Workers Party member Ian Anderson interviews veteran Australian union activist Dave Kieran, on the recently launched Right To Strike Campaign.

The Spark: If you could start with a basic overview of the Right to Strike campaign, and how it started.

DK: The right to strike campaign began about a fortnight ago in its current form, where 6 unions attended a meeting to establish a national campaign, and to work practically towards resolutions in workplaces, up through unions and union executives, approach civil society and civil movements, faith-based communities etc seeking similar resolutions of support.

It’s based very much on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) framework, which indicates that the right to strike actually underpins the will of the people; that is, all of our other rights are protected by the right to strike. Certainly industrially, things like the right to organise, right of entry, are protected by the right to strike. [Read more…]

After occupying a university council meeting room on Monday the 17th of October, We are the University came to these conclusions in a democratic process:

1. Free education, Zero Frees (Unconditional).
2. Sack Stuart McCutcheon and Patrick Walsh as vice chancellors of the University of Auckland and Victoria University respectively. Restructure university in a public forum.
3. Remove trespass orders on Marcus Coverdale and Wikatana Popata.
4. Decisions on courses be based on scholarly and social benefits rather than financial.
5. Security guards be employed for the safety of students, not survailliance. Cops not to be called in response to (non-violent) student activism.
6. The University management be bound by the government facilitation with the Tertiary Education Union (TEU).
7. University actively lobby to revoke the VSM bill
8. Government unconditionally fund student unions, allowing them to be a critical voice and conscience of society, so that corporatisation such as advertising is not necessary on campus spaces.

– We are the University Auckland

Solidarity to everyone currently occupying together. Be rational and protest.

Ian Anderson, Workers Party member

The Rugby World Cup finally has a competitor for national coverage,  but it’s unlikely to inspire millions. On October the 5th, container vessel MV Rena ran aground off the coast of Tauranga; within a week, a 5-kilometre oil slick was killing wildlife. To say the least, this does not look good for the current government. In a mystifying sign of the times, capitalist rag the Dominion Post even ran the front-page head-line “People Power,” covering clean-up efforts by citizens in light of reportedly negligent bureaucracy. However for all their populism, the right-wing press doesn’t dare discuss the cause of the problem: a system that alienates the people from the land, for profit.

Like so many unnatural disasters, the spill lays class divisions bare. Rena is operated by the Mediterranean Shipping Company, which this year overtook Maersk as the largest global shipping line in terms of container capacity. In 2007 they were named shipping line of the year for the 6th time, due to their impressive capacity – this means fast, cheap, and plentiful commodities. To achieve this they must cut labour costs, and ignore ecological factors. Rena was a Flag of Convenience ship, meaning that it used a false national flag to dodge regulations, ignoring warnings from three inspectors before running aground. More than half the world’s commercial ships use flags of convenience.

Maritime New Zealand, funded in large part by transport conglomerates such as MSC, shows no interest in challenging the flag of convenience system. Like many so-called ‘regulators’ in bed with their industry, MNZ is far better at PR than implementing anything significant. Only the International Transport Federation and their comrades in the Maritime Union of New Zealand challenge the flag of convenience system, as they have done for decades.

By bringing a stark reminder of the risks of oil, this disaster also further underlines the class division that produced the Mana movement. Acting Minister for Energy and Resources Hekia Parata supports greater investment in non-renewables, including exploration for offshore oil-drilling. However communities particularly in the East Cape oppose exploration, while Mana opposes all further oil exploration and is sending a clean-up crew with the slogan “less hui more doey.”

Many are volunteering to help with the clean-up. Comrades wishing to help out should ensure they obtain access to PPE gear.

While solidarity efforts like this are crucial, they treat the symptom not the cause. Ultimately the coastline must be controlled by affected communities, and by the workers in its ports. Anything less is armed theft.

Occupy Auckland
Occupy Wellington
Occupy Christchurch
Occupy Dunedin