From Muller to Collins: National’s racist hit backfires
You could not make this up. Fifty-three days after stabbing Simon Bridges in the back, and fifty-three days out from 5 September when voting starts in the general election, Todd Muller resigns and is replaced by Judith Collins as National Party Leader. Amid the media focus on personalities, the real story is about how a […]
“All black lives matter”: In solidarity with the black transgender community
Some 200 people – including many from Wellington’s LGBTQI+ community – marched in solidarity with the Black transgender community in the US in Wellington over the weekend. The march was called after Merci Mack, a Black transgender woman, was murdered last week in the US. This brings the total number of reported transgender or gender-non-conforming […]
Defend the Hong Kong Democracy Movement!
In an act of retribution to the Hong Kong movement beginning last year, which has seen prolonged street clashes between the police and protestors, China has decided to unilaterally impose new national security laws to Hong Kong. These laws severely circumvent the city’s existing autonomy, mandating the establishment of Beijing-appointed security bureaus and more police to clamp […]
National’s Strategic Dilemma
Replacing Simon Bridges with Todd Muller is a piece of shuffling by the National Party caucus, and is more to do with style than substance. There is little that distinguishes the two men politically and, as Paul Goldsmith’s garbled responses to questions on Budget night around what he would have done differently to Grant Robertson […]
Student rent strike wins
Victoria University students were right to feel anger. On the Friday evening before the ANZAC long weekend, they received an email informing them that they would now have to resume paying hall fees of $150 a week through Level 3 lockdown for rooms they were not occupying and would not be able to access. This […]
Rebel Lives: Eleanor Marx
There have been plenty of women socialists whose records of activity are too little known but from whom we can draw inspiration and guidance for the struggles of today. One such whose record deserves celebrating is Eleanor Marx (1855-1898). This article will, hopefully, help revive knowledge of her contribution to the socialist movement for a […]
Hong Kong after the uprising
For the third time since the handover of Hong Kong from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty, the region exploded in protest in 2019. One million people took to the streets in a 9 June mobilisation called by the Civil Human Rights Front, a coalition of pro-democracy groups, in the biggest demonstration since 1997. Three days […]
For Solidarity: Maintain lockdown to save lives
Support essential workers! Give them PPE! Beware Slackening the Fight against COVID-19 The lockdown against the spread of COVID-19 is, among other things, a piece of class struggle. Workers socially distancing themselves and limiting their exposure to essential workers (keeping supermarket shopping to an absolute minimum and following distancing guidelines) are acting together to save […]
COVID-19 and the Crisis: a socialist response
Shomi Yoon gave this talk to a national meeting of the International Socialists discussing our organisation’s response to this emergency on April 3. At this stage, we’ve had one person pass from Covid-19 in New Zealand. The number of confirmed and probable cases is 868.Community transmission remains minimal at 1%. We won’t know whether the […]
Pandemic, the Left, and Workers’ Power
In the face of the economic and public health crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the US left oscillates between mutual aid efforts and parliamentary impotence. We need to take part in workers’ struggles today and prepare for the coming upsurge. There are over 140,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the US, but the actual […]
