Our Resistance

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, January 11th, 2024 - 7 comments
Categories: Conservation, helen clark, housing, Maori Issues, Social issues, Unions - Tags:

There are still groups of people in New Zealand who can and do organise to resist the damage of the right.

My previous post invited gentle readers to identify where they might put their activist energy. If you want to do more than complain about it in 2024, here’s a few groups to join in with or donate to that are effective at resisting the damage of really dumb government.

Iwi

The Maori King has been first off the block to organise resistance by summoning iwi to a hui that will be held on January 20th at Tūrangawaewae Marae, whereby the “mauri of the hui” will be carried on to the annual Rātana and Waitangi Day celebrations later in the year.

I have no idea if all iwi can be brought together in a few days time, but good on the Maori King for giving it a go. Certainly a concentrated voice of iwi and kingitanga will be great to see going into Waitangi and Ratana and from there to energise the rest of the year. Bolger, Clark, Key and Ardern all had to grow up fast to deal with high level Maori engagement. Can Luxon reach that level?

I have no particular sympathy for kingitanga, but good on them for calling out a voice for unity and resistance.

Unions

You could help out one of the remaining unions. The powerful ones are the NZEI, Nurses Union, Union of Salaried Medical Specialists, Public Sector Association, E Tu, and First Union.

With unemployment stubbornly low, it is a great time to be in a union. There are about 400,000 union members in New Zealand which is about 17% of the overall workforce. Wages have risen strongly in recent years. Public servants are required to be politically neutral but unions don’t.

Conservation

New Zealand has proportionally one of the strongest conservation activist networks in the world. The Forest and Bird Society has over 100,000 members and branches in nearly every part of the country. A branch as rural as North Canterbury has over 1,200 members.

There are about 70 national and regional organisations with an interest in the environment, conservation and outdoor recreation here. There are major branches of international organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. If you want to feel good about activism in a hurry, join in with a group and plant a tree or clean up a beach, and your heart will be brimming with virtue again.

The list of conservation and environmental groups in New Zealand is simply massive, some covering a few acres of bush and others going for full landscape rehabilitation.

If you want to see a really simple win, a reminder that 40,000 people chipped in to buy a beach in Abel Tasman National Park in 2017 to stop it being sold. The latent power is there.

Justice

There are so many amazing people working for justice here in Aotearoa that it is heartwarming just to read the stories. Here’s just three of them:
There’s Pillars, who support positive futures for whanau of people doing time in prison.

There’s the Pathway Charitable Group, which is all about support for people getting out of prison and setting their life up again.

JustSpeak is a youth-initiated organisation that puts a lot of work into legislative submissions about criminal law, among other things.

There’s a full list of Corrections partner organisations listed out by region if you have people near you affected by Corrections. So many families to help.

Housing

There are so many people and families needing help with housing and there are simply massive efforts by charities to help. Just a few of the big ones include:

The Community of Refuge Trust

Smaller ones like Monte Cecilia Housing Trust show what happens from small beginnings. If you start from a place of helping people, you alter the politics of New Zealand for good one action at a time.

Aid Delivery Organisations

Whole-service Non Government Organisations in New Zealand are substantial and have grown in scale through the shrinking of the state in the 1990s. Some of the standout ones that you could join in with are:

  • The Salvation Army. They are renowned for their work with drug addiction, homelessness, early childhood education, and food parcels. They get about $30 million a year in donations, and as far as I can see wring every cent out of it.
  • Te Whanau Waipereira. This is an urban Maori grouping in Auckland and Northland with a massive reach into the provision of health including dentistry and inoculations, legal representation, housing provision, and education. There are many other powerful urban iwi groups rolling out the good every day.

Others that do huge work at the grassroots that will warm the cockles of your heart if you put your leftie shoulder into it include Caritas, the Anglican Trust for Women and Children, Society of St Vinent de Paul, Presbyterian Support, the Aukland City Mission and Christchurch City Mission, Baptist Community Ministries, and OXFAM.

Donors and Donor Organisations

Sir Stephen Tindall’s Tindall Foundation has donated more than $130m to help those less well off. It doesn’t have a sole focus on the charitable sector, also supporting training and research.

There’s Neal and Annette Plowman who gifted $100m to establish the Next Foundation. This one focuses on education and environmental philanthropy.

Then there’s the Todd Foundation. This is a family-run community-focused organisation that has gifted over $60m since it was founded.

And of course the Morgan Foundation, which is the one set up by Sam Morgan after he sold TradeMe. The Morgan Foundation focuses on the battle against the poverty gap and wealth disparity. Sam’s own one is called the Jasmine Trust, which does pretty much the same thing.

There are also large regional ones like the Central Lakes Trust, focusing on environmental action funding.

We ought not expect that they will always donate just for leftie grassroots causes, but mostly they do. The charitable sector in New Zealand is where much of the beating heart of the left remains, and mapping out its friendly funding partners is really important.

And finally, for those who wonder where the brains are, there’s the Helen Clark Foundation, and Child Poverty Action Group.

If you’re keen on leftie causes and getting on in life, you can always consider bequests (maybe as a social-good tax on yourself in the absence of an inheritance tax).

Hopefully everyone who is annoyed that their own organisation was left out can add their own in the comments with what they do, and a link.
New Zealand is brimming with good people doing good things for the good, and in my book that defines them as working against the right wing in New Zealand. They are nodes of resistance. They are political (though not in the Charities Act sense) because every act against the damage that the right does here is a political act. Who knows you may even find people of the right doing good as well 😊

We have no need to be pessimistic about the left as political parties being out of power when we have so many avenues with which to empower ourselves out of Left Melancholy, in our communities, in our land.

So go to it.

7 comments on “Our Resistance ”

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  1. Descendant Of Smith 1
    11 January 2024 at 9:46 pm

    "If you want to see a really simple win, a reminder that 40,000 people chipped in to buy a beach in Abel Tasman National Park in 2017 to stop it being sold. The latent power is there."

    Co-incidently we were talking about this and the housing cost blowout on the weekend as a way of helping provide both social housing and lower cost housing.

    What we envisioned was two (maybe government run) trusts that owned land in perpetuity that could never be sold specifically for the purpose of housing. In part we were thinking of Singapore and the state owning the land but also about how to prevent future governments selling the land off.

    Two trusts to give a choice about the purchase, fundraising and or giving of land for

    1.Standard residential housing land in which the house only could be bought and sold thereby lowering the cost of entering home ownership.
    2. Social housing land where only state housing for the poor and working class could be built on.

    Over time these landholdings could potentially become quite significant.

    Land going into trusts could be :
    1. Purchased
    2. Fundraised
    3. Donated
    4. Left in wills

  2. aj 2
    12 January 2024 at 8:05 am

    Thank you for reminding us of that wide range of groups helping prop up society and the environment.

  3. Belladonna 3
    12 January 2024 at 9:12 am

    My two favourites, both of which make a difference on the ground and hold the government-of-the-day to account: Dave Letele's BBM and Mike King's Gumboot Friday.

  4. Jenny 4
    12 January 2024 at 11:21 am

    There are still groups of people in New Zealand who can and do organise to resist the damage of the right….

    …..here’s a few groups to join in with or donate to that are effective at resisting the damage of really dumb government.

    Iwi….

    Unions…

    Conservation….

    Justice….

    Housing….

    Aid Delivery Organisations…..

    Donors and Donor Organisations….

    I would like to suggest one more group to add to the list of the groups resisting the damage of the right….

    Anti-War….

    There are a number of groups working in this area;

    GPJA

    PSNA

    Auckland Peace Action

    Greenpeace

    The current Right Wing government seem bent on undermining and even reversing this country's long standing and hard won independent foreign policy stance, by closer Aligning this country with the increasingly isolated US superpower, and in particular; Weakening our Nuclear Free Status by joining the nuclear Tier 2 AUKUS agreement.

    This weakening of independent foreign policy is most notable in the field of international jurisprudence.

    The Labour government recently and rightfully gave written and oral submissions to World Court supporting the merits of Ukraine taking Russia to the World Court to hear Russia's allegations of genocide against Ukraine.

    This right wing National led government, following US and Israel urging, has now wrongfully decided not to support the merits of South Africa taking Israel to the UN World Court to hear South Africa's allegations of genocide against Israel.

    This case has ramifications for war and peace for world.

    Mustafa Baruti Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative. You Tube from Ramallah.

    @0:03 minutes

    …is this ICJ hearing the last hope for the Palestinians?

    Actually, it's the last hope, not only for Palestinians, but for the world. What South Africa is defending in this case, is not only the Palestinian rights and not only the need to stop this terrible war crime of genocide, collective punishment and ethnic cleansing, but it is actually defending, – South Africa is defending international law.

    And allowing Israel to continue this terrible violation of international law, would send to the whole world a very negative message that we don't live by international law anymore, but we live by the rule of the jungle. That's exactly what South Africa is doing, it's trying to defend the rights of the people who are oppressed, the rights of all countries that abide by international law and to stop a country or a structure like Israel from continuing to have total impunity for several and many violations of international law, the biggest of which is this act of genocide they are committing in Palestine.

    Now so really this is not only about Palestine, it's about the future of the world now….

  5. simbit 5
    12 January 2024 at 5:27 pm

    k/o

    1. My iwi are not affiliated to Kingitanga but never underestimate the history and mana behind Tuheitia. Desipte the short time available, he will pull in the requisite attendance. (What they do with that is another question). NB: Hapu are generally the primary political unit, plus there are multiple kaupapa whanau who will draw sustenance from Kingitanga and Waitangi.

    2. Unions are not as weak as they were but have yet to flex any muscle at all that threatens the status quo. Thanks Labour (circa. 1980s).

    3. While there have been some significant collaborations, Forest & Bird et al. will ultimately oppose Maori efforts at rangatiratanga if/when Maori seek cultural harvests beyond fish and titi (eg kereru, kiwi, tui etc.).

    4. I'll skip to Philanthropy. I always acknowledge sponsorship when I get it (which I currently do, from an international bank omfg) but the ease with which capitalists can buy "charitability" is, of course, an outcome of predatory capitalism (if that isn't a tautology). Old Man Morgan was on to something when he wanted to cull cats (you'd want to add dogs too to be comprehensive re: flighless birds) but he lost interest. If he'd stuck with it, who knows, maybe a squillionaire would've actually imlemented a step change (urgh) in NZ biodiversity issues.

    I digress. Poor people always give more (ie as a % of what they have). Find a way to harness that and you might see some change…

  6. Michael who failed Civics 6
    15 January 2024 at 11:08 am

    I'm unsure whether the Labour Party has a role to play in this enterprise. Over the past 40 years, it has identified itself as neoliberal and, at best, only tinkered with application of the dogma. Outside the ranks of public sector bureaucracy no one seems to take it seriously – although the bureaucrats are gearing up to implement the post-liberal agenda of the current govrenment, with all the suffering and misery that entails. Perhaps it's time start over?