TPPA – this fight is not over
More than 20,000 demonstrators brought Auckland’s CBD to a standstill on Thursday, protesting the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Braving threats of a heavy-handed response from police, activists blockaded the signing venue at the SkyCity casino, shutting down intersections and impeding traffic in the surrounding area. As their numbers swelled through the morning, […]
Blockading the TPPA
It was inspiring to be a part of the TPPA blockade at Sky-City on February 4th 2016. The numbers of those who turned up, from near and far, were more than I had expected. We gathered in Aotea square, from all walks of life and prepared for what may lay ahead. Real Choice, the organisers […]
Wellington Stand Up for Women
A large crowd gathered in Wellington’s Glover Park yesterday to demonstrate solidarity with those under threat of sexual violence and to take a stand against misogyny. The protestors looked exactly how you would expect: diverse, colourful and seemingly undaunted by attempts at intimidation. This admirable display of backbone is perhaps not so surprising given that […]
No TPPA! Grasping Tuwhare’s Elusive Star
Normally I’d open here with statistics. I’d give you a scale of numbers, refer back to the biggest estimate, talk, only slightly ironically, about the power in numbers. Power in a few hundred, couple thousand. Today, I’m opening with the power in tens of thousands. 20,000-30,000 people marching through Auckland city; shutting down roads, business, […]
Making the Zika threat worse
Images of Black and Brown people suffering an epidemic viral disease are flooding television screens yet again. This time, however, it isn’t Ebola but the Zika virus that is the culprit. The current outbreak of the Zika virus evokes similar racist fears to those surrounding the 2014 Ebola epidemic–but more than that, the explosion in […]
Dunedin Protests the TPPA
The TPPA may be signed this week but opposition to the free trade agreeement is riding higher than ever. In Dunedin on Friday night, TPPA opponent Prof Jane Kelsey spoke to a capacity crowd of 350 or so people in Burns Hall. The battle was far from over, she said. The signing of the treaty […]
When Black Workers Organized Against Jim Crow
Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression by Robin Kelley. A twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this wonderful classic work of workers’ history was published last year. Robin Kelley has magnificently brought to light the little known struggles of communist party-supporting workers and sharecroppers, the majority of whom were black, under ferocious conditions of […]
No Pride in Prisons
Monday 11 January No Pride in Prisons hosted a public forum on the prison abolitionist kaupapa. Members of the group addressed a packed art gallery space on Tory Street with a series of short talks, presentations and poetry readings followed by public discussion. The topics of discussion ranged from the role and function of prisons, […]
Reflecting on 2015
A session of the annual conference (27-29 November) of the International Socialist Organisation of Aotearoa/New Zealand was devoted to a discussion of the national political situation. The following is an abridged version of the introduction given by Martin Gregory. Let’s start with the economy. In recent times, in terms of Gross Domestic Product, the economy […]
Socialist Summer Reading: the best of 2015
We asked writers, activists and intellectuals to offer their picks from this year for summer reading suggestions. Lyndy McIntyre In 2015, as movements against austerity and inequality gathered strength around the globe, the Living Wage movement blossomed in Aotearoa. The deeply counter-cultural movement depends on building strong alliances across faith and community groups and unions […]
