“God’s Bankers”: Capitalism and Religion
This article was published in Salient earlier in 2025. This version expands on Stewart’s philosophy, notes the utilisation of missionaries, and contains other minor editorial differences. Few things have been as devastating for the socialist project than its span as a state religion. For much of the twentieth century, so-called “communist” states raised Marx and […]
Working Class History: The 1959 Oil Workers Strike in Fiji
In the late 1950s in Fiji, the cost of living was rising. Indigenous Fijian workers, along with the formerly indentured Indo-Fijian workforce, chafed under the exploitation of the colonial, capitalist system. Some workers, like unionist Apisai Tora, had been radicalised by the experience of fighting in WWII and returning to continued hardship at home. It […]
The Lost Decade of Revolutions
The following is a lightly edited version of a public talk given to the Tāmaki Makaurau branch in March 2025. If you are attending a meeting of the International Socialist Organisation then we are going to start with the assumption that you want to change the world for the better: that you are at least […]
The Revival of the Radical Left and Working-Class Politics
The below is a reprint from redflag.com.au Most of us have lived most of our lives under a one-sided class war. The billionaires have built fortunes while the poor have been screwed. Governments the world over have bent over backwards to facilitate this. The result has been a world in which the rich stomp over […]
K for Kleptocracy
When thinking of political decision making, images of politicians debating in the halls of parliament may come to mind. We’re taught by our schools, the media, and politicians themselves that the Beehive is where the important changes to our society are made. Sceptical of the world’s political leaders, there are some who resort to conspiracy […]
From Soviets to the USSR
A Soviet assembly in 1917. Petrograd The Soviets, workers’ councils, first formed in 1905. They emerged after decades of repression and out of the lack of democratic ability afforded to the people. These organisations of the working people replaced officials of the Duma, the legislative body historically appointed through the Tsar. It was the Soviets […]
Tātau, Tātau e: Socialism from Below
The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself. – Marx and Engels, Strategy and Tactics of the Class Struggle, 1879 The working class is the maker of history. Our fragile society trucks along thanks to the workers in factories, the toilers on the farms, the […]
Get Involved with Student Politics
Student politics are not limited to campus issues such as course costs. Student politics is about fighting for our future: fighting for the environment, our education, our job security, our health and wellbeing. If you care about having cheap food readily available on campus, not having to couch surf while studying because you’re in-between housing, […]
Why We Don’t Need More Cops
This article was originally published in Salient. It has been updated. The New Zealand Government loves cops. They love them so much that they are even inviting cops from other countries to set up shop in Aotearoa, welcoming the FBI to bring their repressive operations to Aotearoa. We will cover the FBI in more detail in […]
J is for Justice
According to states around the world, one of their central purposes is to maintain order and dispense justice among their populations. Socialists understand that the order they maintain is the capitalist order – an order that is anti-democratic, unequal and fundamentally unjust. This is clear in Aotearoa, where the state called New Zealand was built […]
