Fired Up Stilettos – Socialists Support Strippers’ Rights

Fired Up Stilettos Protest

A large crowd gathered on Dixon Street last night to rally in support of 19 strippers who had been unfairly sacked from Calendar Girls strip club for attempting to renegotiate their contracts. These workers have begun organising under the name Fired Up Stilettos, launching a petition to end labour violations in adult entertainment, a gofundme […]

A Profile on Wayne Brown

Current Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown ran as an independent candidate and won the election for appointment of mayoralty in October 2022. Described as “centre-right” by news publications such as 1 News and RNZ, the self-described ‘anti-establishment’ businessman campaigned on a platform of slimlining council staff roles, reducing rates and replacing all council entity directors. Just […]

Teachers and the Climate Crisis: An Interview With a Unionist

Note that this interview was conducted on the 8th of February 2023. Subsequent events such as Cyclone Gabrielle, which has devastated parts of the North Island, have shed further light on these issues. Simon Hirini is a secondary school teacher, chair of the Taita College branch of the Post-Primary Teachers Association, and Executive rep for […]

Controlling Inflation, or Class War?

The Reserve Bank is tasked by the government to keep inflation low, in the range of 1 to 3 percent, while supporting “maximum sustainable employment.” Having regard for maximum sustainable employment was added to the bank’s remit by Labour in 2018. National’s policy is to abolish it. So is the maximum sustainable employment policy a […]

After Ardern

So much has happened in these past years – the pandemic, the massacre in Christchurch, the disaster at Whakaari White Island, justice struggles at Ihumātao, the Climate Strikes, Black Lives Matter’s enormous mobilisations globally, war in Ukraine, resistance and rebellion in Iran, suppression in Hong Kong – it can be difficult to take stock of […]

Fair Pay Agreements: A Welcome though Imperfect Mercy

Ē tu and PSA supporting FPAs

The Fair Pay Agreements Bill cleared Parliament on 26 October 2022 and will likely come into law in December. National and ACT voted against and vowed to repeal the new law as soon as they can. That is no idle threat. With a general election due next year any future for FPAs would appear to […]

A Full Tide for Socialism

Tide - ISO

When the International Socialists met for our national conference over Queen’s Birthday weekend, we had an opportunity to reflect on how exciting, but also how difficult, the past years have been.  Exciting because, finally, after decades of low levels of class struggle, our side is on the move again: there have been strikes and struggles […]

Countering the Far Right in Aotearoa Today

This is a report and analysis of far right parties in New Zealand, with consideration given to the nature of those parties. Serah Allison’s report, published on 29 August 2022, contains much more detail on the far right rally and counter-rally in Te Whanganui-a-Tara on 23 August. The first part of this report complements Serah’s. […]

Protesting the Far-Right in Te Whanganui-a-Tara

July and August 2022 saw Destiny Church’s Freedom and Rights Coalition (FRC) organise several rallies around Aotearoa, most of which were counter-protested. The counter-protest in Ōtepoti  was particularly successful. These FRC rallies formed a campaign culminating in a convoy from both ends of Aotearoa to converge with a march to Parliament on the 23rd August. […]

Stop the far-right ‘Freedom and Rights Coalition’

Freedom Rights Coalition Brian Tamaki

The Freedoms and Rights Coalition, a creation of Brian and Hannah Tamaki, is associated with the Christian-fundamentalist Destiny Church. It came to notice last October when, in contravention with the health emergency restrictions, it organised an anti-lockdown protest on Auckland Domain. The FRC continued to organise or participate in anti-lockdown, anti-vaxx and anti-mandate demonstrations. It […]