Interview: Woolworths workers’ strike for living wage and safer staffing
In early August nearly ten thousand FIRST Union members working in Countdown and Woolworths across Aotearoa New Zealand voted in favour of strike action. The 2023 financial statement shows Woolworths made an AUD$3billion pre-tax profit, with Aotearoa New Zealand operations making up around 11% of total revenue. This is a company with money to spare. […]
Residents Fight Back Against Cuts
‘Village in the Park’ is a retirement and aged care complex in Newtown Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. It is operated by Arvida group which operates 35 such complexes across Aotearoa New Zealand. The company’s 2024 annual report shows an increase in revenue of 11% and a whopping 69% increase in net profit to 139 million dollars […]
Ngā Taurahere – a new Māori translation of The Internationale
ISO members Kaakatarau Te Pou Kohere (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tuhoe, Ngāti te ata Waiohua, Kai Tahu) and Tima Thurlow (Ngāi Tuhoe) are developing a new Māori translation of the workers’ anthem The Internationale. Kaakatarau spoke to Shōmi Yoon about the considerations and politics of The Internationale and the connections to Māoritanga and te ao Māori threaded […]
Political perspectives for 2024-25
The ISO recently held our annual Hui-Ā-tau and endorsed the following perspectives for the coming political year.
End Student Poverty
Why is it normal and accepted for students to live in poverty? Cold flats and two-minute noodles are viewed as a rite of passage, and even looked on with nostalgia by those whose student days are past and who are lucky enough to now live comfortably. But this rite of passage and the “character” that […]
Jim Edwards, the Communist Party of New Zealand, and unemployment struggles in the 1930s
James Henry Edwards arrested in Norfolk Street after an Anti-Eviction occupation, 1931. The history of the Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ) is worth knowing. Although the Party was never more than small, it was the largest and most influential political formation there had been to the left of the Labour Party until the short-lived […]
Cost of Living, Interest Rates, and Now Jobs Cuts
On 10 April the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand agreed to hold the overnight interest rate, known as the Official Cash Rate (OCR), at 5.5 percent. The knock-on effect on retail borrowing will be the persistence of high interest rates. For example, Westpac offers a 2-year fixed mortgage rate of […]
In defence of student spaces for Māori and Pasifika
Māori and Pasifika students have a right to their own spaces on university campuses. Campuses can be isolating places at the best of times. This is even more true for Māori and Pasifika students, who have to deal not only with being in the minority on university campuses, but also with a university environment that […]
Dealing with climate catastrophe
School strike for Climate are mobilising students once again to strike against climate change. The political demands connect the issues of climate justice with Toitū te Tiriti, Freedom for Palestine, National’s plans to fast-track environmentally damaging projects, amongst others. Josh O’Sullivan argues for why we need to dismantle capitalism – root and branch – to […]
Healthcare workers in solidarity with Palestine
On 11 October, the fifth day of the war on Gaza, emergency services at Al Shifa Hospital received a call from a nearby neighbourhood. The assault by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) had caused mass casualties in the vicinity of the Karni Crossing. Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances had to wait to receive clearance from Israel. The […]
