This article was written before a settlement was reached in the dispute between the ANZCO-owned subsidiary company, Canterbury Meat Processors, and members of the NZ Meat Workers Union employed at CMP’s Rangitikei plant. The lockout ended just before Christmas with a deal that, while fending off most of CMP’s demands for concessions, still remains a setback for the workers at the plant. All non-cost conditions that the company demanded be removed were put back in the agreement but workers had to agree to accept cuts to their hourly rates. Over $150,000 was donated to support the locked out workers but no industrial action was taken by any other groups of workers, including those employed by the same company working in different plants on different collective agreements. The ability of companies to divide their workforces in ways like this is crucial to their strategy of keeping wages low. Overcoming these divisions within the working class is likewise a crucial task. Workers must link up and broaden struggle across arbitrary union divisions. The law against solidarity action must be challenged practically by workers taking control of their own struggles.

Since 19th October meat workers at the Canterbury Meat Processors Rangitikei lamb-processing plant have been locked out by the company in a bid to force them to accept new rates of pay and changes to shift organisation, changes that amount to a massive 20% pay cut. Workers, already working minimal hours due to the off season, were forced to take annual leave in the week prior to the lockout. As annual leave is paid at an average of the previous 4 weeks’ earnings this put the workers in a very precarious financial situation. During this week the company contacted workers individually trying to get them to sign the new individual contracts and leave the union. This is the kind of “bargaining” that the National government’s changes to employment law in their last term is promoting. The company succeeded in getting over 100 workers to sign and return to work, many of them migrants who feared for their job security and immigration status. 111 workers stood strong in the face of the company’s intimidatory tactics and have remained locked out since.

The workers are members of the New Zealand Meat Workers and Related Trades Union. The union has been negotiating to renew the collective agreement at the plant since April. Since the lockout began the union has maintained a permanent picket line. The CTU has taken over the running of the solidarity campaign which has seen over $100,000 in donations so far from NZ and international unions and street collections up and down the country. Delegations of workers from other NZMWU branches and other unions have visited the picket line at the plant which is situated on State Highway 1, between Bulls and Marton, in the Manawatu. On 17th November over 50 NZMWU members from branches across the country converged on the plant as well as members of many other unions, joining the locked out workers in a 200-strong mass picket. Rather than let the scabs confront the picket the bosses closed the plant down for the day, a major victory for the locked out workers.

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The new National government is set to attack beneficiaries with a complete overhaul of how the social welfare system operates in New Zealand. While most beneficiaries will be worse off under the new rules, two types of benefit are likely to be hit especially hard – those on what is currently known as the Sickness Benefit, and those on the Domestic Purposes Benefit.

Under the changes, the Sickness Benefit will be eliminated, and all those who currently receive it will be put instead on the new Jobseeker Support benefit. Under this, some beneficiaries may be able to get short-term ‘exemption certificates’ from the requirement to be actively looking for a job, but many will not. Those who are unable to prove that they are actively looking for a job will face sanctions, including cuts to their weekly income.

Under the current system, sickness beneficiaries are required to obtain a medical certificate (at their own cost) to show that they are unable to work. If you have one of these, WINZ will approve your application for the Sickness Benefit. In the new system, people will be forced to hand over their medical records to WINZ, and it is WINZ staff who will make the decision on whether or not you are capable of full or part time work. Beneficiaries will then be forced to make active attempts to find whatever level of work WINZ has decided you should be doing.

A similar system already exists in the UK. Mental health advocate group Mind produced a faux-tabloid called The Daily Stigma which examined the impacts of these policies. It included the following disturbing story:

“We deal with many people who have been told they are ‘fit for work’ under the new system despite experiencing serious mental health problems. The other day I was speaking to a man who has schizophrenia. He has it quite well under control, but still struggles with paranoia and can’t cope with much pressure.

He’s been found ‘fit for work’ so no has to look for work, but the anxiety caused by the assessment process and now the prospect of job hunting is really destabilising him. I’m very worried it’s going to push him back into severe illness, and last time that happened he ended up in hospital for two months. But what can we do? (benefits adviser)”

For people suffering from a mental illness, the added pressure to seek jobs (which often don’t exist, given our high unemployment) is likely to push many into worse health, potentially including hospitalisation and suicide. Many sufferers of depression, bipolar and other mental illnesses are especially vulnerable to changes in routine, added stress and time-constrained pressure. While they may be coping while on a benefit, the added stress relating to being forced into extra WINZ appointments, job applications and potentially job interviews could easily be enough to push them over the edge.

Beneficiaries are an easy target for governments looking for a scapegoat. They have little power in our society, and are frequently the first stop for a government looking to push hardline, conservative politics. We all need to support beneficiaries in the fight against this overhaul of the welfare system, to let them know that they aren’t alone. The fight against beneficiary bashing is a huge part of the overall fight against the austerity regime, which also includes public sector cuts, attacks on unions and cuts to services.

For more information, see:

Paula’s Benefits – http://bit.ly/tcyJWQ

The Daily Stigma – http://bit.ly/qqfIaF

Government factsheet on welfare reforms – http://bit.ly/vTtZ4h

After starting in Zucotti Park near Wall St in New York on September 17, the Occupy movement has made its way around the world to over 2500 centres, including a number in New Zealand. Locally, 4 major occupations in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin have been joined by others in smaller centres such as Invercargill and Pomare.

Defining the Occupy movement is a hard thing to do – the politics are different in each one, ranging from radical anti-capitalism to reformist demands for regulations on the banking sector. In New Zealand, one thing they all have in common is that they have brought in a wide range of people relatively new to political activism, from many different walks of life.

In creating physical spaces in central locations such as Aotea Square (Auckland) or The Octagon (Dunedin), the occupations have enabled many people to be involved on a level that suits them and their lives. Some are able to camp for extended periods and hang out on site during the day, others simply come for a few hours after work in the evenings or on weekends. This is a very positive factor, as it has enabled people to feel involved who might have otherwise (due to constraints of work, family, health or other reasons) never felt able to engage in political movements.

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The Mutiny Zine, based in Sydney, recently did an interview with AWSM about our newssheet Solidarity.

Mutiny: Why did you decide to start the publication? What are your political objectives?

AWSM: When we formed the Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement (AWSM) back in October 2008, we decided that one of the things we wanted to do was a free monthly newssheet. We were definitely inspired by some of the other similar projects done by anarchist-communist groups in other countries, like Resistance (published by the UK Anarchist Federation) and Workers Solidarity (by the Irish Workers Solidarity Movement).

As AWSM is a group spread across the length of New Zealand, Solidarity was seen as a good national project, one to help us all get used to working together, while simultaneously spreading our ideas and publicising struggles that would otherwise be ignored.

Politically, AWSM is an anarchist-communist organisation, so Solidarity is one way in which we can help promote anarchist-communist analysis of current events and society as a whole. It also gives us the chance to reach an audience who wouldn’t necessarily search for our website, but might pick up a copy of the newssheet at a library, community centre or cafe.

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The text of a talk given at Occupy Wellington, New Zealand, on October 27 2011. Around 55 people attended the talk, organised to try to counter the prevalence of conspiracy theories amongst the local wing of the Occupy movement.

Kia ora kotou, thanks everyone for coming. Firstly, a brief run-down of how this workshop will work: first, I’m going to give a brief talk, followed by an open discussion which anyone can contribute to. I also want to make it clear that I’m not here today to debunk or debate any specific conspiracy theory. I’ve got no interest in doing that, I don’t think its particularly productive. What I want to be doing is talking about the title of the workshop is – why our activism must be based in reality. So we’ll be talking about the whole conspiracy world-view, we’ll be talking about what I think is a much better alternative to that, but I’m not going to sit here and argue with you over whether the Government is secretly poisoning us from the skies, or whether shape-shifting reptilian lizards are controlling our lives, or whether or not you can cure cancer with baking soda.

First up, who am I? For those of you who don’t know me my name is Asher, I’m born and bred in Wellington, though I have also spent a few years recently living in Christchurch. I’ve been involved in activism and radical politics for around about 7 years, in a variety of different campaigns and struggles.

If we’re going to talk about conspiracy theories, the first important question is obvious: what is a conspiracy theory?

Now, if you go by a dictionary definition, a conspiracy is just a group of people who get together to plan something, and don’t tell others about it. If I’m organising a surprise birthday party for my friend, then I am conspiring with others. But that’s not a particularly useful definition for the purposes of a discussion like this.

So, for this discussion, the way I’m defining a conspiracy theory is thus: a conspiracy theory is a theory based in supposition, one that flies in the face of evidence or science, often one that claims its correctness can be shown by the paucity of evidence in favour of it, in the sense that ‘this conspiracy goes so far that they’ve even buried all the evidence that proves it!’ Conspiracy theories often encourages an ‘us few enlightened folk versus everyone else’ world view. This creates an atmosphere where conspiracy theorists look down on people, or sheeple as they are often called, and ignores the fact that people, by and large, are actually pretty intelligent. In and of itself this world-view is hugely problematic for as I will discuss later, mass social change requires the participation of the masses and therefore, we have to have faith in the ability of people to decide things for themselves, to come to correct conclusions and ultimately to change the world.

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The 17th issue of Solidarity, free newssheet of the Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement. Download the .pdf above, or click below to read the contents online.

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