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| SMASH THE NACT WORKFARE NAZIS
The NACTs attacks on beneficiaries are no surprise to us. In its first-term National already implemented reforms that made life hell for many for beneficiaries (for example forcing sex abuse victims to forego paid counselling).
Now Paula Rebstock's razor gang draws on earlier attempts by National to attack beneficiaries – Ruth Richardson's benefit cuts of 1991, Jenny Shipley's workfare attack of 97/98 which also targeted solo mums but was driven back by mass outrage. The whole point has been and remains to cut taxes on profits and at the same time blame the poor for causing profits to fall by bludging on the state.
Today the global capitalist system is facing a major crisis of falling profits. Its banks and big corporations can survive only by massive tax grabs from workers by bosses. So the growing wealth gap is not a cause of the crisis but its effect. The reason for this is that the obscene wealth of the 1% is due not to rising profits in industry, except in 'third world' countries where the Multi-National Corporations suck surplus value out of labour, but to speculative fictional profits and policies that cut corporate taxes and force working class taxpayers to fund the bailouts of banks and countries 'too big to fail'.
But this is not enough for capitalism's survival. To solve their crisis of falling profits the bosses must drive down workers' living standards further by smashing those remaining unions that stand in the road of the complete casualisation of labour (wharfies, meatworkers, aged care workers) and by removing welfare rights and forcing beneficiaries into the floating reserve army of unemployed – workfare -penalised to compete for jobs and driving down wages.
This working class is today beginning to fight back. So to undermine this resistance the bosses try to isolate and target sections of the working class to blame for the crisis. Militant unions have always been targets - wharfies, meatworkers, teachers, etc. So have welfare beneficiaries, in particular, Maori and Pacifica solo mums and state housing tenants who comprise the so-called 'underclass'. So instead of the capitalist system that creates inequality, these workers, who are the victims of inequality, are blamed.
By targeting and demonising Maori (as radicals), migrants (as terrorists), youth (as anarchists), and women (as biologically dependent) the NACTs show that as the crisis gets more severe they impose more and more repressive attacks on us. The logic of this repression is fascism as the demonised target groups are denied basic human rights.
The only way to fight back is to unite all these elements of the working class, employed and unemployed including the 'underclass' unionists, students, youth and women, as well as those in the middle class (self-employed, contractors etc) that are also coming under attack, against the capitalist system that exploits and oppresses them. Waitemata Unite is dedicated to that task as a union for low paid, unemployed and beneficiaries.
But as well as mobilising the unions, the rise of the Occupy Movement which includes many workers and middle class who are not unionised, has created a new form of united front in which all those coming under attack can unite as the 99% against the extreme concentration of power and wealth in the 1%.
Smash the NACT demonisation of the poor working class.
Unite the working class to make the bosses pay for their own crisis.
Build democratic, fighting unions!
Build the occupy movement globally!
#OCCUPYEVERYTHING! |
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