SOCIALISE OUR ASSETS!

The NZ power network is a natural monopoly. The NZ state planned the development and effectively subsidised capitalist farming & industry by providing access to use of cheap electricity. No individual capitalist in NZs history could have built this. NZs electricity system was built by the working class an international working class at that, with migrant labour a central part of the construction workforce. Power utilities were paid for by the taxes of the working class - as well as producing the bosses profits (including their taxes) from our labour. The working class built these utilities and financed the Research & Development of two areas where NZ has special expertise, Geothermal and Hydro-Electrical power. There is massive social capital expropriated from the working class invested in infrastructure and intellectual property in the power SOEs. This is the stake that NZ workers have in state assets. We are against these assets being privatised and the monopoly profits going to NZ or foreign capitalist owners. Thats why we say socialise our assets!

Capitalist asset grab

Global capitalism rules NZ and the NACT government (National, Act, Maori Party and Peter Dunne) represents the interests of the capitalist class unashamedly. Already they have part-privatised by increasing the debt levels of the power companies and solid energy (35% of their value is owed finance capitalism), and taken that bank debt as a government dividend (profit). The further transfer of ownership from the capitalist state to the capitalist class (the class of owners) takes place with these sales. This is the theft from the poor of the pretence of ownership (held by the state). This will be the continued exploitation of the working and unemployed poor, and power prices that extract profit margins well above and beyond the costs of power production. Geoff Bertram has researched the price gauging of the SOE's who have acted as a cartel and put up the price of power at least 50% above real cost. That is monopoly rent which currently goes to the state as dividends. Monopoly rent equals super profits from natural resources, so it amounts to a transfer of profits from other capitalists to monopoly capitalists. The other capitalists have tried to offload this loss of profits demanding lower power prices and passing on higher prices to private consumers. This is just screwing workers at both ends. Why is the capitalist class stealing the power companies from the NZ state? When power services are sold the capitalist class will be able to take profits from their investment (that investment money is coming from the profits of the production of the working class in the first place). The capitalist system is so weak that capitalism is in search of good investments because their profit margins are falling. An electricity supplier is a guaranteed monopoly profit, because everyone uses electricity so the capitalist is keen to get private ownership of the profits, a loss for all of us since it is a move away from the state dividends that can be reinvested in other infrastructure such as schools hospitals etc.

bigger profits however finance capital was unable to deliver on these as the many financial company failures proved. Capitalism is facing a crisis of falling profits and is desperate to screw a reliable profit from super-exploiting the working class. The sale of state power assets will drive up prices and increase the super-profit going into the pockets of the capitalist class. The capitalist crisis means that the bosses want to milk that monopoly rent directly rather than see it spent on schools, houses, welfare etc. It is total cynical bullshit to say that the proceeds of the sale of 49% will be spent on social amenities. 49% will go straight into the hands of shareholders, while the states shares of rent will go to subsidising big capital and farmers as the plans for roads, irrigation and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) that guarantee private profit. NZ workers have an historic stake in these assets. They are essential services to meet our need for cheap, reliable electric power to maintain our households. Take back control of power services and put them under the control of the working class and the power service workers.

Reclaim our power!

The language of the asset sale hides the fact that these are power services which provide an essential service to the whole NZ population. It serves the working class by providing what has become a basic necessity for our living; keeping our food, water, clothing & ourselves clean and healthy, and communicating with each other. Electricity is a basic need. As a commodity we can only use it if we can pay for it. Reclaim electricity as a need and a service! The market is by definition not designed to meet needs: it is all about profits. The description of power providers as assets hides the fact that they were built to provide an electricity supply throughout the whole country, including delivering electricity to the milking sheds, an integral part of NZs efficient milking production. Electricity services are best planned to meet the needs of the population and of industry (an argument for socialist planning) and the NZ state has done that planning and development. The creation of an electricity market has only led to price increases and profit taking by the state a burden on the working class through household electricity prices. The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other tools of imperialism will

Their crisis not ours!

The global financial crisis was just the latest symptom of the failure of capitalism. Profits were low in productive sector and financial capitalism was promising

make it easy for the competing imperialist powers to rip off power super-profits, to concentrate capital in the crisis, e.g. Chinese dairying, and we will see these energy monopolies pass into imperialist hands.

power services need to be fully represented on workers councils.

No compensation to the capitalist class

Buyers beware! Dont buy stolen property these assets belong to working people. We will take them back with no compensation for the capitalist class. No compensation for the bankers, financiers, or mum and dad investors who have a spare $1000. No compensation to the institutional investors or retirement funds. No compensation for any investors since they all gambled to make a profit from the congealed sweat of the generations of workers in the first place. No compensation whatsoever in any circumstances! Not paying compensation flies in the face of capitalism and imperialism and it treaties such as the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) that try to force compensation through international law. The TPPA will be used to block renationalisation. So taking back the assets means breaking with all so-called free-trade and security agreements. Socialising the assets means taking them back; it is expropriating back to the workers who built and paid for the SOEs in the first place. They are our assets and we will take them back to meet our needs!

Parliamentary parties a dead end

Labour in the 1980s set up these State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) the power companies, coal, and ran the first programme of privatisations / sell offs; BNZ, NZ Rail, Air NZ, etc. Labour MPs say they have learnt their lesson: but they did nothing in their 2000-2009 years in government to reclaim state control of the SOEs and reign in power prices. Labours failure to put the SOEs out of reach of sale is just an example of the Labour partys commitment to capitalism. The market continued to price gouge from the working class as residential customers and subsidise big industrial users such as the bluff aluminium smelter. Labour party continues to fail the working class because it includes both working people and a pro-capitalist program and leadership. The bureaucracy within Labour controls the party programme and so will never really challenge the capitalist class. Labour is so weakened by the bureaucracy within its own ranks that it cannot put up a real fight against the asset sales. They are all talk and no action. Most state assets were sold by the Lange Labour Government in the 80s. Shearer will not commit to buying assets back until he sees if hes got the money. The Greens will not commit to buying assets back either. The only parliamentary party that has committed itself to buying back state assets is NZ First. Mana has warned it will fight to return shares into NZ hands but has not promised to re-nationalise state assets. The Aotearoa is not for Sale Coalition is also weakened by its strategy of directing is protests at parliament. Parliamentary parties following capitalist programs take the resistance off the street and into petitions and votes for parliament. So long as Mana and Socialist Aotearoa put their energy into begging parliament to stop asset sales their opposition to sales will not win mass support for direct action. This type of parliamentary coalition politics is a popular front that ties workers to pro-capitalist parties like Labour and the Greens instead of mobilising a mass movement to occupy the SOEs under workers control.

Socialise our power services!

We are for the overthrow of the capitalist system, which exploits the fact that workers are the creative force in capitalist society. Socialism means the end of this capitalist model of ownership and a move to social ownership - by all. State ownership is still capitalist ownership. This is shown by the fact that they are run to meet the needs of all capitalists by subsidising the cost of power as Bertrams research proves. Rio Tinto is a classic case. Nationalised assets are easier to socialise under workers control than expropriating individual shareholders. We need to start now to win support for socialising all former state assets as well as the strategic assets of large NZ and foreign corporations. But we can do better than state ownership; we can throw capitalism out altogether and plan the whole economy to meet the needs of all. The meeting of the electricity needs of just part of one basic economic plan that needs to be implemented at a national level: Smash the capitalist electricity market. Plan to meet the electricity needs of all and for industry that meets our needs.

Occupy the SOEs under Workers Control

The key demand that should be taken up by all groups opposed to assets sales is Occupy! This is the only language that the bosses state understands. They proved this by breaking the law to violently evict Occupy from its sites in Auckland in 2012. The NACTs are facing the collapse of their asset sale strategy but will stop at nothing to sell at fire sale prices. They refused to subsidise Tiwai Point accepting that if Rio Tinto closes the 15% of electricity it currently uses will create an oversupply, falling profits and drop in sale prices. Now despite the Labour/Green NZPower proposal, the NACTs are still going ahead with the sales. This total sellout of NZ workers to foreign monopolies and their kiwi cronies cannot be answered except by occupations and pickets to defend the stake of generations of NZ workers in state assets. To protect the occupations workers will need to build solidarity the local community, call on sympathy strikes, mass pickets and self-defence squads. Then they need to put them under workers control. The workers who maintain and run our power services are in the best position to continue to manage them. All workers who consume power services should form an alliance with the power workers to plan production and services. Representation would be based on workplace democracy electing and recalling delegates to a workers council. The local workers council is the forum for making democratic decisions about planning to meet the needs of all. Maori from both the end user and production end of

Stop the asset sales! Occupy our SOEs! Smash the TPPA! Socialise all former state assets and all strategic NZ and foreign corporations! For a Workers State to implement a national planned socialist economy!
Class Struggle Pamphlet Online http://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/fightasset-sales.html

Published by Communist Workers Group of Aotearoa/NZ - April 2013