Why is New Zealand so Sinophobic?
The spread of a new Coronavirus, originating in Wuhan, China, has resulted in the deaths of many Chinese citizens. Understandably this has caused anxiety throughout the world as the virus and associated deaths have spread beyond China’s borders. The response to this outbreak amplified by the media has not only been fear of a new […]
The Fourth Labour Government and the Destruction of the Welfare State
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 […]
A review of Tina Ngata’s Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions
Tina Ngata of Ngāti Porou has recently published Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions. At the launch of this book on 28th November 2019, Tina Ngata described how she had started with a blog called The Non-plastic Māori, exploring “the experience of living for a year without purchasing any new plastics”, which quickly developed to explore […]
Vale Dick Scott
Obituaries for Dick Scott, who died on New Year’s Day, have emphasized his importance as a figure changing how New Zealand history was written about, taught, and imagined, especially by Pākehā. He deserves those accolades, but we should remember too that his early, pioneering histories were written as part of a project to change the […]
A new decade begins in crisis
Trump’s assassination of Iran’s top general Qasem Soleimani by drone strike at a civilian airport, has caused an uproar and may lead to a regional war, with Iran striking back at US Military bases in the region. Every detail that comes out in this crisis is more shocking than the last. But focusing on the […]
A looming world recession?
At the ISO’s annual conference over the weekend 7-8 December a session on the international situation was led off with this introduction by Martin Gregory. An assessment of capitalism internationally, both in its political domination and the state of its economy, is essential for forming a view of what might lie ahead for us in […]
Land is the Price: colonialism then…and now
Throughout history capitalists has searched the world for profitable exploitation. To create a paradise for capital, lands were sought, claimed and the people that lived there forced off their communal property. Those commoners then became the pool of labour that the industrial revolution was built on. From the enclosing of the commons in Britain to […]
Ihumātao: a Struggle for Justice
The fight for land rights in Aotearoa is the essential question for radical social change for both mana whenua and tau iwi. To resolve this question requires challenging some of the most fundamental aspects of capitalism in New Zealand – the rule of private property. Property held purely for profit, for factories, for land farming […]
Battling for Abortion Rights
Anti-abortion politics have taken centre stage in the media following the passing of “fetal-heartbeat” laws this year in several US states: Ohio, Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky. The new laws ban abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy, before most people know they are pregnant. Alabama has passed an even more restrictive law that bans abortion at […]
Support the Climate Strikes!
There’s a climate crisis, and Labour and the Greens are failing to act. The climate crisis is upon us, but on some more than others, as more frequent, more extreme weather events take place. In March this year Cyclone Idai affected three million people in Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe and Malawi, including over 1,000 dead, over […]
