Calling for increased productivity right now is madness

By Auckland union activist  

10 April 2009 

Zespri has announced it will be dumping millions of tonnes of Kiwifruit. Zespri chief executive Lain Jager says the alternative would be a reduction in value of about 20c a tray. See Kiwifruit dumped to prop up price. 

You can mark the change from a recession to a depression when the capitalists start dumping and destroying food like they did in the 1930s to keep prices and profits up. 

In America they used to burn wheat, in NZ they drove cattle over cliffs, and armed guards were posted on the Wellington city dump to stop the unemployed “stealing” dumped food, in Brazil they burned coffee beans in the tinder boxes of trains instead of coal. 

This while millions of unemployed faced poverty and even starvation. In efforts to protect their profits, not only the destruction of workers jobs, but the destruction of the wealth created by workers gathers pace. 

Inevitably, as the recession deepens it won't be just kiwi fruit, it will be other food too, and probably soon brand new unsold manufactured goods will be being trashed as well. 

The market economy continues on its mad way. With the support, it seems, of CTU president Helen Kelly. She’s made repeated statements in support of John Key's call for even more productivity. While this may help profits, more productivity can only mean more overproduction and more job losses. 

Like Alice in Wonderland Helen Kelly must have dropped down a rabbit hole or passed through a mirror into a capitalist fantasy land, where everything is topsy turvey and nothing makes sense. 

Instead of trying to prop up profits by calling for more productivity, Helen Kelly, as head of New Zealand's biggest union body, should be calling for a mass united campaign to protect wages and jobs, and to hell with productivity and profits. 

If she is not prepared to do this, maybe she should go to the packing houses and try explaining her crazy market friendly theories to the kiwifruit workers and tell them that they will need to take wage and or job cuts, to protect profits. Maybe she could also go into the supermarkets and explain to the working class customers there why fruit needs to be so expensive.

Bernanke's Financial Rescue Plan: The growing prospect of a U.S. default

by Mike Whitney from Global Research, 6 April 2009 Fed chief Ben Bernanke has embarked on the most radical and ruinous financial rescue plan in history. According to Bloomberg News, the Fed has already lent or committed $12.8 trillion trying to stabilize the financial system after the the bursting of Wall Street's speculative mega-bubble. Now Bernanke wants to dig an even bigger hole, by creating programs that will provide up to $2 trillion of credit to financial institutions that purchase toxic assets from banks or securities backed by consumer loans. The Fed's generous terms are expected to generate a flurry of speculation which will help strengthen the banking system while leaving the taxpayer to bear the losses. It is impossible to know what the long-term effects of Bernanke's excessive spending will be, but his plan has the potential to trigger hyperinflation or spark a run on the dollar. Continue at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13077 See also Can Obama's policies fix the economy?

David Harvey: Their crisis, our challenge

In a far reaching interview with Red Pepper, David Harvey argues that the current financial crisis and bank bail-outs could lead to a massive consolidation of the banking system and a return to capitalist ‘business as usual’ – unless there is sustained revolt and pressure for a dramatic redistribution and socialisation of wealth. Does this crisis signal the end of neoliberalism? My answer is that it depends what you mean by neoliberalism. My interpretation is that it’s a class project, now masked by a lot of rhetoric about individual freedom, liberty, personal responsibility, privatisation and the free market. That rhetoric was a means towards the restoration and consolidation of class power, and that neoliberal project has been fairly successful. Continue at http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Their-crisis-our-challenge

Global warming: NZ can and must act

by Auckland union activist 8 April 2009 A huge ice shelf in Antarctica is collapsing. See NZ rearranges deckchairs while ice shelf collapses This is more dramatic evidence that global warming is a reality. Yet still the right wing, who in the past denied that global warming was real and therefore we should do nothing, are still saying that we should still do nothing, because New Zealand's CO2 emissions are so small (less than 0.01% of world’s total) that curbing them will make no discernable difference and would just hurt business interests. But New Zealand can make a difference. When New Zealand declared itself Nuclear Weapons Free in 1987 the nuclear powers, in particular, the US, were so concerned that New Zealand's example could spread that they pressured and bullied Prime Minister Lange to make a globally circulated public statement that "this policy was not for export." Of course, people all over the world were inspired by NZ’s stance. And following our lead this policy was taken up within other Pacifica countries. The Fiji Anti Nuclear Group (FANG) in alliance with the powerful Fijian union movement was very influential, and influenced the anti-nuclear policy of the briefly elected Fiji Labour Party, before it was deposed by the US supported military coup in 1987. What NZ does is important. If we took serious steps to halt greenhouse gas emissions here, we could announce boldly that "this policy is for export". I’m sure we would be supported by our Pacifica neighbours and friends, who are already being directly affected by global warming. We can make a difference. A Climate Camp is being held at Parihaka 24-26 April. Participants will be discussing how to build a people's movement against climate change. Visit http://www.climatecamp.org.nz/HOME.html for more information. And for some background reading on NZ's nuclear-free policy read The Kiwi that Roared: Nuclear-Free New Zealand in a Nuclear-Armed World by Wade Huntley, an American academic.

ANOTHER LEFT IS POSSIBLE: The Protests in France and the New Anti-Capitalist Party

by Nathan Rao from Socialist Voice Originally published in Rabble.ca 8 April 2009 It would be wrong to see the massively successful protest actions in France [March 21] as distant and exotic, of no particular relevance to us here in Canada. With the economic meltdown heralding a new political era, and with most of the country's Left and social movements still stunned and disoriented following their embrace of the misguided and failed Liberal-led coalition plan, the French experience is instructive and inspiring.

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Minutes of RAM's 2009 Conference

RAM: Residents Action Movement 2009 national conference M I N U T E S

by GRANT MORGAN 26 RAM activists from five regions (Northland, Auckland, central North Island, Wellington and Christchurch) attended the RAM National Conference in Auckland on 7 March 2009. Apologies were received from many other RAM activists. The discussions at conference fed into a focused consensus on most if not all issues, as these minutes reveal. INTRODUCTION FROM CHAIR RAM chair Grant Morgan welcomed conference participants. He repeated his intention (first announced two months before) to retire as RAM chair at the conclusion of conference, and also step down from the RAM Secretariat, in order to promote young blood. In the chair's introduction, Grant said the global economic slump, now lapping the shores of New Zealand, is only the third Combo Crisis in capitalism's history. The others were the Long Depression (1873-95) and the Great Depression (1929-41). Unlike more regular but more mild cyclical downturns, a Combo Crisis involves the implosion of most or all economic sectors on a global scale for a prolonged period. Going by the history of the two previous Combo Crises, the world (including New Zealand) is now facing:

• An extended period of economic depression likely to last anywhere from three to 12 years which will go through distinct stages.
• A tidal wave of job losses and wage cuts as bosses make workers pay for capitalism's crisis.
• A tsunami of house evictions and other social miseries which engulf sections of the middle class as well as the working class.
• Growing trends towards trade wars and shooting wars, intersecting with a climate crisis that threatens life on Earth.
• Epic upheavals in economics, ecology, governments, institutions and ideologies which will mean that nothing remains the same.

The two previous Combo Crises showed a tremendous capacity by the grassroots to unite in defence of their living standards and social rights, noted Grant. In today's Combo Crisis, the grassroots will not want to go like sheep to the slaughter. As past certainties crumble, many more people will be looking for alternatives to the old ways. Already the resistance is growing overseas. A much greater space will open up for the NZ left if we unite around realistic alternatives so that we are seen as having a good chance of success. Closer co-operation among the left is crucial. RAM is looking for avenues of practical co-operation, and we sense that many other leftists are of a like mind. The scale of the crisis demands broad left unity. While RAM's activists come from socialist, ecological, left Labour, social justice, union and other traditions, we embrace a common philosophy. We are transitionists. We advocate transition away from the corporate market and its political and institutional structures, and towards participatory democracy, without insisting on a particular final blueprint. Our plans will expand in connection with practical steps taken by the grassroots majority, concluded Grant. CRISIS & CAMPAIGNING The opening discussion at conference was on the Combo Crisis and RAM's campaigning. A question was raised about whether RAM should just concentrate on concrete demands. After discussion, there was general agreement that RAM's campaigning must combine two key elements: THE BIG PICTURE Why is the Combo Crisis happening? What can the two previous Combo Crises tell us today? Where should society head to overcome economic depression and the intersecting climate crisis? And other big picture questions needing answers if people's uncertainties, fears and hurts are to be turned into knowledge, activism and organisation that challenge the corporate elites responsible for the crisis. CONCRETE DEMANDS Linked to the big picture, RAM must promote concrete demands that protect people from market meltdown, wherever possible in conjunction with other leftists and unionists. The RAM Plan, adopted by the 2008 RAM Conference, features many concrete demands which can be popularised through RAM's campaigning. The point was made that politics is less about policies and more about what people think they can do in these times of growing crisis. RAM needs to carefully gauge what image our policies invoke in the popular mind. A question was raised about whether some of RAM's policies should be toned down a little to make them seem more reasonable to people feeling negative at present and therefore having low expectations. For instance, should RAM's policy of "free public transport" become instead "cheap public transport"? After discussion, a dualistic approach was generally accepted by conference participants: POPULAR POLICIES RAM should continue to advocate policies like free public transport which have proven popular, as shown by the great response to RAM's "Ten Commandments" leaflet. Calling for "cheap" public transport would not be inspiring, inviting perpetual haggling over how cheap is cheap. And only "free" would take the market out of public transport, helping society to transition away from corporate economics. COALITION COMPROMISES RAM must also recognise that many on the left who we wish to unite with in electoral and community campaigns would support "cheap" but not "free" public transport. Therefore RAM might accept "cheap" as the joint policy of a broad left campaign while we made clear that RAM still promotes "free". That would advance the cause of public transport up to the point beyond which other leftists will not yet go, while preserving RAM's independence of thought and action. It was pointed out that, at a time when mainstream analysts have no answers to fundamental problems like the housing crisis, traditional ideologies and institutions will be questioned by a growing number of people. In America, slogans like "Bail Out Homeowners, Not Bankers" are being raised by the grassroots. The fear that is gripping more Kiwis will, in the months and years ahead, turn to either despair or anger. There needs to be determined campaigning by RAM and other leftists to turn the fear into anger, so that the grassroots organise and act to defend themselves. There was consensus about the need to experiment and let the results speak about what works best. At this time of flux, what worked in the past may not in the future,. Anyhow, the mood at the grassroots will fluctuate dramatically just as the Combo Crisis will go through different stages. At present there is a wide perception that Key's government is centrist. In a time of great crisis, however, the centre cannot hold. The elites are demanding that the politicians protect corporate profits first and foremost. The majority want the government to adopt "fairer" Keynesian stimulus policies. RAM must not get swept up in Keynesian policies which seek to reshape or even limit the corporate market, but only to save the market from internal crisis, not transition away from it. At the same time, RAM must understand where the majority are coming from, so that our campaigning can gain their ear. As RAM campaigns out on the streets during 2009 and beyond with a series of different leaflets, we will get to hear what the grassroots are really thinking. The point was made that the thinking of everyone on the left will need to change under the impact of crisis-related social changes. It was noted that the system we live under is perfectly designed to produce what it does, including crises. Problems cannot be solved with old solutions. The power of money can be partly challenged by concrete steps towards an alternative economy, such as people's collectives, local currencies, work timebanks and community barter. Arising from the discussion, five general principles for RAM's outreach work were put forward:

• Experiment with different approaches to the grassroots.
• Learn from the mistakes of ourselves and others.
• Leaflets which combine education with concrete proposals.
• Conduct a two-way dialogue with the grassroots.
• Transmit a genuine sense of excitement.

CLIMATE CAMPS IN NZ The third discussion at conference was on climate camps which are in the early stages of being organised around the country. These camps will help build a climate justice network in Aotearoa and shape strategies to more effectively counter the climate chaos threatening life on Earth. The RAM Conference supported the climate camps. Two link people were elected to facilitate RAM's communications with other climate camp promoters. NZ TOUR BY VENEZUELAN DIPLOMAT The fourth discussion at conference was on a possible tour of New Zealand by Nelson Davila, who is Venezuela's Canberra-based diplomat for the Pacific region. The democratically elected president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is promoting what he calls "socialism of the 21st century". The shift of wealth and power from the elites to the grassroots in Venezuela over the last decade is an inspiration in this era of global economic slump. The RAM Conference invited Nelson to tour the country, requesting two months notice to build for well-attended events. Bronwen Beechey, an Auckland RAM activist, was elected as North Island tour organiser. The VAMOS collective in Christchurch will be asked to nominate a South Island tour organiser. Both organisers will liase with other leftists to make the tour a broad-based affair. LEADERSHIP BODIES OF RAM The last discussion at conference was on the structure and personnel of RAM's leadership bodies. After discussion, there was general agreement that RAM needs two main leadership bodies:

• A representative governance body dealing with strategy and other big picture issues.
• A compact management body dealing with tactics and other day-to-day issues.

Until the conference, RAM's governance body had been called the RAM Executive. This name that was felt to be in discord with its function, yet was enshrined in RAM's Rules of Incorporation. To avoid going through the bureaucratic hassle of amending the Rules of Incorporation with the Registrar of Incorporated Societies, David C proposed this motion: The RAM Executive will be commonly known as the RAM Council. David's motion was passed unanimously. The name of RAM's management body remained unchanged as the RAM Secretariat. Three competing slates of candidates for the RAM Council were proposed to conference:

• A 17-person slate proposed by Grant Morgan.
• An 11-person slate proposed by Daphne Lawless, Oliver Woods and Elliott Blade.
• A 15-person slate proposed by Bronwen Beechey.

Slates 2 & 3 did not include anyone different from the people on Slate 1, just fewer of them. In a secret ballot, Slate 1 gained a clear majority of votes on the first round, with 13 supporters, against three votes for Slate 2 and eight for Slate 3. Consequently, the RAM Council comprises these 17 people (in alphabetical order): Bronwen Beechey Elliott Blade Grant Brookes David C Michelle Ducat Roger Fowler Vaughan Gunson Bernie Hornfeck Peter Hughes Michael Lai Daphne Lawless Grant Morgan Pat O'Dea Len Parker Sam Quayle Curwen Rolinson Oliver Woods With the election of the RAM Council, RAM's 2009 conference came to an end. Photos of the conference can be viewed at: http://www.facebook.com/editphoto.php?oid=8350031854#/photo_search.php?oid=8350031854&view=user
RAM COUNCIL MEETING Conference was followed by a meeting of the RAM Council. After discussion among the RAM Council about other leadership roles, Grant Morgan proposed: RAM chair to be Grant Brookes. RAM vice-chair to be Elliott Blade. RAM Secretariat to comprise these four people (in alphabetical order): Elliott Blade Grant Brookes Daphne Lawless Oliver Woods Grant M's motion was passed unanimously by the RAM Council. The Council also elected RAM activists to fill these roles: Kaumatua Publicity Committee Union Committee Community liaison Ecology liaison Treasurer Finance officer RAM trustees

UNITYblog EDITORIAL: When will the revolt erupting in Europe surface in NZ?

Eventually the revolt that's beginning to spread in Europe (see below) will surface in NZ. The left needs to prepare. We need to be organised to give leadership to any anger that erupts here in the next year or so. To give effective leadership we will need to establish a relationship of trust with a large numbers of New Zealanders. To reach people we still desperately need to come together in organised ways so as to achieve a certain critical mass that will have any hope of changing this countries political landscape. We need a small army of activists spreading a "protect our people" message through various methods of mass outreach (leaflets, emails, texts, meetings, demos, etc). If we come together in a larger enough numbers we can also expect to have more of an impact in the mainstream media. And we can be a more realistic force in democratic elections. Regarding the latter, leftists throughout the country need to be looking ahead to the 2010 local body elections and weighing up whether there's the possibility in different cities of broad left coalitions forming to contest those elections. Matt McCarten and others are looking at this possibility in Auckland. To connect with people fearful of the deepening recession and impact it will have on them, RAM - Residents Action Movement is a issuing a series of leaflets that explain the economic crisis and raise concrete demands that would protect grassroots people. To get copies of these leaflets email RAM chair Grant Brookes grant_brookes@paradise.net.nz

From Edinburgh to Paris to Kiev, Europe is revolting by Paola Totaro from Sydney Morning Herald 28 March 2009 The signs are everywhere, from smashed windows in the mansion of a British banker to the thousands who took to the streets of Kiev to decry pay cuts: Europe is rebelling. As world leaders strut the stages of Washington, New York and soon, London, in a bid to forge a united response to the global financial crisis, the rising cost of living, mortgages heading skywards, job losses and a tide of home repossessions have sparked a chilling fear of the future and propelled the citizens of Europe into open uprising.

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MIGRANT WORKERS, THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND THE UNIONS

Public Meeting: 7.30pm Tuesday 7 April Auckland Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn Recently there have been decisions by companies to make NZ workers redundant while continuing to employ migrant workers on temporary visas. There have been calls by both the Labour Party, National and some unionists for these migrant workers to be laid off first. The immigration service has revoked the work visas of some workers who kept their jobs. Migrant advocates have raised concerns that racist sentiments are being fostered and ask the question why migrant workers shouldn’t have their rights protected. New Zealand-born or permanent residents ask why they should be sacked when temporary visa holders keep their jobs. This raises questions on how unions should be approaching migrant workers when there may be conflicting claims for support from different groups of workers who are their members. Addressing these questions will be speakers involved in the union movement and in advocating for migrant workers. These include:

• Laila Harre, National Secretary of the National Distribution Union
• Dennis Maga, Migrante Aotearoa
• John Minto, Organiser, Unite Union
• Mike Treen, Global Peace and Justice Auckland (Chair)

For more information contact Dennis Maga, 021 971 070, dennis.maga@yahoo.co.nz

Air NZ bosses threaten to sack striking cabin crew

NZPA media release 1 April 2009 Executives at Air New Zealand are to act as cabin crew for the airline's subsidiary, Zeal 320 Ltd, during next week's planned strike action on trans-Tasman and Pacific routes. Talks between the airline and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) are continuing. Air New Zealand told Radio New Zealand it had 100 fully qualified staff, including top executives who have volunteered to keep planes flying over the Easter period. But the EPMU said it did not believe the airline had staff available to replace striking cabin crew. The airline has an application for an Employment Court injunction due to be heard on Friday. Air New Zealand's group general manager of short-haul airlines, Bruce Parton, said senior staff, including Glen Sowry, who is heading the negotiations, will act as crew on the Zeal 320 flights. Mr Parton said the airline may consider sacking and replacing the 250 Zeal cabin crew if the industrial action is drawn out.

Kosying up to Key: Workers of the World Kompete

by Auckland union activist 
25 March 2009 

Productivity = fewer workers, producing more, in less time, and always has done. That’s why it’s totally wrong for Helen Kelly to offer the union movement's support to Key and the employers for more productivity!! Doesn't she know that NZ workers have increased productivity by 60% since the 1970s, without hardly any increase in buying power?

It’s the bosses who’ve been the beneficiaries of increased productivity, as evidenced by their record-breaking profits. The only way many working people could buy the goods they produced was to use credit. But this could only go on for so long.

The contradiction at the heart of the current economic crisis: the falling buying power of workers vs massive increases in production, had to cause a big crunch sooner or later. Employers are busy cutting back production and laying workers off. Millions of workers globally are being laid off at the same time as there’s an over supply of manufactured goods (warehouses and wharves are overflowing).

The rich know that someone has to pay for this recession. Naturally, they’re going to make as sure as hell it’s not them. In opposition to workers interests, the employers’ tactic is to increase productivity in an effort to undercut their competition for the remaining shrinking markets. So I can understand why Key is calling for more productivity. But why has CTU head Helen Kelly also supported this demand of the employers? Can Kelly explain the benefit for workers?

I can remember a time in the mid-70s when the new technologies were taking off, newspaper editorials were predicting that this would increase leisure time for everyone. But the opposite happened the working week was actually increased.

In the past a comparable lifestyle could be afforded with only one partner in the family, working a 40 hour week. Now, only with overtime and both partners working, can many workers meet the basic cost of living. Yet the modern wage worker is on average 3 to 4 times more productive than their grandfathers.

Enough of productivity, to get some balance back a four day week without loss of pay is a common sense solution to the economic crisis. The alternative: mass unemployment.

I admit that employers and an employer friendly government will never agree to cuts in productivity matched with an increase in wages without a massive push. But does it help to have our union leader cheering employer demands for more productivity? I don't think so.

Instead, unions should be defending working people from being plunged into the poverty and powerlessness of unemployment (which is a wage cut for our class) and launch a nationwide campaign to seize some of the wealth back. A four day week without loss of pay could be part of that campaign.

Most unionists and workers realise that to join the employers in demanding even more productivity is the wrong call at this time. Even the usually conservative EPMU leadership have publicly criticised Helen Kelly for her support of Key's plan for a 9 day fortnight with only partial compensation.

My question: is Helen Kelly prepared to change her mind, and as head of the CTU call for a united union campaign for a shorter working week without loss of pay, to save jobs? Or will she stick with Key and the employers in calling for more productivity which will make matters worse for workers, but preserve profits. Let's hope she changes tack, as the need for a real united fight-back is growing everyday.

Venezuela: Mass organisation, unity increases as revolution deepens

by Federico Fuentes from Green Left Weekly 21 March 2009 “This government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeoisie or the rich”, proclaimed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on February 28, as he ordered soldiers to take over two rice-processing plants owned by Venezuelan food and drink giant Empresas Polar. The move was made in order to ensure that the company was producing products subjected to the government-imposed price controls that aim to protect the poor from the affects of global price rises and inflation.

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See also Venezuela Confronts Capitalism's Crisis with More Revolution

It’s Time for a New Monetary System

Press Release: Global Research 25 March 2009 The Obama administration is spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to persuade the banking system to restart lending. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke plans to create hundreds of billions more of new bank reserves by purchasing mortgage-related debt. With Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner working together, “the initiative will seek to entice private investors, including big hedge funds, to participate by offering billions of dollars in low-interest loans to finance the purchases. The government will share the risks if the assets fall further in price.” (Martin Crutsinger, AP) Finally, President Obama is taking over the distinction of being the biggest Keynesian in history with a fiscal year 2009 deficit of $1.75 trillion.

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National government to borrow $40 billion over 3 years

TVNZ Press Release 22 March 2009 Prime Minister John Key has unveiled a new economic initiative to borrow $40 billion to help NZ through the recession and believes we will come out of it “reasonably aggressively” in a year’s time during an interview with Political Editor, Guyon Espiner this morning on TVNZ’s new political show Q+A. Points of interest: - PM said Govt would borrow $40 Billion over next 3 years - PM refused to commit to 2010 & 2011 tax cuts - PM believes NZ will be coming out of recession “reasonably aggressively” in year’s time after 2-3 quarters of negative growth - Treasury estimates tax cuts will mean a 5% reduction in Government revenue See transcription of full interview at http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0903/S00241.htm See also It’s Time for a New Monetary System for another possibility to government debt.

Maritime Union: Nat's transport funding plan sends NZ backwards

Maritime Union of New Zealand media release 25 March 2009 The Maritime Union says the Government's transport funding plan is an environmental and economic travesty. The National Government has changed spending commitments of the previous Government and and released a statement on money it will put into developing land transport (including sea transport) for the next ten years. The new plan includes a three year commitment to spending over seven billion dollars on road related expenditure – and even includes $51 million for cycling and walkways. In comparison, it puts forward $1 million for "rail and sea freight" and $3 million for "domestic sea freight development." (Yes - the figure is million not billion.) That's about one cent on rail and sea freight development for every twenty dollars on roads. Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says that over 99% of New Zealand imports and exports arrive by sea yet this transport mode was receiving enough money to pay for a few lifeboats. Mr Hanson says the environmental and economic security outcomes of pouring all its resources into more and more roads were staggering. "Does anyone in this Government have their head around the fact that the world is on the brink of an unprecedented energy crisis?" He says that reliance on road transport made New Zealand completely dependent on secure supplies of cheap oil – something that will seem like a bad joke in ten years time. "The only people who will be celebrating this are the boy racers." Mr Hanson says around the world Government's are quickly moving to develop low impact, energy efficient infrastructure as the reality of climate change, peak oil and energy insecurity sinks in. "The world has changed, but here in New Zealand the new Government has invested a thousand times more in the most environmentally damaging, energy wasteful transport modes than the transport modes of the future, shipping and rail." Mr Hanson says the lack of training, infrastructure and investment in coastal shipping has left an island nation in a state of complete vulnerability. "The role of coastal shipping in the future of our ports has been a major discussion point in the transport industry, but seems to have been entirely missed by the Government." The Government says it wants to reduce road accidents, but is planning on increasing the amount of heavy transport and passenger cars on roads, which would obviously increase risks to motorists. "Building more roads means encouraging more traffic in a vicious cycle that will only end when the cost of petrol causes economic meltdown. We need to get heavy freight off the roads and onto coastal shipping or the 'blue highway' and its natural partner rail." Mr Hanson says the previous Government had finally acknowledged the role of shipping with its Sea Change strategy, but the National Government had dropped the ball and shown a mentality that was a generation out of date. He says he believes that road transport lobbyists had taken control of the Government's agenda due to their political connections and the plan amounted to a multi billion dollar subsidy to trucking operators. The statement that the Government wants to rebalance in favour of transport options 'realistically available to New Zealanders now' show this is a document without vision or forward thinking, says Mr Hanson. The only reason that road transport is a realistic option is that it has billions of dollars of taxpayers money poured into it, he says. The Maritime Union would be working to get changes to the plan.

Monbiot: We cannot afford to surrender

by George Monbiot 17 March 2009 from The Guardian It will be difficult and expensive to keep climate change to a minimum, but the alternative is unthinkable.Quietly in public, loudly in private, climate scientists everywhere are saying the same thing: it’s over. The years in which more than two degrees of global warming could have been prevented have passed, the opportunities squandered by denial and delay. On current trajectories we’ll be lucky to get away with four degrees. Mitigation (limiting greenhouse gas pollution) has failed; now we must adapt to what nature sends our way. If we can.

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See also:

• Scientists Issue Six Blunt Warnings on Climate Change
• Hansen: Protests and direct action needed to stop emissions
• Aussie Socialists Adopt 10 Point Action Plan to Stop Climate Change
• The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration
• Ten lessons for the climate movement: looking back, moving forward
• 350 - new international initiative calls for global action to stop climate change

Behind the popular victory in Pakistan

Demonstrators in Lahore, Pakistan, support the reinstatement of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry (Babar Shah PPI Photos)

Interview with Snehal Shingavi from US Socialist Worker 17 March 2009 A mass movement to restore Pakistan's ousted judiciary has ended in victory. After a huge protest in the streets of Lahore involving clashes with riot police, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced March 16 that Iftikhar Chaudhry, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, would be reinstated by the end of the month.

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See also:

• Pakistan eyewitness report
• Victory for Pakistan's Long March!

Holocaust future denier, here in NZ?

by Auckland union activist 18 March 2009 The NZ Herald (17 March) published an opinion piece by Bryan Leyland, who is a Power Industry consultant and Secretary of the International Climate Science Coalition. (See Bryan Leyland: Climate adaption a safer option.) Leyland criticises the obvious short-comings of carbon trading, but then goes on to attack all efforts to stop carbon pollution. Leyland writes: "There is a large body of evidence - some of it very recent - telling us that climate change is natural." He argues, that because global warming is "natural", we should do nothing that might risk big business profits. Leyland: "If man-made global warming is a myth, then many investments are at risk. Last year, $125 billion was invested worldwide in carbon trading and $160 billion in heavily subsidised renewable energy schemes such as wind farms. If climate change is natural, these investments will crash.” “Under stock exchange rules, anyone who issues a prospectus is obliged to set out all the risks. I searched the internet and failed to find any evidence that anyone warned investors and others that they value of man-made global warming-driven investments would be at risk. If they crash, the promoters could be sued, many wind farms would lose their subsidies and wind turbines that break down could be abandoned." Leyland says that we should "adapt" to global warming and argues against cutting CO2 pollution: "All it will do is damage our economy and make it even more difficult to adapt. And humankind will adapt - as it has done through past ice ages and warmer periods." What would adapt to climate change mean? Leading climate scientists at NASA have looked into the pit of a warmer world and have determined that though the global north will get off lightly, there’s a possibility that up to 4 billion people, mostly in the equatorial regions, will face famine, drought, combined with flooding of the fertile coastal plains, where most agriculture is carried out in this part of the world. According to Brian Leyland, to protect the profits of his paymasters in the energy industry, we shouldn't try to avoid this future holocaust.

Upcoming talks by Canadian socialist

APRIL GPJA FORUM: HAITI TODAY: FIVE YEARS OF UN-SPONSORED MILITARY OCCUPATION BRINGS DISASTER Presentation by Roger Annis, coordinator of the Canada Haiti Action Network 7.30pm, Monday 6 April Trades Hall, 147 Great North Road, Grey Lynn In February, 2004, the elected president and government of Haiti were overthrown by a right-wing paramilitary rebellion backed by troops from the United States, France and Canada. A foreign-appointed, regime of human rights violations ruled Haiti for the two years that followed. An elected government has ruled Haiti since early 2006. But the real power is held by a 10,000-member, UN-sponsored military occupation regime. Poverty, human rights violations and environmental degradation are worsening dramatically in a country that was already the poorest in the Americas. MEETING AT AUCKLAND UNITE OFFICES: THE FINANCIAL CRISIS HITS HOME IN CANADA Presentation by Roger Annis, trade union activist and editor of Socialist Voice

6pm, Tuesday 7 April Unite Centre, 6a Western Springs Rd, Morningside During the October, 2008 federal election in Canada, all the parties represented in the federal Parliament peddled a myth that Canada would escape the worst of the U.S.-sparked financial collapse. This in a country where the U.S. market consumes 76% of all Canadian exports. The economic situation in Canada is deteriorating rapidly, presenting new difficulties and challenges for the country's trade unions and social movements. As well, renewed demands for political sovereignty are emerging among the French-speaking Quebecois nation that numbers 7 million and the one million Indigenous peoples.

Water Scarcity 'Now Bigger Threat Than Financial Crisis'

by Geoffrey Lean from The Independent UK 15 March 2009 By 2030, more than half the world's population will live in high-risk areas. Humanity is facing "water bankruptcy" as a result of a crisis even greater than the financial meltdown now destabilising the global economy, two authoritative new reports show. They add that it is already beginning to take effect, and there will be no way of bailing the earth out of water scarcity. The two reports - one by the world's foremost international economic forum and the other by 24 United Nations agencies - presage the opening tomorrow of the most important conference on the looming crisis for three years. The World Water Forum, which will be attended by 20,000 people in Istanbul, will hear stark warnings of how half the world's population will be affected by water shortages in just 20 years' time, with millions dying and increasing conflicts over dwindling resources.

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'We need shock and awe policies to halt depression'

by Peter de Waal The key thing I got from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's article We need shock and awe policies to halt depression is that industrial production has collapsed at a rate 2-10 times faster than in 1929-1932! The credit bubble was largely based on worldwide property prices being pushed up with financial tricks over a 30-year period. In my opinion Capital has two ways out of this: 1) Allow house prices to collapse to the value at which ordinary working people can afford to buy them again i.e. 1-4 times the average yearly wage. This would of course bankrupt many insurance companies, pension funds and banks, ruining the rich. This would happen if the governments of the world stopped promising to bail out failed banks. The banks would then have to "mark-to-market" their loan portfolios, rather than hanging on to the notion that the book value of 18 months ago can be realised. Because of the bail-outs US Banks have been refusing reasonable offers for properties and their loan books, and have actually increased their exposure to toxic credit derivative products safe in the knowledge that they are "too big to be allowed to fail." 2) Print money like crazy and hope inflation catches up with those still wildly-inflated house prices. Option (2) is very dangerous, as it would capsize US efforts to get the world to buy it's debt in order to finance the bail-out of it's destitute banking system. Why would you buy a T-Bond when the value of the US$ is plummeting? Printing money or allowing inflation to rip would deal quite effectively to the US debt problem. There is always option (3) War. World War II began as a trade war, became a shooting war and ended as a nuclear war. We need option (4) make the bosses pay and end capitalism.