The Charter Schools Debacle
Three years on, Christchurch people are still struggling with the aftereffects of the 2011 earthquakes – insurance, lives disrupted, homes damaged. Workers and the poor, struggling to get by with less and in an insecure, uncertain city, feel all of this particularly keenly. Schools – the centres of community – should be places that give […]
Web Round-Up: March
A round-up of interesting links and articles from March. National Party Scumbags – Fancy Dinner Edition Auckland Action Against Poverty held a protest outside the Young Nats’ ball early in April – see our report here. Judith Collins’ web of lies and deceit around her dinner with Oravida in China this month have finally started […]
Protesting National’s War on Beneficiaries
The class divide in Aotearoa was open for all to see on Saturday night as anti-poverty protesters heckled and jeered attendees at the Young Nats’ ball. The protest, organised by Auckland Action Against Poverty and supported by other groups including the International Socialists, Unite Union and the Mana Party, aimed to draw attention to the increasing […]
Bludgers on a Binge
It’s a case for the Taxpayers’ Union: Two bludgers on a binge. He’s just come out of a couple of years running with a violent mob called the ‘RAF’ and is now scrounging off the public purse; she’s one of these women who thinks having babies on welfare is a career plan. Paula Bennett is passionate […]
Marching Against the TPPA
TPPA, No Way! We’re going to fight it all the way! Chants like this were booming nationwide against the government’s commitment to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement – a secret agreement between 12 countries that will be so “beneficial” that the government has not disclosed a single iota of what will negotiated. Today organizations and groups like […]
Millionaires, Mana, and the Poverty of Politics
What the hell was Mana party boss Gerard Hehir thinking? When German millionaire Kim Dotcom picked up his Swarovsky crystal cellphone and dialled Hone Harawira, why didn’t Hone just hang up? If Mana aims to represent the poor, is a deal with a millionaire going to build the “brand”? Mana struggles to be taken seriously […]
Review: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Chadwick’s Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a biographical film about the late Nelson Mandela’s life. The film takes its audience through Mandela’s life from his early years as a lawyer to him eventually becoming president. One of the first things which stood out to me about this film was the amount of violence. Long […]
Christchurch: No Place for Race Hate
For the last couple of years, Kommandante Kyle Chapman, New Zealand’s answer to Benito Mussolini, has been rallying the troops on the United Nations Race Relations Day. In what the ballheads no doubt consider a masterful stroke of strategy, the swastika-tattooed, jackbooted, blackshirts deny the march is inspired by racism, let alone Adolf Hitler, instead […]
Under Which Flag?
“Treasury tells us there are 285 000 kids living in poverty, the Ministry of Health tells us that 100 000 of them are going to school hungry every day… and the Prime Minister tells us he wants to change the flag! Eliminating child poverty, homes for all families and jobs for everyone – those are […]
Once We Built a Tower
Once We Built a Tower, a new play from award-winning socialist playwright Dean Parker, has just opened at Bats in Wellington. Socialist Review caught up with the play’s director, David Lawrence, to get some sense of this production. The Bacchanals have quite a history of putting on political plays, and have worked with Dean Parker […]
