Rebuilding Our Unions
Dougal McNeill gave this talk as an introduction to one of the sessions at the ISO’s recent national conference / hui-a-tau, held in Auckland in December. This talk is of necessity arranged in a bitsy, fragmentary, tentative way. That’s because this is the kind of year we’ve had – there has been no single event […]
Web Round-Up: January
A round-up of interesting links and articles from January. The Nasty Nats John Minto profiles Paula Bennett, the politician who wanted all beneficiaries to be subject to invasive blood tests. A picture from summer: John Key is a member of the ruling elite, and nobody should forget this image: two multi-millionaires, forcing austerity policies on […]
Wellington in Solidarity with Egyptian Revolutionaries
January 25th marks three years since Egypt’s revolutionary uprisings ended the rule of Mubarak. Today on four continents protests are happening in solidarity with Egypt’s revolutionaries. We initiated a symbolic picket in Wellington today to link Aotearoa with this global solidarity, and were joined by local anarchists and supporters of the International Bolshevik Tendency. Our […]
Korean Railway Strike – What’s at Stake?
On 31 December, thousands of Korean railway workers returned to work after a three-week strike against government plans to set up a subsidiary company to operate a Korean Train express (KTX) service in competition with the state run Korail. It was the longest railway strike in South Korean history. Korail management and the right wing […]
Daniel Bensaïd’s Slow Impatience
Daniel Bensaïd, An Impatient Life, trans. David Fernbach (Verso, 2013) This absorbing, affecting memoir is a beautiful testament to a richly productive and dignified life. Daniel Bensaïd spent over forty years as a partisan of the revolutionary left in France, writing, campaigning, organising and agitating. Drawn into Communist politics as a young man and then […]
Hillside was the heart of working class in the South
This is the transcript of a speech given at the anniversary of the closure of Kiwirail’s Hillside workshop in Dunedin by Andrew Tait on Friday 20th December, 2013. Right now in Korea, the railway workers union is out on strike against privatising rail. The government has met the strike with repression but this is nothing new […]
Family Court Reforms
The war on the poor has extended its reach to the Family Court. In the guise of protecting the vulnerable and improving the experience of those needing assistance to resolve family disputes the Government has reformed the Family Court fundamentally. Although the Minister of Justice consulted with an expert advisory group what became clear when […]
Auckland Taxi Drivers Show Direct Action Works
A group of taxi drivers at Auckland International Airport went on a hunger strike in protest late last year over their working conditions. This dispute started when President Taxis were notified that this company would no longer have a contract with Auckland Airport. About 50 drivers are employed by President taxis which means they will […]
Socialist Summer Reading: the best of 2013
Socialist Review asked some left-wing writers for their picks from 2013. We hope there are suggestions here you can enjoy during your summer reading. Tina Makereti: My discovery of the year was poet / novelist / essayist / short fiction writer Kei Millar. I have only read his most recent novel The Last Warner Woman […]
False advertising in Radio NZ prostitution discussion
Last month, National Radio’s Jim Mora hosted a panel discussion about prostitution in Christchurch. As usual with Mora’s show, this involves a bunch of yuppies pontificating about the issues of the day. For this show though, Mora introduced Debbie Baker from ‘Street Reach’ as an advocate for women working in the sex industry. Oddly enough […]
