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Dougal McNeill
One thing’s
for sure: Labour is going to do nothing over the next three years for the
workers who elected them, unless they’re forced to. Most people are
thoroughly sick of hearing about the election and politics and a major
part of the reason for this is the thoroughly boring campaign both Labour
and National ran. Although it relies for its support on working people,
Helen Clark’s Labour Party was very careful not to promise them anything
of substance for this term.
In the Governor-General’s speech in August it was made clear what the
Government’s priorities are – lifting the moratorium on GE in
Aotearoa, pleasing business and keeping the New Right agenda of the last
two decades on track.
But there’s another side to this election – it was the lowest voter
turnout since records began. This doesn’t mean that all the
people who didn’t bother voting are hardened anti-capitalists rejecting
the system (if only…) but it does show that there is a growing layer of
workers who feel disillusioned with the system. It is vital that all of us
who are interested in fighting for social justice work to turn this
disillusionment into anger and confidence to fight. Because, now more than
ever, the old truth that change comes only outside parliament is one we
need to remember.
The Peters Principle
Winston Peters and
his racist New Zealand First Party managed to score a surprise comeback on
election night. While in 1999 they got under the necessary five percent to
get into parliament and had to sail in on Winston’s coat-tails, this
time around NZ First arrived as the third largest party.
It’s hard to say how much of this vote came from frustrated National
supporters and how much came from former Labour and Alliance voters, but
the results are worrying. Many on the left certainly underestimated the
pull that Peters would have. He campaigned on an openly racist,
anti-immigration and anti-Treaty programme. This kind of filth can fill a
political vacuum and act as a vent for people’s frustrations when there
are no coherent political alternatives being offered.
Over the next three years we need to step up campaigns to counter Peters’
lies and racism. Immigrants don’t take jobs – government policies and
business greed do. The rich are the real bludgers, not Mäori. These
slogans, although they may sound simplistic, are the key to organising
against NZ First and their influence. Peters and his party are at home on
the Right, supporting business and employers – his rotten record in the
1996 National Coalition Government proves this. We need to expose NZ First
for the scumbags they are.
Meanwhile the Labour Party have shown themselves so desperate to stay in
office that they’ll make deals with anyone – even United Future.
United are a strange mix of homophobic freaks, anti-abortion crackpots,
Christian wackos and out-and-out opportunists. They certainly say
something about Helen Clark’s priorities!
Labour’s former coalition partner, the Alliance, didn’t even manage to
get 1.5 percent of the vote and are now no longer in parliament. We
analysed the decline of the Alliance in our last issue but, although their
defeat comes as no surprise, it is nothing to celebrate. The Alliance were
the last mainstream party in New Zealand that stood in the tradition of
social democratic politics and – whatever disagreements revolutionary
socialists might have with them – they fought for gains like paid
parental leave, longer holidays and better conditions. Their demise is a
setback for workers in Aotearoa and the building of a left movement.
Alliance
But, if we are
going to avoid making the same mistakes again, we need to learn from the
tragedy of the Alliance. For almost ten years some of the best activists
in the country battled away inside the Alliance and time and time again
their issues (and the good of New Zealand workers) were set aside for some
parliamentary manoeuvre, some deal to be cashed-in in the future, some
compromise that was always necessary at the time.
Every time the Alliance became more "moderate" to avoid losing
support, its support dropped! The policies Laila Harre campaigned on this
time round read like nothing compared to the basic demands the Alliance
was founded on – free education, free healthcare, raising benefits and
scrapping (properly) the Employment Contracts Act.
Time and time again working people have indicated that these are the kind
of policies they support. It’s only when it becomes obvious these sorts
of policies are not going to be acted on that the kind of racist
scapegoating the Member for Tauranga specialises in starts to have any
pull.
Each time Alliance members put their faith in parliament instead of
workers and their potential power, the strength of the Right in the party
grew a little more until, by the time the party split in two, it had lost
many of its key members and supporters. This shows the logic of relying on
reforms from within the system. The best way to fight for real change is
where we have the power – through strikes, occupations, marches and
militant action – and not where our rulers are at their strongest.
The next three years will be full of challenges and opportunities for
socialists. Labour and their Christian wacko allies have no intentions of
delivering anything for workers, students, Mäori or the unemployed. But
the "honeymoon" for Labour, when we all breathed a sigh of
relief at seeing National out after nine years, is well and truly over.
We need to learn from the mistakes of the Alliance and focus our anger and
resentment where the employers and government will feel it most – in our
power as organised workers. Recent industrial actions like the secondary
school teachers and the brave wildcat strikes of the Wellington railway
workers show the way forward.
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