Make Communist Fronts History

From Scoop Hat Tip Lindsay Mitchell

"A diverse panel of community representatives is calling on all NZers to make "poverty wages history" in 2006 at a press conference this Wednesday January 25, 12 noon at the Mercure Hotel, 8 Customs St.

The panel includes grassroots organisations, including health, student, ethnic and poverty groups, NGOs, unions and political representatives and will be joined by fast food workers from the SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign to address New Zealand’s low wage crisis.

“The panel recognises low pay and a substandard minimum wage as being at the heart of poverty in New Zealand. It supports the fast food workers and their SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign as a step towards winning a reasonable standard of living and making poverty wages history for all NZers,” said John Minto, spokesperson for Global Peace and Justice Auckland.

SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign co-ordinator, Simon Oosterman said that a broad range of community groups were adding their voices to fast food workers and customers for a liveable wage, highlighting that low wages have a detrimental impact on the community.

“Community groups are joining the fast food workers’ call for McDonald’s, Burger King and (Restaurant Brands restaurants) KFC, Starbucks and Pizza Hut, to take social responsibility for the welfare of their workers, their families and the wider community,” Oosterman said.

“In 2004, 19% of families had incomes below the poverty line and 43% of dependent children in sole parent families were living below the poverty line. Over 22% of households reported that ‘food runs out because of lack of money’.

“As the biggest brands, these companies set the wage standards for the entire industry and are in a key position to play a major role in making poverty wages history in New Zealand.

“Accepting the SuperSizeMyPay.Com demands for a $12 minimum wage, abolition of youth rates and secure hours would be a step in the right direction,” Oosterman concluded."

In this context "community groups" are what used to be called "communist fronts". We don't have one Communist Party in NZ now, we have several, including the Socialist Party of Aotearoa, Communist Party of Aotearoa, Organisation for Marxist Unity, Socialist Worker, Communist League, International Socialists, Communist Workers Group, Revolutionary Workers League, Alliance Party and elements of the Greens and Labour.

You can bet, nearly every "community group" gathered on Wednesday will have members or supporters of one or more of the above groups in their leadership.

Note the message here. Firms owe their workers a liviveable wage. Not a market wage, not a fair wage, but a "liveable" wage. This is the central message of socialism. You're not responsible for your own life choices, someone else is. Capitalists owe the less able or productive a "liveable" wage, merely because they are successful.

These idiots would be a joke, but for the fact that they lead some poor fools astray and retard their job prospects, so we end up paying their "wage" instead.