The Maori Party are now in deep trouble if Willie Jackson has walked.
Jackson represents the urban Maori who have been left behind by the Government’s myopic focus on corporate Iwi and if the Maori Party hierarchy couldn’t provide Jackson with the respect and positioning he deserved, this is a terrible blunder.
It seems that Te Ururoa Flavell’s stubbornness and a promise to Tariana Turia to never support Labour are the main stumbling blocks.
The only chance the Maori Party have now is to solidify their arrangement with MANA or else they will be finished as a movement. Winston is set to whip up provincial NZ with his next bottom line for Government which will be that the Maori Party can’t be part of any Government he creates.
If the Maori Party couldn’t accomodate Willie Jackson it remains to be seen if they can accomodate MANA.
This is terrible news for an independent political Maori voice.
The prison population in Aotearoa has just reached 10,000 for the first time.
Recent Ombudsman’s reports have revealed that prisoners are exposed to constant threats of violence and subjected to practices that amount to torture. There is no reason to keep locking more people away from their loved ones in inhumane conditions. It doesn’t help them become better people, and it doesn’t keep their communities safe.
The government has continued to ignore the growing evidence that prisons don’t do what they’re supposed to. Over the next few years, $1 billion worth of prison construction and expansion has been planned, including a new facility at Waikeria Prison that will house 1,500 more prisoners.
This year, the New Zealand government budgeted $1 billion dollars for the Department of Corrections. What could one billion dollars be doing for impoverished communities across Aotearoa? For the 23,000 children with a parent in prison? For education? For housing? For the 1,500 people who are going to be put in Waikeria?
It is clear that at this point the government cannot justify its commitment to the existing prison system. This is nothing more than incarceration for incarceration’s sake, and it is unacceptable.
Our demands are:
The immediate repeal of the Bail Amendment Act 2013. Since it came into force, this act has put 1,000 more people, who have not been found guilty of anything, in prison.
The immediate end to all planning, development and construction of the new facility at Waikeria Prison, which will house 1,500 more prisoners.
2017 is an election year, and no matter what happens, it will be a year of political shake-ups and new leadership. Urgent action is required now to act and make clear that the enormous human and financial waste that is our prison system is unconscionable and cannot continue. We invite you to come march with us and help us make it known that we will not accept the government’s reckless disregard for people’s lives.
We will be meeting at 12pm at Aotea Square and, from there, beginning our hikoi to the Mount Eden Corrections Facility. We will then end with speakers and live music, played loud both for us and for our whānau in prison.
At an average pace, the march route would usually take just over half an hour, but we will take it slowly so expect it to take a little longer. It will take us through central Auckland, so please bring your megaphones, banners, placards, instruments and noisemakers! We want the whole of Auckland to know that we will not be quiet when there are more than 10,000 people in Aotearoa’s prisons.
Our great list of performers and speakers will be announced soon so keep an eye out!
So Thiel didn’t live here before he applied, didn’t intend to be here until he gained citizenship, didn’t even have to come to NZ to be sworn in and he was granted this based on his paying money into various NZ projects.
The big question however is whether or not the security agencies of NZ became involved. Thiel owns Palantir which has offices in Wellington and is interwoven with the 5 Eyes mass surveillance programs…
Although he talked about the idea a number of times during the election campaign, Donald Trump hasn’t said whether he is actually planning a “Muslim registry,” or some other way of tracking immigrants with an Islamic background. But according to some recently released documents, the underpinnings of such a system may already exist, thanks to a company called Palantir.
Palantir is a highly secretive and somewhat controversial startup founded and controlled by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, now a senior adviser to the next president. Named after the far-seeing orbs used by wizards in the Lord of the Rings stories, Palantir is a data-analytics company that does work for agencies like the NSA and the FBI.
According to documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the $20 billion company is already working closely with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency on a system that tracks citizens and determines whether they are a risk.
…somehow the entire mainstream media in New Zealand WILL NOT look into the Palantir connection. At no stage is anyone noting that this guy runs one of the most powerful private spying companies on the planet.
Many in the tech community would have shared Mr Drury’s annoyance that Norman was having a ding at Peter Thiel, the Californian entrepreneur who has invested millions in local startups, and often boosted New Zealand as a centre of innovation.
But at the same time, the evidence seems pretty clear that Palantir has tight ties to the intelligence community. And Prime Minister John Key’s refusal to comment on any “operational matters”, and Palantir’s reticence on the point, leaves the question open of what the software company’s Wellington office actually does. (Mr Key has acknowledged he’s met with Peter Thiel several times, but that’s barely surprising given the entrepreneur has put $15 million toward the Crown-backed NZVIF fund, among other local investments.)
…so it’s not impossible for the NZ media to connect Thiel to Palantir, yet 4 years later all the mainstream media seem to have a total memory blackout.
Thief bought his residency, that much is clear, but the real reason is because his private spying corporation helps process mass surveillance for the 5 Eyes.
Unfortunately NZ shrugged when shown Key was lying about mass surveillance, so we welcome with open arms our new corporate spying overlords.
You can lead a Kiwi to slaughter, but you can’t make them think.
If you’re not angered by all of this, then you’re part of the problem.
What a choice of words eh? ‘We don’t need Middle East leftovers’, that was Bill English in 2005 when he was attacking Labour for being forced to allow Ahmed Zaoui to live in NZ.
Let’s just remind everyone that Ahmed Zaoui was innocent of any terrorism. The security services were spanked by the Supreme Court who tore their bullshit claims that Zaoui was a terrorist to pieces.
I remember it well because I helped protest against his incarceration with his lawyer Deborah Manning.
The case against Zaoui is one of the great blunders of Helen Clark. The security services had an officer who was only in the job for one day interview Zaoui and mistook Zaoui’s strong accent as a yes when they asked him if he was a member of an Algerian terror group.
That’s how pathetic the case against Zaoui was.
That Bill English bashed a person who should never have been arrested in the first place, and was arrested because of gross incompetence by the security officials is terrible enough, calling him a leftover from a middle eastern terrorist region is just ugly bigotry.
Fast forward to today and look at how Bill English defends Trump…
Colin Craig the former leader of the Conservative Party is celebrating today after the Christchurch High Court issued a judgment yesterday confirming that Mr Craig had been defamed by Mr John Stringer. Mr Stringer was found to have defamed Mr Craig in various statements that alleged Mr Craig had sexually harassed one or more women and in various statements that alleged Mr Craig had committed business or electoral fraud. In addition to providing a retraction and apology Mr Stringer has settled the matter by payment of a confidential sum.
“Obviously I am very happy to have concluded one of the legal battles with a clear and final result” said Mr Craig “There was never any doubt that I would be successful but it does feel good to have reached that point”
Mr Craig said he will be celebrating with his family today.
In 2014 the former Conservative Party Leader came under attack from two bloggers Mr Stringer (CoNZervative Blog) and Mr Slater (Whaleoil Blog). In response to that attack Mr Craig published a booklet entitled “Dirty Politics and Hidden Agendas” in which he claimed that the two bloggers had worked together in exchanging information and also that Mr Jordan Williams had supplied them with false allegations. He announced he would be taking legal action against all three.
“With the issuing of the judgement yesterday one of these three matters is resolved and the public have confirmation that I was right in what I have said about Mr Stringer and his claims” said Mr Craig “There are still two more attackers to deal with but I remain entirely confident that I will also be vindicated in those cases”
Mr Craig says that once the judgment against Mr Stringer is sealed he will be writing to media organisations to request that publications containing the defamatory allegations are taken down. “It’s nasty stuff and many media were misled at the time. I am willing to give them a chance to set the record straight” says Craig
Mr Craig, who is not a lawyer, represented himself in the case against Mr Stringer. He says that primarily that decision was motivated by cost considerations. “Defamation cases are very expensive to run and that was a big factor in the decision to run the case myself.”
An Update of the other two Court Cases is as follows:
Update of Williams v Craig:
The outcome of the High Court proceeding between Mr Craig and Mr Williams is still awaiting a court decision. The case which received a high level of publicity, was heard in Auckland last September, but does not yet have a result after the jury returned a shock verdict that Mr Craig says was against the weight of evidence. A judgment that was issued in the course of that trial confirmed that on the basis of undisputed facts Mr Craig had come under attack from Mr Williams and he was therefore entitled to respond.
Update on Craig v Slater:
The matter is scheduled for a jury trial at the Auckland High Court in May this year.
With the neoliberal immigration floodgates wide open to prop up the property bubble, subdue wages and cause crushing weight on our infrastructure (not to mention the exploitation of many of these migrant workers) unemployment has shot up to 5.2%
Unemployment jumped to 5.2 per cent at the end of 2016, with new entrants to the workforce swamping the number of jobs created.
The quarterly household labour force survey showed that while the number of people employed rose by 19,000 in the final three months of the 2016, the overall labour force rose by 29,000.
The expansion in the labour force represents both arrivals from overseas, new people reaching the working age of 15, as well as people whose circumstances change which mean they are now actively seeking work or employed.
Economists had expected unemployment to drop to a fresh eight year low of 4.8 per cent, but instead the number of unemployed rose by 10,000 to 139,000.
This pushed unemployment up to 5.2 per cent. Unemployment increased for both men and women.
The Government have no interest in closing the neoliberal immigration floodgates because they desperately need to keep property values high and feed their boss mates with cheap and exploitable labour, Labour, NZ First and even the Greens however realise that immigration is out of control.
A changed Government in 2017 must immediately step in and reduce immigration to sustainable levels, crack down on the bullshit education industry and protect all migrant workers with mandatory Union enrolment while they are in the country. As for Tourism, a mandatory $25 infrastructure levy would generate $87 500 000 for infrastructure. We should do that immediately.
Rising unemployment and stagnant wages show that many New Zealanders are missing out on the benefits of economic growth, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson.
“Today’s unemployment figures show that 15,000 more people are out of work than there were a year ago. Long-term unemployment (ie. 6 months of more) now stands at 43,700 – up 8,000 from this time last year. The number of people who can’t get enough hours of work despite being available rose by 10,000 last year.
“The economy is not delivering for many New Zealanders, whatever spin that the National Party wants to put in it.
“Many New Zealanders are working harder and harder, but are not seeing the benefits of that. Average hourly earnings actually fell in the December quarter due to falls in both standard and overtime rates in the private sector.
“The Labour Cost Index shows that wages are barely keeping up with the cost of living.
“The point of economic growth is to deliver a better standard of living to New Zealanders. Under National, that isn’t happening.
“Labour will invest in decent work with higher wages.
“We will do this through practical supporting the regions such as the Centre of Digital Excellence announced by Andrew Little today. We will also invest in skills, training, research and innovation to create new work.
“National has no plan for the economy, no long-term vision, and is increasingly out-of-touch with the realities being faced by New Zealand workers. It’s time to change the Government,” says Grant Robertson.
The Opportunities Party has cleverly put into play their Chief of Staff, Radio NZ presenter and local boy, Geoff Simmons, as their candidate and Labour are now suddenly in danger of losing this electorate.
The Greens should have NEVER stood in this by-election, the purpose of the MoU was to create the symbolism of unity and make the Greens and Labor look like a Government in waiting. It wasn’t so that they could trawl through the MoU for any loophole they could exploit at the expense of the other.
By fighting in a by-election they look like opposition parties squabbling.
But that wasn’t the worst part of the decision to stand, by entering the by-election, the Greens opened up the possibility of TOP standing and exploiting the fact National aren’t.
There were over 14 000 National Party votes in the last election, and with 4 left candidates running (Ardern, Genter, Carolan and Bright) the chances of an outsider scooping up National votes and coming through the middle was always a real possibility.
The Greens couldn’t see that and this is what happens when chequers players try to play chess. Ultimately I think this is a staffing issue within the Green. This is a political party that hired the fucking Ruminator as their strategist for Christ’s sake! As if one of the most toxic elements of the Wellington Twitteratti could do anything but alienate voters! You may as well put the Wellington PSA comms team in charge of Labour Party recruitment!
I love Deborah Morris, I have nothing but admiration and praise for her as Chief of Staff, but I think she is being appallingly advised. It’s the person who has advised her on this that is the clown and that clown needs to be quietly shushed next time they have anything to say and replaced befor the election.
This is an immense fuck up that was pointed out at the time, and what did the Greens and Labour say?
“Oh this will be different”, they cried, “this won’t be a fight, it will be the age of Aquarius politics where Julie Anne and Jacinda will skip hand in hand to electorate meetings singing ‘Michael row the fucking boat ashore’ and between plaiting each others hair will have a wonderful policy discussion. You just can’t see that because Brosocialists are angry”.
Yeeeeeeah. Good one sisters.
Well that argument will evaporate quicker than a liberal Muslim in Trump’s Cabinet because now there is a candidate who can split the vote and come through the middle.
How fucking short sighted can the Greens be?
You think all that unity on display at the Joint State of the Nation is going to survive 4 weeks of endless media attention on this by-election? Nothing else happens in February and the second Jacinda’s lead looks in doubt, Party activists will turn on each other online in a feeding frenzy as Labour activists wake up to how badly the Greens have fucked them.
Remember, this was completely avoidable, it was supposed to be Jacinda’s coronation, a box ticking exercise to build momentum towards the election held later in the year. Instead Green Party ambition, ego or naivety – take your pick – has actually threatened the seat altogether.
The Greens need to stop hanging out with the Spinoff and Transport Blog (who of course will come out in support of Julie Anne Genter) because they’re inflated sense of influence has convinced the Greens they could have shot in Mt Albert.
Here are the outcomes and political ramifications:
OUTCOME 1 – Jacinda wins with a 3000 majority and secures herself an electorate and some level of political stability holds. Only ramification is the wider perception within the nationwide electorate that the Greens and Labour are still squabbling. This is the best that can be hoped for.
OUTCOME 2 – Jacinda barely wins a majority and becomes political damaged goods while the perception to the wider electorate is Labour is far weaker than the Mt Roskill by election had suggested. This is bad.
OUTCOME 3 – Julie Anne Genter wins and Labour realise they’ve been played (remember Labour was blindsided by this Green Party decision) and punishment comes post the election when Labour and NZ First team up and leave the Greens with sweet fuck all for supply and demand. This is really bad.
OUTCOME 4: The gorgeous Geoff Simmons resonates with the Radio NZ heartland that is Mt Albert by winning National Party voters AND some Labour Party voters AND some Green Party voters which causes a shock win, changing the balance of power. The political ramifications of that are incalculable. This is fucking awful.
So four outcomes, 3 of which fuck Labour and the Greens.
Remarkable work, I need to go back in my twitter feed and pull up all the angry tweets from Julie Anne Genter who claimed none of this would happen.
Just when there was a glimmer of hope from Key stepping down, ego and stupidity have managed to win the day.
National’s housing crisis has saddled families with record mortgage debt as interest rates start to rise. Building affordable homes is more important now than ever, says Labour Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford.
New Reserve Bank data shows mortgage debt stands at $227.8b, or nearly $50,000 per New Zealander. This increased by $18.3b in the past year, or $50m a day.
“National’s housing crisis has forced families deep into debt. As interest rates rise faster than wages, the squeeze is being put on family budgets.
“Labour’s Kiwibuild programme will build 100,000 affordable homes for first homebuyers. These houses will be priced below the national average, at a level young families can actually afford.
“Kiwibuild will mean young families don’t have to take on so much mortgage debt to get into their own home, and aren’t as exposed to interest rate rises.
“Even if house prices have paused in Auckland, the housing crisis is not over.
“There are still nowhere near enough houses being built, let alone ones that first homebuyers can afford. Prices are still skyrocketing across much of the country. Rents are still ridiculous.
“National has failed and bumbled for too long. They should back Labour’s KiwiBuild Bill, which is currently before Parliament, and start building affordable homes now,” says Phil Twyford.
Emergency clinics are being set up to deal with a large dental health scare affecting around 2500 South Auckland children.
Children treated at the Pukekohe Intermediate dental clinic between September 13 and January 23 may be at risk of hepatitis and HIV after a contamination scare.
The Counties Manukau District Health Board is blaming malfunctioning dental equipment for exposing children treated at the clinic to unsterilised water, possibly containing blood or saliva.
…what TDB can reveal after being contacted by the parents of a child at that clinic, is that the number of children impacted could be larger than is being reported…
“Our 6 yr old daughter is one of the many kids who visited the Pukekohe Intermediate Dental clinic during the exposed dates.
We are 2 pissed off parents, firstly that we found out through social media and that our beautiful girl now has to have blood tests and hopefully get the all clear.
The helpline was only limited use as they were not aware that children other than those that attend Pukekohe intermediate school attend that clinic regularly.”
Our thoughts and best wishes are with the family at this stressful time, but the fact parents weren’t even alerted to what was happening before it became public knowledge in the media demands answers from the Counties Manukau District Health Board.
What’s most concerning however is that more children than just those at Pukekohe intermediate school were using that clinic and that this seems to be news to the Counties Manukau District Health Board.
This is totally unacceptable for those families.
How many children total have been impacted as the Health Board is under the impression it was only children from Pukekohe intermediate .
How did it happen?
What will change to ensure it never happens again?
I’m pretty sure the Auckland Folk Festival wasn’t supposed to end and send me back to real life…
Saturday
I am here. A bluesy duo crank out a number about a GP prescription for none other than Miles Davis. “I’ve been Watching You” has been revamped for the times into a digital/Orwellian/creepy version. A Welshman spins such an excellent yarn about the cheek of his talking guitar tuner that you believe it for a second. The salad bar is stocked with the likes of blackbeans, beetroot, kumara and feta in addition to all the normal stuff. When I plonk myself down at a song-writing tips workshop, Adam Magrath tells us (as he tells the world) how it was connecting with people via music that got him out of the streets and off of weed, and gave his future a direction. Later, I am a dot in a sea of jigs and jumping and clapping and whooping and I am proud the traditions of my Irish ancestors are as intoxicating as ever. The Irish summer chill pays a visit and the hot chocolate warms my bones at midnight. This is the Auckland Folk Festival.
Sunday
I am still here. A band is making light of the necessary but exasperating exercise of sorting the recycling, not to mention the guilt of climate change—”there is no bag for that”. Another voice clear as a bell reassures us that “It’s not just what you’re given but what you do with what you’ve got”. Stuck in my head is that other one about an Irishman who drunk copious amounts of whisky now “clasped to a pig in a loving embrace / The hairs of his curly tail tickling my face”. My ice cream is banana chocolate chip and Mum’s home-made scones are waiting for me at my tent. I wander to a workshop where I learn about the Kaupapa of Nga Iwi E and listen to us fulfilling that Kaupapa about building community. This is the Auckland Folk Festival.
Monday, 3am
I won’t leave. A fiddler tells, truthfully, how he walked into a tunes session full of strangers playing “The Battering Ram” on the same day that his fiddle was in critical condition after a goat attack (it did survive, just). The hour is ripe for creativity about food disposal: one song suggests shoving every conceivable comestible “where the monkey puts its nuts”. I am munching on mini shortbread trees, Brazil nuts and a pack of sour cream and chives chips. I am one of 25-odd spread out with our flutes and fiddles and mandolins and more in the kitchen at the merriest of hours; I am fueling myself with a generous dose of Irish and Scottish tunes. This is the Auckland Folk Festival. You should come next year, incidentally. The vicarious buzz pales in comparison to the real thing.
Around the end of January this year, a US Navy SEAL team , using armed Reaper drones for cover, carried out a commando raid in Yemen, attacking what the Americans said, was a compound harbouring officials of Al Qaeda . The raid had been planned well in advance, under President Obama and then finally approved by President Trump. The US reported the raid was successful , no civilians were killed although regrettably one American lost his life. The word of American officials re civilian deaths, was accepted and reported by CNN.
Yet other reports leaked out telling a different story. Investigative journalist Jeremy Scagill who has contacts in Yemen, having researched and written Dirty Wars, was able to find out that around 30 civilians were killed, including 8 year old Nawar
Al-Awlaki, who was shot in the neck.
Al-Awalaki, does that name ring a bell? It should.
In 2010, constitutional lawyer President Obama, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, ordered the assassination of an American citizen in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki. Al-Awlaki by the way had never been charged with any crime. The assassination was carried out in 2011, by a drone strike.
Two weeks after the killing of Awlaki, a separate CIA drone strike in Yemen killed his 16 year old American born son Abdulrahman, along with the boy’s 17-year-old cousin and several other innocent Yemenis. The U.S. eventually claimed that the boy was not their target but merely “collateral damage.”
Anwar al-Awlaki, his son Abdulrahman and now his daughter Nawar. All killed in one of the poorest countries in the world, a country the US is not officially at war with , under orders from US Presidents.
Last year peace activists protested against international military corporations holding an Arms Fair in Auckland. Just recently peace activists have protested at the Waihopai spy base, near Blenheim.
Many around the world are outraged about Trump’s refugee bans. Yes they are abhorrent. But even more abhorrent are the wars that have led to and continue to led to, such shocking numbers of desperate people .
This is where outraged citizens should especially focus their energy. There must be no more bombing, no more drones, no more wars, no more electronic spying, no more profiteering military corporations, not because Trump is President but because wars are immoral no matter who is President. Modern technology is so advanced that powerful countries can kill others, on the other side of the planet. Reparations must be paid to those countries devastated by warfare.
New Zealand could provide the moral and sane leadership that millions of people around the world are longing for.
Lois Griffiths is a Palestinian Rights Activist and Human Rights advocate
Trump revealed his extraordinary Executive Order on 28 January. With the flourish of a pen, he banned refugees and demanded travellers from seven predominantly muslim nations be subjected to “extreme vetting” (whatever that is). Seven countries were singled out;
.
Acknowledgement: Martyn Bradbury, “The utter madness of Trump’s #MuslimBan”
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Of those seven two (Iraq and Somalia) have been invaded by the American Empire; one has been the target of sanctions for supposedly working toward developing an atom bomb (Iran, not Israel); and two others are currently experiencing vicious civil wars (Syria and Yemen).
Interestingly, as others have pointed out, several countries are noticeable by their absence – chiefly Saudi Arabia.
This is ironic in the extreme as, the entire world is aware, the worst terrorist atrocity on US soil was committed by fifteen Saudi nationals, on 11 September, 2001. The late-leader of al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, was also a Saudi citizen – a so-called “prince”. The remainder were from the United Arab Emirates (2), Egypt (1) and Lebanon (1).
Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Lebanon do not appear on Trump’s “Sinful Seven”.
Making matters worse, on a Christian TV channel, Trump threw petrol onto the bonfire he had lit by stating that there would be an exemption to the ban of refugees from Syria;
Worsening the damage, he also signalled, in an interview with a Christian television channel, that the ban would not apply to Christians. Syrian Christians, claimed Mr Trump, were “horribly treated” by his predecessor. “If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible,” he said. “I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them.” This was not merely incendiary but untrue: last year America accepted 37,521 Christian refugees and 38,901 Muslims.
It is peculiar that the worst offender, Saudi Arabia, is not on the list. Especially since Trump made specific mention of the September 11 attack in the second opening paragraph of his Executive Order;
Section 1. Purpose. The visa-issuance process plays a crucial role in detecting individuals with terrorist ties and stopping them from entering the United States. Perhaps in no instance was that more apparent than the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when State Department policy prevented consular officers from properly scrutinizing the visa applications of several of the 19 foreign nationals who went on to murder nearly 3,000 Americans. And while the visa-issuance process was reviewed and amended after the September 11 attacks to better detect would-be terrorists from receiving visas, these measures did not stop attacks by foreign nationals who were admitted to the United States.
So having referenced (albeit indirectly) the fifteen Saudi terrorists – Trump studiously ignored them.
Yet, Saudi Arabia is home to “Wahabism” – an extreme form of Islam. Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk described Saudi Arabia as;
“…a Wahhabist state whose 18th-century puritan morality defined the Taliban – which received moral and financial support from Saudis – and whose misogyny and grotesque public beheadings after unfair trials parallel the cruelty of Isis punishments.”
Under Obama, Saudi Arabia will continue to be treated as a friendly “moderate” in the Arab world, even though its royal family is founded upon the Wahhabist convictions of the Sunni Islamists in Syria and Iraq – and even though millions of its dollars are arming those same fighters. Thus does Saudi power both feed the monster in the deserts of Syria and Iraq and cosy up to the Western powers that protect it.
Trump lists two companies on his FEC filing possibly related to business in Egypt: Trump Marks Egypt and Trump Marks Egypt LLC.
Saudi Arabia
Trump lists companies on his FEC filing possibly related to a development project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second-biggest city, located outside Mecca: DT Jeddah Technical Services Manager LLC, DT Jeddah Technical Services Manager Member Corp., THC Jeddah Hotel Manager LLC and THC Jeddah Hotel Manager Member Corp.
United Arab Emirates
The Trump Organization has a licensing and management deal in Dubai with Damac Properties Dubai Co. for a golf course and luxury villas currently under construction. Another Trump-branded golf course, designed by Tiger Woods, is under development with Damac nearby.
Saudi Arabia was the top destination for U.S. arms in 2011–2015, purchasing 9.7 percent of U.S. exports. Recent sales approved by the U.S. State Department include Black Hawk helicopters worth a total of $495 million and Patriot Missiles worth $5.4 billion, as well as a $1.3 billion sale of air-to-ground munitions meant to replenish stocks used in Yemen. That has drawn criticism from human rights groups and a couple of U.S. lawmakers, who have cited the high civilian toll of the Saudi-led air campaign. Saudi Arabia’s total arms imports increased by 275 percent over 2006–2010, according to the research organization SIPRI (PDF). The United States also helps Saudi Arabia secure its oil assets by providing training and advisers to Saudi security forces.
And US-Saudi business interests are closely intertwined;
Saudi government officials and businessmen, both royals and commoners, have deep ties to the United States. Saudi finance, economy, and petroleum ministers all have degrees from U.S. universities. Fahad al-Mubarak, the central bank governor who controls over $700 billion in reserves, mostly in U.S. Treasuries, was previously chairman of Morgan Stanley’s unit in Saudi Arabia. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the kingdom’s most famous billionaire investor, owns stakes in Citigroup and Twitter.
[…]
As the kingdom’s economy expanded over the past decade and its stock market opened up to investors in 2015, many U.S. and European banks are expanding operations in Saudi Arabia. Bank of America has been preparing for the Saudi market opening for years, and Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse have shifted staff from Dubai to Riyadh. U.S. investment funds such as Providence Equity Partners and Apollo Global Management are also seeking to acquire stakes in Saudi companies.
There’s growing bipartisan support for a Senate bill, sponsored by Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican John Cornyn, to allow victims of the 9-11 terrorist attacks to sue the Saudi government for recompense for any involvement it may have had in the event. The bill has been motivated by the suspicion that Saudi officials or prominent citizens helped fund the attack, which was perpetrated mostly by terrorists from Saudi Arabia.
This bill is giving Saudi officials serious pause, leading the Saudi finance minister Adel al-Jubeir to warn members of Congress and Administration officials that, if the bill passes, it would be forced to sell off $750 billion worth of U.S. Treasury debt and other American assets, a move that the New York Times said could trigger “economic fallout.”
No wonder that Yemen and Somalia make it on to Trump’s List – but Saudi Arabia does not.
“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our countries representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Trump’s Executive Order on 28 January seemingly fulfills that so-called “election promise”. Trump’s supporters have justified the issuing of that Order on the premise that Trump was simply meeting his promises.
Hitler offered something to everyone: work to the unemployed; prosperity to failed business people; profits to industry; expansion to the Army; social harmony and an end of class distinctions to idealistic young students; and restoration of German glory to those in despair. He promised to bring order amid chaos; a feeling of unity to all and the chance to belong. He would make Germany strong again; end payment of war reparations to the Allies; tear up the treaty of Versailles; stamp out corruption; keep down Marxism; and deal harshly with the Jews.
[…]
On election day September 14, 1930, the Nazis received 6,371,000 votes – over eighteen percent of the total – and were thus entitled to 107 seats in the German Reichstag.
Hitler Made many promises to the country of Germany in order to come to power. Most of the promises he made, he did not keep. After WWII Germany signed the Treaty of versailles which was the main cause of Germany’s economic problems at the time. The U.S. made loans to Germany to help with its failing economy. But when the market crashed in 1929, the U.S. could not continue to help out Germany. This helped set up Hitler perfectly. The people of Germany wee looking for someone who could help fix all of the ongoing problems they were facing in Germany. At the time they had lost faith in their governments ability to take care of its citizens. Hitler believed he could help the people in Germany and he promised them all relief. He also promised jobs for the unemployed and a market for the farmers goods. Hitler began to appeal to peoples emotions instead of their reason. The people of Germany heard what they wanted to hear and ignored the violence of the Nazi party. Hitler blamed Germany’s problems on the “corrupt” politicians, communists, and Jews. He told Germany that if they got rid of them, all of Germany’s problems would vanish and the whole country would improve. Many people in Germany protested Hitler’s ideas and reasoning.
If a candidate vilifies a minority and is subsequently elected to office by a majority, does that confer the right to attack that minority from a position of power conferred by that office? Is an abuse of political power permissable under the guise of “carrying out an election promise”? Do we confer a cloak of respectability to bigotry and racism if it is elected to office?
If the answer is ‘yes’, this must constitute a subversion of democracy and universal human rights by allowing a “tyranny of the majority” to oppress a minority.
It means no minority is safe. It means that mob rule trumps Constitutional safeguards and Declarations of Human Rights built up over the centuries.
1930s Germany offers a clear, chilling lesson where that leads.
Sometimes, the minority voice is the morally righteous one;
If Trump has carte blanche to promote his muslim-ban; unimpeded, because it was an election promise – does that imply that New Zealanders were wrong to protest against the TPPA because National had a mandate?
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Moral courage…
The growing resistance to Trump’s increasingly fragile administration took a dramatic turn today (31 January). In a move straight out of The West Wing, Madame Secretary, or any other political drama, Attorney General, Sally Yates took a step of moral courage that is a rarity these days;
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Why was Ms Yates’ refusal to carry out Trump’s Executive Order an act of heroism?
Because sometimes, the only way to stand up to an unjust law is to say, “No”.
To participate in unjust law – and taken to extremes – leads humanity down dark paths of evil, whether fascism, stalinism, apartheid, etc.
Ms Yates could have followed Trump’s orders – but would that have been the morally right thing to do? Can a human being justify injustice by asserting they were “only following orders”?
It was impossible for Eichmann to deny his role in the killing of Europe’s Jews. Servatius adopted the defense strategy that had been used at Nuremberg. Since he could not disavow the crime, he disavowed the responsibility for them. “He was just following orders” Eichmann’s defense was designed to let the SS Officer fade from the stand and replace him with the benevolent bureaucrat, a man whose actions had been misrepresented by the prosecution. He even went so far as to claim that his early actions during the period of forced emigration had been for the benefit of the Jews.
Humanity made a conscious decision in 1945-49 that “following orders” could not be a justification for perpetrating injustice.
Ms Yates believed Trump’s Executive Order to be unjust and possibly illegal, and she took the only possible step. She said “No”. Ironically, Trump’s Executive Order makes provision for just this scenario;
This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
Ms Yates was following Trump’s Executive Order – perhaps the only part of it that made sense.
History may judge Attorney General Yates, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, etc; as people who chose to follow their conscience rather than orders.
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Meanwhile…
Recent events within the American Empire has moved the world closer to Doomsday, according to the planet’s leading scientists – the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BPA). The Doomsday Clock – made famous in popular culture in the 1986 Watchmen graphic novel and 2009 movie – has moved from three minutes to midnight, to two and a half minutes to midnight;
Scientists have moved the minute hand of the symbolic Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to midnight for the first time.
Leading scientists, who are the clock’s keepers, say the world has edged closer to apocalypse in the past year amid a darkening security landscape and comments by US President Donald Trump.
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The atomic scientists say the world had edged closer to doomsday [EPA].
The clock now says the world is 2.5 minutes from apocalypse.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BPA) chief Rachel Bronson urged world leaders to “calm rather than stoke tensions that could lead to war”.
In a report, the BPA said Mr Trump’s statements on climate change, expanding the US nuclear arsenal and the questioning of intelligence agencies had contributed to the heightened global risk.
It is the closest the clock has come to midnight since 1953, when the minute hand was moved to two minutes away following hydrogen bomb tests by the US and Russia.
The minute hand on the Doomsday Clock is a metaphor for how vulnerable the world is to catastrophe.
The Trump Administration has led humanity into uncharted waters. Looming on the dark horizon may be the inevitable;
Given the sheer danger to the Republic as well as to the Republicans, Trump’s impeachment will happen. The only question is how grave a catastrophe America faces first. – Robert Kuttner, Huffington Post, 29 January 2017
Racism, chauvinism, bigotry, anti-immigrant demagogy, all remain tools to be used by some people – especially those on the right or far right of the political spectrum – to deflect people away from the real cause of the social ills that exist in society. This is especially true when so-called centre-left governments have had a period in office and failed to fix the grotesque inequality that exists or implement measures that can overcome the social and economic crisis that faces working people today.
These crises appear to be worsening for working people over recent decades. The global recessions have become more severe whilst the recoveries are significantly weaker. Whole regions in advanced capitalist countries have become industrial wastelands. We seem to be in a declining stage of capitalism’s existence.
Many working class families are desperate. A generation of young people is facing a future without hope. Anger is growing.
Political forces to protect the billionaire class that controls our societies are desperate to prevent that anger being directed at them. Yet it is precisely their policies that have lead to this dead end.
We have seen this in Europe with a proliferation of far-right parties gaining ground. Trumps’ presidential bid in the US also used language filled with xenophobia, racism, misogyny and hate.
These radical right wing political views would not get a hearing if the Centre-Left had been able to address the social crises we face.
Capitalism can’t deliver a fair or equal society
If everyone has a job then you can’t blame the immigrant. If everyone had access to quality public transport, education, or health care then the argument that someone -(Maori, refugee, migrant, beneficiary, “undeserving” poor, Muslim, Catholic, Jew – pick one to look down on and blame) has access to these things when you or your family cannot get access will find no echo. These arguments can only seem to have weight because capitalism can’t deliver a fair and equal society and those who manage capitalism without challenging its direction can only manage its decline.
The liberal Black US president Obama oversaw one of the greatest destruction of black wealth in US history as a consequence of the 2007-2009 Great Recession and its associated housing loan crisis. At the same time, he rescued the plutocrats that owned and controlled the banks and other major corporations that created the financial crisis in the first place with $14 trillion in public money! From his class perspective, he could do little else.
The liberal wing of establishment politics in the advanced capitalist countries adopts policies that give lip service to opposing racism and other forms of discrimination by introducing measures that at best treat symptoms rather than causes. Often these are associated with symbolic gestures of acknowledgement rather than going to the root of the problem.
Usually, this involves treating racism as an individual failure to be corrected by behavioural control rather than an entrenched system of wealth and power with institutionalised forms of discrimination and inequality backed up by police and military violence when necessary.
The Human Rights Commission in New Zealand is almost all about correcting individual behaviour rather than challenging institutionalised discrimination by the state or big business. The wealthy and powerful in society are generally immune from serious scrutiny. Their “behaviour” has a real impact on people’s lives because they have the power and wealth that can be used to discriminate and oppress in a meaningful way.
The flip side of this is to attempt to convince Maori and other oppressed groups to see their “failure” as an individual one that can be “fixed” if you get a “better education” and “work harder”. Funding is made available to corporate-minded Maori to supply the “training” and “motivation” that is seen to be lacking.
“Consulting” Maori on how to oppress them
In New Zealand we get the awful spectacle of the government or private corporations happily “consulting” Maori – with appropriate fees for the service received – on the building of new prisons, for example, rather than adopt measures needed to close down the disgraceful racist system of incarceration where half the prison population is Maori despite being just 15% of New Zealand’s population. This is actually a worse ratio than that of the US proportionately. Blacks make up 13 percent of the US population and 35% of the prison population. But the US imprisons a larger percentage in absolute terms.
The right-wing uses these “tokenist” measures of the liberals to try to paint the Left as being “politically correct” social engineers trying to change the behaviour of people rather than doing anything of substance. Remember the manufactured reaction against plans under the last Labour government to force everyone to use more eco-friendly light bulbs. I don’t believe this idea would have been a problem if the bulbs were made significantly cheaper and readily available – and their introduction was part of a meaningful programme to combat climate change that we had discussed and agreed to. As it was, it was simply a token measure that threatened to make life more expensive and have no meaningful effect when big business continued to be given free reign to pollute and warm the globe.
The right, of course, has its own form of political correctness – a “patriotic”, nationalistic, pro-war, pro-cop, anti-immigrant and racist narrative they try to force on society through their ownership and control of almost all media.
A working class movement that wants to go to the root of the problem needs to put forward a political programme that challenged all forms of oppression and inequality.
Need to confront institutionalised racism
Running away from the debate needed of how to confront institutionalised racism in all its forms will not help our class get a government willing to make the radical changes needed to overcome capitalism and its crises. The more the right is successful in driving wedges between us the less likely we are able to unite and fight together. We need to do that through our unions, parties and other social institutions outside of parliament as well as through electing members to parliament to represent those views.
That is why working class leaders should help lead the struggle against all forms or discrimination and oppression. We have a duty to help educate the most backwards layers of our class what their genuine interests are.
That does not mean that there are no real material interests that are being used to promote the divisions in the class. Men on average still do less housework than women. As an old white guy, I know I don’t have to prepay for petrol at the garage. I probably have a better chance of getting a flat than a refugee. Two hundred years ago there was a genuine material difference between being whipped as a black slave and not being whipped if you were an Irish indentured servant in the North American colonies.
But I do myself a disservice allowing these “privileges” to blind me in ignorance and unable to see that this capitalist society is holding me and all working people down. The reality I need to wake up to and see is that we live in a class-divided society where ownership or not of productive wealth is the fundamental determinant of who actually controls the society. I must open my eyes to the truth of why poverty is growing, why housing is unaffordable, why unemployment remains a social blight, why health care is being priced or rationed out of existence for many. That fact that access to many of these necessities of life is a bit harder for someone else does not actually make my access fair or reasonable.
Some on the centre-left today, as reflected in the campaign of Hillary Clinton for US President, have started to rely solely on the fact they are not a misogynist, racist, bigoted movement to justify people voting for them. This is because they have no answers on the big economic and social questions. In the face of a strong campaign from a Bernie Sanders, who describes himself as a “democratic socialist”, the Clinton campaign started attacking his more left-wing economic programme by claiming that adopting these measures would not end racism or sexism.
“Not everything is about an economic theory, right?” Clinton said, kicking off a long, interactive riff with the crowd at a union hall this afternoon.
“If we broke up the big banks tomorrow—and I will if they deserve it, if they pose a systemic risk, I will—would that end racism?”
“No!” the audience yelled back.
Clinton continued to list scenarios, asking: “Would that end sexism? Would that end discrimination against the LGBT community? Would that make people feel more welcoming to immigrants overnight?”
The problem with Clinton’s approach is two-fold. Firstly it alienates working-class voters for whom economic issues are very important by seeming to dismiss their concerns.
A working class programme for emancipation
Secondly, a strong socialist economic programme is essential to ending racism, sexism and anti-immigrant prejudices. Attacking economic inequality, providing jobs for all, lifting the minimum wage significantly, providing free public health care and education, will all benefit those at the bottom disproportionately. These measures are actually a necessary part of ending racism and inequality in general. But they are not enough. We also need affirmative action in many jobs and professions. We need an end to institutionalised racism in the police and justice systems. Migrant workers must have full legal employment protections. We need to recognise the rights of indigenous peoples to their land and languages.
These policies are all part of a working class programme for emancipation.
Today, false symbolism is all. “Identity’”is all. In 2016, Hillary Clinton stigmatised millions of voters as ‘” basket of deplorables, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it’” Her abuse was handed out at an LGBT rally as part of her cynical campaign to win over minorities by abusing a white mostly working-class majority. Divide and rule, this is called; or identity politics in which race and gender conceal class, and allow the waging of class war. Trump understood this.
Some commentators like James Moore who writes for the Liberation blogsite and claims to be left wing argue in a manner that is the opposite of Clinton but equally wrong and damaging. In New Zealand, Moore claims, because capitalism can accommodate a few Maori at the top table then the fight against racism is a diversion from the real struggle that is needed against social inequality. He also argues that capitalism can adapt to no longer need racism as a tool at all.
This is a fundamentally wrong approach. Capitalists have a very material interest in maintaining racial and other inequalities. They are able to profit directly from the lower wages they are able to pay as a consequence of all forms of discrimination. All wage systems are built from the bottom up so pushing one section of the class down drags us all down.
Divide and Rule is a basic tenet of capitalism
Capitalism will also never abandon methods that have proved so successful and profitable for so long in imposing divisions among working people. “Divide and Rule” is a basic tenant of a system of exploitation that the 1% want to protect at all costs. As a consequence, institutional racism exists and will continue to exist so long as it serves capitalism’s interests.
Treating racism as only a byproduct of economic inequality ignores the fact that racism has an independent social force in society that imposes a brutal regime of oppression and exploitation. Trying to downplay the importance of this social reality is to be completely ignorant of the lived reality working people face who are Maori and Pacifica in this country.
Of course, the struggle against racism intersects again and again with that against economic inequality, but it is also a response to the often brutal forms of marginalisation, control and oppression that are imposed by a racist social and economic system. It includes an education system that pushes out generation after generation of Maori and Pacifica children. It includes racial profiling, police violence and mass incarceration. Racial bias applies at every step of the criminal justice system. It includes the being excluded from home ownsership and the creation of housing segregation along the lines of race as well as class. It includes understanding why Maori suffer twice the rate of coronary heart disease as the rest of the population but receive half the rate of surgical interventions.
These “left” commentators will never understand the daily abuse and humiliation inflicted by racist bosses, landlords, state bureaucrats, police and the courts. And they will never understand why that reality can be a powerful motivator to join the struggle for freedom and social liberation that will take them on a road that leads way beyond the fight against racism alone.
That is also why Maori, Pacifica and other oppressed groups are often more class conscious than workers who are Pakeha and therefore more ready to join unions, more experienced in social struggles, and therefore more able to help lead the rest of their class in the fights that are needed. That truth we have learnt day in and day out organising and recruiting at Unite Union.
Even worse, this form of fake “leftism” feeds the racist and class prejudice in society that wants us to blame anyone being at the bottom of the heap on their own individual failures not to be seen as victims of a social system. Their “failure” is a personal, not social failure. After all, if some Maori can make it and capitalism is supposedly evolving in a non-racist manner then they can only blame themselves for their second class status.
Lecturing Maori to forget their “identity” as Maori in favour of a broader social struggle against inequality is using the language of class to subordinate and disempower Maori and their struggle against racist oppression. Working people who are Maori, because of their history of struggle against both racist oppression and class exploitation, have played a dynamic and often leading role in the broader struggle. This is a strength not a weakness of the class struggle in this country.
The stronger the fight by Maori and other oppressed groups for their rights the more ignorance and predjudice declines. Periods when the broader class struggle is on the rise also sees a decline of racist and other predjudices in the working class. No meaningful advance for Maori or working people generally is possible if one tries to subordinate one struggle to the other.
A socialist perspective
Socialist leaders of the working class struggle have actually been advancing this viewpoint since the days of the founders of modern socialism Karl Marx and Frederich Engles in the 19th century.
Karl Marx drafted resolutions for the International Working Men’s Association in support of the Irish struggle for independence. He thought the advance of this struggle was vital to liberating English workers from their backwards attachment to their own rulers. He also drew parallels with the situation of workers in the United States in relation to blacks there. In a letter to some comrades on April 9, 1870, Marx commented:
And most important of all! Every industrial and commercial centre in England possesses a working class divided into two hostile camps, English proletarians and Irish proletarians. The ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who lowers his standard of life. In relation to the Irish worker he feels himself a member of the ruling nation and so turns himself into a tool of the aristocrats and capitalists of his country against Ireland, thus strengthening their domination over himself. He cherishes religious, social, and national prejudices against the Irish worker. His attitude towards him is much the same as that of the ‘poor whites’ to the ‘niggers’ in the former slave states of the USA. The Irishman pays him back with interest in his own money. He sees in the English worker at once the accomplice and stupid tool of the English rule in Ireland. This antagonism is artificially kept alive and intensified by the press, the pulpit, the comic papers, in short by all the means at the disposal of the ruling classes. This antagonism is the secret of the impotence of the English working class, despite its organisation. It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power. And that class is fully aware of it.
The letter powerfully explains the roots of all divisions as being the economic competition between workers that is exploited by the ruling class. That is reinforced by the creation of a racist belief that the white (or “English”) worker is the member of a ruling nation. The way forward for Marx wasn’t to adapt to this prejudice and pretend it didn’t exist but it was to confront it openly and powerfully and demand that working class leaders campaign for Irish emancipation and against slavery. Only on that road would they find the way to their own liberation.
Our duty remains the same today. By following that example we will find our way to the fighting unity that will be necessary to overthrow the class of capitalist leeches that exploits, and oppresses us all – even if not equally.
The prison population in Aotearoa has just reached 10,000 for the first time.
Let’s just remind everyone that Ahmed Zaoui was innocent of any terrorism. The security services were spanked by the Supreme Court who tore their bullshit claims that Zaoui was a terrorist to pieces.
![The atomic scientists say the world had edged closer to doomsday [EPA]](https://fmacskasy.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/doomsday-clock-donald-trump.jpg)
