Insult to send tour supporters

By Matt McCarten

(Reprinted from Herald on Sunday, 15 December 2013)

What an insult that John Key appointed Jim Bolger and Don McKinnon as part of a five-person New Zealand delegation to Nelson Mandela’s memorial services.

Both were members of a National government that supported apartheid and labelled Mandela a terrorist. They cynically used the Springbok rugby propaganda tour in 1981 to whip up the redneck base for electoral purposes. On the back of the carnage the tour caused, their party called a snap election and scraped home by one seat.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, 1918-2013

Introduction by Roger Annis

(Reprinted from A Socialist In Canada)

Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison, Feb 11, 1990, with then-wife Winnie

Dec 10, 2013–Today is the day of mass commemoration in South Africa of Nelson Mandela, a great, inspirational figure of modern times. He died on December 5 at the age of 95. Below is a selection of articles that analyzes his life and the evolution of politics in South Africa during and after his tenure as president of the country.

Mandela was the revolutionary leader of the mass struggle against the racist system in South Africa known as Apartheid. He served 27 years in prison for leading the struggle against Apartheid, including co-launching an armed struggle in 1961. He was arrested in 1962 and imprisoned until an international campaign of solidarity won his release in 1990. He was elected president of South Africa in 1994. He retired from politics in 1999 but continued to speak out on issues. He opposed the U.S. war on Iraq in 2003 and spoke out in defense of the victims of Africa’s deadly epidemic of HIV/AIDS.

Most of the big capitalist governments of the world supported the Apartheid system that came into place in the early 1900s and was further institutionalized in 1948. Leaders of those governments are today attending the memorial event in Johannesburg, including the drone president of the United States, Barack Obama. Mandela and the ANC political party he led were proscribed as “terrorist” by the U.S. government during the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s. That proscription remained in place until 2008, including during the terms of two Black secretaries of state–Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice.

One of the world leaders attending and speaking today in Johannesburg is Raul Castro, president of Cuba. His country played a decisive role in the overthrow of Apartheid through its military assistance to Angola and Namibia during the 1970s and 1980s. The three countries defeated a military invasion by Apartheid South Africa’s armed forces beginning in 1976 that sought to recolonize Angola, recently liberated from colonial rule by Portugal, and retain Namibia as a South African colony. In recognition of Cuba’s role in bringing about the fall of Apartheid, Cuba was the first country that Mandela visited following his release from prison.

Five other world leaders are speaking today at the mass memorial–from the United States, Brazil, India, China and Namibia.

The article selection below begins with the full text of a commentary by John Minto, published today in New Zealand’s leading daily. Minto is a veteran of the anti-Apartheid movement in New Zealand. That country was a key battleground in one of the fronts of the international fight against Apartheid–boycotts of sporting exchanges. Progressive New Zealanders fought for a boycott of all rugby, cricket and other exchanges with Apartheid South Africa. Protests, including pitched battles in the streets, were waged in New Zealand beginning in 1969, as in many other countries where people supported the liberation movement of the South African people.

* * *

A great man but not a great president –
We should celebrate Mandela’s struggle against apartheid but not overlook the serious failings of his reign.

By John Minto, published in the New Zealand Herald, Dec 10, 2013

When an iconic figure dies, the accolades come thick and fast from a wide range of people who see the wider goodness in a person beyond any day to day political squabbles.

In the case of Nelson Mandela, the accolades are strong for someone seen as a towering figure of the 20th century. United States President Barack Obama, for example, called him “influential, courageous and profoundly good” and it’s easy to make a case to justify each of those adjectives and more.

Mandela was a great man. He was inspirational to South Africa’s black majority as they struggled under the racist oppression of apartheid and he was inspirational also to a generation of people outside South Africa fighting to make a better world. He seemed to embody the best of human qualities after his release from prison in 1990 and as he was elected first President of a post-apartheid South Africa in 1994.

Labour has found its mojo at last

By Matt McCarten, Herald on Sunday 22 September, 2013

After five dark years, the Labour Party have their mojo back.

The past month of quality presentations by David Cunliffe, Grant Robertson and Shane Jones was a great success.

New Labour Party leader David Cunliffe

Day after day the media covered confident and articulate candidates espousing policies the faithful wanted to hear. The Prime Minister was pushed to the sidelines for the first time.

Luckily for the sake of party unity, Cunliffe’s win was decisive. The overwhelming members’ vote and the even higher support by the unions is a huge mandate. Even in the caucus, Cunliffe surprisingly got 16 MPs to Robertson’s 18 – a difference of one MP.

The mana of Robertson and Jones has increased, too. Robertson will be leader one day and Jones has cemented himself back as a future contender.

It was always unrealistic to have any of the three being a loyal deputy to the other. David Parker was a good compromise. He’s the brains and the policy wonk.

Competing with the Greens for the same vote is a zero game. Cunliffe is smart and knows it’s the 800,000 voters who didn’t bother to turn out at the last election he has to win over to be Prime Minister.

Some pundits pose that Cunliffe has to move to the centre. That’s silly. The centre doesn’t exist. Parties win by convincing the majority of their policies – whether left or right. If the electorate supports left policies, by definition the centre moves leftwards. If it supports right policies, the centre moves in the other direction. The centre is never some fixed point.

Cunliffe’s policies of forcing up wages, opposing asset sales, investing in public services and spreading the tax base are unabashed left policies. What matters is that they are popular and could potentially motivate hundreds of thousands of non-voters to turn out.

To do that, the parties of the centre-left have to build a machine to get the Auckland vote out. They were creamed in our biggest city in the past two elections.

Who wins Auckland, wins government. With this new momentum for the left, I hope they can capitalise on next month’s local elections.

Postal ballots for local government across the country are hitting mailboxes this weekend. In Auckland, there are hundreds of candidates contesting more than 200 positions. Len Brown will romp home, of course. The only interest is how many votes John Minto gets on his left and John Palino on the right.

The real contest is for the council. Currently it’s a third on the right; a third on the left, and a third in the centre. Most voters don’t have any idea where many candidates’ political allegiances lie.

The Auckland trade unions have 150,000 members. They have assessed all the candidates against the three campaigns they are running: Protecting the Assets – no privatisation; A Living Wage – starting with council workers; and Sorting out the Port – force the incompetent ports bosses to settle a fair deal with their workers.

Most candidates support the unions’ campaigns but the unions don’t want to split the centre-left vote. Most unions are non-partisan. For the first time, the Auckland unions steering group, of which I am a member, is recommending a single candidate it believes has the best chance of winning, for each elected position. You can peek on www.UnionsAuckland.com.

Union members of course will vote for whoever they like. But for those who want to use their vote strategically the recommendations could be decisive. Wards have an average of 10,000 union members. Draw your own conclusions.

It’s good to see the Labour Party getting its act together. Hopefully, workers will unite to win too.

– Herald on Sunday

The Union Report – Education Special

The Union Report – Education Special with Ian Leckie, National Secretary of the NZEI and Austen Pageau the PPTA’s spokesperson for the emerging teachers network.
Issue 1 – According to the Prime Minister, the only problem with larger classroom sizes was the sales pitch – does this suggest that the Prime Minister isn’t listening?
Issue 2 – Why are we adopting an idea like Charter Schools from the far right ACT Party?
Issue 3 – Student allowance cut backs, national standards and the gutting of adult education – is this Government committed to Public Education?

OTHER UNION NEWS

‘Secret’ breakthrough at port http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10813550

SkyCity worker threatened with sack over bible – union http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/skycity-worker-threatened-sack-over-bible-union-4935598

Casino worker faces action over Bible at work http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10813873

Aotearoa NZ Is Still Not For Sale. National Day of Action against Asset Sales, Saturday July 14 2012 http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1206/S00219/national-day-of-action-against-asset-sales-july-14-2012.htm

Photo: Dunedin protest against asset sales

Asset sales law should be delayed until public has say http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1206/S00192/asset-sales-law-should-be-delayed-until-public-has-say.htm

Harawira: Mixed Ownership Model Bill – Second Reading http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1206/S00205/harawira-mixed-ownership-model-bill-second-reading.htm

John Minto: Minister’s rose-tinted glasses are two generations out of date http://johnminto.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/ministers-rose-tinted-glasses-are-two-generations-out-of-date/

Matt McCarten: Derisory Budget wages war on working class

Protester John Minto was arrested within a minute of arriving at a peaceful rally. Photo / Brett Phibbs

It’s usual for any government to selectively release some of their Budget policies before it’s dropped on Parliament. This year is no exception.

At present we have an $11 billion deficit. The Government claims it’s going into the next election with a balanced budget. So I am surprised this week’s pre-Budget policy releases save very little.

They can be called “wedge issues” that seem deliberately targeted at those on modest means. For example, does anyone believe spending a derisory $1 million on contraception for beneficiaries and their daughters is anything more than sending a message that women on the DPB need to stop breeding?

I wonder if they thought to offer castration to the sons of beneficiaries?

If we really want to reduce teenage pregnancy and abortion it would be more principled, and just as cost-effective, to offer it to all young women. Another policy, adding another couple of bucks on prescriptions, is just a way of grinding down the poor.

John Key’s Government is even upbeat about sacking an average of one teacher from every school. The survivors get the extra kids in their classes. The savings are going to charter schools before they are sold to prospective buyers.

How cynical to cut a school’s funding, lowering performance and thus encouraging frustrated parents to send their kid to a privatised charter school that got the money.

Tertiary students with poor parents can kiss away their equal opportunity, too. Increasing loan repayments is one thing. But a new policy of reducing placements at universities and stopping any loans after four years means those students can forget about professions in medicine and post-graduate studies.

Here’s the point I’m making: none of these announcements target our wealthier citizens. What’s more, these policies save less than $200 million.

This week has been about targeting the poor to detract from the Government’s economic incompetence and the dodgy behaviour of National’s coalition partner.

We have a smiling salesman intent on transforming our once egalitarian society into a corporate state where the rich get the privileges at the expense of the poor.

Don’t believe me? On Monday night I was working late in my office. A couple of members of my union turned up at nearly midnight after an altercation with the police in Glen Innes.

This Government is waging a war on this working-class community at night.

Seventy-six state homes are being demolished or trucked out of the community to enable the sale of land to property developers to build McMansions for the wealthy.

The residents have lived there for generations and have paid for their homes, through rent, many times over.

They accepted they’d have to move, but in many consultation meetings by Housing NZ and various ministers they were led to believe that no one would be moved out of their neighbourhood.

As recently as last year Pita Sharples turned up at a public meeting and assured the residents it wouldn’t happen.

Those promises have now been broken.

No minister has returned. Instead the Minister of Housing, from the safety of Wellington, insults these long-term residents saying: “We no longer house criminal gangs in old, cold, mouldy state houses on half-acre sections.”

He should visit this area to get his facts right rather than smearing the locals.

Who do turn up are the cops, to bust up the local protests and make sure the houses are removed. Our own form of cleansing. It’s not ethnic, but rather class.

In the past three weeks 10 people have been arrested. Two needed hospital treatment and several women told me they had been injured by police.

Protest stalwart John Minto, who has been helping the residents, has been targeted, arrested twice on trumped-up charges and even had his ribs broken. And before some of you start twittering that Minto deserves it, he has never advocated violence and hasn’t had a conviction for 20 years.

One of his arrests was made within a minute of his arrival at a peaceful rally where he was a publicised speaker.

There is something nasty going on. Maybe the offer of free contraception could be extended to anyone the Government decides is too poor – or lives on land they’d like to give to someone richer.

By Matt McCarten

John Minto moves on, Surveillance in the workplace, fee rise for some

JOHN MINTO MOVES ON

John has been a Unite organiser for over six years and in that time he has handled many of the more difficult negotiations, companies, and employment cases. The main areas of work he covered included security, English language schools, health, and call centres. And he was always there to support members in other areas covered by Unite and other working people.

Many of our members from outside of Auckland have also got to know John as he has coordinated our employment relations education training – putting together courses, doing schedules for training days, presenting courses and travelling to other cities to run training days. More recently John stood in the general elections for the MANA party and will continue to be active in Global Peace and Justice Auckland. So he will continue to be around our union in all sorts of social justice struggles.

He has many close members and two of them wrote the following comments:

“John has been a wonderful rep and has been quite a force to reckon with throughout the time he has represented those of us at First Security in particular, over the last 4 years. While the environment is quite challenging and we have had some stand-off moments, John has still managed to forge a working relationship with management and has put us well on the road to enriching that relationship ever more. The respect and integrity and mana that he has, will always be imbedded in those that have had to deal with John. We will miss him and his expertise and hope that he lingers around long enough to impart some of that wealth of knowledge onto those that will follow in his footsteps. From all of us. Kia waimarie, Mauri ora Kia ora, Much Aroha.” – Agnes Devon, First Security delegate.

“I first met John a little over 6 years ago. My workplace had just signed up with UNITE and we were waiting to be allocated an organiser and to negotiate our initial CEA. This mild-mannered, warm, friendly guy showed up to discuss our first set of claims and reassure us that our jobs would not be lost for joining the union. Needless to say John achieved a significant pay rise and improvement in working conditions from the following negotiation process and has continued to achieve wonders each year for us (and of course no one was fired). It has been a huge privilege to have been able to work closely with John on numerous occasions and I have seen him make a huge difference to the lives of union members in all the sectors he represents. In a nutshell John Minto is a good man in the truest sense and his departure will leave a very difficult void to fill. Me te mihi nui.” – Alex Pirie, EF Language School delegate.

As well as being a dedicated activist, John has also been a school teacher for most of his life and he is returning to that role. John has played an important role in establishing Unite for which we thank him.

CAMERAS AND WORKPLACE SURVEILLANCE
Recently there have been news stories about the use of cameras in the workplace. Our delegates and members are aware that some companies use camera surveillance. While the union is not generally in favour of increased surveillance it is important for members to be aware of the rules. The rules for the use of surveillance at work come from the principles and intentions of The Privacy Act 1993.

Here are five points about surveillance.
1. Any company wishing to use camera surveillance must take reasonable measures to make sure that you know that cameras are being used to collect information in the workplace. However there are exceptions to this if an employer has reasonable grounds to believe a particular illegal activity is occurring and making staff aware of the operation of cameras would undermine their use.
2. The information collected cannot be personal information about your private life – it can only be about you in so far as it relates to your obligations in the workplace. It cannot be used for anything other than what it is intended to be used for.
3. You can have access to any information (footage etc) collected about you. One example of this is that an employer can’t say in a disciplinary that an alleged misconduct is on camera without agreeing to provide footage if asked by your representative.
4. Anything presented must be current and complete (meaning you should ask for dates of any information presented and footage from before and after alleged offences) and cannot otherwise be misleading.
5. The Employment Relations Act 2000 also has a bearing on the use of surveillance because it requires a duty of good faith from your employer, meaning there should be no misleading or deceptions. However covert/hidden surveillance can still be used if the employer has acted in good faith by forming a policy on covert surveillance and informing employees of that policy.
Note: Some of the information here is sourced from Hesketh Henry Employment News, March 2012, but has been significantly altered for the purposes of this newsletter.

MAXIMUM FEE RISE FOR SOME MEMBERS
As advised in the December newsletter, the maximum fee in the fast food and cinema sectors has risen to the same as other members of Unite – to $5.50 per week. This only affects those who in restaurants and cinemas earning above $435 a week and took effect from the 1st April.
The union fee is calculated at 1.1% of wages with a minimum of two dollars and a mazimum of $5.50. This still makes Unite the best value union in the country.