The two richest men in Aotearoa own as much wealth as the bottom 1.4 million people. Wages in this country have been stagnant for 30 years. Public services are at breaking point. We have the worst housing crisis of any OECD country. Our government, whether National or Labour, sets policies — from tax cuts to trade deals — which always favour the rich.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Quality education and healthcare; fair pay; dignity at work; homes for life: these things should not be luxuries, they should be human rights. We could live in a society which favoured working people rather than a tiny corporate elite.
But such a society is never going to be handed down to us by the wealthy and powerful. Things can and will change — not when we ask politely for things to be a little fairer, but when we stand up and fight for our communities. Working people need to organise to campaign for a fairer world. That means joining unions and demanding better wages and conditions — but it also requires a political movement.
Socialist Aotearoa is part of that movement. We have been agitating since 2008, not only for small, immediate improvements in the lives of working people, but to build, through struggling for short-term reforms, a force which can in the long term win an entirely new world. A world where the wealth we all work so hard to create sits in our hands, rather than being hoarded by the top 1%.
Founding Principles of Socialist Aotearoa
1. One Solution, Revolution!
Socialist Aotearoa is a revolutionary, socialist, anti capitalist group. We fight for socialism from below, system change not climate change, and Rosa Luxemburg’s battle cry that “Revolutionaries are those who fight the hardest for reforms in the here and now!”.
2. Workers of the World, Unite.
Socialist Aotearoa is an international socialist group. We oppose all imperialist wars and occupations, and support all genuine national liberation struggles for independence. We demand the immediate withdrawal of New Zealand colonial troops from Afghanistan and the Pacific. We support the struggle for Tino Rangatiratanga and self determination for Maori in Aotearoa, fully aware of the bloody history of the New Zealand state’s past and the dispossession of Maori today. We welcome refugees and immigrants to Aotearoa, and fight against racism wherever we find it.
3. Equality For All
We oppose all oppressions based on race, gender, sexuality and religion.
4. United Fronts
Socialist Aotearoa will co-operate with other left wing parties, unions and movements, but maintain its organisational independence and state it’s politics honestly and openly. We will work in United Fronts, but reserve the right to publish and contribute our own socialist ideas within them.
5. Rank and File Trade Unionism
The working class movement is the force we believe will change the world. As demonstrated by general strikes and revolutions throughout the decades, it has the power to shut down the system and replace it with a better world based on sharing and direct democracy. As such, Socialist Aotearoa members are active in our unions as volunteers, members, delegates and organisers.We are with the union leaders when they fight, but believe that union bureaucracy acts as a negotiating layer between the workers and the bosses. In order to counteract the influence of the Labour Party’s union bosses , rank and file union members and delegates must organise a cross-union, cross-industry network of solidarity and struggle.
Ratified by the Socialist Aotearoa Foundation Hui, May 10th 2008.
Socialist Aotearoa 