Mana Party (NZ)
Aotearoa/New Zealand: Fightback on the MANA-Internet Party alliance
MANA leader Hone Harawira (centre).
Statement by Fightback
June 10, 2014 -- Fightback, posted Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- The decision by the MANA Movement to enter into a formal alliance with the Internet Party has drawn criticism from right and left. Fightback has voiced criticism of our own.
In our April 2014 editorial, we said that “Fightback opposes any close ties between the Internet Party and the MANA Movement.” We added: “Fightback also opposes MANA entering a coalition government with pro-capitalist parties.”
We argued that the Internet Party “is more or less a front for millionaire Kim Dotcom”, that the “Internet Party’s politics are extremely vague and no candidates have yet been revealed” and that “there is no sign that it represents a progressive force”.
We were wrong.
New Zealand: Socialists plan fight back
By Liam Flenedy
June 19. 2013 -- Green Left Weekly -- More than 50 people gathered in the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre in Wellington on May 31 and June 1, 2013, for the annual conference of the socialist organisation Fightback.
The sessions were filled with lively and respectful debate across a number of different perspectives within the left on national and international issues.
Fightback 2013 featured speakers from Fightback, the International Socialist Organisation (Aotearoa), the Socialist Party of Australia and the Australian Socialist Alliance.
The first panel session “Global context: Crisis, Imperialism, Fightback” set the tone for the conference — all speakers noting that the global capitalist system is still deeply in crisis and that the working class is being made to pay for it.
Discussion centred on the resistance to austerity in Europe and the rise of left parties such as SYRIZA.
Another key theme was the state of the Australian and New Zealand economies now that the Australian mining boom seems to be waning.
Aotearoa/New Zealand: Mana, a movement of the people
Grant Brookes.
By Grant Brookes
November 7, 2012 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal – The following talk was presented to a Socialist Alliance public meeting in Melbourne.
Tihei mauriora!
Ko Ranginui kei runga
Ko Papatūanuku kei raro
Ko nga tangata kei waenganui
Ko Grant Brookes ahau
Ko Helen toku mama
Ko Don toku papa
Na Ōtepoti ahau
Na Koterana oku tipuna
Ko nga kaimahi o te ao taku iwi.
When a Maori person rises to talk in formal occasions, they often announce their speech, with tihei mauriora! – translated literally, “sneeze of the life spirit”. It is then customary to recount one's ancestry and tribal connections. So I said, Ranginui the sky father above, Papatūanuku the earth mother below, the people in between. I am Grant Brookes. My mother is Helen, my father is Don. I am originally from Ōtepoti/Dunedin. My ancestors are from Scotland. Being Pakeha, or a New Zealand European, I have no Maori tribal connections, so I say, the workers of the world are my tribe.
Introducing the Robin Hood tax
Notes from a talk at Occupy Wellington on October 29, 2011, to coincide with the #RobinHood global march
By Grant Brookes, Tax Justice Campaign (New Zealand)
The campaign for a Robin Hood tax began a little over 18 months ago with a little-noticed launch in London. Supporters from a handful of British charities, faith groups and trade unions projected images onto the Bank of England, in an effort to lobby the British government to introduce a new tax on banks to tackle poverty and climate change. Today, it has become a global movement.
It's easy to see why it has been taken up by large parts of the Occupy movement, which also began as a small gathering on Wall Street opposing US corporate greed and the role of the top 1% in dictating priorities in Washington. That too has now become a global awakening.
Aotearoa/New Zealand: A new working-class, pro-Maori political voice
MANA- 1. (noun) prestige, authority, control, power, influence, status, spiritual power, charisma.
May 11, 2011 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Mike Treen is national director of the Unite Union in Aotearoa/New Zealand and a member of the newly formed Mana Party. Socialist Aotearoa’s Joe Carolan interviewed him on the significance of the foundation of this new left-wing party.
* * *
Joe Carolan: Mike, can you tell us a little about the formation and programme of the new Mana Party?