We say no A community fights to keep cheap liquor away from local school

Article submitted to the Socialist Aotearoa Blog but not published.

With over 100 liquor outlets in the Mangere Otahuhu area alone it is no surprise that members of the Mangere community were outraged that a liquor licence was granted to a premises opposite a local school. The community responded with a 200 strong demonstration outside Southern Cross campus. Community leaders emphasised that there was very little public consultation by the licensing authorities. Liquor outlets are far more prevalent in working class areas such as Mangere and Otahuhu while being less prominent in more affluent areas where those responsible for issuing liquor licences usually live. As such very little thought is given to the impact that cheap easily accessible liquor has on working class communities where liquor in some places is sold alongside basic commodities such as bread and milk.

The negative impact of having a Liquor outlet opposite a school is twofold first of all students are exposed to liquor advertising as the pass the outlet and secondly older students are likely to skip school and acquire Liquor directly or indirectly (south Auckland liquor outlets are notorious for selling to under-age customers.)

The major issue here is local democracy community members need to have the power to stop commercial endeavours can have a negative impact on the well-being of community members such decisions must be in the hands of those who will be exposed to the negative effects of increased access to liquor and should not be left in the hands of a small elite from outside the community.

Why I'm not voting for Goff

Phil Goff is a Red Tory with more asset sales under his belt than the Bolger and Key governments combined. he supports Imperialist "free" trade deals and Imperialist slaughter in the middle east. he is responsible for the crippling financial burden that keeps many working class people of my generation from accessing quality tertiary education and adequate accommodation. he owns a high value rural property and public admitted during the 2011 election that he benefited greatly from the 2010 tax cuts. as a Mount Roskill voter I can't in good conscience vote for such person as I feel the very act of voting for Goff would be an insult to all the people who have been negativity effected by policies introduced to Aotearoa by the right wing of the labour party I am aware that first past the post politics that still exists within the electorates requires you to vote for the major party closest to your own (in terms of policy) in order to stop the other major party from wining the electorate but I simply feel that voting for any right wing candidate regardless of political party is an act of betrayal. Instead I will vote for the most Left Wing candidate who stands for the Electorate because I that two party electorate politics is a distraction from the party vote that allows for diversity within parliament and renders the electorate contests as a pointless distraction that is essentially a relic of the dark age parliaments of England. It is my belief that John Minto of the Mana movement is the only suitable left wing candidate and I will vote for him regardless of the consequences to Phil Goffs campaign because a right wing candidate should be opposed by the left regardless of party.

Updated 8/6/14
Banks may have resigned but National and Act should never be allowed to forget that they allowed this crook into their ranks.
lets bring down the government and consign the Act party to the pages of history.

John Banks has been found guilty of electoral fraud but remains a siting MP for the Act party a group that is known for a tough anti crime stance perhaps it's time they amended their key slogan here is a suggestion.

Some thoughts on Anzac Day

For many nations today the dominant people within that nation displaced another people so it is only natural that the narrative that is said to have brought the nation into being is set many years after the nation in question first came into being. In the narrative of the New Zealand nation we are first taught about the invasion of Gallipoli where the nation was supposedly brought together by the common struggle (to help the British imperial war machine gain a foothold in the Middle East). Indeed the lives of countless generations. However this is not unique to the New Zealand nation it is not uncommon to hear English historians talk about Agincourt as if the nation were founded due to that common struggle (also on foreign soil and also to the betterment of the English war machine and ruling class).
So why would the ruling class that dominate any given nation state want to distance themselves from the events surrounding the founding of the nation states that they dominate. now while the land occupied by the English part of the British nation state has been invaded so many times it is hard to know who occupied that land first the situation with the New Zealand nation is much easier to make sense of in 1815 the land of Aotearoa was a completely Maori world yet one hundred years later as New Zealand’s army set off for the great war they left behind them a predominantly Pakeha nation state. Now the population of a land does not change so markedly in such a short time without some kind of struggle. Despite this fact New Zealand schools are not known to teach anything about the land wars or about the role of the Maori land court (then called the native land court) in advancing British imperialist interests in Aotearoa. The first proper history course I was able to take at school opened with a unit on the First World War and through all the units over the three years that history was taught properly the majority of the history taught was foreign and any NZ history that was taught was from the twentieth century. Basically ANZAC day and ANZUS or how the NZ military serves the interests of foreign imperialist militaries and why you should not question the fact.
Please understand that I do not mean any disrespect to the workers who served and died at Gallipoli but celebrating the day that the New Zealand (along with Australia France and Great Britain.) nation invaded turkey to advance British imperialist interests in the middle east is an insult to the workers in uniform who died that day on the shores of Gallipoli. the working class people who were convinced that this war would end all wars and yet almost a century later our soldiers are still occupying foreign soil (Afghanistan) their lives being put at risk to advance foreign imperialist interests in the middle east.
Lest we forget: our army is still at the behest of foreign imperialist interests

Transgender children deserve our respect and understanding.

Just when i thought the the NZ media was getting more sympathetic towards transgender people a notorious Right wing rag (The New Zealand Herald) published an ideologically biased family first press release as if it were actual content. in this article the author notorious right wing hate speech merchant Bob McCoskrie claimed that Transgender people were mentally ill  and confused he based his arguments biological essentialism despite the medical irreverence of this theory. he backed up his hate speech by using the example of Walt Heyer a Christian ex Transgender person who now campaigns against allowing transgender people to access basic treatment.
A further argument put forward by the article in question was the idea of denying transgender access to suitable medical treatment until adulthood (ie after puberty) this is problematic in so many ways. first of all many transgender people are aware that they are transgender from a very young and secondly forcing Transgender people to go though puberty as the gender they do not identify with is cruel and contributes to an unsafe environment for transgender people. as Transgender woman who has gone through puberty as a boy I speak from experience when i say that this is simply unacceptable and I am please with our allies within the trade union movement who are helping us make a stand against such bigotry.
One of the most problematic aspects of Family First is that is an ideological hate group that masquerades as a family friendly charity in order to spread it's messages of hate against woman LGBT people and sex workers to an audience that is much wider than a small group of bigoted religious nut-jobs could otherwise hope reach. Family First has managed to influence some conservative working class family's and has contributed to an unsafe family environment for many Transgender people in this country.
Transgender people are already forced to live to live in an extremely unsafe environment and when the mainstream media give transphobic hate groups a platform for their bigoted ideas an already hostile environment becomes even more inhospitable. i would however like to commend the New
Zealand trade union movement for helping to make our lives more dignified. I know we must never underestimate the power of solidarity we are stronger together and i hope that the fight for Transgender dignity and basic  civil rights in one that will be won within my lifetime.

The problem with exclusionary policys

Allowing Feminist individuals or groups not associated with Socialist Aotearoa to bully us into adopting exclusionary policies can be problematic at best and disastrous as an organization that supports all oppressed people we must understand the risk that such actions pose to Transgender and Gender Variant people. Recently individuals who consider themselves Anarcha-Feminists attacked a rape survivor who is a member and then later demanded that she be forced to subscribe to their bourgeoisie feminist ideas. With that in mind I would like to draw your attention a recent incident where an individual who considers herself feminist accused a Transgender woman of sexual misconduct with little to no evidence (Bellow). under an Anarcha-Fem Exclusionary policy anyone accused of sexual misconduct has to be excluded for life regardless of evidence.  

Link

I understand that Anarcha-Feminism is not the same as the notoriously transphobic Radical Feminism (Radfem) however both ideologies are big on Exclusionary policy and both groups have engaged in activities that some socialists (of all genders) have considered man hating. As far as I can tell the only major difference between the two ideologies is the definition of men Anarcha-Fems acknowledge gender identity Radfems do not. However I recently came across a group (the Left Side of Feminism) that claims to be an Anarcha-Feminist group yet is openly Transphobic (Bellow).

 More Examples of Transphobia from this group

(copy paste) Link:https://www.facebook.com/TheLeftSideOfFeminism 

My personal Experiences with Anarcha-Feminists in Auckland have been mixed. In general I have not had much to do with such people especially the most hostile members of that community. When I did however have to work with such people I found them to be very hostile to me when I was still presenting as a boy although such hostility was not continued after I came out as Transgender. I wonder how quickly they would resort to Transphobia if I were to end up in a conflict with a group of Anarcha-Fems.

Also bonus Radfem Transphobia

Link

 TERF Definition

Can Gay capitalism bring about the liberation we seek

on June the 28th 1970 thousands of LGBT people took to the streets of New York in what is widely recognized as the first Pride march this occurred one year after the stonewall uprising and resembled more of a protest than a parade. it is also interesting to recognize that this was actually a Liberation march not a Pride parade. today overly commercialized Pride parades are common in almost every major city in the western capitalist world complete with thuggish security guards who ruthlessly enforce the gay capitalist hegemony. the recent pride parade in Auckland was an overly commercialized gay capitalist affair with little consideration given to less well off LGBT people who still face workplace discrimination harassment on the streets and lack of access to housing. security personal preset at the parade appeared to be private contractors who were not averse to assaulting members of the public I personally saw two instances of parade security assaulting members of the public and at one stage a security person forced a Transwoman into the gutter where her shoe got caught in a storm-drain and she fell on her face.
Personally i don't think that such commercialism has much to offer LGBT people who still struggle from oppression both in public and in the workplace. I feel that a  grassroots LGBT liberation movement would be a viable step towards true liberation for all LGBT people.

Police presence and politics at Big gay out.

In my opinion there is a huge difference between a political group offering support and solidarity to the LGBT community  and a political group that attends such an event in order to boost their popularity. Right wing prime mister  John Key and an entourage of about 20 supporters from the National party youth wing attended the 2014 Big Gay Out festival distracting the media from the real issues facing the LGBT community. meanwhile the police dealt harshly to anyone who dared to publicly criticize the Prime Minister in front of the media. also present at the event was controversial Auckland City mayor Len Brown who also attracted protest although the police were much less interested in doing anything about it. late in the afternoon two Socialist Aotearoa comrades were attacked by police for protesting the Prime ministers presence at Big Gay Out while a third Socialist Aotearoa member who happened to be Transgender was separated from the the group where she was harassed by the police and asked to present ID to the police officer she was then deliberately misgenderd by the officer. Sadly Big Gay Out was reduced to an election year farce where the needs of the LGBT were very much a secondary concern and were completely ignored by the police present at the event.