The future of
the Maoris

So percent of the
Maoris are under 21.

Th: sufficient
1 quarter of
t Maori population.

is. Shor!

or one

cre

eo)

d more Maoris are
ne cities to work.

I
oing co .4

The Maori birth rate is
double that of the Pakeha

(white

In 4€ he Maori popu-
tation: ¢ of New Zealand will be
] 500,000 — double what
n the Pakeha first

facts would merely be
sting statistics but for

that social and econ-
omic equality does not exist
for the.Maori.

Maori and
essential
¢ gen-

The struggle for
;

quality is an

class’

percentage of
‘stal, the propor-
—— women and girls
drin nking and soliciting in shab-
by hotels, the number of Maorj
scabs and the number of Maori
volunteers for anti-indépend-
2 forces, such as the Korean
and Malayan Squad-
e lt very to Say
thc Maori is an inferior

i the

easy

3ut this is a superficial and
unscientific judgment.

It takes no account of the
excellent work being done for
and by Maoris in many spheres.

It takes no account of the

between a modern in-
sg zed society and the
of a stone age society.

Modern research shows that
no race is inferior in either in-
telligence or physique, only in
knowledge.

Pas hen the Pakeha arrived in
Zealand he brought capit-
n face to face with primi-

And much of F this primitive
communism still exists among
the Maori today, particularly
in the countryside. Hence it
poses problems for the
s Maori who leaves the
of communal living
selfish chaos of capi-
he cities.
this communal
and in the past
tand the
ices and

he Pakeha arrived,

garded work as a
and hon-
Even the
] sir § share of man-
Each member of
e had certain tasks of
to the tribe as a whole
ere was no class that

‘nish

Y £
aS
oO

profited from the work of
others.

This ree
welfare

of the comm

faori women of N

his own timetable — set hours
of work were unknown.

As long as the task was com-
pleted on time, the Maori com-
munal worker could relax or
attend to other matters when-
ever he liked.

When the Pakeha arrived
the Maori rapidly adapted his
communal system to the im-
proved tools and methods of
production. In many places
this communal living persists
today; in several, modern but
communal production methods
are still used.

A young Maori coming from
a mutual welfare community
to one of naked self-interest
without any knowledge of the
class. struggle or class organ-
ization, can hardly be blamed
for his reaction of contempt
for city life and his refusal *o
take it seriously.

Whereas the early British
worker showed his fear and
contempt of machines and cap-
italism by destroying ‘them,
the Maori from the country
often. shows his contempt by
taking it all light-heartedly
or by degenerating and going
with the current.

Experience has shown that
once an unders{anding of mod-

ern society and its class strug-
gle comes to the Maori, he is
as staunch a member of the

working cl: as any Pakeha.
Experience has shown | that
when trade union organizers
explain working class _ prin-
ciples to the Maori who has
been recruited for a seab job,
he more often than not joins
the struggle.

The hundreds of militant
Maoris in New Zealand unions
today pr

It is an essential task for
the working class to remove
prejudices from both Maori and
Pakeha and strengthen the
ranks of the labor movement.
the Maori is
the cause of the working cla

The cause of

Jew y Zealand in a ceremonial dance.

and the cause of the working
class is that of New Zealand.

Stand of the New Zealand
Communist party is defined in
this section of its program,
New Zealand’s Road to So-
cialism.

But there still remains
the particular problems of the
Maori people. Their position
in New Zealand requires the
fullest democratic and _ the
most complete equality.

Their culture and their tri-
bal links have been almost
destroyed by the impact of
capitalism, and their language
is tending to die out. They are
discriminated against for hous-
ing and for jobs, and would
be the worst hit in another
slump.

The Maori people need more
than nominal equality. They
need full social equality based
on mutual respect, and on com-
pletely equal rights and facili-
ties in education, housing
(where special attention is
needed), medical services and
jobs. The use of their lan-
guage must be encouraged, and
all facilities made available
for the re-development of, and
fullest expression of, their
own culture.

In certain areas of New Zea-
land, where the Maori people
predominate, they must have
the right of determining the
course of their own economic
and cultural development, and
their relationship io the na-
tion as a whole. They will be
assisted to forge their own fu-
ture by the provision of special
financial aid for capital invest-
ment.

All outstanding land claims
will be settled in the interest
of the Maori people’s future
development.

Racial discrimination will be
made a criminal offense, and
Maoris and Pakehas will be
equal in their opportunity in
all aspects of life in New Zea-
land.

Literary portrait of

armchair philosopher

nae wae to yourself a young-

grandson of a Victorian
prime minister, descended
from one of Britain’s great
Whig families that played a
progressive part in their day.

That he has been brought
up to assume that all the good
things of life were theirs for
the taking, and separated by
an almost infinite gulf from the
wrokers who carried the Vic-
torian aristocracy on _ their
backs.

Such in the beginning was
the man depicted in Bertrand
Russell, The Passionate Scep-
tic, by Alan Wood. To him
and his contemporaries British
history had fitly culminated
in the rule of the Russells and
their kind.

As a young man _ Russell
went to Berlin and studied the
German socialist movement.
He didn’t like it. There were
dull meetings in horrid, stuffy
beer halls, and speeches im-
pregnated with Karl Marx. He
was interested enough to read
the whole of,Das Kapital. But
the theory of class struggle
repelled him.

Marxist Socialism was “in-
tolerant” and “sectarian.” The
only hope for the socialists
lay in cooperation with the
bourgeoisie. Otherwise the
capitalists would unite against
them, even at the price of mili-
tary dictatorship?

Curiously enough, some So-
cial Democratic leaders at
the time were reasoning in the
same way. The “revisionists”
under Bernstein, Sis thought
the time had come to shed the
class struggle and cooperate
with the bourgeoisie.

They converted a majority
of the party; and we know
what happened. When war
broke out in 1914, the Social
Democratic party betrayed
every principle of socialism
and democracy and supported
the imperialist war.

xt xt tt

Meanwhile Russell had made
a reputation as a philosopher,
but to my mind his philosophy
has always suffered from his
refusal to throw himself into

BERTRAND RUSSELL
When it comes to the point he
is on the side of man

the world of action.

It is the philosophy of a man
who has not had to work for
a living.

This weakness shows itself
in the case of Russell in a sort
of split-mindedness. No one
can altogether avoid action.
Action’ involves’ judging one
thing good and another thing
bad. But according .to Russell,
no logical argument can prove
that anything is good or bad.

As an armchair philosopher
he considers all such judg-
ments irrational and emotion-
al. Yet as a man of action, when
he condescends to be one, he
is as ready to call you a scoun-
drel as anyone else. His be-
havior is thus a_ perpetual
refutation of his philosophy.

bes xt xt 3

The First World War shock-
ed Russell out of ‘his detach-
ment. It is to his credit that
when he found that the Liberal
imperialists had committed the
people behind their backs to 4
murderous European war, he
reacted vigorously against it.

Not that he fully understood
the issues. He was not an
anti-imperialist on principle.
But he kicked at the price to
be paid, took the pacifist side,
was dismissed from his lec-
tureship at Camrbidge, and
went to prison for an anti-war
article written for the No-Con-
scription Fellowship.

After that there was no fu-
ture for him as a Liberal. He
became a Socialist.

He visited Moscow ‘in 1920
and had to concede, even at
that early date, that there was

hardly any drunkenness, “in-
finitely less” prostitution than
in any other capital and much
“well-ordered activity.” But it
was “ugly and brutal,” and
made him “infinitely unhap-

”

py. ;
He owned that his aversion

might be due to the fact that
he himself had never know?
hunger and want, and that in
Russia the methods of the Bol-
sheviks were “probably more
or less unavoidable.”

What is astounding is that
Russell reprinted this book 1m

1949 “virtually without altera-
tion.” No credit given for the
building of socialism,

for the —
diffusion of literacy over @—

sixth of the earth’s surface, ~
for the hurling back of Hitler. ©

No credit for anything.
Russell never ceased to ve

at bottom a Victorian individ-

ualist. In the end, at 82 years

of age, he was shaken into ac- ~
horrible —

tion by a thing more
than the First or even the See:
ond World War.

The hydrogen bomb of which
he had scientific knowledg?
enough to see all the implica-
tions forced him to broadcast

an appeal for peaceful coexis= ” :

tence, and to organize a joint
manifesto of world
on the danger.

When it comes to the point ~

3ertrand Russell is on the side
of man.

ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON

MAY 17, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 12

scientists

fe