BY FELICITY COGGAN AND PATRICK BROWN
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - In recent months the government of New Zealand has campaigned against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, portraying an image of itself as a voice against nuclear weapons and for peace.
This antinuclear stand, endorsed by all parliamentary parties, has become a banner for New Zealand's capitalist rulers to assert their interests in the world. At the same time, there has been growing participation by Wellington in military interventions around the globe, from the Gulf War to the former Yugoslavia.
Currently some 250 New Zealand troops are stationed in Bosnia as part of the United Nations forces. This is the largest deployment of New Zealand military personnel on active service since the Vietnam and Korean wars.
In the past decade, the New Zealand military has been substantially restructured into a more streamlined force. Army and air force bases have been closed, personnel and training trimmed, surplus aircraft, army vehicles, and naval patrol craft sold, and the naval dockyard in Auckland handed over to commercial management.
At the same time, two new army battalions and an artillery battery were created and military equipment was modernized. The air force has acquired new Skyhawk fighter planes and the government has embarked on a NZ$1.24-million project to build two new naval frigates as part of a joint venture with the government of Australia (NZ$1 = US$0.65).
The modernization of the armed forces began in the mid 1980s under both National and Labour Party governments. The stated aim was to develop a mobile strike force, especially to counter threats to Wel-lington's interests in the Pacific and southeast Asia. A "Ready Reaction Force" of 1,000 troops was created, modeled on the U.S. Rapid Deployment Force and trained for operations in Pacific island states.
In 1990, the newly elected National government redrew these perspectives to emphasize the rulers' wider world interests, not just those in the region.
Central to this is Wellington's desire to improve relations with Washington, the world's dominant imperialist power, and with its traditional allies in Britain and Australia. It depends on its alliances with these powers to be able to act with greater leverage on the world stage.
Ties with Washington
From 1951, membership in the ANZUS security treaty,
along with the governments of Australia and the United
States, made Wellington a formal ally of Washington, and
allowed participation in a wide range of cooperative
military agreements.
In 1985, however, these ties were cut by the U.S. administration, after the New Zealand Labour government, elected the year before on an antinuclear platform, moved to prevent visits by U.S., British, and other naval vessels that were nuclear armed or propelled. This ban was written into law by parliament in 1987. The visits had been the target of significant street and union protests for more than a decade.
In recent years, however, the New Zealand government has worked to secure a steady thaw in relations with Washington, culminating in the resumption of top-level political and security relations by the Clinton administration in February. This was followed by the visit of New Zealand prime minister Jim Bolger to the White House in March, the first such invitation in more than 10 years.
U.S. officials praised Bolger's government for its economic reforms, participation in imperialist military interventions, and its chairing of the UN Security Council, during which it presided over the implementation of sanctions against Iraq.
Washington's insistence that New Zealand's antinuclear legislation be repealed before full military ties can be resumed notwithstanding, links have been increasing. Commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific military forces Richard Macke visited New Zealand in August and U.S. air force secretary Sheila Widnall traveled to the country in October.
The frigate Wellington recently joined the U.S. naval force policing the blockade against Iraq, and an air force Orion aircraft and the naval frigate Waikato took part in U.S. "End of the War in the Pacific" celebrations in Hawaii in August. This was the first New Zealand warship to enter Pearl Harbor since 1982.
The first British warship to visit New Zealand in 11 years, the Monmouth, arrived for joint exercises in June.
Partnership with Australia
New Zealand's armed forces, numbering around 10,000
service personnel, are designed to operate in partnership
with Wellington's allies, above all in Australia.
Military ties with the government of Australia were formalized in the ANZAC Pact of 1944, and include a common approach to planning, standardization of equipment, and close collaboration on equipment purchases and training. New Zealand's dependence on its military ties to Canberra has increased under a 1991 "Closer Defence Relations" agreement.
Wellington participates in a large number of broader military alliances which assist it in pursuing its imperialist interests in Asia and the Pacific, including with the governments of Britain, Canada, Japan, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines.
The New Zealand government is responsible for "defense" for two of its former Pacific Island colonies, the Cook Islands and Niue, and for its remaining colony, Tokelau. Through armed forces training and "aid" projects provided under the "Mutual Assistance Program," the New Zealand armed forces maintain a presence in Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Malaysia.
Despite the fissure in relations with the U.S. military, New Zealand forces are participating in a growing number of exercises under these alliances, including with Indonesia, a move that has drawn protests because of the Indonesian government's occupation of East Timor.
As New Zealand's rulers prepare their armed forces to better serve their interests in the world, they are also preparing working people in this country to accept their use. New Zealand nationalism along with antinuclear and pro- peace motivations are increasingly being used to promote ruling class foreign policy. The government even has a Minister of Disarmament in cabinet.
The government seized on the resumption of French nuclear testing in the South Pacific to mount a chauvinist campaign against Paris, seeking to assert itself on the world stage and to draw working people behind its foreign policy course.
Felicity Coggan is a member of the Meat Workers Union in Auckland. Patrick Brown is a member of the Engineers Union in Christchurch.