The Government knew this was going to happen. Remember Chris Luxon chiding local government about ‘doing the basics’ and David Seymour’s announcement that ACT are standing candidates in the local elections this year. They knew this was going to happen because they made it happen.
It’s to do with water, and water reforms - both the binned Three Waters/Affordable Water Act and the current Government’s Local Water Done Well reforms.
“Wherever Palestinians have control is barbaric.” These were the words from New Zealand’s Human Rights Commissioner Stephen Rainbow.
During a meeting with Philippa Yasbek from ‘Jewish Voices for Peace’, Rainbow allegedly told her that information from the New Zealand Security Intelligence Services (NZSIS) threat assessment asserted that Muslims were the biggest threat to the Jewish community. More so than white supremacists.
In the wake of pay equity blockages, a thousand or so people went to Parliament Lawn to protest the new Budget, where women and gender minorities have once again taken the fall for commerce and the army. To make the crowd show appreciation for the suffering workforces, the emcee asked us if we’d ever had an incredible teacher who changed our lives.
To put it another way the term “holocaust” is policed by people who want to mystify and confuse historical matters. The outrage of holocaust exceptionalists is based in the same studied ignorance and cry-bullying sentimentality that is used by fascists, racists, misogynists, nativists, transphobes, homophobes and authoritarians.
Radio New Zealand gets the tick of approval from an investigation into its Gaza journalism - So let's see how it covered the Palestinian Red Crescent massacre
NZ Labour are like Lucy in Peanuts repeatedly pulling away the football at the last minute, with the proviso that in this analogy NZ Labour are also Charlie Brown. They believe their own lies more than the electorate does.
With “the big squeeze” put on working people, we can see how it is not such a reach that to reduce security in the nation—as represented by the rate of unemployment rising—is to guarantee rising social and personal ills. This will naturally extend to the most extreme social problems, such as suicide. What New Zealanders must confront is how tolerant are we of the degree of precarity that exists in our nation, and if so, are we comfortable with the dark consequences?
This week a coterie of Chrises (PM Luxon, Infrastructure Minister Bishop and presumably Building Minister Penk) will be welcoming some big name investors, pension funds, and construction companies to Auckland to try and flog off some big ticket public-private partnership deals. The $10 billion Northland Expressway is top of the list (although the list is understood to be only four projects).
As the Omicron wave wanes worldwide, countries have been quick to declare COVID-19 officially endemic- the pandemic we are told is over.
In the 53 years since the term entered the lexicon, the social terrain of politics has radically changed. The median voter today is very different from the median voter of 1969.
As we settle into the current Red Light setting and as the cases of Omicron climb each day, the hospitality sector in Auckland has had its life support switched off.
The centre-left will fail to deliver for working-class people if it doesn't embrace universal basic services. We can only tackle the housing, inflation and inequality crises by decommodifying and guaranteeing the essentials of life for all.
Here are the ways working-class people fought back in 2021. There are many examples, I've only picked my favourites; the thing about something like a global pandemic is it exposes how the system works and whose labour makes the world go round
I think it is fair to say that 2021, like 2020, was an awful year globally, and sadly there is no reason to believe that 2022 will be any better.
Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) offer Labour the chance to live up to their promise of being a transformational government. It is vital they forge ahead with FPAs in spite of bad faith criticism from the right and business interests.
Listening to Christopher Luxon’s maiden speech I got the impression I had somehow discovered time travel. It appeared I had managed to go back to the halcyon days of 2007. This 2007 was very similar to the one I remembered, it was a period of business as usual.
A Common sensibility is something we’ve been thinking about since a couple years back when a group of us in the left media space met to discuss communication and direction of the broader left project.
New Zealand's success at eliminating COVID in 2020 saw the Sixth Labour government receive international praise and fanfare. In the early stages of the pandemic, our small island nation demonstrated the virtues of evidence-based governance and of listening to the science on issues.
We interview Kieran Kelly about his recent trip to Egypt for the Global March to Gaza. The story of thousands of activists descending on Egypt tells us something about Israel's need to keep the international community on side. Then we discuss Gaza, the American Empire and Iran. How is the Israel/ USA/ Iran dynamic playing out? Where to next?
Covering domestic and international politics this week, we look at the way in which existing power structures, and even accountability measures, predominantly protect the status quo and the accelerating radicalism of capital. NZ is chucking out the census, ACT is becoming more brazen in its attacks on public figures, and the West gets ever twitchier about encroachments on “their turf”.
We host Jeremy Moses to talk about the events following Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran, the complicity of Western powers and the historical imperialism that led us here.
We catch up on the week’s political news. We look at the updates on the suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs and the ways in which it is radicalising voters, the Michael Forbes case and the urgent need for an update to NZ legislation and the apparent battle between Musk and Trump.
We host Malcom Harris to discuss his new book “What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis”
We discuss personality politics in NZ. Chris Bishop had an outburst at the AMAs. Our Deputy Prime Minister has passed the baton. Jacinda Ardern's book is out. Usually we try to avoid focusing on personalities in politics, but this week we ask... what if they matter? with Philip, Stephanie, Simone
We discuss Budget 2025 and how god awful it is alongside the media coverage and analysis.
We discuss the multitude of ways in which the establishment, both political and media, is aligning against opposition from progressive groups. From the suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs to the full press against the Green’s alternative budget, it has never been clearer that these institutions are acting in class solidarity with the powerful.
We extensively discuss the newly announced changes to pay equity legislation and processes. Who is being affected? What does it mean for society, the Government, political parties and factions? What opportunities does this provide to fight back?
As the US hurtles into fascism under Trump we look at the mechanisms being used to accelerate this and the historical precedents that got us here, including the slower moves towards this scenario under successive Republican and Democratic presidents.
