AUCKLAND, New Zealand—Róger Calero (in white shirt), the Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president, joins representatives of the Maori community from Ruatoki who traveled here to tell him about the massive police raid on their rural valley last October using new “antiterrorism” laws. The activists helped organize a fight-back that forced the government to drop terrorism charges, although defendants still face criminal charges.

Calero is on tour in New Zealand, accompanied by Chauncey Robinson (at far right), a leader of the Young Socialists from San Francisco.

Thirty-five people attended a May 17 Militant Labor Forum here where Calero, Robinson, and Mike Tucker from the Communist League in New Zealand spoke. Calero laid out a working-class response to the unfolding capitalist crisis and described the May Day political strikes and demonstrations in the United States that have signaled the development of a new working-class vanguard. Because of the actions of immigrant and other workers, he said, “May Day is here to stay.” Earlier that day, Calero and Robinson addressed a meeting at the Latin American Community Center.

—PATRICK BROWN