Te Pāti Māori
On the morning of Saturday, 10 July 2004, I caught the train from Wellington out to Kāpiti, walked from the station to Highway 1 and stuck out my thumb. A couple of months earlier, I had marched the final leg of the 40,000-strong hīkoi opposing the Labour Government’s confiscation of the foreshore and seabed, and […]
Keep National Out, and Build a Socialist Alternative
What a contrast between the politics we need and the politics on offer this election! The world is being ravaged by forest fires and devastating floods, and yet all the parliamentary parties’ plans for climate change are so slow, and so timid. They will not confront the vested interests – in farming, roading and building […]
Labour: Stop Pretending and Actually Fund Tertiary Education!
Aotearoa’s universities are under threat. In October 2022, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) vice-chancellor Damon Salesa announced an intent to cut 170 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff across a range of academic areas (Morton, 2022). 90 staff accepted voluntary redundancy before AUT was knocked back by the Employment Relations Authority, forcing the university to commence […]
Inflation Crisis: This is Class War
The jury is out on whether in Aotearoa, and around the world, an economic recession will be the sequel to the period of high inflation we are experiencing at present. Monetarist economic orthodoxy is being deployed by the government to engineer an economic slowdown. In Aotearoa Gross Domestic Product shrank fractionally in this year’s March […]
Education in Crisis
Photo Credit: John Tregonning Introduction After 30 years of neoliberal cuts and running education like a business, the chickens have come home to roost. Secondary and tertiary students are looking around wondering whether their courses will be offered next year, or whether they will have a teacher or lecturer in front of their classroom or […]
Fired Up for Workers’ Rights
Since February socialists have been following the activity of Fired Up Stilettos (FUS), a group of dancers who have been “kicking up a FUS” ever since they were unfairly sacked from Calendar Girls strip club in Wellington. Braving the possible repercussions, FUS have been blowing the whistle on unscrupulous practices in adult entertainment and agitating […]
Labour and Greens’ Inaction on Climate Change
Image: Forestry slash and flooding near Gisborne. Photo courtesy of Gisborne City Council. The Labour Party and the Green Party have had a Cooperation Agreement for the current Parliament. Under the agreement the Greens got two ministers, both outside Cabinet. James Shaw continued as Minister of Climate Change, a post he held in the 2017-2020 […]
Outrageous Treatment of Private Sector Blood Test Workers – Government Must Step In!
APEX union blood test technicians and scientists working for Awanui Labs, formerly SCL Labs, took strike action over the week Wednesday 12 July to Tuesday 18 July, affecting labs from the Hawke’s Bay right to the south of the country. They are speaking out about Awanui’s incredulous offer of absolutely no increase in pay at […]
‘Remember Stonewall’ rally: A Worker’s Perspective on Trans Rights and NZ Healthcare
The below piece was given as a speech at the Remember Stonewall rally on 1 July 2023 in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington Kia ora koutou, ko Serah tōku ingoa. I use she/her pronouns. I’m a member of the International Socialist organisation, and of Queer Endurance / Defiance. I’m queer, and I’m proud of my identity as […]
$355 Million for Tertiary Sector Reappropriated
Lower enrolment rates saw money syphoned away from unis The below article was originally published in University of Otago student magazine ‘Critic Te Arohi’ and is republished here with permission. Otago Uni Associate Professor Brian Roper claims that $355 million budgeted towards tertiary education is going unspent. This is enough money to bail out Otago, […]
