The Struggle to Defend Living Standards
At the beginning of August, before the current COVID-19 outbreak, I penned an article for this website, Rocky Times Ahead, which noted a rise in consumer prices and predictions of rising interest rates. I concluded that workers would have to be on their mettle to defend their living standards. Then came the COVID outbreak and […]
The Stock Market Is a Game That’s Rigged
In the last week of January something peculiar happened. The press was alight with reports of ‘meme stocks’ and the stock market being ‘broken’ by an internet forum. Gamestop is a gaming retail store that has been struggling since digital game sales now dominate the gaming market. During 2020, as Covid-19 ravaged the economy, things […]
Rising Tides, Raging Fires: the Capitalist Climate Crisis
This talk about the capitalist roots of the climate crisis was presented at Victoria University of Wellington on 3 March 2020. ISO member Emile Wilmar gives a historical account of how the environment has been exploited under different forms of class society and how capitalism, by its very nature, brings us to the brink of […]
Dual Crisis: COVID-19 and Capitalism
This talk was presented by ISO member Josh O’Sullivan at a national hui on workers organising during the pandemic, 11 May 2020.
For Solidarity: Maintain lockdown to save lives
Support essential workers! Give them PPE! Beware Slackening the Fight against COVID-19 The lockdown against the spread of COVID-19 is, among other things, a piece of class struggle. Workers socially distancing themselves and limiting their exposure to essential workers (keeping supermarket shopping to an absolute minimum and following distancing guidelines) are acting together to save […]
The politics of the virus
Socialist Alternative is an Australian socialist organisation. This speech was given at a video conference of Socialist Alternative’s national committee on 22 March. Mick Armstrong is a founding member of Socialist Alternative and is a member of the organisation’s national executive. There can be no overstating the significance of this horrific crisis for humanity. The death […]
Labour’s COVID-19 response package: Not enough for workers
When the Labour-led Coalition Government revealed its first fiscal response package to the COVID-19 pandemic I was, at first, jubilant. The pessimist in me had been expecting austerity, expecting cuts and sell offs. This package is definitely not that. $12.1 billion in spending and 4% of GDP – great! But as the afternoon continued and […]
Inadequate Action against COVID-19: Govt Must Put People before Profit
Around the world capitalist governments (there are no others, unfortunately) have criminally permitted COVID-19 to spread and cause needless deaths. From the political harassment of Li Wenliang by the Chinese Stalinist police state to the present day, governments have behaved appallingly. Why? Because they have sought to limit the impact of responses to COVID-19 on the business of […]
Why Hasn’t Labour Delivered?
On 19 September the Labour Party faces the hurdle of being elected into government for another term of office. Having the advantages of incumbency, re-election should be a cake-walk. One would think that all Labour needs to do is to deliver improvements in the standard of living of the working-class majority to ensure popularity. One […]
The Fourth Labour Government’s Launch of Neoliberalism
Ever wonder about the days when universities were free and not run as a business? When the social welfare safety net was available to all that needed it and could sustain a decent living? When the government worked towards a goal of total employment, not enabling a system that requires unemployment to function? When vital […]
