LIFTING THE VEIL

Lifting The Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy (2011) explores the historical role of the Democratic Party as the "graveyard of social movements".

It also looks at  the massive influence of corporate finance in elections, the extreme disparities of wealth in the United States, the continuity and escalation of neoliberal policies under Obama, the insufficiency of mere voting as a path to reform, and differing conceptions of democracy itself.

The film features original interview footage  from Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, Michael Albert, John Stauber (PR Watch), Sharon Smith (Historian), William I. Robinson (Editor, Critical Globalization Studies), Morris Berman (Author, Dark Ages America), and famed black panther Larry Pinkney.

Non-original interviews/lectures include Michael Hudson, Paul Craig Roberts, Ted Rall, Richard Wolff, Glen Ford, Lewis Black, Glenn Greenwald, George Carlin, Gerald Cliente, Chris Hedges, John Pilger, Bernie Sanders, Sheldon Wollin and Martin Luther King.

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'I WAS APPALLED BY YOUR HANDS-OUT CULTURE...'

We take a look back at some of the 'highlights' from the political career of Christchurch councillor Sue Wells. She's the woman who once said that her goal was to 'lead' the people of Christchurch....

Christchurch councillor Sue Wells has decided to stand for re-election in October. Clearly the attraction of another three years of six figure salaries was too much to resist.  This time though she  will be not standing beside fellow right winger Barry Corbett. He has decided to retire and bring to an end a desultory and mediocre council career.

But Wells will be hoping she can convince enough Spreydon ward voters into voting for her again. But, on her track record alone, she should be shown the door marked 'Exit'.

Given that Wells  will be out to accentuate the positive we thought it only right  that we should delve into the archives and bring forth some of the 'highlights' of her  time as a Christchurch councillor.

Come with us, as we take a walk  down memory lane....

THE HENDERSON AFFAIR!
It's 2008.  When Mayor Sideshow Bob and his faithful right hand man Tony 'Tony' Marryatt decided that they would bail out dodgy property developer Dave 'Hendo' Henderson it was news to most  councillors. They were only presented with details of the bailout on the day the deal was to be voted on.

But this no problem for Ms Wells. Possibly Sideshow Bob's most loyal supporter, she voted to  give Henderson $15 million for five appalling and over-valued central city properties. It was deal that met with city-wide condemnation. Even Gerry Brownlee was aghast and wanted to know why the Christchurch City Council was acting as a personal bank for Henderson - ironically a long time critic of the Council.

But Sue Wells was unapologetic. She commented that the opponents of the  Hendo deal 'just didn't understand what  a very good deal it was'. She even went as far as to describe the critics (ie most of the city)  as  'stupid'.  Wells, it seems, has to bear the burden of being brighter than everyone else.

Henderson was inevitably  bankrupted and $15 million of ratepayers money disappeared down a black hole. Strangely, Wells never refers  to her 'very good deal' these days.  Of course, reminding the good people of Christchurch that she was one of the councillors who voted to waste $15 million of their money isn't exactly a vote-winner. ..

ATTACKING COUNCIL TENANTS!
 While she had no  problems with lending a helping hand to a property developer, she didn't display the same kind of generosity toward people living  in council flats.  Despite the fact that they are home to some of Christchurch's most poor and  vulnerable people, she still voted to put up the rents a massive 24 percent.

She later claimed that she had 'struggled ' over her decision, a claim that  stretched credibility. Wells made her own personal attitudes toward  the poor and dispossessed known  when she made these observations about British society in 2011:

'When I visited your country a couple of years ago I came home horrified at what I’d seen. I was appalled at your hands-out culture, the level of your public subsidies for housing and transport and education for people eligible for it simply by spawning little urchins and refusing to create themselves a constructive future.'

The Council of Social Services took the Christchurch City Council to court and the High Court subsequently  ruled out the increase as illegal.

DOUBLEDIPPING!
Speaking of a 'hands-out culture'. ...

Despite receiving an annual salary  of some $125,000 Wells  has also, since 2005, been holding her hands out for an additional  $38,000 for being a  director of Christchurch City Holdings (CCHL).

It's estimated that CCHL work - basically attending meetings and reading a few papers - takes no more than 12-15 hours a month. Let's say fours a week. And for that four hours the financially bloated Sue Wells  pockets approximately $700 a week.

Former MP and mayoral candidate Jim Anderton  had plans to derail the CCHL gravy train but unfortunately lost the 2010  mayoral election to an earthquake and a orange safety jacket.

'It's not as if councillors are being asked to do extra duties. It is part of their day job that they are already being well paid for, he told The Press in 2010

Sue Wells fatuously claimed that her CCHL job was  'outside my duties as a councillor.' and refused to support Anderton's proposal. But she did happily vote in favour of Sideshow Bob 's proposal to cut funding to community  groups.

Last year  Councillor Len Livingstone (backed by Yani Johanson and Jimmy Chen)  attempted to  stop councillors getting directors' fees  They lost the vote to Sideshow Bob's council groupies.

While, in theory, councillors are supposed to be rotated as CCHL directors Wells appears to have become a permanent fixture - presumably it is a reward for her unswerving  loyalty to Sideshow Bob.

LUXURY HOLIDAYS!
2011. Despite being told in no uncertain terms by the good  people of Christchurch  that it was unacceptable that they should pay for her travel to a five day wine conference in Germany, Sue Wells still went.

 She claimed  that attending the conference was a  'good use of ratepayers money' because its an 'opportunity to get across the message that Christchurch is open for business.'

Wells also claimed   that the wine conference would be 'full on'. 'It's a lot harder than it seems,' she told the Christchurch Mail.

A check of the conference website revealed just  how hard it was going to be:

The curtain is set to rise for the grand “Best-of Gala” in the Ducal Palace in Mainz: sparkling wine reception with aperitifs in the vaulted hall, selected premium wines from Rheinhessen, an exclusive buffet menu including fine dessert specialities, prepared by the Favorite hotel star chef Tim Meierhans, and a varied evening programe provide the stimulating setting for the International Best of Wine Tourism Awards 2012.

It was also no doubt  hard work attending the wine tasting:

As part of the International Wine Tasting, more than 100 different wines from Rheinhessen and all over the world will be offered for tasting and comparison; the tasting ticket also includes light snacks.

ARROGANT!
This issue kind of  sneaked  under the mainstream media radar but is worth recalling because it illustrates how Sue Wells will say one thing  and then does exactly the opposite.

In 2009 an independent commissioner  recommended that the new business area proposed for the old Orion site in St Albans  be limited to 3500 sqm and no single tenancy to be over 450 sqm.

The Christchurch City Council adopted the recommendations in October and so honoured an understanding it had with the local St Albans community. But this was all to change when property developer Wakefield Mews Ltd appealed the decision.

The Council, without bothering to consult the local St Albans community, made a deal with Wakefield Mews allowing it to create a 5000 sqm business zone and with a supermarket that was to be nearly twice the size as the one recommended by the independent commissioner.

The St Albans Residents Association described the decision as 'a slap in the face for a community who worked together many years to ensure that any development at the site was in keeping with the nature of the neighbourhood.'

It was none other than Sue Wells  who chaired  the council's district plan appeals committee which heard the Wakefield Mews appeal and approved the new deal.

Wells 'flexible' attitude toward community consultation was highlighted  when she pompously informed the media that she had the right to cut off the community from the decision making process.

Said Wells:  'When we receive advice from council about the merits or otherwise of an appeal we have the right to exclude the public to protect legal privilege.'

Wells failed to explain what she meant by 'legal privilege'  but  let's just say its a lot like the 'business confidentiality' excuse that Sideshow Bob has often employed to keep details of deals hidden from the public.

She  also told porkies  when she said that the opponents of Wakefield Mews had withdrawn their appeals and that the St Albans Residents Association had agreed to the final plan.

The true story was  that  opponents withdrew their appeals because they simply could no longer financially afford to continue the fight through the Environment Court.

On Sue Wells election website  (which she shared with  Barry Corbett) was this message:

Increased transparency, better ways to have your say, and good process in decision making.


So there you have it, five highlights from Sue Wells' time as a Christchurch councillor. There is, of course, a whole lot more. Like how she presented a shopping show for Canterbury Television on council time. And how she supported all of Tony Marryatt's  exorbitant salary increases.

And, like her master Sideshow Bob, she has  sat back and said nothing as the residents of the quake wrecked eastern suburbs have endured hardship after hardship.  Like Sideshow her priority has always been  to support the Key government rather than the people who pay her exorbitant and undeserved salary.

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LEFT IS RIGHT AND RIGHT IS LEFT

Martyn Bradbury has got a lousy offer for you - because you didn't ask for it. And it comes with a free subscription to The Daily Blog!

Martyn Bradbury is a commentator who has shown  very little, if any, interest in socialist politics. While he huffs and puffs about the  Key government on The Daily Blog  what he is offering as an alternative  won't improve the lives of the very people he claims to champion.  He is little like his more literate colleague Chris Trotter in that respect. Trotter  is  a regular  guest on  Bradbury's Citizen A  chat show, where they mutually appreciate each other.

Bradbury is a one trick pony and a very poor one trick pony at that.  The only thing he is selling is a Labour-Green-Mana coalition. He called it a 'progressive bloc' at the last election  but this time he has come out of the political closet and is openly calling  it a left coalition. That he hasn't been laughed off the political landscape just goes to prove how  resolutely right wing the political landscape is  - a landscape where  right wing social democrat Chris Trotter is described  as 'New Zealand's leading left wing commentator'.

Here is Bradbury speculating on the Ikaroa-Ra-whiti by-election:

'This by-election has far ranging ramifications to the viability of a left wing majority beating the National Government in 2014, progressive voters and media news junkies should stay aware of the trends. '

It should be noted that Bradbury contradicts himself massively. One day he's talking  about a 'left wing majority', the next day he's talking about a 'centre left' majority. Apparently they mean the same thing.  Neither definition makes much sense anyway.  Bradbury  could call his Labour-Green  electoral alliance   a cheese and pickle sandwich for all the difference it makes. Perhap's the label 'We're Not National' is the most truthful, as the spectre of 'lesser evil' politics floats into view.

The elephant in Bradbury's   living room is the inconvenient reality that the two major parties in his 'left wing majority' are right wing neoliberal parties.  So that is  a major problem  for old Martyn.

Arguably liberal-left on largely symbolic social matters in a vain effort to cling to some left wing credentials, both Labour and the Green's remain firmly on the right as far as economic policy is concerned. Even Mana's economic politics are ambivalent and hardly an expression of the  anti-capitalism that many of us were hoping for.

Bradbury's lazy and expedient  answer is to just ignore that elephant and the large piles of neoliberal poo it continues to leave on the carpet.  As the election approaches he and his political pals  will screen off the elephant and hope the voters don't notice the pong.

Here he is again talking about what he this time calls a  'Labour - Green voting bloc':

'For the Labour-Green voting bloc to establish itself as the Cabinet-In-Waiting it will need to achieve and sustain a solid voter-support-base of say 53 percent with Labour on par with (or above) National.'

Bradbury certainly has got the ideological blinkers on when it comes to these two parties.  Even the recent declaration from the Labour deputy leader that his party had no intention of upsetting market forces, hasn't brought Bradbury to his senses and it doesn't look like anything will.  Perhaps he thinks he's in  line for a cushy job under his 'left wing government' in the way he apparently picks up financial assistance from various sympathetic unions for media projects like The Daily Blog.

In Bradbury's echo chamber,  ordinary people are just percentage points that must be  hooked into  voting for the  'political alternative'  that  isn't. He chows down on the opinion polls, works on the percentages, blathers on about it all on The Daily Blog and Citizen A. But he is not the only serial offender, just one of the more visible.

Bradbury is a representative of a strata of middle class  activists who have a moral indignation to the present government but are less enamoured about bringing about fundamental economic change.  In fact, under the veneer of liberal tolerance, they are downright hostile to such a prospect.

The reality is that supporting  Bradbury's 'left wing majority' means writing  the remainder of this decade off to the parliamentary consensus of support for the neoliberal order and which  views austerity measures as necessary in the face of a stagnant economy.

Bradbury, and others like him, exhibit a refusal to do much at all that might seem particularly radical.

For the working class, it will be another lost decade.

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CATASTROIKA

Catastroika (2012) analyzes the shifting of state assets to private hands.

Directors  Aris Chatzistefanou and Katerina Kitidi travel  to London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow and Rome gathering data on privatization and search for clues on the day after Greece's massive privatisation program - ordered by the World Bank and the IMF to pay off Greek's enormous debt.

Slavoj Zizek, Naomi Klein, Luis Sepulveda, Ken Loach and Greg Palast talk about the austerity measures being imposed on ordinary people while the wealthy remain untouched, and the attack on democracy throughout Europe.

Academics and specialists like Dani Rodrik, Alex Callinicos, Ben Fine, Costas Douzinas, Dean Baker and Aditya Chakrabortty present unknown aspects of the privatisation programs in Greece and abroad.

This documentary has English subtitles.

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LABOUR PAINS

The rotten farce that is the Labour Party.

I had a disheartening experience this week. I was reading one of my own articles. 'Join the club, Steve' I can hear someone saying wittily

But seriously.

In that article I said that the issues facing left wing politics in New Zealand had nothing to do with the fortunes of the Labour Party. I stated that as a progressive force that the Labour Party was dead.  I thought I made a reasonable and cogent argument.

The disheartening thing is that I wrote that article in 1990. Over twenty years ago! Today, in 2013, I'm still writing the same article, albeit the names and dates have changed. I probably could work up an all purpose 'The Labour Party is Dead as a Progressive Force' article which I could post every time someone   writes  more rubbish about the Labour's left wing credentials and why we should all  support it. I'd probably be posting it frequently though and it would get terribly tedious.

Consistently ignoring the warning of Big Karl that once is grand tragedy, the second time is rotten farce  'the liberal milieu' are telling us that our only credible hope is to campaign for a 'centre left' government at the next election. This is the same thing that they campaigned  for at the last election - and look where that  got us. The same people who were flogging us that clapped out political vehicle to nowhere last time round will be trying to flog it to us again at the next election.  They don't learn, do they? 

Apparently a 'centre left'  government is a Labour - Green- Mana coalition. But how can this be a centre left government when the two major parties are both committed to maintaining  the neoliberal  consensus of the past three decades?  Do they think we're as stupid as they clearly are? Next time they knock on your door tell them whatever  they're selling, you ain't buying.

Because there  is a  shed load of political expediency and intellectual dishonesty going on here.

And when it comes to political expediency and intellectual dishonesty, you can't go past the leadership  of the Council of Trade Unions. The CTU's  complete failure to encourage and endorse any new political developments on the left in favour of propping up the Labour Party has done nothing to help develop an  indigenous socialism in this country.

In the same article I wrote about 'the constellation of forces' that would be needed to build a new left movement in this country. I lifted that term from the late Ralph Miliband (father of hopeless Ed) and, I think, it still applies today. We need to forge an anti-capitalist  alliance within the widest political arena possible.

 The anomaly which leaves New Zealand without a left political alternative has to end.

Hopefully I won't be posting another similar article in another twenty years time...

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HELEN KELLY IS MILDLY IRRITATED

Helen Kelly forgot May 1. She had more important issues on her mind like....Aaron Gilmore MP.

Combined Trade Union  President Helen Kelly is angry. Well, mildly irritated. Kind of.  But we'll need to have  tripartite discussions with employers and the government  and proceed to an  amicable solution. Going forward.

Helen Kelly wants Aaron Gilmore MP to resign for his drunken and loutish behaviour at the Travel Lodge in Hanmer Springs. As we all know, Gilmore slurred insults and threats at a hotel worker who refused to serve him any more alcohol.

While she is  unhappy  with Gilmore, this  is the same Helen Kelly  who has led a CTU that has sat idly by as workers jobs have disappeared, workers rights diminished, youth rates introduced. Among other things.

In fact, under Kelly, the CTU has collaborated with both Labour and National government's to ensure that the neoliberal assault on the working class has proceeded untroubled by inconvenient strikes and widespread union demonstrations.

Indeed in 2009 Kelly said that the  CTU  was willing   to 'work with employers to mitigate the worst effects of the recession'. Escorting sacked workers to the door marked 'exit' has apparently mitigated 'the worst effects of the recession'.

So there has been no fightback. Her lousy proposal is  to invite workers (again) to be bashed around the head by another right wing Labour government.

Helen Kelly and the CTU couldn't even find it in themselves to mark  May Day. Unlike in other countries around the world, there were no demonstrations and no  marches. Kelly couldn't even  mark the day on her Twitter account.  She had nothing to say on May 1.  Clearly she's a  woman who is unaware of the significance of May Day for ordinary people all around the world.

But she's had lots to say about Aaron Gilmore. He's an easy Tory target for a useless union 'leader'.

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OUTFOXED

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism cleverly  uses the inflammatory tactics of the Fox News Channel to demonstrate the reactionary  bias that’s handed down by Fox’s owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

The documentary gathers interviews from media watchdogs and former Fox employees  but their overwhelming condemnation of Fox’s skewed news practices isn’t half as effective as footage taken directly from Fox itself–an appalling montage of Fox's  Bill O’Reilly telling guests to shut up.

OutFoxed was released in 2002 and, in the intervening years, Fox News has actually  got a whole lot worse...

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MAY DAY 2013

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A VERY IMPORTANT POLITICIAN

 

Brought to you by Aaron Gilmore for Prime Minister

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MAKE SOCIALISM FLY

 It is time to start making our own history again.

“Tomorrow the revolution will 'rise up again, clashing its weapons,' and to your horror it will proclaim with trumpets blazing: I was, I am, I shall be!” - Rosa Luxemburg

You will see little,  if any,  acknowledgment of May Day  in the corporate media  but neither is it of much interest to the Labour Party and the Council of Trade Unions .  There are no demonstrations and no marches. I imagine there might be a self-serving press release or two  floating around somewhere. Very few people will read them.

Of course both these organisations have played essential roles in ensuring, in the midst of job losses and cutbacks, that there isn't much to celebrate about the situation we find ourselves in today.  So celebrating May Day would be deeply hypocritical on their part. 

The Labour Party is just  another convenient   political vehicle for neoliberalism to pursue its interests and,  joined at the hip to Labour, the CTU has unforgivably done little  to fight a capitalist class  gone rampant. In the years of the neoliberal offensive strike action has dropped dramatically.  In 1986  there were nearly 250 work stoppages but by 2011 the figure had dropped to less than 20.

But while workers have suffered the attacks on wages and working conditions,  do-nothing trade union officials have remained safely ensconced in their high-paying jobs.  The shoddy proposal  they have for you is to  vote Labour at the next election. They are inviting you to go to the gallows willingly.

I was tempted to post something by a woman who has had a considerable influence on my politics, namely Rosa Luxemburg.  But I haven't.  This is not because I 've posted some of her  May Day-related material in previous years  but  because, on May Day 2013, I'm thinking that perhaps waxing nostalgically about the great  achievements  of the socialist  movement may gave us a warm fuzzy glow (me included) but will it get us anywhere?

The rule of capital is more pervasive than ever and it may  be more appropriate to look forward rather than backward. Where do we go from here? Or, as someone else once said: What is to be done?

Our fate in New Zealand, as elsewhere, is a society  of  perpetually high rates of unemployment, chronic poverty  and further attacks on what remains of the welfare state. I've read it described as the politics of  dispossession - our dispossession. In the past thirty years both National   and Labour Government's  have raised  the rate of exploitation on labour, plundered the environment mercilessly and collapsed the social wage so our rulers can have so  much more.  And it has all been done with the assistance of  gutless trade union leaderships.

The situation will not change  until there is a rise in political resistance and popular unrest.  We saw a brief - but inspiring - example of such through the Occupy movement.

And we must confront capitalism. While this will have our so-called Labour lefties  running down the street screaming hysterically, it is the only way.

We cannot do anything about poverty,  and growing social distress generally,  without confronting and attacking the accumulation of wealth   in fewer and fewer hands. 

Although Russel Norman and the Green Party  would you like to con you into believing otherwise, environmental issues cannot be solved by a mere tinkering with the levers of capitalism. There is no such thing as a 'green capitalism'. We must confront and attack the corporations  that seek to plunder this country and the world. They are not part of the 'solution' as former socialist  Russel Norman claims.

I'm thinking that we should use May Day 2013 to reflect on changing the world.  There is still a world to win.  It is time to start making our own history again. We should remind ourselves constantly that those who do not move, do not notice their chains. Rosa said that.

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UNITED WE STAND?

Non union members  at Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi won't be getting a pay rise next month. The Tertiary Education Union thinks this is something to celebrate.

Next month union members at Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi will be voting on a  two percent pay rise. Members have been  advised to accept the deal by the officials  of the Tertiary Education Union and the Tertiary  Institutes   Allied  Staff Association. It will duly be rubber stamped.

According to TEU organiser Jane Adams  the deal demonstrates the whare wananga  values its staff. 

It's curious that Adams thinks her role is  also to be a spin doctor for the employer, because  it can't value its  staff that much since it took over four  months of negotiation to squeeze out a two percent pay rise.

And only union members will get the two percent. It won't be passed on to non-union members. They get nothing.

The TEU seems to think that this is something to shout about. On its website  it declares ' 2%, only for union members, at Awanuiaangi'. Evidently  TEU officialdom aren't concerned about the economic situation of non-union workers.

This sort of approach only serves to  help divide the workplace and does nothing to encourage worker solidarity.  It is also hardly going to assist in winning the hearts and minds of non union workers.

The immediate task is  surely  to help make every worker feel that they are the union, and that there is something very concrete to be won or lost.

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BUSINESS AS USUAL

Labour announces that it is still committed to neoliberalism. Fancy that.

While National's  Steven Joyce  has been bouncing around in the Theatre of the  Absurd, babbling about  New Zealand turning into one gigantic North Korean shipyard under Labour, the chatter from the deluded ranks of Labour supporters has been equally  ridiculous

Labour and the Green's proposal  to regulate electricity power pricing  was met with daft talk about Labour changing the political conversation and Labour rolling back the decades of neoliberalism.  They had travelled to the mountain top and found... David Shearer.

Excitable commentators like  Chris Trotter suddenly  discovered new hidden depths in Dave. Trotter declared a new found love for the man he had previously endlessly  berated for not being David Cunliffe.

But some of us thought that one mild policy (that doesn't  go far enough) was hardly the beginnings of a counter revolution and we were right.

Just a few days after  the big policy announcement  Labour's  deputy leader Grant Robertson issued a  press statement reassuring the political establishment that it was still committed to neoliberalism and there would definitely  be no rocking of the capitalist boat:

"Labour makes no apology for stepping in to fix problems in the electricity sector. But this is not a signal that Labour is going to intervene elsewhere in the economy. As we said on the day we launched NZ Power, we have no plans to intervene in any other markets."

Here we have yet more evidence  of Labour's inability,  or even desire to do much at all that might seem radical in a leftist direction.  On the contrary the party remains locked well on the economic   right, espousing the same neoliberal polices and ideas we're all so painfully familiar with.

This is all that is left of Labour - a party beholden and committed to the power brokers of capitalism and to the forces of neoliberalism 

Which leaves people like Chris Trotter  looking even more absurd and tragic. All Trotter could do was attack Robertson  for 'unforgivably surrendering all the gains his party had made.'   He huffed and puffed:

'High power prices aren’t the only thing hurting New Zealand families, Grant. By ruling out intervention “elsewhere in the economy”, you have betrayed not only your party and its supporters, but the electoral victory which, thanks to the political energy unleashed by Energising New Zealand, had been yours for the taking.'

It can't be too long before Trotter will  be attacking David Shearer again and it will achieve nothing other than help to foster the illusion that there is still something to fight for in Labour.  But it is just an increasingly pantomine of a squabble over a politically bankrupt party.

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