No politics on the march, please, we’re just the repressive state apparatus
By J Smith
There is an old retort amongst homphobic know-alls that “if we should have gay pride then it must follow that there should be room and acceptability for straight pride”. This claim is absurd and the reason for its absurdity is readily apparent and illustrates so well the failure of Pride 2016. Our pride in being queer is built not upon the idea that we are inherently better than everyone else but instead upon our shared history as sufferers of violence, as marginalised people whose own safety can only be brought about by a fundamental reshaping of the world. We are proud of our struggle, we are proud of our resistance and we are proud to continue the legacy of those who have come before us. [Read More…]
Recent articles
Defeat the Bill! The struggle against the Employment Contracts Bill, 1991
by Dougal McNeill ‘We’ll need to go on strike, an ongoing strike.’ That’s how Jane Otuafi, a delegate in the Engineers’ Union, responded in March 1991 to the recently elected National government’s plan for an Employment Contracts Act. [1] ‘A general strike is the only answer,’ job delegate Sa Leutele of the Northern Distribution […]
The Cruel Irony of Pride
By Marc Inzon I sat down to talk with a couple of No Pride In Prison (NPIP) members as they tried to get a respite from their scrum with the police. One of them tells me “pride has historically been a protest and to deny protest for the rights of queer and trans people where […]
We Back the Bus Drivers!
Gowan Dichburn and Josh O’Sullivan joined bus drivers at yesterday’s strike in Auckland. Stress and Fatigue at Central Depot I got to the bus depot just before 9am. A few workers stood outside the gates blocking the exit with their cars, a dozen or so placards on the fence. I ask one worker how the […]
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Love’s Labour’s Lost Directed by Ania Upstill The Dell, Wellington Botanic Gardens until 27 February. Tickets here. Reviewed by Romany Tasker-Poland The scene is set for a pitched battle at Ania Upstill’s Summer Shakespeare production of Loves’ Labours Lost. We sit along a thrust stage, or rather lawn. At one end sits the stuffy pomp […]
Māori struggles and the TPPA
By Joshua O’Sullivan Earlier this month the blessings of Ranginui washed the hikoi as it made its way to the powhiri at Te Tii Marae at Waitangi in the midst of pouring rain. Around 200 people assembled. Some had made the long march from Northland to Auckland and back, others, like us, joined after […]
From Slaveholders to Sanders: A Brief History of the Democratic Party
American socialist Bill Crane – in an article first published at RS21 – provides a brief history of the Democratic Party from its inception to the present, and asks how revolutionaries might relate to the movement behind presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The US Democratic Party is the oldest surviving modern political party.[1] In its longer than two centuries’ […]
TPPA – this fight is not over
By Cory Anderson and Josh O’Sullivan More than 20,000 demonstrators brought Auckland’s CBD to a standstill on Thursday, protesting the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Braving threats of a heavy-handed response from police, activists blockaded the signing venue at the SkyCity casino, shutting down intersections and impeding traffic in the surrounding area. […]
Blockading the TPPA
by Maria Peach It was inspiring to be a part of the TPPA blockade at Sky-City on February 4th 2016. The numbers of those who turned up, from near and far, were more than I had expected. We gathered in Aotea square, from all walks of life and prepared for what may lay ahead. Real […]
From the archive
Anzac Day: Against the Carnival of Reaction
On Anzac Day 1967, at the height of New Zealand involvement in the ‘American War’ in Vietnam, with New Zealand troops taking part in the suppression of the Vietnamese struggle for national liberation, members of the Progressive Youth Movement in Christchurch tried to lay a wreath following the dawn service in memory of those killed by imperialism in Vietnam. They were arrested and charged with disorderly behaviour. Feminists a decade later faced down a media-driven public outcry when they laid wreaths to the victims of sexual violence during war.
Lest we forget? It’s more like lest we remember. Anzac Day serves as a carnival of nationalist reaction, a day of public ritual aimed at promoting forgetting: forgetting the real legacy of New Zealand imperialism and militarism in favour of a sentimental nationalism, an anti-political celebration of national unity. [Read More…]
