No to Austerity: Defend Union Rights

With the re-election of a National led government we will most likely 
see the bosses go on the offensive to further undermine workers pay and
conditions, and beneficiaries entitlements .  Already the National led
government has signalled major legislative counter-reforms against
workers, which are aimed at weakening collective bargaining and the
unions ability to operate effectively.  It cannot be ruled out that such
measures may be rushed through parliament under urgency early in the
New Year.

This is the capitalist class using its state to sharpen its legislative weapons to attack the working class.  As Engels put it “The state is nothing but an instrument of oppression of one class by another – no less so in a democratic republic than in a monarchy.”

The union struggles in the Ports of Auckland and at ANZCO CPM are just the opening salvoes in the battles ahead of the working class Under the conditions that are maturing in New Zealand it is likely that the employers will use these weapons  in an attempt to smash unions in key sectors of the economy  to drive down the living standards of workers in order to pay for the crisis of capitalism that has engulfed the world.  

It is highly ironic that National keeps telling workers to tighten their belts, when last year the richest 150 families and individuals are $7bn better off and the big four Australian owned banks made record profits.  It is easy to see why they made  such a profit as it is ‘money robbed out of worker diminishing wage packets’ and transferred to the rich.  This is the reason why the gap between  rich and poor is widening.

Leadership

At present the leadership of the labour movement have illusions in capitalism and they believe that by tinkering with the capitalist system then that they can solve the problems workers face.  Unfortunately, what the leaders of the labour movement have failed to realise is that capitalism is indeed crisis and no amount of tinkering will resolve this.

The CTU and the Labour Party leaderships must break with capitalism.   The CTU leadership need to build a generalised movement to counter the oncoming bosses offensive.  Such a generalised movement must be built on the basis of a genuine socialist programme that offers workers a socialist solution to the problems they face and an end to the capitalist nightmare that is unfolding before us.