Mourn for the dead, fight for the living!
At this time we remember and honour long time union leader Helen Kelly, a brave and compassionate person who mourned with and comforted the families of workers killed at work; Forestry workers, the Pike River miners, Charanpreet Dhaliwal, aged only 22, beaten to death on his first night on the job as a security guard. […]
International Socialism Day School 2016 (Wellington)
This Saturday will see Wellington hosting the International Socialism Day School 2016: This will be a full day of discussion and exploration on the following topics: 10:30am – The Case for Socialism11:45am – Ideas for Liberation: Marxism against Eurocentrism2:00pm – Rosa Luxemburg’s “The Mass Strike”4:00pm – Roz Ward on Safe Schools, Equal Marriage, and […]
National’s disarray – the Emperor has no clothes
This year’s local body elections probably won’t enlighten us as to which direction the public, or more correctly the various social classes, might be heading politically. Certainly, there is nothing so far to suggest that the local elections will herald a Labour Party revival. However, the local elections are not without interest. Themayoral election campaigns […]
The origins of the Labour Party
I might state that the museum up on the hill known as Parliament House has little attraction for me but if that machine can be used to benefit the working man and foster industrial organisation, I am in favour of it. W E Parry, January 1913,President of the Waihi Worker’s Union 1909-1912, Minister of Internal […]
Introducing Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist, active in the 1910s and 20s before his imprisonment by the Italian state under Mussolini. It was while he was imprisoned that Gramsci made his most well-known contributions to Marxist theory, including the key concept of hegemony. Gramsci’s contributions are valuable not only theoretically, but for the many practical lessons that can […]
Making history or maintaining the status quo?
THERE’S NO denying that women could use a “historic” breakthrough. We could use quite a few, if anyone is offering. Contrary to those who argue that we live in a post-feminist era, where sexism is a thing of the past, women are still, by almost any measuring stick, unequal to men in U.S. society. Wages, […]
Debating the Brexit
Around the world socialists are digesting the outcome of the UK referendum vote to leave the European Union. British socialists, and their international co-thinkers, were divided on the referendum question both between and within their organisations. The debate continues here. Martin replies to Tom Bramble’s analysis in Red Flag. Tom Bramble’s analysis of the British […]
A Rebel’s guide to Eleanor Marx
A Rebel’s Guide to Eleanor Marx, by Siobhan Brown “Eleanor Marx saw an alternative: a class that organised across borders, just as the rich do. She was a champion of the oppressed who linked the everyday struggles to a big vision. Our task remains the same.” These are the concluding lines of Siobhan Brown’s short […]
Workers can run the world
Gowan Ditchburn gave this talk to the Auckland branch of the International Socialists in May. Let us examine on of my favourite things on Earth, Democracy. No, not that silly parliamentary kind where you vote every few years. I mean real democracy. Control by the people. Actual control not sending people to parliament to argue […]
Stop the anti-immigrant rot
There is growing pong around the Labour Party. I am talking about the reek of foreigner-bashing. For some time now Labour’s main plank of housing policy has consisted of banging the anti-foreigner drum. In July last year the party’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford notoriously came out with a deliberate, racist, anti-Chinese outburst when he claimed, […]
