Educators, trade unionists support suspended teacher

October 30, 2008 by

Workers Party media release

Over 30 prominent academics, teachers and trade unionists have signed an open letter in support of suspended school teacher Paul Hopkinson, standing as the Workers Party candidate for Christchurch East in the upcoming election.

Despite campaigning only in his own time (weekends and school holidays), Mr Hopkinson was told that due to a provision of the 1993 Electoral Act concerning
the political activities of public servants he would have
to take unpaid leave for the three weeks leading up to
the 2008 general election.

Mr Hopkinson considered this an undemocratic restriction
on his participation in the political process, as having a
partner and two children to support and not having any
other financial resources to fall back on he simply cannot
afford to take unpaid leave. He also felt that it places
small minor parties like the Workers Party at a
disadvantage, as unlike the major parties Labour and
National they cannot afford to pay their candidates’
wages for the duration of the election campaign.

After refusing to take unpaid leave, Mr Hopkinson has
become the first teacher in New Zealand to be
suspended without pay by his employer.

Below is the open letter in support of Hopkinson and list
of signatories. This document is also available online
here.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: 2008 Election, Civil Liberties

3 Workers Party members elected to 2009 VUWSA executive

October 3, 2008 by

– Workers Party Media Release

Workers’ Party member Jasmine Freemantle was elected President of the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA) for 2009 last Wednesday night.

Freemantle was elected by a comfortable majority over her Labour Party rival Sonny Thomas, after a heated campaign that fuelled the highest voter turn out in a VUWSA election since the early 1990s.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Education, Fightback News Tagged With:

WP Forum: Should the left support sanctions against Iran?

September 19, 2008 by

Much has been made by the corporate media and Western governments over the threat supposedly represented by Iran’s civilian nuclear program (despite the CIA themselves admitting that there is no evidence at all the Iranian government is developing nuclear weapons). Many ostensibly “progressive” people (including our own Labour government) have backed UN sanctions against the Iranian regime, yet remain conspicuously silent on the issue of Israel’s already developed arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Is it simply a case of the left needing to be more consistent in its policy of intervention, or should we instead uphold the right of the Iranian people themselves to overthrow their regime without interference from Western interests?

Come along to this month’s Christchurch Workers Party forum, where we discuss these questions as well as what Iranian leftists themselves are doing to oppose both the threat of US military intervention and their own government as well.

Wednesday September 24, 7pm

Workers Educational Association, 59 Gloucester St


All Welcome!

Filed Under: Events

UC Workers Party on Campus Events

August 2, 2008 by

Student rebellion and state repression: the events of 1968 in México

Continuing our series of retrospective talks on the events of 1968, this week’s WP on Campus meeting looks at the explosion of student militancy onto the streets of México City in the months leading up to the Summer Olympics of that year.

Wednesday 6 August, 5pm
International Room, 1st floor UCSA Building

Workers Party on Campus “Introduction to Socialism” study group

The first session of our planned regular series of introductory study groups meets this Wednesday after the conclusion of the México 1968 talk, at 6.30pm in room 1106 (11th floor Central Library). The reading for this week’s session is “How Revolutionaries Choose Their Political Priorities” and can be found here.

Copies of the readings for subsequent sessions will be available for pickup on Wednesday.

NOTE: WP also currently run an advanced study group on Marx’s “Capital” – send us an email if they would like to find out more about participating in this.

Workers Party Election Campaign

Last week saw the official launch of our local election campaign with several public forums as well as the beginning of leafleting and doorknocking in working class areas of Christchurch. Our policies such as abolishing GST, ending the corporatisation of public services and putting all elected MPs on the average workers’ wage have been getting a good reception from workers, students and pensioners and we will be taking our anti-capitalist message out to more local neighborhoods over the coming weeks. If you can help us with any of this work please get in touch!

Filed Under: Fightback News

Immigration and citizenship: Labour versus workers

July 14, 2008 by

The article below originally appeared in revolution magazine, #21, August-October 2003:

Samoan protests for the return of their NZ citizenship point up the need for a campaign for open borders and workers’ solidarity as against Labour’s denial of Samoan (and other migrants’) rights, argues Philip Ferguson.

In late March, thousands of Samoans protested in Wellington, Christchurch and in Samoa itself, calling for the repeal of the NZ Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act of 1982.  This legislation, introduced by Muldoon’s National Party government, had stripped 100,000 Samoans of NZ citizenship rights.  The abolition of these citizenship rights was part of a miserable 70-year record of NZ dealings with the Samoan people.

NZ had invaded Samoa in 1914 and was the colonial power there for the next five decades.  Just after WW1, the NZ administration bore responsibility for an influenza epidemic that wiped out a quarter of the population.  The NZ government then viciously suppressed the mass movement for Samoan independence, including gunning down unarmed independence protesters in 1929.

After independence, NZ continued to act as lord and master of Samoa and other former NZ-ruled countries in the Pacific.  For instance, in the 1970s NZ governments masqueraded as generous aid donors to the Pacific.  Yet, at that very same time, for every dollar of aid the Pacific countries of the Commonwealth received from New Zealand, they lost $3.74 in trade with this country.  Most of the NZ aid was actually spent on NZ commodities, services and personnel.  Moreover, it had little impact on expanding Pacific island exports to NZ.  The 1970s also saw mass raids on Pacific Island ‘overstayers’ in NZ and large-scale deportations.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Civil Liberties, Immigration & Open Borders, NZ Imperialism, NZ Labour Party, Samoa Tagged With: ,
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