Equal Pay for Women: the Long Struggle
Kristine Bartlett is a hero. Her case put the question of equal pay back at the centre of politics. Bartlett has been employed for twenty years doing socially vital work as a carer for the elderly, and yet she was paid an insulting $14.46 an hour. This, Bartlett and the SFWU argued, breached the Equal Pay […]
The Housing Question in Dunedin
In early 2014 Finance Minister Bill English boasted that the government’s new housing policy would see “the biggest changes in state housing since it was invented”. He was not talking about the vastly increased dividend that the government demands from HNZ ($215 million net in the 4 years up to 2013), or changes to the […]
The Anzac Spectacle: Gallipoli, Peter Jackson and the politics of forgetting
This year New Zealand and Australia commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign. One hundred years ago thousands of Allied troops invaded what was then the Ottoman Empire on April 25th 1915. The ensuing eight month battle was a grim and bloody affair fought within a tiny section of the Mediterranean coastline. Casualties were […]
The Poison of Nationalism
“What we need is an outright ban on foreigners owning land or houses in New Zealand.” “This 3rd great [Chinese] colonisation could finally be a bridge building event between Pakeha and Maori.” You’d be forgiven if you thought these quotes are from a National Front website. Building a bridge for a coming race war? Foreigners […]
Celebrating Unite’s struggle against Zero Hour Contracts
In a campaign reminiscent of Unite Union’s SuperSizeMyPay.com getting workers on to collective contracts from a decade ago, once again Unite has burst onto the industrial scene to take on the fast food giants and against all odds, win. The campaign brought out courageous stories of workers speaking out against their exploitation and zero-hours contracts, […]
Chinese are not to blame – a New Zealand Housing Crisis
Auckland and Christchurch are in severe housing crises due to a lack of supply among other things. In Auckland, according to Fiona Rotheram in The Listener, the average house price is now $776,729 as of February and is at its highest since before the global financial crisis. An Auckland house now worth $1,000,000, earned $2200 […]
Māori and Communism in the 1930s
The miseries of the Great Depression hit Māori workers particularly hard. Mass unemployment, poverty, slave-labour like conditions in relief works, poor housing and slumlords profiteering from renting out hovels – this was the fate of many hundreds of thousands of workers across the country. Māori workers, still concentrated in rural areas and in some of […]
Socialists gather in Sydney
Socialists from across Australia gathered in Sydney last weekend for a conference promoting Marxism and radical change in Australia and around the world. Over 360 people attended speeches and discussions on range of topics, from Marxist philosophy to fighting back against racism and the far right, and the crisis in Europe. It was the first […]
A historic vote in Greece, but challenges ahead
It is the morning after the biggest celebration Greece has seen since the fall of military rule. An emphatic 61 percent of people voted OXI (“no”) in the country’s referendum on whether to accept European-enforced austerity. People gathered in Syntagma Square in central Athens and in squares around the country. Families celebrated together in their […]
Who’s to blame for the Greek tragedy?
Unpayable debts, a catastrophic economic depression and teetering on the brink total collapse. How did Greece get into this position? The most popular answer is that public spending has been too high, and the government sector bloated. It sounds plausible when the entire story revolves around debt. After all, everyone knows that debt is the […]
