In response to the previous poster, the Workers Party does not make it its political mission to advocate mass assimilation to any "culture", since culture is in itself a continually evolving product of changes in the relations of material and social reproduction.

What we are in favour of is workers being able to express themselves in whatever way they chose whether that be linguistically, sexually or politically.

If Maori workers feel the need to maintain their own separate organisations and political representation then we would respect that, however we would hope that over time this would become less and less necessary and it is not something that we would want to actually encourage and advocate.

This is because Maori "culture" - like every other "culture" including "Pakeha culture", includes many aspects which are reactionary and antithetical to the realisation of true human liberation - in addition to the more positive ones.

At the end of the day there is no benefit to be had in elevating and romanticising certain "cultures" simply because they are oppressed.

To me it seems that the key focus instead for the left should be on championing the widest possible extension of democracy and freedom of expression, so that individuals no longer suffer from the burden of special oppression which currently makes them reluctant to relinquish their separate "cultural" or national identities, and become instead simply fellow workers or human beings.