media. In part this was because dur- Rewi felt overshadowed by his siblings who ing them he openly admitted his member- became All Blacks, university lecturers and made his working knowledge of the country ship of the New Zealand Communist Party. founders of the playcentre movement. In unique among foreigners. He then became Still, the tide was shifting and in 1972 Vic- March 1917 he volunteered for war service. heavily involved in establishing the Industrial toria University of Wellington awarded him He was wounded during combat in France Co-operative Movement (Indusco). an honorary doctorate in literature. The PRC and gained the Military Medal. In France he also granted him honorary citizenship, and met members of the Chinese Armed Forces In 1942 Alley’s relations with the KMT gov- his residence there was a pilgrimage point who were also fighting the German-led coali- ernment deteriorated, resulting in his dis- for thousands of visiting New Zealanders, tion and an interest in China was born. On missal from Indusco and in 1944 the school especially after diplomatic relations were es- returning to New Zealand he joined a com- he had established at Shuangshipu was relo- tablished in Dec 1972. panion, Jack Stevens, in an unsuccessful six- cated 688 miles north-west to Shandan in year attempt to break in, and then farm, hill Gansu province, on the edge of Gobi desert Although sometimes projected as a willing and bush country at Moeawatea, inland from and not very close to anything else. However, propagandist for the Chinese party-state Waverley, Taranaki. These were hard physical following the principles of his mentor, Joseph (by the Right and the Ultra-left), Alley was experiences that endowed Alley with stami- Bailie, Alley encouraged the Shandan school anything but, always criticising policies he na and resilience. to grow through its tenets of ‘create and ana- disagreed with, albeit in private. His role as lyse’ and a daily routine of shared work and promoter of the Chinese revolution and the Following his curiosity he first went to Chi- study designed to install self-discipline, team- anti-communist environment dominating the na in 1927, intending to visit but ultimately work, and co-operation between industry English-speaking world for which he wrote staying for the rest of his life. He worked and agriculture. naturally tempered his ability to do so openly. in Shanghai, as a fire officer and then as a Yet his private papers reveal, like many oth- municipal factory inspector. While there he Because of his progressive politics, the New ers of China’s foreign friends who joined the saw the deplorable conditions that Chinese Zealand government used its propaganda Chinese revolution in the 1930s and 40s, workers faced under imperialism and the organs to divide public opinion in New Zea- someone deeply skeptical of the market re- incompetent corrupt rule of the KMT. Alley land regarding Alley’s activities, and from forms now known as ‘socialism with Chinese formed close friendships with other anti-im- 1950 anti-communist rhetoric meant that characteristics’. perialists in Shanghai, such as the Americans attitudes hardened towards him – especially Edgar Snow, Anna Louise Strong and Agnes when he publicly identified himself with op- On 27 December 1987 at Beijing, Rewi Smedley, and drew close to the revolution- position to American policy in the Korean Alley died. His handwritten will asked for ary forces. War and revealed American use of biological his ashes to be scattered over the Shandan warfare against Chinese and Korean civilians. countryside - ‘please no special trip, just the Although as a foreigner in Shanghai Alley As the Cold War deepened, the man many next time someone is going out there. It’s just would normally have been insulated from New Zealanders had admired, through such one more soldier passing on’. Ever humble the realities the Chinese faced; his job, and widely publicised ventures as the shipment he completely undersold himself. Alley was the fact that he spent his holidays involved in of local sheep to China, was denied newspa- a genuine hero. STRUGGLE : March 2006 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 6724, Wellington. 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 6724, Wellington. Rates: Individual $8.00, Institutions $10.00, Overseas $12.00. Please make cheque payable to Struggle Publications.

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20 March 2006 : STRUGGLE