Wairoa – meat workers under attack
Capitalist freezing works Affco has effectively locked out meat workers early at the Wairoa works. Sheep chains, which usually continue processing until September, have been threatened with early closure and the night shift is locked out already.
Day shift workers had been given ultimatum to increase workload (process more meat) and lose their overtime, or face shutdown early (essentially being locked out of their jobs). We heard the employer has threatened that workers showing any fight back would never work there again. First Affco layed off 70 workers; then they locked out the last 130 from the sheep meat chain. Only about 100 jobs remain on the beef chain.
The union leadership fails to lead a fight against this rotten capitalist attack. They say Affco’s ultimatum given to the workers was a breach of the workers' contract. So all they do is take it to the lawyers - heading to the Employment Relations Authority.
Stay in the Union –dump the union officials, and elect fighting officials.
Bosses abuse migrants
Telecom’s use of sub contracting and battle against the Engineer’s Union (EU) in Auckland got to the point where Telecom (like many capitalists), used migrant workers to scab against the union. Why? because the capitalist immigration laws leave migrants vulnerable to being thrown out of the country if they don’t have a job! For migrants to strike with the union or be locked out by the employer– then technically (by immigration law) they have no job so their work permit is void. Their job that they have to have to apply for permanent residency has gone!
The capitalist immigration law must be defeated to protect migrant workers and defend working class jobs wages and conditions. Defend migrant workers against deportations.
Tuhoe Urewera
CWG support Maori occupation of and working on their traditional (stolen) lands. We don’t have illusions in Tuhoe being able to develop modern production on the lands of the Ureweras. However there are existing resources such as the power stations built under / downstream from Lake Waikaremoana. CWG supports Tuhoe control of the Urewera’s with Department of Conservation workers, Council roading workers and Genesis energy workers.
No public money for private profits: against privatisation!
This government is gifting public money to private capitalists. Privatisation costs us more: the PSA “last time the ACRP was privatised it cost the government more than what it did when it was publicly run. Between 2000 and 2005 it cost the Australian company managing the remand prison $43,000 per inmate to run it. During the same period Corrections’ operating costs per remand prisoner were $36,000.”
Since capitalists continue to lock up a larger section of the working class, they have to build more prisons. We are against the capitalist legal system which lets the rich off, and locks the poor up. Most crime is property related and the criminal- justice system is the capitalist method to control the working class. Still they let white-collar fraudsters go free. They lock up political prisoners and refugees in these same prisons.
While prisons are publicly run, the management remain state “neutral”. In the US, prison companies have become a lobby group that back longer sentences and donate a fraction of their profits to those political lobbies which will continue to support privatised prisons. It would not surprise me if overseas private prison companies were already meddling in NZ politics.
Nat-Act government just announced that 1000-1500 beds male prison at Wiri is to be designed, built and operated as a “Public Private Partnership” (PPP). They claim that the PPP could save 10 to 20 per cent in costs over the 25 to 35-year life of the proposed contract - more likely it will cost 20 to 40 per cent extra costs.
The Maori party are as guilty of selling out workers. Their consent for Nat-Act’s programme of PPPs is easily bought with promises of Maori participation in management and Maori lead prisoner re-integration programmes. The Maori managers will exploit working Maori who take on the real work.
This Nat – Act government is giving out lollies to their mates the capitalist class with these public private partnerships. Private companies have to cream a profit for the capitalists. They build poorer quality and provide poorer quality services as their profit motive drive them to the bottom lines, rather than public services which hold an ethic of public good (in spite of government cost costing).
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There will be PPP’s for roading developments such as the Transmission Gully route into Wellington. Nat - Act are rewriting the Education Bill for PPP to be used on state schools. Of course Nat-Act are preparing super-sized Auckland for sale to private interests: water, roading, transport, and every other council is under the same pressure.
End corporate welfare dependence.
Make the Capitalists pay for their own crisis.
Defend public jobs –no contracting out.
For a Workers’Tamaki Makaurau!
For a Socialist Super City, in a socialist Aotearoa, in a Socialist Federation of the South Pacific!
Auckland Supercity fight is Class War
John Banks, prospective NACT- backed candidate for mayor of Auckland Supercity with his NACT mate, Prime Minister, bankster John Key.
China Foxconn: Capitalism in a nutshell
This tells us all we need to know about Capitalism today. In order to make a profit in selling media hardware devices, the MNCs like Apple, Sony and HP try to get the biggest profit margin they can. This means using cheap, skilled and pliable labor, working long hours for low pay.
Israel has no National Rights
The outrage of world public opinion towards the IDF attack on the peace flotilla has once again focussed on the extreme behaviour of the colonial settler state of Israel, labelling it a 'rogue' state, or a 'fascist' state. The problem with this reaction is in the assumption that Israel can be a normal, even a democratic state with national rights.
US: Neither Health Care Nor Reform
Health care will not be won in the halls of Congress; it will be won only in hard-fought battles at the point of production. This will require mass strikes, coordinated across industries.
China in Africa: The Real Story
There is a lot of confusion about the role of China in Africa. Everyone can see that China is making giant leaps in Africa. But why? Is China the lastest fashion in colonisation or some fairy godmother giving back more than it takes from Africa?
Deborah Brautigam’s book The Dragon’s Gift: the Real Story of China in Africa helps us find the answers. China’s role in Africa during its period as a so-called ‘communist’ country was to collaborate with national liberations struggles and form SOEs with the new leaderships. But with the return to capitalism in China since the mid-80s it’s interest has shifted towards commercial investments. Today China’s role in Africa is that of a rising capitalist world power.
pdf file Class Struggle 89
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