GUEST BLOG: Lois Griffiths – Creative Boldness Needed

Simon Bridges has announced the National Party’s Foreign Policy.

“National will prioritise our relationship with the United States, and leverage the strong security, economic and political ties with them to bring this important initiative into action…”

“That’s why we’re proposing to pass legislation to empower New Zealand to autonomously sanction organisations when the United Nations is unable or unwilling to do so.”

There are some points that should be addressed. Take the phrase “National will prioritise our relationship with the United States.”

Surely it is correct to interpret ‘the United States’ in Bridges’ statement  to mean the  governing clique of the United States: Trump, Bolton , Pompeo, Kushner.

Is Mr Bridges  declaring that a National Party Government would consider any American Foreign Policy as NZ’s Foreign Policy,  eg: supporting a coup in Venezuela, cracking down on whistle-blowers , siding with and encouraging the Israeli regime in its criminal war on the Palestinians, increasing its nuclear arsenal, threatening Iran.

The US is a large country with people of diverse views. The US regime is impoverishing the American public by lavishing obscenely  huge sums of money on  the military , by granting huge tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, while services providing health, education, and a clean healthy living environment are allowed to deteriorate.

Is the National Party offering the country ‘strong security ‘ or are the Nats determined to commit  NZ to obediently join military actions whenever ordered to?

There are American activists who openly oppose  expanding military actions, including  on the US border against desperate migrants from what Trump calls ‘sh*t-hole’ countries..see Cynthia McKinney’s new book How the US Created Sh*t-Hole Countries.

American activists including Code Pink and War No More members moved into the Washington DC Venezuelan Embassy at the request of the elected Venezuelan President, to prevent it being taken over by Guaido supporters.  American activists including CodePink, Catholic Workers and Voices for Creative Non-Violence protest at   nuclear and drone weapons installations.

American activists  protest at meetings of the powerful pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), protest about the enormous amount of US tax-payer money that goes to Israel, and  are appalled at the grovelling support the US gives to the Israeli regime, the most right-wing in Israel’s history. Opposition to the oppression of Palestinians, including of course  the deliberate killing of unarmed ‘Great March’ Gazan protesters,  is growing especially but not only,  among young American Jewish students. There is also increasing  support for the Palestinian cause from African-Americans.

I am most concerned by Bridges’ statement  “empower New Zealand to autonomously sanction organisations when the United Nations is unable or unwilling to do so.” He must be challenged on this. What is he talking about?Does Mr Bridges have any international diplomatic experience?  The US uses sanctions as a weapon of war.

Secretaryof State  Madeleine Albright when questioned about the UN report that US sanctions on Iraq  led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, replied that “the price was worth it”.

It’s overdue time for a strong anti-war movement here in New Zealand,  a movement that should ‘prioritise’ its ‘relationship with the United States’ peace movements. Black Alliance for Peace is another group I should have mentioned earlier. Its national organiser is  a former Green Party Vice-Presidential candidate.

Recently I attended a small meeting in Christchurch, discussing the urgent need to ban autonomous  killer robots.  How can sane people even contemplate producing such horrific weapons! Why is it  assumed there will always be more wars, requiring even more obscene weaponry?

Martin Luther King once said, “The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

There have already been separate campaigns to condemn : nuclear weapons, depleted uranium, cluster bombs, drone warfare….

It’s time to condemn war itself.

A strong grassroots   movement is needed to convince  Mr Bridges that New Zealand could play an independent and  positive role that would be welcomed by peace with justice advocates worldwide.  New Zealand could be the Costa Rica of the Pacific.

 

Lois Griffiths is a human rights activist.