ELECTION OUTCOME CERTAIN
Continued Imperialist Plunder of
Aotearoa
Economic and Social Decline
Whether the Clark regime governs
alone after July 27th or does so in coalition with the Greens or with the
opportunist rabble of Anderton, Peters & co., or even if they are defeated
by National, the outcome will be the same. Aotearoa will continue its
subjugation to the US imperialists and their corrupt local agents.
No party contesting the
parliamentary elections even questions the rule of capitalism over Aotearoa; in
practice this means none question the increasing plunder of the resources of
Aotearoa by US multinationals and their agents. All, from the Alliance to ACT,
support capitalist and thus imperialist control of the economy. They are all capitalist parties.
This is hardly surprising. The
consuming goal of all the parliamentary parties is gain office in a capitalist
institution. Parliaments are fundamentally capitalist institutions, created
centuries ago by the capitalist class to secure their overthrow of the feudal
lords. Where the feudal lords had ruled their provinces personally, the
capitalists set up committees of elected representatives, parliaments, to rule
nationally. These were for long only representatives of the capitalists
themselves. Only when the working class was tamed and taught to respect
capitalist domination were we granted the vote, a right quickly taken away from
us again whenever capitalist interests are fundamentally challenged.
A number of parties are enthusiastic
supporters of this situation. The National Party and ACT are eager lapdogs of
the capitalist class, whatever its shade. National has long been very
supportive of capitalist farmers. But a large section has strong ties with
urban capitalists and in the 1980s
switched alleg-iance from British imperialists to the US. ACT’s
enthusiasm for US plunder of Aotearoa is undisguised.
But even parties formed with the
greatest intentions to relieve the lives of the oppressed are condemned to
betray us if they do not have a clear understanding that parliaments can be no
more than instruments of capitalist domination. Labour was set up in the early
1900s by union activists, with the explicit aim of socialism; the Communist
Party joined the Labour Party at this time because we shared these goals. But
because Labour saw the path to socialism only by means of a majority in parliament,
it increasingly toned down its aims to become acceptable to the capitalists,
whose approval any party ultimately needs to gain parliamentary office. As they
sold out their principles, they expelled their more principled allies,
including a large minority of the working class and parties such as us, going
as far as banned the Communist Press and imprisoning our central committee in
the 1940s.
Labour’s ultimate betrayal of their
original principles came in the 1980s when the Lange-Douglas regime served as the
handmaiden of US imperialist takeover of Aotearoa. Many of the principal
figures in the current Clark regime served with them. Again, the Communist
Party joined those, including Anderton, who split from Labour to form the New
Labour Party in 1989. But again, in the lust for parliamentary seats, the New
Labour Party, and Anderton in particular, was quick to compromise principle for
office. Again and again, policies were toned down to be ‘acceptable’,
ostensibly to ‘public opinion’, but in reality to the fear of capitalist
backlash.
The working class and the oppressed
Maori nation have little to gain from appeals to capitalist parliaments. The capitalists only concede what they must.
Working class gains such as the right to vote, social security, or the Waitangi
Tribunal, and the nuclear free policy have been won by mass struggles, despite
the attempts by parliamentary social democratic parties like Labour to claim
credit.
Socialism will not come from
parliamentary elections. Socialism requires the overthrow of capitalist power
throughout society, primarily their control of the factories and other
workplaces. Every workers revolution to date has seen the development of
alternatives to capitalist parliaments, in the same way that capitalists
introduced new institutions in place of feudal rule. The overthrow of US
imperialism and its local agents will see the emergence of new mass democratic
institutions; most likely based on workplaces and hapu groups.
Socialism will emerge from the
struggles of workers, Maori and other oppressed peoples in throwing of the
shackles of imperialist plunder of Aotearoa. This movement is built on the
streets, not in the Beehive. The only party committed to this vision of
fundamental change is the Communist Party.
This is not to argue that there can
be no tactical advantage for the masses to be gained from parliamentary
elections. Parliamentary elections actually provide a useful indicator for the
capitalists as to how
effective their dominance of the oppressed peoples is. The capitalists may
prefer the open rule of the National Party, but if the masses get too upset,
the capitalists are quite happy to tolerate Labour, because they know Labour
will not challenge their fundamental interests. But a vote for Labour over
National is still an indicator of working class power. And a vote for the
parties to the left of Labour is a further indicator of weaknesses in
capitalist domination. In this election, when the Clark regime is seeking an absolute
parliamentary majority to bolster capitalist ‘stability’, tactical voting to
prevent this will destabilise capitalist rule.
But the progressive mass movements
should not become divided over choices among capitalist parties, in the same
way that we do not become divided over choices about which capitalist shops we
frequent. The working class and the oppressed Maori nation must look beyond
capitalist elections for liberation from the plunder of US imperialism. We must
build up the mass organisations of the people, building our strength to choose
the agenda, rather than restrict ourselves to the choice the capitalists allow.
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