Paris to Melbourne to Auckland — fighting for our rights

Aotearoa Radical Youth organised a thousand-strong high school walkout against youth wages in Auckland on March 20. It has also issued a warning of "walkouts and strike action by young people" against a new bill being discussed in the New Zealand parliament that will allow bosses to sack a worker without giving any reason or facing any penalty. The following is a solidarity statement they sent for the June 1 student strike.

Dear Resistance,

Aotearoa Radical Youth supports the Australian student strike organised for June 1. The struggle against neoliberalism is as transnational and trans-Tasman as the capitalist elites whose policies we oppose.

It is inspiring that the use of direct action against neoliberalism has spread throughout the world. Whether it be French students fighting against unfair labour laws, American "illegals" protesting encroaching repression or Auckland youth mobilising for a fair and equal wage, our cause is common and we value the solidarity that humanity encounters when we band together against the marginalisation, the oppression and exploitation of neoliberalism.

The law that Australia is struggling against is based on the same philosophy as Wayne Mapp's bill here in Aotearoa. They both seek to make it easier to fire all workers and remove gains won by the working class movement, gains that took years of struggle to achieve. The laws, both here and there, will particularly affect young people as we are the ones who work in casual, low paid, non-unionised industries. We also continue to face the discrimination of youth wages. From Paris to Melbourne to Auckland we resolve that the work of the youth and students is to take the side of the oppressed and to fight for our rights. Nothing less will stem the tide of neoliberalism. Kia kaha. Ya basta.

From Green Left Weekly, May 31, 2006.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 669