JB Hi-Fi workers strike to protest low wages and GST rise

Unite Campaigns Organiser Joe Carolan said that while “Taxes that hit low paid workers hardest are going up, for the last three years JB Hi-Fi workers have had no pay increases whatsoever. We need a Living Wage, not new taxes on the working poor.  Thats why we say $15ph, not 15% GST.

“Our Delegates representing several JB stores throughout Auckland will be striking from 1pm tomorrow Friday, and picketing JB Hi-Fi HQ opposite St Lukes Mall at 2pm.

“We say abolish GST, and replace it with a ‘Robin Hood tax’ on big financial transactions like the ones JB Hi-Fi's management make every day.

“After protesting the price rise, workers will be taking their demand for a Living Wage to JB Hi-Fi's HQ, accompanied by a seven metre tall rat.”

More info:
Joe Carolan
campaigns Officer
Unite Union
029 44 55 702
joseph@unite.org.nz

Kiwi captain: ‘We need a bit more help from folks at home’

The Kia Ora Gaza team is now in Istanbul, Turkey. 
Read the latest reports at http://kiaoragaza.net/

Roger Fowler (left), captain of our Kiwi Team on the Gaza aid convoy, makes new friends in Lyon, France

By Roger Fowler
Captain of the Kiwi Team to Gaza
27 September 2010

Passing me in the passageway of our ferry to Greece, Viva Palestina project director Nicci Enchmarch speaks two simple sentences which echo in my mind.

Pointing towards the stern of the ship, she says: “I can’t go back there. It reminds me of the Mavi.”

Smiling without humour, Nicci walks on. For the first time I can see the trauma she has suffered after experiencing the Israeli military assault on the humanitarian ship Mavi Marmara which killed nine of her fellow aid volunteers.

I turn and catch up with Nicci. I want to know something. I ask: “Why on earth would you come back again?”

“Because every day people in Gaza go through the same and more,” she replies. “We must stay focused, reminding ourselves of the trauma these people suffer every day.”

Countless thousands of Gaza’s civilians have been killed and maimed by the Israeli military. 80,000 homes have been destroyed. Basic infrastructure, like water, sewage and power, is crumbling or collapsed. Devastated hospitals cannot get vital medicines and equipment.

Israel is still blockading all exports from Gaza, stopping the free movement of its people, and restricting or banning imports essential to healthcare and rebuilding. Israel’s bombs and missiles rain down on Gaza so often that the world media hardly notices. A ruinous collective punishment has been imposed on even the babies of Gaza.

Staffing our Gaza aid convoy are volunteers from five continents who represent the best instincts of people the world over.

Our Kia Ora Gaza team represent all “fair go” Kiwis. Many of you have already donated to our $100,000 Gaza Appeal.

Now our Kiwi volunteers need a little more of your help. We still have $10,000 to go to reach our $100,000 fundraising target.

This last $10,000 is vital to cover unbudgeted costs on the road. And to get a little bit in the bank to meet emergencies as we close in on Gaza.

The Kiwi Team is playing a major role in making our humanitarian mission a success. But we need a bit more help from folks at home to bankroll our work in the field.

Together we can help Gaza. Please donate now.

Viva Palestina project director Nicci Enchmarch with Kiwi Team captain Roger Fowler (left) and his deputy Chris van Ryn

Labour’s new GST policy step in right direction

Tax Justice media release
27 September 2010

“Labour is taking a step in the right direction if they're going to campaign for the removal of GST from fresh fruit and vegetables,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

“The fact that Labour is re-thinking its GST policy, after previously rejecting any changes to GST prior to the 2008 General Election, is testimony to how strongly grassroots people feel about this issue,” says Gunson. “The weight of public opinion can't be ignored.”

“For most Kiwis it’s immoral that food should be made more expensive by a tax,” says Gunson. “Especially at a time when food prices are going through roof and people are really struggling.”

“So Labour’s announcement is welcomed, because it puts another dent in the sanctity of GST, which proponents of this regressive tax have tried so hard to maintain,” says Gunson.

“The Tax Justice campaign, launched in May this year, will continue to fight for the removal off GST from food,” says Gunson. “And to ensure enough government revenue for public services we’re advocating that financial speculation be taxed instead. This hugely damaging economic activity is currently untaxed, which is a gross injustice.”

The focus of the Tax Justice campaign is a petition calling on parliament to: 1) Remove GST from food; and 2) Tax financial speculation.

“Taking GST off food would deliver a bigger tax cut than most of us will be getting from the National government on 1st October,” says Gunson.

“Thanks to National’s GST increase, a family spending $200 a week on food after 1st October will be paying GST of $26.09,” says Gunson. “Take the GST off and you’ve got a substantial tax cut, which would offer some relief at the supermarket for many New Zealanders,” says Gunson.

To protest the GST increase, Tax Justice supporters will be collecting signatures around the country on Friday 1st October and Saturday 2nd October.

“We expect to get a very positive response,” says Gunson. “And we’d welcome Labour Party members giving us a hand.”

Over 12,000 signatures have been collected for the Tax Justice petition. Over 2,600 people like the ‘No GST on food’ Facebook page.

See also these recent media releases:


John Key's other New Zealand flag: "The Land of 15% GST" (23 September).

Tax cuts will be wiped out by food price bubble (26 September 2010).

For more information on the campaign go to www.nogstonfood.org

Tax cuts will be wiped out by food price bubble

Speculation by big banks, hedge funds and other financial parasites is forcing up food prices.

Tax Justice media release
26 September 2010

“There’s concern worldwide that another global food crisis is upon us,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator. “The price of food is set to go through the roof, like it did in 2008.”

New Zealand Institute of Economic Research chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub predicts food price inflation in New Zealand to hit 10 per cent by the end of the year, which will wipe out National’s meager tax cuts for low and middle income earners. (See Rising prices to offset October tax cuts)

In response to the food crisis the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation held an emergency meeting last week in Rome. Olivier De Schutter, the UN’s special rapporteur on food, says the high food prices can only be explained by the emergence of a “speculative bubble”. (See UN warned of major new food crisis at emergency meeting in Rome)

“The statements coming from the UN about the food price bubble are of extreme concern,” says Gunson. “The UN is pointing the finger at the banks, hedge funds and other speculators who are behind the soaring food commodity prices.”

“The last time food prices were caught up in a bubble there were food riots around the world,” says Gunson. “And the number of people suffering from malnutrition globally spiked from 800 million to one billion.” (See The Food Crisis and Food Security: Towards a New World Food Order?)

“We felt the pain here in 2008, too. And we’re still coping with high food prices,” says Gunson.

“That’s because food prices at the supermarket haven’t fallen back to their pre-bubble levels. It’s the nature of the market for supermarket chains and other food producers and distributors to want to hold prices high to maximise profits.”

“New Zealanders need urgent relief from food stress,” says Gunson. “Removing GST from food, as the Tax Justice campaign is advocating, would be a good start.”

“And then we need to do our bit to stamp out speculation, on food and everything else,” says Gunson.

“These global greedies are manipulating the world economy for their own ends, while the rest of us suffer the fallout.”

“Making profits from an activity that impoverishes others – or worse – is a crime against humanity,” says Gunson.

As well as pushing for the removal of GST from food, the Tax Justice campaign is calling for financial speculation to be taxed. Speculators operating in the New Zealand economy currently pay no tax on their wheeling and dealing.

“Compare speculators paying zero tax to people having to pay tax on food and you see that there’s a core injustice at the heart of New Zealand’s tax system,” says Gunson.

“The National government and the opposition Labour Party are either ignorant of the problem, or they’re happy for this shocking injustice to continue.”

The Tax Justice campaign is in the early stages of founding a nationwide network of supporters and activists. “We’re building up for a determined campaign,” says Gunson, “that will force the politicians to listen.”

Since the Tax Justice campaign was launched a few months ago 12,000 people have signed a petition calling for GST to be removed from food and financial speculation to be taxed. “Our experience is that wherever the Tax Justice petition is taken it’s proven very popular,” says Gunson.

On 1-2 October, Tax Justice supporters are going to be out in force around the country collecting signatures to protest the National government increasing GST to 15%.

For more information on the campaign go to www.nogstonfood.org.

For comment, contact

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
021-0415 082
svpl@xtra.co.nz

Victor Billot
Tax Justice media spokesperson
021-482 219
victor@victorbillot.com

UN report exposes BBC bias against Palestine

by Grant Morgan  
Co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza
23 September 2010


A panel of experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council has slammed Israel for raiding a Gaza aid flotilla last May, saying its military forces killed and tortured humanitarian volunteers in breach of international law.

“The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel toward the flotilla passengers,” the UN panel declared, “demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality.”

The three UN human rights experts who found the Israeli raid “clearly unlawful” are:

• Former UN war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva.
• Trinidad judge Karl Hudson-Phillips.
• Malaysian women’s rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam.

The findings of these internationally respected human rights experts contradicts the thrust of a recent BBC Panorama story titled ‘Death in the Med’. 

This BBC story, filmed in partnership with the secretive Israeli commandos who stormed the flotilla, suggested that the civilian aid workers were the aggressors, not the victims of an unlawful and brutal action by overwhelming military forces.

In effect, the UN report exposes untruthful bias in the BBC story.

And here are two further exposures of the pro-Israeli propaganda themes in the Panorama film:

Expose Panorama bias (click to read)

Kia Ora Gaza - Breaking the siege of Palestine

The Kia Ora Gaza team and the entire Viva Palestina 5 convoy continues its way through Europe. Daily reports are featuring on the Kia Ora Gaza website.

I thought the following summary by Omar Hameed as Socialist Aotearoa was particularly pertinent.

It’s sickening to watch the Delhi Commonwealth games descends into utter shambles and absurdity with pampered athletes moaning about their (obviously unclean) accomodation in a country where the population of people living in slums is set to be 93.06 million next year.

23 times the population of Aotearoa living in houses without access to drinking water, toilets or drainage and yet the major story is that the building dust hasn’t been cleaned out of the bathrooms. For many Indians it would be nice just to have a bathroom.

On the other hand one Kiwi team we should be all cheering for is the Kia Ora Gaza crew, trekking their way across Europe on the way to break the siege of Palestine. With nearly $90k of their $100k target raised these activists have strengthened and demonstrated the support for the Palestinian people in this country.

As Chris Van Ryn, one of the activists on board the convoy described life on the road,

It’s hard. It’s stressful. It’s uncomfortable.

And it’s so worth doing.

We’re here to do a job, not have a party. Our focus is to supply aid to suffering people in Gaza and break the globally condemned Israeli siege. That’s the thread binding our convoy together. For a month we put aside our own needs for the much greater needs of oppressed Palestinians.

The closer we get to Gaza, the stronger our feeling for the one-and-a-half million people imprisoned on that small strip of land. We feel their plight.

Hundreds of determined people being supported by thousands of ordinary people around the world, united in their determination to rebuild international co-operation and solidarity between people through hard work and shared physical hardship. You won't find it at the Commonwealth games but you will find it with the courageous volunteers on the road to Palestine. This is one team to keep an eye on this spring.

Dear supporter of justice for grassroots people

23 September 2010

Tax Justice petition stalls like this one are planned around the country on Friday 1st October and Saturday 2nd October.

On 1st October GST will rise to 15%. To protest the increase of this most regressive tax, a Double Day of nationwide signature collecting for the Tax Justice petition is being organised on 1-2 October.

We're being ambitious and going for 10,000 signatures in two days, to go on top of the 12,000 signatures we've collected since the campaign was launched.

The Tax Justice petition requests parliament to 1) Remove GST from food; and 2) Tax financial speculation. These two demands address the fundamental injustice in New Zealand's tax system. Food, a necessity of life, is taxed, while financial speculation, which is hugely damaging to the economy and the lives of grassroots people, goes untaxed.

YOU CAN HELP THE CAMPAIGN

Contact me straight away if you can help collect signatures in your area on Friday 1st October and Saturday 2nd October. Email Vaughan svpl@xtra.co.nz, or ph/txt 021-0415 082.

Or just take it upon yourself to print off copies of the petition and get your friends, family and workmates to sign. To download the Tax Justice petition click here.

If you do collect signatures on 1-2 October, please email or txt me your tally by Sunday 3 October, so that your efforts can be added to the national total that will be presented to the media.

Your assistance will help keep the twin demands of the Tax Justice campaign in the public eye. The more signatures we get the more attention the media will have to give the campaign and our demands.

Political opportunities will likely flow from increased media exposure and the growing army of signatories and active supporters. Those opportunities could be converted by left forces into broad and popular opposition to the attacks on grassroots people being made by John Key's National government.

For more information on the Tax Justice campaign go to www.nogstonfood.org.

Join the campaign on Facebook, go http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/No-GST-on-food/119541161411953?ref=ts 2,461 people already have.

We value any feedback on the campaign and where it's going. Contact us if you have some ideas.

In solidarity,

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
021-0415 082
svpl@xtra.co.nz

“John Key’s other New Zealand flag”

Tax Justice media release
23 September 2010

Last year, prime minister John Key got a lot of media attention for his pen drawing of what he thought a new national flag for New Zealand should look like. He drew a silver fern.

“John Key should have drawn something that better reflected what his government had in store for grassroots New Zealanders,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

“Because on 1st October a long black cloud will descend on the lives of many New Zealanders when GST goes up to 15%.”

“The GST hike will disproportionately effect low and middle income earners who spend all their income each week on the basics,” says Gunson.

“Once you factor in inflation and stagnant wages, the GST increase will wipeout the meager tax cuts most people get from the National government’s tax changes,” says Gunson.

“While high income earners who save and invest a higher proportion of their incomes, and therefore don’t incur GST, will effectively be paying a lower rate of tax.”

“The injustice is then compounded, because it’s the same people who pay less GST as a proportion of their income who get by far the most from National’s income tax cuts,” says Gunson.

On paper the calculations look like this: someone earning $15 an hour will be $4.13 better off from the tax changes, while someone earning four times as much – $106,080 annually – will have $43.08 more in their pay packet. Your average CEO earning $265,200 will be richer by a whopping $153.92 a week (Source: Bill Rosenberg, Council of Trade Unions economist and policy director).

“As a result of National’s tax changes the rich will have more money to save and invest, allowing them to get richer, thus increasing the already terrible wealth divide in New Zealand,” says Gunson.

The Tax Justice campaign is proposing a fair alternative. The focus of the campaign is petition requesting parliament to:

1) Remove GST from food; and
2) Tax financial speculation.

“Taking GST off food would deliver a tax cut that wouldn’t be unfairly tilted in favour of the rich,” says Gunson. “A family spending $200 a week on food after 1st October will be paying GST of $26.09. Take the GST off food and you’ve got a tax cut more substantial than most of us are going to get from National’s tax changes.”

To protest the GST increase, Tax Justice supporters will be collecting signatures around the country on Friday 1st October and Saturday 2nd October.

“We expect to get a very positive response,” says Gunson. “We will significantly add to the 12,000 signatures we’ve already collected.”

Go to www.nogstonfood.org for more Tax Justice media releases and articles on the campaign.

For comment, contact:

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
(09)433 8897
021-0415 082
svpl@xtra.co.nz


Victor Billot
Tax Justice media spokesperson
021-482 219
victor@victorbillot.com

Savings? That’s a laugh

By Peter de Waal

On 27 April this year the 6pm TV3 News reported:

  60% earn under 40,000 per annum

  88.1% earn less than 70,000 per annum

  6.8% earn 70,000 – 100,000 per annum

  5.1% earn over 100,000 per annum

The average rent for a two bedroom house in Auckland is $400/a week or $20,800 a year. For the “average” worker (see above) earning $45,000 per annum before tax, $20,800 a year represents 46% of gross income in rent alone.

Once you deduct income tax at 33%, and the extra 10% tax paid for your Student Loan on top of that (the uneducated seldom earn $45,000 per annum) what’s left for food, power, phone, car payments, etc?

International guidelines say any rental or mortgage payments over 33% of gross family income constitute true poverty and hardship. Who can raise a family, pay the vastly inflated rents or mortgage and have any money left over at the end of the week on figures like those?

Most people’s earnings are 25-50% of what they were 25 years ago in inflation-adjusted terms. So it’s a bit rich for Mike Heath – the wealthy banker from Rabo Direct, to chide workers for “failing to save” when people like him have spent the last 25 years grinding down wage and salary earners incomes in order to save the capitalist system from itself.

Persecution of Roma worsens in Europe

By Tony Iltis
From Green Left Weekly
Saturday, September 4, 2010

Romani people face off riot police during a rally in Montreuil, France. The French government deported hundreds of Roma in August for ‘threatening public order’. 

In scenes reminiscent of the Nazi German occupation, French police rounded up almost 1000 Romani people (sometimes called Gypsies) in August and deported them to Romania and Bulgaria. 

The mass deportations were foreshadowed by President Nicolas Sarkozy in July in a series of inflammatory speeches in which he accused Romani people of being in an “unacceptable situation of lawlessness” linked to “illicit trafficking, deeply unworthy living conditions and exploitation of children for begging, prostitution or crime”.

Romani camps across France were bulldozed and Roma with Romanian or Bulgarian citizenship were given a choice of “voluntary repatriation” (with a payment of 300 euros to each adult and 100 euros for each child) or being deported for “threatening public order”.

On August 31, an administrative court in Lille blocked the deportation of seven Roma, casting doubt on the legality of the “threatening public order” pretext. Romania and Bulgaria have been European Union members since 2007, giving their citizens the right of free movement between EU countries. 

The legality of the deportations has also been questioned by EU and United Nations human rights agencies, as well as Amnesty International.

The Roma are Europe’s largest minority, estimated at between 5 million and 9 million. They have historically faced appalling treatment — subjected to slavery, mass deportations, exclusion and violent pogroms. 

New aid convoy sets off for Gaza

Here’s some international media coverage of the Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza, which of course includes Kia Ora Gaza. Daily updates from the Kiwi Team are now appearing on their website. They’re currently in Paris.


From Al Jazeera

Last Modified: 19 Sep 2010 01:29 GMT

Organisers say the Viva Palestina 5 is the biggest aid convoy ever bound for the Gaza Strip [File: GALLO/GETTY]

A new convoy of vehicles has set off from the UK carrying humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, more than three months after nine people were killed in another attempt to break an Israeli blockade on the Strip.

The Viva Palestina 5 convoy, which departed from London on Saturday, will be joined by participants from a number of countries before it eventually attempts to cross the Rafah border from Egypt into the besieged Palestinian territory.

Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from London, said organisers of the trip say the attempt is the biggest and most international aid convoy ever bound for Gaza.

“By the time the convoy reaches the Strip it will have grown from 15 vehicles to 150 - picking up support across Europe and the Arab world,” she said.

“Most of the journey will be over land, but the aid will be transferred to ships for transportation between Syria and Egypt.

“The aid workers hope to deliver their supplies through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza early next month.”


Deadly raid remembered

Members of the convoy have planned to hold a remembrance ceremony as they pass the spot where Israeli troops conducted a deadly raid on another aid flotilla destined for Gaza on May 31.

Nine pro-Palestinian activists - eight Turks and a dual US-Turkish citizen - were killed when Israeli troops boarded the Mavi Marmara ship.

Israel has insisted its commandos resorted to force after they were attacked on the deck of the boat, but activists on board say the soldiers opened fire as soon as they landed.

Organisers of the Viva Palestina convoy said the actions of the Israeli army against the flotilla brought a change in international opinion against the seige on Gaza.

“Far from deterring people from seeking to bring that siege to an end, the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla is spurring on even more people to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and to end the blockade,” the group said in a statement on its website.

“As a result Viva Palestina is launching ‘Viva Palestina 5 - a global lifeline to Gaza’ … in conjunction with convoys leaving from Casablanca and Doha and timed to coordinate with a larger and even more international flotilla aiming to reach Gaza by sea at the same time as the land convoys reach by land.”


Gaza closed off

Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after the Palestinian group Hamas movement took control of the territory.

Gaza has been closed to virtually all supplies, and Palestinians inside the territory have had to deal with food shortages, lengthy power cuts and no cooking gas.

Israel has since eased its land border restrictions with the territory to allow through more civilian goods.

But construction materials remain heavily restricted, Gazans have very limited freedom of movement, and Israel still enforces a naval blockade on the territory.

Action for Christchurch East: post earthquake residents rally

From Angela Wasley
Avonside resident

Hi all,

Action for Christchurch East is a group founded by concerned and frustrated Christchurch residents and volunteers keen to assist with the effects of the September 2010 earthquake.

Due to the unknown status of some neighbourhoods and lack of answers and necessary support for homeowners and residents in the eastern suburbs.

Although we recognise that resources are stretched and everything seems to be full steam ahead with the assessment of grounds and buildings as per the local councils ability, there are many who do not qualify for help from local government agencies or earthquake fund due to massive waiting lists for structural assessements and overloading of current systems.

There are many areas still without sewerage or drainage, some also no water or power.

Post earthquake ‘Tour of Shame’: 2 down, 2 to go

The threat of a picket and bad publicity was enough to pressure brand-conscious Subway to lean on it’s biggest Christchurch franchisee and get them to “do the right thing” and pay their staff for time lost in the wake of the earthquake.

Reading cinema too, called for negotiations with Unite, so we didn’t picket them either. Although their change of heart was late enough that the leaflets (below) had already been printed.

That left Garden City Bowls (pictured) and ISS First Security. Will one picket be enough? Or will we have to come back on bowling night?

‘Pass with care’ – A short photo essay on the imagery of local body elections

By Grant Brookes

It could be Anytown. NZ. For the last month, the city’s been awash with billboards of politicians and would-be politicians. Median strips, grass verges and traffic islands are a sea of wooden frames and images.

They all look the same. Smiling photos of men wearing ties. Women in expensive outfits. “Vote Jim for experience”, “vote Jane for change”.

The same handful of words combine into slightly different slogans – “caring for”, “listening to”, “working had for”, “you”, “the community”. But the faces tell the real story. It’s all about “me”, the candidate. Me, me, me.


‘Visual pollution’

I’ve door-knocked along this stretch of road at election time. I found locals were angry. As one man told me on the doorstep, they come into our neighbourhood and put up their signs without asking us. “It’s visual pollution”, he said, bitterly.

The business politicians have got the money to do it and the law on their side. They don’t need to ask. The people who say they “care” and “listen” are really invaders. An occupying army, marching in columns one in front of the other, who impose themselves on the locals and put their stamp all over the land.

Different

But this is not Anytown. It’s Lower Hutt, home to a new grassroots coalition called VAN – Valley Action Network. In case you hadn’t guessed, that’s the group I belong to.

We’re not politicians. We’re trade unionists, environmentalists and community activists. We decided early on that although we were standing for election, we weren’t going to start acting like  politicians. We resolved in 2007 that our billboards would only go on up on fences, where people told us they wanted them. And they wouldn’t even have a picture of the candidate. Our billboards were not about personalities. They were about the issues facing grassroots Hutt residents.

Staring back

“We don’t really notice them”. That's what a person in this house told me, when I asked her what she thought of all the billboards on the council land opposite her house, in the background. Two doors down, another person told me exactly the same thing.

Political scientists spend whole careers puzzling over dwindling voter participation rates in elections. But there’s no puzzle. The billboards of the politicians aren’t saying anything meaningful to the residents of this suburb, which ranks with the “most deprived” in the country according the Ministry of Health. The residents know they’re being sold lies. Switching off is a healthy option.

But these people chose another healthy option. Staring back from their fence are VAN billboards, with loud messages for the “caring”, “listening” “hardworking” Hutt City Councillors on the grass behind.

They still can’t get it right

Driving round Lower Hutt this month, there do appear to be a few more billboards on fences. “Do you think they’re learning from us?”, another VAN activist asked me.

I think they did notice the impact of our 2007 billboard campaign, when it was obvious that we were the ones with roots in the community, we were the ones who respected the local people enough to ask their permission to put up billboards.

But this is what happens when it’s the landlord – not the tenant – who’s in charge of what goes on the fence.

“For sale”, says the sign. Alongside, current and former figures from the National Party, the conservative Christian wing of United Future and the Labour Party rub shoulders. Their fence billboards usually sit on the side of commercial buildings, vacant properties, and large blocks of flats (as in this photo). Speaks volumes. Fake community roots.

‘Pass with care’

This is my favourite image of all. Staring back at the flashly-dressed councillors in the background is another message on a fence. To begin with, the Samoan family in the house weren’t going to let us put a billboard up. “I used to do it for the Alliance Party”, said the matriarch of the house. “But this lot”, she said, waving towards the ones over the road, “I have nothing to do with any of them”.

But for me it’s the traffic sign on the back of the parked truck, and the pointing arrow, that tops the image off. “Pass with care”, indeed.

Door-knocking just down the road, I came across another response to the billboards.

“They're just more people I don’t know”, said one woman. “They could be another David Garrett”, she added, referring to the disgraced and disgraceful ACT MP.

Funny she mentioned that. Did she know, I asked her, that the man in the yellow billboard (a current councillor) was a leading light in the ACT Party? The architect of their Treaty Policy, in fact.

Of course she didn’t know that. How could she know that our council is stuffed with ACT and National Party hacks, lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and business lobbyists, or that many of the challengers are local figures in the Labour Party? The billboards tell us nothing at all about what they really stand for.

I liked the “pass with care” image so much, I took another one.

For more info on VAN – Valley Action Network, visit:

http://www.huttvan.org.nz/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128328787200169

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Today was, as I’m sure you all know, International Talk Like A Pirate Day, so to celebrate, here’s one of David Rovics’s many pirate songs, this one’s for kids:

John Minto: A simple question from a taxpayer

By John Minto
from Frontline

The Christchurch earthquake has (quite rightly) knocked several important issues from the front pages and off the TV news. Now that the worst appears to be over, it's time to revisit those issues - the most pressing of which is the biggest corporate bailout in New Zealand history.

There are many questions demanding answers after taxpayers forked out $1.7 billion to buy debt-laden South Canterbury Finance. For example, last week I was sent information suggesting one individual bought $17 million in SCF bonds at 20 per cent of their face value as the company, in its dying days, desperately tried to raise funds to stay afloat. It seems this money was invested in the names of various entities rather than in one person's name and because SCF went into receivership the government deposit guarantee scheme means this individual will be paid out at the full 100 per cent value of the bonds. A bit of arithmetic shows a payout at $85 million - or $68 million profit, courtesy of taxpayers, after just a few weeks.

My question to Finance Minister Bill English is simple. Is this just water cooler gossip or is it true?

Kia Ora Gaza departure from TVNZ’s Te Karare Maori news

Kia Ora Gaza: Kiwi Team has arrived safely in London

Kia Ora Gaza newscast
16 September 2010

KIWI TEAM HAS ARRIVED SAFELY

Our Kiwi Team to Gaza has arrived safely in London. Tomorrow the six of them will pick up their aid vehicles.

You can send your best wishes to Roger Fowler (captain), Chris van Ryn (vice-captain), Julie Webb-Pullman, Pat O’Dea, Mousa Taher and Hone Fowler.

Just email your goodwill messages to grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz and they will be forwarded to our team.


BEST TV COVERAGE OF DEPARTURE

The best TV coverage of our Kiwi Team’s departure on Tuesday comes from TVNZ’s Te Karare Maori news programme. Click here:

http://www.turkcemp4.com/qW1qVg9KtIw/Kia-Ora-Gaza-group-to-deliver-aid-to-the-needy-of-Gaza.izle



LAST LAP OF FUNDING MARATHON

Kia Ora Gaza is now on the last lap of our fundraising marathon. Big thanks to all the generous people who have donated.

Over the last two months we’ve raised $85,000 of our $100,000 target.

We urgently need that last $15,000, or more, in order to build an Emergency Reserve Fund.



DONATE NOW TO EMERGENCY FUND

Our Emergency Reserve Fund will help our brave Kiwi volunteers get out of almost certain dangers and difficulties on their hazardous road to Gaza.

Please donate NOW to our Emergency Reserve Fund. Go to kiaoragaza.net to see how to donate.



AND IF A SURPLUS IS LEFT OVER?

What happens if, through the generosity of Kiwis like yourself, a surplus is left over in our Kia Ora Gaza account?

That surplus will stay safely in our bank account until the following Gaza aid mission, when it will be used to kickstart that next humanitarian convoy. All your donations will find their way to Gaza to help its suffering citizens.

Kia Ora Gaza is a Charitable Trust registered under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957. All our accounts are audited by a professional auditor (donating his services free) who is independent of our Board of Trustees.


INVITATION TO KIWI TEAM LINKUP

This coming Tuesday Kia Ora Gaza is holding a public meeting at Auckland University.

Here we plan to hold a skype linkup with our six-person Kiwi Team, who will by then be three days into their historic mission to Gaza. While this skype linkup is not certain, because of technical difficulties, we will do our best to make it happen.

Aucklanders are invited to our meeting:  start 5pm on Tuesday, 21 September, at the Cap n’ Gown Lounge, adjacent to the university quad.

For more precise directions, email Michael Lai at battybattybot@hotmail.com



I hope to see you Tuesday,

Grant Morgan

Co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza
021 2544 515
grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
kiaoragaza.net

‘Tour of shame’ to target unscrupulous employers in earthquake hit city

TOUR OF SHAME!


On Sunday 19th Sept Unite Union will be conducting lightning pickets across the city of Christchurch to name and shame the unscrupulous employers that have put profit before the welfare of their staff during the aftermath of the 7.1 earthquake.

“Just like the people of Christchurch, most companies have behaved amazingly well, whilst there are those individuals who have chosen to act appallingly during this uncertain time.”  Said Matt Jones, Christchurch Unite Organiser

“Subway, Garden City Bowl, First Security and Reading Cinema can expect a loud and noisy picket outside their premises this weekend. John Key put the responsibility firmly on the shoulders of larger businesses to look after their staff, the mentioned companies made the decision to ignore this advice and will now reap the consequences.” said Mr Jones.

Staff have worked under duress, were refused leave, denied payment during site closures - forcing them to use annual leave to cover the shortfall, whilst offers of counselling services were few and far between. This has all been in the name of saving money and making a quick buck.

“Companies trading in fast food, retail, hotels, education, security and cinemas have risen to the challenge, it is a real shame that members of Unite Union and the wider community have been let down by just a handful of nasty employers.” Said Matt Jones.

The pickets begin from midday Sunday at the Subway between Subway corner of Barbadoes St and Cashel St where the tour will continue across the city.

ENDS


Matt Jones | Christchurch & Nelson organiser

Website: www.unite.org.nz
Email: matthew(at)unite.org.nz

John Minto: Key teaches class-quake lessons

By John Minto
from Frontline

It took three days but it was a welcome announcement from Prime Minister John Key that the government will meet some wage costs for Christchurch workers in small businesses (less than 20 employees) who are unable to work because of the earthquake.

Key's payment plan expects to help around 10,000 workers meaning an initial cost of $15 million. It sounds a lot but it's a piddle in the pool compared to the eye-popping sums we are likely to hear before the end of the week when the government announces its first comprehensive rebuilding plans.

The government will provide $350 a week for the next four weeks and John Key hopes employers will top up the pay to each worker's usual rate when they are unable to work. In general terms (and yes there will be exceptions) companies are more easily able to withstand the financial shock of four weeks without work than are families which struggle to make ends meet in our chronic low-pay economy.