Dairy Millionaires and the “Monster that hit Vanuatu”
Dairy has been the fastest growing sector of the NZ economy in the last 20 years, making millions for a handful of farmers but also methane – a climate change gas. Vanuatu has just been smashed by Cyclone Pam. These things are connected. Vanuatu president Baldwin Lonsdale has described Cyclone Pam as “the monster that […]
After the Elections: Political Perspectives in Japan
In-depth post-election perspectives from Japanese socialist Tsutomu Teramoto. Teramoto is a member of the Japan Revolutionary Communist League. As expected, the general election of December 14, 2014 gave an absolute majority of the seats again to the ruling coalition of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komei Party. LDP got 291 seats and Komei Party got […]
Wellington Solidarity with Hong Kong Protesters
About 50 people gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy on Glenmore St in Wellington Wednesday to support the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Wearing black clothes and yellow ribbon pins, the group held signs calling for “Democracy”, “Proper Elections” and to “Stop Violence on HK Students”. Many signs included images of umbrellas as this […]
Mass protests grow on the streets of Hong Kong
The mass protests on the streets of Hong Kong over the past few days have been inspiring. The protests started with university students holding class boycotts and then public lectures in central Hong Kong. These led to an occupation of Civic Square, a space – as its name suggests – which is supposed to be […]
Women and the Early Years of Japanese Communism
Shomi Yoon gave this talk as part of Marxism 2014 in Melbourne. Marxism 2015 will take place from April 2 – 5. “What sort of woman are you? Demonstrating when you should be at home looking after your children?” This was the question Sadayo Nakasone faced by the arresting officer for participating in the first […]
Modi: Behind the Mask
Sajeev Kumar, a Socialist Review reader, offers his thoughts on the recent elections in India: Saffron is the colour of hindutva, but for quite some time, it is also the colour of death or shivering fear for the religious minorities of India. For some of them, it is the colour that made their life colourless, it […]
A triumph for the right in India
WITH A substantial victory in India’s national elections, the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party) and its crown prince, Narendra Modi, are set to form a national government without the need for any coalition partners. Winning a total of 282 seats in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s parliament), the BJP soundly […]
Tokyo Elections and the Future of the Anti-Nuclear Movement
What to make of the Tokyo gubernatorial election results? How can we organize a campaign to stop reactivating nuclear power plants that connects the whole country? How effective is the “single-issue” focus? On 9 February, amidst the biggest snowfall in 45 years Tokyo held its gubernatorial election. Only 46.14% of eligible voters turned out, the third lowest turnout on record. […]
Korean Railway Strike – What’s at Stake?
On 31 December, thousands of Korean railway workers returned to work after a three-week strike against government plans to set up a subsidiary company to operate a Korean Train express (KTX) service in competition with the state run Korail. It was the longest railway strike in South Korean history. Korail management and the right wing […]
Okinawa and the US Empire
Following a brutal and horrific battle between Japanese and US forces which claimed the lives of approximately one third of Okinawa’s population, Okinawa has been forced to house American militarism up until this day. Approximately 20 percent of the Okinawan mainland is used to house US military bases. Military crimes are commonplace and many of […]
