Grant Morgan, Auckland
On August 18, a draft Workers' Charter was finalised by a steering committee elected at a meeting of unionists and left-wing activists in Auckland on July 2. Over the next year there will be broad discussion of the draft charter, which is bound to change it considerably.
The charter's advocacy of workers' human dignity and democratic rights will strike home to workers sick of being treated as "invisible" objects of exploitation, suffering low pay and lack of rights.
A conference to discuss the charter and the campaign around it will be held in Auckland on October 22.
The Workers' Charter steering committee is asking for people to personally endorse the document. It would be excellent to get endorsements from Australian unionists and left-wing activists, since our rulers are intent on setting up a single market embracing Australia and New Zealand, which will force workers in both countries to unite our struggles.
If you would like to endorse, simply sent a message of endorsement to <gcm@actrix.gen.nz>. Please indicate your city of residence and how you would like to be described. Every endorsement is important to us.
[Grant Morgan is a member of the Workers' Charter steering committee.]
Finalised draft of Workers' Charter
Every worker is a human being who deserves the right to dignity.
For that right to be at the heart of our society, workers need economic justice and democratic control over our future.
But what motivates society today is the selfish right of a privileged few to gather wealth from the productive majority.
Workers are mere commodities, exploited and discarded like any other. Our status in society is worsened by market competition, free trade and commercialisation of public assets.
The wealth of New Zealanders on the rich list skyrockets. Meanwhile, the living standards of the majority fall, and one in three children grow up in poverty here in Aotearoa.
Wars of conquest to control global resources, like the US colonisation of Iraq, expand corporate wealth and power at the cost of mass bloodshed and suffering.
Profit-driven exploitation of the environment is fuelling global warming, an oil crisis and other threats to life on our planet.
The end result is massive growth in social inequality and environmental destruction. Our humanity and our environment have been sacrificed to the god of profit. Our ability to resist is undermined by laws that ban most strikes.
As a positive alternative, the Workers' Charter promotes these core democratic rights:
1. The right to a job that pays a living wage and gives us time with our families and communities.
2. The right to pay equity for women, youth and casual workers.
3. The right to free public healthcare and education, and to liveable superannuation and welfare.
4. The right to decent housing without crippling mortgages and rents.
5. The right to public control of assets vital to community well-being.
6. The right to protect our environment from corporate greed.
7. The right to express our personal identity free from discrimination.
8. The right to strike in defence of our interests.
9. The right to organise for the transfer of wealth and power from the haves to the have-nots.
10. The right to unite with workers in other lands against corporate globalisation and war.
These rights can only be secured by workers organising to extend democracy into every sphere of the economy and the state. This will involve the complete transformation of our society to serve the needs of the majority rather than the greed of the minority.
The privileged few will resist fiercely. They will use their economic and political power to try to deny workers our rights.
A mass mobilisation around the Workers' Charter can give us the strength to win the battle for democracy and reclaim our human dignity.
From Green Left Weekly, September 7, 2005.
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