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New Zealand government vows ‘even closer’ alliance with US under Donald Trump

Harry November 8, 2024

New Zealand’s coalition government, led by the right-wing National Party, wasted no time in congratulating fascist Donald Trump on his victory in the US presidential election and promising to strengthen the military-intelligence alliance between the two countries.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon delivers state of the country speech (Photo: Christopher Luxon Facebook)

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon issued a statement praising “strong and enduring” ties with the United States, saying: “I look forward to developing even closer relations with the incoming Trump Administration.”

“We will continue to work in partnership with the United States to advance our common long-term interests, particularly by further developing our trade and economic relations and building security and resilience in the Indo-Pacific,” he emphasized.

New Zealand is a minor imperialist power with interests in the Pacific region and internationally. It is part of the US-led Five Eyes intelligence alliance (which also includes Australia, Canada and the UK). The country has been integrated into US-led wars: The current government has sent military personnel to help bomb Yemen and sent military personnel to the UK to train Ukrainian soldiers in the US-NATO war against Russia.

Successive Labor and National Party governments have also supported US militarization of the Indo-Pacific in preparation for war against China. Talks are ongoing for New Zealand to join the AUKUS military agreement, which involves the US and UK providing Australia with military technology as well as nuclear-powered submarines and other weapons.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB on Thursday, Foreign Minister Winston Peters compared Trump’s victory to his return to parliament as leader of the right-wing nationalist New Zealand First Party. “We have a similar path,” he said. “You see what happened after 2020, he went out and talked to people all over the United States and pulled himself together.”

NZ First plays an important role in the current government, despite being deeply unpopular and receiving just over 6 per cent of the vote in the 2023 election. It aired on a platform that mirrored Trump’s, with calls for anti-immigrant and anti-transgender demagoguery, promises of more prisons and tougher “law and order” measures, and promotion of anti-vaccine pseudoscience.

Peters accused the media of being “toxic” and “biased” for belittling both him and Trump after 2020. He also criticized former Labor Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for meddling in the US election. Ardern joined the Democratic Party-affiliated think tank Center for American Progress and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in support of Kamala Harris.

NZ First was part of Ardern’s coalition government from 2017 to 2020. Peters still holds the same positions today, serving as foreign minister and deputy prime minister and playing a central role alongside Ardern in strengthening ties with the first Trump administration and promoting a stronger United States. Military presence in the Pacific.

Labour’s full support for US imperialism was highlighted by Ardern’s embrace of Harris, a war criminal directly responsible for the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. The party’s stance will not change under the Trump administration. Current Labor leader Chris Hipkins posted on X congratulating Trump on his victory.

Teanau Tuiono, foreign affairs spokesman for Labour’s ally the Greens, declared in a statement that the election “should be a wake-up call that our country must stay away from the AUKUS military agreement”. He called Trump “a volatile firebrand with fascist tendencies” and pointed out that “the United States has a hand in atrocities in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East.” He called for “a return to an independent and principled approach in foreign relations.”

This is complete hypocrisy. The Greens were part of Ardern’s coalition government for six years and supported New Zealand’s alliance with the United States, including its involvement in the war against Russia over Ukraine. The party has previously supported Labor governments that sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan to support criminal and predatory wars launched by the US.

The Greens and some Labor members are concerned that New Zealand’s rush to join the AUKUS agreement, which is clearly aimed at China, will lead to economic blowback. China handles the majority of New Zealand’s trade. But the Labour-Greens government has opened talks with the US and Australia about joining AUKUS and has pledged to significantly expand New Zealand’s military in preparation for war against China.

Working people should take Luxon and Peters’ words to side with fascist Trump as a serious warning. In response to the historic crisis of capitalism, the political order in every country is shifting rapidly to the right, turning to militarism abroad and preparing for authoritarian oppression of the working class at home.

Trump has vowed to deploy the US military against protesters and political opponents, including socialists, whom he calls “the enemy within” and to round up and deport millions of immigrants.

In New Zealand, the government is pouring funds into the military and building new prisons, while fueling nationalism and racist hatred against indigenous Maori, in an effort to divide workers and direct anger at rising unemployment and brutal austerity measures.

The far-right ACT and NZ First parties have a very narrow base of support. Like Trump, they have managed to gain political power by exploiting public frustration and anger towards those seen as “left” in the absence of a genuine socialist alternative.

Like the Biden-Harris administration in the US, New Zealand Labor lost the 2023 election due to responsibility for a deep social crisis. Ardern’s government has carried out a historic transfer of wealth to the rich, causing inequality and homelessness to soar. It has also adopted a criminal “let it rip” strategy for Covid-19, which has caused thousands of deaths. The union bureaucracy, like its counterparts in the United States, has suppressed resistance to mass layoffs, health and education cuts, and pro-corporate restructuring.

The task of workers and young people in New Zealand who want to defend democratic rights and oppose fascism and war is to break away from the Labor Party and its allies and build the Socialist Equality Group, which is fighting to establish the New Zealand branch of the International Committee. of the Fourth International. Only the struggle of workers around the world for socialism can end genocide and the growing danger of a devastating world war and ensure equality for all.