Auckland to Oakland: the struggle continues...

-
In Auckland around 300 people marched against the eviction of the Occupy Auckland camp on Saturday pulling down fences surrounding Aotea Square while in Oakland, California thousands of militants fought running street battles with riot police sustaining over 400 arrests.

Socialist Aotearoa called the march on Saturday in solidarity with the nearly 30 arrested comrades. We also marched to draw attention to the continuing problem of homelessness in Auckland. For 104 days homeless people had an urban Ohu in Auckland but Len Brown destroyed that community. His centre-left council has forced them back under the bridges and into the parks. Len Brown is a Mayor for the rich. The police are the army of the 1%.



The muddled politics, infighting and hardship of sustaining a canvas Ohu in Auckland were every bit as draining as the Jerusalem experience must have been for James K. Baxter up the Whanganui river. Yet his words are like a premonition of the idealism driving so many of the young Occupy Wall Street militants around the world,
‘How can I live in a country where the towns are made like coffins / And the rich are eating the flesh of the poor / Without even knowing it?’
Baxter's call for Lenin to come to Auckland to smash the Pharaoh is timely. Lessons drawn by Lenin from the failed 1905 revolution in Tsarist Russia that the art of an uprising against capitalism is primarily about the ability of revolutionaries to turn a mass political strike into a revolution.

Occupy as a tactic could protest capitalism and highlight its inequalities but it could never overturn it. The overthrow of capitalism requires a socialist revolution. Socialist revolution requires the drawing in of millions of workers into anti-capitalist struggle. During normal times of capitalism revolution is off the cards but during acute social and economic crises when the ruling class cannot rule in the same way and the working class cannot live in the same way - revolution is the word on everyone's lips. For this to happen revolutionaries must work to develop the political understanding of millions of people. This happens as people become involved in struggles in their workplace and community against capitalism and the state. Through these struggles people come to understand that socialist revolution is not only possible but necessary in order to make a world for the 99%.

-Socialist Aotearoa

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Commentary fron an American member of Socialist Aotearoa

-
Image
My Two Cents By Laura Hardin As with any presidential election, the American pubic will once again be asked to head to the polls to test which campaign slogans proved more effective. We can either vote for the fairy tale of “hope and change” or we can cast our vote for the “Maverick’s from Main Street.” The McCain/Palin ticket has just recently been trying to lure the middle class with their new Main Street myth, an attempt to portray themselves as sympathizers who understand how this economic crisis is affecting the majority of America. In the Vice Presidential debate last Thursday Palin said that credit markets is where "mainstreeters like me" would feel the effects of the meltdown. And earlier last week, presidential nominee John McCain said of the bailout, “The first thing I’d do is say, ‘Let’s not call it a bailout. Let’s call it a rescue,’ Because it is a rescue. It’s a rescue of Main Street America.” You know what you’ll find on most Main Streets in most American towns
Read more

AS CAPITALISM CRASHES< THE RESISTANCE GATHERS! Rally Against Low Pay- $15 per hour minimum wage now!

-
Image
Please Print Out, Copy and Put up! The weekend before the election, join the rally for a decent minimum wage- $15ph NOW! For posters and leaflets, contact Joe at 021 1861450 RALLY AGAINST LOW PAY- $15 per hour minimum wage now! As Capitalism crashes, the resistance gathers... Event Info Host: Socialist Aotearoa Type: Causes - Rally Time and Place Date: 01 November 2008 Time: 14:00 - 17:00 Location: Aotea Square Street: Queen Street Town/City: Auckland, New Zealand View Map Google MapQuest Microsoft Yahoo Phone: 0211861450 Email: solidarityjoe@yahoo.com The Gathering Storm. In recent months, low paid people have taken strike action in casinos, banks, fastfood outlets, supermarkets and on the busses. Low pay is crippling a generation of workers who are now expected to bear the brunt of a vicious global recession. It's time the resistance gathered. We're not going to pay for their crisis. We're not going to endure low pay anymore. A new generation is going to resist the Glob
Read more

Jacinda Ardern’s Resignation Is Anything But Simple - It’s Time For The Left To Organise

-
Image
Interview with Joe Carolan by Jennifer Pannell. The sudden resignation of Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand and Labour Party Leader, on the 19th January this year was a shock to many around the world. She was held up by the global mainstream press as a beacon of strong and empathetic leadership in the face of numerous crises throughout her two terms. In her emotional resignation speech, she gave little hint as to why she was stepping down, stating “having reflected over summer I know I no longer have that bit extra in the tank to do the job justice. It’s that simple.” ' As a socialist, Joe, what’s your analysis of why Ardern resigned? There is a narrative that as a female Prime Minister, she experienced vicious, relentless trolling - death threats and attacks from a deeply misogynistic far-right led mob, who thought she was a dictator, a tyrant, a Communist. This is similar to the ideology used by the far-right in many other countries; in America, in Ireland, etce
Read more