Unity 10



A Marist journal for all grassroots activists

Published quarterly by

SocialiSt

Worker

Bo 3-685, Aucland, New Zealand(09) 634 3984socialist-worer@pl.net

May 2009EditorDaphne Lawless

daphne@randomstatic.net

Postal subscriptions

Four issues a year(February, May, August, November)Inside NZ: $25 for one yearOffshore fastpost: $NZ40

Make cheque out to ‘UNITY’

Send to Bo 3-685, Aucland, NZ

Cover graphics

Bac: 30,000 worers march in Grenoble, France,during the mass stries in January 2009

www.unybgnz.m

23

DaPHNe laWleSS

Born in Lower Hutt 1974. Let activist since earlyteens. Foundation member o NewLabour Party 1989.Studied literature at Victoria University. Doctoraldegree or Marxist-eminist thesis on early NewZealand women’s popular iction 2003. Workedas teacher, researcher and library assistant 2002-6.Joined Socialist Worker 2002. Central committeeo Socialist Worker 2003 to present. Delegate or

Political prole of your UNITY eitor

Association o University Sta 2003-5. Co-ounder o Campus Let atVictoria University 2004. Editor o Socialist Worker Monthly Review2004-5. Co-editor o UNITY journal 2005 to December 2006, then soleeditor. Moved to Auckland 2006. Editorial Board o Workers Charternewspaper, 2006-8. A recorded singer and songwriter.

89

Fighting the nancial crisi

sDIE LINkE

(The Left party), German

y9 New left openings in Britain

ROBERT GRIFFITHS,

Morning Star (Britain)94

The People’s Charter for Chang

e97 Challenges facing Québec solidaire

RICHARD FIDLE

R, Socialist Voice (Canada) 03

Defend jobs, not prots

!

SOCIALIST ALLIANCE

(Australia) 07 Fighting the bloggers on their own turf

DAPHNE LAWLES

S 2 A handboo for the downturn

GRAHAM MATTHEW

S,

Green Left Weekly (Australia)

5 Feedbac: Letters from Ondine Green, Bronwen Beechey andan Aucland union activist

123 Where We Stand: the programme of Socialist Worker129 How We Organise: the constitution of Socialist Worker

32 Contacts

Global Crii: the Left Repon

CONTENTS

5 Crisis, danger and opportunity

DAPHNE LAWLESS, editor of UNITY

0 Financial implosion and stagnation

JOHN BELLAMY FOSTER and FRED MAGDOFF

40

Will the global economy recover

?ALEx CALLINICOS,

Socialist Workers Party (Britain)

42

Trade unions and New Zealand’s economic cris

is

GRANT BROOKE

S,

Socialist Worker (New Zealand)

59

The housing crisis revist

ed

PETER DE WAAL, Socialist Worker (New Zealand

)67 Responding to the crisis

VAUGHAN GUNSO

N,

Socialist Worker (New Zealand)

78

The rocks of opposing class interest

sDON FRANkS,

Workers Party of New Zealan

d84 Venezuela: New measures to confront crisis

JIM MCILROY and CORAL WYNTE

R

, Green Left Weekly

(Australia)87

France: The anti-capitalist hop

ePIERRE-FRANÇOIS GROND, New Anti-Capitalist Party (France)

UNITY invite your feeback

We invite your letters (500 words max) on viewpoints inUNITY or issues dear to your heart.

Send your eedbackto

daphlawless@randomstatic.net

or

UNITY Letters, Box13-685, Auckland.

The editor reserves the right to edit orbrevity, clarity and libel while keeping your core messageintact.

45

UNITY journal, out quarterly

UNITY, Aotearoa’s premier Marxist journal,is issued each quarter (February, May, August,November).The cover price is $5. A postal subscriptioninside New Zealand is $25 a year (our issues).A astpost oshore subscription is $NZ40anywhere in the world.Any subscription queries or problems, contactUNITY manager Len Parker, organiser@sworker.pl.net or +64 9 634 3984 or Box 13-685 Auckland.

UNITYblognz.co

Socialist Worker’s ocial blog brings thelatest in news, comment and analysis, inNew Zealand and around the world, to yourcomputer screen.

Socialist Worker’s publications

Eitorial

Crisis, danger, and opportunity

by DaPHNe laWleSS

UNITY, the quarterly journal o Socialist Worker NZ, relaunches itsel with this issue, at a time when clear, original and practical thought inthe Marxist tradition is needed more than ever. The words “GlobalFinancial Crisis” barely seem adequate to describe what we’re upagainst at this point in history.Ordinary workers in New Zealand will probably be orgiven orthinking “Crisis – what crisis?” Indeed, the New Zealand economy hastraditionally been about a year out o sync with the global economy.So, the massive shockwave which spread across North America andEurope in September last year, and is currently buetting China andthe Asian economies, should be due to hit here about the time thatthe next UNITY is predicted to go to press. Current upbeat talk about“green shoots” seems like whistling in the darkness, given China’scontinual shit into defation, and the possibility that the UnitedStates is prepared to let infation rip in order to magically downsizeits ever-increasing debt.But this economic crisis cannot be spearated rom the ecologicalcrisis – the prospect o runaway climate change which might, in aworst-case scenario, render this planet unt or advanced techno-logical civilisation in a hundred years. Add to this an ever-increasingsocial crisis, as global “stability” under the Pax Americana and theimposition o “Western democracy” comes increasingly under threatrom populations who will simply not put up with it any more. Thus, wecome ever closer to Lenin’s denition o a revolutionary situation.We are currently working on a major, book-length analysis o theinterrelated crises now besetting capitalism, and what the long-termprognosis might be or global society. While this is not ready or pub-lication so ar, we include in this issue the last chapter o the recentbook by American Marxists John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdo,

The Great Financial Crisis

and a review o the entire book romour Australian comrades at

Green Let Weekly

. Foster and Magdo