Key’s gone – now let’s get rid of National
All aboard for the gravy train. John Key just pulled off another coup, leaving at the top of his popularity (National just polled 47% to Labour’s 27%), forgoing the chance for a fourth term but avoiding any of the unpleasantness usually involved in leadership transitions. In fact, if anything sums up his style, it would be avoiding unpleasantness. […]
Labour wins Mt Roskill – what next?
Michael Wood, The Labour Party Candidate has swept the floor in the local Mt Roskill By-election to replace Phill Goff as the new MP for Mt Roskill. His main opponent the National Party’s Parmjeet Parmar trailed behind with a lower percentage of votes than her previous run against Phil Goff in 2014. Michael Wood received […]
Keeping the Faith – RIP Fidel
Fidel Castro has died. We mourn him from the depth of our hearts; for his victories and for his failings, for the achievements of the Cuban revolution and for its weaknesses but most of all for the achievements of his generation, for our own parents and our grandparents. Fidel Castro “invaded” Cuba, his homeland, in […]
Solitary confinement is torture!
The UN agrees, anyone with a conscience agrees, even the scum over at the Department of Corrections agree: solitary confine is torture. But change the name, call it “23-hour lockdown” and suddenly Corrections is perfectly fine with it. Well, we’re not. Corrections can pull whatever linguistic stunt they want; the meanings of words are determined […]
War Profiteers Not Welcome Here
“This is not a weapons trading event, this is normal everyday New Zealand businesses that supply goods and services to support the New Zealand Defence Force and Ministry of Defence” is what a representative said of yesterday’s Weapons Conference in Auckland’s Viaducts Event Centre, which was sponsored by none other than the world’s largest weapon’s […]
Class struggle – key to liberation
Shomi Yoon gave this talk to the International Socialism Day School, Newtown, Wellington, last month. It seems obvious that we need to understand the world in order to change it. Socialist strategy and tactics for liberation is not only about the downfall of capitalism but also for genuine liberation for all. A Marxist understanding of […]
Against Trump: supporting the resistance
There has been a protest called in Wellington tomorrow in the wake of Trump’s victory. The Facebook event page gives details here. This is important. Leaving aside the more complicated questions about Trump’s victory, what is clear is that Trump’s campaign deployed racism, Islamophobia and the scapegoating of immigrants. It is clear that Trump is […]
Tell Otago to #LoveHumanities
Last week between 300-400 people gathered outside the Union building at Otago University to protest proposed cuts to the Humanities division. Up to 20 jobs are at risk across the History, Anthropology and Archaeology, English, Languages, and Music departments, and the TEU has been vocal in its campaign against the cuts. There was a prior […]
Wellington solidarity with Syria
Around 60 people gathered outside the Russian embassy in Karori on Saturday afternoon to protest Russia’s military support for the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. The Russian state is helping to maintain the Assad dictatorship by providing crucial air support in the regime’s attempts to crush the Syrian revolution. Since September last year, Russian air […]
The Productivity Commission: problems dressed up as solutions
The NZ Productivity Commission is currently systematically reviewing tertiary education in this country. Chapter 12 of its draft report is entitled ‘A System that Supports New Models’. Here are some highlights (or lowlights): The re-introduction of interest rates on student loans, universities given complete autonomy to set fees without regulatory caps (‘unregulated fees’) to cover […]
