Capitalism on FIRE
Jane Kelsey’s new book The Fire Economy: New Zealand’s Reckoning is all about ‘neo-liberalism’ and almost nothing about capitalism. It’s the same theme that Kelsey introduced in her 1995 book The New Zealand… Continue reading
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The Naughty Infamous Labour Party: a Bedtime story for the kids.
23 September, 2014 For people struggling to understand what happened to the Labour Party on Saturday here’s a little bedtime story for the kids. (It’s a bit bloody in parts so best to… Continue reading
Rich and Poor in New Zealand (1980)
Rich and Poor in New Zealand (1980) A small and sheltered society relatively free from class, racial and sexual conflicts which plague the rest of the world. Such has been the cost image… Continue reading
Rebooting Lenin
Originally posted on Living Marxism:
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.…
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
Occupy MayDay! Occupy Lenin!
The #OccupyMaydayGeneralStrike call is an attempt at a global general strike. There is intense political and theoretical discussion among liberals, radicals and Marxists about what Occupy is, its class composition, its demands, its prospects, and so on. This is not new as liberals, radicals and Marxists have had to debate Occupy’s progenitors – the Arab Revolution and the European revolt of the Indignados and the British youth riots. So what do revolutionary communists make of Occupy as a social movement and the ideological struggle between reformists, radicals and revolutionaries?
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
Disaster Capitalism Downunder
Capitalist disasters The common broad left response to disasters such as the recent Christchurch 6.3 ‘quake’ that has wrecked many buildings and will probably have a death toll of over 200 people, is… Continue reading
RIP, SHIT, BUST: 29 Pike River miners find their Wealth in Heaven
The Runanga Miners Hall has emblazoned on its frontage 1908 The “World’s Wealth for the World’s Workers”. And below it “United we Stand, Divided we Fall”; but that was a century ago. Now… 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
Saint Jacques: Derrida and the Ghost of Marxism
From Cultural Logic, Vol 2, No 2, 1999 [PDF] Introduction For the bourgeoisie, the collapse of “communism” made the world-historic victory of capitalism seem certain. Yet the contradictions of capitalism immediately called the… Continue reading