Socialist Equality Group is bothered by Māori Party thinking on racial superiority – but it opposes all parliamentary parties

Buzz from the Beehive

Your Point of Order writers, again starved of news when they visited the government’s official website this morning, found something fascinating while surfing the worldwide web.

Our attention was drawn to a TVNZ  interview last Sunday, when Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of the Māori Party defended the statement:

“It is a known fact that Māori genetic makeup is stronger than others.”

An account of the interview can be found on the World Socialist Web Site in an article headed New Zealand: Māori Party leader says Māori are genetically superior race.

The writer, Tom Peters, recalls that Māori Party candidate Heather Te Au-Skipworth made the racist statement to the Northland Age in September 2020 while outlining the party’s call for a $100 million fund to invest in “Māori sport.”

It was then added to the party’s website, but was removed last year after the ACT Party complained about it.

The Māori Party did not issue a public retraction or apology – but…

Now, with an election approaching on October 14, Waititi has doubled down on defending the claim that indigenous Māori are a superior race.

His comments reveal the utterly reactionary character of Māori nationalism, a form of racial identity politics that is dressed up as progressive by the New Zealand political and media establishment. They highlight the sham being perpetrated by liberal commentators such as the Daily Blog and pseudo-left groups like the International Socialist Organisation (ISO), which are supporting TPM as a “left-wing” party.

Waititi defended Te Au-Skipworth’s comment while speaking to TVNZ interviewer Jack Tame:

“How can it be racist when you’re trying to empower a people that are climbing out from the bottom of the bonnet [sic] of colonial violence for the last 183 years?”

He continued:

 “We’re trying to rebuild our people… [after] years and years of colonial violence on our people. And so why can’t we call ourselves magic? Why can’t we call ourselves proud? Why can’t we believe in ourselves? And why can’t we say to our people that your genetics mean something, that you can be proud of that?”

Peters’ article acknowledges that Māori were dispossessed by the British during the 19th century, and that many Māori continue to suffer from racial discrimination.

But he insists this does not change the racist character the Māori Party and Waititi’s statements and he contends that the belief in the superiority of an ethnic group’s genes is a cornerstone of racist ideology.

He proceeds to bring class divisions and the gap between rich and poor into considerations:

The purpose of Waititi’s outburst is to divide the working class into rival races and to cover up the deepening class division within the Māori population. His reference to “our people” is a political fraud. The reality is that TPM represents the interests of a narrow layer of tribal capitalists and upper middle class layers.

 This elite minority has profited from multi-million dollar Treaty of Waitangi settlements handed out to the tribes over the last three decades. These have been used to create lucrative businesses in tourism, agriculture, fisheries, property and other industries.

TPM’s central political demand is for increased payments under the Treaty to expand the wealth of Māori capitalists. In return for such payments, the party joined the right-wing 2008-2017 National Party government and supported major attacks on the working class, including an increase to the goods and services tax and tens of thousands of job cuts.

The wealth and political influence of the Māori nationalists has grown during a sustained assault on the working class, including Māori who are among the most exploited and impoverished workers. As class tensions have become more pronounced, the capitalist parties are all, to one degree or another, seeking to confuse and divide the working class by blaming social problems on white people, immigrants or Māori.

TPM’s racist positions are not an aberration, they are a central feature of Māori nationalist ideology.

Peters has not overlooked what has been said by members of other parties during a 2023 election campaign which he says has been dominated by racial dog whistles and mutual accusations of racism by the parliamentary parties.

These have included far-right ACT Party leader David Seymour labelling gang members “subhuman” and joking about wanting to blow up the Ministry for Pacific Peoples. NZ First leader Winston Peters (who is part Māori) is campaigning against the use of Māori language by government departments, and recently made the provocative statement that Māori were “not indigenous” because their ancestors came from other parts of the Pacific.

He also notes that the Labour-Greens government has supported various forms of “co–governance” to benefit the Māori tribal elite.

This includes supporting the creation of reserved Māori seats in local councils and on water infrastructure governing bodies, and separate “by Māori, for Māori” healthcare services. Any criticism of this divisive and anti-democratic agenda, and of the Treaty of Waitangi itself, is denounced by Labour and its supporters as “racist.”

Nearing the end of his article, Peters reveals his party allegiance by saying the Socialist Equality Group opposes all forms of nationalism and racism.

“We call on the working class to oppose Māori nationalism, and all forms of racial identity politics, from the left—that is, on the basis of a socialist perspective. Genuine equality can only be achieved by fighting for the unity of working people of every nationality and ethnicity, based on their shared class interests, to overthrow capitalism, end the division of the world into rival nation states, and place society’s wealth in common ownership. This is the only way to put an end to racism, xenophobia and every other toxic prejudice that is whipped up by the ruling class to divide workers and keep itself in power.”

Another article on the World Socialist Web Site (“the voice of the working class and the leadership of the international socialist movement”) says the Socialist Equality Group is the New Zealand supporter of the International Committee of the Fourth International.

It is not in a position to stand candidates in this election, the article says.

“We are intervening, however, to expose the entire political establishment’s right-wing agenda and fight to establish a revolutionary socialist and internationalist party. This is the urgent task facing the working class in NZ and every country.

“The SEG opposes all the parliamentary parties: the incumbent Labour Party, its coalition partner, the Greens, the racialist Te Pāti Māori (Māori Party), the opposition National Party, its far-right ally, the ACT Party, and the right-wing nationalist New Zealand First. Whichever parties form the next government will intensify the assault on workers’ living standards and divert ever greater resources into the preparations for war.

“The Labour-Green government is deeply unpopular after carrying out historic attacks on the working class over the past six years. After getting 50 percent of the votes in the 2020 election, Labour has plummeted to around 26 percent in recent polls and is wracked by inner turmoil. Following Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation as prime minister in January, five more ministers resigned or were removed from their roles.”

But there is no mass support for the opposition conservative National Party, which is only polling around 35 per cent, the article said. It would need support from ACT, and possibly NZ First, to form a coalition government, “which will be wracked by crisis from the outset”.