The Daily Blog, which supports New Zealand’s opposition Labour and Green Parties, published an article on May 5 enthusiastically endorsing right-wing New Zealand Herald columnist Matthew Hooton’s proposal for compulsory military training.
Writing that “universal military service isn’t such a stupid idea,” the blog’s editor Martyn Bradbury suggested that it be for a period of 10 months and apply to all people aged 16 to 18 not in education or training. Participants could choose to do charity or environmental work, such as planting trees, in addition to military training.
Such a scheme, Bradbury declared, is “incredibly important for the fabric of our society:” it would instill “strong civic values” and a “sense of self identity and nationhood.” This echoes Hooton’s statement that military service would “help with nation-building and social cohesion.”
Bradbury concluded his article with the patriotic slogan: “Don’t ask what Aotearoa New Zealand can do for you, ask what can you do for Aotearoa New Zealand!”
The Daily Blog is silent about the real purpose of military service: funnelling young people into the armed forces so they can be used as cannon fodder in the service of imperialism. The armed forces have experienced significant levels of attrition in recent years, which the right-wing National Party-led government is determined to turn around.
The government, supported by the Labour Party, has committed to doubling military spending. The ruling class aims to integrate New Zealand more fully into the US imperialist build-up to war against China, as well as the NATO war against Russia and efforts to carve up the Middle East.
Across the world, the ruling class is responding to the breakdown of capitalism by militarising society and preparing young people to fight. Conscription is now being openly discussed in Germany, Britain and other European countries, as the imperialist powers seek to violently redivide the world and reduce large parts of it to colonial slavery.
While advertising itself as “liberal” and “left wing,” the Daily Blog promotes the same nationalist and militarist agenda as the entire parliamentary establishment, the union bureaucracy and the corporate media.
This is not the first time that the blog has called for military training for unemployed youth. In 2016, it backed a similar proposal by the right-wing nationalist New Zealand First Party, which is part of the present coalition government.
Bradbury has friendly relations with Hooton, who was a regular guest last year on The Working Group, a political podcast co-hosted by Bradbury. Hooton is a former advisor to both the National Party and its far-right coalition partner, the ACT Party.
Both Hooton and Bradbury said military service should be funded as part of the plan to double military spending from 1 to 2 percent of gross domestic product, with an additional $12 billion over the next four years. This will be funded with deep cuts to healthcare, education and other public services.
The Daily Blog has attacked the government from the right, demanding an even bigger increase in military spending to 3 percent of GDP.
“We can’t pretend we are in a benign environment any longer,” Bradbury wrote on March 3, echoing the government’s mantra. He supported moves to create a New Zealand-based drone manufacturing industry and to improve surveillance and combat capabilities, to push back against what he called “our Chinese Economic Overlords” and to act independently of the United States.
This vast military build-up is not about defending New Zealand or establishing its “independence.” The country has not come under foreign attack since British colonisation in the 19th century. Rather, the aim is to maintain New Zealand’s status as a minor imperialist power in the Pacific region, in an alliance with the US. This is why New Zealand has sent troops to successive criminal US-led wars—including against Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq—and is contributing personnel to the bombing of Yemen and training Ukrainian troops to fight against Russia.
Bradbury says New Zealand’s navy and air force must be capable of patrolling the “Realm of New Zealand,” which includes far-flung Pacific island colonies—the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau—and parts of Antarctica. In February, Bradbury published an article supporting Hooton’s inflammatory call for New Zealand to invade the Cook Islands in order to overturn its economic agreements with China.
In an article on May 4, Bradbury ranted that “China has managed to gain enormous power in NZ by economically owning us, having a huge diaspora living here and gaining access to bottling our water.” He demanded that “proven collaborators” of the Chinese Communist Party “be expelled from the country immediately.” This closely resembles the anti-Chinese demagogy of the NZ First Party.
The Daily Blog has repeatedly echoed the war propaganda of the CIA and the Trump administration, including the fascist lie that COVID-19 originated in a laboratory in Wuhan. Bradbury has hysterically attacked the Socialist Equality Group as “Chinese enablers” and demanded that it be investigated by the New Zealand intelligence agencies for “possible treason,” because of the SEG’s opposition to its warmongering.
None of Bradbury’s middle class “left” collaborators has opposed his pro-war positions. These include the Labour-aligned BHN podcast (where Bradbury is a regular guest) and John Minto, the leading spokesperson for the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.
Minto’s futile appeals to the government to sanction Israel for its genocide in Gaza are published on the Daily Blog alongside Bradbury’s demands for greater military spending and conscription, and his unhinged attacks on the SEG and on Chinese people.
The Daily Blog was founded in 2013 with financial support from three trade unions: Unite, the Rail and Maritime Transport Union and the New Zealand Dairy Workers Union.
The union bureaucracy is supporting New Zealand’s military build-up, while suppressing opposition to the government’s austerity measures. The Public Service Association, the largest union, which has helped to impose thousands of redundancies across multiple government agencies, has demanded more funding for the Defence Force to ensure that “our military is combat ready.”
There is widespread opposition to war, as seen in the anti-genocide protests. But a real movement against imperialist war can only be built in opposition to the entire middle class nationalist milieu represented by the Daily Blog, which seeks to chain workers to the capitalist parties, including Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori, and the trade union apparatus.
What is required is the mobilisation of the working class against capitalism, the root cause of war and the attacks on living standards and public services. To unite workers of all nationalities and backgrounds, workers must defend the rights of immigrants and reject the Daily Blog’s anti-Chinese xenophobia and its threats against Pacific island countries.