BY FELICITY COGGAN
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - "The crisis of capitalism puts our ideas on the agenda," said James Robb, Communist League candidate for mayor here, at a meeting to launch the campaign in early August. The Communist League is also standing Annalucia Vermunt, an assembly worker and member of the Engineers Union, for mayor of Manukau.
Robb, who is a meatpacker at the Auckland Abattoirs, was explaining his response to questions he is being asked by journalists intrigued that communists are participating in this election, several years after the announced the death of communism.
The socialist candidate noted that one reporter had been particularly surprised that Vermunt, aged 27, had joined the communist movement since the collapse of the Soviet Union. "Today, as the Stalinist parties have dropped the pretense of being communists, it is easier to see who the communists are and what they stand for," Robb explained.
Solidarity with independence struggles
Central to the communist campaign here is solidarity with
the Tahitian people in their fight for independence from
French rule and against nuclear weapons testing. Vermunt
declared the campaign's support to the 200 Tahitian workers
at Moruroa who had just declared a strike. She pointed to
how the New Zealand government is using antinuclear
sentiment and nationalism as a lever against their rivals in
Paris, while distancing themselves from the independence
movement in Tahiti.
Vermunt condemned the New Zealand government's decision to send the naval vessel Tui to Moruroa. This move is aimed at creating the illusion that the New Zealand military can play a progressive role in the world, she said.
"Working people in Auckland face the same problems as those the world over," Robb explained. "The local issues being discussed in the campaign, from public transport to sewage treatment, are not unimportant, but they are part of a much larger crisis of world capitalism that belies a local solution."
The communist campaign proposes a program of working- class unity to fight the effects of the capitalist crisis on working people. Central to this is the fight for a shorter workweek with no loss in pay to end competition for jobs.
"The unions should champion affirmative action programs in employment, housing, and education to cut across the bosses' attempts to use discrimination to divide workers," Robb said. And the candidates are calling for the cancellation of the debt owed by governments in the Third World to the imperialist banks, to overcome the unequal burden on the toilers of these countries.
Robb expressed his opposition to the imperialist intervention in Bosnia, of which New Zealand troops are an integral part. In violation of Bosnia's sovereignty, their goal is to partition the country, while each power attempts to increase its influence in the region. "The labor movement should demand that New Zealand and all United Nations troops withdraw and all immigration restrictions should be lifted," he said.
Socialists draw attention
The communist campaign has begun to attract attention in
the news media. Vermunt was interviewed on nationwide
morning radio, and both candidates have appeared on the
local television channel.
The participation by both candidates in the August Cuba Lives festival in Havana, has been a point of interest among working people and youth here. Robb described an interview with "Radio Liberty," a right-wing station, in which he was able to explain that the "Cuban revolution has proved more resourceful than its critics would believe and today, far from collapsing, remains on its socialist course."
He pointed to the half-million-strong march in Havana that he participated in at the close of the festival as evidence of his impression that the majority of Cubans do not want to leave, but intend to stay and build the revolution. "Cuba shows how the creativity and consciousness of working people can achieve miracles when workers hold political power and fight," he said. "We need a government of workers and farmers here, and this campaign is a small step towards this goal."
The Communist League election campaign has been getting a good response at political protests and meetings here. The socialist candidates are getting out to anti-nuclear protests, meetings in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal, and union struggles. Robb had just visited the picket line of striking construction workers at Carter Holt Harvey to offer his solidarity and explain his election campaign platform.
Vermunt invited everyone at the election campaign event to join the socialist candidates in election campaign activity.
Those in attendance also made pledges to the Militant Fund totaling NZ$3,570 (NZ$1=US$.60).
Felicity Coggan is a member of the Meat Workers Union.