What about New Zealand?

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

An impressive attempt at a marxist analysis of New Zealand, shows how the
concrete analysis of concrete conditions is the soul of marxism. It does
not look for a neat categorisation of New Zealand political economy but
analyses instead the changing historical balance of forces and the changing
balance of modes of production.


White Settler Colonialism and the Political Economy of Labour Migration

                                                 by Te Ahu

Intro:


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Essential in explaining the emergence and present state of Maori inequality
in capitalist society, are the processes of white settler colonialism and
labour migration (see Miles, 1984, 1989 and 1993; Miles and Spoonley, 1985;
Pearson, 1984 and 1990; Spoonley, 1993). These are two distinct, though
interlocking, processes, the first of which concerns the colonial land grab
which dispossessed Maori, the second of which concerns the Maori labour
migration, recruitment and settlement, necessary to provide a workforce for
an emerging capitalist society.

It is important to place the white settlement of Aotearoa within its
historical context as part of a global process of capitalist expansionism
based on the destruction of the territorial and cultural integrity of the
indigenous populations by the expropriation and commodification of their
lands and human resources. As Marx noted in regard to the process of
capitalist development, '[i]n actual history, it is a notorious fact that
conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, in short, force, plays the greatest
part' (Marx, 1976, p. 874).
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http://aotearoa.wellington.net.nz/back/tumoana/tumoana2.html



Chris Burford