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These photos were taken at a flat in central Wellington. In the three years that the present tenants have been in it, the landlord has done no repairs. Bad enough when they moved in, the place is now a hovel despite the tenants' efforts to maintain and clean it. Their children's legs are covered with suppurating impetigo sores, a direct result of the squalid living conditions. They've seen the doctor, but there won't be much of a cure until the surroundings are fixed.
The kitchen floor is below ground level. Mice find easy access through holes in the floor and of the wall. Cupboard doors are, broken, neither dustproof nor flyproof. The hot water is inadequate for the needs of the family. Vermin infest the house and its surroundings. Rats' nests and rat-chewed rubbish are strewn around the back yard. At night when you turn the lights out, say the tenants, you can hear rats all over the place. They've even seen them on the beds.
If fire started downstairs, no-one would ever get out alive. The stairwell and the entrance are too narrow and have windows into them that would explode. If tenants jumped out the window they'd crash through the rusted lean-to roof. There's no fire escape.
A few weeks ago, the tenants decided to withhold their rent. They have paid thousands to their landlord, and feel they're entitled to a few repairs and some maintenance work. They got in touch with the Tenants Protection Association which is giving them full support. TPA thinks the place should totally upgraded or pulled down. The landlord should provide or find better accommodation for the tenants.
The Wellington City Council has by-laws forbidding most of the rundown features of this flat. But it has done nothing about enforcing them. For years, it has let the landlord extort his rent, and let the tenants suffer.
Ken Comber, M.P. for Wellington Central, has done nothing. When contacted by TPA he tut-tutted and said wasn't it a pity that tenants didn't know their rights.
Pat Hohepa, of the Ministry of Maori and Island Affairs, has done nothing. When contacted by TPA he was sympathetic, but wouldn't go and see the tenants. He'd seen slums before, he said, and was sure it was shocking.
TPA thinks that landlords should be forced to live in their own slums, and Cabinet and the City Council should be made to hold their weekly meetings there. Somehow, the ruling class has got to be made to face up to the squalor it creates. How long will tenants be oppressed?
Listed below are the salaries of professors holding chairs at this university. The administration apparently wishes this information to be confidential. We believe, however, that professor's salaries should be public knowledge, just as workers wages are, and we are printing this information accordingly.
International Women's Day, March 8, was marked by a forum in the Union Hall on submissions being made to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Women's Rights. Poorly advertised and boringly presented, the forum failed to attract much of an audience and confirmed the lack of dynamic leadership in the fight against sexual discrimination. Guest speakers delivered stereotyped speeches which evoked no apparent enthusiasm.
The first speaker, Dorothy Jelicich, MP. outlined the fields which the Select Committee's report would cover. Education, law, commerce, public service and even the armed forces were of relevance in examining the role of women, for in each of these fields there was some form of discrimination to be found. A huge amount of evidence was being brought forward with the intention of producing new legislation from it. However, she said, no amount of legislation was going to change peoples' attitudes. Only education would do that.
Sonja Davies discussed the problems of pre-school care for children. She pointed out that there were about 35—40,000 pre-school children in New Zealand of whom only 2,282 were in childcare centres. If mothers decide that they want to work, then care should be provided for their children, and the responsibility for paying for this lies with the state.
For the Wellington branch of the National Organisation of Women, Mary Sinclair talked about the manner in which the Select Committee has been working. She wondered how many women in New Zealand would have much idea of what was going on in the Select Committee. Though it had been well advertised, many women would not have the time or the freedom from children to write submissions, let alone come to Wellington and present them. The Now wants legislation against any form of discrimination whatsoever.
Kay Goodger outlined the submissions of the Socialist Action League (Sal). She began by probing behind the causes of discrimination. Is it simply male prejudice? Can we eliminate the discrimination simply by changing the laws? The problem was not a superficial one, but was deeply rooted in the subordinate social role played by women which is required by the present social system. The capitalist economy needs a reserve labour force which it can call on or lay off as it needs. Also a section of society has to be available to care for the sick, the young and the aged, since the state took no responsibility for them.
Another reason for the oppression of women lay in the hierarchial structure of the family. It teaches obedience and acceptance of male domination: father is the head of the household. The family unit perpetuates social inequalities and class divisions by passing on its assets or lack of them the next generation.
The Sal's submissions included remarks on equal pay: If some companies will go bankrupt if they introduce equal pay for women, then those companies should be nationalised.
Diane Cary from the Women's National Abortion Action Campaign said that they wanted to remove all restriction on abortion. Women are prevented from having abortions by the same backward attitudes which prevent the sale of contraceptives to those under 16. An estimated six-and-a-half thousand illegal abortions take place each year, and eleven thousand attempts, yet there is still a huge number of unwanted births, half to married women. WOMAAC says that there should be no handicaps placed on women simply because they are women and bear children.
Abortion should be free and paid for by social security. There should no longer be the threat of compulsory sterilisation as now exists, with women who request abortions on medical grounds. Furthermore sex education should be increased, to attack the source of the problem.
Only when there is an opposition to their cause, do these Women's Liberation leaders appear to display any depth of passion. The opposition on Friday came from Dun Mihaka who illustrated his obsession with racism in an emotional and sometimes illogical series of provocations and abuses to the panel.
"I've done a lot of personal study and research into the situation of women throughout the world. Sonja Davies has talked about women in Australia, but made no mention of Aboriginal women.
"Before we get dollarism worked out or sexism worked out, we must get racism worked out."
Kay Goodger replied that there need be no contradiction between liberation movements. She also pointed out that the most oppressed people rarely speak out. A member of the audience clarified Dun's remarks by pointing out that the 'middle-class pakeha's' women's movement is ignoring oppressed Maori women.
"Were any Maori women invited to speak today?"
Sonja Davies then stated that she was part Maori "and proud of it!" to which Dun retorted, "Yes, it's very fashionable to say 'I'm part Maori' or 'I know Maoris' but there are a lot of Judases among Maoris."
Dun's remarks had some validity but he played into the hands of the sexist males in the audiences who used his opposition to express their own antagonism to Women's Liberation by clapping and jeering. Also, his behaviour could only have reinforced the prejudices of any women liberationists present who believe that it is men, and not the social system who are the enemy.
After many attempts failed to intervene in his inexhaustible supply of arguments, the women retaliated and the meeting disbanded with Dun's voice penetrating the hall, "Whities!—middle-class whities!"
An early morning raid on a city flat by the Wellington Vice Squad resulted in two smashed-in doors and the police removing $740 without leaving a receipt
Head of the Drug Investigation Bureau, and three of his cronies raided a Hopper Street flat at 6.15 last Thursday morning with a search warrant made out for lysergide.
The problem of two locked bedroom doors (one was occupied) was solved with a couple of hefty kicks. The girl asleep in one of the locked bedrooms was not given time to get up and open the door.
After a two hour search, and a number of sarcastic comments from members of the flat, asked if there was a hammer in the house. He was given one which he handed to one of his inferiors who made a weak attempt to nail one of the door frames back in. The other was left in a splintered condition. Neither can now be locked or shut properly.
In the locked but unoccupied bedroom, the police found $740. They took this money 'because it is a large sum and it might be stolen'. They said when the money's owner returned to Wellington he could go to the Central Police Station to claim it.
One of the Vice Squad, Detective said he would give members of the flat a note in his name for the money.
This consisted of the words 'Detective Sergeant Wellington Central Police Station'. No mention of the money.
The members of the flat who were there weren't permitted to count the money or see it, so the squad could have taken more. A request for a proper receipt was refused.
No arrests were made and as far as the occupants know, only a packet of herbal tobacco, a water pipe and the money was taken.
Keen students making their way through the
Changes to university dates were discussed at Professorial Board meetings in February and March last year when the Board recommended a similar calendar for
What is notable about this is not so much the plan itself but the fact that so little of it got out to students despite the stated need for discussion. Neither the University newsheet nor student representatives mentioned the matter. While the first omission is regrettable, the newsheet has no responsibility to students. It is a different matter with student representatives.
The removal of one week of the August vacations will make a big difference to those students who require this vacation to gain funds for the last term. It also makes an appreciable difference to university hostels who use vacation conference earnings to keep student fees down.
In view of these two considerations alone—and there are others—this issue would have been of considerable interest to students. There is probably little chance that student opinion would have made much difference to the eventual decision but it would still have maintained the credibility of student representatives on the Prof. Board and other committees if they had bothered to tell students what was going on.
From various references contained in the council minutes (which are freely available to the public from the University office) it appears that serious consideration is now being given to introducing a two semester system with two weeks holidays in April and August and a longer examination and enrolment period in June—
If you were walking through Kelburn Park last Thursday afternoon you may have noticed a huddled mass on the far side of the field Had Wellington cricket at last gone mufti or was it just a group of ex-Evening Post sellers socialising with the massed forces of Wellington's student politicians, friends, hangers on etc? Salient played a calm hand in the annual cricket match against the Victoria Executive and NZUSA, eventually winning by a number of runs according to the scorer. The newspaper boys batted first in the dull, drizzly midday sun. Handicapped by an undersized ball (they were expecting to play soccer) and difficulty in picking up this same ball (they were forced to poke at it with New Zealand Forest Products matchsticks) they delighted the crowd (both) with their doggedness, audacity, technique and witty asides as they lost their wockets.
In a match of quick scoring there were no really high scores but in the Salient innings two batsmen sttod out. Neil Pearce's long knock of 29, scored with a technique ranging from tennis, golf, and badminton strokes to croquet, baseball and softball slashes entertained and top scored for the match while Warwyck Dewe knocked ace fast bowler Don Carson out of the attack (and the realms of sanity) with a might six into the gorse which also threatened to end the game until a new ball was found. At 118—9 and Tom Proctor 20 not out Salient declared.
In came your very own elected and appointed representatives who were immediately in trouble against the fast medium attack of Roger Steele and Tony Ward respectively. The first five wickets fell for 15 rims. Then followed a masterly inning by Vic President Peter Wilson who scored 27 with some beautiful sweeps and pulls (a joy to look at and no rabbit). A 32 run final wicket partnership saw them up to 105 when the last wicket fell and someone declared Salient the winners. Bruce Kirkland batted twice due to the politicos having only nine players and scored 23 runs after taking four Salient wickets.
After a weary day in the field the players returned to their cubbyholes sunburnt and tired after an afternoon of sportsmanship (of many sorts) comedy, famous last words, and of course superb umpiring by Byron Buick-Constable who regards all men equally.
The jubilant Salient workers (friendship first, competition second) went back to their room and churned out this week's Salient and they were many in number and their scares did multiply and their names were:
Les Atkins, Virginia Branney, Gordon Campbell, Jesus Christ, Mark Derby. Colin Feslier, Noel Gledhill. Christine Haggart, Stephen Hall, Alison Mackay, Wiki Oman, Neil Pearce, Marty Pilott, Bruce Robinson, Peter Rumble, David Rutherford. Lisa Sacksen.
Graeme Simpson, Brendan Smith, Claire Smith. Stella Thorp, David Tripe, David Waghorn, Lloyd Weeber, Anthony Ward, Audrey Young, Ahfo Wong, Margot Bourke.
Photos were taken by Keith Stewart (Grub), and the issues was edited by Roger Steele.
Advertising Manager: Chris MacKay (Home phone: 64-698).
Salient Office: Middle Floor, Student Union Building. Phone 70-319.
Published by Victoria University of Wellington Students Association, Private Bag, Wellington and printed by Wanganui Newspapers Ltd. Drews Avenue, Wanganui,
The supply of seeds, insecticides and other horticultural requirements of orchardists, market gardeners and farmers has recently passed into the hands of a major Auckland company, Arthur Yates and Co Ltd.
That the horticultural industry is now controlled by this one company poses a threat to the consumer. The company's ability to regulate the prices of horticultural goods to food producers means it also indirectly regulates the price of food. As primary producers pass on costs to the consumer, this monopoly situation threatens the maintenance of stable food prices.
The firm recently finalised negotiations with two Wellington firms to give the Auckland company almost complete domination of the horticultural industry in New Zealand.
Arthur Yates has acquired all the share capital of F. Cooper Ltd, and also of Webbing and Stewart, both private companies with valuable expertise in the industry.
Cooper Ltd, once second largest to Yates has a complementary business in farm, vegetable and flower seed growing. Also significant is its interest in the supply of pet foods; insecticides, and sprays. Now this company will have prices and policies dictated to it by Yates.
Webbing and Stewart is of value to Yates as a major supplier of vegetable seed to market gardens. The phenomenon of one company controlling supply, marketing and distribution is seen with this purchase by Yates.
By taking over these two companies Yates will now control 95 per cent of the commercial and retail packet seed market in New Zealand. Watch out farmers, market-gardeners and home garden enthusiasts!
This is more significant than it might seem for the costs of fruit, vegetables and grain will now be indirectly governed by the Yates organisation. Any monopoly situation is a serious matter for the ability of the company to manipulate output and price is ever present. But the control of output and price of primary products is a more serious matter still.
The total horticultural industry in New Zealand is worth about 30 million dollars a year in direct value. Of this, all but five per cent now passes into the hands of the Yates organisation. The two remaining competitors are so small as to be insignificant. They will not be able to compete with the large company and so will not act as a check to Yate's profit margin.
The Government has failed in its duty here. It has not sought to safeguard the consumer's interest by maintaining a measure of competition which would go some way towards keeping food prices down in the long term. Labour has proclaimed itself a firm opponent of the instigators of food price rises and of monopoly business arrangements where price manipulations can occur. The Government makes much noise about its proposed Anti-monopoly Bill, but would not act when it had the chance before the takeover occurred.
Arthur Yates gives as the reason for this double takeover the ability of the enlarged group to bring greatly increased resources to the horticultural industry. Yet this also signifies a desire for increased power so evident in the business machinations of major firms. The same result could have been achieved by a cooperative effort of the three companies.
If the industry so closely associated with primary production, with the production of our food, was not in the hands of one organisation the consumer might be less threatened by possible manipulation of prices affecting the cost of food.
From the New Zealand Medical Association, Wellington 12.2.74.
Staffing situation at Porirua Mental Hospital, The following is an excerpt from the minutes of the Wellington Hospital Staff Meeting in December.
Dr John Hall spoke of the staffing situation it
Dr McLachlan commented on the urgent
Mr Elliott stated that he hoped to meet the junior staff of this hospital with a view that some may see merit in doing one of their runs at Porirua Hospital. A further suggestion was that future appointments of psychiatric staff should not be to a specific hospital but should be to the Board's institutions. Of course, there is the international problem of a gross shortage of psychiatrists. By W.H.O. standards, Porirua Hospital should have 22 medical specialists.
It was moved by Dr I.A.M. Prior, seconded by Dr J.B. Mackay, "that the members of this association view with concern the staffing position at Porirua Hospital and that an active programme to improve the situation should be implemented."
This scandalous neglect of patients in Porirua has gone on for many years. The present Government dissolved the inquiry into psychiatric services because they had a better plan of their own for immediate action. One year later, things are worse than ever.
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In October last year Norm Kirk announced that the Labour Government intended to provide Crown land for young people and others who were sick of society and wanted a chance to make a new life for themselves.
The proposal met a mixed reception. Many leapt at the chance, and are presently negotiating terms for settlement, others were critical. The president of Victoria University of Wellington Student' Association, Peter Wilson, said that it was a pity that Mr Kirk's proposal to establish Israeli-type kibbutzim of Crown land had come too late in the year to be discussed at on-campus student meetings.
"Nevertheless Mr Kirk's proposal, though it seems harmless enough, carries some interesting implications.
"In the first place he has clearly demonstrated that there is very little that is 'anti-establishment' in 'taking to the land', contrary to what some people may have been duped into believing. Mr Kirk has shown that this type of protest is so unchallenging to the status quo that even he can support it.
"In the second place, his proposal does nothing in terms of going to the root causes of disaffection in this society it only caters to a misguided response to that disaffection, that is, 'taking to the land'.
The proposal therefore conveniently disguises the fact that it is social relations in the factory, the school, the family and society at large which produce alienated people. This alienation can only be fought at the places where it is generated - not on a piece of Crown land.
"The latter 'solution' is no solution at all and could only exist for the few so long as it was denied to the many. It is therefore an elitist propaganda exercise which would have done the Values Party proud," he said.
Peter Wilson went on to say that he considered it fatuous for Mr Kirk to pretend that young people in New Zealand were special in feeling "left out" in society.
"The great majority of people in this society are 'left out' in the sense of being denied the power to control the conditions of their own existence.
"For those who like diversions there may be something attractive in Mr Kirk's proposal. But for those who want to tackle the problems of this society at their source his proposal should be seen as an encouragement to stay right in the heart of society, if only because this is the very place where Mr Kirk does not wish to see young people tackling social problems."
"You can't come in here, you're from the Tenants' Protection Association," was the greeting which Grub (our photographer) and I received when we fronted up to the Landlords' Association Annual General Meeting last week. We had to say we were there as journalists, which caused a disgruntled "oh well, I suppose you've got a right to be here." All the other media were welcomed—the Landlords' Association is after all the publicity it can get, but preferably good publicity. We were the only ones asked to show our press cards.
The first part of the meeting was formal. The only apology was from Ken Comber, M.P., which seemed appropriate. The presidents report included a couple of pathetic touches. Landlords' fears that the proposed superannuation fund would be used by the government to compete with the landlord. It's quite encouraging that landlords are trembling about Labour's intentions, even though the T.P.A. is singularly unimpressed with Labour's performance in housing. President Rippin also noted plaintively that the recent Rent Appeal Bill does not contain any of the Landlord's Association's submissions.
A member of the Christchurch Landlord's Association had come up specially for the meeting. He presented a report that largely dealt with rent books, which his association is publishing. "We would like to clear up any misunderstandings rather than have a head-on collision with the T.P.A.". The rent books were the landlords' latest move to improve their image, he said. "We want to get in first before the T.P.A." He was rattled. At least a couple of other speakers mentioned the T.P.A. and one speaker admitted the Landlord's Association was set up to counter the T.P.A.
Election of officers came next. It was a farce from first to last. "Well," said Pat Pippin, "I'd like to call for nominations for the position of president." A voice nominated Rippin for re-election. There was a silence for thirty seconds. "Well," said Rippin, "If there are no further nominations, I'll declare nominations closed." This was greeted with friendly derision. Pat got flustered. "I'm quite willing to stand down. I've got a lot of work to do. Are there any further nominations?" More laughter. Silence Rippin re-elected.
The same with the position of secretary and treasurer. Then came elections for the committee of seven. Nominations flooded in, with the help of Pat's frequent "Don t be afraid to stand up and nominate yourself."
He added that last year the press had claimed the
Despite his good intentions, chaos took over and a jack-up ensued. After about five nominations a member noticed that few of the old committee were being nominated, so he nominated the lot. Soon the number was up to twelve, and someone else suggested that they should elect the lot and be done with it. It was eventually pointed out that, to do this, a change in the constitution would have to be made. A great idea thought the meeting, until it was pointed out that 14 days notice has to be given before an A.G.M. involving constitutional change.
"Well," said Pat, "We'll elect the old seven, co-opt the new five, and next year we'll announce the constitutional change in good time," all the while beaming at himself for his ingenuity.
Landlords ain't dumb—well, not all of them—and after many more minutes of procedural chaos it was pointed out that people were being told how to vote, and this wasn't very democratic. Never mind, the voting went ahead anyway, and everybody got elected or co-opted, or something. What the hell; everybody was happy, who cares about democracy!
Eventually, the highlight of the evening came—Muldoon spoke. Publicity for him, publicity for the landlords—what a publicity coup! (Strangely, the next day's papers reported only Muldoon's remarks and neglected to mention the shambles passing for democracy in the elections. Someone's protecting somebody here!) Muldoon mouthed on about Labour's failings, accrediting them with stealthily introducing a capital gains tax by giving it another name and sneaking it into section 88Aa of the Land and Income Tax Act.
In fact, as any lawyer will tell you, section 88Aa is nowhere near to being a capital gains tax, and anybody who thinks the Labour Government would have the principles or the courage to introduce such a necessary measure is suffering from severe delusions brought on by Social Democracy.
Muldoon proceeded to flagellate himself and the landlords with shocking statistics of property price increases. He blamed them all on Labour's "inexperience and prejudice" forgetting to mention that in fact they are an unavoidable result of rampant monopoly capitalism. The landlords were suitably appalled, which was the biggest farce of all. In fact all of them are profiting from the inflated prices, and any increased costs they invariably pass on to their captive tenants, They know this, and Piggy must know this, but all of them went through this public flagellation for whose benefit I don't know.
Last year under a heading "The Mentality of the Landlord", we reprinted a letter from the Landlord's Association to the Ombudsman which had come into our hands. In distress they wrote that they felt as the Russian kulaks must have felt before they were liquidated in the
"The Socialist witchdoctors have smelt out a capitalist nest which they are proceeding to destroy before they have even considered providing alternatives for the services we provide for a wide section of the the public," they wrote. Many of our readers thought the letter was in fact satire concocted by us, so pathetic was the landlords' paranoia. It wasn't, the letter was real, and after this meeting I am once more a-mazed at the mentality of the landlord.
Dr Gerald Wall M.P. caused a furore recently when he called in the police to a hearing of the Social Services Committee. He wanted them to remove members of the Polynesian Panthers who had protested the removal of certain sections of the submissions of the Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination (ACORD). Here are the statements not received by Dr Wall's committee.
"This society has more institutionalised criminals per head of population than most other western societies for one reason and one reason only: our police, welfare, judicial and penal systems have been over the past 50 years and are still today creating criminals out of young children."
"Worse still, we are creating Maori criminals in hugely disproportionate numbers."
"...the Department of Social Welfare deliberately chose an all-Pakeha Committee to consider its new Bill. Acord cannot condemn the Department too strongly for this. It is a clear example of institutional racism; that is, the deliberate exclusion of the Maori people from decision-making and policy-making on issues which directly affect them and their children. It is a clear example of that Pakeha arrogance which so often leads us to believe that we have all the answers and that we can speak on their behalf. It is a clear denial of multi-culturalism, a concept about which this government has talked so much. Because if multiculturalism is based on a single principle, it is the principle of equal participation in decision-making. And the situation was worsened rather than improved by the Department's last-minute decision to allow the Associate Minister of Social Welfare to sit in on some of the Committee's sessions but not participate in drawing up the final recommendations. She should have been on the committee right from the start, together with one or more, if not all, of the other Maori members. For if there is one thing that is certain it is that Pakeha New Zealanders do not have all the answers, and nowhere is that fact illustrated more clearly than in the record of the childrens court."
"We denounce this arrogant attitude of the magistrates who, as they should remember, are nothing more or less than civil servants; and we denounce the Department of Social Welfare for this deliberate neglect of defendants in the children and young persons court."
[Referring to a lawyer being attached to the Childrens Court] "...the futility of this gesture can best be seen in the attitude taken by Mr T. G. Maxwell S.M. during Kahu W.'s case in the Otahuhu childrens court. The statement he issued upon refusing the Minister of Justice's request that an amicus curiae' attend that hearing on behalf of Dr Finlay left no doubt that magistrates at present have no use for such lawyers and there is no reason to expect them to change that attitude in the future."
On February 13, less than 24 hours after secret police had arrested him in his wife's flat in Moscow, Soviet novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deported to the West. Since then he has become the darling of the bourgeois press, ranging from Newsweek to Socialist Action. The latter, with unconscious irony, found it "noteworthy that Solzhenitsyn is the first formal exile from the Soviet Union since Leon Trotsky." (Socialist Action,
The seriousness with which the Soviet authorities had viewed his activities was reflected in the fact that Solzhenitsyn's exile had been authorised by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko, found time while selling out the Arab people to call Solzhenitsyn a "poison drink" which the Soviet Union could well do without.
The Soviet response was two-pronged. On the one hand, it underlined the fact that Solzhenitsyn's heart belonged to the Western capitalists, he having found Western imperialism preferable to Soviet reality which masks its exploitive class relations under a mask of "Marxist" rhetoric.
On the other hand, the Soviet leaders hoped that Solzhenitsyn's enforced exile would lessen his potential for martyrdom while ridding them of a thorn. A Soviet journalist crowed: "Solzhenitsyn is now a spent cartridge. Solzhenitsyn in the West is not Solzhenitsyn in the USSR. How long will his name be in the spotlight of newspapers? One month? Three?" (News from the USSR,
There is probably no more revealing illustration of the ideological deterioration of Soviet society than the fact that Solzhenitsyn, one of the USSR's most gifted writers, isa reactionary and self-promoting anti-communist. But it will not do, to brand Solzhenitsyn, nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet dissidents as CIA agents or as bearers of an alien ideology without roots in the Soviet Union, as have Soviet apologists.
Nor will it do, as the Trotskyists have with that predictable knee-jerk "anti-Stalinism", to hail Solzhenitsyn's "firm committment to socialism" or to see the dissidents as the socialist opposition in the Soviet Union". Nor will it do to paint most of them as remaining "socialists at the same time as they criticise the regime and its policies." (Socialist Action
The transparency of these absurdities is demonstrated by Solzhenitsyn's own statements. While Sakharov and the Medvedevs could be fairly called bourgeois democrats, Solzhenitsyn is more at one with fascists.
In his Nobel Prize lecture, written in
When he nominated Andrei Sakharov for the Nobel Peace prize Solzhenitsyn attacked liberals in the West as having "two moral standards". To make his case, he used Pentagon-created slanders against the Vietnamese people. According to him, "The bestial mass killings in Hue, though reliably proved, were only lightly noticed and almost immediately forgiven because the sympathy of society was on the other side." The "mass killings" in Hue by the NFL during the Tet Offensive of
With incredible arrogance, Solzhenitsyn asserted: "Could, say, the Republic of South Africa, without being penalised, ever be expected to detain and toture a black leader for four years as General Grigorenko has been? The storm of world-wide rage would have long ago swept the roof from that prison." No clamour comparable with that about Solzhenitsyn's exile has accompanied the jailing of Alex La Guma, black South African writer, or the shooting down of black workers in South Africa.
His first statement in exile, an open letter to Soviet leaders characterised by Time as "apocalyptic", revealed Solzhenitsyn as an alienated intellectual with a deep contempt for the people. In prattling about the "decline of the West", Solzhenitsyn portrayed Western democracy as a system in which "politicians, and indeed the entire country, nearly kill themselves over an election, trying to gratify the masses." (Time
This encapsulates the illusion of bourgeois democracy. Far from being a competition to "gratify the masses", in essence elections in capitalist countries decide which section of the capitalist class will loot the treasury.
In a diatribe against workers which could have been written by Heath or Muldoon or Harold Wilson, Solzhenitsyn claimed that "there are examples today of groups of workers who have learned to grab as much as they can for themselves whenever their country is going through a crisis, even if they ruin the nation in the process." (ibid) The "greedy" workers have been invoked by the bosses in order to weaken working struggle to improve living conditions ever since the beginning of capitalism.
It is no wonder the Solzhenitsyn is more famous than Mickey Mouse. The US loves him. Solzhenitsyn is an unsavoury hangover of the old ruling classes in the USSR. He is no dissident who has "personally broken" with socialism as a result of an alleged "Stalinist" terror, as Socialist Action and the rag-bag of bourgeois intellectuals who have flocked to his side would have us believe. Solzhenitsyn never was a socialist.
The same cannot be said for other prominent Soviet dissidents. In an interview with a Swedish radio correspondent Sakharov criticised strongly the Soviet bureaucracy's elaborate system of special privileges and its alienation from the people which has led to what he called "the most extreme form of the development of capitalism as it already exists in the United States and other Western countries."
Social ownership by the whole people has degenerated into ownership by a privileged stratum in the Soviet Union. This privileged stratum what Charles Bettelheim has called a new "state bourgeoisie" (see "On the Transition to Socialism", available from The Paper Book-club)—controls the means of production and decides how the fruits of production are to be used. Whatever may be the legal forms, this is the real content of the relations of production, of class ownership in the Soviet Union.
The privileged stratum live in bigger and better flats. They shop in stores which offer a greater variety of goods than the best stores open to the public. In the interview mentioned above Sakharov cited "a network of hidden distributors, whose merchandise is both better and cheaper". There the privileged buy at 25—50% discount. The elite send their children to the best universities.
In Press,
While this leaflet attacked Soviet aid to the Vietnamese people, it nevertheless accurately represents the causes of worker resentment in the Soviet Union which has errupted occasionally in strikes and in widespread achoholism. Every week an example of profiteering, nepotism or some other scandal is revealed in the Soviet press.
The solution which the Soviet dissidents offer is not a socialist one. A manifesto signed by Sakharov, Turchin and Roy Medvedev and addressed to "greatly honoured Conrades Brezhnev, Kosygin and Podgorny" published in Le Monde in
But this picture of Soviet Fabianism is coloured by the "Chinese danger". If there is one thing which concerns all the dissidents more than Soviet censorship, it is what Solzhenitsyn has called the danger of "Chineseisation" of Soviet life. Sakharov and the others thought that because of the "threat" from "militant Chinese nationalism" the USSR "must increase or at least maintain our significant preponderance over China".
The Soviet dissidents are bourgeois intellectuals. They fear the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in China and the intensified struggle against bourgeois ideology which was at the heart of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the present movement to criticise and repudiate Confucius and Lin Piao.
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution aroused the Chinese in their hundreds of millions to air their views freely, to write big character posters and hold great debates on the path to be taken by the People's Republic and to study Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. The capitalist roaders, enemy agents and reactionaries of all kinds were flushed out of hiding and the bourgeois headquarters in the Communist Party was smashed.
Unlike the Soviet leaders who have abandoned political and ideological struggle, and used police power to consolidate their rule, Mao Tsetung teaches: "The only way to settle questions of an ideological nature or controversial issues among the people is by the democratic method, the method of discussion, of criticism, of persuasion and education and not by the method of coercion and repression." ("On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People").
What is involved in China is not superficial formal rights under the law, but the essence of proletarian democracy and the involvement of the masses in the building of socialism. There has been the continuous creation of a Marxist party and state which is responsive to the needs of the people and which leads them in solving their problems.
The Chinese people recognise that without extensive democracy, without an atmosphere of free and open criticism and self-criticism which pervades the whole of society, there can be no dictatorship over the reactionaries and bad elements. There is no liberal tolerance of those activities aimed at rejuvenating bourgeois ideology or restoring bourgeois rule. There is a continuous struggle against efforts to create a privileged stratum which can place social control beyond the reach of the masses.
The Soviet dissidents are a sorry
But those alienated intellectuals are not the mainstream of opposition to the present Soviet regime. Within the Soviet Union new Marxist-Leninist groups are arising. In the coming years, these groups will be consolidated and will lead the Soviet people to overthrow the state bourgeoisie and restore the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Recently a list of topics forbidden in Soviet news media became available in the West. The list was released to the Washington Post through the Soviet Embassy in Washington. Included in the list would be an article like this since the official censor forbids publication of "information about the organs of Soviet censorship which discloses the character, organisation and method of their work."
The censor also forbids reports on prisons, on low morale in the Army, or the activity of the secret police, or the amount of crime in Soviet society, or accusations made by foreign states or statesmen against the Soviet Union."
It is also against the rules to report on "the number of fires and their victims", or "the correlation between the cost of services for foreign tourists in the USSR and the selling price of toursits' trips to the USSR."
The list goes from issues of State—no reporting is allowed on the movements or stopovers of members of the Politburo—to issues of entertainment and sport. For instance there can be no stories "about the rates of pay for sportsmen, about the money prizes for sportsmen for good results in sport, or "about the financing upkeep and staff of teams". In the Soviet Union, all athletes are officially considered as amateurs.
Airplane crashes are not reported, unless foreigners are among the victims. Floods, eathquakes and other natural disasters also pass unnoticed in the press.
The censor also forbids stories on "the number of uncared for children", and "the number of people engaged in vagrancy or begging". Stories on "the number of drug addicts" are proscribed as are reports on "illness in the population". No news either, please, about occupational injuries".
Not surprisingly, the censor regards military topics as sensitive. There are to be no stories about "the export to foriegn countires of arms, ammunition and military technology".
There can be no information printed about foreigners receiving military training in the Soviet Union, or about Soviet military missions abroad. No stories are allowed about "bad morale in the ranks, bad relations between officers and men, or large scale disturbance among military personnel due to material conditions and the feeding of the men."
Most Soviet journalists seem to accept restrictions of this kind without evident discomfort. As in China they seem to regard their job as being to support and sometimes to improve the status quo. Which are sentiments that a local apparatchik like Patricia Bartlett would readily agree with. After Watergate however it must seem strange to a Western public that the general welfare can best be served by suppressing such signs of official error and incompetence. Write Pravda and complain.
New Zealanders, Maori and Pakeha, learn their history and their understanding of society in schools which teach from the point of view of the dominant white culture. This creates ignorance and intolerance on both sides. Pakehas learn no respect for Maori culture past or present and many of them end up racists. Maoris learn little that gives them identity and pride in their race, and many of them end up knowing neither their history nor their rights.
Over the next few weeks we will be reprinting the full submissions of the Maori Organisation on Human Rights to the Educational Development Conference. The submissions were written in support of the NZ Race Relations Conciliator's emphasis on the need "to play a positive role" in promoting racial harmony, going beyond the "purely negative terms" of the 1971 NZ Race Relations Act. . . to implement the UNO International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Secondly, they support the NZ Maori Council's emphasis, in its submissions to the Minister of Education, on the priority need for NZ's education system to put a positive evaluation on Maori identity. And thirdly, they support the repeated call from Maoris for the re-writing (and teaching) of NZ history to set the record straight on Maori-Pakeha relationships.
We make the following submissions:
because, while NZ governments have always discriminated between Maori and Pakeha, this discrimination is still justified as "in favour of the Maori" (cf. MP for Rangiora, Hansard, by stressing the positive and equal achievements of the Maori before they were excluded from Pakeha Parliamentary democracy in the,
That such compensatory stress is urgently needed—if, from
Without such compensatory stress the communication gap between those on the receiving end of racial discrimination and those who are not (and who consequently do not understand its existence or its meaning can only widen dangerously. And it will be impossible to heed the final warning of the Conciliator's Report): "It is important that any tendency on the part of the news mediat to present news in such a way that ethnic groups are associated with bad news should be checked.
D) That such compensatory measures by the education
Section 9 of the Race Relations Act should aim to change attitudes in a limited period. The Conciliator's report describes the terms of the Act as "purely negative", concerned with behaviour and not with attitudes or with feelings, aiming "not to end prejudice".... (our italics—Moohr).
To date NZ government discrimination "in favour of the Maori" has failed to restore equality between Maori and Pakeha.
There is cause for alarm rather than congratulation, therefore, in the Conciliator's approval for the Act's departure from the terms of the International Convention (see p.6 of the Report) where he deals with "discrimination in favour" of persons on a racial basis "where these persons need such assistance in order to achieve an equal place with other members of the community" (= Section 9: Measures to Ensure Equality) and continues: "This principle is now a permanent feature of our law, whereas the convention, which is strangely lacking in respect for minority cultures, provides only for special measures for a limited period."
If Measures to Ensure Equality do not achieve equality in a limited period, then they will simply perpetuate the paternalistic "assistance" which prevents a minority culture from achieving equal status and standing on its own feet.
The NZ Act's permanent provision for such paternalism reflects an attitude strangely lacking in respect for Maori ability—and particularly for the capacity shown by the Maori to run their own affairs and survive all attempts to Europeanise or destroy them, relying on their own strength in movements from Kotahitanga and Kingitanga to Ringatu, Ratana, Nga Tamatoa (like the Polynesian Panthers) today. Such movements like the flourishing Maori community and schools under Te Whiti O Rongomai at Parihaka (raided and destroyed by Pakeha Armed Constabulary in
Under Section 9 of the Act they should now receive compensatory emphasis so that mana maori stands equal with mana pakeha; so that New Zealanders respect Tawhiao, Te Ua, Te Kooti, Te Whiti, Ratana as much as they have been taught to respect Sir Apirana Ngata, Sir Maui Pomare, Sir Peter Buck.
These knighted members of the Young Maori Party received Pakeha honours and demonstrated that the Maori is the equal of the Pakeha. Sir Maui Pomare, a child of Parihaka, because NZ's Minister of Health in Ratana, p 15 & c)
If it had been enough, then Pakeha cabinet ministers would have done as much as Maori cabinet ministers to change Crown policy towards Maori land. If it had been enough, it would be NZ government departments that took steps to close their statistical gap between Maori and Pakeha to raise the percentage of Maoris at universities (still less than 2%) and lower the percentage in penal institutions (still from 30 to 90%; in
Instead the main positive impetus still comes from Maoris, including today particularly Maori youth such as Nga Tamatoa, Te Huinga Rangatahi o Aotearoa, Te Reo Maori. Their
One example to illustrate how negative the effects of paternalistic government "assistance" can be: In
(The figure of $3000 was quoted, with additional costs to the family of the offender and to society generally, by the Secretary of Justice, Mr Missen. The figure of $2892 was quoted by the Secretary of the NZ Maori Council.)
The negative results and confusion generated by such "permanent" paternalism to date are especially evident in government policies on the status of the Maori language and education and in government control, through its Maori Trustee and Maori Affairs Department etc, of Maori Lands and Maori Monies.
Confusion is compounded by the fact that in
Next instalment: "What puts a positive evaluation on Maori identity?"
The last several weeks have seen a steady rise in the tempo of student demonstrations on a variety of issues across the nation.
Focusing on the impeachment of President Nixon, 200 people at the University of Cincinatti picketed an address by Vice-President Gerald Ford on Feb 20. At the State University of New York, 250 students marched and burned an effigy of Nixon. A White House representative who spoke to a still-loyal Republican club in Queens on Feb 23, was met by 250 demonstrators calling for Nixon's ouster.
Rallies and actions in seven cities also sought to protest the presence on campuses of corporate recruiters, especially representatives of the oil companies. A demonstration on Feb 25 at San Jose State College in California, called by the Radical Student Union there, blocked the recruitment efforts of an executive of Standard Oil of California.
The 300 demonstrators demanded that Standard Oil "rehire the ones you laid off", in a reference to large-scale layoffs at Standard refineries and other facilities. A company spokesman claimed later that the recruiter's visit had been called off "due to lack of interest".
An Exxon recruiter at the Ann Arbor campus of Michigan University was met by 100 students protesting his presence last Feb 5. On Feb 14, recruiters were targets of protests in Ann Arbor. Over 500 Berkeley students at the University of California staged an action to block an Exxon recruiter there Feb 6. A Marine Corps recruiter at Boston University and a Macy's recruiter at Columbia University were all targets of protest in the last several weeks.
Staggering rises in the prices of food and gas provoked actions of students on several campuses.
Students from Trenton State College and 15 independent gas station owners gathered at the New Jersey state legislature in Trenton Feb 6 to register their objection to price increases and to make a statement to their Congressmen. They were denied the floor and the session was adjourned by the legislators.
One hundred students at Kent State University in Ohio rallied to support the demands made by the Council of Independent Truckers for a rollback in diesel fuel prices. They had previously joined the truckers picketlines in Akron.
Demonstrations this month at Columbia University, called by the Attica Brigade, a national anti-imperialist student organisation, hit rises in tuition, financial aid cutbacks and called for an increase in the enrollment of third world and working class students. Fifty people interrupted a meeting of the University senate, Feb 22 to press the demands which were supported by 3000 signatures on a petition. Over 100 activists at the Buffalo campus of the State University of New York gathered Feb 7 to protest the cutbacks in funding of department offering courses in Black women and working class studies.
Other actions included a meeting last week at Iowa City State College called to support the Palestinian resistance movement in the Middle East.
Washington (SWS)—President Nixon's personal jetliner, originally furnished and decorated at a cost of $1.5 million, is undergoing a $285,000 redecoration at the request of Nixon's wife,
The alteration, at government expense, was begun after Pat expressed a wish that the guest quarters be closer to the presidential lounge.
Washington (APS)—A recently released survey by a Washington consumer group shows that the men who control the 18 largest oil corporations in America are also the directors of the largest banks and major companies.
The Centre for Science in the Public Interest claims that "about 25 oilmen in the banks of New York and other cities make national policies". For example, the Centre found that directors of the Chemical Bank of New York are also directors of such oil corporations as Exxon, Texaco, Mobil and Shell, and that certain directors of both Amoco and Mobil also sit on the board of the Chase Manhattan Bank.
The study concludes that the 18 largest oil companies have interlocking directorships with 132 US banks and financial corporations, 31 insurance companies, and 224 large manufacturing and distribution corporations.
"Discrimination in reverse," some educators have called it; others say it is simple justice. Because members of minority groups in the United States have long been subjected to discriminatory practises in education on the basis of their racial origins, one effort to correct these past wrongs has been the introduction of special quota systems in the universities. But now a law student, Macro Defunis, is sueing the University of Washington Law School and claiming that his application was rejected because of his skin colour—or lack of it. Defunis is white.
It is Defunis' contention that the Law School has established a quota for the admission of minority group students and that it therefore discriminated against him and other white applicants whose academic qualifications were above those of many blacks, Indians and Filipinos who had been accepted the year before. Since the University of Washington is a state institution, Defunisinsists that he has been denied equal protection of the laws, which is a violation of the 14th amendment of the US Constitution. The persistent law student has now succeded in bringing his case to the attention of the Supreme Court.
The University's position is that it has established no formal quota system but only an "affirmative action programme" designed to increase the number of minority students in the Law School. The programme is in keeping with the state's interest in achieving "legal education for a multiracial and pluralistic society". But the University's claim that no students were admitted or denied admission on the basis of race was denied in the lower state court. The state supreme court later reversed the decision, citing several US Supreme Court ruling in favour of school busing schemes and against Southern "freedom of choice" plans.
"Clearly consideration of race by school authorities does not violate the 14th Amendment where the purpose is to bring together rather than separate the races," the Washing State Supreme Court concluded. Defunis was not satisfied. No one can say what the final ruling will be. The issue is extremely complex and some lawyers feel that the important difference between the Defunis case and past cases of legally sanctioned discrimination lies in the yoluntary nature of the University of Washington plan. The Law School was under no constitutional obligation to increase the enrollment of minority students; it was, if at all, a case of de facto discrimination—a category that the law courts have never clearly defined.
The fact remains that in the state of Washington there exists a "gross underrepresentation of minorities in the legal system." The University has conscientiously tried to remedy this situation, Whether its plan is the best possible one is difficult to say. Certainly Marco Defunis does not think so. But then, ironically, the question of his own legal education is now strictly academic. While his case against the University has been making its painstaking way up through the courts, Defunis has been allowed to continue at the Law School. Right now, Defunis is completing his third and final year of study.
Washington (SWS)—The United States Senate refused last week for another year to ratify a 25-year-old international treaty outlawing genocide.
The defeat, which came when the Senate failed to get the two-thirds majority necessary to over-ride a filibuster and obtain further debating time, leaves the United States as one of the few countries in the world which is not legally obligated to refrain from genocidal activities.
Washington (ANS)—The US Department of Defense has admitted that in the last 36 months it has trained over a hundred officers of the Portuguese Air Force to prepare them for military action against black guerrila forces in Mozambique.
The Pentagon also acknowledged that Portugal is using US equipment, ammunition, and aircraft in its colonial wars.
Saigon (SWS)—Government officials announced here last week that President Nguyen Van Thieu has formally approved a bill amending the constitution to allow him to run for a third consecutive term as president in
The amendment had earlier been passed by the puppet National Assembly, and will enable Thieu, who ran unopposed last time around to painlessly continue his regime, always assuming that both Thieu and his regime exist by
Tulsa (NS)—A University of Oklahoma professor has devised a simple solution to the fuel crisis. Dr Walter Ewbank mixes his gasoline with 13 per cent water and reports getting 30 per cent higher mileage as a result.
Under normal conditions water and gasoline do not stay mixed, and the water would end up fouling the spark plugs, but Dr Ewbank claims to have developed a mechanical device that keeps the two together, and the water then causes the fuel to burn more efficiently.
The professor's discovery is now being tested by the post office on four postal vehicles.
Washington (ZNS)—In
In
For the two years in which he was plain "Richard Nixon" the president paid more than $73,000 in income taxes, over the two years in which he was "Honourable" he paid only $5,000.
Saigon (ZNS)—Remember Nguyen Cao Ky, former Air Marshall and one-time ruler of South Vietnam?
Well, he came out of political obscurity and back into the news recently, though he probably wishes he hadn't. He ran into a little difficulty with the PRG revolutionaries.
Ky had been living like a landed gentleman on a 30,000 acre estate in the Vietnamese Central Highlands, assisted by the Saigon Government which was nice enough to give him a helicopter and a couple of light planes to help things out on the farm.
Last week however, he suffered a slight reverse, the PRG burned his luxurious plantation house to the ground. Not, apparently because of his past, but because the former dictator has refused to pay his property taxes to PRG groups operating in his neighbour hood.
Washington (NS)—The Pentagon reported last week that it is requesting a 15 per cent increase in its fuel allocations for the first three months of
Rear Admiral Nathan Sonenshein, the Defense Department's director of energy, will ask that petroleum products supplied to the military be increased by nearly four million gallons a day. If the request is granted, it will mean that US defense installations will be consuming an incredible 30 million gallons of fuel every 24 hours.
The Smith regime is to introduce the death penalty for aiding guerrillas or for failing to report their presence to the authorities. It will also be an offence punishable by hanging to undergo guerrilla training or to recruit people for guerrilla training.
Amendments to the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act tabled by 'Minister of Justice, Law and Order', Desmond Lardner-Burke, increase the maximum penalty for terrorism and acts of sabotage to life imprisonment or death.
The Minister is also to have increased powers to prevent political meetings. At present he can ban any gathering for three months by publishing a notice in the Government Gazette. A new amendment increases this period to 12 months.
A 16-year-old African faces the death penalty if he is convicted on charges brought against him in the Salisbury High Court of being involved in a guerrilla attack in which a white farmer's wife died.
He is alleged to have taken part in an attack on a farm in the Centenary area on January 24. Guerrillas are said to have thrown four hand grenades into the farmer's house, one of which killed Mrs Gertruda Kleynhands.
The case—like previous guerrilla trials—is being heard in camera and the name of the accused has been withheld.
Another white woman was killed in a landmine explosion near Cenenary on September 2. She was the wife of a policeman who had recently moved into the area.
In another explosion later the same week three more people—one white and two Africans were injured.
The following article, written by a law student at this university, is printed in the hope that it will acquaint our readers with some aspects of Labour's new superannuation scheme and start discussion on it. The opinions expressed in the article are not editorial opinion.
"The sense of responsibility in the financial community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil."
Late
The Government has proposed that the superannuation fund be administered by an independent corporation. It would work like this. Every person Who is employed, or self-employed, in NZ will have deductions made from his salary (up to a minimum of 4% after five years) by P.A.Y.E. type deductions. These deductions will be matched, dollar for dollar by the employer. They have no choice about it.
These contributions continue throughout the worker's life and on retirement he receives an income related mainly to his credit in the fund. The payments to persons who retire will be met by the cash provided by interest and other returns on investment, and by incoming cash from non-retired contributors.
Most businesses have traditionally offered superannuation to senior or key employees on a similar basis. Some schemes have been wider than others. They are useful in promoting savings, but being related to the particular firm they have some disadvantages. They are generally not profitable. If the employee leaves the firm before retirement he will generally be entitled to receive only his own contributions back, plus interest. Me gains the benefit of his employer's contributions only if he remains to his retirement.
The government's scheme will be fully portable. If you leave one job to go to another you lose nothing. All that happens is that one employer stops matching your contributions and another begins. But it is not this increased security and freedom which the employee has which threatens business interests although of course they don't like it.
The Insurance companies particularly, and other financial institutions, felt threatened by the scheme (which should have capital reserves of 2000 million dollars in
The White Paper allows for the continuation of approved schemes, both existing ones and future ones, but they are unlikely to be of significant size or number. Firstly, because any employee and employer can individually raise their contributions higher while remaining in the scheme (what you get out is related to what you put in); secondly, because it would be poor business for a firm to go on paying an administration fee for the running of a private scheme, when the Government scheme will meet its own costs out of the fund.
The President of the Life Offices Association and the President of the Auckland Stock Exchange (The Dominion, 30.1 1.73) queried whether the fund 'would be in the best interests of the nation'. They argued that such a massive accretion of capital in one pair of hands( the Corporation's)would not be good for the econonomy because of the control of industry and development which would flow from the control of this investment.
But if the control of this investment potential is not channelled into state-owned hands by the fund, where would the money go, and who would control it? The answer is of course that those who control most of it now would still control it. That is, the insurance companies, the trading banks and finance houses.
Generally speaking these institutions can be summed up in two words: 'foreign controlled'. In short then, the argument of the President of the Life Offices Association and the President of the Auckland Stock Exchange, is that it is better for NZ if foreigners control investment in our economy than that we control it. One might well ask, 'what manner of men are these'?
The objection to foreign control of investment is two fold: (i) selective investment for the purpose of maximising profit is unlikely to mean investment in particular areas of the economy which the Government may wish to stimulate and develop, and thus refusal to so invest can frustrate Government policies such as diversification of industry and regional development; (ii) the profits reaped by foreign investment are largely channelled away overseas—further draining our overseas reserves—rather than being ploughed back into the economy.
Both the Government and the insurance companies have avoided mentioning that the real issue is foreign control. The insurance companies have avoided it because they don't want to remind people that only the Government Life is New Zealand owned. The position with the trading banks and finance houses is the same—they don't want to remind people that only the BNZ and BNZ Finance Ltd, are New Zealand owned.
To give an example of the scale involved, the AMP, which is the largest Insurance company in New Zealand with its headquarters in Australia, was lending about a million dollars a week in The Dominion 18-1 2.71).
The Government has probably avoided naming the real issue of foreign control of investment because it doesn't want to alarm the electorate by appearing too socialist, or too radical. Obviously 'superannuation for all' is a more comforting rallying cry than 'check foreign control of investment'. It is conceivable that they misjudged the electorate's mood. The last election gave Labour a virtually open 'doctor's mandate' to restore stability to the economy, and it is possible that if the real meaning of these moves were explained the electorate would thoroughly approve of them.
The real effect of the Universal Superannuation Fund therefore will not be to provide larger and more widespread retirement benefits—that will only be a side effect. The real effect will be to create a vast capital reserve whose investment will be virtually under Government control. As long as Labour is in power this investment will tend to be selective, from the point of view of maximum development, rather than of maximum profit.
It will probably be applied to encourage diversification in NZ manufacturing, to encourage further diversification in farming, and to foster regional development. Such investment may not always be most profitable in the short term, but in the long run such economic decolonisation cannot help but be in the national interest.
The Government has been very busy and it has taken many steps on the same pattern—innocuous enough on the surface, but, beneath, all playing a part in breaking the foreign strangle hold on the NZ economy. The NZ Shipping Corp oration is an obvious example. Shipping routes which were not profitable for P & O or the NZSS Co. may be profitable enough for us if new markets for NZ are at the destination.
A new division has been created in the Justice Department; the "Commercial Affairs' Division, which contains the merged functions of the Companies Office and the Official Assignee. The role of the Companies Office has been changed. It contains (and always did contain) a list of all companies registered to trade in New Zealand.
It also contained, as part of the registration requirement, lists of shareholders and certain financial information. The filing and up-dating of this information has, in the part, been an almost voluntary business. The Companies Office had no power to enforce the deposit of up-to-date information. The lists of shareholders in some companies were 20 years out of date.
But a statutory amendment has given the companies office the authority to demand that such information be kept up-to-date, and it has penalties to use which give it some muscle. The whole role of the office has changed—it will become a much more investigative body.
The shareholders lists are among the information Labour covets. They are the key to unravelling the precise extent of foreign control in our economy—and it is a very tangled web. The Government needs more detailed information in order to discover the precise ramifications of foreign control, and it is determined to have it.
It is becoming clear that Labour has a logically cohesive economic policy, that it is the inheritor of earlier Labour belief in the need to diversify, particularly into manufacturing industries in NZ, and that it is hostile to foreign control. It is also becoming clear that Labour is purposefully and quietly going about laying the groundwork for the achievement of its policy.
The logical next step, which may not eventuate until after the Superannuation Fund is set up is to reduce the definition of foreign control. At present foreign control is defined as a 25% shareholding in a company. By contrast a company is deemed to be foreign controlled in the USA if there is a 10% foreign shareholding. It is certain that their figure of 10% was not arrived at without good reason after all they almost invented foreign control. It doesn't take much of a block of shares to control some companies.
Not only does Labour appear to have a logical and well developed economic plan; for a Government with little recent practice in governing they are gaining their objective with a great deal of political skill. They have not announced their real and final objective. None of their measures, taken alone is really sufficient to support a charge from the political right of a socialist inspired attack on foreign capital. Yet the total effect will be more than an attack—in many areas it may be a victory.
One part of the University which students don't hear very much about is the Industrial Relations Centre. And among those that have heard of it, even fewer people know what it does or why it exists. For this reason it is planned to run a series of articles in Salient, examining the activities of the centre, and its role in Industrial Relations. It is also intended to have a look at the whole Industrial Relations field in an attempt to counter some of the myths which are typically propogated by the daily newspapers and such other such right wing groups.
From the point of view of the University, the Industrial Relations Centre is merely an appendage of the Economics Department which specialises in the teaching of Labour Economics.
The centre's purpose is to educate trade unions and management how to promote good industrial relations. The centre has four staff members, who, in their role as University teachers, do the equivalent workload of about one and a half ordinary University staff. The rest of their time is spent fulfilling the role set out for them by the National Development Conference back in
It would appear that the University does not get a very good return in terms of the amount of teaching done, from the money that it puts into the IRC. The most recent annual report of the Industrial Relations Centre stated that a mere $ 15,000 of the Centre's financing came from outside the University which is rather less than the five-eighths which you would expect to be coming from beyond the university on the basis of teaching returns. Perhaps that is why Departments like Anthropology cannot afford sufficient staff and have to restrict entry to classes.
It is also interesting to look at these outside sources of funds to see where it is that they come from. There is a sizeable contribution from the Department of Labour, and predictably, healthy contributions from various business organisations. However, there are also contributions from various trade union organisations. Thus all these groups are paying out money for research into the causes of industrial conflict—paying so that industrial conflict may be minimised in New Zealand.
But what is all this stuff about "industrial conflict"? This is a topic that will be dealt with in greater detail in a later article in this series, but it is necessary to make a few introductory comments on the subject now. As we interpret it, industrial conflict is merely a manifestation of class struggle. That the IRC accepts this interpretation of industrial conflict is unlikely, but certainly much of the industrial relations theory that they reach is consistent with such an interpretation, but told from the point of view of the bosses.
What they are doing is adopting the usual "double-talk" practised by so many social scientists in our form of capitalist society—subtly rephrasing reality through their ideological faith in the permanence of the present capitalist order of society.
When one does believe that industrial conflict is a manifestation of class struggle, however, the role of IRC in New Zealand society becomes much clearer. It may be noted that the Centre does not say that the only way to resolve industrial conflict is through the termination of class struggle by the completion of a socialist revolution. Instead, they advocate all the processes of what is sometimes termed "class collaboration". Essentially they are advocating all the processes of social democracy to eliminate a few of the injustices' of the capitalist system, while allowing the system to entrench itself in power. But this will be a topic for a later article.
One question not yet considered is that of whether or not students can do anything about the Centre. At the beginning of
Not everyone eats at the cinema. I do. Sweet things on the rye, sweet things on the ear, sweet things on the tongue well, thats the preponderance of the senses taken care of for an hour and a half. But a sensory bonanza is a rare occasion, for all that, and the smallest imperfection can upset that exquisite balance required to maintain a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Which leads me to protest at the quality of frozen confection to be had at the Regent. Eleven cents commands more than a blotch (blob, I'm afraid, would over-state the case) of tasteless, watered down ice-cream hidden in a regulation size cone. Ice-cream that leaves one only too conscious of one's nose and one's bum for what seems, with credibility none too well suspended, an age. This, I can assure you, is not the case at the Majestic or the Cinerama. There, if not delectable, at least the fare is easily swallowed and little discomfort is likely to accrue, a very different state of affairs from that at the Regent where one is categorically informed that every bite is at one's own expense, and that there is no need to dine well to dine unwisely. That, I regret to say, is the rude awakening in store for those who go in search of a little sustenance at the Regent. Which only goes to make such a bloody awful film as 'The Gay Deceivers' all the more impossible to sit through.
Doubtless things will return to their former condition at the Regent and eleven cents will bring forth more palatable examples of the confectioner's art. And, doubtless, we shall see a similar return at the Lido—which, remembering the halcyon days of those choclate coated orange ice-creams, would please me no end, especially in view of the drabness and brittleness of what's being served up at present. Not that the invitation isn't beguiling.....corporeal debauchery with lashings of sweet spice, and all that. Sadly, as one fights to keep one's dinner down while unappetizing excesses of middle aged flesh flash from the screen, its an invitation one feels bound to decline, of course, one may feel rueful at missing a little delicacy tucked away in these, not obvious at first sight: but then one can be consoled. Nothing will be missed; as blatantly indelicate a film as 'Monique-Au Pair Girl' is, fortunately, a rarity.
Take four medium-sized rats and lay them on the chopping board. Having first made sure the chopper is freshly sharpened, raise it as high above the first rat as you can. Make sure that the rat's neck is well exposed, then bring the chopper down with as much force as possible onto the neck or head of the rat. Then cook it in a pie.
Make sure that the rat s squeals are not audible from the street, particularly in areas where the Anti-Souffle League and similar do-gooders are out to persecute the innocent pleasures of the table. Anyway, cut the rat down and lay it on the chopping-board. Raise the chopper high above your head, with the steel glinting in the setting sun, and then bring it down—wham!—with a vivid crunch straight across the taut neck of the terrified rodent, and make it into souffle.
This isn't so much a recipe as a bit of advice in the event of members of the Anti-Souffle League or its simpering lackeys breaking into your flat. Your wife (or a friend's) should engage the pusillanimous toadies from the League in conversation, perhaps turning the chat to the price of corn and the terrible damage inflicted by all kinds of rodents on personal property, and rats attacking small babies (this always lakes the steam out of them) and you should have time to get any rat-bits safely out of sight. Incidentally do make sure that your current copy of The Rat Gourmet hasn't been left lying around, otherwise all will be in vain, and the braying hounds of the culinary killjoys will be unleashed upon the things you cherish: your chopping-board, the chopper caught in the blood-red glare of the fading sun. Bring it down—crunch! The slight splintering of any spinal column under the keen metal! The last squeal and the death twitches of the helpless rat!
Victor Gollancz 1965; now available in Pan "Picador' paperback edition 1973. $1.40. Reviewed by Marty.
This week, for a change, I am looking at a real book, one which has been around for some time.
Smallcreep 's Day is the, first-person Pilgrim's Progress of an insignificant factory worker, who is one day beset by a question. His job may be described in a few words:
"put down the second pulley and picked up a fourth. I pulled up the lever, took out the third and put the fourth in, before depressing the lever, putting down the completed pulley and picking up the next. I pulled the lever up again...."
Such has been his life for 15 years, and he has always been contented with it, until one day he wonders - what happens to this pulley? Where does it go? Where does it fit into the scheme of things? And so his search through the factory begins.
The factory is not one the reader is likely to have come across anywhere, for Smallcreep's journey is an allegorical one, in which he is brought face to face with many aspects of the society which Peter Brown savagely attacks.
The above description may not sound particularly inviting; in which case it is my fault. It is as difficult to convey the atmosphere of Smallcreep's Day as it is to describe Lord of the Rings or the Titus Groan trilogy by telling the story. Smallcreep's Day is not a great work by these standards, yet it is a work of considerable force and novelty.
Peter Brown's main delight is in smashing the reader's beliefs about his own society. Pinquean Smallcreep is an ideal searcher for this knowledge, for the continual revelations do not affect him in any way: his total naivety enables him to proceed where others would be stranded in horror. Yet many readers will realise—hopefully with shock—that Smallcreep's defence of the beliefs which his life is based on are no flights of fancy but are called straight from the Average Man. As he searches for his pulley, to find what his contribution really is, he meets up with all the classes in the factory, even the managing director, who confesses his hypocrisy, and tells Smallcreep that he has been fooled.
"Then we live well," I said quite impatiently. "If you mean that you eat well, then I must agree, hut that has nothing to do with democracy either, and pigs and horses cat well if their owners have any sense. If you are speaking, however of the quality of your daily lives, then I do not agree. You are as stultified as tinned sardines, living in a dream world because your real world is so utterly unfulfilling." "We are happy," I flung back as a last attempt to comfort him. He shook his head slowly. "If a pig in a sty tells you he is happy, what do you think? That he doesn't know what happiness is, of course. The product, Smallcreep, is always the same a pig who dreams he is a god."
Such people are not, however, typical of Smallcreep's Day, for Peter Brown's world, our world, is populated with "contented pigs" rather than discontented humans. A press operator informs Smallcreep that he has been allowed to buy shares in the factory;
".....I hold two penny shares and a ha'penny preference share... It gives you Something to work for. I'm double time and treble time here most weeks now because I know I'm working for myself." He came close to my ear. "I wouldn't be surprised, if I work hard here for three or four years or so, that my tuppence ha'penny won't have doubled itself by that time. What do you think of that, eh? So much for your socialism!"
Young men from the higher offices produce statistics to demonstrate that Smallcreep arrives at work at nine rather than seven thirty, and that he owns a car. He is surprised, but too polite to refute the statistics of those much wiser than himself. Some of the hardest blows are reserved for the advertising manager.
"Throughout the ages men have believed in malignant little spirits....We have our germ-creatures."
"But germs actually exist," I said.
"Have you ever seen one?" he retorted. Of course Smallcreep knows people who have; the advertising manager does not doubt him. "But the modern housewife, who daily performs long and exhausting rituals to exorcise these creatures, has never actually seen one, and it is a simple medical fact that her rituals are irrationally elaborate. All this cleanliness....Then there is our obsession with whiteness. What could be more irrational than the concepts "Whiter than white", "seven shades whiter" "
It seems as if Peter Brown occasionally makes the mistake of going too far; that his attacks are totally unfounded, and perhaps this may detract from the very real criticism of twentieth century capitalist society he is making elsewhere. Yet, on reflection, the truth or otherwise of the existence of germs is irrelevant to the housewife. She is told to perform certain actions on certain grounds and to buy certain products to do them. There may be some truth in any advertiser's claims: but his interest is in using current beliefs to back up his claims. What these beliefs are is irrelevant. For instance, the words "vitamin C" now conjure up a glowing picture of health, and so every edible product is now oozing with the stuff. This is despite the fact that we get quite enough of it in an average diet, and it is quite useless in conjunction with some products, for instance anti-nauseants, in which the advertisers proudly boast it is to be found.
Smallcreep firmly believes that there must be a rational explanation for everything. He repeats this so often, and is proved to have no idea of what is going on around him so often, that by the end the reader is forced to the conclusion that something is drastically rotten in the state of the nation. The status of the worker seems to have changed remarkably little since feudal times; freedom of speech is a farce; freedom of thought is nothing more than freedom to hold prejudices.
Smallcreep's Day offers criticism which is totally destructive. It provides very few answers to the problems it poses; but since it is an allegory, and no divine being appears at the end to revive Smallcreep from his hysteria, his only solution is to return to sanity operating his pulley-slotter. I am not pointing this out as a fault of the book; his intention is to shake the reader out of his complacency and to think for himself. Peter Brown's message deals very much with the way in which people have most of their thinking done for them, until they are not only incapable of thinking but - worse still believe that they think. It would thus be laughable for him to finish off by doing the reader's thinking for him. Smallcreep's Day is a very successful, very powerful allegory. It is also fluently written, avoiding the sickly danger of turning an allegory into a series of improbable adventures. Peter Brown has worked in factories, done a six year apprenticeship in toolmaking. His knowledge of the machines makes them real, and their grossness and grotesque distortion even more horrible. Smallcreep's Day is quite real.
I rewalk in my thoughts the streets of Wellington: a youth at three in the morning, staggering home from a frantic party, feeling the universe against him, dying for a woman to heal the bone's rage.
No money but he didn't care, the road unwinding back into darkness and houses tight as mausoleums. Cops in black cars stopped him frequently, asked where he was going, how much money he had. (It isn't safe if you're not Caucasian, your dark skin reminds the cops of midnight's terrors—you may be on your way to rape their virginal wives and daughters!) Lied to them that he was a law student, they left him alone to his silent rage and a cold room waiting where dawn began. He never once lost his way.
I retrace those streets, searching for that youth to ask that he save me with his compass of anger. I have lost the way.
A Polynesian newspaper, 24 pages. Available from Box 47362, Auckland (please send 3c postage). Reviewed by Virginia Branney.
The main stimulus for the production of this newspaper was the need to alleviate Pakeha domination over the press which results in what "Rongo" terms the "heightening and intensifying of...racial discord". The press tends to report only sensational news concerning Polynesians (which is generally bad publicity ) thereby promoting racial stereotyping. The press also fails to serve the needs of Polynesians when it ignores non-sensational items that are mainly of interest to the Polynesian community (e.g. the opening of maraes) rather than to the Pakeha majority.
"Rongo" is therefore a Polynesian orientated paper. A wide range of groups is using it as a means of communication. It represents Polynesian (which includes Maori) opinion as expressed by Polynesians, rather than Pakeha opinion about Polynesians. Yet the paper avoids what many Pakehas might call an "extremist" (i.c.anti-Pakeha) stance. For the Pakeha who still believes that equal opportunities exist for all races this approach should serve to hold his interest beyond page one.
"Rongo" aims to promote Polynesian tradition and custom, and to unite the Polynesian community by providing a medium to which all Polynesian groups can contribute. By featuring many articles (and poetry) in indigenous languages as well as in English, it communicates more effectively to the people it is trying to reach than existing publications such as "Te Ao Hou" and "Te Maori". "Rongo" has been more widely distributed and at the moment is free. That Polynesians are producing it for themselves may make their community more united in the face of racism, inequality and assimilative attitudes and policies. For example the first issue includes articles on the predominantly monocultural broadcasting media, the housing shortage as it affects Polynesians, and extracts from the press reflecting racist attitudes.
But although "Rongo" outlines some of the problems Polynesians face, it provides little analysis as to why these problems exist. For instance it states "over two-thirds of the people in NZ prisons are Maori and Polynesian" - yet offers no explanation of this. Are such fertile fields for discussion being left for future issues, or is "Rongo" avoiding controversy for fear of being labelled negative? To be of any value to Polynesians (and Pakehas) surely the paper must suggest reasons and start discussion on why racism and inequality exist.
"Rongo" informs the Polynesian people what organisations exist to represent them, and what their policies and activities are, it includes articles on Te Huinga Rangatahi o Aotearoa, the Auckland "Good Neighbour" movement, the Polynesian Panther Party, Nga Tamatoa, the Maori Organisation on Human Rights and the Auckland Committee on Racial Discrimination. "Rongo" encompasses the national scene; it is not directed at the people of any one area.
The paper contains reports of meetings and events which concern the Polynesian community, and which are largely ignored by the press: e.g. the opening of a new marae for the Tuhoe people of Auckland, the Maori Artists Conference, the Maori Teachers' Association Seminar, Maori Language Day and a critical article on the White Paper on Maori Affairs. It features a number of articles on Polynesian culture.
"Rongo" is rich in content and its articles are of educational value. It is fulfilling the need for a united approach to the problems which confront Polynesians. It is fulfilling the need for a medium allowing Polynesians self-expression. "Rongo" is achieving its objectives.
I would like to make one or two comments on two passages from John Brooke-White's letter in the March 6 issue, and on one passage from Hemi Potatau's reply to it. The passages are these:
First of all, JBW (let's use initials for brevity) clearly wants to have his cake and eat most of it up at the same time. The question "Isn't this getting dangerously near pidgin?" seems to me (to be intended to be?) dangerously near saying that in fact Maori is a pidgin language. It's rather like saying "no no no Maori isn't a primitive language but it is a very under-developed language isn't it."
And HP is absolutely right in his feeling that there are those who have indeed been trying to inculcate the notion that Maori is a decidely inferior kind of language. Take for example this passage from page 42 of Maori Children and the Teacher, re-issued in
Note how the writer has effected a seemingly easy transition from the loss of "finer shades of meaning" for Maori children, through to inadequacy in expressing "ideas", then to inadequacy in expressing "anything more complex than actual reality", then to "a cultural factor", and finally to Maoris and their language in general with the statement that "semantics is important for Pakehas but not very important for Maoris". Now since the word semantics means "meaning" (of all kinds), this particular writer is asserting that meaning is not very important for Maoris. And this, it seems to me, is very close indeed to saying that the Maori language itself is not exactly—how shall we put it?—not exactly very meaningful. Which is absolute and unadulterated rubbish (the whole of the quoted paragraph is rubbish—for more comments you could take a look at my forthcoming article entitled "Maori children and Bernstein: a linguistic appraisal", in Education).
We are dealing here in effect with a large set of terms, each one carrying its own connotations, vaguely defined though these may be. You could say that language x is a "primitive" language (in fact there is no such thing), or "not language at all" (ditto), or a "pidgin", or "under-developed", or "tribal", or a (mere) "vernacular", or a kind of "patois", or maybe just a "dialect", or... etc. One of the many difficulties in labelling like this is often that of locating cut-off points on a continuum, indeed in realising in the first there is indeed a kind of "basic English adapted to the indigenous patterns of thought" in many parts of West Africa (as BW points out), but this type (or types) of very non-standard English is not by any means the only alternative to vernaculars on the one side and (regional) standard English on the other side. The most authoritative brief statement to this effect is probably the following, from J. Berry "Pidgins and creoles in Africa (in "Current Trends in Linguistics," Vol. 7, p. 513): "In nearly all the areas where creoles and pidgins are spoken in Africa, a European language is also learned in more or less substandard form." And in fact, West Africa (though to a lesser extent than in some other parts of the world )present a picture of various language continua in this case from regional standard English (or Englishes) at the one end to vernacular African languages at the other. Pidgin languages are very frequently almost unintelligible to native speakers of their European "parent" language. But what exactly pidgins are, how exactly they arose (and still arise), what arc the social and linguistic significances of language continua, how to analyse them, how they change, these are difficult theoretical problems which bear upon the very nature of language itself.
Finally, on borrowing and development. First of all, who is to say that Maori is not very much better off if it can't manage "computer-assisted systems engineering" without borrowing? And to suggest that in any language which can't do this is therefore "dangerously near pidgin" amounts to saying that many thousands of other vernacular languages in the world today are also "dangerously near pidgin".
JBW chooses a phrase which for him must be in some way critical, a sort of yardstick, for language development. But it is, after all, a merely lexical (vocabulary) yardstick that he's using, and HP is quite correct in pointing to English as having borrowed in its time a vast number of lexical items from other languages while being (at the time of borrowing) grammatically and phonologically and semantically otherwise fully developed (did Chaucer write in "dangerously near pidgin'?). Again, processes of borrowing are linguistically complex and culturally rather subtle; one fairly dogmatic point that seems however (on the evidence) to be defensible is that the language that does not reach outside itself for new words is either already very widely used indeed (like English) or in real danger of stagnation. But of course English does still borrow; it borrows concepts for the most part (rather than forms), and tries (often unsuccessfully) to achieve "translation equivalents" Even so, my feeling is that Maori could render JBW's phrase, and other computer-assisted analogues, if it really wanted to. Somali is an interesting language for this sort of thing: for example, the Somali word for "tying the leading rope of a camel to the tail of the preceding camel in a caravan" plus definite article plus the Somali word for "deceit" plus another definite article gives you the Somali phrase meaning "diplomatic relations". How long Somali can keep up this sort of thing I don't know; one could surmise that the Somali's insistence on retaining the "purity" of their language in this way will do it no good in the long run...Correspondingly, Maoris would be well advised not to listen to those who, on the one hand, would urge them not to borrow, or on the other hand, would taunt them with having to borrow. Maori will survive only if it docs borrow; pidginisation will not necessarily be the price to be paid.
There are many contradictions in our laws regarding stealing. In thousands of cases, these, laws are being bypassed. Any survey will show that many arc not. It all depends on the thief's circumstance; his status in society, is he a landlord, tenant, speculator, shoplifter, vandal etc? This is obviously unfair and results in the exploitation of the poor, the homeless besides other social disorders.
But should we abolish laws against theft? No!!!!!
Wait a minute, didn't we hear this same faulty argument used in support of abortion reform? Rather, the laws should even be tightened and better policed.
Thank you for listening.
Who the hell is Chuck Wagon? And why is he saying those nasty things about me?
I think your record reviewer Chuck Wagon deserves high praise for his courageous attack on 'Wake of the Flood' (Salient March 6). It's about time somebody told the truth about the Grateful Dead. I mean, and let's face it, it's plain to see they've popped their poopsy.
I think your record reviewer Chuck Wagon (an unlikely name if ever I heard one) misses an important point in his assessment of 'Wake of the Flood'. Whatever else, it is Grateful Deads' best album since Abbey Road.
Looking through last year's Salients I could not help being impressed with your consistent support of causes shunned or suppressed by the papers. Issues such as Zimbabwe, facts of the Vietnam peace settlement, TPA, Gay Lib, and Vorster's Reich, not to mention your unique (I liked it) Court Reports, need to be published.
Even your ideology makes some sense after churning through a constant stream of pedantic commentaries in 30 consecutive Salients (all in one sitting, phew). Like, it takes a while for that stuff to get through the pre-conceived notions gained from an unquestioning intake of my hometown's "Daily News" for the last 15 years.
I am dismayed at the attitude you show towards religious groups on campus. Why? I'd certainly like to know your reasons for this.
What are they to you?
Thank you for publishing news I want to hear about.
In the only issue of 'Salient' last year which had any meat in it some foreign student (Kiwi students are too supine to complain about anything) drew attention to the large number of Union officials and ancillary staff getting soft cushy jobs with fat salaries at student expense
Student union fees are now increased to an all time high of $25.50 this year.
I think it is a scandal that poor students (and that is the majority) are blackmailed into having to go to the upper storey cafeteria to get a decent balanced meal at a cost of $1.10 minimum, without sweets or third course.
This compares with 56 cents at Wellington Polytechnic where the meals are not heroic but do at least contain some vegetable or vitamin c.
Congratulations to your new 'catering manager' Graeme sombody or other whose picture appears in the Handbook for
Even a School Certificate student knows that the human being needs vitamin c in a decent balanced meal. About 90% of students are forced to patronise the lower cafeteria. When I had my $1 meal on the upper storey cafeteria (which is there for the rich students as distinct from the common herd) I saw the House Manager and others of his cronies eating there. They are so well paid that-they can afford to patronise this expensive restaurant. I cannot afford to pay $1.10 for a two course meal even if it is balanced. Even the station caf at the Railway does not charge so much to railway passengers.
Secondly, being a member of NZUSA at such terrific cost does not entitle the poor student to join various clubs, tramping clubs etc, without paying still further. He has to pay 50c to join each club. Why?
Thirdly, travel concessions. Fifty per cent "concession" for travel is provided for NAC travel only, i.e. to go and see Mt Cook. Who would have the money (or the time) to go and see Mt Cook? Once again the rich students are favoured, the poor students are ignored.
It would be some good if students could get rail concessions travelling to and from Petone or Lower Hutt for example. No luck. Only students below the age of 18 or 19 are entitled to rail concessions from the Polytechnic, I don't think the University offers even that.
Fourth, complaining about the arbitary charges at the University bookshop. These are also galling to students. I mentioned the fact that students pay more than $5 for a set of German textbooks which is purchasable at Whitcoulls for only $2.40 or $3 at the most. Nobody will explain. The German lecturers say "tut-tut, what a scandal" but nothing is done.
I sign this article because I know it will never be published as it might offend the new catering manager.
P.S. As an afterthought why are no locker provisions made for students of the Arts and Languages Faculty. The Geology and Chemistry Dept has apparently its share of students lockers (as distinct from staff lockers). Even the library has no individual lockers with locks or facilities for students to supply their own padlocks. Imagine traipsing up and down day after day up the steep gradiant to Varsity in all weathers carrying heavy textbooks and lecture notes for lack of any lockers.
Isn't it funny how the fuel crisis has subsided as headlines or even news material. Maybe its because the fuel crisis is really a jack-up although the Arabs were a factor. We've had huge reports of "Arab blackmail". Now quietly tucked away in a few column inches is even more newsworthy material. Royal Dutch Shell increased their profit 153% (March 2, Dominion), Its such a jack-up of a fuel crisis that Holland and Sweden have lifted their rationing. Definitely not as newsy as those Arabs blackmailing us poor westerners.
You obviously don't watch TV. In your article on racial stereotypes you missed the most blatant example around. I refer to the Lemon and Paeroa advertisement. Trendy young whites guzzle Lemon and Paeroa and eat hangi kai. The latter is provided by overalled Maoris who appear to be too busy to do any of the eating. The advertising industry's message is obvious: happiness is Lemon and Paeroa, having workers at your party and being white.
At last a student publication worthy of those it is meant to represent.
Pity it had to come all the way down from Auckland.
Shorn-but-not-forgotten
David Tripe in his review of "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" sees Zefferelli advocating the rerilence of the Catholic Church. Zefferelli is an advocate of simple rather than papal Christianity. You can't miss the hammered comparisons between the pure pastoral simplicity of the lovely Franciscian church and the rich decadence of the established church. Ask Barry McGuire to give you the word later this year, brother Dave.
Perhaps there was even a moment of doubt when Innocent meet Francesco. Maybe Innocent thought that there was a little more in Francesco's god-grooving way of copping out.
Inevitably the Franciscians got sucked into the mainstream church. Zefferelli did not film the inevitable sucking in and corruption of the movement. Serfdom and enforced real poverty continued with renewed spirituality. Wait oh pure joy! Yes that's it! Lets ail pray. Lets all groove on nature and reject material pursuits from an affluent exploitative position. Zefferelli made it look so gorgeous I'll just have to find the Lord in some pretty countryside. I hope the poor will support me.
The last line on David Tripe's reviews of Brother Sun, Sister Moon gives him away immediately. Talking of the "ordinary working masses" of the 14th Century he says of their choice between St Francis and the Pope "They might be better off if they got rid of the whole system". Naievity of this sort can only belong to the Editor of the People's Voice or a 'university marxist' who like most of his sort forgets once in a while to relate his comments to concrete conditions which is the well known condition for concrete analysis. There are two ways you can take this statement: The first is that it is 14th Century Italy that the film is about. In which case the whole system he talks about is feudalism and the only real choice open to the masses then was within the church for existence without ordained Roman Catholic religion was unthinkable and unliveable. This is why St Francis had to go to the Pope for acceptance. As a heretic he would have lost his followers as they feared their 'eternal souls'. Removal of feudalism was offered neither by St Francis's mysticism or the mainline church but the development of a mercantile class which eventually toppled the Church, becoming the new ruling class with the rise of capitalism. Under the Holy Roman Empire both spiritual rule and temporal rule was in Rome. With large influences of wealth the Church's riches became embarrassing and St Francis wanted only the spiritual to be the concern of the church. This offered no real solution apart from offering the merchant class a free hand. Zeffirelli's options were roughly the only options open to the people then and divisions (surface) did not appear along these lines.
However these are not the only options open to the working masses today and the second way to take the film is as an allegory. In fact just about everything that could be changed while still retaining the historical period was changed by Zeff the biff who wanted the film to be more relevant to the contemporary scene. So we have the soldiers returned from a useless and costly crusade. Francis is one of them and turns mystic etc etc and the others follow him one by one. They end up as overstereotyped hippies-all hardship and happiness etc. Given the period he chose Zeffirelli could not have changed it any more without losing the historical context of the film yet this is what was needed to avoid the pathetic ending he was forced to adopt. Here Tripe again misjudges the options opened up by the film. Zeffirelli constricts choice of period and does not let his allegory develop past superficiality and therefore does not allow the destruction of the whole system. At first you thought he could make something of the film by developing its references to Vietnam veterans, radicalisation etc but here he falls flat on his face offered a nicely manufactured solution. It is a cowardly film that could only convice the Children of Crud of its realism. St Francis in the end is like a young 'live off the land' type who is going to Norm Kirk to get a Kibbutz licence...when he goes to the pope asking for acceptance as a valid part of the RC Church. What Tripe should be attacking is the purposeful narrowing down of options that Zeffirelli indulges in because he is too scared to admit the possibility of real change of people seizing control of their own destinies.
Fransesco offers only rehashed mumblings of the new testament and simpering innocence of spirit (and politics) which is not really the reflection of a cinematic genius. All we are left with is a paper thin lily growing in a WW2 bomb crater and a Zeffirelli with his pockets full and definitely not throwing it away to anyone.
Elton John Concert: Western Springs, 28.2.74. Reviewed by Redmer Yska.
Miss Linda Lovelace, whose recent cocaine bust had none of the impact of her famed man-eating activities in the Movie 'Deep Throat' was the 'hostess' at a recent Elton John concert in Hollywood.
Firstly she introduced the 'guests': local actors dressed up as such well-loved showbiz personalities as Frankenstein, Mae West, the Queen of England, Groucho Marx and the Beatles, who thronged the stage followed by a pudgy little superstar, swishing like Liberace at Madame Tussauds.
An elaborate and expensive bit of fun, apparently in keeping with the character of this eccentric popstar whose records sell millions and whose live performances are as famous for their music as for their visual impact.
Then we heard that the 'supersonic, motivated King of the Scene' as he self-effacingly calls himself, was to visit New Zealand. So we went out and brought 'Yellow Brick Road'—Eltons' newest album and as much on the strength of the genuinely inspired music therein, as the attraction of vaudeville spectacle, we thought the live performance would be worthwhile.
The venue of the concert was at Western Springs and the stadium filled quickly as the start of the show drew nearer. The Queen City 'milieu' was mixed, from the omnisexual glitter brigade to the buck-skin fringed hippies to the Jesus Freaks and bikies, but they all squealed as one as Elton bounded onto the stage. The huge crowd rose to its feet as he sat down at the piano dressed in what one reporter later called a 'technicolour chicken-man suit' but which at the time brought to mind the garb of a dandy witch doctor dressed as a bird of paradise.
Elton John and his four-man band began with 'Funeral for a Friend' and 'Love Lies Bleeding'. Billowing dry ice, taped sound effect and dim crimson light completed the tableau. The crowd was impressed but unconvinced and it was not until 'Hercules' a faster number where Elton began to move, to punch his keyboard, bending low over his piano; that the crowd began to kick up its heels. He is a very fast, very competent pianist whose talents stand out the best on rockers like 'Hercules' and it was songs of this type that the audience were to really enjoy.
But the Band did not stick to rock and roll and the moods were varied. When they played the hit-records like 'Daniel' and 'Rocket-Man', the crowds swayed nostalgically as they sang along with the words. Elton John has a sentimental side which was especially underlined in his dedication of 'Your Song' to the "biggest audience I've ever played to". This is a truly pretty number but when he introduced another, similar song later in the show as a "hot, teary ballad" (sic) he seemed to sum up the slightly over-sentimental mood. Others must have shared this feeling for towards the end of the show when Elton asked the audience if they wanted a fast or a slow number the throng shrieked assent to the former.
Elton John's back-up band was really outstanding. As he was to say himself: 'Elton John is the name of a band' and this was evident on-stage far more than on record. Davy Grahams' guitar work was memorable and the new percussionist Ray Cooper amazed the crowd with an extraordinary kazoo-solo on 'Monkey Cats'. Vocally too, the band helped Elton through some of the high notes on songs like 'Yellow Brick Road', which he couldn't manage.
But the concert was Elton John the man rather than Elton John the band. All eyes were on the piano player as, sensing the mood especially during the louder numbers, he would carry the band up and up, then letting them continue, jumping up from his piano and hopping across the stage and dancing/groping with the members of the band. On these livelier numbers like "All the Young Girls Love Alice" the whole stadium seemed to be dancing, approaching the intensity of last year's Rolling Stones' concert.
The pace and intensity of the music rose and rose and as the concert came to a close the audience reaction became more and more frenetic.
The star's exit was followed by a call for an encore as hysterical and ecstatic as the music the crowds felt suddenly deprived of. A moment later Elton came back onstage having changed into a silver lame suit with a tasselled Davey Crockett sombrero, complete with Clockwork Orange codpiece. The atmosphere was almost mock-religious—nothing moved except Elton John. With the help of an engineer on organ, the band drove into 'Crocodile Rock' which is almost the archetype of the fifties rock 'n' roll numbers at which the star so excells.
The warm Auckland night was swimming with the mad marriage between audience and performer, the tiny dancer acting out the fantasies of everyone present. Elton's triumphant jump onto his piano seemed like a 'King of the Castle' gesture but with his unmistakeable feel for the audience anticipation it seemed the most natural, obvious thing to do.
The band simply had to come back for one more encore and Elton resplendent in yet another costume, stunned his audience with his electrified spectacles which lit up twinkling lights.
"Saturday Nights All Right for Fighting" brought the set to a thunderous close with the star singing with the audience "Saturday, Saturday, Saturday Nights All Right". There was nothing more to play. The show was over Walking back among the crowd through a veritable miasma of pot-smoke and stumbling over a river of empty cans, I felt dazed and deafened by the whole spectacle. Much later that night as we cruised through a silent Auckland the announcer on the local radio station was gleefully boasting about the huge crowd which apparently had brought a net taking of 160 grand. He ended his newsflash with an impression given by a fellow announcer of the concert "He said he looked like the Pope". Interesting. Interesting.
Let's Get it On: Marvin Gaye. Tamla Motown T329V1. Reviewed by Richard Best.
Marvin Gaye is dumb. Not stupid like Hawkwind and kids who bum up the mountain and drop over the side. No, Gaye is naive: in the nicest possible way, and if you think "nicest possible way" stinks, you're not going to like him too much.
Someone tells me that feeding on lush and cliches is very much today and indeed, Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry sleeps in jewel-studded seas and laughter after tears. But Ferry doesn't talk like that and he doesn't woo women with paroxysms of dry acridity.
But Marvin Gaye actually cats cliches and the difference is he probably talks "right on" and thinks "right on". And when the man sings "God is love" or "brother, brother" or "Live for life", you might almost have to believe it.
The word is that he has a new LP out, "Let's Get it On", with a hundred dribblings about sex being the brass tacks and some hideous blurred photos of Mr Gaye.
And really it's second-hand hack from start to finish. Yet if Jon Anderson can get stuck into Rogets' and produce boredom en masse, then how come Marvin Gaye can sing "stop beating round the bush" and turn up Ace?
I'm visably blushing now but if I say he sounds sincere—like his tongue is in his mouth and nowhere else and maybe he does go to church—will you believe it? I'm sure he means it and I'm bloody sure it sounds right.
He's completely antithetic to Lou Reed's black comedy and most of what's what right now. If you're brainy, he's gonna sound like crap—and if you're heavy, forget it.
This is the man to save us all until next week, and, for a while now, he's a piece of purity. And even if "Let's Get it On" is 27 minutes of Fuck, he makes it sound naive. A real Ace.
Broken Arrows: Rabbit Island Records IL 34907. Reviewed by Graeme Simpson.
Rabbit? Who the hell is Rabbit?
Well, he's John Bundrick, versatile session musician, and, more recently keyboards man with Free. This is his solo album: on which he gives full range to his diverse musical talents, writing the songs, producing, and playing a large assortment of instruments: piano, moog, organ, mellotron, clarinet etc.
Unfortunately, the music itself fails to live up to the impressive credentials that Rabbit presents on the cover.
On only two tracks are the vocals valid:—The first is 'Love, Life, and Peace', on which Rabbit's vocals act as an instrument, blending with the clever arrangement.
'I Don't Mind' is a delicate, sensitive ballad, building through piano, lush strings with moog augmentation, and soft laid-back bass. The lyrics are self-conscious, but the sadness and emptiness conveyed by Rabbit's wispy vocals, complement the musical treatment.
Musically three other tracks stand out. 'Broken Arrows" and "Music is the Answer" both rockers, featuring Harry Nilsson (circa Schmilsson) style vocals and arrangements.
And perhaps the most promising track, the last on Side One: 'Blues My Guitar' (featuring juicy chunky bass by Tetsu Yamauchi) with an oriental opening, moving into some full-blooded guitar. However Rabbit's weak vocals fails to compare with an instrumentally fine track.
Like 'Music is the Answer', the other tracks on the album similar in presentation to Free, this song left me wishing for the raunch and power of Free vocalist, Paul Rodgers.
Although a fine musician, as seen by his previous work, Rabbit has over-extended himself on this project. 'Broken Arrows' is merely a pleasant, if undistinguished, album.
Baron Von Tollbooth: Grace Slick and Paul Kantner. Grunt Recording. Reviewed by Pat O'Dea.
Perhaps it's just another impending winter and the after Christmas blues, but very little seems to be happening in the record world at the moment. Most putative progressive bands are cither rehashing previous efforts or have quietly sunk into miasmic torpor; while pop, with the exception of "Avenging Annie", seems to have retreated in Cliff Richard's renaissance and the usual sub-literate lyrics. In the midst of the general depression Paul Kantner and Grace Slick's third album together stands out like a clear white light.
Baron Von Tollbooth is a very ambitious album which avoids pretension by the quality of everything that has gone into it. Some very heavy names: David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, John Barbata and Chris Ethridge among various Airplane offshoots.
Rock functions best at a gut level. Previous efforts by Kantner and Slick to mingle rock and metaphysics have been spoiled by internal bickering, with the result that one often obstructed the other. This time they've learnt to work together to the extent that Slick is now singing about "seven inches of pleasure", which happily combines the personal with the cosmic.
The songs grow out of that weird borderland between fantasy and reality where all things are possible, and eventually, inevitable. You could talk of this as a science fiction record but it is far more than that. It leaves you with the impression of intelligence combined with considerable musical dexterity.
Besides everything else, the record manages to experiment, (something I thought that this particular twosome had forgotten how to do) and yet remains strong melodically. Certainly their best since "Crown of Creation".