Economic Madness

Have You Tightened Your Belt Lately?

by Patrick Mulrennan

In New Zealand, as all over the world, working people and students are being made to pay for the economic crisis of capitalism. Our wages and bursaries bear the same relation to inflation as the tortoise does to the hare in the popular table - but this time it is the tortoise that has stopped. There have been substantial cuts in education spending, the Arts Council grant and hospital services.

We are being forced to carry the weight of the failure of an economic system that we do not control, while those who control it carry none of the burden. They tell us to tighten our belts - but it's an odds-on bet that the directors of Watties industries aren't tightening their belts - profits for the company from August 1975 to January 1976 rose 43.3 per Cent. And the executive director of the Employers Federation had the audacity to say the government had been '"extremely generous" in the paltry 7 per cent wage order/freeze!

But it doesn't stop there Hand in hand with the onslaught in the economic sphere, the government has launched an attack on women's rights and on the Maori and Pacific Island communities. Foreign policy has also taken a sharp turn to the right, embracing the United States war machine and re-establishing sporting contact with South Africa.

If that was where it ended, we could give up on ever getting some kind of justice People, however, do not take these attacks King down. Every reaction is accompanied by an equal and opposite action. Gay people, women, Maoris, Pacific Islanders, the teachers, the doctors, students and above all, the trade union movement have shown an increasing militancy, and a growing readiness to fight back with all their concerted strength.

And people are questioning not just the injustices in their own back yard, but the injustices they see all around them - the oppression which is the common denominator of all social groups except the ruling capitalist minority.

It is in this light that the Victoria University Young Socialists have organised a series of "Introduction to Socialism" classes, to be held at 76 Dixon Street, each Sunday at 2pm. Anyone can come along and discuss out their ideas about changing this society. Activists from Maori groups, the women's movement, the anti-apartheid movement and soon are particularly welcome - in fact everybody is - and there's no charge.

This is the programme (anybody who wants further information ring Patrick at 847-981 or Gillian at 759-557).

Sunday May 30 -	The Decisive Role of the Working Class.
June 6 -	The Student Movement as a Force for Change
June 13 -	The Revolutionary Struggle of Oppressed Nationalities.
June 20 -	Feminism and Socialism
June 27 -	Moscow and Peking: How Progressive are they?