Nightmare on Wall Street: Capitalism and Horror…
Ghost stories and monster tales might be as old as time but the horror genre itself really only came into being alongside modern capitalism. Beginning with the 18th century gothic novel, and growing to include several distinct sub-genres, horror blends into fantasy, thriller and crime novels at one end and science fiction at the other. […]
Michael Laws: a sexist, eugenicist toad
The exchange revealed by this blog post encapsulates the sheer inhuman malice of the capitalist system. Michael Laws is calling another person ‘monstrous’ for giving kindness and love to a child with Down Syndrome. He talks about abortion law in terms of how great it is that we can weed out what he sees as […]
ISO Hui-a-tau 2013 – Learning together, fighting for socialism
More than 40 members and supporters of the International Socialist Organisation met at Waipapa Marae, in the heart of Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland, last weekend for the revolutionary socialist organisation’s third national conference, and first-ever Auckland conference. A quarter of all children in New Zealand grow up in poverty. Austerity, cutbacks and exploitation remain the ruling-class agenda […]
“Stop the War on the Poor!” Crashing National’s Party
A quarter of children in New Zealand live in poverty, and 10% are in extreme poverty, according to a new study. What will Christmas be like for them? What will the financial stress mean for families and whanau? This is a world away from National Party members’ and supporters’ lifestyles. Last weekend they held a […]
Respect our Community! Stop the Motorway!
Last weekend we in the Tamaki branch of the ISO went to support the handing over of a petition containing 4000 signatories at the Mangere Festival. The Respect our Community! Stop the Motorway! campaign is headed by veteran activist and MANA member Roger Fowler. Local Labour MP Su’a Williams Sio spoke in support of stopping a massive transport […]
Alienation: The philosophical basis of Capitalism
Loss of control is the fundamental expression of alienation. Popularly, and particularly among psychologists, alienation is understood almost exclusively as a psychological state. It refers to a variety of disorders, including anxiety, despair, loneliness, apathy, meaninglessness and powerlessness. Some if not all of these problems will be intimately familiar to us, but are these just […]
Okinawa and the US Empire
Following a brutal and horrific battle between Japanese and US forces which claimed the lives of approximately one third of Okinawa’s population, Okinawa has been forced to house American militarism up until this day. Approximately 20 percent of the Okinawan mainland is used to house US military bases. Military crimes are commonplace and many of […]
Transforming our Unions: a report from the PSA Youth National Conference
Earlier this week the Public Service Association’s Youth Network (PSAY) held its annual conference. 90 members of the PSAY Network met to discuss issues relevant to young workers and build youth participation in the union. While young workers join the PSA and become delegates at roughly similar rates to their older colleges, they are under-represented […]
Marching against Rape Culture
International Socialist Organisation members joined over one thousand others in rallies across the country last weekend, protesting against rape and sexual violence. Members in Tamaki Makaurau report a lively and energetic, mostly young, crowd at that city’s demonstration. Many in the crowd were receptive to left-wing ideas and arguments: we distributed many hundreds of leaflets […]
“Roastbusters”, rape, misogyny and the police
What an appalling set of stories. Each day it gets worse. Revelations of the abuse suffered by young women in Auckland over the last few years, and then further revelations of how their stories and complaints were ignored or dismissed by Police, have horrified many. For days media outlets kept referring to this as a […]
