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Pike River update: Compensation and investigation

By Byron Clark (Christchurch branch WP member)
‘‘I know a number of external parties who have expressed interest in the asset”

These were the words of Pike River Coal chairman John Dow, quoted in The Press on January 14th in an article where the main topic was the police decision to ‘pull the plug’ on attempts to recover the bodies of twenty nine miners from the Pike River mine. It’s a strange world we live in where “asset” and “mass grave” can be interchangeable. With the police ending their recovery attempt, responsibility for the mine lies with the receivers, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Receiver John Fisk told Radio New Zealand that they have about $10 million in cash, plus a number of assets above the ground and in the mine. However, if there is not enough money to re-enter the mine, the land will be handed back to the government. If that happens, the Department of Conservation is most likely to assume control of the mine, and responsibility for the bodies of the workers still encased within it.

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Egypt fights against dictatorship

Egypt solidarity protest in Christchurch

The following is the text of a leaflet distributed by Workers Party members at demonstrations held accross New Zealand in solidarity with the uprising in Egypt.

The Arab world is on fire. The people of the Middle East are rising up against the Western supported dictatorships. Suddenly a situation that has existed quite comfortably for the last forty years has been turned on its head.
When Iran burst into revolt in 2009 over the rigged elections, the governments of the ‘West’ could not do enough to encourage the ferment. But the situation in Egypt is very different, because Egypt is the West’s most important Arab ally in the region. Each year the regime receives more than $2 billion dollars in US “aid”. When Obama states that he is “calling upon Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters”, he is referring to the weapons and munitions that the US has supplied over the last 30 years.

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All eyes on Tunisia

A working class revolt has broken out in Tunisia. Trade unions, professional organisations and millions of poor and oppressed people have faced off with the armed thugs of dictator Ben Ali, and after weeks of protests, strikes and clashes he has been driven from power. The dictator fled to Saudi Arabia, but the people are still on the streets, demanding the complete destruction of his political party, the corrupt regime he and his family led, and the creation of a new and better Tunisia.
At this point events are moving very quickly and it is uncertain where the movement will go. There is no mass revolutionary socialist party in Tunisia, and there are a wide variety of demands being raised. Whether the movement will succeed in destroying the old state apparatus and establishing the political and social power of the working class remains to be seen. However, several things are clear. This is an inspiring uprising of the oppressed which demonstrates the power that the working masses have when they act collectively and without fear. The Tunisian uprising will send a shockwave throughout the Arab world, and already people in Egypt, Jordan and throughout the Middle East are demonstrating in solidarity with the Tunisian revolt, while also calling for a similar movement in their own country. Tyrants throughout the Arab world have reason to be afraid.  Continue reading “All eyes on Tunisia”

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How to fight redundancies

Don Franks
A contribution to a discussion among Workers Party members
I don’t have a problem in principle with unions calling on the government to intervene on redundancies.
Its a call that can come up from the floor of union meetings.
If I had a say at such a meeting I’d say, well, I don’t expect the bastards to do anything, and the history of both parties shows that they’re unlikely to help now. However,we’ve got nothing to lose so if you want to put it to them, it can’t hurt to try. I’d couple that with specific concrete demands related to the specific situation, to try and forestall any unwanted type of government help, such as counselling. It certainly is inadequate and a betrayal for union leaders to call on the government for help and leave it at that. Continue reading “How to fight redundancies”

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Black Gold

This is the year the government brought in new legislation attacking workers’ rights. While the new laws will make defending workers’ rights harder some workers are showing that there’s a fighting spirit and victories to be won.

In October this year union members working on the Kan Tan 4  drilling rig in Taranaki won a 30% pay increase in their collective agreement. It was the result of international solidarity among workers across the Tasman.
The EPMU launched a  short film titled “Black Gold” about the  30% pay increase achieved by EPMU members in Taranaki covered by the Kan Tan 4 collective agreement. Continue reading “Black Gold”

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Crucified on Christmas Island

The death of 30 asylum seekers, whose overloaded wooden boat crashed on the rocks of Christmas Island and sank, speaks volumes about immigration controls. This 21st century barbarism needs to be abolished, just as the slave trade was.
In the past year 5000 people made their way to Australia in flimsy boats via Indonesia. Most were from Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka fleeing war and genocide. Australia, as a key player in the US-led wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, is directly responsible for the desperate plight of those who turn to people-smugglers.
The journey to Australia invariably ends in prison or death. Continue reading “Crucified on Christmas Island”

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Book Review: For the Win

Cory Doctorow, Tor and craphound.com, 2010
The Spark December 2010 – January 2011
Byron Clark
‘For The Win’ is possibly one of 2010’s best works of fiction, at least for those readers who enjoy books that deal with big issues. Paraphrasing other writers in the genre, author Cory Doctorow has said that “good science fiction predicts the present” and part of what makes the novel so enjoyable is that this story could be taking place next year. While his last novel, Little Brother, explored issues around civil liberties and state power in the post-9/11 USA, For The Win shows that Doctorow’s unashamedly left-wing worldview extends to many other issues; globalisation, inequality, labour rights and the farcical nature of finance capitalism are all explored in the space of 375 pages.
The story revolves around “gold farming” the practice of amassing virtual wealth in an online multi-player video game, and then selling it for real-world currency. Typically, that virtual wealth is collected by people in the developing world, and sold to players in the developed world who want to avoid the work required to advance in the game. For the gold farmers, the income is comparable to what they could earn working in other available jobs. Of course, most of these gold farmers don’t own the computers and internet connections required to be a gold farmer (the means of production-albeit production of virtual commodities) and work for bosses who expropriate most of the wealth they create. Looking to remedy this situation is Big Sister Nor, a former garment factory worker in Malaysia who became a gold farmer after a strike caused the owners to move the factory to Indonesia. Nor has founded the “Industrial Workers of the World Wide Web” or “Webblies” (a homage to the Industrial Workers of the World (also known as Wobblies), the syndicalist union that had its heyday a century ago) and is organising gold farmers across borders in the virtual worlds they work in. Continue reading “Book Review: For the Win”

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NZ Council of Trade Unions on Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement / A worker's comment

“Trade is only a small part of these negotiations”, said Bill Rosenberg, CTU Policy Director and Economist, who will be the CTU observer. “In fact most of the proposed agreement covers areas like foreign investment rules, empowering foreign companies to sue our government, opening our services to more international competition, our right to regulate, pharmaceutical costs, intellectual property rights, and preventing use of government procurement to help local firms.”

Don: That mixes possible working class concerns with local capitalist concerns as if they were the same thing, or were mutually compatible. The end result of that outlook has historically been pressure on workers to make sacrifices to help “our firms” or “our country”. It’s not “our right to regulate”, if you don’t believe me, try effecting some regulating today and see how you get on.
 Continue reading “NZ Council of Trade Unions on Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement / A worker's comment”