India’s Mass Strike: The Biggest Strike You’ve Never Heard Of
(India’s mass strikes earlier in the month were history-making events, yet they have received little coverage in the New Zealand media. These strikes are an inspiration for activists and socialists here, and offer many lessons. This is an abridged version of a longer analytical article by Kunal Chattopadhyay, Soma Marik and Sushovan Dhar, members of […]
Why the Working Class?
“The emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves” – so reads the first sentence of the rules to of the First International Workingmen’s Association, one of the first ever organizations to unite workers internationally. This formulation is at the heart of Marxist and socialist politics, but what does it […]
Forestry bosses have blood on their hands
13 forestry workers have died in work related accidents in the past 3 years, 30 in the last 6 years. Just to put this in perspective the death rate in the UK forestry industry is 10.4 per 100,000 workers and in NZ 343 per 100,000. Some bosses blame workers drug use and call for increased drug […]
Treaty settlements, Maori workers, and the corporate model
The wealth of Maori business is estimated to be around $37 billion but with 60,000 Maori children living in poverty, Mana MP Hone Harawira has suggested to iwi leaders that “maybe it was time we turned our corporate bus around and went back to get all the kids”. On the face of it, that’s just […]
The Labour leadership battle
From the outset of last year’s leadership contest Shearer was the choice of the capitalist class to take over from Phil Goff. There was a reason for that; Shearer was distinctly the right-wing candidate who signalled his willingness to jettison left-wing policies that Labour had adopted for the General Election. Shearer was the puppet of […]
The Tragedy at Pike River: an Indictment of Capitalism
It’s just sickening to read reports of the royal commission’s findings on the Pike River disaster. 29 men lost their lives – and have left behind grieving families and friends – in what was an entirely preventable, and predictable, tragedy. The lawyer for some of the families involved calls it an “unrelenting picture of failure […]
The Significance of the 1912 Waihi Strike
This year marks the centenary of the 1912 Waihi miners’ strike, one of the most important – and violently contested – strikes in New Zealand history. Frederick Evans was matyred; political ideas and organisational questions clarified; and the role and force of the state made clear. The strike offers many lessons for today. To mark the occasion, […]
Auckland bus drivers’ spirit prevails over dead hand of union bureaucrats
At a mass meeting Auckland bus drivers working for NZ Bus Ltd had thrown out a pay deal recommended to them by the First Union and the Tramways Union, and the drivers were set to strike on Monday, September 24, and every Monday thereafter. Every socialist and trade unionist should be aware of what happened […]
South Africa: Miners strike back
Some 4,000 striking Marikana platinum miners confronted heavily armed police and strike spread to other mines. They chanted “The white men are shaking!” and “The police who shot us are shaking!” in the face off at the mine. The strike remains solid despite an agreement reached between management and the official miners’ union the NUM. The striking […]
The class struggle today
During the whole of 2011 there were a mere 12 work stoppages and they involved barely 2,000 workers and only 4,850 person-days lost (to exploitation); so says the Department of Labour. Even worse, only 9 of the 12 stoppages were actual stoppages. The other 3 were what the DOL calls ‘partial strikes’, which are not […]
