Class Struggle 91

8/8/2019 Class Struggle 91

1/20

Class Struggle 91 September/October 2010

1


2/20


2

October 20: Smash the NACT attack

Defend Union Rights!Defend workers: jobs, wages andconditions!Defend the dole: access to

unemployment benefit!The strategy of the union officials (leaders) has notbeen to defeat this law, only to complain about it.Existing union members who have collectiveagreements can be protected against the 90day Actwhen negotiations for the new collective agreementcome up to get agreements that bind employers to notuse the 90day clause, the sick leave provision, and thatallow union access. Unions officials have had theirpower to force employers to the bargaining table onthese items weakened by employment contracts actand the employment relations act is little better.Good faith is a fluffy set of handcuffs that bind

unions into endless negotiations when employers do notbudge in negotiations. The ERA already binds unionrights to stop strikes by making them illegal, and it banspolitical strikes exactly what would be needed to stopthe 90day law.

the next stepBlacklist employers who use 90day Act!

Protect all workers, employed,unemployed and beneficiaries!Picket WINZ offices if anyone sackedunder the 90day, until they grantbenefit!No WINZ penalties for un(der)employedworkers who refuse jobs withoutprotection from 90 day Act!Picket capitalists who use 90day Actuntil they stop!Smash the 90day Act!Join Solidarity! (website and fb page)

Protect the most vulnerable

Benefits are so low that unemployed are forced to takeany work in order to survive lowering wages andconditions at the workplace. Unless unemployed areprotected by employed workers, they are vulnerable toundermining wages and conditions and being brought inas scabs. An injury to one is an injury to all. Marxdescribed unemployed workers as capitalisms reservearmy of labour; meaning capitalists will use theunemployed to fill any gaps in workforce as they want.The way for organised workers to protect against this isto unite employed and unemployed in the sameunion(s).

This is also sensible since any employed workers canbecome unemployed at the whim of restructure or a

new employer using the 90 day law. For full unionmembership rights to unemployed workers: currentlyonly the Unite union has specific unemployed workersrights to be in the union. Even this has been underthreat. We are active in Unite union to protectunemployed workers as in the constitution and tomaintain the participation of unemployed workers inUnite against attempts by the leaders of the Uniteworkers union branch who moved to take unemployedworkers out of the Unite constitution.

If workers are sacked or made redundant for anyreason, they should have continued rights to full unionmembership of their union at 0 or nominal dues.Unemployed workers need protection in theconstitutions of all the unions: Maori, pacific, gay,women, youth and migrant workers should all haverights within the unions which empower participation atall levels of the union decision making, unemployedworkers need similar rights. For rights as full membersto access resources and participate, including the rightto meet separately (caucus) and to raise agenda items& amendments.

For union dues to be scaled based on income: earnmore and pay more; earn less and pay less from forexample no dues below a wage of $10,000 pagraduating up to $40 a week plus for incomes over$100,000 pa. For the CTU Council of Trade Union

redistribution of unions income from the rich unionsto the poor based on the average wages of theunions membership for numbers of members; in orderto fund organisers of unemployed workers.

Behind this governments offensive

This is an attack by the National-Act-Maori governmenton the working class. They have attacked the wholeworking class with the introduction of GST reducing thebuying power of our wages and given tax cuts for therich. They are attacking the quality of education at all


3/20


3

levels. They have health services focussed on waitingtimes not on quality care, while cutting costs. They arebeneficiary bashing and kneecapping unions power,with this 90day law. We need the whole working classto unite the fights that are occurring in many areas intoone class struggle against the capitalist class. Thesemany attacks on the working class need a class wideresponse using pickets, strikes and occupations to stopprofits & build class solidarity that meets the needs ofworkers.

Lessons of the Fight against the EmploymentContracts Act

The ECA passed in 1991 severely weakened the unions.They lost the membership from 600,000 unionmembers it dropped to 300,000 and total number ofemployed has increased. Union leaders sold out thefight against the Act. In 1991 Ken Douglas (then CTUpresident) justified their sellout, saying unions will stillbe here to negotiate. Peter Harris for the CTU (1996)justified their mis-leadership again, and presented thisto the 1997 CTU conference. That CTU balance sheethas been put online at

http://workerspartynz.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/ctu.pdf .Unions have been pinned down under the capitalistslabour law: there is tight control of the union officials.

The main lesson to take from the fight against the ECAwas that it takes the fight of ordinary union membersto put up a real fight, and force unions leaders to showtheir true colours either to do what the workers needor to openly sell out the workers interests. Ordinaryunion members put working class solidarity into theunions.

Link to Workers Power Smash the Act pamphlet in our

archive. Compare this to Stalinist left Don Frankshttp://workerspartynz.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/some-relections-on-the-eca-introduction.dochttp://libcom.org/files/The%20Myth%20of%20Passivity1.pdf - anarchist review of 1991 ECA fight (published2004) and Maori (Tino Rangatiratanga) and benefit cutsfights.

CTU (Council of Trade Unions or CollaboratorsTaming Unions?)

The union leadership is in partnership with thebosses, this is class collaboration. They also are tamingthe membership by dragging us into the same rotten

partnership. Tamed unions are the life support for theLabour Party and so long as this collaboratingleadership runs the unions, workers will be sent to votefor a worker friendlier parliament, which will not meetour needs.

Failed union leaders who do not fight for the needs ofworkers, back the Labour Party, and argue for workingpeople to support it as a lesser evil than the others.Labour governments have continued to betray theneeds of the working class. The CTU leadership is asrotten as the Labour Party leadership that theycontinue to support. Rotten since they both are

parasites on the working class, giving as little toworkers as they are forced to, while keeping their realrole for the bosses as the brakes on working classstruggle.

Replace union officials that collaborate with thebosses. Union resources should be accountable to themembership. Fighting democratic unions must be basedon maximum independence from the ruling class and itsgovernment.

Working class solidarity

We support Solidarity/Organise as a network of unionmembers who take action to stop the employers whouse the 90day Act. Forced labour is what beneficiarieswill be if this government cuts benefits of those whorefuse 90day jobs. We call for PSA members (WINZworkers) to not force beneficiaries into jobs with 90days of no rights and to grant benefits for anyonesacked under a 90 day rule: without stand-down andback dated to day of sacking. Take action based on theworkers who can stop the flow of profits for thecapitalist class.

For unemployed workers protection insolidarity with employed workers!

Form worker activist networks as a leftwing within the unions!

Turn lockouts into strikes, and strikesinto occupations of worksites, and set upworkers control of each worksite,through elected (and recallable)worksite leaders!

For Workers Councils: local councils ofworkers to run the towns and cities,

made up of representatives elected (andrecallable) by the local worksites. Forworkers defence committees. For rankand file committees in the armed forces.

Under capitalism the bosses labour law is atool in their attack on workers to makeworkers pay for capitalists falling profits. Onlythe complete replacement of capitalismthrough a socialist revolution can meet theneeds of workers.

For an indefinite General strike todefeat the bourgeois regime and winworkers power.

For a Workers Government to plan asocialist economy. (Only by the abovethree demands being met can a realworkers government be formed ie. notthrough a vote every 3 yrs).

For a Socialist Federation of the Pacific!


4/20


4

Actors stand up to union bashingThe Hobbit blue shows us how the global crisis isimpacting on NZ in such as way as to reveal its semi-colonial subservience to Australian, US and Chineseimperialism. As the NZbosses bend over forwardsto attract investment in NZthey are forcing down costsespecially wage costs. Thatis why the NACTs are hellbent to destroy the powerof the unions to fight thisrace to the bottom. TheNACTs are shit scared thatthe 20,000 who ralliedagainst their new 90 dayfire at will Bill will be seenas labour instability and aturnoff by foreign investment. This is why the NZActors Equity has been turned into a whipping childto discredit and bash the unions and ram through amodel law to outlaw collective action.

CTU head Helen Kelly stood up to the union bashingof Peter Jackson and the NACTs desperate tomobilise the mindless mass pulverised by the MSMpurveyors of lies. When 20,000 workers ralliedagainst the latest round of NACT attacks (90 fire atwill, on sick leave, on union access) designed tosmash union power in the workplace, Actors Equitywas made into a scapegoat by the billionaire filmmaker Jackson and his backers Warner Bros., forasking for a basic industrial agreement. This has theeffect of further polarising the country between agrowing section of the working class that thisstanding up to the NACTs attempts to screw

maximum profits out of NZ workers, and that lumpensection that sees the unions as the cause of all its illsand identifies not with organised labour but with thepetty bourgeois middleclass social climbers.

The former is the unionisedbase that is recoveringfrom 30 years of attacksand declining membershipand reviving as the militantlayer that is resistingNACTs cuts in jobs, wagesand social spending. This

includes the teachers,doctors, radiographers, students, etc all engaged inor preparing for protest or industrial action. But thereally scary spectre of Karl Marx giving the bankersnightmares are the big battalions of low paid workersin SFWU, UNITE, NDU and AWU who organise low paidservice workers and are heavily youthful, female andMaori and Pasifica in membership. The 20,000 whorallied against the NACTs attacks on October 20 wereoverwhelmingly made up of low paid, casualised,

impoverished workers who have not experienced bigdefeats and who are prepared to fight.

The second anti-uniongroup is made up of thesmall bosses and theirprofessional hangers on in

the law, management,media and advertising,whose incomes depend ontrickle down profits frominternational capital makingmega profits from NZ.

But the biggest section ismade up of the lumpen orbackward layers of theworking class who have

been de-unionised since the onset of Rogernomicsand the 1991 ECA, combined with the big majoritythat have never been unionised in every sector of

the economy. Many of these are the owner-operatorsor self-employed such as the contractors in the filmindustry and in all those related industries whichbenefit from film making in NZ, especiallyconstruction and tourism.

Two years into its term the NACTs are running out ofideas. It has rushed through legislation under urgencyto pay off its backers but now the ACT party hasimploded in scandal and fraud. The Maori Party hasnothing to show for its existence. Hone Harawira isbreaking ranks over the neo-colonial blanket thrownover the F&S. The bankers club has lost directcontrol over Auckland and will try to retain it by

controlling the CCOs. The Labour Party takes a slightleft deviation back to Keynes. Then 20,000 workerssay NO to the 90 day fire at will. Hobbiton blows up

and Key promises theHollywood money moguls tokeep the unions out of theirindustry.

The class divide becomesmore polarised week by weekproving that the class war willintensify and become full-onin the next year leading up tothe election in 2011. The

right has the advantage ofconcentrated power and organisation. If the left is towin it has to organise the mass majority from theground up based on the renewed vitality and powerof the unions. Workers need to rebuild the unions asfighting, democratic organisations capable ofthrowing out the treacherous collaborationist unionleaders, and building workers councils and defencecommittees as a power base to launch a generalstrike to defeat the NACT regime and open the roadto a Workers and working Farmers Government.


5/20


5

Brief StuffOctober 15 newsTena koutou, we send out irregular updates on thecampaign to support the people arrested in the stateterror raids in Aotearoa (New Zealand) on 15th October2007.Although charges under the Terrorism SuppressionAct were never laid, 18 people are still facing charges

under the Arms Act and 5 are charged with beingmembers of an organised criminal group. At themoment, the starting date for the trial is May 2011(subject to change). DROP THE CHARGES! October 15marks the third anniversary of the State Terror raids.We wish you a cop- and terror-free day. The strugglecontinues...The www.October15thSolidarity.info website isregularly updated.

Socialise DrugsSimon Prast actor, and one of the losing candidates forMayor of the new Auckland Supercity, called for thelegalisation of methamphetamine (P). Prohibition

causes crime and death and destruction. The legal drugalcohol kills thousands every year. The criminalisationof much less harmful drugs such as cannabis and P leadsto numerous violent confrontations with addicts andinnocent bystanders as well as cop deaths. Recently anaddict died in an Auckland chemist shop after a tusslewith the owner. Legalisation removes the causes ofgang crime and the risk of unnecessary deaths.

The primary goal of the international drug controlregime, as set forth in the preamble of the SingleConvention on Narcotic Drugs (1961), is the health andwelfare of mankind, but the current approach tocontrolling drug use and possession works against thataim. Widespread implementation of interventions thatreduce harms associated with drug use harm-reduction initiatives and of decriminalization ofcertain laws governing drug control would improve thehealth and welfare of people who use drugs and thegeneral population demonstrably. UN rapporteur onRight to Health. http://www.humanrightsanddrugs.org/?p=1217 In California use of cannabis will be legalised if a votein November succeeds. Individual production in smallgardens 25 feet square will also become decriminalised.http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/25/health/main6331419.shtml

This would be a move towards the state regulating andtaxing production of recreational drugs and using the

money to rehabilitate the social harm caused byaddiction. It also removes the pretext that thecapitalist class needs to criminalise a large section ofthe working class allowing the police to ride roughshodover basic individual freedoms. The legalising of harddrugs would remove the main pretext to arm the cops.

Arming the copsThe reason that the NACTs are calling for the arming ofthe cops, cheered on by the Police Association, is that a

number of cops have been killed while engaged in thesurveillance or arrest of minor drug dealers or gangmembers. Yet if cannabis was legal there would be nogangs, there would be no violent crime to pay for drughabits, or call to arm the police.

Minister Crusher Collins (she wants boy racers cars tobe confiscated and crushed) says that police chases ofyoung people who dont stop is OK even though therehave been 16 deaths in the last 5 years. If you speed

you will die is OK. Why not carry bazookas in police carsto take them out before they can endanger innocentthird parties? Most kids who joy ride are boozed up andrisking death. Youth need booze to blot out the lies andgreed and power of the bankers and their stooges whodominate this right-wing Government. Where is thepenalty for the booze merchants? No penalty butplaudits, knighthoods and top jobs like that of the newCEO of the Auckland super city, who goes from topbooze pusher to top bureaucrat tasked to implementRodney Hides plan to hijack and privatise the $28billion of Auckland public assets.

So not only is Crusher Collins unconcerned about thenumber of kids dying in police chases, she favoursfirearms in locked containers in all police cars. ThePolice Association want all police carrying pistols inholsters. After the introduction of Tasers last year asthe alternative to firearms, the lock em up and throwaway the key rednecks have got a government thatdrives up the crime rate and creates prisons not jobs. Itneeds a crime wave and a rabid armed police responseto divert attention away from its attacks on workers toforce them to pay for their bosses crisis.http://tumeke.blogspot.com/2010/10/national-to-arm-police-now-garrett-has.html

ACC sexual abusers outed!David Rankin, former ACC manager, has revealed whateveryone knew, that the NACT government was refusingsexual abuse victims counselling to save money. Resultuntold suffering and at least two suicides. To do thisthey had to change the rules and make sexual abuse amental illness to qualify for ACC funding.

Now it turns out that they used the research ofAuckland University professor Felicity Goodyear-Smithnotorious for publicly calling sexual abuse counselling ascam. Goodyear-Smith is the daughter-in-law of BertPotter the Centrepoint guru jailed as a paedophile.Rankin knew her attitude to sexual abuse but didntthink that this was relevant as she was a scientist! SoGoodyear-Smith devised the test to assess sexual abuse

as to whether it was mental injury or not, which wasthen used to replace the Massey University guidelines.

Mental health is already hugely underfunded, so it is tothe credit of all those who responded in horror to thisACC cost cutting and the price paid by those deniedtreatment, that the ACC Minister Nick Smith has beenforced to reverse the ACC policy and re-instate at leastsome minimal counselling for sexual abuse victims.http://tumeke.blogspot.com/2010/09/denying-rape-victims-counseling-all.html


6/20


6

Capitalists take F&S; with Maori Party consent.The Maori party have failed to repeal the foreshore and seabed law they have only re-named it.Parliament is a blind alley for Maori resistance to colonisation by capitalism. The Marine and CoastalArea (Takutai Moana) Bill is nothing but theft of the foreshore and seabed by another name. Under thisnew law the governments ownership is not named as ownership but the right to govern. This is justas good as ownership for the capitalist class, since it includes all the ownership rights that the crownusually gives itself when they steal something.

The government can keep selling mining rights andselling fishing quotas and fish farming zones. All thesecapitalist practices carry on with no reference to thelocal Maori. The government continues to sell off oiland mineral exploration licences to multi-nationalcapitalists. Petrobras just gained a five yearexploratory license for oil and gas in the RaukumaraBasin by the NZ Govt. The license starts from just 4 kmsoffshore and goes out to 110 km (and covers 12,330 sqkm). Petrobras has a rotten record with oil spills - andoil rig explosions with workers deaths.

Customary Land Rights

Oh yes there is a pressure relief valve for Maoristruggles to be channelled back into court processes toclaim customary rights. All the burden of proof willbe on Maori. What a set up! At great legal expense,time and energy; some Maori may be able to regainsome minimal level of customary rights.(http://thestandard.org.nz/on-the-foreshore/).This isbased on the Australian precedent that requires tribesto prove uninterrupted occupation of the land inquestion. Of course this is an impossible test for mosttribes who had theirland confiscated orwere forced to sell

it.

Meanwhile privateowners who haveinherited or boughtwhat was once Maoriland dont have toprove anything. Thecapitalist stateprotects privateproperty, their rightsto own bits of theforeshore areguaranteed.

Only one Maori Party MP, Hone Harawira, has stood upto reject this law. It was much more than the lack of acourt option for Maori (under the Labour PartysForeshore and Seabed Act), which provoked the Hikoion Parliament. The kaupapa was for Maori control, andagainst government theft!

The Labour Government used the Foreshore & Seabedlaw to block a Nelson Iwi from starting its owncapitalist development; a mussel farm (in theirtraditional area). Even with customary rights Maoricould be excluded from developing fish farming.

The formation of the Maori Party (to defend Maorirights to Foreshore & Seabed) brought Maori with bothcapitalist and working class orientation. An acrossclass party; has capitalist interest in ownership forprofits and capitalist development plans, as well asworking class Maori support.

Maori Party serves Tribal capitalists

Radical Lawyer, Annette Sykes condemns the MaoriParty for being the mouthpiece of the Iwi LeadershipGroup which is a euphemism for the tribal leaders whouse treaty settlements to boost an emerging class of

Maori capitalists at the expense of Maori workers. Thisis clearly seen in the policies that the Maori Party hassupported in itsdeal with theNational Party andAct Party. Theyhave kept a rightwing governmentin power that isattacking Maoriworkers jobs,living standards,housing, healthand education,

and building morejails, in exchangefor a deal to getthe right to Iwiexploit theresources of the

F&S to boost Tribal capitalism.

The majority of Maori are working class who have towork to survive, while the tribal elites have capitalistplans for treaty settlement moneys. Working class Maorihave an interest in fighting for the return of the F&S asthe common property of Maori as the guardians of theland for the whole working class. Non-Maori workers

have in interest in nationalising all private property(not communal land) leasing back land to smallfarmers, but expropriating the large holdings ofcapitalists as the basis of agricultural communes.

Organise to occupy stolen foreshore!Occupy stolen lands!Occupy fish farms, drilling rigs and ships!Organise to unite with the workers on thesedevelopments to control production and demandsafety improvements!For a Socialist Aotearoa!For a Socialist Federation of the Pacific!


7/20


7

Capitalist Crisis Shakes ChristchurchIn the shock (media drama) of post earthquake Christchurch, the capitalist class did not pause in theirattack on the working class. They abolished Environment Canterbury to get water rights for dairyfarmers. They paid out $1-7 billion to the rich predators who flocked to South Canterbury Finance to bein on the kill. Now the government has Nationalised the Christchurch earthquake. The NACTgovernment passed, with the support of opposition parties, a law that gives Gerry Brownleedictatorial powers in Christchurch. This is a dangerous law, it has even been criticised by the Law

Society. They say it gives too much power to one person, without checks and balances of the usual legaland parliamentary reviews. In fact they called it a Henry the 8th Law.

What government has been able to do, in midst of themedia hype of the earthquake, is push through theCanterbury Earthquake Restoration Law. While thetitle is sensible sounding, its bullshit - the reality is thethreats are in the detail. This law gives deputy PMGerry Brownlee unlimitedpowers, with no rights of appeal.Capitalism (through Brownlee)has armed itself with powers tooverride any laws they want(such as the Resource

Management Act, industrial law,or giving building contracts andcouncil lands to National partysupporters). This includes the bigbosses that back the NACTgovernment like FletcherChallenge that won the contractto oversee the rebuilding of alldamaged dwellings. They willauthorise all tradespeoplewanting to work on thisrebuilding project. The bigtruckers are notorious backers ofNACT. So Brownlee has allowed

super-sized trucks on road nevermind the roads and bridgeswerent built for them.

Brownlee can keep the army in Christchurch for as longas he wants to keep the working class locked out, whilethe Brownlee Tsunami will level the real estate. He hasallowed demolition of heritage status buildings leaving a blank page for the maximum profit a buildingdeveloper can squeeze from the land.

When homeowners asked if the Government would bailout those who didnt have insurance Prime Minister Keysaid that would be moral hazard. Nobody would insure

their homes if they were guaranteed a payout. He wasso class fixated he didnt see the obvious irony that hehad just bailed out investors in the bankrupt SCFcompany to the tune of $1.7 billion! When there was ahuman earthquake of enraged citizens, Key changed hismind and said he would look at compensation.

The response of the NACT government to theearthquake is like what Naomi Klein described in herbook The Shock Doctrine: The rise of disastercapitalism. Parallels with Christchurch are seen in herpages about Sri Lanka after the boxing day (2004)

Tsunami and in New Orleans after cyclone Katrina. InSri Lanka a task force to rebuild the nation hadunbridled powers. Aid money (and World Bank and IMFmoney) went into superhighways, deep water fishingports (for international trawlers) and privatising

beachfront lands for tourist resorts,while fishing villages wererelocated inland 3kms.

The capitalist class use the shockof a disaster to attack working

people when we are morevulnerable and less organised andable to fightback. The workerssuffer post-traumatic shock andtake some time to see what ishappening to them. Klein says thisis standard practice for the neo-liberal bosses, but its obvious thatthe onset of the global crisis in 2007has motivated the bosses to moveeven more quickly and ruthlessly.

Capitalisms crisis of falling profitsis so profound that they want to buy

and take profits from councilservices such as water/wastewater.

They support privatising council services andconstruction for ownership and profits to privatecapitalists. Developers take a fancy to levelled sectionsfor rebuilding more intensive / high profit,redevelopments. The Canterbury earthquake provided aperfect excuse for the capitalist class to rush throughthe Brownlee law and attack the working class underthe guise of a civil defence emergency.

For a Workers Council of Otautahi/Christchurchto control of the rebuilding.

No privatisation or contracting out of councilservices.No PPPs (public private partnerships).For workers control of consents to rebuild.No rezoning of land use or intensity.Occupy against evictions.Occupy council property threatened withprivatisation.Unions bans on reconstruction without localworkers consents.


8/20


8

Education Reforms pave way for privatisationPart Two: Secondary Teachers Struggles

What is the crisis in education? Its the crisis that the bosses dont want to pay with their taxesthat are a drain on their profits, because they dont need universal, compulsory, state fundededucation to produce enough workers, when it is cheaper to resort to funding cuts, user pays,performance pay for teachers, and to get the private sector to run schools. The trend towards

privatisation began with Labours Tomorrows Schools in the 1980s and Nationals bulk fundingduring the 1990s. It has been given new life by the current National/Act Government which wantsto introduce performance pay for teachers and to turn our schools into Public Private Partnerships.

In the last issue we looked at cuts in publicly funded earlychildhood and adult education, and at how NationalStandards at primary schools could lead to league tablesand increasing inequality between schools. We wrote aboutthe struggle of the New Zealand Educational Institute, TeRiu Roa, (NZEI) the primary and early childhood teachersand support staffs union, to stop National Standards.

This time it is the secondary teachers in the Post PrimaryTeachers Association (PPTA) who are on the front lines ofdefending public education; demanding decent pay for

teachers, and safe quality learning and teaching conditions.

With the appointment of Rodney Hide from the Act Party asAssociate Minister of Education the need for a fight back tosave public education is stronger than ever. In the longrun, this can only be achieved by abolishing the capitalistsystem altogether. Capitalism will always try to exploithuman creativity to maximise private profits rather thanmeeting social needs, especially so in times of crisis such astoday. Education is no exception.

Secondary Teachers Strike for Public Education

After months of unsuccessful struggle for improved wages andconditions, 95% of the members of the Post Primary TeachersAssociation (PPTA), the secondary teachers union, voted in

favour of a strike. On 15th September, PPTA teachers went ona one day strike for a 4% salary increase, reduced class sizes,a safe school environment, better teacher recruitment andretention, and an end to claw backs from the Ministry ofEducation.

Teachers rallied in centres across the country. 1,000 teachersin Wellington marched to Parliament, and 2,500 teachers inAuckland rallied in Albert Part then marched down to QueenSt., grinding it to a halt on their way to Queen ElizabethSquare. The one-day strike was the first in eight years for thePost Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) and it affectedabout 280,000 students from more than 450 secondary andintermediate schools.

The PPTA asked Boards of Trustees to donate their misseddays pay to the Canterbury Earthquake The government isoffering teachers only a 1.5% salary increase. PPTA PresidentKate Gainsford said that remuneration alone would not solvethe pressure put on teachers by growing classes and a biggerworkload under the NCEA system. Teachers, who arerequired to redesign new standards, have described theircurrent workload as insane.( Teachers reject pay offer;vote to strike, Isaac Davison ,New Zealand Herald14/9/10)

New Zealand teachers are among the lowest paid in theOECD, yet John Key is disappointed that they are notprepared to accept the real word of public sector low payand cuts in order to help pay for the capitalist crisis and fund

its privatisation agenda. This includes an education staffingbudget cut of $95 million over four years in the 2009 budget,at the same time as increasing spending on private schools by$36 million.http://www.nzei.org.nz/site/nzeite/files/misc%20documents/Facts%20about%20NZ%20and%20education.pdf

The PPTA points out on its website http://www.ppta.org.nzthat teachers cannot carry out the personalised learningprogrammes required by the NCEA with huge class sizes. Most

classrooms are designed for twenty five students, yet mostyear nine and year ten classes exceed that number. In someclassrooms students even have to sit on the window sill.Schools are being forced to fund extra teachers out of theiroperations grants in order to try to bring class sizes down.Around 10% of teachers are hired directly by the boards.

The PPTA points out that large sized classes are better suitedthe factory method of education. This is not supposed to bemodern education practice. High class sizes create enormousstress for teachers and students, reducing teacher retentionand student engagement. They are a health and safety risk,risking increased violence and disruption at school, and evenimpacting upon problems such as teen pregnancies andsuicides.

The PPTA has said enough is enough on class size, time for thegovernment to step up.http://www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/safety-in-school.Academic John Hattie stunned teachers in 2007 when hesuggested that class sizes were not a significant factor inlearning. He said instead that the main factor was therelationship between the student and teacher. This may wellbe so, but how is a student to develop such a relationship in ahuge class. The PPTA is adamant that the prevalence of over-size classes in our secondary schools is at odds with the needsof both students and teachers in todays classrooms. Thebiggest truths are not hard to grasp. The fewer students ateacher has to deal with at once, the more likely he or she isto reach all of them. Research both nationally and


9/20


9

internationally proves that the smaller the class size thebetter the students attendance, the longer they stay inschool, the more likely they leave with qualifications, andearn more in later life. In short, they become more interestedin learning and engaging constructively in the world.

However the Minister of Education Anne Tolley is not listeningand Bill English says the PPTA is wasting its time as theminister has no money to give them , indicating that Nationalis not interested in investing in education during theircapitalist crisis no matter what the long term costs to society

of refusing to do so.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10676529 )

The government seems incredulous that secondary teachers,unlike nurses, junior doctors, policemen, civil servants, havenot buckled under and agreed to pay for the capitalist crisiswith substandard wages and conditions.

Mrs Tolley attended the PPTA national conference on 28September. On the TV3 News, she looked worried and askedthe teachers to return to negotiations but she didnt offeranything and refused to rule out a lock out if the disputecontinues. (28/9/10, PPTA prepare for lock out, RadioNZ andTV3 news ).

The PPTA has emphasised that safety and learning conditionsare equally as important as remuneration but the governmenthas made no offers toreduce class sizes. On thecontrary-its planning to liftthe current limit on classsizes. The PPTA originallysaid that they were in forthe long haul with morestrikes planned. Howeverthey have since pulled backfrom full day strikes andonly plan to do eight partialstrikes where they refuseto teach students at certain

levels, and do not attendteacher only days, ormeetings after 5pm.

At the time of writing thePPTA has called off industrial action for the rest of the weekfrom October 13th, because on the 12th the Governmentpromised to make an offer that would be worth their while.However, after a day of negotiations the PPTA President saidthat this claim was astonishing. Nevertheless, negotiationscontinue this week with the PPTA planning to re-commenceindustrial action next week if no satisfactory agreement isreached.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10680303

The PPTA has strong positions on many broad issues, includingopposition to national standards, Public Private Partnerships,and the 90 Day Act. The one day strike is a great start, butstronger sustained action is almost certainly needed if theteachers demands are to be met, The Aotearoa WorkersSolidarity Movement says that the leadership of the PPTA islooking for negotiated settlement with the Government, andare in danger of compromising too much. They believe thatteachers may need to take direct action. They talk about theneed for solidarity with members of other unions andcommunity networks, whereas we would say that the olddemand for One Education Union, under the control of therank and file, is the logical demand to raise.

http://awsm.org.nz/?p=467#teachers www.ppta.org.nz

Media Criminalise Teachers

During this period of teacher activism, the media respondedwith enthusiasm to the Ministers attempts to criminaliseteachers. The Sunday Star Times wrote a number of franticarticles on criminal teachers reaching its peak with thefront page story: Criminals in our classrooms the story theTeachers Council did not want told followed on page two by:Minister wants to know why criminals are still teaching,

and: Experts should monitor teachers, says Professor.(Sunday Star Times 29.8.2010)

Instead of rejecting this as an attempt by the Minister todiscredit the teachers campaign, the Teachers Council wenton the defensive, sending an email around to all registeredteachers, explaining that the proportion of teachers withcriminal convictions was tiny.

This media assault on the Teachers Council is ironicconsidering that in July we heard that the Teachers Councilhad de-registered a pre-school teacher as an unfit rolemodel who had not declared earnings while on a benefit,and training to be an ECE teacher. The defendant said Ididnt defraud/steal out of greed, I was doing it to surviveand provide for my daughter. I am sorry.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/elizabeth-binning/news/article.cfm?a_id=163&objectid=10660885

Here we have a singleparent who had made asupreme effort to overcomesocial discrimination, toqualify and practice as ateacher and to support herchild; and the TeachersCouncil ruined her chancefor life to do this, eventhough she posed no dangerto children whatsoever.Despite its willingness to

issue such harsh and unjustdecisions, the TeachersCouncil is under enormouspressure from the media tode-register more teachers.

The Teachers Council is in a dual role, being appointed bythe Government yet supposedly representing teachers. Itrecently made itself unpopular by issuing a huge hike inteacher registration fees. Kate Gainsford sees the TeachersCouncil as a potential ally of teachers, and notes that itopposed performance pay and new government plans for theinitial education of teachers. She says: The question is howto move the council away from being an arm of thegovernment into a genuinely teacher-led body.http://www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/annual-conference/1432-

pres-address-annconf2010

The fight to defend free, compulsory, universal,public education from Early Childhood to AdultEducation is only just beginning. The NACTs attemptsto privatise education and cut state spending as adrain on bosses profits will meet stiff resistance asthe unions and wider working class mobilises to fightfor their basic right to a fully funded publiceducation! Watch this space!


10/20


10

The DRC caught between the US and ChinaThe UN Mapping Report on genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) released on October 1http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/ZR/DRC_MAPPING_REPORT_FINAL_EN.pdfhighlights thebasic causes of the more recent wars that have raged over the Congos rich resources since itsindependence in 1960. The report focuses on the period from 1993 to 2003 in the East of DRC, andargues that Rwandan forces were among those of 7 armies from different countries that have beenactive in the DRC to illegally exploit the mineral riches. The report has been toned down because of the

objections of Rwanda to its description of the genocide of Hutus in the DRC over this period.http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/10/2010101129611907.html It is clear that behind thesewars is the scramble by a number of imperialist powers and their African proxy armies for control ofthe huge mineral wealth of the DRC. Historically European powers and the US have been the majorimperialist partners. While Chinese companies have long been beneficiaries of the informal mining ofColtan, cassiterite (tin), gold and diamond wealth of the East of DRC, today China has become the mainofficial imperialist partner of the Kabila regime in taking over copper production in Katanga. Thesituation is ripe for more explosive confrontations between the militias aligned to the interests ofChinese and US imperialism over the exploitation of the DRCs mineral wealth.

As the author of the Mapping Report points out, thefocus on war crimes and genocide in this reportconfirms what has been known for years: The most

serious and systematic crimes are placed firmly on thedoorstep of Paul Kagames Rwanda. The report not onlymentions dozens of occurrences of war crimes andcrimes against humanity, but also points atcircumstances and facts from which a court could inferthe intention to destroy the Hutu ethnic group in theDRC in part, a reference to the genocide convention.A UN investigative team already came to a similarconclusion in 1998: Thesystematic massacre ofthose (Hutu refugees)remaining in DRC was anabhorrent crime againsthumanity, but the

underlying rationale forthe decision is materialto whether these killingsconstituted genocide,that is, a decision toeliminate, in part, theHutu ethnic group. Thepsychologically chargeddiscussion of the gword is not thatrelevant: the other documented crimes are seriousenough to warrant the prosecution of suspects. Thereport does not even address the tens of thousands ofcivilians killed by the RPF in Rwanda in 1994 and

between 1997 and 1998.

Besides Rwanda, many other regional players wereresponsible for serious human rights violations: thearmed forces of Congo, Angola, Burundi and Uganda arementioned, but also unofficial armed groups rangingfrom ethnic militias to rebel movements from Congoand neighbouring countries. Apart from a few militialeaders from Ituri and former rebel leader Jean-PierreBemba, no one has ever been prosecuted.http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/un-report-congos-atrocities-end-impunity-1

What underlies these decades of violence in theDRC?

In his response to the release of the Mapping Report,DRC Justice Minister Luzolo Bambi points to thecompetition between Western companies for naturalresources as the basic causes of the violence describedin the Report, but claims that: The mapping projectdoes not take into account the criminal responsibility ofall those corporations, multinationals and other

international consortiaof companies whichhave funded andcontinue to fund thewar in DRC...Thesecontractors andsupporters of war and

death must also have aplace reserved in acriminal trial.

Bloomberg reports:Congo holds 4 percentof global copperreserves, is among theworlds largestproducers of cobalt and

industrial diamonds, and is Africas largest producer oftin ore, known as cassiterite, according to the U.S.Geological Surveys website.

In 2002, a UN report on the exploitation of naturalresources in Congo found that 85 companies may haveviolated the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopments Guidelines for Multinational Enterprisesby supporting the war directly or indirectly. Theguidelines are non-binding principles and standards forthe behaviour of companies from OECD countries.Several mineral traders on that list, including U.S.-based Cabot Corp. and U.K.-based Amalgamated MetalsCorp. Plc, have denied they were doing business inCongo or eventually stopped working in the region.


11/20


12/20


12

Zimbawe: New ISO fights for democracyThe global crisis is intensifying the international class war as the imperialist ruling classes fight tosurvive by defeating their rivals and making the workers pay for their crisis. In Africa this class war isexpressed as a growing rivalry between the US and its EU partners UK and France, and the increasinginfluence of China and Russia. The national bourgeoisies are lined up behind one or other of the twoblocs or trying to play off one against the other. In Zimbabwe we see the ruling national bourgeoisieincreasingly dependent on China which it promotes as a progressive force for development. The masses

in Zimbabwe as in the whole of Africa have to break with the illusion that China is the saviour of Africaand a progressive alternative to Western imperialism. The new ISOZ has begun this task.

At one extreme we see in the DRC the intervention ofRwanda and Uganda as proxies for the US to plunderthe minerals in the North East of the DRC has causedongoing wars and massmurder for 20 years (seearticle on DRC). In othercountries we see a divisionbetween the bourgeoisiescreating the conditions forproxy wars. This is mostdeveloped in the Sudan and

most recently Somalia. InNigeria, China has madeinroads into the traditionallyUS and UK dominated oilindustry with its massiveloans for oil, which is beingresisted by the US but has yetto break out into open war.

In Zimbabwe the Mugabefaction of the ruling class isdependent on China fundingthe economy as a result ofthe US/EU economic

embargo. The MDC faction is aligned to the US bloc.The new popular front regime between the ZANU-PFand the MCD remains dominated by the Mugabe factionand so is increasing its ties to China. This relationship isnow reinforced by the strategic partnershipestablished between the ANC in South Africa and China.Zimbabwes fate is inevitably tied to that of the wholeof Southern Africa in which China is now the risingimperialist power.

The ANC paints the strategic partnership with China asone in which both partners win. This is because Chinais regarded as a successful developing country that hasmanaged to escape the clutches of Western

imperialism. It is therefore seen as a partner ineconomic development that will provide aid and lowcost loans as well as build infrastructure in exchangefor oil and other minerals. However, the ANCsstrategic relationship with China comes a long timeafter China has made huge inroads into other SouthernAfrican states like Mozambique, Angola, etc. In thosecountries Chinas role is no less exploitative andoppressive than that of the older Western imperialistpowers. China is in Africa for cheap raw materials andlabour. The national bourgeoisies are junior partners ofChina in sharing some of the profits. The popular front

regimes tie the working class through its unions andpolitical parties to subservience to Chinese imperialismas much as US imperialism.

This is true also of Zimbabwe.The current power sharingregime unites the nationalbourgeois factions into oneunstable regime to form amore powerful popular front tocontain the Zimbabwe masses

who are among the mostoppressed and exploited inSouthern Africa. Theirfactional differences havebeen suppressed by theprospect of profiteering inZimbabwes blood diamonds,and by the need to unite tocontain the popular masses ina patriotic, popular front. Thequestion then is, who on theleft can fight this renewedpopular front and break themasses from the fake left

bourgeois project of the new constitution? Not thereformist left leadership of the ISOZ around Gwisaiwhich fully participates in this popular front.

In 2009 the ISOZ split with a large faction breaking fromthe international IST Gwisai line of backing the MDCpopular front party. This faction entered talks with theFLT of which the CWG and HWRS were part at the timeover the 23 points of the FLT program. However, beforeany democratic agreement could be reached, a leaderof this faction Mutero formed a secret faction with theWIVL leader Mo and joined the FLT by amending theminutes to say that the faction (unilaterally named bythe WIVL the International Revolutionary League)

agreed to join the FLT (now the FLTI after theadherence of the South African WIVL and US HWRS inJuly 2009), on the basis that it agreed with the 23points and the FLTI majority line that China could notbecome a new imperialist power and was no more thana semi-colony of US imperialism.

The unprincipled fusion of the IRL with the FLTI led tothe majority of the faction that has broken with theISOZ rejecting this fusion and held a special congress inAugust to repudiate the IRL leadership of Mutero andthe unprincipled politics of the FLTI. The congress


13/20


13

reconstituted the faction of the ISOZ on the basis ofworkers democracy as the new ISOZ. It vindicated itsbreak with the popular front of the MDC and of therotten politics of the international Cliffite line inZimbabwe, and also repudiated the politics of the FLTI.

The FLTI and Mutero responded with a scurrilousslander that the new ISOZ had misappropriated fundsand were petty bourgeois criminals. The ISOZ repliedrebutting these slanders and accusing Mutero and the

FLTI of lies and slanders. The new ISOZ which has beensupported on the basis of elementary principle ofworkers democracy by our Liaison Committee (HWRSand CWG as the former minority of the FLTI on China)has undertaken to produce a provisional program andenter into formal discussions over our historicdifferences between Trotskyism and Cliffism. We salutethe new ISOZ in its fight to restore democracy in theonly working class organisation in Zimbabwe that canseriously fight the constitution process and theformation of a new popular, patriotic front tosubordinate and subdue the Zimbabwe exploitedmasses.

The FLTI has now tasted the bitter fruit of itsunprincipled opportunist fusion with the IRL. It has nowbroken with the Mutero leadership of the IRL which hasre-entered the popular front and is holding a Marxismconference at the end of October in which speakersfrom the MDC popular front party are invited. But thisbreak comes with no public accounting by the FLTI ofits secret faction with Mutero to split the ISOZ. If youfuse with opportunists who then become right wing

renegades, what does that make your fusion? It makesit an unprincipled bloc with opportunists whoseinternationalism only goes as far as their receipt ofinternational money transfers. We predict that what isleft of the IRL will be no more than an appendage ofthe WIVL and the FLTI and faithfully reproduce the vasttracts of ultraleft propaganda pouring out of the FLTIfull-timers in Buenos Aires and Cape Town. Any formerISOZ workers who are caught up in this charade shouldimmediately join the new ISOZ!

We look forward to building a fraternal relationshipwith the new ISOZ on the basis of serious discussion andvoting on our different histories, fundamentalprinciples and programmatic points such as thecharacter of China, blocking with them facing theglobal crisis as it impacts Zimbabwe on the principle ofworkers democracy, and jointly fighting to build aTrotskyist vanguard of the masses for the first time inZimbabwes history, and regrouping with the militantvanguards in all of the Southern African states.

For a new vanguard World Party ofSocialism founded on the basis of the 1938

Transitional Program!

For workers and peasants governments inZimbabwe and South Africa!

For a Federation of Socialist Republics inSouthern Africa!

Ecuador: Whats behind the attempted Coup?The cause of the attempted coup in October can be found in the backwardness of the Ecuador economyand its new dependence on Chinese imperialism. The least viable of the ALBA and facing mounting debtCorrea has moved to the right to open up the country to Chinese investment. This has alienatedsections of his support base in the unions and the indigenous organisations (Conaie) who stood backfrom the coup attempt. The Bolivarian populists blame these indigenous social movements as under USinfluence, instead of blaming Correa for opening up the country to Chinese imperialism. Today it isChina that is spending billions building a new dam, opening up new mines and making loans for oil.

The DamUnder the heading Has China just bought is own LatinAmerican Country? one source reports thatChina nowfinances a majority of the public energy projectsunderway in Ecuador. Recent deals include an 85%

stake in a hydroelectric dam that will cover a third ofthe country's energy needs by 2016.http://www.speroforum.com/a/35714/CHINA--ECUADOR---China-to-finance-60-per-cent-of-public-works-projects-in-Ecuadors-energy-sector

Chinese firms will also take charge of mostconstruction. As you can imagine if another countrycontrolled our utilities, many Ecuadorians are extemelyanxious, reports Asia Times: For his part, formerEcuadorean vice president Leon Roldos (1981-1984)maintained that the loan is illegal, because it financesa "turn-key contract" without "definitive studies or

detail engineering", which he said is expresslyprohibited by law. Ecuadorians are also upset by loansthey call larger than necessary: Another contradiction,Roldos argued, is that although it is a fixed pricecontract, the financing deal is based on price indexing -

adjusting amounts by the change over time in prices -for materials and labor power "using a more generousformula than the one normally used for Ecuador's publicprocurements". In an article published last week by theEl Comercio newspaper, the former vice president saidthe dam was "severely overpriced" because the $1.98billion price tag is $400 million higher than the costprojected in 2008.Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/coca-

codo-sinclair-ecuador-china-2010-6#ixzz13Riig700


14/20


14

The copper mineTongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co. andChina Railway Construction Corp. may invest as much as$3 billion in a copper project in Ecuador, as China seeksto control more commodity assets to feed its economy.Production at the Corriente Copper Belt may start in2013, Hu Guobin, vice president of a venture set up bythe two Chinese companiesfor the project, said in aninterview. Annual copper

in concentrate outputwould start at 30,000metric tons and double ayear later, he said. Chinesecompanies spent more than$30 billion last year buyingoilfields and mines as twodecades of economicgrowth averaging 10.1percent made China theworlds biggest metal andenergy consumer. Copper prices have doubled in thepast five years, driven by demand in the third-largesteconomy...Tongling, Chinas second-biggest copper

producer, and China Railway Construction, the nationsbiggest railroad builder, in December agreed to buyCanadas Corriente Resources Inc. for C$679 million($652 million) for the copper resources. The deal wascompleted and Corriente was delisted this month,according to a statement on Corrientes website...Therapid expansion of smelting capacity in China, theworlds biggest producer and consumer of coppermetal, has increased ore demand and spurredcompanies to invest overseas. Larger rival JiangxiCopper Co. invested in copper mines in Peru andAfghanistan, and Zijin Mining Group Co. is seekingcopper and cobalt assets in the Republic of Congo. TheCorriente Copper Belt covers 17 deposits in the four

main mining regions of Mirador, Mirador Norte,Panantza and San Carlos, China Railway said inDecember. Copper resources are about 11.54 milliontons, based on initial studies, it said. Corriente was alsoinvolved in the exploration and development of gold,silver and molybdenum mines, according to theDecember statement.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-13/tongling-china-railway-plan-to-invest-3-billion-in-ecuador-copper-mine.html

The loan for oilEcuador's government signed a loan agreement for $1billion with the China Development Bank on 31 August2010. The loan will have two tranches, one for $800million and another for $200 million. It will have a fixedinterest rate of 6% per year for a four-year term and anadditional six-month grace period. The loan will beused to finance Ecuador's investment programme forinfrastructure and other budgetary outlays for the2010-11 period. It will also be used to finance oilprojects of national interest, said Finance MinisterPatricio Rivera in a press release. The minister said thatwith this loan Ecuador had ensured its budget financingfor 2010. In June, following meetings in Beijing,according the minutes of the meetings reviewed by Dow

Jones Newswires, Ecuadorean Finance Ministry and CDBofficials signed an agreement for state oil companyPetroecuador to supply PetroChina with 36,000 barrelsper day of Oriente and Napo crude or fuel oil until thetotal amount of the loan has been paid. In a decreesigned on Friday by President Rafael Correa authorisingto sign the loan, Correa said the operation involves

Ecuador's Finance Ministry,state-run Petroecuador,Petrochina International

Company and the ChinaDevelopment Bank. In July,Ecuador's National PublicPlanning Secretariat signed amemorandum ofunderstanding with China'sNational Construction &Agricultural MachineryImp./Exp. Corp, or CAMC,opening the door for potentialfinancing by Chinese banks

worth about $1 billion. Last year Ecuador's state-run oilcompany, Petroecuador, and PetroChina signed a two-year crude-oil supply contract. An initial $1 billion

advance payment for the oil was made in August 2009to Ecuador, with an interest rate of 7.25%.http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article228146.ece

The loan to cover the deficitEcuador will probably tap the nations pension fundand seek a loan from China next year to help finance itsestimated $2.7 billion budget deficit, according to ErichArispe, an analyst at Fitch Ratings. South Americasseventh-biggest economy may need as much as 4.3percent of gross domestic product to fund therelatively large deficit...Ecuador is using debt toincrease spending on infrastructure projects and socialprograms in a bid to lower unemployment and boost

economic growth, President Rafael Correa said in aJune 5 statement. The nations default on $3.2 billionin bonds since 2008, declining oil production and aslump in private investment has crimped fundingsources... The Finance Ministry said yesterday Chinadelivered $800 million of a $1 billion loan agreementsigned last month and will deliver the remaining $200million in the next months. Ecuador owed China$3.66 billion as of July 31, according to a FinanceMinistry report. The figure doesnt include the $1billion loan signed in August.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-30/ecuador-will-probably-tap-china-pensions-to-finance-deficit-fitch-says.html

US backing for the police and military who staged thecoup attempt was probably to test the water to see ifit had the support to remove Correa and replace himwith a President aligned to the US rather than China.Correa is backed by the Bolivarian left populists whopaint his reliance on China as THE progressivealternative to the US. He is, with Castro, Chavez andMorales, looking to Chinese market socialism as theanswer to US imperialism. Revolutionaries have tobreak this international popular front that unitesCastro with Hu Jintao!


15/20


15

Draft theses on Crisis and the World Situation1- Objectively we are living through a major structural crisis of global capitalism. We said when this crisis hit in mid 07

that it was a major crisis of falling profits endemic to capitalism. The subprime crisis was only a surface effect ofunderlying failure to invest in production that was not profitable. So-called financialization is just the appearance offinance capital (understood in Lenins terms as the fusion of industrial and banking capital) being driven out of theproductive circuit by the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. The result has been many trillions of overproducedsurplus capital speculating in existing commodities driving up their prices creating a bubble of fictitious capital. Thecrisis will only be resolved for the ruling class when they have devalued sufficient surplus capital to enable profits to berestored.

2- The first phase of the crisis brought about the biggest rescue of capital by the state in history yet the crisis is notover and capital is still facing trillions of bad debts which have yet to be devalued or destroyed. Nor have the rulingclasses yet imposed the deep austerity measures that they need to restore their profits. The initial reaction to thefinancial crisis was to increase state spending i.e. reflation. According to Ticktin, however, this year the G20 made thedecision to reverse reflation and radically deflate by massively cutting state spending to balance budgets. Only the USresisted this change, probably because the US is not bound by the normal rules and can run massive debts because thedollar is the world currency. http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004129 The logic of a structural crisis asthe solution to falling profits is to restructure or devalue capital both constant (plant and raw materials) andvariable capital (wages) - by concentrating and centralising capital as the weak firms go bankrupt and strong firms buyup their cheap assets. This means necessarily in the epoch of imperialism a growing rivalry between imperialist powersto re-divide the world in the survival of the fittest monopoly firms. This rivalry takes economic form in trade rivalry aseach state attempts to block imports but increase exports, but can only be resolved by imperialist war and class war.Today at this point in history this rivalry is most intense between the US and China blocs, and it is this growingantagonism that gives expression to the dominant aspects of the epoch of imperialism, of crises, wars and revolutions.

Once again we have to choose between socialism or barbarism and we are well on the road to barbarism.

3- The so-called currency war is a first step in a trade war with China that the US cannot win because its low laborcosts combined with rapid technological upgrading means it is the most productive of commodities with least labourtime (value) and can out-compete its rivals. China has overtaken Japan and Germany as the workshop of the world andcannot be beaten in the trade war. The value of the yuan is therefore not artificially kept low but reflects Chinascapitalist productive dynamism. http://www.thenation.com/article/154484/china-drivers-seat What is more China ismoving rapidly from a capital importing country to a capital exporting country which means it is extending its highproductivity base globally in sourcing cheap raw materials and labor power and finding new markets outside the US andAsia to manufacture and sell its cheap commodities. http://www.areadevelopment.com/StudiesResearchPapers/10-19-2010/china-outward-foreign-direct-investment49930.shtml

4- China is winning the trade war rapidly expanding its spheres of interest at the expense of the US and its mainpartners the UK, France and Spain. A number of countries have avoided the worst aspects of the recession throughtrade driven by China. US allies like Italy, Germany and Australia are trading and investing heavily with China. Turkey isturning from the EU towards China. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/LJ19Ag01.html In Brazil one fraction

of the national bourgeoisie is opposed to further growth in China investments especially in agriculture and in keysectors such as communications. The ALBA states are becoming dependent on China and looking for new loans tomaintain popularity with the masses. In Ecuador, Correa is doing deals with China to build dams and infrastructure andloan money to balance the budget. The recent attempted coup was a weak move by the US to exploit discontent withCorreas move to the right which was, not to appease the US but rather China which is driving hard bargains withEcuador.(see article in this issue of Class Struggle)

5- This growing rivalry with China and the increasing power of the China bloc (which threatens to split NATO) meansthat the US must rev up its use of military force around the world to counter Chinas influence. The struggle forcontrol of Central Asia that has justified the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan has not been able to contain or weakenChina or Russia. Russia is now looking to collaborate with NATO in its military intervention in Afghanistan.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/26/nato-afghanistan-russia-military. The iwi leaks expose the fact thatIraq was always under the dominance of the Shiites. http://www.cpgb.org.uk/edition.php?issue_id=839 Kazai seeks adeal with the Taliban. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/world/asia/26afghan.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper. Thedominant national blocs in Iraq and Afghanistan are aligned to Iran and Pakistan respectively both of which are closer

to the China bloc than the US bloc. Therefore the US must move on Iran and Pakistan to squeeze out China.http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LJ27Ak01.html. The US is renewing its plans for building the pipelinefrom Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India to weld an alliance in South Asia to break Russia andChinas domination of Central Asian oil. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/LJ30Ag01.html

6- The growing US drone attacks on Pakistan mean that the US wants to take direct control of Pakistan to isolate itsnuclear weapons and to checkmate Chinas overland access to Arabian Gulf and Iran.http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/new-war-rumors-u-s-plans-to-seize-pakistans-nuclear-arsenal/Bangladesh has now been incorporated into NATO South Asian allies and is sending troops to the war in Afghanstan. Inthe growing military confrontation over control of Central Asia is that nuclear armed India is being pressured bythe US into buying Patriot 3 missiles to complete the ring of missiles surrounding Russia and China stretching fromJapan to Afghanistan. http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/india-u-s-completes-global-military-structure/.India is also preparing for border wars with China over Kashmir http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LJ08Df01.html


16/20


16

and Nepal. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/LJ16Ad01.html. Bangladesh is now part of the encirclement.http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/bangladesh-u-s-and-nato-forge-new-partnership-in-south-asia/

7- Ultimately, and inevitably these actual and impending wars must be at the expense of the workers of the world.The huge cost of military spending is driving the US further into debt. While it is still reflating with Quantitative EasingMark 2 (printing money) this money is going to the banks which are not investing but paying out profits and bonuses. Itis not going to the workers who are still losing jobs and homes. With reflation causing inflation the US working class issuffering an historic decline in living standards not seen since the 1930s. The US is bullying Japan and China to carrythe debt which becomes translated into attacks on workers living standards in these countries. China is easing back onbuying US bonds and shows no signs of bending to any of the threats being issued by the US. It appears instead to bemoving to more FDI in the US. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68C0TY2010091. Japan is more compliant but

unable to finance US debt but its economy is not strong enough. Japan under the Democratic Party government is underpressure from Japanese workers opposed to paying billions for US bases.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/world/asia/17japan.html?th&emc=th

8- Thus the US and other increasingly bankrupt imperialists have no option but to impose the cost of the crisis ontothe backs of the worlds workers with so-called austerity measures. The bailouts of the banks has imposed bigbudget deficits which the ruling class is determined to cut by cutting social spending and/or by quantitative easingboth of which cuts the value of variable capital (wages). The US, UK and EU imperialist states are forciblyexpropriating surplus value not only from workers today, but from workers in future generations, to maintain themonopoly profits of their imperialist classes. This means massive unemployment and social spending. These so-calledausterity measures are draconian. In every country the ruling class is trying to solve its crisis of falling profits byreducing taxes on capital, and this means massively cutting social spending on the social wage. In Britain theConservative-Liberal-Democrat Coalition government is promising a cut in public sector spending in excess of 20%. InGreece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and France there are major cuts on social spending being imposed on workers.

9- As unemployment rises and services are cut, the anger of millions of workers facing poverty and destitution isgrowing. But this anger is being steered by the main union bosses into token protests to build mass pressure to push thebourgeois regimes to the left containing and diverting the rise of working class militancy onto the parliamentary road.Where the social democratic parties are in power imposing austerity as in Greece and Spain, the fight-back is beinglimited by the unions to pressuring these governments to make these austerity measures less damaging.. In the USwhere the open bourgeois Democrat Party controls Congress and the Presidency, the One Nation Project is beingorganized by the union tops to put pressure on the Democrats to adopt a new deal Keynesian counter-cyclic policy.Where it is out of power, social democratic parties are shifting slightly to the left to head off mass militancy againstthe ruling conservative parties, so that this fightback is contained and channelled into the election of Social Democraticgovernments at the next elections. In Britain the Blairite Labour Party under Ed Milliband has feinted slightly to theleft in recognizing that if the CONDEM regime cannot contain a mass fightback and is brought down, then socialdemocracy can still try to play a role in containing militant industrial action from developing into a revolutionarychallenge to the bourgeois system itself.

10- These social democrats or left liberals are arguing that austerity is a wrong policy since it leads to deflation anddepression. They hope to direct workers anger into social democratic and left liberal programs that can solve thecrisis. In Britain the fake left SWP (see New Left Blog) argues that the CONDEM austerity is not necessary for therestoration of profits! Of course this exposes their non-Marxist view that capitalist crises are merely the result ofwrong policies and elite greed. Marxists know that capitalist crises are the inevitable result of capital over-accumulation, and while reformists sow illusions in the possibility of reflation to boost jobs and incomes, crises canonly be resolved in the bosses interests by massive deflation. The crisis forces a devaluation of total capital bydestroying the weakest banks and firms allowing the strongest to concentrate and centralize their good assets intoeven bigger monopolies. We can see this has been happening since 2007. It is not in the interests of Morgan Stanley,HSBC, Citibank etc., as well as the big Euro banks and big Chinese banks, resort to reflation if it devalues the goodassets and prevents the devaluing of bad assets. These gigantic monopolies completely control their nation states anddictate economic policy to protect their class interests. This is why the bailouts have gone into bosses pockets and notinto new investment in production. This means that the ruling class will close ranks behind their national states indefence of their monopoly corporations and make weakest firms, nations, and of course workers, go to the wall.

11- The result is that the destruction of total value to restore profits includes the total value of labour power throughjob losses and wage cuts. Thus it is the working class that ultimately always pays for their crisis. As the austerity biteswe can see the spontaneous fightback spreading from Greece to Spain, to France in the EU. From the first strikes that

began in 2008 in Greece we have seen a succession of strikes controlled by the bureaucracy. In Spain it is the same, nostrike call has lead to a national coordination of strike actions, or an indefinite general strike. Not until France havewe seen the strikes spread and threaten to break out of the control of the bureaucrats. Yet even here we do not see abreakdown of bureaucratic control, because no revolutionary leadership has emerged that can turn spontaneous strikesinto a general strike to bring down the bourgeois government and put a workers government in their place. The fakeTrotskyists of the NPA say that they will not call for a general strike and will back the negotiations between thebureaucrats and the bourgeois regime. (Le Monde).The IMT calls for a general strike to defeat the government andparalyse the economy, and for the Communist Party to demand the nationalisation of the big companies and the banks!http://www.marxist.com/france-leaflet-october-28-paralyse-economy.htm

12- The objective dynamic of worsening crisis clashes with the subjective absence of a revolutionary leadership tolead the working class to solve the crisis in it class interests. The failure to build this leadership will mean thatworking class struggle is unable to challenge the power of the ruling class leaving the middle classes who are also hit bythe crisis and the more backward non-unionized sectors of the working class ripe for fascist mobilization to smash the


17/20


17

workers organisations as responsible for the flood of migrant workers, and for the loss of jobs and the austeritymeasures rather than the capitalist class itself. In France while the unions mobilise strike action there is almost noorganized opposition to Sarkosys campaign of forced extradition of Roma and the ban against the wearing of burqa inpublic. It is clear that the bureaucratic leadership of Labour and social democratic parties are part of the nationalsalvation blocs that are always formed by the imperialist and national bourgeoisie to unite workers and middle classwith the bourgeoisie against foreign workers and against the international threat of a socialist revolution.

13- In the face of mounting evidence of man-made climate change and big changes in weather patterns that causedevastating floods and crop failures, the climate change denier lobby is working for the corporates to enflame thepopulist petty bourgeois and backward workers into blaming carbon taxes on profits as more taxation of the littleperson by big states. The oil giants like BP can still get away with massive destruction in wars for oil in the Middle

East, and a catastrophic oil spill in the Caribbean and pays only a small part of the social and environmental costs ofsuch capitalist disasters. Here we see the full face of capitalism riding roughshod over national states to destroy theforces of production including the habitat of whole populations as in Pakistan and in the Gulf of Mexico. And whileChina is now leading the world in green technology, it is still building damshttp://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/LJ14Ad03.html and nuclear plants, rail-tracks through tundra and forestsaround the world, high speed rail even in California, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68C0TY20100913cultivating vast tracts of agricultural land despoiling natural habitats in Brazil and Tibet, enlarging its carbon footprintwith each giant step around the world.

14- We can see the proto-fascist movements already in existence. In Britain the national salvation bloc is the Bj4Bwcampaign of 2009 which sought to protect jobs for British workers against other EU workers. This puts the British tradeunions in the same reactionary national camp as the BNP and other extreme right forces. In Germany and theNetherlands there are proto-fascist organisations campaigning against migrant workers, especially of Islamic religion.Germany has had a backlash against immigrants and bailing out Greece. Merkel has called multiculturalism a failure.The EU is in danger of being torn apart by the centripetal forces of the bipolar world into rival xenophobias. In the USthe Tea Party is a rightwing populist movement aligned to the Republicans that can easily develop into a fascist

movement. As the crisis deepens we will see the working class organize to resist its attacks and this will pose a threatto the bourgeoisies who will revive the old fascist arguments for national salvation against alien forces.

15- While Islam has been projected as the main enemy of freedom and democracy since the collapse of the SovietUnion, it is now being rivalled by Chinese communism. http://www.thenation.com/blog/155317/china-bashing-2010-election-echoes-cold-war. The US ruling class is leading the demonizing of China as a communist regime that isputting capitalist democracy under threat. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/us/politics/10outsource.html. Whatunderlies this demonization of Chinese communism is of course the rise of China as a threat to US hegemony. Theweakness of the US economy has prompted a suggestion by a US professor teaching in China that China could eveninvest its excess finance capital in the US to fund a new deal? http://mpettis.com/2010/10/xin-fa%E2%80%99an-a-modest-proposal-to-resolve-the-coming-trade-war/ That this can even be proposed marks the perception of a realdecline of the US as the hegemonic imperialist power to one that can become dependent on China as the newlyhegemonic power. This sense of a loss of hegemonic power is what underlies the blaming of the crisis on China. Therallying of the Tea Party reactionary populism against liberal or socialist elites implies that the US people have beensold out to China and to Latin American migrants. China and Bolivarian socialism becomes perceived as theoverarching enemy of the American people and the cause of its historic decline.

16- The fake left defends Castro and Chavez from US imperialism, but sows illusions in their converging brand ofChinese-style market socialism, or green capitalism, and so disarms the international working class against therise of anti-China xenophobia and proto-fascism in the imperialist countries. (Green Left News). The reformist left putsits faith in bourgeois Bonapartist leaders (who balance between the masses and the imperialist bourgeoisie) in the ALBAcountries and the restorationist bureaucratic Bonapartists in Cuba rather than call for a political revolution becausethey think that China as a global power offers a progressive alternative to the imperialist US and its allies. Thistreachery leaves workers unprepared to stop the restoration of capitalism in Cuba and the coming counter-revolutionary wars at the hands of all the imperialist ruling classes, including China.

17- Facing this objective crisis and the subjective crisis of the failure of revolutionary leadership this puts a hugeresponsibility on the shoulders of revolutionary Trotskyists to struggle all the more urgently to re-found arevolutionary international on the basis of the Transitional Program of 1938. Trotsky laid down the principles ofrevolutionary internationalism to fight imperialist crises in the 1930s. In the epoch of imperialism workers have tobreak from the patriotic popular fronts with their bourgeoisie, and with the labor bureaucrats that act as the agents of

the bourgeoisie, and refuse to fight against the workers of other nations. Instead they become brothers and sisters ofworking class fighters in every nation. Facing a deepening crisis and the inevitable transformation of trade warsbetween rival imperialist powers into military wars, we must demand the unity of workers of all countries to fight foran international socialist revolution. We must defend all workers especially the most oppressed - on national, ethnic,gender and sexual grounds - against attacks by uniting them into one force across national borders to defeat allattempts by the ruling class and their labor lieutenants to divide and rule the world proletariat.

18- The refounding of a new World Party of Socialism based on a Leninist Trotskyist program will solve the crisis ofrevolutionary leadership. The only way for workers internationally to stop the fascist counter-revolution is to breakfrom the Bolivarian and Chinese Bonapartist bourgeoisies and their bureaucratic lieutenants and organise their ownindependent workers councils and workers militias to mount political general strikes to bring down the bourgeoisregimes and replace them with Workers and Peasants governments forming socialist federations on every continent!


18/20


18

Tribute to Roque Sanchez, revolutionary fighter!

We reprint the tribute of the FLTI on the death of the young Peruvian militant Roque Sanchez on 29October 2010. We first came to know Roque when he was a member of the Lucha Marxista of Peru in 2003.The CWG and Lucha Marxista became members of the Collective in December 2002. When Lucha Marxistaand the Collective split in 2004, Roque Sanchez stayed with the Collective which then became the FLT in2006. While the CWG left the FLTI (as it became in 2009) in 2010, we recognise that Roque Sanchez was arevolutionary youth leader who dedicated his short life to the victory of the revolution. Long live Roque!

A young fighter for the cause of socialist revolution and for the re-foundation of the Fourth International has passed away.

Today, at the age of 28, the young Trotskyist leader RoqueSanchez has died. When he was very young, he joinedPeruvian Trotskyism. He lived his first experiences inTrotskyism in the group Poder Obrero of Peru, Lucha Marxistaof Cuzco and was a founder member of the Collective for arevolutionary international that LOI-CI of Argentina called toset up in 2001 to regroup the forces of the internationalistrevolutionaries when the Ecuadorian and Argentineanrevolution hit and started the first fires of the Bolivianrevolution.

With the Split of collective, Roque joined the foundation ofthe FLT, making a great international work from Peru,collaborating in a decisive way in the work on the lessons ofthe Peruvian revolution in 78 and intervened decisively in theprocess of the Bolivian revolution to where he travelled as atrue internationalist in order to intervene in the revolutionaryevents that shook Bolivia and Latin America in 2003/2005.

In 2009, he was founder member and a delegate of the LTI ofPeru to the foundation Congress of the International LeninistTrotskyist Fraction, in where they merged groups led by WIVLof South Africa, the former FLT and observer groups fromUSA.

He is co-author of the works on Bolivia: an expropriated

revolution, as well as a work on a deep research in polemicwith the GB of France on the nature and fight against thelabour aristocracy and bureaucracy.

A young and brilliant Trotskyist leader, but above all aninternationalist militant of the proletariat, has passed awayat the age of 28. The cruelty of nature finishes his life veryearly. He died for a cardiac arrest and sudden death.

He passed away very young, as an adoptive son of the workingclass since he was 17 years old. 11 years fighting for the causeof proletariat. He gave the absolute majority of his consciouslife to the fight for the international socialist revolution andre-founding the Fourth International. He was committed tothat fight as a member of the Secretariat of InternationalCoordination of the International Leninist Trotskyist Fraction

thousands of kilometers away from his country. Roque hadunderstood perfectly that if we do not re-found the FourthInternational, Trotskyism will never be able to even dream insetting up revolutionary parties in any place of the world forthe victory of the socialist revolution.

Today very early, after writing a new essay on the events ofthe huge class struggle in France and in Europe, he went tobed to have a rest. He never woke up again. His work, stillnot finished, stated a call on French workers: Our fight inthe streets of Paris must set on fire Europe! Out Sarkozy! Outthe Fifth Republic of the French imperialist butchers! For thereturn of the Commune of Paris! Only in that way, by the

proletarian revolution and its huge historical upheavals, theEurope and French working class will stop the brutal attackthat the ruling classes have launched without mercy to makeexploited of the world pay for the crisis they have provoked.

From the FLTI, the leaders and militants who share hiscombat can only say that he lived a short but fruitful life atthe service of the world proletariat. We do not have doubtsthat if he could have predicted this tragic end, surely, hewould affirm, holding his fist high, I wouldve given even

more years of my life for the cause of proletariat!

Today, the bourgeoisie, like in Argentina, holds a wake one ofits heroes, such as Kirchner, that saved their interests thanksto the treasons of the leaderships of the Argentinean andLatin American proletariat. Roque told us that it was notpossible to have any condolence or to pay tribute to theleaders of the proletariats class enemies whose governmentand regimes had murdered thousands and thousands ofworkers in Argentina and in the American continent. He saidthat the hug of the bolibourgeoisies paying tribute to Kirchneronly hid, under a sweet veneer, the gunmen of the unionbureaucracy that had massacred the young Ferreyra, militantof Partido Obrero. How right Roque was! We only pay tributeand we honour the militants of the world proletariat, to theheroes (many times anonymous and other times popular) who

die while fighting for the program of revolutionary Marxism.

For our honour of revolutionary workers and militants of theFourth International and of the fight for re-founding it, weknow we will continue this fight. Roque was part of the newgeneration that feverishly sought the continuity and legacy ofthe Fourth International of 1938, which was destroyed andliquidated during decades of adaptations and capitulationswith which the destroyers of Trotskyism left no tracks ofbolshevism.

FLTI has been nourished and is nourished by a new generationof revolutionary workers youth. Comrade Trotsky reminded usthat when a movement becomes impotent to lead proletariatto the victory in history, it disappears and the generation whocarried it out degenerates. Our comrade Roque was not partof those tired souls, and for that reason he crossed thousandsof kilometers to set up a fighting international centre to fightfor re-founding the Fourth International.

This new generation of revolutionaries has and has had theperspicacious of thinking with their own head, seekingfeverishly for the lessons of the great combats of theinternational proletariat to give continuity to the Marxisttheory, that is, the theory of the proletariat revolution, athousand times trampled on and falsified by revisionism inMarxism. Roque used to say that it is not possible to walkahead in the fight for the socialist revolution without fightingresolutely for giving continuity to the program of proletariat


19/20


19

so that it does not start again facing each decisive combat inthe history. To that cause, he dedicated great part of hisforces during the last years as a publicist. The lack of facilityhe had to speak and express himself orally was perfectlysubstituted in a brilliant way for his magnificent and acuteblessing as a publicist.

In his essay on the events of France, Roque said that theimperialist French bankers and owners of the transnational

companies are the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, andgreat-great grandchildren of those who stuck their umbrellasin the Paris communers massacred in 1871, heirs of thosewho, with the popular fron

Class Struggle 91

Documents

Transcript of Class Struggle 91