Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 23. September 12 1977
New Zealand Showing Signs of Fascism?
New Zealand Showing Signs of Fascism?
Recently, women along with other groups such as trade unions and Polynesians have been the subject of legislative and, media attacks. The most obvious examples are the legislation currently before Parliament based on the findings of the Royal Commission on Contraception, Sterilization, and Abortion, and the Government's cuts to the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB).
The similarity between the Nazi polices and the present situation in New Zealand is frighteningly ominous. In Germany the Nazis responded to the economic crisis by subjugating the democratic rights of the individual to the state. In the 1930's German workers lost the right to strike, German women lost the right to control their reproductive lives (either through contraception or abortion) and the German people lost the right to democratically control their destiny.
In New Zealand, workers have effectively lost their right to strike and women are losing the right to control their reproductive lives.
In Nazi Germany the provision for children was the over-riding criterion, and, any considerations of either morality or personal happiness were secondary. Hence abortion and contraception were illegal, and an ideological campaign was waged to push women into the home.
But there is one civil liberty left to both women and men in New Zealand and that is the right to protest. We should stand up for our civil rights before it is too late.
Lindy Cassidy