Warning, warning F.S.U!

Dear FSU, 

                  Thank you for your reply and your kind offer. 

                        

Although I do not have my exact words on hand, as they were submitted via contact form, the gist of them was twofold.

 

I have used the services of the Free Speech Union (F.S.U.) to be informed, represented and to promote some of my views while providing protection to others. Formerly, this consisted of podcasts, articles and advocacy with at least a good portion of the protection coming from fundraising via direct donation or indirect. Both of which I have contributed to (Dad complimented the Liberty Blush).

 

If I look at the cost of other Unions then the $200 membership fee is low. Using an average wage of $62,000[^2] and assuming a 40-hour week then it seems very low with E tu, First and PSA unions costing roughly $500 per annum. However, each of these Unions covers a huge range of employment matters, the F.S.U. only stands for freedom of speech, of conscience, and of intellectual enquiry. A far smaller scope even if long overlooked.

 

A better comparison might be the A.C.L.U. or the mother organisation of the F.S.U. in the UK. Both organisations have starting rates of roughly $60NZ in line with the old price of New Zealand membership. I am aware that costs are rising in New Zealand and that the Union needs to expand, but I would have expected any major increase in membership cost to be at most a doubling not a quadrupling. 

 

It appears to me that the primary reason for that quadrupling is to provide industry specific memberships such as the Academic membership outlined in recent emails. These memberships are not open to all the members yet have the same cost[^1] meaning the cost of the industry specific services will be carried by the general membership. I find it doubtful that specific industries will have their own membership because they are cheaper.

 

 

According to this year's Consumer Pulse Report[^3] around a quarter of New Zealanders are not saving at all with a number of other pain points identified in what appears to be a worsening situation. This price hike will make it even harder for those people to afford the protection of the F.S.U. and at the same time these people are probably the most vulnerable to free speech abuses in their workplace, especially those that will not be opposed by any other union.

 

This creates a risk that the Union will become even more elite than it already is. Freedom of speech is a difficult, sometimes counterintuitive and occasionally painfully difficult idea to follow as members of the Council[^4] have found in the past. Erecting a financial barrier between the Union and the general population will push it further from a pragmatic and workable position of free speech toward an intellectual version. 

 

In my view this niche intellectual thinking has created and exacerbated many of the logical inconsistencies that abound in New Zealand society such as why a Maori Health Authority in itself was not an example of structural racism, transwomen's self depictions of women are not hyper-sexist characterisations, kia ora in an English conversation is Maori but octopus is not Greek, etc…

 

The list is huge, but the point is that while collecting the like-minded into these intellectual subgroups allows a deeper examination they need to be exposed to the uninitiated to see if general laugher ensues.

 

Free Speech is not just for the well off. It should not be a class distinction. It should not depend on the education, ethnicity, sex, religion or language of the speaker. Free speech and the Union that represents it should be as accessible as possible, You, it, we will never be perfect. But at least we will have a voice.

 

 

Thank you if you made it this far. That took considerably more time to write than I wanted to spend and I imagine the same reasoning holds for reading it on your side.

 

I would like to respectfully turn down your offer of a discounted membership. Partly in solidarity with the people who can no longer afford a membership and partly because I want to sit back for a minute and see what direction the growth of the Union takes. Thank you all for your past present and future work on this issue. It is vital to New Zealand to have a principle of talking with each other especially on difficult topics.

 

Goodbye, Tane.

 

[^1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20240508224222/https://www.fsu.nz/academic_membership

[^2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20240508003506/https://www.jobted.co.nz/salary

[^3]: https://www.canstar.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Consumer-Pulse-Report-NZ-2024.pdf

[^4]: https://www.fsu.nz/don_t_push_hatred_underground_expose_it