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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 37, Number 2. 13th March 1974

Kirk's kibbutzes no solution

Kirk's kibbutzes no solution

Drawing of a farmer and plough

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."