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Event: Syria Speaks
March 1, 2019 By Admin Leave a Comment
March 15th is the anniversary of the Syrian revolution. Hear Syrians in New Zealand speak against the uprising about the Assad government, the violence that has followed, the role of foreign governments in the conflict, and what New Zealanders can do to help. An informational meeting supported by Organise Aotearoa (views of speakers do not […]
Syrian revolution pamphlet successfully crowdfunded
February 19, 2019 By Admin Leave a Comment
We have successfully met our goal to crowdfund our upcoming pamphlet Syria: Revolution and Counter-Revolution.
Revolutionary Strategy
Fightback’s Pre-History in the New Zealand Left
by DAPHNE LAWLESS Since Fightback’s analysis and articles have been getting more attention from international comrades, we regularly get questions asking what “tradition” or organisational pedigree we belong to – are we Trotskyists, Marxist-Leninists, left-communists, or what? This very brief historical sketch aims to show how messy and complicated our background is. We feel, though, […]
Book review: The Impossible Revolution – Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy
By Ani White. As sectarianism and the far-right rear their heads internationally, it’s easy to forget the optimism of 2011. Those seeking to understand this trajectory must read Syrian revolutionary Yassin al-Haj Saleh’s essay collection The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy. A foreword by Robin Yassin-Kassab, who co-wrote the excellent work Burning […]
On Conservative Leftism: A Conversation between Daphne Lawless and Gregory W
Reprinted from the Communist Rupture blog. Gregory W.: In the article, Against Conservative Leftism, you suggested that “21st century revolutionary classes will not look like those of the 1840s or even the 1980s,” and that “the left should seek to build on the new social forces and ways of living that neoliberal globalisation has thrown […]
International
Syrian revolution pamphlet successfully crowdfunded
We have successfully met our goal to crowdfund our upcoming pamphlet Syria: Revolution and Counter-Revolution.
Crowdfunding campaign for Syria pamphlet launched
“The people want the fall of the regime – الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام.” Having emerged from the Tunisian revolution and the wider ‘Arab Spring’, this slogan played a role in setting off the Syrian revolution when a group of youths were ‘disappeared’ for grafitiing it in the city of Dara’a. Citizens from many faiths mobilised in […]
Environment
Eco-villages, transition towns and gardens cities
Tāne Feary is an eco-activist who lives on Waiheke Island, Tāmaki Makarau / Auckland. This article will be published in Fightback’s upcoming magazine issue on Urban Revolution and the Right to the City. To subscribe to Fightback’s magazine, click here. This article introduces the Transition Towns movement and looks at eco-villages, exploring some possibilities for the […]
Change Everything: “We can no longer act like each of our struggles are single causes” (video + text)
Text of a speech originally delivered by Kassie Hartendorp at Oil Free Wellington‘s Change Everything flotilla & rally, December 13th 2015. Tēnā koutou, talofa lava, malo e leilei, kia orana, bula vinaka, aloha! Tēnā koutou ki te whenua, ki te moana, ki te hunga mate, ki te tipuna. Ko Ngāti Raukawa te iwi, nō Te […]
Anti-Racism
Germany: The far right, conservative leftism and how to get rid of that shit
Strategies for combating the far right and conservative leftism in Germany.
Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe (Book Review)
Giovanni Tiso reviews a collection of migrants’ first-person accounts.
Workplace Struggle
“Workers in the most vulnerable part of the economy, they’re brave”: Organisation of migrant farm workers in Australia and Aotearoa
By Ani White. It’s an open secret that the conditions faced by migrant farm workers in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand are dire. In Aotearoa, a study conducted by Sue Bradford for FIRST Union and the Union Network of Migrant Workers (UNEMIG), released on UNEMIG’s fifth anniversary in August 2017, found evidence of dire exploitation of […]
Is Marxism just about factory workers?
In Aotearoa, most union members are now women, in contrast to the stereotype of the male breadwinner.
Gender & Sexuality
Contents Page: Voices of Women and Gender Minorities
Crowdfunded special edition of Fightback magazine (subscribe here), dedicated to radical writing by women and gender minorities. All contributors were paid. Editorial Not All Men, Bella Wallace Judgementality and the “neutral, objective” voice of whiteness, MZ Chatting “Pasifika” and “Feminism”, Malia Grace We talk a lot about the struggle, Sian Torrington Policing the colonial project of […]
Living Outside The Rainbow: Queerness and the Housing Crisis
Fightback is running a series of articles on the housing crisis in Aotearoa/NZ. Kassie Hartendorp (Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington) explores the specific housing problems faced by queer youth. When you start to peer past the rainbow flags and glitter shine of LGBTIQ ‘issues’, there are many more stories to be told that don’t end with a marriage certificate […]
Queer Politics and the Election: What are “Our” issues?
By Nic Wood, reprinted from Ours. I’m queer. My ideas about what it means to be and belong as a queer person have changed a lot since I ‘came out’ in my teenage years. It’s interesting for me to reflect on this in the context of an election, because the notion of ‘belonging’ is intensified and highly visible […]