Russel Reminder 1, Keith Locke and the DSP

Several Green Party figures have dealings, with the Austalian, Marxist-Leninist group, the Democratic Socialist Party (or "Perspective" as it is now known).

The Green Party's probable future co-leader, Russel Norman, was a member of the DSP, in Brisbane, at least until 1991. He contributed several articles to the DSP's newspaper, Green Left Weekly, from 1994 up till at least 1999, but claims not to be aware of his Green colleague's involvement with the DSP. To jog Russel's memory I'll revisit Keith Locke's and Jeanette Fitzsimon's DSP connection's.


The first documented connection between Green MP, Keith Locke and the DSP is this articles">article which appeared in Green Left Weekly in 1991.

However there is evidence that Locke's links with leaders of the DSP, or as it was formerly known, Socialist Workers Party go back to the '70s. When DSP leader Jim Percy, died of cancer in 1992, Locke, Matt Robson, Petronella Townsend, Paul Piesse and Lew Stribling, sent this message of condolence to Green Left Weekly No 80 (November 1992).

"We have known Jim since 1970. Since that time we have shared the same socialist vision and supported the same struggles against oppression. Through two decades we kept in contact with Jim and benefited from sharing political ideas and experiences...Jim was with us in our early political development as members of the Socialist Action League in NZ. He was also alongside us when we formed the New Labour Party. He contributed his political ideas and experience to the NLP in a comradely and supportive way. He saw the NLP as a progressive development which could revitalise socialism in NZ and have a positive effect in Australia...We cannot be with you at the funeral of our comrade. However it is a maori tradition to sing at a funeral. We therefore request that when the Internationale is sung that it be recognised that the voices of Jim's comrades in NZ have also been raised as a final tribute to a respected fighter of the people"

Interestingly, the SWP/DSP had links with two groups in NZ. Firstly they had fraternal links with their Trotskyite sister party in NZ, the Socialist Action League. Both parties were also fellow members of the Brussels based "Fourth International". After the mid '80s, the SWP left the Fourth International and the above comrades left the Socialist Action League.

In the late '80s, the SWP formed close ties to a formerly Maoist group in NZ called the Workers Communist League. Keith Locke was very close to the WCL and fronted their organisation, the Philippines Solidarity Network. In 1990, when Keith Locke stood for parliament for the NLP, WCL members (under their new name "Left Currents") campaigned for him. It was Keith Locke's ex SAL friends and the WCL that formed the leadership of the NLP when it was formed in 1989.

The entire WCL joined the NLP, but some later left to join the Greens. The most notable example being current Green MP, Sue Bradford.

I believe the NLP and its 1991 "merger" with the Greens, Democrats and Mana Motuhake to form the Alliance Party, was modeled on the Brazilian "Workers Party" (now in power) which was formed in 1980. The Workers Party was a coalition of Greens, socialists, black activists and leftist Christians built around a Trotskyite/Communist core. The DSP had until recent years, very close ties to the Workers Party, though things have cooled lately. They still adore Venezuela's Chavez government however, which has extremely close ties to "Lula's" Workers Party.

In the early '90s, Keith Locke was listed as a NZ correspondent for Green Left Weekly. In 1993 he was a guest speaker a DSP forum "Unity in Action" in Australia. He spoke on his experiences with the newly formed Alliance Party.

At Easter 1994 the DSP hosted a huge "Green Left" conference in Sydney to launch their new international journal "Links". Delegates attended from the Brazilian Workers Party, the Italian Party of Communist Refoundation, the US Committees of Correspondence (a breakaway from the Communist Party USA), several Filipino Marxist organisations, the Sri Lankan Trotskyite Nava Sama Samaj Party, the Indonesian Peoples Committee, the Fourth International and the British Marxist group Militant. Dr Nguyen Khac Kinh, deputy director of Vietnams National Environment Agency was present as was NZ Alliance Foreign Affairs spokesman Keith Locke.

Locke contributed an article to the second edition of "Links", again, on the development of the Alliance Party. The last sentence read "the growth of the Alliance might seem odd to socialists used to seeing parties formed by unions, or as ideological projects, but it is working".

The last documented Locke/DSP link I can find, was an article he wrote in Green Left Weekly in 1999, well after he had defected to the Green Party.

I find it extremely hard to believe that Russel Norman, would have no idea that Keith Locke, a close colleague, was writing for the same Marxist-Leninist paper the he was.

I also find it hard to believe, that Russel Norman would not be aware that Keith Locke, was a long time associate of the leader of a Marxist-Leninist party that Norman had himself once belonged to,

Does anyone else find this less than credible?

Perhaps Russel Norman could re-visit the issue for us?

Not So Happy Valley Campers-Green Party Links to the "Urewera 17"

No doubt members of the "Urewera 17" are extremely relieved not to be facing terrorism charges.

Not far behind in the relief stakes would come senior members of the Green Party.

If members of the "Urewera 17" were tried and convicted terrorism charges, I believe the fallout would destroy the Greens as a force in New Zealand politics.

The Green Party is linked with members of the "Urewera 17" in several ways, both direct and indirect.

Could this be why some Green Party MPs have played a leading role in the "free the terrorists" campaign?

One of the most obvious Green Party/"Urewera 17" links is the Save Happy Valley Campaign.

Since its formation in 2004, the SHVC has cost power company Solid Energy many millions of dollars of by disrupting their coal mining activities in the West Coast's Happy Valley.

From the Save Happy Valley website

The Save Happy Valley Coalition came together at a campout at Happy Valley in early April, 2004. A group of people from around the country travelled to Westport and made the three hour hike to Happy Valley to camp for a week in protest against the proposed mine.

Working alongside other organisations like Buller Conservation Group, Te Runanga o Ngati Waewae, Forest & Bird, Greenpeace and the Green Party the Save Happy Valley Coalition aims to build awareness about the proposed coal mine at Happy Valley and the environmental issues surrounding coal mining, and to actively oppose the mine and coal-fuelled energy generation.

Green Party members have supported SHVC from both inside and outside the organisation since day one.

Several Green Party members such as Alan Liefting, Tara Forde (a Young Greens leader), Mojo Mathers have been spokesmen for SHVC.

Frances Martin has been both a leading Canterbury University Green Party activist and Happy Valley occupation co-ordinator.

According to the SHVC website , on 14th March 2006 "Twenty-two members of the Green Party, of various ages, walked into Happy Valley for the weekend to show their support to members of the indefinite occupation.

Green Party members tramped into the valley with packs laden with fresh fruit, vegetables, first aid supplies, and tarpaulins for the current occupiers, and cooked them dinner to show their appreciation for the courageous effort being made to protect this pristine New Zealand eco-system. The Save Happy Valley Coalition is grateful for the support shown by members of the Green Party and is pleased to be able to share interest and concern, as well as a decent meal, with members of the party."

The Green group included Aoraki policy networker Felix Collins, Party Development co-ordinator (now co-leader) Russel Norman, Aoraki Executive Networker Natalie Cutler-Welsh and 2005 election candidates Mojo Mathers and Alan Liefting.


Top left Green Party member Rik Tindall (now a Canterbury Regional Councillor) top centre Green Party co-leader Russel Norman, middle row right, wearing Green Part T shirt, leading Canterbury Green Christine Dann, middle row, second from rigt Allan Liefting.

Russel Norman led the charge earlier this year when it was dicovered that a private security firm had infiltrated a spy into thex SHVC.

Several Green MPs have spoken at SHVC functions, including party co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons and Nandor Tanczos.

According to Green Achievements in Parliament 2007 Both Metiria (Turei)and Russel (Norman)tramp to the Happy Valley protest site in early 2007 as part of the Greens’ ongoing support of the Save Happy Valley campaign.

While the Green Party provides support to SHVC, the backbone of the organisation is anarchist.

SHVC's Wellington HQ is the infamous 128 Abel Smith Street, also home of the Wildcat Anarchist Collective, the Zapatista Support Group, the film project Kotahi te Ao and the anarchist website, Indymedia.

At least five members of the "Urewera 17" have links with both 128 Abel Smith Street and the Save Happy Valley Campaign.

Every one of them faces firearms charges.

All five of them, except Tim/Ira Bailey would have faced trial for terrorism offences had not the Solicitor General refused the police permission to lay charges.

The five include include Emily Bailey and her younger brother Tim/Ira Bailey, who was SHVC's campaign's spokesman for much of 2006.


Photo removed for legal reasons.


"Urewera 17ers" Tim Bailey left, Emily Bailey, centre at Happy Valley camp February 2006

The others include two of the three members of the Indymedia editorial collective, Omar Hamed "Smush", a 23 year old Swiss national who cannot yet be named for legal reasons.

The third member of the Indymedia editorial collective, well known anarchist Asher Goldman is also a leading SHVC activist and "Urewera 17" support campaigner.

I have good grounds to believe that the Bailey siblings and "Smush" were involved in training SHVC activists at a secret training camp in the upper South Island, late in 2006.

Certainly the police are aware of connections between SHVC and the "Urewera 17". When the "anti terror" raids occurred on October 15th, police also tried to search two Christchurch houses including one occupied by SHVC spokeswoman Frances Mountier, but were denied entry because they had no warrant.

The police claimed they were looking for a "person of interest."

On February 14th 2006 SHVC was welcomed to Parliament by Green Party Conservation Spokesperson Metiria Turei, Nandor Tanczos and co-leader Jeannette Fitzsimons

The Save Happy Valley Coalition was at Parliament, complete with Great Spotted Kiwi, to talk with MPs about the destruction of the kiwi habitat in Happy Valley. State-owned Solid Energy plans to create a vast open cast coal mine in Waimangaroa Valley, one of the few stable habitats of the endangered Great Spotted Kiwi.

Photo removed by request of Valerie Morse's lawyer.

Note the blonde woman on the left, holding the banner Fitzsimons, Tanczos and turia?. Could it be "Uruwera 17" member, Valerie Morse?

Here, take a closer look.


Photo removed by request of Valerie Morse's lawyer.

Looks like Val Morse to me.

So at least five possible "terrorists" have been working within a Green Party supported organisation in very recent times.

If they were convicted and the Green connections came out in court, what would that do to the Green Party's "caring and sharing" image?

What would it do to Labour's chances of re-election in 2008 if their largest potential coalition partner was exposed as supporting a "terrorist" infiltrated organisation?

Who thinks that the Green Party/"Urewera 17" links merit a little MSM attention?

Fisking Russel Norman

After confirming that he was once a member of an Australian Marxist-Leninist organisation, the Democratic Socialist Party, I sent Green Party official, Russel Norman some further questions. Below are the questions, Russel Norman's replies and my comments.

Trev. “Can you please confirm if you held any official positions in the
SWP/DSP, or any of its auxiliary organisations ie Resistance,
Environmental Youth Alliance, CISLAC etc?”

I held a few voluntary positions. Never made the chief kahuna I’m afraid.

New Zeal. Too vague Russel. Were you involved in the EYA? Did you hold any chairmanships or other senior position in the SWP/Resistance/DSP etc at local, state or national level?

Trev “Did you ever travel to any socialist bloc countries, including Cuba or
Nicaragua during your time with the SWP/DSP?”

No, never have. Is it ok with you if I travel to Nicaragua now that the Sandinistas lost the democratic elections that they organised?

New Zeal Thanks for that.

Trev: “Did you ever belong to any other political party ie Australian Greens, Labor Party, Nuclear Disarmament Party, while you were affiliated to the SWP/DSP?”

Nope.

New Zeal Your problem here is Russel, that you belonged to a party that was well known for its infiltration of other political parties. You were too young to be involved in the SWP's en masse infiltration of the Nuclear Disarmament Party, but were any of your comrades involved in the ALP while you were in the SWP/DSP? Unfortunately for you, anyone who belongs to a Marxist-Leninist party, that practices infiltration (entryism) then moves into another leftist party, while still writing for the Marxist-Leninist press, must expect to live under a cloud of suspicion.

Trev - “In which year did you formally resign your membership of the DSP?”

Slightly vague on that one I’m afraid - very early nineties - maybe ‘91?

New Zeal Not crediblble Russel. I would have thought that joining a Marxist-Leninist party is a big deal for a young socialist. I suspect leaving it would also be a significant event. To me, this is like saying that Jonah Lomu doesn't remember which year he last played for the Allblacks. I bet he remembers the day, the hour and the weather at the ground. Care to be more specific Russel?

Trev - “Were you, before 2005, aware of Keith Locke’s and Jeanette Fitzsimon’s involvement with the DSP?”

I’m still not aware of it. Speaking to a conference of the Green left magazine (which is what i think Jeanette is being accused of) is hardly invovlement. Sorry I don’t read your blog otherwise I may be more aware of the ins and outs of it. I guess you mean Keith’s connections witht he left in the 1970s…

New Zeal This your weakest reply so far. You were writing for Green Left Weekly from at the latest 1994, till 1999. Keith Locke's ongoing links to the DSP were well covered during that period. Janette Fitzsimons attended a conference,in 1994, where the vast majority of the 800 attendees were Marxist-Leninists. She spoke on the same platform with open M-Ls. She endorsed GreenLeft Weekly as a valuable to tool for promoting socialism. You were not aware of any of this Russel? Care to do a take two on that one?

Trev- “If you had sincerely renounced Marxism-Leninism, why were you still contributing to a Marxist-Leninist newspaper (GreenLeft Weekly) as late
as 1999?”

GreenLeft has a range of writers. John Pilger is no Marxist Leninist. And nor am I. I would happily contribute an article to the Nat Business Review but that doesn’t mean I subscribe to their politics does it?

New Zeal Again highly unsatisfactory. John Pilger is, in my opinion, what they used to call, a "fellow traveller". His writing for Green Left and your opinion of him, heightens my concerns, rather than alleviates them. Not a Marxist-Leninist Russel? How far left are you? Are the reports of your friendship with Barry Gribben and Laila Harre true?

Trev - “In what year and in what circumstances, did you last have any formal or informal contact with the DSP, its auxiliary organisations or senior personnel? ”

You know you really should get out more. There is no global communist conspiracy. I haven’t had contact with them since I left - except I guess when I emailed the articles to GreenLeft in 1996 and 1999. Nothing personal. There were some really nice people there but I’ve been doing other things.

New Zeal I have to take your word for this. However, the fact that you considered it OK to write for a Marxist-Leninist paper, while active in the NZ Green Party, tells me something about your philosophical outlook and your judgement.

I look forward to you clarifying the outstanding points.

Trevor Loudon Replies to Russel Norman

While Russel Norman has yet to satisfactorily reply to my questions to him, there has been interest expressed on this and other Blogs, in my answers to questions posed by Russel to me.

To remove any impediment to Russel clarifying the answers to my questions, I will now answer his questions to me.

I hope you can all follow that.

Russel; Have you ever been a member of, or associated with, ZAP - Zenith Applied Philosophy? What was your involvement?

Trevor; My involvement as a student of Christchurch based self improvement organisation, Zenith Applied Philosophy has always been public knowledge and has been published in an interview I did in 1986, with the old Star Sports. I have studied at Z.A.P. from 1976 to 1982, 1986/7 and 1999 to current. I am enjoying my studies immensely at the moment and plan to continue indefinitely.

Russel; Were you aware of the association between ZAP and the fascist Nationalist Workers Party?

Trevor; No Russel and neither are you. There never have been any such links. I am willing to bet my membership and position in ACT against your membership and position in the Green Party, that you have no credible proof of such allegations. I suggest that if you have no proof, you withdraw your question on this subject from your Frogblog post now and post a statement confirming that you were merely "flying a kite" or were misinformed.

Russel; When did you last have contact with the people associated with ZAP?

Trevor: About 20 minutes ago. Contact is regular, ongoing and enjoyable and involves a wide range of activity.

Russel; Do you think that fascism had something positive to offer the world?

Trevor No Russel I do not. My political path began as an 18 year old in January 1976, when I purchased, for $1.40, a copy of Ayn Rand's "For the New Intellectual" from Summer's second hand book shop in Tuam Street, Christchurch. I have never wavered from my belief in small government and free people since. In earlier times I was more conservative (I long believed the state should suppress the drug trade for instance), but now I count myself as a libertarian.

Fascism is the system whereby the state allows nominal ownership of private property, but can dictate how that property may be used. The Resource Mangement Act is a good example of fascist legislation. Fascism is often also characterised by a strong relationship between the state and big business,(Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, present day China) which is maybe why some people confuse fascism with capitalism, when it is actually a form of socialism. I am a laissez faire capitalist. I am an advocate of the separation of business and state and always have been.

Russel: Do you believe that the holocaust happened?

Yes.

Russel; Is your blog New Zeal, named after the magazine of the same name published in the late 1980s by the Campaign for a Soviet Free New Zealand? What was your invovlement in the New Zeal magazine?

Trevor; Yes it is. I wrote it.

Russel; Did you agree with the New Zeal editorial of April 1989 connecting Ron Trotter, the Todds and the Business Roundtable with pro-Soviet and pro-Stalinist activities such as leading business delegations to the USSR, and having other business connections such as selling "Stalinist" oil? Do you still think that the Business Roundtable is a communist front group?

Trevor; I re read this issue with some embarrassment. On one side, I viewed anyone who encouraged NZ/Soviet trade as morally reprehensible and at best irresponsible from a strategic point of view. I hold similar views about those who advocate trade with China today and believe we should cut trade ties to that country until it becomes a civilised nation. I believed then and I believe now, that certain members of the BRT deserved strong condemnation for participating in NZ/Soviet trade.

On the BRT article. That was a clearly stated as a reprint from an American newsletter. However I did endorse it and am ashamed of doing so. Roger Kerr wrote a very balanced reply to the article and I wrote a snarky rejoinder. I have met Roger at two ACT conferences since then and have always cringed in fear that he might make the connection. Now that you've "outed" me, I'll apologise next time I see him. Thanks, you've done me a favour there.

Russel; Did you agree with the July 1989 edition of New Zeal when it accused the Young Nats of being "Marxianised", because they were addressed by a member of the NZ Planning Council?

Trevor; Sorry,I can't find that particular issue. The NZ Planning Council was infiltrated to some degree by socialists, including at one point by a covert member of the pro Soviet, Socialist Unity Party. What I may have been getting at, is that the very idea of a Planning Council is socialist, or "Marxist" in itself. The whole idea of state economic planning is an anathema to me, as it would have been to the original founders of the National Party. So I guess i was annoyed that the Young Nats would have anything to do with such a nonsensical organisation.

Russel; Do you still believe that being a member of the NZ Planning Council makes one a Marxist, and if so does that mean that Don Brash is a closet marxist because he was a member of the Planning Council?

Trevor; To extrapolate my disdain for the organisation and my awareness that there were Marxists on the staff, to the allegation that I believed "that being a member of the NZ Planning Council makes one a Marxist" is faulty logic.

Russel; If Ron Trotter, Don Brash, the Todds and the Business Roundtable are all part of the communist conspiracy, then what the hell planet are you on?

Trevor; If reading the material I have to hand, leads you to believe I held such views, I suggest you would have been better to have studied logic at university rather than politics.

I hope you find my answers satisfactory Russel. I await your clarification of my earlier questions. I'm particularly interested in your awareness of Jeanette Fitzsimons and Keith Locke's connections to your former Marxist-Leninist colleagues in the Democratic Socialist Party.

To refresh your memory, I will devote the next few posts to examining those links. Some will be a rehash of previous material, but I will try to present some new details. I will also have some questions for your colleagues which I hope you will be good enough to pass on.

Thanking you in anticipation

Trevor Loudon

Nandor Tanczos To Step Down?

Speculation that Green Party MP Nandor Tanczos may leave Parliament before the election, to make way for Russel Norman is spreading.

From the Dominion Post

Green MP Nandor Tanczos is considering quitting politics before the election, with speculation mounting that co-leader Russel Norman could be shoehorned into Parliament in his place.

Mr Norman confirmed that Mr Tanczos had approached the party leaders and caucus about the possibility of leaving but had made no firm decision yet.

"For me the key thing is that it's got to be Nandor's choice."

Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said they would not even begin discussing the matter till Mr Tanczos had made his mind up. He could not be reached yesterday.

Mr Tanczos was pipped by Mr Norman for the party co-leadership after former co-leader Rod Donald's death in 2005, despite Mr Norman being a party member outside Parliament.

If Mr Tanczos does quit, the next person on the party list would normally take his place. Though there are two before Mr Norman - former MP Mike Ward and Catherine Delahunty - neither co-leader would deny suggestions the two would step aside to allow Mr Norman to enter Parliament, and boost the party's profile, in the runup to the election. Mr Ward and Ms Delahunty could not be reached.

Hat tip KiwiBlog

Maia on Russel and I

Maia over at Capitalism Bad-Tree Pretty has gone a bit dark on me. However she's completely spewing about Green Party poster boy, Russel Norman.

She doesn't like what I do, but reads me anyway, then she criticises Russel for "engaging" with me. That doesn't mean Russel and I have hopes of a "civil union", it means that Maia thinks Russel shouldn't stoop to entering into dialogue with the likes of me.

Maia on me

Who is Tervor Loundon? He runs the most amusing New Zealand blog, possibly the most amusing political blog ever, called New Zeal. Basically he's a cross between McCarthy and a stalker.

Maia on Russel

I'm also disgusted with the Greens Russell Norman for engaging with him. He red-baited Russell Norman, and Russell Norman said "yes I have been a communist, but I left them because Marxism is bad." This showed a remarkable lack of solidarity, and a strong degree of stupidity. Of course Trevor Loundon isn't satisfied, and is still going on about it.

At least she's even handed. What you doing this Friday night, Russel?

Is Russel Norman Being Hypocritical Over "Infiltration" Allegations?

I heard Green Party co-leader, Russel Norman on Radio NZ this morning, angrily denouncing Solid Energy for infiltrating a spy into the Save Happy Valley environmental protest group.

Russel called for the sacking of Solid Energy's management and repeated this call on a post on the Green Party's FrogBlog.


I find this a little bit rich, coming from Russel. From the mid '80s to the the early '90s, Russel was a committed member of Australia's largest Marxist-Leninist organisation, the Democratic Socialist Party.

The DSP and its former incarnation, the Socialist Workers Party are notorious in Australia for their relentless infiltration and manipulation of other organisations.

I quote from A History of the DSP by Alvaro Recoba

Practicing the Trotskyist method of fusion or infiltration, the DSP has constantly moved its cadre force into and out of issues and movements as it judges the worth of that particular issue or movement to the benefit of the DSP.

There are numerous examples, one being their attempts to take over the Nuclear Disarmament Party of Australia (NDP), which whilst being unsuccessful, lead to the complete loss of confidence in the NDP by the Australian people and its quick demise as a force for change. More recently they attempted to infiltrate the Greens Party, but again were unsuccessful and in response the Greens movement adopted a resolution banning members of the DSP from membership of the Greens.

DSP National Executive member, Lisa McDonald outlined DSP influence in the Australian Greens in this address to the January 1996 Socialist Activists and Educational Conference in Sydney.

The DSP threw its resources and energies into building the local Green parties, played a key role in the formation of the Victorian Green Alliance, the South Australian Green Alliance, the Queensland Green Alliance, the ACT Green Democratic Alliance, the NSW Green Alliance and around half a dozen local Green parties in NSW, including in the working-class areas of western Sydney where the Greens' base was weakest. All of these groups, registered as separate parties with the federal and/or state electoral commissions (some in the name of DSP members), and operating with total autonomy in policy and campaigns, were united simply by an explicit commitment to the four principles of the German Greens.

Steve Painter was a DSP activist from the mid '80s until his resignation in 1989. He then moved into NSW green politics and was in a unique position to observe the DSP infiltration of and eventual expulsion from the Australian Greens in 1989/91.

I quote him from the Marxism Mailing List Archive

"As the Greens organisation developed into more of a party and less of an alliance or coalition, the continued presence of the DSP became more problematic. Could a DSP member genuinely serve as an office-bearer or candidate for The Greens? Of those remaining actively involved, more began to think not. At this time, the DSP changed the name of its weekly newspaper from "Direct Action" to "Green Left" and let it be known that they were prepared to "dissolve" their organisation and work through the Greens as their primary political vehicle.

"It is not clear to me how bona fide the intention to dissolve was. Jim Percy (DSP leader, New Zeal) had a concept of joining 'the swamp' and then, over time, 'draining the swamp'. It seemed quite reckless to gamble with the name of their newspaper in the way they did. To gamble with the organisation seemed hard to believe. There would have been some society or other organisational structure remaining that would influence ex-DSP members' activities, I am sure.

"With pressure to exclude the DSP coming from some key figures, mostly from other states, a delegated national meeting was held at the Sydney Earth Exchange in mid-1991 to discuss a possible national organisation. Agreement with proscription of other political parties was a prerequisite for attendance, although some DSP turned up anyway. Whilst being an excruciating meeting, held in a hot, noisy room, the main outcome was that further national meetings would require participating organisations to implement proscription.

"Shortly afterwards was the infamous NSW Greens 'stack, where 12 DSP members turned up at a regular administrative meeting (when one or two, at best, might usually attend) and proceeded to decide organisational changes to their benefit, including shoring up their access to The Greens registration.

'Ownership of the NSW Greens turned on the colour of the Registered Officer, the person recognised by the Electoral Act as the party representative able to endorse candidates. Previously, an election for RO had been tied, so it was held jointly between Murray Addison and Paul Fitzgerald. Addison, I believe, was a secret member of the DSP at this point. When the stack was played out and Addison revealed his allegiance, the non-DSP wrote to the Electoral Commission requesting that Addison be removed as RO since he served another party which was acting destructively. After a week or two of uncertainty, Addison was removed.

Murray Addison was Secretary of the NSW Greens in 1991. In 2000 he attended the DSPs Marxism 2000 conference in Australia. In 2001 he was Treasurer for the Mt Albert branch (Auckland) of the Alliance Party. The NZ Alliance Party, was from its formation in 1991/2 to its near destruction a decade later, a sister party of the DSP.

Interestingly, Russel Norman left the DSP in the early '90s (though continuing to write for its paper Green Left Weekly until the late'90s). In the mid '90s he travelled to NZ specifically to study the Alliance Party for his Phd. His interest was more than academic. He became active in the Alliance and at one point edited its Auckland newsletter, until leaving with the Greens when they went out on their own in 1997.

Of course their is no evidence that Russel has done any infiltrating himself. However for several years he was active in an organisation that practised manipulation of other organisations as a matter of course.

Maybe its a case of "let he who is without sin cast the first stone"?

I'm sure Russel wouldn't want to be labelled a hypocrite.

Green Party Insider on Extreme Left Take-over

Phil U at Whoar is a Green Party member. He has just posted a lengthy analysis of the dangers of a complete leftist takeover of the Green Party should Russel Norman beat Nandor Tanczos for the male co-leadership in June. Phil U writes for fellow Greens, imploring them not to let their party fall into the hands of the hard left.


Hat Tip David Farrar

Below are some pertinent excerpts. My emphasis added in bold. The format is as written on Whoar.

"casual observors of the green party male co-leadership struggle could well be asking themselves just who is this russell norman..?…he who has appeared as a contendor for this crucial role…and what does it all mean…?

the first question dosen’t really matter….it’s the second that is the rub in this story…

a victory for norman..(which is looking likely/possible)…will mean the left wing of the party will have achieved one of their major goals….control of the green party..(just the mopping-up will need to be done..)

and here’s who..?..why..?…and how…?

some history first…
the greens were once part of the alliance party…which made sense in first past the post days…
the advent of m.m.p. saw the move from within the party to hive off from the alliance..a move that was opposed by some of the greens..those who preferred to stay under the left-wing umbrella of anderton/alliance..

interestingly enough..current contendor russell norman was one of those who opposed that breakaway from the alliance by the greens….
and nandor was one of those who headed that drive to split…nandor ably articulating/arguing the case for an independant green party…one not tainted by the stains of the old ideologies..a party that could independantly argue the conservation case…and could appeal to those of all ideological stripes…

so that is a question i would like to hear russell norman answer…
“just why was it you opposed the greens leaving the alliance..?…and how can this fact not effect/worry those who are concerned about the greens being in that ideological straightjacket…in that ongoing self-constraining role of labours’ handmaiden…?..”
(these concerns can only be heightened by the awareness norman is a former member of the communist party..?…and has as his mentor within the party one keith locke..’nuff said..?.)

another interesting fact about norman is that high on his c.v. is his role in the big anti-ge march up queen st some years ago..
now the rub with this one is that norman..along with locke..and party leftie catherine delahunty(number nine on the green party list..one ahead of norman..)..all argued vehemently against the idea of a march….they lost that one..and then argued vehemently against the ultimate timing of that march..noon on saturday…they wanted it to be at the usual time the left held marches….5.15pm on a friday night…

how do i know all this..?…i know because i was the one who presented/called for the idea of “hitting the streets”…and argued vehemently against the 5.30 fri nite timing..pointing out that all that would guarantee was a low turnout..and a whole lot of pissed off/at the end of their week/workers…
an overwhelming voice vote on both issues won the day…(so..expedient political opportunism at the fore..that left triumvirate then took over the organising…with norman as titular head…go figure..eh..?)

so..another question for russell norman….”could you tell us why you voted/argued against the idea of the march..and the timing of said march…and could you tell us how now in good conciencse you can claim kudos for an idea that was not yours…?..”

now the green party is..like the labour party..a broad church…there are the deep green vegan/veggies/animal rights crew…there is the old-school values party people…there are those who only came on board over the g.e. issue..there are the cannabis reform people..and there is the left…

the other components of the arguments/concerns against/around norman/the left winning this male leadership are around the female co-leadership succession question…
jeanette fitzsimons is the public face of the greens….but she will not be there forever…(i would suspect that shortly after the next election she will retire..and many thanks to her in advance of that decision..her role for the greens has been crucial..her and rod de-demonised the party in the eyes of many…)

and the current front-runner for that role is…sue bradford….(which camp within the greens do you think she comes from..eh..?…)

so..do you get my point….?….a norman/bradford leadership cabal would irrevocably lock the green party into that far-left role…and would..in my opinion..doom the greens to irrelevancy..and electoral oblivion….this reason..and this reason alone should be enough impetus for the green party membership not of the leftwing camp to block normans’ run for that position…eh..?

i’d like to finsh with what i think is a telling anecdote…i was present when sue bradford and catherine delahunty made their first appearance at a green party meeting….
this after both being hounded out of the alliance part of the alliance by jim anderton…it is at his feet they learnt their organisational ‘chops’..(and it shows..)..

the left are very ‘top-down’..bordering on control freaks..eh..?

the green party at that time was a very low-key affair..meetings held in the low-roofed attic of a bookshop on k’ road…
at this meeting bradford said to me out of the corner of her mouth…(i had known her for some years)..that “this party is ripe for taking over..”..and she wasn’t wrong…

later in that same evening i approached the then leader of the auckland greens..(a lovely lady but lacking that political killer-will..)..and told her that “that woman over there is going to take your job”…
this duely came to pass..

and i would submit that the candidature of russell norman for the role of green party male co-leader is yet another manifestation of that attempt for the mortgage..(the death-grip)..on the green party of aotearoa…

and if this should come to pass….?..it will sound the death-knell for the party..how could it not..?

they must also make the call if they want the party to be irrevocably yoked to/controlled by the left wing of that multi-ideological soup that is the green party…

and do they want to be responsible for the electoral oblivion a norman/bradford co-leadership would bring….?…

but…if the worst comes to the worst…and the greens do crash and burn under that leftwing cabal..from those ashes will rise a new green party…shed of that authoritarian leftwing malaise…

so….think on green party members/delegates to the agm on queens birthday weekend..

in your hands rests nothing less than the future life or death of the green party…

Reds Taking Over Green Party?

In choosing Russel Norman as their new male co-leader, over Nandor Tanczos, the Green Party has sent a clear signal that socialism, not environmentalism is top of their agenda.

The Green Party is now dominated by socialists, several of whom have links with Australia's largest Marxist-Leninist group, the Democratic Socialist Party (now Democratic Socialist Perspective) or local Marxist groups such as the DSP's former New Zealand "sister" parties, the Workers Communist League and the Socialist Action League.

The DSP in turn has links with many of the world's most radical communist parties from Cuba and south Africa to Vietnam and Europe.

For information on Green Party female co-leader Jeanette Fitsimon's contact with the DSP and support for socialism, go here.

For background on new Green Party male co-leader, Russel Norman's former membership of the DSP, go here and here.

Russel Norman is the protoge of senior Green MP, Keith Locke. For information on Locke's Marxist-Leninist activities and his very close ties to the Australian Democratic Socialist Party, go here, here, here and here.

Sue Bradford is tipped to co-lead the Green Party when Jeanette Fitzsimons retires. Bradford was a long time member of the Workers Communist League, which in the late '80s worked very closely with the DSP.

For information on Sue Bradford's Marxist-Leninist background, go here, here, here, here and here.

Sue Bradford also helps run a school near her home in Warkworth, called the Kotare Research and Education Trust. Kotare is a partially tax payer funded school for radical activists, which bases its teachings on those of Brazilian Marxist "educationalist, Paolo Friere. Some students are as young as fourteen.

Catherine Delahunty, a senior Green Party member, runs teaching at the school, while several other prominent Greens are on the board of trustees.

Not all Greens are happy with the socialist takeover of their party. For an analysis of this takeover go to this article by a long time Green Party activist.

Are the Greens becoming a "Watermelon Party"-green on the outside, red in the middle?

Russel Reminder 2, Jeanette Fitzsimons

Russel Norman, probable future Green party co-leader was once a member of Australian Marxist-Leninist organisation, the Democratic Socialist Party. When I pointed out that other senior Greens had past links with the DSP, Norman claimed not to be aware of it.



His own Party leader Jeanette Fizsimons attended a DSP organised "Green Left" conference in Sydney at Easter 1994. To Russel, this was unimportant "Speaking to a conference of the Green left magazine (which is what i think Jeanette is being accused of) is hardly invovlement."

Malik Miah, an American Trotskyite who's political career spans the US Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Action, Committees of Correspondence, Solidarity and the US Green Party, filed a report on the International Green Left Conference.



The International Green Left Conference, held in Sydney, Australia, March 31-April 4, brought together a wide range of activists and concerned individuals to discuss and debate the ecological and social problems currently facing the world. The highly successful conference grew out of an initiative of the Democratic Socialist Party of Australia, the main left formation in that country. Carl Bloice, national co-chair of the Committees of Correspondence, Mike Wyman, editor of CrossRoads' recent El Salvador ­Presente! issue, Peter Camejo, a member of Committees of Correspondence national executive and the board of the Environmental Federation of America, and I were among over 800 participants from all over Australia and around the world.

International guests spoke of political developments in their countries and how they are organizing in new parties and formations. Jeanette Fitzsimons, Green Party member and deputy co-leader of the New Zealand Alliance, described the Alliance's improved electoral chances under the new, more democratic, proportional representation system in that country.

Ideas for dealing with the international environmental crisis were put forward by a diverse range of speakers. A lively discussion occurred on the different paths towards sustainable development and environmental justice. The panel, "How can we build a sustainable society," was one of the best attended and included Peter Camejo, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Graham Mathews from the Australian Democratic Socialist Party, and Dr. Nguyen Khac Kinh, deputy director of Vietnam's National Environment Agency. The broad and open views discussed highlighted the importance of linking green and socialist perspectives in reaching common strategies and goals.

Fitzsimons also spoke at a forum on Women in Politics. Three other women shared her panel, Dulce Maria Pereira (Brazilian Workers Party) Christabelle Chamarette, (Greens Senator, Western Australia) and Lucianna Castellina (Euro MP and directorate member, Party of Communist Refoundation, Italy.

Fitzsimons was under no illusions as to the nature of the conference, or the politics of her hosts. She told the DSP's Green Left Weekly No 147 of June 1994,"if socialism is to survive as a relevant political movement in the 21st century, it must develop a response to the ecological crisis and a socialist strategy to build a sustainable future. Green Left Weekly provides the tools of information and analysis to make that possible."

Clearly Fitzsimons was friendly to the idea of "the importance of linking green and socialist perspectives in reaching common strategies and goals."

Clearly Fitzsimons was aware that the conference was organised by Marxist-Leninists and that virtually all of her fellow attendees were of similar outlook.

So the leader of NZ's Green Party speaks very differently among her comrades than she does when dealing with NZ voters.

Yet to Russel Norman this is little cause for concern. Why is that Russel? Do you think voters have the right to know how their political leaders behave when out of the public eye?

Asher, Asher, Asher, Asher, Asher....

Asher Goldman over at Anarchia has been pretty excited lately. He thinks he has dug up conclusive proof that an organisation I am involved with, Zenith Applied Philosophy, was once linked to a fascist group, the "Nationalist Worker's Party".

The reason Asher is so thrilled is that when these allegations were raised before, by Russel Norman of the Green Party, I bet him my position in the ACT Party against his position in the Green Party that he could not provide credible proof of his claims. Russel Norman was responding to questions I asked of him after he had confirmed his former membership of an Australian Marxist-Leninist group, the Democratic Socialist Party.

Russel; Were you aware of the association between ZAP and the fascist Nationalist Workers Party?

Trevor; No Russel and neither are you. There never have been any such links. I am willing to bet my membership and position in ACT against your membership and position in the Green Party, that you have no credible proof of such allegations.

Russel did not take up my challenge, but Asher thinks he has come up with the goods.

Asher's evidence consists of an article published in the NZ Herald of 20.6.83

NAZIS, ZAP AND TRIM OUT

One of New Zealand's small but active ultra-conservative groups has expelled "nazi elements" and other extreme right-wingers in an attempt to improve it's image.

The group, New Force, has also expelled sympathisers of two Christchurch-based organisations, Zenith Applied Philosophy and Trim, the Tax Reduction Integrity Movement.

The national director of New Force, Mr B.W. Zandbergen, said last night that youths from the New Zealand Nazi Party had attached themselves to New Force, giving his organisation a bad name.

As well, sympathisers of Zap and Trim had threatened to defect to the proposed new party of Wellington businessman Mr Robert Jones, unless New Force swung behind their free-market, laissez faire philosophies.

"These people (Zap, Trim and the Nazi youths) have got the wrong idea of what New Force was about." Mr Zandbergen said in Wellington.

"It was useless to argue with them, so we have cut our ties.".....

Mr Zandbergen stood for Parliament for New Force in Western Hutt in 1981, on a platform which included repatriation of Pacific Islanders. He got 30 votes.

Asher So, Trev, there's the link proven. You are part of a cult that was too nutty for even Kerry Bolton, New Zealand's longest running Nazi nutter!

I eagerly await news of your resignation.

TrevorNow as Asher has the balls to post under his own name, I will do him the courtesy of replying to these allegations.

Here goes. There are several possibilities here.

One is that the claim of ties and expulsion is a total fabrication on the part of the author/authors, or Mr Zandbergen. I have experienced this before. On David Farrar's blog I was accused of campaigning against the Homosexual Law reform Bill in the '80s and once being involved in an assault on a Lada car owner. Both were 100% untrue. I have also been described in a 1990? newspaper article as a "National Party boss" despite never having been a member of that party.

Two is that TRIM sent out pledge cards to every single one of the several hundred candidates in the 1981 election-National,Labour, Socred, SUP, Independent, Mana Motuhake etc including I am surmising, Mr Zandbergen. Now possibly some correspondence was entered into by someone from TRIM, to Mr Zandbergen. I have no knowledge of this, but perhaps it happened.

If this did happen it would have been purely TRIM business and Mr Zandbergen would have been treated the same as any other candidate. Perhaps in Mr Zandbergen's own mind, he construed this as support for his ideas. Who knows? Perhaps when it became clear that no-one from TRIM had any time for racism or fascism, he cut ties-that is, in his own mind he "expelled" the dirty free marketeers? Note it is the author/authors of the article who use the term "expelled" (implying membership) while Mr Zandbergen merely says he "cut ties".

What I can state with 100% certainty is that no responsible supporter of either TRIM or ZAP was ever a "member" or was ever "expelled" from New Force or the NWP.

Third option is that TRIM had a large mailing list. It is possible that some individual or small group on that mailing list were supporters of New Force. Perhaps they fell out with Mr Zandbergen, when Bob Jones' NZ Party started up? Perhaps he "expelled" them. Again who knows?

Fourthly, perhaps one or two of the hundreds, if not thousands of people who have ever had contact with ZAP over the years, later went on to have some contact with Zandbergen? Perhaps they fell out of favour? That is not a "link", that's just proof that NZ is a small country.

You describe Kerry Bolton as "New Zealand's longest running Nazi nutter".
Presumably you have a similar opinion of his comrade Mr Zandbergen.

These guys are or were nutters. Yet you base your slander of me and my friends on the word of one of them? Do you think for one minute this would stand up in a defamation court? Do you think that because something has been in the paper it must be true?

I have dished it out to lots of socialists and will continue to do so. I believe that anyone active in politics is open to scrutiny, including me. I can also tell you I would be crazy to risk my credibilty on the type flimsy "evidencez" you have presented.

The bottom line is that every group has committed members/students or supporters who define the character of that group. You can only judge a group to any fair degree at all by that core of supporters. You can judge the Catholic Church to some small degree by the actions of the Pope or its senior clergy of laymen, but not at all by the criminal activities of some thug who spent two years at a Catholic Primary School.

I have known all the most active ZAP students over a thirty year period and I can state with no fear of contradiction that not one has ever been a fascist, had any sympathy for Kerry Bolton or Mr Zanbergen, or has ever been a member of, or been "expelled" from any of their organisations.

That's it Asher. Can I possibly make it any clearer?

I've given you a fair run Asher. You've tried to slander me on your Blog and trolled on mine. I have let you say your piece. I've given you the best reply I can, though more for the benefit of my supporters than youself.

So here's what I expect of you Asher. You've shown enough guts to post under your own name, now show that you're man enough to admit you've been wrong and at best, highly irresponsible. Remove the offending post from your Blog (and anywhere else it may be)and post a retraction and an apology.

Do that and show the blogosphere that you are at least man of honour. Don't do it and be judged by all and sundry for what you are.

Green Party File 9 Anarchist Metiria Turei Wins Green's Co-Leadership

Green party file 8 here


Metiria Turei has defeated Sue Bradford for the female co-leadership of the Green Party.

The result was widely predicted as many Greens saw Bradford as tainted by her anti-smacking bill and as too far left.

Bradford is a former meber of the Worker's Communist League and continues to run a marxist training school, the Kotare Research & Education Trust from her property near Wellsford.

The Green's male co-leader Russel Norman is also far to the left-a former member of the marxist-leninist Australian Democratic Socialist Party, so most Greens were probably unwilling to push public acceptability too far.

However, while Metiria Turei's image is not as tarnished as Sue Bradford's, she is still a serious radical in her own right.

While Bradford and Norman represent the Green's dominant socialist wing, Turei comes from the party's militant anarchist wing.

Metiria Turei came to activism in the early 1990s, a time of comparatively high unemployment and slow economic growth. After dropping out of Teachers Training College, Turei became active with the Palmerston North Unemployed Rights Centre-part of a nationwide network of similar organizations Te Roopu Rawakore o Aotearoa.

Virtually all of Te Roopu’s constituent organizations were founded by members of either the pro-Chinese Workers Communist League, the pro-Soviet Socialist Unity Party or the pro-Albanian Communist Party of New Zealand.

By the early 1990s, most of these organizations were on the decline and radical anarchists became more prominent. Nandor Tanczos was involved in Hamilton’s Te Roopu affiliated Beneficiaries Unemployed movement (BUM), while Christchurch anarchist Gaye Dyson headed the national organization in 1994. Dyson later when on to join the Green Party and served as Metiria Turei’s Parliamentary executive assistant, almost up to her death in 2004.

In May 1990 Turei led Unemployed Workers' Centre protests outside local Labour and National Party rooms in Palmerston North over benefit cuts by placing piles of bones on office doorsteps. Other protests involved regularly including occupying Business Roundtable offices in Wellington and in Auckland, camping in merchant banker Michael Fay’s yard and swimming in his pool. In 1992 Meteria Turei became National Co-ordinator of Te Roopu Rawakore.

The anarchism of the time is little understood. Most think of it as a punk movement involving little more than Mohawk haircuts, safety pins and spray painted anarchy symbols.

In reality it was a radical leftist political movement, akin to communism, but contemptuous of socialist bureaucracy and hierarchy. Anarchists considered themselves “real” revolutionaries.

Nandor Tanczos described what anarchism meant to him in a 17th July 1989 article in Waikato University student newspaper Nexus entitled "Anarchism and the Real World"

The anarchism I agree with most is anarcho-syndicalism ("syndicalism" meaning revolutionary unionism)....

Anarcho syndicalism, to me, is organised anarchism, libertarian socialism.

Rather than sit back and wait for "The revolution"...anarcho-syndicalism was born when anarchists got their hands dirty in the day-to-day class war-as agitators, educators and organisors.

Real change will never occur on the say-so of smiling judges, top-cops or multinational murderers. A free society will only be built on the ruins of class rule and the laws that protect it....

Anarchism is seen in practice as the most militant and practical section of the working class movement.

Anarchism is not a game. It's a movement based on class struggle, against class society, for the liberation of all humanity...

By 1992 Metiria Turei was at Auckland University doing papers in Anthropology and Maori Studies, before moving on to Law.

In the 1993 general election, Turei stood for the McGillycuddy Serious Party in the New Lynn electorate. She stood for the McGillicuddy’s again in 1999, after standing at number 4 on the Aoteoroa Legalise Cannabis Party list in 1996.


While usually viewed as a joke party, the MgGillicuddy’s had a serious side, being run almost entirely by anarchists-though not too anti state to refuse government advertising funding when offered.

Several prominent McGillicuddys went on join the Green Party including Nandor Tanczos’s Hamilton office manager Barry Bryant and party media laiason officer Mark Servian. Others including Ross Gardiner and Sam Buchanan went on to become leaders of the Wellington anarchist community.

Metiria Turei went on to marry another former McGillicuddy- Worik Stanton.

By 2001 Turei too was an ex McGillicuddy, standing as Green Party candidate for the Auckland mayoralty. By now she was a qualified lawyer and co-president of Te Hunga Roia Maori o Aoteoroa, the maori lawyers society. At the 2002 Green Party conference Turei put a remit forward calling for the Greens to endorse the ”maori” version of the Treaty Of Waitangi.

In 2002 Metiria Turei entered Parliament on the Green Party list.

She hadn’t become entirely respectable though-becoming a member of the Random Trollops, an anarcho-feminist performance troop and a regular at Auckland’s annual gay “Hero Parade”.

Turei told a Dunedin girls high school prizegiving audience;

I went to University cos I was 21 and didnt have to have UE. I found Anarchists and McGillicuddies and Tino Rangatiratanga and a group of women performers called the Random Trollops. And then I had my baby and realised that I would spend the rest of my life on the DPB if I didn't get a job. So I applied for law school and got in via a bridging course. And then relying heavily on the generosity and commitment of my friends and family I graduated.

Most recent profiles, if they mention it at all. gloss over Turei’s anarchism as a past aberration, but there is little evidence that she has actually renounced her extremist views.

In July 2008 Turei appeared on a Radio NZ programme series on anarchism in New Zealand. Radio NZ advertised the shows on their website;

Hear from long-time anarchist activist Sam Buchanan from 128 in Wellington, Libertarian Socialist historian and author of Rabble Rousers and Merry Pranksters – A History of Anarchism in Aotearoa, Toby Boraman, Manu Caddie, organiser of an Anarchist Christian training camp in the Kaimas and hear from Metiria Turei Green MP, one of New Zealand's two anarchist ministers of parliament whose describes her self-chosen role as an anarchist to “widen the floor of the cage” (rather than a civil war)...

Presumably the other anarchist “minister” was fellow Green MP Nandor Tanczos.

In July 2007 an Australian Aboriginal Rights campaign partially run by a former Hamilton anarchist and Green Party Parliamentary staffer Rayna Fahey sought international support for “Kulin” land claims.

Australian signatories of “Stop the Genocide on Stolen Aboriginal Land Kulin Nations July 14th Full Endorsement List included;

Freedom Socialist Party, Indigenous Social Justice Association – Melbourne,
Ongoing G20 Arrestees Solidarity Network, Radical Women, Resistance (youth wing of Russel Norman’s former Marxist party), Socialist Alliance, Socialist Alternative, International Socialist Organisation, Socialist Party, Communist Party of Australia, Maritime Union of Australia (communist controlled), Indigenous Social Justice Association — Sydney, Anarchist Media Institute.

Local endorsers included;

Te Ata Tino Toa, Conscious Collaborations, Solidarity Union (Marxist controlled), Socialist Worker (Aotearoa), Wellington Wildcat Anarchist Collective, Aocafe Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, Radical Youth (Auckland), Citizens Against Privatisation (Auckland) Hone Harawira, Maori Party MP Te Tai, Tokerau and Metiria Turei List MP Green Party Aotearoa/NZ

Rayna Fahey was later a strong supporter of the “Urewera 17”- the alliance of pakeha anarchists and maori radicals arrested in October 2007 for allegedly participating in “quasi-military” training camps in the Bay of Plenty back blocks..

Te Ata Tino Toa, Concious Collaborations, Wildcat and Socialist Worker all came out strongly in support of the jailed “terrorists.” The Aocafe website was temporarily closed down after police alleged it was used by those arrested to network and arrange meetings.

Hone Harawira from the Maori Party and Keith Locke and Nandor Tanczos from the Greens were very vocal in defence of the arrested activists, as was Metiria Turei.



Turei’s connection to the Urewera 17 came through her close ties to radical environmental group Save Happy Valley Coalition (SHVC).

Since its formation in 2004, the SHVC has cost power company Solid Energy many millions of dollars of by disrupting their coal mining activities in the West Coast's Happy Valley.

According to the SHVC website;

The Save Happy Valley Coalition came together at a campout at Happy Valley in early April, 2004. A group of people from around the country travelled to Westport and made the three hour hike to Happy Valley to camp for a week in protest against the proposed mine.

Working alongside other organisations like Buller Conservation Group, Te Runanga o Ngati Waewae, Forest & Bird, Greenpeace and the Green Party the Save Happy Valley Coalition aims to build awareness about the proposed coal mine at Happy Valley and the environmental issues surrounding coal mining, and to actively oppose the mine and coal-fuelled energy generation.

Green Party members have worked SHVC from both inside and outside the organisation since day one.

Metiria Turei has played a leading role in supporting the campaign.

According to a 27th January 2006 press release;

Protestors who plan to indefinitely occupy a precious natural South Island valley in a bid to stop it being turned into an open cast coal mine have the full support of the Green Party. Conservation Spokesperson Metiria Turei says the Party hopes that lots of people will get behind the Save Happy Valley Coalition when they move onto the site tomorrow.

“It is scandalous that in this day and age we are still allowing companies to proceed with environmentally devastating open cast mining – especially when the company, Solid Energy, is a State Owned Enterprise….

“We applaud the Coalition for their courage to take this action and wish them all the best in their endeavours,” Mrs Turei says.

Turei joined the occupation at Happy Valley for four days over Easter 2006 and tramped into the valley with Greens co-leader Russel Norman in early 2007.
SHVC is essentially an alliance of Greens and anarchists. Wellington SHVC headquarters is the 128 Abel Smith Street, famously raided by police during the October 2007 “anti-terror” busts. 128 is also the home of the Wildcat Anarchist Collective, and the anarchist website, Indymedia.

At least four members of the "Urewera 17" have links with both 128 Abel Smith Street and the Save Happy Valley campaign.

The four include include Emily Bailey and her younger brother Tim/Ira Bailey, who was SHVC's campaign's spokesman for much of 2006 and Indymedia editorial collective member Omar Hamed.

Another member of Indymedia editorial collective, well known anarchist Asher Goldman is also a leading SHVC activist and "Urewera 17" support campaigner.

When the "anti terror" raids occurred on October 15th, police also tried to search two Christchurch houses including one occupied by SHVC spokeswoman Frances Mountier, but were denied entry because they had no warrant.

The police claimed they were looking for a "person of interest"-believed to be Mountier’s flatmate and fellow SHVC activist Kristin Gillies.

On February 14th 2006 SHVC was welcomed to Parliament by Green Party Conservation Spokesperson Metiria Turei, Nandor Tanczos and co-leader Jeannette Fitzsimons

The Save Happy Valley Coalition was at Parliament, complete with Great Spotted Kiwi, to talk with MPs about the destruction of the kiwi habitat in Happy Valley. State-owned Solid Energy plans to create a vast open cast coal mine in Waimangaroa Valley, one of the few stable habitats of the endangered Great Spotted Kiwi...

Turei was photographed holding an SHVC banner, with anarchist Val Morse (on left)-also later arrested in the October 2007 raids.


Turei has used her parliamentary position to help SHVC in other ways.

Maureen Howard, Dunedin Outreach Coordinator for Green MP Metiria Turei has been listed as Dunedin contact for SHVC.

SHVC’s illegal occupation of Happy Valley and associated disruptive protests has cost state owned Solid Energy many millions of dollars.

To counter this Solid Energy has called in police and hired a private security company Thompson & Clark.

Metiria Turei has used her Parliamentary position to ask questions on police operational matters and Thompson & Clark, presumably for the benefit of SHVC.

11321 (2005). Metiria Turei to the Minister of Police
How many police officers were in attendance in the vicinity of Denniston, near Westport, to collect the names and addresses of Save Happy Valley supporters and others returning from the upper Waimangaroa Valley on Sunday 20 November?

11322 (2005). Metiria Turei to the Minister of Police

How many police officers in attendance in the vicinity of Denniston, near Westport, to collect the names and addresses of Save Happy Valley supporters and others returning from the upper Waimangaroa Valley on Sunday 20 November came from stations outside of Westport and from which stations did they come?

3670 (2006). Metiria Turei to the Minister for State Owned Enterprises

Does he have a copy, or has he ever had or seen a copy, of any Thompson and Clark reports?

Metiria Turei used her Parliamentary position to help her anarchist, lawbreaking friends.

Isd such a person fit to lead a party that may one day hold influential Cabinet positions, or the balance of power in a future Parliament?

Green Party file 10 here

Green Party Anarchist To Resign-Replaced By Former Marxist-Leninist?

Phil U at the Whoar! Blog is a former Green Party member.

Last night he attended a Greenpeace gathering in the Far North.

Phil claims he overhead a discussion that ran along these lines.

Green MP Nandor Tanczos willc soon resign from Parliament. Phil claims to have personally verified this with Nandor Tanczos, in the recent past.

Next on the Green Party list, Catherine Delahunty, will forgo her due seat in parliament, but will be suitably "rewarded" at a later date.

Next on the Party list, Green Party co-leader Russel Norman, will then enter Parliament. This is being done to boost Russel Norman's low profile in time for this year's election.

If true, this will mean the Green's will lose an anarchist MP, with close ties to the "Urewera 17" infiltrated Save Happy Valley Coalition.

The next in line, the the head teacher at Sue Bradford's Marxist training school, Kotare, which has trained members of the "Urewera 17" infiltrated Save Happy Valley Coalition, will stand aside, to enter Parliament the next election.

The next in line, a former Marxist-Leninist who is also very close to the "Urewera 17" infiltrated Save Happy Valley Coalition, will then enter Parliament.

No matter how green the rhind, the "watermelon party" is red to the core.

Hat Tip KiwiBlog

Liberal vs "Liberal" on the Rickards Case

ACT Deputy leader, Heather Roy commenting on the Clint Rickards case.

Like many people I was initially surprised by the finding of "not guilty" in the trial of Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and the two former policemen, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum, who had been facing charges of raping a woman in Rotorua in the 1980s.

However, as surprised as I was, politicians have to be cautious about second guessing the courts, so I feel the need to remind myself that the jury heard all the evidence while I have been exposed to no more than selective media coverage. Normally, under such circumstances, I would leave things at that.

But this is no ordinary case. One of the accused is a high-ranking police officer, apparently in contention for the top job until February 2004, when he was accused of rape by Louise Nicholas.

The Prime Minister has copped some criticism for questioning whether there could have been genuine consent when three police officers took it in turn to have sex with a vulnerable teenager. Well the critics can hark all they like, the fact of the matter is Helen Clark was speaking for the vast majority of women in this country, myself included, and many of our menfolk.

And there the matter should rest except that Mr Rickards has been suspended - on full pay - and now wants his $155,000 per year job back. But as Auckland's Mayor, Dick Hubbard, has pointed out the law merely sets a minimum standard of behaviour. To be a police commissioner a much higher standard is expected, certainly by the public and one would hope by the police themselves. It is necessary to do better than just stay out of prison. Being one of a number of older men having group sex with a 16-year-old girl may be deemed legal but surely remains outside the bounds of moral acceptability for most people.

So hat's off to Helen Clark, so far so good, but why did she stop there? Asked about Mr. Rickards' four promotions, after the police became aware of these horrific claims against him, Miss Clark satisfied herself with a throwaway headline: "The mind boggles."

Here's Green Party co-leader Russell Norman's take on the same scenario

From Indymedia
Should Rickards be allowed to be Auckland police chief?

I don’t see that being involved in consenting group sex is any reason for him not to go back to work. And people use sex aids so using a police baton in a consenting situation doesn’t seem grounds for refusing him his job back. He cheated on his partner but nor should that be reason to stop him being a senior police officer. Sex on the bonnet of a police car many years ago (if it’s true) probably shouldn’t stop him either. He can be into S&M or whatever for all I care so long as it’s consenting - it’s his private life and he’s entitled to it.

New Zeal Two 'liberals' with entirely different views of the same subject.

No prizes for guessing that I favour Heather's view.

Heather is "liberal" in that she favours freedom with responsibility. She holds Rickards morally responsible for his actions and condemns them, even if he has acted within the law.

Russel Norman seems more into freedom from responsibilty. Anything goes here. One of NZ's top cops can do all sorts of kinky things to a teenage girl in his private life and that's OK as far as Russel is concerned.

Heather has daughters, as far as I know, Russel doesn't. But I don't think that that is the key determinant here.

Heather clearly believes that public officials should behave not just legally, but ethically-that this may also apply to their 'private' lives.

Russel seems to not mind much about Rickard's moral failings, as long as he broke no laws.

Which viewpoint do you think would best serve the governance of this country?

Union Leaders and Marxists Meet in Auckland

Matt McCarten, John Minto and Socialist Worker are hosting a "Workers Charter" meeting this Saturday in Auckland.

The Workers Charter Movement is the embryo of a new left wing political party, modelled on the successful British "Respect" coalition and the less successful Australian Socialist Alliance. It is also a co-ordinating body for militant union trade union activity. The "movement" publishes a "Workers Charter" newspaper.

It's on;

This Saturday, 7th October, starts 11am
Auckland Trades Hall
147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn

ALL SUPPORTERS WELCOME

11 - 11.10am Welcome from chair (Daphne Lawless).

11.10am - 12.30pm - Workers Charter, a paper for the movement - introduced by John Minto (editorial) & Bronwyn Summers (financial).

1.30 - 3pm - Unions in the 21st century - intro by Laila Harre (NDU), Andrew Little (EPMU), Sue Bradford (Green MP), Mengzhu (Radical Youth) and Joe Carolan (unionist & socialist).

3.15 - 4pm - Human Rights for Workers campaign - introduced by Vaughan Gunson (unionist & socialist) and Eliana Darroch (Radical Youth).

4pm - 4.30 pm - Graham Matthews, Australian unionist.

4.30 - 4.45pm - election of expanded, national editorial board of Workers Charter paper.

4.45 - 5.30pm - Climaction Day (4 November) to build a campaign for
System Change, Not Climate Change. Speaker(s) to be confirmed.


Graham Matthews is a National Committee member of Australia's largest Marxist-Leninist organisation, the Democratic Socialist Perspective. He has also been in recent years, NSW and Victorian convenor for the Socialist Alliance.

Daphne Lawless, Vaughn Gunson and Joe Carolan are all members of NZ's largest Trotskyite group, Socialist Worker, which effecticely has sister party ties to the DSP and Socialist Alliance.

It is significant that Green MP Sue Bradford is supporting the meeting. When Bradford was in the Workers Communist League, her group had very close ties to the DSP's fore-runner, the Socialist Workers Party. Several of Bradford's Green colleagues including Keith Locke, Jeanette Fitzsimons and Russel Norman have had strong DSP connections.

It is also interesting that Laila Harre and Andrew little are speaking. Harre as head of the Socialist Party of Aotearoa dominated, NDU, (which heavily backs the Workers Charter) has a long history of involvement with the far left and is a close friend and business partner of the Green's Russel Norman.

Little, head of the Engineers Union, likes to portray himself as a moderate, so it is more surprising to see him openly associating with the hard left. As Little's union strongly supported the NDU's recent industrial battle with Progressive Enterprise, we may see more of Little mingling with the Marxists.

This is the most militant and broad gathering of union leaders and the Marxist-Leninist left for some years.

I predict, that buoyed by the recent Progressive Enterprises "lockout" and UNITE/Radical Youth's $12 minimum wage campaign, we are about to witness a new wave of militant unionism, supported by hard left political activity.

Mike Ward, the Perfect Green Party Co-Leader?

Russel Norman has some competition for the Green party co-leadership. Former Green MP and number 8 on the party's 2005 list, Mike Ward, has announced that he will contest both the Green co-leadership and the Nelson mayoralty at the next local body election.

Richard Prebble's "The Letter" of 15.8.05 had this to say about Mike Ward.

An obscure Green MP, Mike Ward may in five weeks be Minister of Transport. Ward, is proud he has never driven a car, and for that matter has often not had a job. He told the Local Authority Traffic Institute last week he had discovered the answer to traffic, on his trips from Wellington Airport to parliament. "Remove all traffic lights so motorists have to negotiate each intersection and the answer to the road toll is to plant trees in the middle of the road." At this point his audience's incredulity became uncontrolled laughter. "The trees should be in huge pots and moved around so motorists would not know from one day to the next where the trees will be."

Will Ward be a giant Kauri in the path of Russel Norman's leadership aspirations? Will he become the mayor of NZ's sunniest city? Or will he go back on the Dr Who Lookalike contest circuit?

Marilyn Kohlhase, Respectable Radical?

Indymedia recently listed supporters of the October 17th Anti Poverty Day.

They were the; NZ Council of Trade Unions; National Council of Women New Zealand, Fale Lalaga Pacific Island Women’s Health; Jeanette Fitzsimons and Russel Norman - Green Party of New Zealand; Child Poverty Action Group Aotearoa New Zealand; Pukapuka Community Trust; Waiata Trust; Bruce Hucker, Deputy Mayor of Auckland; Reverend Mua Strickson Pua - Presbyterian Church; Radical Youth; AIL: Marilyn Kohlhase; Global Peace and Justice Auckland, Auckland Women’s Centre, Tuvalu Christian Church West Auckland, The Salvation Army Policy Unit.

I was not surprised that socialists like Jeanette Fitzsimons and Russell Norman would support this leftist campaign.

Bruce Hucker was no shock, nor was Mua Strickson Pua, a former Polynesian Panther hangaround and Green Party candidate.

I was however surprised to see Marilyn Kohlhase on the list.


Marilyn Kohlhase is very respectable these days. She is a member of the board of Creative New Zealand. She is a management consultant and staff trainer for clients such as the Ministry of Education, Tongan Ministry of Finance, Sheraton Hotels, Air New Zealand and the University of Auckland, the Graduate School of Government and Business (Victoria University), Department of Social Welfare, Television New Zealand, Carter Holt Harvey, State Services Commission and Children Young Persons and their Families Service.

She has been involved in the New Zealand Institute of Personnel Management, New Zealand Institute of Management, Pacific Island Chamber of Commerce, Auckland City Council Partnership Committee, Arthritis Foundation Pacific Islands Executive, JR Mckenzie Building Pacific Organisations Committee and the Western Springs College Pacific Student Mentor Programme.

Kohlhase has also been in recent years a member of National Advisory Committee on the Employment of Women and has served as a trustee of Womens Health Action.

Marilyn Kohlhase is clearly a hard working and influential woman, but what is her background?

Kohlhase was educated at Waikato University where she earned a Bachelor of Social Sciences in 1974.

The next few years were spent working for the Marxist controlled "aid" agency, CORSO, where she was a youth education officer from 1974 to 1977. In 1978 as Auckland District chairperson of CORSO, she Toured Fiji, Western Samoa, Tonga and the Solomons, under the auspices of another Marxist controlled body, the NZ Coalition for Trade and Development, to study the effect uncontrolled trawling, foreign fishng companies, industrial pollution and lack of fishermen's organisations might have on developing countries after the declaration of 200 mile economic zones.

In 1979 Kolhlase was member of CORSO's National Council, where she worked alongside Graeme Whimp, a senior member of the pro-Soviet, Socialist Unity Party.

The same year she was a laiason officer with the Workers Educational Association and from 1980 was an administration assistant for the University of Auckland's Centre for Continuing Education.

In June 1981 Kohlhase was elected national convener of the Working Women's Council at its annual conference in Christchurch. Most officials of the Council were members or supporters of the Socialist Unity Party or the Socialist Action League.

By 1982, Kohlhase was a confirmed member of the SUP, attending the Party's 6th National Conference held in Auckland. She was quoted in the SUP's "Tribune"... "what are the issues that are important to NZ women in 1982? I believe they are changing constantly. We must make sure that the SUP has its finger on the pulse."

Kohlhase was active in the SUP for several years. In October 1983 she was elected to the SUP's Auckland Regional Committee. She later became Vice-chairwoman of the Auckland region of the SUP.

She was still writing for Tribune as late as March 1986.

From 1983 to 1987 Kohlhase was National Training officer for the Engineers Union and also served on the Trade Union Training Board Liaison Committee.

Kohlhase assisted in preparing the report that led to the establishment of the Trade Union Education Authority,(a taxpayer funded front for the SUP) and did TUEA subsidised "education" for the Engineers Union.

In 1987 Kohlhase moved into a very influential job with the Public Service. She became Equal Employment Opportunities unit manager, for the State Services Commission, the government's senior employment agency.

She was EEO project leader on the Commission for Employment Equity, Pacific Islands and ethnic minorities EEO co-ordinator and managed a team of four EEO advisors to re-establish EEO at the State Services Commission. She also managed a national team of consultants to investigate EEO progress in the private, public, local government, health, education and SOE sectors. Kohlhase's work led to the publication of a report "Into the 90s".

As Pacific Islands and Ethnic Minorities co-ordinator, Kohlhase was

"Foundation member of the EEO unit that pioneered EEO in NZ public sector at time of massive restructuring. "

Focussed on developing an understanding of Pacific Island and ethnic issues among managers and departmental EEO co-ordinators.

Set up nationally linked PI networks across Departments.

Maintained close involvement in the PI senior management development programme.

Ran the first career development courses for PI public servants Equal Opportunities.

Kohlhase worked as EEO Officer for Minority Groups for the SSC until 1992 when she moved to Auckland City Council to become their Employee Development Manager.

In 1994, she became a self employed management consultant, among other things delivering EEO training to Auckland local government, TVNZ etc.

In the late '90s Kohlhase was involved in Teuila Consultancy group, which influenced the content of B(Ed) teacher training in NZ.

From 1999 to 2001 she was a management specialist for a three year programme to help the government of Tonga improve the performance of it's SOEs. This was paid for by the NZ Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In 2002 Kohlhase was chair of the Pacific Arts Committee of Creative NZ, which gave $5000 to Reeds Publishing towards a history of the Polynesian Panthers, a radical Marxist oriented group active in the 1970s.

Solid Energy Battles Greens and Marxist Teens

Green Co-leader, Russel Norman's outrage against state owned mining company Solid Energy's infiltration of the Save Happy Valley Coalition is understandable given his party's longstanding support of the protestors.


Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons and MP's Meteria Turei and Nandor Tanczos

Several Green MPs, plus Russel himself have supported the campaign. Some Green socialists from Canterbury, including Christine Dann and Allan Leifting have also supported the protestors.


It's no surprise that many of the protestors are anarchists or socialists including apparently, long time protest leader and spokesman, Frances Mountier.

The product of a well known Christchurch activist family, Frances Mountier has packed a lot of agitation into her 19 odd years.


Though not known to be Green Party member, Mountier has close links to Green MP Sue Bradford and several other Green party activists involved with the Kotare School situated at Wellsford, north of Auckland.

The Kotare School is openly modelled on the Communist Party USA linked Highlander School in Tennessee, famous for training martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and many other prominent "civil rights" activists.

Kotare's Green Party trustees include MP Sue Bradford (Deputy Chair), Karen Davis (Treasurer) and Sue Berman. Gordon Jackman another trustee is the partner of Green party activist, Catherine Delahunty, who tutors at the school.

Several Kotare personnel, including Sue Bradford and Quentin Jukes have Workers Communist league backgrounds. The school teaches "social activism" based on the teachings of Brazilian Marxist, Paolo Friere. It has trained many prominent youth activists, including John Darroch from Auckland Radical Youth and Wellington Palestine Group activist Tali Williams.

According to Kotare's Spring 2006 newsletter

Kotare has a Youth Advisory group of people under 25 who have volunteered to give us feedback on how we are working generally and also specifically with younger people. We are meeting with them on November 11 and 12 to discuss our work. The advisory group members are Tali Williams from Wellington, Frances Mountier from Christchurch, John Darroch from South Auckland and Tui Armstrong from Whangarei. These young people have all participated in Kotare activities since the age of 15 and have active networks and great ideas!

So Frances Mountier has trained at a Green Party linked Marxist training school since the age of 15!

The phrase "brainwashed" comes to mind.

The real story here is that Solid Energy is fighting not just a bunch of irresponsible young protestors. It is also battling the Green Party, including several of its leaders and strategies learnt in Sue Bradford's Marxist training school.

One can hardly blame them for fighting back with a little bit of espionage.