Chilean Plebiscite: Significance
Samuel Flewett, a socialist from New Zealand based in Chile, sends this report on the recent victory at the polls there. On Sunday, the 25th of October, 78% of us voted to send the Pinochet-era constitution to the dustbin. The masterpiece of Pinochet’s chief political theoretician Jaime Guzmán, admirer of Francisco Franco, and one-time activist […]
Labour’s Victory: a Confirmation, and an Opportunity
This was a win on an historic scale. You have to go back almost eighty years, to the First Labour Government’s victories in 1938 and 1946, to find suitable comparisons for Labour shares of the popular vote so commanding, and so clear. This was Labour’s best result since MMP was introduced, and the Greens’ third […]
Convergence on the Right: What’s Driving the Rise of Conspiracy Theories?
If the election has been dominated in the mainstream by the centre-left, Labour and Jacinda Ardern, on the right-wing dangerous fringes are enjoying a worrying rise. ACT’s increased vote share is the most visible but, further right, conspiracy-theory-fuelled parties are drawing big crowds. Conspiracy theories have always been the realm of the far right – […]
The Right to Live and Die: Critical support to proposed euthanasia reforms
A reader of the site, John Ashborne, contributes to the debate on the End of Life Choice Act referendum. It was with great concern that I read the views expressed in the ISO’s 18 August article on the upcoming euthanasia referendum (“Thoughts on the End of Life Choice Act Referendum”, by Dougal McNeill and Serah […]
Thoughts on the End of Life Choice Act referendum
The ISO has not adopted a position on the End of Life Choice Act referendum. This personal contribution from two members sets out their argument for voting ‘no’. The New Zealand General Election will take place on October 17th, 2020. When voting, we will each have the opportunity to vote in two referenda. Though the […]
VUW Panel on End of Life Choice Act
The New Zealand General Election is fast approaching. In addition to the customary option to vote for a party and an electoral candidate, there will simultaneously be two referenda. One of those will be about whether or not to pass into law particular processes to allow people with terminal illness the option of assisted death […]
Marching for Black Lives
Yesterday upward of 10,000 people marched down Queen street in solidarity with the rebellions sweeping the United States in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police. The immense power of the unleashing of centuries of trauma has spread rapidly across cities all over the United States, and now […]
Thank you, rioters
Once again, Black America has surged to the front lines of the global struggle. This year, the United States has stood out primarily as a leading centre of right-wing lunacy, political breakdown and murderous incompetence in the pandemic. Now, it is showing the world something else: the potential for sudden eruptions of mass resistance that […]
Rising Tides, Raging Fires: the Capitalist Climate Crisis
This talk about the capitalist roots of the climate crisis was presented at Victoria University of Wellington on 3 March 2020. ISO member Emile Wilmar gives a historical account of how the environment has been exploited under different forms of class society and how capitalism, by its very nature, brings us to the brink of […]
Dual Crisis: COVID-19 and Capitalism
This talk was presented by ISO member Josh O’Sullivan at a national hui on workers organising during the pandemic, 11 May 2020.
