Te Mana

Hone Harawira at the Te Mana party hui

The appearance of Te Mana on New Zealand’s political scene is an exciting development for the working class and politics in general, but it has left many socialist organisations confused. OGNA believes that while it is a good thing and we must use it while it’s there, its working class identity is as much of a facade as parliamentary politics on the whole.

Hone Harawira split from the Maori party due to his former party’s relationship with National. Hone was highly critical of the Foreshore and Seabed Act and his comments, in which he called the coalition with National more important than the commitment to Maori over the issue, eventually led to his resignation from the Maori party. He had proved the only class-conscious left-wing voice in the Maori party, interested in Maori and class. When the by-election was called, he received flak from National and the media saying that it was a waste of tax-payer money. As Hone said, it is “hardly an expense in terms of democracy”. On the 25th of June Hone regained his seat in parliament as leader of Te Mana, winning the election with a significant 8% advantage. The Maori party was relegated to a mere 9% of votes.

Te Mana is needed in the current political spectrum. Hone is pro-worker and Te Tai Tokerau are aware of this. The Maori party on the other hand have started to lose their niche. Maori, in their vast majority are working class; they live in the poorer suburbs or areas of the countries and still now a disparity between Maori and Pakeha levels of education exists. The Maori party has failed to represent the working class sector of the Maori population. Hone and Te Mana however, are set to create a pro-Maori and pro-working class party. They note in their kaupapa that “ordinary New Zealanders are starving, workers are being forced into slavery by the 90-day bill, and Maori rights are being drowned in the Raukumara Basin”[1]. Te Mana doesn’t just represent Maori interests, it represents the interests of the working class, in other words the majority of New Zealanders, because Maori are an important and significant part of this working class.

There is no party in parliament currently that can actually say it truly represents the working class. National and Labour serve capital and neo-liberal economics, thus hurting the majority of Kiwis with lower pay, worse representation in terms of unions, increased fears of job loss; all in the name of recession or austerity. At the same time though we are seeing tax subsidies and tax cuts for a few, as well as a destruction of our services of education and our environment. Te Mana is focussed on rebalancing the scales, it wants to put ‘class’ back into the agenda. The Labour Party and the Greens are losing support to Te Mana. Sue Bradford, Matt McCarten, John Minto, Mike Treen and Annette Sykes have all joined Hone, they have long fought for the working class, green politics and Maori identity. Hone is also helping to set up a much-needed activist youth force, Mana Rangatahi.

OGNA stands in support of Te Mana, we must remember though that while Mana does represent the interests of the working class, so did Labour once, so did the Maori Party, the Alliance and so do the Greens. It is key that Te Mana continues its quest to protect workers and Maori but at the end of the day it is yet another cog in the system. Parliament is focussed on reform, it will never achieve full equality or justice for the working class. OGNA believes there is the danger that socialist organisations will lose their way supporting Te Mana, capitalism can only be changed through a movement by the workers and for the workers. We need to empower communities and unions that will be able to unite people in the struggle nationally and internationally. Reforms will never end up achieving economic justice; the workers do not receive what they work for, they are oppressed and forced to slave in the interest of bosses and under the duty of nationalism. We must overcome these restrictions. In order to achieve a socialist society, one that belongs to the working class and through it everyone else, workers must unite to achieve a socialist revolution, which will only succeed if it is non-violent.

 

D. F. Benson-Guiu

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[1] http://mana.net.nz/kaupapa-vision/

The Arab Spring and the triumf of Non-Violent Action

The Arab spring of 2011 has changed the Middle East and the world. Ordinary people have lost their fear and shattered the perception that their rulers are invincible and that it is impossible to overthrow dictators without arms. Whatever happens next, the changes across the region in the first few months of 2011 have proven themselves historic as they show that revolution is possible.

It all started in Tunisia with mass protests in December last year. These were triggered by the self-immolation of a 26-year-old vegetable seller, Mohammed Bouazizi, after he was abused by police and had his only form of income, a box of vegetables and a pair of scales, confiscated. The protests continued for four weeks and concluded in a way nobody predicted - Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia’s president for the past 23 years, fled the country.

Tahrir Square occupied

Even though this amazing feat had occurred nobody predicted that it would spread as far as it did with protests and strikes kicking up all over the Middle East. In Egypt the 30-year-old dictatorship of Hosni Mubarek was seen by most as being far too ruthless for protests to succeed in any way- certainly in toppling the dictator. Millions of people took to the streets after posters on university campuses called for a non-violent protest and Tahrir square was occupied. The initial demands to topple Mubarek quickly turned into demands for womans rights; fair pay; the right to food ect. After 18 days of protests, Hosni Mubarek was gone.

The fight for liberation in the Middle-East is continuing today. The toppling of Ben Ali and Mubarak is only the start as protests spread and demands for equality and good living conditions continue. Organisation through socialist groups and trade unions is vital in order for everyone to work coherently, nationally and internationally, so they can force the remaining working class out of power and include everyone in society, making links between the causes of all the different struggles across the world. Struggles that are all fighting against a common oppressor - Capitalism and the class system.

Victories like in Egypt and Tunisia that used non-violent action are not new. Throughout history both recent and distant, ordinary people have found innovative and inspiring ways to challenge violent regimes and confront abuses of power: bringing down dictators, changing unjust laws, or simply giving individuals a renewed sense of their own humanity in the face of those who deny it. It goes to show how non-violent tactics can achieve huge advancements even when facing a repressive and brutish state. Violent protests in the Middle East have failed. States use brutal force in such a way and with such power that even if guns are available to the masses, it is impossible to confront. This is true now more than ever with the advanced technology available to states such as Israel and the USA.

Lone protestor stands up to police in Egypt

The main use of violence by the oppressed in the Arab revolutions so far is in Libya where guns were picked up by rebels to fight. They were initially bombed out by the Libyan air-force, of which their guns had no chance of defeating. This then paved the way for NATO forces to walk in on apparently “humanitarian” grounds. The result of this has been huge numbers of civilian deaths, NATO securing key ports that export oil to Europe, and even huge casualties for the rebels. This was a much less constructive method as compared to Egypt, where due to the tactics used by the protesters, through strikes and the occupation of Tahrir square, the protesters had much more control over the country, had must bigger numbers due largely to the lack of violent ideas. Obama, who’s government was an active supporter of Mubarak, was forced to say that it was good that the Egyptians were fighting for democratic rights and was unable to intervene. This differs greatly from the response he and NATO gave in Libya, where people were also fighting for true democracy as in Egypt. The USA’s interests were secured and the Libyan peoples ignored.

Non-violent tactics in Egypt also lead to key members of the army and police joining the protests. It was clear to see that the people in the army, who mostly entered it as members of the working class as a means to survive, could connect to the protesters cause as it was also theirs and their families cause. It is common sense that if these members of the army were being shot at they would be unlikely to react in the same way. This was shown as mention previously with the military in Libya. Does it not seem like common sense that is impossible to win a revolution without the army on side and this will be hard to achieve when you are shooting at them?

The Arab revolutions have shown that when the masses take to the streets and take control of means of production they can revolutionise society, even in the face of hugely repressive forces. They have also helped demonstrate the effectiveness of non-violent action and how it is ultimately more successful than violence. The Arab revolutions came as the result of decades if not centuries of oppression from the ruling classes that ensure members of the poor, working class do not have access to the basic necessities of life. They arose from the spark created by Mohammed Bouazizi but lacked political organizations to unite all of the struggles into one that could unite the masses against their common oppressor with the aim of creating true democracy. This could still happen at any moment and the struggles in the Middle East continue. Removing the dictators was only the first step. The real change that the Arab people are struggling for is yet to come…The fantastic thing is that it has started to.


J.Llewellyn

"Nobody expects the Spanish Revolution": Non-violence hits Europe.

On the 15th of May a movement started in Spain, still active now almost a month later. In this article I will look into the reasons for the movement, these are embedded in history but are also a fruit of the capitalist system. The indignant who claim to be “autonomous” and “a-political”, have been left unemployed by the austerity measures imposed by the IMF. The autonomous and a-political nature of the protests though can be seen as a threat. They are tags imposed on the protesters by the media, protesting is political and the idea of autonomously and coincidentally coming together for the same cause is irrational. Wanting a better future is being  political and mass strikes are one of the many ways to achieve it, what this better future looks like and who envisages it is the key. I will argue that only socialism can achieve a better future for the working class and the majority of the people, but to do this socialists have to be not only involved but also leading the movement with their ideas and experience. This movement is currently not present in Spain to a significant enough degree. As a last point I will talk about socialism’s role in the future struggles of Aotearoa.

This movement did not spring out of nowhere, Spain has a long history of mass movements. In the ‘far-left’, anarchists, communists and socialists had successfully put their ideas into practice on a large scale in the 1930’s. In 1931 Spain got rid of the monarchy and within a couple of years had put the foundations of one of the most ambitious social projects in Europe, with reforms to industry, education, marital laws, religious laws... The government though, intent on keeping control of the power void it created tried to put restrictions onto the social revolution that was taking place. Whole communities became fully independent of the state and fully self-sufficient too. Individuals were no longer subjugated to the orders of the nobility and the church. The government though, run by the new bourgeoise class, was mired with corruption and inefficiency. Ministers were being sworn in and out continuously. Its inability to hand out the benefits Spanish society had been promised and so eagerly needed led to widespread dissatisfaction. Anarcho-syndicalist, socialist and communist ideas were spreading, promising a better society. The rising number of strikes and the powerful union movement derived from these ideas became objectives of a government which had quickly failed. The Spanish republic relied heavily on the old military apparatus, thanks to this the generals, who had interests with the old sources of power saw an opportunity to take control of a state which was on the verge of breaking up, economically (as 7 million Spanish were living in communes by 1936 and factories had been appropriated by the working classes) and politically, as Catalonia and the Basque Country threatened to become independent. The military organised a wide-spread coup d’êtat in August 1936. Even though the Anarchist movement had foretold of the date and time, thanks to its spy network, the Republican government was caught by surprise. The efficiency of workers councils, organised by Anarcho-syndicalists and socialists stopped the fascist coup on its tracks but lead to a bitter civil war.

In short the civil war was a failure on the behalf of the Republic. At the time the European powers were wary of the costs of war so the Republic was left to recuperate a country it never fully controlled by itself- until the USSR got involved. As Franco’s military possessed more arms and had the aid and support of Mussolini and Hitler, the Republic called for the military aid of the USSR. Stalin was opposed to the more democratic nature of the anarcho-syndicalist and socialist troops fighting for the Republic. He actively fought against them, instead of actually fighting the common enemy: Franco. Many anarchists and socialists were executed, if not by Stalin by Franco once he won the war. This decimated the number of Trotskyist and anarcho-syndicalist groups working around the country. The fascist dictatorship, which lasted as long as 40 years in some parts of the country imposed a culture, a history and sense of unity which have only started to be questioned now. To understand Spain now we have to be aware that it has only had 30 years worth of ‘democracy’, moreover its transition to a democratic state took place when the UK and the USA were jumping onto the ideas of neo-liberalism. Spain has had low-salaried jobs for decades, unions have never had much strength since the late thirties and the introduction to the EU in 87 forced it to become even more of a low-wage economy with few incentives for a higher education. Nowadays a ‘good’ job in Spain is one earning a 1000 euros a month and the minimum wage is 624 euros, incomparable to the rest of Europe. In France the minimum wage is above 1350 euros a month. Housing in Barcelona or Madrid can easily cost around 600 euros, add on to that the relatively high price of food, the price of electricity, transport, education... It is no wonder Spanish youths live at home until they’re thirty. Low-paying jobs, high rents, an awful system of education and the constant bombardment of capitalist products makes it difficult, but more so if unemployment is at an average of 21%, 45% for youths. In this aspect Spain resembles Northern Africa, the series of governments have happily abided the orders of the IMF- making Spain a heavily poor and indebted society- a lapdog of US interests since Franco’s time. In the last couple of years there have been job losses in the public sector, cut-backs in education, a raise in the retirement age and some unemployment benefits have been done with.

Where Spain doesn’t resemble Northern Africa though is in the fact that Spain is supposedly democratic. Democracy is relative, when the citizens don’t have any actual input into how society should run, when there are only two parties who represent the same set of companies, when the benefits of society are not reaped by those who overwork for little pay and when the individuals ‘participating’ in the democracy are constantly being lied by media sympathetic and benefited by a system advertised as pluralistic and free; democracy starts to resemble an oligarchy, or a dictatorship by a handful of individuals. Spanish are starting to wake up from their somber mid-day nap to realise they are being robbed. These protests, with protesters ranging from high school kids to grandparents, are against the current parliamentary system.

In the squares the protesters almost seem like an amorphous range of individuals with nothing in common but a desire for a job, a flat and some money. There is no actual, concerted, goal. Some groups within the ‘plataformas’ are demonstrating for a better electoral system while others are wanting to create an actual revolution out of the spurs of fury. The media and the politicians have used this to their advantage. It is hard to find objective news articles in the Spanish press that do not call the protesters anti-system, rebels or “ni-nis”, a term used to describe Spanish youths, who “neither work nor study”. It is also difficult to find news on sites such as the BBC, CNN or even Al-Jazeera; there has been an effective media blackout. The anarchist group FAI, present at the protests, says that though the political and media circles were initially shocked: “Naturally, we couldn’t be hopeful, we knew there was the danger of the situation becoming midiatised: criticising the more radical propositions and reducing the situation to a simple critique of bipartisanship and the financial system without shaking the foundations of the state and capital”[1]. It definitely does look like the media have taken control of the situation to say it is run by the “fringes of society”, this way giving legitimacy to any police or government action. They go on to say that the right has in effect always been in power to differing degrees at different points in time. A case which in Spain is very much true and the Anarchists of FIJA agree, going so far as to say that the current protest movement is “suspicious” and aims to “dissipate frustrations”[2].



 

Similar scenes to those in Tahrir Square earlier in the year are seen in Spain as the revolutionary atmosphere spreads to Europe– a situation nobody would have predicted a few months ago! It goes to show how fast revolution can spread Unfortunately the events in Spain did not attract anywhere as much media coverage as the Arab uprisings.



Although these ideas seem to verge on the side of wacky conspiracy theories, what is true is that political groups and campaigning has been banned. This is because the organisers did not want mainstream parties to use the platforms as a rallying point for the 22nd of May elections (In which by the way the ruling party lost 40% of its vote).FIJA points out that there is an inconsistency with the platforms position as by protesting you are being political, however these protests are not actually imposing too much of a threat to the capitalist system for the time being. The government could simply call for a vote to change the electoral system, thus appeasing many of the present.

These two anarchist groups are calling for a social revolution: “a radical change at all levels to decentralise politics and the economy through direct action”. These two groups have been involved in the protests, the direct action they call for verges on the IST idea of an armed insurrection. At OGNA we agree that political organisations should be able to show a presence at the protests but we disagree with armed insurrection: this will only alienate the majority of the ‘indignados’, who are admittedly apolitical individuals. Socialists though have not had much of a say. En Lucha, a trotskyist organisation, has had some involvement, mainly in Madrid, but other than that there are many groups that are even rejecting to participate- as the ideas held by the organisers are reformist. These groups that are against participating are Stalinist and their position is similar to that taken by Stalinist groups in Greece a couple of years ago. In our view, it is upto socialists to point out the injustices of the system and call for a concerted struggle against the ruling top echelon. We have to point out that unions “signed agreements with the ruling Socialist Party which attacked workers’ rights. [Making] it easier to sack people, attack[ing] pensions and rais[ing] the retirement age.[3]” At the same time though we have to prove that unions are the only protection mechanism the working class has and that it is through the cooperation amongst unions that we will achieve an educated proletariat ready to confront the government non-violently. What’s more, we have to show that this recession is an inevitable downfall of capitalism, it will happen again in 10 years time and again and again until we defeat the system, worldwide.

Socialists in Spain have hitherto not seen the potential of these protests. One month on and we still have people on the streets, still largely ignored by politicians and the media. Although recently police have been more violent against the peaceful gatherers. The youths in Spain, like in Tunisia and Egypt, have nothing to lose as they admit they cannot see a future as a part of capitalism. The potential lies in how far Marxist ideas can be spread. As a general rule the protesters see the problem as lying in the system. For now though they have been given no alternatives. As the days go on, numbers are stagnating. While the police violence used to get rid of protesters in Barcelona caused them to come back in multiplied numbers, after a couple of hours the protest was back to its usual size[4]. The failure of socialist organisations to see the importance of these protests and also to show up with significant numbers is a key to the slow decimation of the movement.

Only with the spread of socialist ideas can the movement increase in size and span.Youths are unemployed and furious. Quite reasonably, Spanish workers are disenchanted with unions, it is up to socialists though to prove the unions’ worth. Spain has been hit hard by the IMF, but only because it is in the interest of capitalism to seek for profit instead of humanity. Socialists should use the platform to spread their ideas to youths and to workers, this way we can achieve a conscious working class. Socialists must also promote ideas of tolerance in terms of sex, sexuality and immigration- the inability of Spanish society to accept these is a remnant of fascist Spain. It is curious to see how little immigrant involvement there has been, compared to their percentage of the population. We must also see the spread of ideas as the only way to achieve an equal and fair world system. Spreading the ideas through Spain will push the ideas to Portugal, France and Central Europe. For now Greek and Italian ‘indignados’ have already started to protest.

For OGNA, the only way forward for Spain is to keep the protests strong and to remain non-violent. Non-violence attracts more followers and non-violent direct action is much more difficult for governments to confront. There has been talk of dismantling the platforms, in Barcelona there was a decision to pack up. Even then, 80% of tents are still pitched[5]. We think this is a mistake, these platforms provide the opportunity to express the widespread dissatisfaction society feels and the symbolic presence in central squares of cities across Spain will be like a thorn constantly jabbing the ribs of the politicians. It will be a forum for debate. Breaking up the presence counts as a victory for the ruling class, a pat on the back of the policemen who have brutally battoned protesters, this way showing the true nature of democracy in Europe.

In New Zealand the situation would be treated much the same by the media, for this reason it is up to unions and revolutionary organisations to lay the seeds for revolution and disseminate the truths of who does and who should hold the power in society. The large number of revolutionary organisations and the emergence of working class oriented unions and parties such as Unite and Mana is a significant development. The situation here is not too indifferent from that in Spain, youth unemployment is at 26% and there are some obviously underprivileged sectors of society, namely Maori and Pacifica. As socialists we have to break down ideas of racism and unite forces across Aotearoa. The government is not supplying jobs and is raising the hurdles to get in to education and for decent health care, it is time for Kiwis to protest too.

If we want a true democracy socialists have to direct the working class, history has shown that privilege belongs to the rulers but it is being handled by the working class, we must take grasp of this privilege and distribute it fairly to society as a whole.

Daniel F. Benson-Guiu.

Kronic Escapism.

It isn’t new to anyone that we can now buy synthetic marijuana from stores down the street. Essentially it could be seen as an example as to what the effects of legalising marijuana would be. First hand I have seen people buy Kronic and all the other brands every night, spending more money than they have on getting high. As we are currently seeing with Kronic, if marijuana became legal, it would become openly accessible to people who would normally not use it. Kronic’s effects seem to be harsher than marijuana’s but little is known for the moment other than it causes “vomiting, drowsiness, chest pain, palpitations and dissociation from reality”, the ODT reports. OGNA is not against the use of marijuana or “synthetic cannabinoids”, however we are interested in the reasons why these drugs are being used.

The government profits from selling cigarettes and alcohol, undoubtedly it must profit from selling Kronic, and the fact that so little information is known and that Kronic packets aren’t labelled with contents or precautions implies the government is earning a lot of money on them. It is in the governments benefit to have the working class, or students as the future one, hooked onto drugs. They benefit economically but they can also use drugs to keep the working class under check. Why do workers drink or smoke pot? Is in search of happiness? While there are social aspects involved with drinking and smoking, the addiction to these drugs fool people into thinking that they are being liberated from the stresses of day-to-day life. Thus people use them more often, at the expense this entails, to escape in search of happiness. What are people fleeing though? If they are fleeing the stresses of education we must look into that, if they are fleeing the bad work conditions they have to submit themselves to at low wages, we must look at that too.

It is true that workers and students have stressful lives. For workers, the low-paid salaries we receive in New Zealand forces us to work longer hours in order to have enough to pay for rent, groceries, education, children etc. Having to balance this with our social lives, children... is definitely not an easy job. For students the increased workload and obligations to succeed that have been put onto us force us to slave away behind books so that we can come out the other end of the manufacturing line with a diploma and a couple of letters in our hand. Then we have to add to the mix the stress of part-time work, student loans and finding jobs. It is no wonder workers and students seek to release themselves and find fleeting instances of happiness through drugs. Here we can see employers shovelling on another duty onto us. We are constantly threatened to work hard so we don’t lose our jobs or in order to be competitive, and then do so again the next day and the next while employers or ministers reap the benefits of our toll.

Employers, under laws such as the ninety day bill, can easily sack workers who are being less and less represented by passive unions. The key to decreasing our dependency on alcohol and marijuana is to build stronger unions that can improve conditions in the work place and gain benefits for students. This can only be achieved through the initiative of the average worker or student. We have to build strong unions that won’t back down, unions concerned with the membership and run democratically from bottom-up. This way we can gain pay increses and improve work conditions which will make our lives outside the workplace happier and more fulfilling.


D. F. Benson-Guiu

A Step Towards Peace in Afghanistan

On the 22nd of June Barack Obama declared victory in Afghanistan. He promised to remove American Troops after a ten year occupation that has achieve little more than the death of thousands of civilians, a few thousand troops, and the waste of more than one trillion dollars. This follows a comment a few weeks prior from General Petraeus, leader of the US forces in Afghanistan, who said “We have managed to reverse some of the Taliban’s momentum,” as if this was a huge accomplishment for the world largest and most well funded army after ten years of killing. He also mentioned that all of the gains made by the US were “fragile and reversible”, a quote that needless to say did not made it into any headlines.

The last ten years in  Afghanistan
After 9/11, US president George Bush, British Prime-minister Tony Blair, along with other Western leaders, claimed the Taliban in Afghanistan, a former US ally, were giving Al Qaida a safe haven. To sell a war to the public the US promoted this alongside the idea that they were going to “Liberate” the people of Afghanistan from the Taliban’s oppression. The Taliban’s treatment of women was spun as a reason to go to war. Laura Bush, George Bush’s wife, and Cherie Blair took to wearing a piece of fabric torn from a burka to symbolise the fight for women’s freedom in Afghanistan. It is true that the Taliban’s treatment of woman was oppressive but it soon became clear that the US were not out to change this when the largest woman’s rights group in Afghanistan, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), talked out against the US invasion and demanded the Western forces leave. They have expressed on may occasions that the conditions woman are subject to are no better, if not worse than was before the invasion; thousands of innocent people have died; there is wider spread corruption than before; and the country’s infrastructure is far worse due to regular bombing raids that have destroyed homes, hospitals, mosques and farms.    

The liberation of the Afghani people was never the aim of the US and NATO. After eight years of US aggression under the banner of “war on terror”, they empowered the most brutal terrorists of the Northern Alliance as well as former Russian puppets and by relying on them, the US imposed a puppet government on the Afghan people. Hamid Karzai, the head of this puppet regime is well known to be deeply corrupt and just works in the interest of the US and former members of the Northern alliance, not for the needs of the Afghan people.

After ten years, 140,000 NATO troops, the vast majority of them from the US, are still in occupation; different commanders-in-chief and imperialist strategies, from troops surge to counter-insurgency,have come and gone; and the Taliban now controls more of the country than it did five years ago. The much-vaunted aim of women’s liberation is rarely mentioned today and violence against women is rife. Twenty girls’ schools were firebombed or destroyed in just six months last year and Karzai recently attempted to push through laws to legalise rape in marriage. This would have also meant women could not leave their homes without their husband’s permission. It is estimated that in Afghanistan there are 1.5 million people suffering from immediate starvation, as well as 7.5 million suffering as a result of the country’s dire situation.



The Stats: Huge numbers of civilian deaths are the result of the US invasion


New Zealand’s Role
The New Zealand Government has played a role in the last ten years of Afghanistan’s history as it has supported the US in is brutal war. This may not be something that you would expect from a country that was ranked one of the world’s most peaceful in the 2010 Global Peace Index (GPI), a publication developed by an international panel of peace experts and published by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

The New Zealand government sent troops to support the US-led invasion of Afghanistan immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Just like the US, the NZ government uses rhetoric about “security” and “fighting terrorism” as a justification for the continued involvement of the NZDF (Defense Force). The language used by the government creates the image of altruistic action by the military. Soldiers are “peacekeepers” sent to do “reconstruction”—which obscures the reality that the Afghani government was installed by the US for economic reasons. If the New Zealand government wanted to do reconstruction work they would send builders, plumbers and engineers, not people trained to kill with guns. In the same way the term “peacekeeping troop” is an oxymoron- guns create the opposite of peace. It was only after the media revealed that the NZSAS (Special Air Service) was there that the government admitted to their involvement. They loudly trumpet the “reconstruction team” as “humanitarian aid” when in fact they are there to prop up the US military occupation.

Research by investigative journalist Nicky Hager makes it clear that the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) have been heavily focused on supporting the US War on Terror since September 11, 2001. When the US switched it’s attention to Iraq, so did we. It seems while New Zealand sits happy at number one on the GPI, our own tax dollars are funding an intelligence operation that supports the very same wars we once condemned.  NZ serves as cog in the war in Afghanistan. Not something you would expect from a “Peaceful Nation”.

 Two examples of the horrific effects of coalition bombing on civilians. On the left, a child who was injured– he is better than many. On the right—many graves are dug after bombs hit.

Current Struggles to Create Peace
This equating of winning a war with “progress” is never questioned by our media or our society. It is simply an implicit part of being involved. If we’re killing more of the enemy than they are of us, it is progress; if we’re not, then we need to try harder to kill more. War as a method of progress is never questioned, just its ‘success’ rate. Progress is in the eye of the war wager. As outlined above this war has not brought progress of any kind. It has only destroyed what progress had been made, and set Afghanistan back for decades to come.

With money and offers of official posts, the US and its Afghan agents have bought many Afghan intellectuals, writers and poets. As a result the media, instead of raising people’s awareness and mobilizing them for pro-independence, pro-democracy and anti-fundamentalism struggle, inflames and fuels ethnic, sectarian and lingual tensions among Afghan people. Any writer in Afghanistan who does not fit with this line, at the least does not get employed, and at the worst is killed. Almost all Western media shows story after story of poor young soldiers who innocently went off to fight and got killed while ignoring the deaths of civilians. But despite what the media is saying inside and outside of Afghanistan people are starting to organize and rise up to demand better lives, free from US imperialism, the Taliban and other warlords. The removal of US troops can only make this easier for them.

Left:  The perfect way to dress for construction work… it looks like this equipment would be much more useful for destruction rather than construction.     Right: So called “Peace-Keeping”

 A couple of these movements have been shown on American news but only ones with small minority extremist movements with guns as this helps to push the US governments agenda - Only groups that are shooting at American troops are shown as the US can use this to justify why they are there and why they shoot people. They neglect to show peaceful movements that are starting to form. A couple of weeks ago the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers marched through Kabul, to the UN headquarters, bearing a banner with a contrary message, “Peace is the prerequisite for any progress”. The alternatives to the great loudness, speed and force of the military is the quiet, slow, patient, painstaking work of relationship building, work which the AYPVs are doing internationally through Global Days of Listening, and locally through letters, the Bamiyan Peace Park, and other creative initiatives. For example, they made mobile phone pouches out of scrap leather, embroidered the word “peace” on them, and sent them with messages of love to students at schools in Kandahar in the south. The rarity of such action was underscored by the incredulous responses they received, such as, “I can’t believe such a love is possible.” One of the inspiring things about the AYPV’s march is that it didn’t just proclaim a different way, it embodied it. As we’ve all seen in the last few years, protests in Afghanistan typically end in violence and often deaths. Yet the presence of riot police didn’t intimidate or incite these young people to retaliate or flee in fear – instead they responded with active love. “Be alive and happy!” they called to police through beaming smiles.

Other peace movements are also starting to gain traction. The National Peace Jirga (assembly) has organized a series of peace assemblies in recent months, drawing thousands of people. The meetings often feature fiery speakers who condemn international forces for killing civilians – but who also criticize the Taliban. This movement is supported by many Afghan run political groups and other non-government organizations such as “Awakened youth” and various women’s rights groups.

Towards a Better Future
Despite the strengths of Afghan peace groups, most are also beset by weaknesses, says Habibullah Rafeh, a political analyst with the Afghanistan Academy of the Sciences. "A lot of these parties are organized along ethnic or tribal lines," he says. The Awakened Youth and the National Peace Jirga, for instance, consist mostly of Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group. But these groups are just the start. In order to gain a society in Afghanistan that insures that people are equal and get the resources and opportunities that they need, a grassroots movement that exists and operates across tribal lines must be built. The people of Afghanistan, whether they are being controlled and oppressed  by the US, the Taliban or other tribal leaders, are exploited in the same way as any other lower class around the world- in a system of control and profit making rather than equality and sharing of resources. To create equality, and in doing so peace, they must unite across ethnic and tribal lines and work together to overcome their oppressors. They must organise together through political groups and trade-unions dedicated to non-violent action. This must be done not just in Afghanistan but around the world. “Mountain cannot reach mountain,” goes the Afghan proverb, “only human can reach human.”  This is what real progress looks like – progress for humans to become more humane, more compassionate, more connected. This will not happen through the use of violence as it dehumanizes others and stops relationships building.

Slogans about restoring peace, security, democracy and women’s rights will be empty and amplified claims, as long as Afghanistan has not gained its independence; the Taliban and the Northern Alliance killers are not removed from their positions of power so that true democracy can be instilled; and the billions of dollars they have pillaged from people are not taken back from them. The benchmark to judge if any individual or organization is progressive in the current situation is their struggle in against US occupation, the Taliban and the US in the “National Front”.

Obama speech claiming victory are false, nobody has emerged victorious. But the removal of US forces can be nothing but good for the people of Afghanistan.

J.Llewellyn

Western Media Bias and Hypocrisy: Support for the People of Tibet and Neglect for so Many Others.

The Western mainstream media is often shouting for Tibet’s cause and so it should. Countless cases of exploitation have taken place in Tibet over the last 50 years where Tibetans have had their rights removed and now only a small minority of them can even get jobs and have control over their own lives.But while doing this it fails to support other national liberation movements such as in Chechnya, Kurdistan, Western Sahara, Xinjiang, Palestine and many more.

This is a huge hypocrisy and shows that American support for the Tibetans struggle is purely tokenistic. They are clearly supporting the struggle for their own purposes and not because they actually care that people are suffering and have no democratic rights.

It is all part of the power struggle between the US super-power, and China - the rising super-power. By saying that they are pro-Tibet and by small acts such as president Obama meeting with the Dalai Lama, the USA is sticking its middle finger up to China while not actually doing anything for the Tibetan cause. It is a reminder from the USA that it is still “top power” and a large amount of the money that comes into China comes from American pockets.

During the Cold War the USA did genuinely support the Tibetan struggle for independence — the CIA gave support in the form of supplies and military training to Tibetan independence groups as part of its attempt to undermine Mao’s Revolution. However, with China now being a major player in the global capitalist economy it obviously receives a large amount of Western investment – the majority being from the USA – and its economy relies on this.

Imperialism “supports” Tibet to remind China of where it stands in the global capitalist hierarchy, but it would be against its interests to dismember China — which has become the industrial estate of global capitalism. Western economic interests have increasingly penetrated into Tibet itself, which is facilitated by Chinese control of the region — maintained by repression.

The western media openly talks about Tibet as it openly criticises China. It would seem by watching it as if the Tibetans are the only people on earth whose right to independence is being denied by brutal force and violence.

There is no doubt that the Tibetan people deserve the right to self-determination because it is a democratic right. The desire of many Tibetans for independence reflects the fact that, after 50 years of Chinese rule, Tibetans are marginalized second-class citizens in their own country.

This rule should also apply to the Chechnyan’s; the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria; the people of the Western Sahara who’s territory is occupied by Morocco. Also in Xinjiang, the land north of Tibet, where the Uighurs reside, whose struggle for self-determination against China parallels that of the Tibetans. Notably the Uighurs are Muslim and in the Western world, Islamophobia now occupies the place that had for centuries been reserved for anti-Semitism. This is a major reason why the Tibetans are talked about and not the Uighars even though both were invaded by Mao’s red army at around about the same time and both face Chinese oppression. And of cause the struggle in Palestine, which is always ignored due to the USA’s special relationship with Israel.

The Tibetans have a culture that is appealing to a lot of onlookers from the west and is headed by the Dalai Lama who a lot of Buddhists and non-Buddhist alike look up to. This combined with the lack of “Buddhaphobia” exerted by the American government, and media as a whole, makes the Tibetan struggle a lot more likeable in the media’s eyes. Unlike Islam, Tibetan Buddhism arouses curiosity and sympathy. The picture painted by the media of a beautiful paradise hidden behind the beautiful snow capped peaks of the Himalayas is far different and more appealing than the harsh and baron deserts of the Middle East. The Policy of non-violence is also very attractive and is much easier for imperialist powers to support as opposed to militant Islamist groups who are leading struggles elsewhere. When looked at like this it is easy to see why the western media happily supports the Tibetan struggle but does not support that of the Uighurs. It would not be in line with other things that they support and criticise.

The Chinese regime is also easier to pick on than others. It is hated by many - by capitalists because it is a Communist dictatorship, by Communists because it has become capitalist and distinctly different from real socialism. It promotes a crass and ugly materialism, the very opposite of the spiritual Buddhist monks, who spend their time in prayer and meditation.
Immanuel Kant said that we should "Act as if the principle by which you act were about to be turned into a universal law of nature." The West’s general attitude towards the Tibetan problem does not conform to this rule. It does not reflect the attitude towards the struggle for independence of all other oppressed peoples.

The Chechnyans should have been in a better position. They, too, are a separate people, who have for a long time been oppressed by the Tzars of the Russian Empire, including Stalin and Putin. But alas, they are Muslims. Islam has turned into a synonym for terrorism, it is seen as a religion of blood and murder. In reality it is, of course, the religion of dozens of vastly different peoples, from Indonesia to Morocco and from Kosova to Zanzibar. The vast majority of which do not share the same ideas as the likes of Osama Bin Laden.

The US does not fear Moscow as it fears Beijing. Unlike China, Russia does not look like a country that could dominate the 21st century. The poor Chechnyans, who have no charismatic leader or outstanding spokespersons, have been banished from the headlines, unless a Chechnyan commits an “act of terror” within Russia. For all the world cares, the Russian government can hit them as much as they want, kill thousands and obliterate whole towns.

In the competition for the sympathy of the world media, the Palestinians are unlucky. They have a right to liberation, exactly like the Tibetans. They inhabit a defined territory; they are a specific nation; a clear border exists between them and Israel; and they are unrightfully being oppressed.

But the Palestinians are not favorable in the eyes of Israel and therefore the USA, who almost never fault the Zionists, whatever they do. The whole world sympathizes with the Israelis because the Jews were the victims of the most horrific crime of the Western world. That creates a strange situation: the oppressor is more popular than the victim. Anyone who supports the Palestinians is automatically suspected of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial even though the Palestinians are clearly an oppressed people and the two are not linked.

Also, the great majority of the Palestinians are Muslims (even though there are a significant number of Palestinian Christians but you rarely hear of them). Since Islam arouses fear and abhorrence in the West, the Palestinian struggle has become a part of that shapeless, sinister threat, "international terrorism". And since the deaths of Yasser Arafat and Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Palestinians have no particularly impressive leader - neither in Fatah nor in Hamas.

The world media are shedding tears for the Tibetan people who are oppressed by the Chinese government. Who cares about the Palestinians who are being oppressed by the Israeli’s?                              
The Western media paints Tibetans more favorably than other oppressed groups but this does not make either people undeserving of democratic rights. In fact, the simple, spiritual Tibetan Buddhist monk and the deranged Arab terrorist are equally racist stereotypes. Everyone who supports the principles of social justice should support the growing global movement in solidarity with Tibet's struggle for self determination and that off all oppressed groups of people around the world.
It is never going to be the actions of the elite that will give power and democratic rights to the oppressed and make them equals as the elite have vested interests, such as the American’s in their stance towards the Tibetans. Democracy and equality can only be won through a international, organized, grass-roots movement of workers, students and all oppressed people who demand and take what they, as the majority of people on the planet, rightfully deserve. In the words of Karl Marx: “the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority”. The only way for all oppressed people around the world to be made equals is through a new system of democratic socialism.

J.Llewellyn
With acknowledgements to U.Avnery and Counterpunch