Letters to the Editor Compendium

The following post is a selection of Letters to the Editor that members get published across Aotearoa/New Zealand, and will be updated as we go including the date.

Class is the problem

On Apr 12, The Press, repreinted a brief viewpoint piece from The Telegraph regarding a report on racism in the United Kingdom. The report determined that race was not a significant factor in outcomes for people in Britain.

Apparently, “the Left” are aghast at the report, but for myself the report confirmed much of what the Left should have been saying for decades. Explicitly, and without reservation, the report indicates that class acts as the prime determinant of one’s life. For some of us this has always been apparent.

Not to be ghoulish or insensitive, but the death of a literal member of the royal family - the peak of the aristocracy, a symbol of exorbitant landed wealth - should perhaps be some reminder that class does still exist in our society.

If we believe ourselves concerned with unjustified, inhumane, or otherwise undeseirable inequality and social strife, then a great levelling is indeed overdue.

Tom Roud
Wednesday 14th April, 2021. The Press.

Socialism in the Capital

This week I had the good fortune to attend the inaugural event of the Wellington Socialist Society. The society is a newly formed group, and is federation with the Cantebury Socialist Society, which has been running for some years.

The event, a lecture on the life and legacy of English socialist William Morris, was highly enjoyable and well attended by an engaged audience at the pub Bedlam & Squalor. It was a delight to see such a mix of people engaging with Morris’s ideas and legacy.

The talk was presented by Martin Crick, an expert on Morris. Some of the themes Martin covered include Morris’s ideas about the alienation workers face in the production process (an idea developed from personal experience independent of Karl Marx), and relevance of his eco-socialist vision for Aotearoa New Zealand, and the world, today.

I believe the Wellington Socialist Society plans to host talks about once a month on a range of topics related to socialism. I would enourage your readers to look out for these and attend if they can.

-Angus Crowe
Saturday 4th December, 2021. The Dominion Post.

A Hollow Ring

Housing Minister Chris Bishop's lament about the threat to conservative governments posede by "declining rates of home ownership" (Housing and education not your customary centre-right fare, Aug 6) could be seen as a sign of a social conscience but, considering his Government's stance on housing, his words have a hollow ring.

Who benefits from tax relief for landlords and reduced bright-line test qualifications? Not people who want to buy a house in which to dwell or call home, but those who see houses as steps on the iniquitous "property ladder".

"Housing", as evidenced in our Government's actions, is just another lucrative way for the few to accumulate wealth for its own sake. What other reason could there be for anyone to own, say, seven houses?

-Bruce Morrison
Monday 12th August 2024, The Press.

Soviet-style Pantomime

Not content with their deliberate effort to increase the rate of unemployment for the sake of the market, our ruling parties have decided to put the boot into the unemployed with a new raft of sanctions and penalties.

Nevermind that according to those parties' own economic orthodoxy, the jobs that ‘seekers’ are meant to find can not - must not exist. The whole pantomime of obligations and penalties is degrading to the dignity of all involved: the unemployed, the case worker at WINZ, and perhaps even the politician should they have any dignity to speak of.

As for the employed New Zealander, on whose behalf the policy is ostensibly enacted, the unemployed must exist to keep your wages low - this is no secret, NAIRU guides policy makers (often across the aisle, too). 

Nevermind. Instead we get to update an old Soviet era joke: they pretend to want us working, we pretend to look for work.

-Tom Roud
Wednesday 14th August 2024, The Press.

A Grand Coalition?

Ray Siatkowski (Letters, Nov 26) makes a fair point regarding the current ruling parties in New Zealand. It is reasonable to suggest that the most natural coalitions under MMP would be made up of the largest 'major party' and the largest of the 'minor parties' necessary to form a government. In 2023 this would have resulted in a National/Green coalition.

If we are being honest, though, political ideology is always going to be important. This isn't to say the Greens are far too left for National - their priorities have meant they've never managed to fill the gap left by The Alliance or NewLabour. I mention political ideology and compatibility because, if we are looking at all those represented in parliament today, the two most similar parties would be National and Labour.

One party has been the 'natural party of government', the other is desperate to become it. Both are keen on Public Private Partnerships, monetarist dogma, and the economic status quo introduced by Roger Douglas (L) and cemented by Ruth Richardson (N).

Perhaps it is time for a grand, purple coalition? It seems to be only legacy and "branding" that prevents it.

-Tom Roud
Wednesday 27th November, 2024, The Press.

Please send any letters you have published to canterburysocialistsociety@gmail.com.