The November Hīkoi (march) in Aotearoa (New Zealand) poses questions on the national question, racial oppression, the far-right, and class independence for Communists across Oceania. The RCO stands for the national liberation of Māori and opposes racist scapegoating. Communists should also stand for class independence and critique legalistic strategies centred on the Treaty of Waitangi.
At stake is the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, a document signed in 1840 between the United Tribes of New Zealand (a confederation including several Māori Chiefs on the North Island) and the British Crown. The Māori intended that the Treaty would protect their land, property, and partial sovereignty whilst coming under British control in an act of submission. The document was signed on behalf of all Māori, but the Chiefs in the South Island were opposed. The English and Māori copies of the Treaty vary in meaning substantially, which facilitated British domination of the islands and people.
Settler colonialism ramped up throughout the 1800s, resulting in armed struggle by Māori freedom fighters. A policy of violent suppression and disposition from the land led to the halving of the Māori population and they were relegated to the position of a racialised minority. The British Crown seized land from the Māori and sold it to capitalists and farmers at extremely low prices. This dispossession, combined with violent warfare, led to many Māori leaving the countryside and traveling to the city. As they had no capital of their own, they joined the working class while still facing racial and national oppression. Hence, settler-colonialism provided cheap land and cheap labour, which provided a basis for the formation of capitalist rule in Aotearoa.
The 20th century saw a growth in violent assimilationism to eradicate Māori cultural life, a particularly pointed facet of this being the banning of the Māori language being spoken in schools. This intensifying subjugation was to ensure a continued supply of cheap labour power. Oppression was eventually met by resistance in the streets. In 1975, this led to the Labor Government creating the Waitangi Tribunal tasked with righting the wrongs caused by the unequal application of the original Treaty. Limited restitution has since been obtained, including some land redistribution and the teaching of the Māori language in schools. Māori continue to suffer inequity, but the reforms cannot be ignored. Communists must recognise that the Treaty of Waitangi was a formalisation of the domination of the Māori by the British crown, however, some struggle around the Treaty can be progressive.
In 2023, the previous Labor Government was replaced by a right-wing coalition led by the National Party, who were joined in coalition by New Zealand First and the far-right ACT Party. In November 2024, ACT introduced the Treaty Principles Bill, which promised to give New Zealand’s Parliament and Crown the sole right to interpret and administer the Treaty of Waitangi. The aim of this legislation was to strip Māori of the cultural and material gains obtained since the founding of the Tribunal in 1975. The bill could also pave the way for further exploitation of land and seabed by Capital. Whilst the bill passed its first reading, the National Party has pledged to vote against it at the second reading, meaning the bill is unlikely to pass at this stage. Communists must see this bill as an attempt to intensify national oppression against the Māori. Workers in Aotearoa cannot hold power whilst a minority is nationally and racially dominated. Communists must call for the liberation of Māori, as only equality between workers of all nationalities can provide the conditions for concrete working-class unity. As such, Communists must participate in movements such as the recent Hīkoi.
The ACT Party began its history as a right libertarian formation but has increasingly gravitated towards a right populism and nationalism. The Party receives significant funding from some of the wealthiest individuals in the country and is linked with the extreme right in the United States. In campaigning for its Treaty Principles Bill, ACT argues that Māori are currently receiving extra privileges compared to the white majority. ACT propaganda emphasises “equality under the law”, implying that the white majority are second-class citizens. The fact that Māori face much higher levels of poverty and social exclusion should disprove the argument of special privileges, if anything, this is much needed affirmative action. Secondly, equality under the law is only possible in a democratic republic led by a party of the workers, not a bourgeoisie oligarchic constitutional monarchy. The ACT Party is spreading racial animus against Māori which divides the working class. Communists should unmask the ACT Party’s race baiting while prosecuting a campaign of militant anti-racism to ensure working class unity and solidarity.
Communists must unceasingly battle against national and racial prejudice. Bigotry can lead to the white portion of the working class identifying their interests with representatives of the capitalist class, rather than standing in solidarity with Māori, Pasifika, and Asian workers as part of the global proletariat. This identification with the ruling class by the white portion of the working-class results in a loyalty to the capitalist state which is the basis of Laborism. The working class needs to be won away from Laborism by communists if the workers are to take power for themselves.
ACT represents only a fraction of the capitalist class with the majority being supportive of the status quo around the Treaty of Waitangi. In the eyes of most capitalists, Māori are a minority that can be included within the bourgeois political fabric. The Treaty is at the core of the capitalist state project and hence its preservation is in line with political stability which favours the bourgeoisie. Such a stability is predicated on a large proportion of Māori facing poverty. Communists want to go far beyond a fairer interpretation of the Treaty. Communists seek equality for all sectors of the working class, to build the unity needed to overturn the capitalist state in favour of a democratic republic. Such a republic would hold land in common and would enforce equality between the Māori and English languages. While the status quo around the Treaty must be defended from the far-right, a party of the working class must build working class power that can supersede the Treaty with a new binational state as part of a Socialist Federation of Oceania.
The November Hīkoi to protest the Treaty Principles Bill was one of the largest in the history of Aotearoa with tens of thousands of people marching to Wellington. The movement was broadly supported by Māori and non-indigenous people. Te Pāti Māori (a Māori nationalist party) played a major role in this movement. This is unsurprising as during the 2023 elections, Te Pāti Māori won the majority of seats reserved for Māori, although a lesser, though still substantial portion of the Māori vote went to the Labor and Green parties. Te Pāti Māori is a cross-class alliance, and its bourgeois and petit-bourgeois constituents will never countenance the militant class struggle necessary to overturn the colonial state and Capital’s power. Only class independence can defeat the rule of the bosses in Aotearoa and overcome the national oppression and racism against Māori. The working class must have its own party with a strategy to take power, and sectors of the capitalist class cannot be relied upon as allies. Communists must fight to popularise class independence amongst working class Māori, and all workers in Aotearoa.
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