Renters United making its mark
A sharp, clear demonstration by Renters United in Wellington over the weekend injected some much-needed class demands into the election campaign. Renters United focus on the one-sided class war that’s been waged over the last decade or more not in our workplaces, but in our homes: rent out of control; power tipped massively to landlords […]
Review: Feels Good Man
A review of Feels Good Man, a documentary film directed by Arthur Jones. It was while skulking on the internet around 2008 that I first saw the image of Pepe the frog with his “feels good man” speech bubble. I thought to myself, ha, cool, this looks fun – what’s the story behind this? I […]
Black communism in the Great Depression
Angelo Herndon joined the Communist Party in 1930 in the depths of the Depression and Jim Crow segregation. The Black son of a coalminer, he had left home at 13 to work in the coalmines of Kentucky. Four years later, he was a Communist union organiser. After organising a desegregated protest against unemployment, he was […]
From anti-racism to liberation
The Black Lives Matter movement has succeeded, in just over a month, in moving mass consciousness and mass discussions over racism further than years of well-meaning educational programmes. The movement, in its size, youth, anger and multiracial composition, offers an image of hope and the way forward. The leadership of young Black demonstrators has given […]
Review: New light shed on Anti-Fascist Resistance
A review of: Anti-Nazi Germans, in two parts: Enemies of the Nazi State from within the Working Class Movement by Merilyn Moos and German Volunteers in the French Resistance by Steve Cushion, (Community Languages in association with the Socialist History Society, London, 2020) Martin Monath: A Jewish Resistance Fighter Among Nazi Soldiers, by Nathaniel Flakin, […]
Labour’s launch; lowering expectations
Jacinda Ardern’s speech at the Labour party’s election campaign in Auckland confirms that this time round Labour’s campaign is going to be completely different to 2017’s. In 2017 Labour rolled out an election manifesto that was a long shopping list of reforms. In government, Labour’s record over the last three years has been mixed. Labour […]
The Corruption of Local Government: Plimmerton Farm, Porirua
A whiff of corruption hangs over moves to urbanise Plimmerton Farm, a 384 hectare greenfield property within the Porirua district that has been bought by Plimmerton Development Ltd (PDL). The Porirua City Council and PDL are working together to get the property rezoned under the district plan from rural to an urban zone and pave […]
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 […]
