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 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 […]
Public Sector Strikes: Fighting Against Privatisation
Primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, nurses, and firefighters are all fighting for livable employment conditions and sufficient resources to do their work effectively. These are all workers employed in the “public sector”, providing services to the general public. This article will consider the value of this “sector” of New Zealand society, put forward an […]
Defend free speech! No to fascists! Reinstate Professor Tom Alter Now!
Free Speech in universities is under attack in Trump’s America, as exemplified by the summary sacking of Tom Alter by Texas State University on 10 September. Below we reproduce a statement by Socialist Horizon, the group Tom Alter is a member of. Since this statement was made the fight for Tom’s rights has proceeded. A […]
Open Letter to the Working People of Aotearoa
To the patients, students and whānau of those affected by the government’s dismantling of public services, We condemn the suffering that has been inflicted on you by systematic neglect of the public services that you need. From patients dying in waiting rooms, to fire trucks breaking down on the way to emergencies, to children left […]
Gaslighting and Grinding Down: the Government’s Strategy Against Striking Workers
Nurses supporting teachers out on strike. Photo credit: kaitiaki.org.nz The coalition of chaos has, under urgency, passed legislation and prescribed policy that has brutalised the public service. There have been outright lies from government ministers intervening into the negotiations by releasing public statements, and within the negotiations, we have a government that refuses to talk […]
The year of the strike is a year like no other
Image Caption: Trade union, Palestine, and Tino Rangatiratanga flags at parliament, showing the convergence of Māori, pro-Palestine and workers’ struggles. Photo Credit: Public Service Association. “The year of the strike? Perfect pay storm looms over public sector.” This was the headline of an article back in February by a prescient Stuff journalist. This perfect storm […]
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, […]
Attacks on Pay Equity to Fund Tax Cuts for the Rich – This is Class War
Two days ago, the ruling right-wing coalition government rammed through legislation under urgency to extinguish all ongoing claims for pay equity (the mechanism by which historically undervalued feminised work can be paid equivalent to historically masculine work), and made it more difficult for future claims to be successful. Presumably, the violently undemocratic urgency mechanism was […]
Hate That I Love You – The Migrant Worker
While I should be enjoying summer break, I’ve regrettably been made aware that current online discourse is once again focused on migrant workers and their position in Western society. The debate is taking place on the aggressively Nazi website X.com (formerly Twitter, formerly entertaining) and is centred around the leaders of president-elect Donald Trump’s new […]
