Mike Treen

In just a few days thousands of Kiwis have signed a petition to give migrants stuck in New Zealand who had made New Zealand their home a pathway to residency.

By running a campaign almost devoid of policy the government has given its supporters a blank page upon which we need to write our concerns and needs, and those of the planet we live on, into a policy for our mutual survival.

“There is no alternative” or TINA was the famous cry associated with the former Prime Minister Of the UK Margaret Thatcher and the introduction of free-market fundamentalism into government policy.

It is obvious that there will be a Labour-Greens government after the election given their 20 point advantage over National…

I want to celebrate the promise from Labour and the Greens that we will get another public holiday to celebrate Matarike – the star cluster that Maori use to mark the new year’s arrival.

The government should develop a national strategy to transition beyond the current system of commodity production for profit to a system based on the needs of working people and the planet.

Nevertheless, what has become clear is that large parts of the government bureaucracy is simply incapable of doing a job to protect working people. They appear institutionally paralyzed when it comes to seeing workers as anything other than an expense to manage rather than a power to enhance to get things done effectively.

In the words of Rosa Luxemburg, it is “Socialism or Barbarism”