Capitalism: Symptom or Disease?
It seems that the popularity of ‘anti-capitalism’ that is growing around the world has caught up with New Zealand. Like the word socialism it is much abused. Usually it is a critique of… Continue reading
Category Archive: New Zealand
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NZ Labour Party returns to 19th century Liberalism; NZ workers must advance to 21st century Survival Socialism
So the centrist ABCs finally took power with Andrew Little as the last surviving notable tie to the unions gone and a Generation Y professional politician now leading the party. Chris Trotter goes… Continue reading
The Fudget Fiddles while Capitalism Burns
The NACTS budget is really a fudget for trying to hide the growing weakness of NZ’s neo-colonial economy behind a veil of spin. The Key regime hopes to promote business confidence in a… Continue reading
No Future for Capitalist Work
As the New Zealand Labour Party ponders the ‘Future of Work’, the discussion focuses on the Universal Basic Income (UBI) to “guarantee income security and dignity”. This is another attempt to rewrite Labour’s… Continue reading
For a Socialist Aotearoa!
It’s no surprise to Marxists that the TPPA ‘Treaty’ is a fraud. It signifies the continuation of the NZ’s colonial history from the Treaty of Waitangi (TOW) signed in 1840. To know how… Continue reading
Auckland: Antipodal Portal of Empire
[Note: this essay is 10 years old and I will add an update shortly] Introduction: the boomtown rap (1) What is the relationship between Auckland as the major city in Aotearoa/New Zealand and… Continue reading
The 1951 Lockout of port workers lasted 151 days
The 1951 Waterfront Lockout and class struggle The 1951 Lockout is one of the most important labour disputes in NZ history. It lasted 151 days and ended in defeat of the wharfies and… Continue reading
Talking about Suicide
The Tyranny of Silence When my son Bruno killed himself in January 2007 my first impulse was to talk about it. I, my partner, and the rest of my family, came up immediately… Continue reading
How the ‘Labour left’ sold out NZ workers in the 1990s
Book Review No Left Turn: The Distortion of NZ’s history by Greed, Bigotry and Right-wing politics By Chris Trotter. Random House, NZ, 2007 Part One: Keeping the social democratic torch alight Chris Trotter’s… Continue reading
Antipodean Marxism meets Indigenous Peoples’ Struggles (1999)
Hone Tuwhare and Poster of Karl Marx as Construction Worker Introduction Today the struggle of indigenous peoples in Australasia is becoming institutionalised in international law and the post-modern politics of multi-cultural ‘difference’. When… Continue reading