There are no white people
A pleasing irony to end the year: enrolments by non-Māori in Māori language courses in the Wellington region have surged recently, encouraged in part it seems by the reactionary campaign against the use of Te Reo Māori on Radio New Zealand. It’s a welcome sign. Socialists support any and all efforts to revitalise, preserve and […]
David McNally: from global slump to Trump
Long-time Canada-based activist and socialist David McNally is in New Zealand for both an academic conference and a socialist meeting at the University of Otago. Guy McCallum reports on McNally’s first New Zealand public talk: The Global Financial Crisis in 2008, one of many crises under capitalism, has led to austerity for the working class, […]
We Support the RMTU
The Wellington picket for the RMTU’s 24-hour strike on Thursday drew a steady stream of support. Alongside RMTU members, some of whom were at the picket from 6am to 6pm, unionists from the Tramways union, the PSA, E Tu, NZNO, PPTA, TEU and other unions turned up to tautoko the strike. “What we’re doing is […]
Wellington rail strike – end contracting out!
Privatisation, in the form of contracting out, lies behind the Wellington rail dispute between Rail and Maritime Transport Union members and their employers Transdev Wellington and its maintenance subcontractor Hyundai Rotem. Greater Wellington Regional Council contracted Transdev to operate the region’s passenger services from July 2016 for 15 years. Previously the service was run by […]
Labour must deliver
Labour has committed to working for what its Coalition Agreement with New Zealand First calls a ‘transformational government, committed to resolving the greatest long-term challenges for the country’. Listed amongst those long-term challenges are getting ‘decent jobs paying higher wages’ and reducing ‘poverty and inequality’. Jacinda Ardern campaigned on a message of hope and change. […]
Election 2017: Unsecured Futures
This election is not over. Fully 15% of votes remain uncounted; the shape of Parliament is undecided; coalition talks are underway. No single party has the ‘moral authority’, whatever that may mean, to govern. So these perspective remarks are necessarily provisional, speculative, open to correction and criticism. They offer a first attempt to make sense […]
Equal Pay: a breakthrough… and a struggle to come
In April 2017 the National government announced a massive pay rise for workers in the aged-care sector: two billion dollars over five years; 55,000 staff receiving a pay rise between 15 and 49 per cent; many will move from the minimum wage to a rate between $19 and $27 an hour. Socialists and trade unions […]
With the surge to Labour, or not?
Kick National Out! Build a socialist alternative! These are the slogans the ISO is campaigning around in this election. But what should they mean as we see this wave of enthusiasm for Labour? Martin Gregory offers his view: In this election campaign the Labour Party is reaping a tidal wave of enthusiasm from the working […]
National’s Appalling Record
The National Party is the party of business, employers and the wealthy; namely the capitalist class. If National are booted out in September, from their perspective they will at least be able to look back with satisfaction that since coming to power in 2008 they have tipped the balance even more in favour of the […]
Election 2017: Why vote, and why vote left?
The ISO is campaigning in this election around the slogan: “Kick National Out! Build a Socialist Alternative!” Our general position is given in this paper here. In this contribution, ISO member Brian Roper gives his view of how this slogan should be applied, arguing for a party vote Green. This article addresses some important questions: […]
