Latest news
Hone Harawira: Burning the flag or accepting the evil
Burning the Israeli flag in Auckland in protest over the murder of innocent civilians in Gaza is nothing to be ashamed of” said MANA Leader and Tai Tokerau MP, Hone Harawira. “Calling for both sides to stand down when one side is annihilating the other though, IS something to be ashamed of.” “On one side […]
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? The Labour Party and MANA
Ian Anderson, Fightback. Trigger warning: Discussion of sexual violence Early in July this year, Labour Party leader David Cunliffe made headlines by apologising for being a man. Stoked by capitalist media sensation, Prime Minister John Key responded that “not all men” abuse women. For abuse survivors and their supporters however, Cunliffe sentiments were not entirely […]
The Workplace
They Will Never Crush Out The Union! The Role of Women in the 1890 Maritime Strike
By Ciaran Doolin. Reprinted from issue 2 of What She Said, magazine of UC Femsoc. By 1889 women workers in New Zealand had established their first industrial organisation, the Tailoresses’ Union. Lead by Harriet Morison, the union delivered marked increases in wages and substantive improvements in working conditions. The union was influential in the suffragette […]
MANA and Industrial Relations: “Between equal rights, force decides”
Fightback participates in the MANA Movement, whose stated mission is to bring “rangatiratanga to the poor, the powerless and the dispossessed.” Capitalism was imposed in Aotearoa through colonisation, and the fight for indigenous self-determination is intimately connected with the fight for an egalitarian society. Leading up to the election, we will be examining the major […]
New Zealand’s Union Movement: A socialist perspective
By Committee for a Workers’ International. Abridged version of a full perspectives document to be found here. New Zealand employers are seeking to maintain their profits by increasing productivity. In most cases this means people working harder and faster for less money and fewer conditions. Very little is being invested by employers into research and […]
International
Hone Harawira: Burning the flag or accepting the evil
Burning the Israeli flag in Auckland in protest over the murder of innocent civilians in Gaza is nothing to be ashamed of” said MANA Leader and Tai Tokerau MP, Hone Harawira. “Calling for both sides to stand down when one side is annihilating the other though, IS something to be ashamed of.” “On one side […]
Reports: Aotearoa stands in solidarity with Palestine
Fightback supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a tactic to show solidarity with Palestinian resistance. The following reports are from demonstrations over the weekend from Fightback activists and supporters. In Auckland, around 3000 people turned out on a miserably cold day to protest the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza. The rally heard […]
Environment
“No socialism on a dead planet”: Ecosocialism, an overview
By Bronwen Beechey – from notes made for a talk to the Fightback Capitalism: Not Our Future conference, Wellington, NZ, June 2014 Why ecosocialism? For most socialists the reasons are pretty obvious. To quote Alexandre Costa, a Marxist and Professor of Atmospheric Science in Brazil: “We insist that seeking answers to the central question of the […]
Deep sea drilling: The spirit of Mururoa?
By Bronwen Beechey, Fightback (Auckland). In June 1973, the NZ Labour government sent two Navy frigates to the Pacific atoll of Mururoa to formally protest against France’s testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. The Spirit of Peace, the Fri and the Vega, also sailed to Mururoa to observe the tests. Photographs of French sailors […]
Oppression & Liberation
Fightback 2014 Educational Conference: Gender and Women’s Liberation Panel
Sionainn Byrnes, member of Fightback and UC FemSoc. For many socialist organisations, the task of orienting, and indeed incorporating the struggle for gender equality – and women’s liberation, in particular – has proved both ideologically and practically fraught. A lack of meaningful dialogue, and the dominant perception of a universal (masculine) working class, has […]
Māoridom and Marxism
By Joshua James. Originally published by Salient, student newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington. I should warn the reader, I’m a Marxist. Unashamedly and unapologetically. I believe that groups in society are oppressed, marginalised and disenfranchised by the capitalist class in order for them to keep their profit margins high and revolutionary thoughts low. I’m […]
Culture
Review: Catching Fire (movie)
By Wei Sun (Fightback, Christchurch). The second movie of The Hunger Games trilogy—Catching Fire, based on Suzanne Collins’ dystopian novels, officially started at the cinemas in November 2013. As a sequel to the first movie The Hunger Games, the story of Katniss Everdeen and the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem continues; and as in the previous […]
Review: Five Broken Cameras (Palestinian documentary)
Directors: Emad Bernat, Guy Davidi Distributed by: Kino Lorber Release year: 2011 Review: Ian Anderson Screened as part of Aotearoa/NZ’s first national Conference on Palestine, Five Broken Cameras portrays the resistance of a Palestinian village (Bil’in) to the expansion of Israel’s Separation Wall and settlements. Strictly the wall is illegal in international law, and the […]
Society
Democracy, Freedom and the Realisation of the Imagination – or ‘What is Socialism’
By Joel Cosgrove (Fightback – Wellington) (Notes from a talk in the “Introduction to Marxism” series) We spent last week talking about capitalism (a social/economic structure which is based on the production of things for profit). The flip side of a discussion of capitalism is a discussion of socialism. Clearly this is an hour long […]
Why the Internet Party is resonating
By Byron Clark (Fightback). In the March issue of Fightback we examined the politics at the then new Internet Party. The verdict at that time was that “there is no sign that it represents a progressive force”. There have been some developments since then, Kim Dotcom has dispelled the idea that he is a libertarian, […]
The Internet Party: A progressive force?
By Byron Clark, Fightback (Christchurch). The Internet Party is going to fundamentally change this country’s political landscape, apparently. It’s unusual for a party that has not registered with the electoral commission, and who haven’t announced any concrete policy or candidates, to be viewed in such high regard by the media, yet we are seeing comments […]
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