The Health Crisis, Privatisation Threat and Resistance
Everyone knows that we are in a health funding crisis. We know it because we experience it. Everyone has their horror stories of waiting, waiting, and waiting: for doctor’s appointments, for specialist referrals, for medical procedures. If it was bad under the last Labour government, it is even worse under Christopher Luxon. A key policy […]
The Privatisation Agenda Behind the Dunedin Hospital Betrayal
The Dunedin Hospital is the only tertiary-level hospital for the Lower South Island. It is the nearest tertiary-level hospital for well over 300,000 people and has around 400 beds. The hospital is ancient and no longer fit for purpose, it was constructed with asbestos and it leaks all over. The hospital needs to be replaced. […]
Deny, Defend, Depose – Assassination as a Symptom of Class War
On 4 December 2024 Brian Thompson, the CEO of United States private health insurer UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down by a masked man. The attack took place in broad daylight, by an anonymous figure who handled his firearm in a calm and professional manner, and executed the CEO in a clearly premeditated assassination. The figure has […]
Book Review: Burnout by Hannah Proctor
We are seeing and are actively involved in a recent up-tick of political activity, most noticeably the widespread, and thus-far sustained mobilisations in support of Palestine. Many new people are being drawn into political activity through marches and through organising activity including educational forums, direct disruptive action, building student and worker action groups, social media […]
No rollback on reproductive rights!
Protestors marched earlier this month, on the second of December, in defence of abortion and reproductive rights in Wellington. The march, organised by Poneke Anti-Fascist Coalition, was intended to counter the anti-abortion “March for Life” which is held each year by the organisation Right to Life. The numbers on both sides were smaller than they […]
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 […]
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, […]
Roadmap Abandons Māori and Pasifika
The government’s road map moving from elimination to suppression with low vaccination rates abandons Māori and Pasifika, particularly in South Auckland. Already these communities have paid a heavy toll in this outbreak; 80.9 percent of all cases so far in this outbreak have been in these demographics. Māori and Pasifika are in the firing line, […]
COVID-19: Ardern Government Caves to Business
The Cabinet’s decisions to drop Auckland from Level 4 to Level 3, and then on Monday 4 October to ease Level 3 restrictions, unnecessarily risks the Delta outbreak getting out of control. The proportion of the population vaccinated was far too low to justify these steps. It was still undecided whether under-12s could be safely […]
The Right to Live and Die: Critical support to proposed euthanasia reforms
A reader of the site, John Ashborne, contributes to the debate on the End of Life Choice Act referendum. It was with great concern that I read the views expressed in the ISO’s 18 August article on the upcoming euthanasia referendum (“Thoughts on the End of Life Choice Act Referendum”, by Dougal McNeill and Serah […]
