What can be done

My main purpose in writing this article was to bring the actions of the Tribunal to the attention of a larger number of people than those who consult the Government Gazette. What little mass circulation of US comic material there has been up till now has been provided by the university newspapers. Their present legal source of graphics could dry up if the activities of the Customs Department and Tribunal are not in some way curtailed. The supply of the comics to the public has now ceased thanks to these two. Further importation would only result in the banning of other meritorious but as yet unseized comics.

The tactic with the most hope of success is one of attrition. There is almost no possibility of any change in the law so the standards on which the Tribunal in the past has judged comics must be refuted. One-hundred-and-fifty as yet unbanned comics are still in print and new ones are still being produced. Previous methods of importation gave the Tribunal the opportunity to ban the comics in large numbers — up to 30 at a time. The one thing the Tribunal does not want to do is to spend its time considering each comic singly on its merit. It is far more efficient from their point of view to consider each comic as part of its unsavoury genre and to be suppressed as another intrusion on NZ culture.

The apparent contradiction between the wide circulation of graphics in the University newspapers and their unavailability to the rest of the population needs to be overcome. Furthermore the newspapers are presently restricted by their printers but if the Tribunal continues to get away with its crack-down on comics there will inevitably be a growing restraint on their reprinting and the production of similar indigenous graphic work.

The 'Dirty Books' Tribunal and the Customs Department have gradually created a stranglehold on the importation and sale of 'underground' comics. While many of these comics are uninspired and perverse the majority are amusing, thought-provoking and of considerable artistic merit. To allow without a whimper of protest a conservative organ of the state to suppress an important sector of literary freedom is to encourage it, and similar organs, to further trample on our rights. Furthermore such weak defense adds to the influence that right-wing elements already have on the Tribunal.

The ideological position of the content of the comics is largely irrelevant to any position that should be taken on the banning. Despite the fact that some of the stories extend to the advocacy of anarcho-capitalism or communal fascism this should not deter us from opposing the decisions of the Tribunal in every way possible. What gives the repression significance is the way in which the Tribunal's decisions reflect the long-term interests of the ruling classes. Which groups can best use the comic medium and which groups see in the uninhibited use of this medium a potential threat are the politically vital questions.

The Tribunal should be opposed because not only are its actions reinforcing its own powers but its censorship attacks a field of creative activity that has a mass rather than elitist origin. Because the Tribunal is part of the capitalist state its power or increased powers will inevitably be used to suppress socialist propaganda and reportage. By keeping the maximum possible freedom of expression under bourgeois society we can create the conditions for the maximum involvement in decision-making by the working class in the future. To fight for freedom of expression and hence greater freedom of action while under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie not only reduces its avenues of coercion but ripens conditions for the dictatorship of the 'proletariat' rather than that of the party. Whatever can be done to increase the social expressiveness of the masses of society is a progressive step and an absolute increase in human freedom.

Against this freedom we have Tribunal members who are 'uptight' and the creators of the Tribunal who are even more terrified of potential activity of liberated people. Hence the attempts to hinder the explicit portrayal of social activity in a medium that is easily used and read by all social groups.

The self-confidence of the Tribunal and the apathy of the readers of underground comics is an indication of the extent to which the ruling methods of communication and debate control our lives. This fatalistic acceptance of the censorship imposed on the readers is an indication of the bankruptcy and selfishness of the NZ counterculture. The bourgeoisie has society so atomised and stoic that it can deprive the 'advanced' sections of the middle class youth of one of its playthings without fear of opposition.