Labour Party Conference 2011

Anyone
with even token socialist leanings would’ve been disappointed with
the offerings of that conference. Delegates
were told in no uncertain terms there was a need to get at least 2000
extra party votes in each electorate, a laughable expectation if the
opinion polls are any indication, and to choose candidates who are,
in the words of Labour’s Moira Coatsworth, “not part of their main
sectoral base”. This is clearly representing a further attempt to
move away from having union leaders, academics and working class
people representing Labour in Parliament to more middle class
islands. Labour’s leadership also indicated there was going to be
an organisational review undertaken.

Ministry
of Children

A key
platform of their election strategy is campaigning for children.
This includes the establishment of a Ministry of Children and
attacking the government for its attacks on Working For Families,
cuts to early childhood education and addressing the growing gap
between the rich and poor in New Zealand.

Another
key platform of their election campaign is to push for the
re-instatement of many of the key initiatives introduced by Labour
during the 1999-2008 Labour Government including re-introducing tax
breaks for companies investing in research and development,
re-instating tax credits at 12.5%, extending the Emission Trading
Scheme to farmers, greater investment in Kiwisaver and Working for
Families and reversing the tax cuts for the wealthy.

However,
most of Labour’s emphasis is being placed on pursuing the votes of
the ‘middle class’ victims of the budget who’ve been hit by rapidly
rising food prices and cuts to Working for Families payments by
placing a stronger emphasis on monetary and taxation policies to
promote growth and significant investment in trade and training.

Minimum
Wage

As
a sop to the working class the Labour Party did state they would
raise the minimum wage to $15 a hour and address the anti-worker laws
that have been passed by the National led government, such as the 90
Day “Hire and Fire At Will” Law. Although these reforms are
welcome it does not go far enough.

Though
the Labour Party Conference showed that its leadership has understood
that working people are being stung by the policies of the current
government they had little beyond empty rhetoric and fire and
brimstone electioneering speeches to offer the working classes.

There
is a growing anger amongst working people that their concerns are
being ignored in favour of big business and wealthy individuals.
This is becoming a very strong sentiment on social networking sites
such as facebook and twitter.

The
failure of the Labour Party to do more than acknowledge their
concerns and then to fob them off with token reforms like raising
the minimum wage and the establishment of a Ministry of Children is
seen as a slap across the face. Crudely put, a limp-wristed
politically correct liberal reformist platform is not going to
attract voters, least of all working class voters.

Minor
reformist policies are not enough. It is now time for Labour to show
it has the interests of New Zealand’s working class at heart and
introduce a socialist programme of genuine change that will give
workers real and lasting prosperity and security in their lives.

Such
changes include:

• The
  establishment of public works programmes to create real and
  meaningful jobs for workers rather than McJobs.

• Nationalisation
  of all work places threatened with closure by the workers
  themselves.

• An
  end to wage cuts and freezes and an increase of the minimum wage to
  at least $17 an hour.

• The
  introduction of a 32 hour working week.

• Repeal
  the 90 Day Law and individual employment contracts in favour of
  collective trade union bargaining.

• Nationalisation
  and workers control and management of the big monopolies, and banks
  that dominate our lives.

Only
with such a programme can Labour hope of winning the 2011 election
campaign. Workers are tired of token gestures. They want real
change and they want it now.

As
events in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Greece (to name but a few
countries) have shown people through-out the world are now willing
to take to the streets and fight for their rights rather than rely on
existing power structures to do it. It is no longer a question of if
the workers will take to the streets but when. The bosses and their
lackeys take note payback is coming.