BY MICHAEL TUCKER
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - The November 14 - 16 sixth national
convention of the Communist League met amid major events
illustrating the volatility and weakness of the capitalist
world order. The delegates discussed the many examples of
resistance by working people to the capitalist offensive, which
mark the bottoming out of the retreat of the labor movement in
New Zealand. During the weekend, the Young Socialists took the
first steps towards establishing themselves as an organization.
Branches of the Communist League in New Zealand elected delegates to the convention following an oral and written discussion on resolutions prepared by the party's National Committee. In addition, representatives of communist leagues in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States, participated in the convention deliberations as fraternal delegates.
Patrick Brown presented a report to the convention on "The Crisis of Imperialism and Working Class Resistance," on behalf of the National Committee. He noted the importance of opposing the imperialist war threats against Iraq, and called for the withdrawal of all imperialist forces from that country.
During the weekend, U.S. president William Clinton stepped up threats of military action against Iraq. The New Zealand navy helps to enforce the criminal trade embargo against that country, and New Zealand soldiers are part of the military support staff for United Nations inspection teams there.
The day after the convention, the New Zealand government announced that its armed forces would lead a 150-strong military intervention under the name of a "Truce Monitoring Group" on the island of Bougainville. The island has been the site of a hard-fought battle for independence from Papua New Guinea. The big business press described this as a "diplomatic coup" over Australia, the other imperialist power of the South Pacific.
Brown discussed how the unfolding banking and currency crisis in Asia is starting to impact on the economy here. Asia accounts for nearly 40 percent of New Zealand capitalism's exports.
"Struggles around the world in response to the capitalist crisis illustrate that the retreat of the labor movement that marked the mid- to late-1980s and early '90s in many imperialist countries is over," Brown stated.
Delegates had been part of picket lines in several recent strikes in New Zealand. There have also been ongoing demonstrations against cuts in public health-care funding, and by university and polytechnic students against tuition fee increases.
Workers begin to say `no' to sacrifice
There is much discussion among working people on government
and employer proposals to remove workers' rights to holidays.
Felicity Coggan, a delegate who had attended this year's
conference of the Council of Trade Unions, reported on plans
for a campaign against the proposals. Many of her co-workers
strongly support this campaign, Coggan said. "Workers realize
the bosses are trying to take something important from them."
Another "vote against ongoing sacrifice," as one delegate put it, was the 91.8 percent "No" vote in a September referendum on compulsory retirement savings. This was a scheme promoted by New Zealand First leader and government treasurer Winston Peters to replace the state-funded retirement pension.
This resistance by working people and others is at the root of a growing crisis in the government. Over the weekend of the convention, the divisions in the government brought it close to disintegration. A special conference of New Zealand First debated whether to stay in the coalition government, in the wake of the November 4 "bloodless coup" which saw Jennifer Shipley replace Prime Minister James Bolger as leader of the ruling National Party.
The crisis of the government raises the possibility of an early election. This would very likely result in Labour, which is polling over 50 percent at present, forming the government.
"The end of labor's retreat does not mean an end to the capitalist offensive," explained Brown. "Imperialism's march to fascism and war continues, even though it meets resistance.
"We can't put a precise date on when the retreat ended," he stated, "but internationally a number of struggles broke out a couple of years ago, including major strikes and protests in France. In the same period we saw the near-victory of a referendum for Quebec sovereignty, and a wave of antigovernment protests and land occupations by Maori rights fighters in this country."
Maori fight for self-determination
The delegates adopted a resolution drafted by the League's
National Committee, entitled "Renewed Struggles in the Fight
for Maori Rights." The document notes that "advances in the
fight for Maori self-determination undermine the institutions
and social relations on which the capitalist nation-state is
founded."
The convention delegates rejected a contribution to the written discussion that counterposed the fight for Maori self- determination to demands for "full national equality," asserting that the latter "emphasizes the possibility of a united struggle by all the toilers."
Arguing against that view, a delegate from the United Kingdom explained, "It is not the fight for self-determination, but the national oppression of the Maori people that divides the working class." As the resolution affirms, Maori demands for equality and self-determination "strengthen the basis for unifying the working class in the fight for political power."
Delegates discussed the Cuban revolution as an integral part of the growing resistance of labor worldwide. At a special Militant Labour Forum, held over the weekend, Michel Prairie, a leader of the Communist League in Canada said, "The Cuban revolution is stronger today. This year - one of intense political activity - has seen the result of the Cuban leadership's effort to confront and conquer the worst challenges of the `Special Period' of economic crisis. Greater leadership and resources can now be devoted to meeting the growing opportunities to reach out to and work with new forces coming into struggle around the world as a result of the deepening crisis of imperialism."
The convention voted to send greetings to the Cuban Communist Party, and to reply to greetings from the National Democratic Front of South Korea, using the opportunity to declare support for the fight to reunify Korea and remove the imperialist troops stationed in the south.
In another report to the convention, entitled "Building a Proletarian Party today," Janet Roth stated that "the end of the retreat makes it possible to revitalize the work of communists in the industrial trade unions.
"It will make it possible for the Young Socialists to grow and consolidate, with the assistance of the Communist League."
During the convention the Young Socialists groups in Auckland and Christchurch held their first national meeting. They decided to work closely together in building their organization. Also in attendance were Young Socialists members from Australia and the United States. The convention elected a new National Committee of eight members.
Roth emphasized that responding to the bottoming out of the retreat "means stepping up sales of our books, and of Perspectiva Mundial and the Militant newspaper." Delegates voted to campaign during November and December to sell the new Pathfinder pamphlet Europe and America, in which Leon Trotsky discusses the growing interimperialist conflicts evident in the 1920s - conflicts that are being played out again today. A socialist educational conference is planned for next April.
The work of communists in the trade unions was a central part of the report by Roth. "We reach for the very real openings today with the understanding that communists have no real political weight in the unions as they exist - dominated by the pro-capitalist bureaucracy," she said. The strategic aim of communists in the unions is their transformation into instruments of revolutionary struggle in the overthrow of capitalism.
"As workers show their combativity, there will be more openings to be part of struggles and discuss broader political questions," said Roth. "We bring into these discussions the revolutionary books and newspapers that workers and youth need. This is the primary way we can help to strengthen our unions today." Roth proposed that delegates reject a different perspective put forward by one delegate, who advocated a greater focus on proposing actions at union meetings.
With the increased possibility of an election, the delegates discussed how the communist candidates would put forward an action program to defend working people's interests. The candidates would call for a vote for Labour, a party linked to the unions, where the Communist League candidates were not standing. A vote for Labour is a vote against the parties directly controlled by the capitalists. Delegates decided that the failure of the Communist League to do so in the 1996 elections resulted in missed opportunities to discuss a class- struggle program with the many workers wanting to remove the National Party government.
As the coalition government came close to a "meltdown" during the convention, a lively debate broke out among the delegates about how communist workers should characterize Winston Peters, the treasurer and deputy prime minister in the coalition cabinet, and the New Zealand First Party that he dominates.
Peters, a former cabinet minister in Bolger's National Party government, was dumped by the party in 1993 and built a following for his New Zealand First on the austerity policies of the Labour Party and National Party. His nationalist rhetoric has been marked by sharp attacks on major business figures and foreign investors, and on immigrants. The delegates concluded that these policies of resentment mark Peters and his party as a reflection, in a New Zealand national form, of the same phenomenon as the rise of rightist and incipient fascist and Bonapartist currents in Europe and North America.