Unite demo, Invercargill, February 5, 2010

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Hi I'm Andrew Tait. I’m a member of the International Socialists Organisation. I’m from Invercargill and it’s good to be back under the workers flag in a working class city.

We’ve been helping drive the Unite campaign for the $15 minimum wage in Dunedin. Every Saturday we hold a stall to collect signatures in town and we get a great response and hear all kinds of stories, good – like the boss who signed on and says he pays all his workers more than $18 – and bad – like the aged care worker who retired after almost 30 years on a wage of $12.80 an hour!

We have taken the petition door-to-door and now we are starting to get it into workplaces too.

What is this campaign about?

For us, fundamentally, it is about raising people’s expectations. It’s about creating hope, it’s about giving people a chance to say: “Yes, I am worth more than peanuts”. Working people feel the pinch every time they go shopping, every time they fill the car, every time an unexpected bill arrives. But we feel it alone. But when people sign this petition they have a chance to make a connection with others, take a breather and look at the big picture.

And the big picture is not pretty. Poverty wages and below-poverty benefits have become an entrenched part of this economy. We need to dig them out.

The Otago Daily Times, our local rag, railed against our campaign in a recent editorial. Higher minimum wages will wreck the economy, if you believe them. Small businesses, especially in retail and hospitality would sack staff or fail. Already the miserable 25c pay rise will cost bosses $52 million, the paper said.

I have three replies. Firstly, 25c sucks, it is an insult but I tell you most solemnly we would not have won even that if we did not demand $15. So that is $52 million that we have secured for the most deserving people in New Zealand.

Secondly, working people don’t just earn money, they spend money too. And where do they spend it? In retail and hospitality! Don Brash’s plan to narrow the wage gap with Australia, by contrast is to cut taxes for the rich – but they don’t spend the money where it is needed. They lock it up in trusts or splurge on luxury yachts and overseas holidays. Raising the minimum wage would boost the economy, not drag it down.

Thirdly, New Zealand is becoming a low-wage economy. Aussie wages are 30% higher and Aussie productivity is 30% higher. There’s a connection. Higher wages force bosses to invest in better technology. If you are paying top dollar for an employee, you don’t want to waste their time with crappy tools or outdated computer systems.

Look it’s a fact: The class of people who rule our country are not only greedy, they are lazy and stupid. Harsh words I know – now you can see why I am a socialist – but true words too. Even while the wealth of the richest NZers has doubled over the last decade, investment in research and development has sunk to the lowest levels in the OECD. Research and development is crucial to productivity growth.

This is not just National. The wealth of the rich list NZers grew faster under Labour in the last decade than it did under National in the 1990s.

Eric Roy interjects: “I’m beginning to like you a bit more”

Well that won’t last when you hear what needs to be done. What we need is to rebuild fighting trade unions. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, inflation and strike rates were ‘out of control’ but living standards were better and the share of wealth that went to working people was much bigger. We’ve had two decades of economic stability with worsening living standards and more work for less.

If that’s your stability – I want nothing of it.

Today John Key announced that he intends to raise the minimum wage by a miserable 25 cents, from $12.50 to $12.75
This represents a 2% increase, below the rate of inflation, and well below the rise in costs experienced by most new zealanders as food, petrol and rent prices continue to skyrocket.
The ISO has been working in support of the Unite union's "campaign for a living wage", calling for an immediate rise to $15/hour and then fixing the minimum wage at 66%.
Dunedin is one of the lowest paid cities in new Zealand, with a disproportionate number of people working for less than $15/hour. With more jobs being lost every week, it is essential that we stand up for our dignity and standard of living.

"The government throwing 25 cents to minimum wage workers is a cheap shot" said Campaign for a Living Wage organiser Joe Carolan.

This is barely 2% of nothing, and will be well below real inflation when his government raises GST in the budget."

"Low paid workers are sick of being insulted by millionaires like John Key. We'll be initiating for action on the back of this slap on the face, and there'll be a loud and angry protest this afternoon at 5pm at Auckland's Chamber of Commerce on Mayoral Drive".

"What workers need is a living wage- we've been pushing for $15 an hour now, and for the minimum wage to be set at 66% of the median wage. Tens of thousands of people have signed our petition for a Citizens Initiated Referendum, but John Key has infuriated the half million workers earning less than 600 bucks with this derisory pittance".

from: www.unite.org.nz

Activist John Minto and four other protesters were arrested outside the ASB Tennis Centre in Auckland today.

An organisation calling themselves Global Peace and Justice Auckland continued their demonstrations during Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer's matches at the WTA tournament for a third straight day.

Today was Peer's first match on centre court and the protesters' numbers doubled to 16, again using loud hailers to call for Peer to withdraw from the event because of Israel's occupation on Palestine.

Minto and one other protester were using loud hailers while an elderly woman had a microphone and speaker.

After police had given three warnings they stepped in to arrest Minto and two other protesters and also confiscated their loud hailers.

The demonstration continued without Minto with one man climbing a tree with a loud hailer to continue to blast out the group's message. The police were forced to climb the tree to bring him down while the woman with the microphone and speaker was also arrested.

One of the protesters from Global Peace and Justice Auckland, Joe Carolan said it was likely the campaigners to be back again tomorrow for Peer's semifinal match.

"Yes, I think so," he said, when asked if they'll be back.

"Obviously we're going to have to talk, all the leaders of the movement have been singled out today, if that's not political policing I don't know what is.

"We looked to those people who had years of experience in this movement for guidance and they've singled those out.

"It's obvious that we're just a small group of people here but there are obviously thousands of New Zealanders who do feel that protesters and peace activists have the rights to voice their opinion.

"That's become the major issue of the last three days, the over the top policing here.

"The first day there was a bomb scare for someone leaving their handbag behind."

 http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.com/2010/01/democracy-suspended-in-auckland-john.html

See video footage here:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3212353/John-Minto-arrested-at-tennis-protest

Where are the Palestinian tennis players?

JOHN MINTO's STATEMENT BEFORE TODAY'S PROTEST

For the past few days I've been part of a protest outside the ASB Tennis Centre in Auckland where Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer has been playing in a women's international tennis tournament.

We have been calling for her to leave the tournament just as protests in earlier decades sought to have Springbok tours to New Zealand abandoned. In South Africa's case it was the apartheid policies of the ruling regime which legally discriminated against black and coloured South Africans and brutally suppressed dissent. In Israel's case it's the Zionist policies of the Israeli Government which discriminates against the Arab population of Israel and uses military might to oppress the wider Palestinian population and deny them freedom and any semblance of civil, political or human rights.
After South Africa, Israel is just the second country in recent times where an international consensus has developed that a boycott is the best way to bring pressure for change. Other forms of pressure have failed. Israel has ignored numerous United Nations resolutions and rulings from the International Court of Justice. It continues to oppress with impunity the indigenous population of Palestine and viciously attacks those who dare to fight back.
This is not to say Israel has not been the subject of terror attacks. It plainly has, but the driver of terrorism is the regime itself and not the sticks and stones of Palestinian youth or the suicide bombers who in anger, despair, frustration and powerlessness throw their very bodies at their oppressor.
So what has all this to do with tennis in Auckland? Everything. The BDS campaign (Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions) against Israel includes sport so Shahar Peer is being asked to make a sacrifice and give up international competition. This pales beside the sacrifices Palestinians are forced to make every day of their lives as they live under Israel's iron fist. Where are the Palestinian tennis players who'd love the chance to learn and compete internationally?
The most surprising aspect of the protest for me has been the measured and thoughtful reaction from most tennis patrons. When I grew up most New Zealanders saw Israel as a plucky little country surrounded by fanatical Arab hordes determined to overrun it and throw all the Jews into the Mediterranean. We believed we were on the side of the underdog.
It was a myth of course. Israel has always had enormous military might courtesy of the annual billions in "aid" from the US. The latest technology has been provided on a plate and Israel now has a formidable nuclear arsenal - also courtesy of the US.
New Zealanders have moved a lot in attitudes towards the Middle East over recent years. The 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and last year's invasion of the Gaza strip in which 1400 Palestinians were killed (13 Israelis lost their lives) have helped New Zealanders see the Middle East with fresh eyes.
The most common question I've been asked by patrons has been why we aren't protesting the presence of Chinese and Zimbabwean players. I've responded that the organisation Global Peace and Justice Auckland, to which I belong, has protested against both governments. We led an unsuccessful protest to try to stop the Black Cap cricketers from touring Zimbabwe a few years back. However, the main opposition group the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) doesn't support boycotts as a tactic. We've also protested human rights abuses in China and marched against the Clark government's free-trade agreement with the Chinese regime.
Shahar Peer will not be stopped by the protests this year but increasingly the boycott will tighten on Israel in trade, investment, cultural and sporting ties. Among these the sports boycott will be the most important because it has a higher profile and is most closely linked to a country's sense of itself and in Israel's case this is what needs drastic change.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/blogs/frontline/3211294/Where-are-the-Palestinian-tennis-players