Stop the far-right ‘Freedom and Rights Coalition’
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 […]
Confrontation in Dunedin: Anti-Fascists v Right-Wing Coalition
On July 2nd, at 10am on a crisp but clear Saturday morning, left-wing activists under the banner of Antifascist Ōtepoti begun setting up for a counter-protest of the “It Ain’t Over March” by the Freedom and Rights Coalition (henceforth FRC), a right-wing activist group largely dedicated to continuing the efforts of this year’s occupation on […]
Should we Support the Public Sector Pay Adjustment Proposal?
Let’s not beat about the bush; our “Labour” government is disgracefully holding down pay in the public sector below price inflation. According to Statistics New Zealand, while prices rose by 6.9 percent in the year to the end of March 2022, public sector pay only rose by 2.7 percent over the same period: a significant […]
The New Zealand Government’s Response to Covid
There is no doubt the Covid-19 disease has caused worldwide disruption to peoples’ lives, including ending the lives of millions around the world. One of the worst ever pandemics in human history by death toll, the disease has already been written about and reflected on in numerous news media, political sites, social media, and scientific […]
The cost of living crisis: workers must not pay for capitalism’s failures
A series of articles for this website since last August have tracked the developing cost of living crisis and how in Aotearoa some groups of workers have responded. A clutch of recent economic data demands an update. Inflation In the US the annual rate of increase in consumer prices rose to 8.5 percent as of […]
Dealing with Climate Catastrophe – The Metabolic Rift
On 16 March 2022 the Otago University Politics Programme hosted an online panel discussion on ‘Global Warming, Global Warning: The Politics of Climate Change’. The panelists were: James Shaw, Minister for Climate Change; Prof. Lisa Ellis; Assoc. Prof. Brian Roper; Sina Brown-Davis, Ngāti Whātua, Indigenous and climate activist; Adam Currie, Generation Zero; Jack Brazil, community […]
LGBT History: A Radical Movement
The below is a transcript of a talk given by the ISO as part of Dunedin Pride Month, sharing the radical history of queer liberation in Aotearoa. A couple of notes at the front: Firstly, we’ll be using the phrases queer and takatāpui as umbrellas for the rainbow community. We acknowledge that that the word […]
This is an Anti-Worker Occupation
The reactionary protest at parliament has now dragged on for several weeks. As the various antisocial demands of the protesters are amplified by the media, the quiet opposition of thousands of people doggedly continuing to follow public health measures can easily be lost. The actions that people are taking every day— such as scanning in, […]
The Cost-of-Living Crisis and Workers’ Resistance: Support PSA Members in the DHBs
In Aotearoa, consumer prices rose by 5.9 percent in 2021. You have to go back to 1990 for inflation higher than this. Prices did not rise evenly throughout last year. Over the first quarter prices rose by 0.8 percent, which was on the high side by the standards of recent years, but not remarkable. For […]
The Anti-Mandate Occupation: A Reactionary Convergence
ON THE OCCUPATION AT PARLIAMENT 1. New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of death from COVID in the world, and is now facing the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. Mask wearing, vaccination, vaccine mandates and contact tracing are collective responses to COVID, and collective responses to protect our lives. Our very high […]
