Democracy For Sale
Many adjectives have been used this week for the unfolding saga between Simon Bridges and Jami Lee Ross in the National Party – racist, ugly, disgraceful, corrupt, jihadi Jami…
A Wake Up Call: the Far Right in Aotearoa
Today around 80 supporters of the far right gathered in Aotea Square brandishing placards in support of Tommy Robinson. Robinson is a former member of the fascist British National Party, and founded the English Defence League. He and his cronies are committed to fighting the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe. Robinson is currently in jail for contempt of court.
NZNO Members in a Perilous Position
The members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation working at the country’s public hospitals and DHB provided services are in a perilous position since the union’s leaders abruptly cancelled one of the two strike days last week. The strike which should have taken place tomorrow, was cancelled last week after the union leaders said it had received a better offer. The union sat on the offer for the weekend before revealing it to be much the same as the previous offer.
Solidarity With All Immigrants
Just as you don’t have to be Palestinian to understand the brutality of Israeli policy in Gaza and the West Bank, or gay to feel the horror the cleansing in Chechnya, so you don’t have to be a parent to be outraged at what is happening on the US border. But it helps.
Stop the False Compromise
There is a pervasive myth on the left that while we may want to see significant, systemic change to society, we have to constantly tone down the demands we make and the reforms we argue for, because doing so will win support from business and the media and neutralise the arguments that National and their outriders try to make. This argument has been disproven time and time again
1968: The Year Paris Erupted
By Doug Robertson — Socialist Aotearoa It’s 50 years since Paris witnessed the incredible power of workers and students united, as millions took to the streets to challenge the reactionary French state, and shook the very class system to its core. We look at how events unfolded, and why the demands and action at their heart remain relevant today. On the 22nd of March 1968, 150 students, far left groups, poets and musicians occupied the administration building of Nanterre University…
A Return to the “Oppositional Behaviour of Last Century”
By Maria Hoyle — Socialist Aotearoa A couple of months back, PSA union leader Erin Polaczuk told the Listener magazine she was glad to be operating in a ‘mature era’, where battles are won in court rather than on testosterone-fuelled picket lines. Okay, so those weren’t her exact words but that’s pretty much the gist. That thanks to the ‘feminisation of unions”, that “stupid oppositional behaviour” – ie strikes – are a little bit, you know, last century. She cited…
Can We Save Capitalism? Or Should We Save the World?
By Lavinia — Socialist Aotearoa Capitalism has a problem. This is rather universally believed, with the main dispute being what that problem is. For many capitalists, the problem is an image problem or perhaps a more substantial problem to do with endless restructuring & staff reductions, outsourcing, commoditisation, price competition driving down wages, declining innovation and slow profit growth. Others think capitalism is under siege – with social problems de-legitimising business i.e. businesses have lost their ‘social contract to operate’…
Migrant Workers Fight Back
By the Migrant Workers’ Association Migrant workers are among the most vulnerable and exploited sections of the working class. The system and its laws conspire to put them in a position where they are easy targets, often too afraid to take on exploitative bosses for fear of losing even their meagre income. They are frequently used as slave labour, and it’s common for them to be bonded to a particular company for the duration of their visas. But recently a…
Bring Them Here
By Maria Hoyle — Socialist Aotearoa “In the West there was panic when the migrants multiplied on the highways. Men of property were terrified for their property. Men who had never been hungry saw the eyes of the hungry. Men who had never wanted anything very much saw the flare of want in the eyes of the migrants. And the mean of the towns and of the soft suburban country gathered to defend themselves; and they reassured themselves that they…