New Zealand perspectives 2014 should be read in conjunction with previous years' perspective documents as they are a continuation from them.  In addition these perspectives should be read in conjunction with the latest World Perspectives analysis and associated material from the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) and Socialist Appeal NZ.

Since the attacks on America of 11th September, many people have been eagerly following events on TV, demonstrating the heightened interest in international affairs that has been reported from other countries on the In Defence Of Marxism web site. In the short run at least, many people have been taken in by the imperialist propaganda that has been pouring out of their TVs and other bourgeois media. Take my friend Joanne, for example. She is a Labour party member. But she thinks America is in the right. I tried to explain the far greater atrocities that the US government and big business have committed, but she did not buy it. Everything's different now, she says. She seems to think the threat of terrorism can somehow be surgically removed by military force. And she wants the New Zealand government to come down hard on potential terrorists over here. She is concerned about some Maori radicals who went to Libya for military training in the 1980's. I should point out that none of them have been stupid enough to actually put any of their military training into practice with terrorist acts. Indeed, one of them, Donna Awatere, is now an MP with the right-wing ACT Party! I would have thought that if the government were to start harassing people like that, it would be more likely to increase the possibility of terrorist incidents, not decrease it.