It probably doesn’t matter what type of government existed in Venezuela but a price decline of that magnitude in a country that gets 90% of its foreign exchange from oil would have been a disaster.
We cannot allow the US empire to create another graveyard of popular hopes for freedom and independence in Venezuela today.
Basic benefit values were cut from 40% to 30 percent of the average wage in the early-1990s. Those cuts were dubbed Ruthenasia in recognition of the role of the then Minister of Finance of the newly-elected National Party Ruth Richardson who delivered the budget with the cuts.
Many Employers and their paid servants in the so-called economics “profession” are already screaming about the proposed minimum wage hike in New Zealand to $20 an hour by April 2021.
Most of their objections amount to the repetition of dogma which they want us to believe is some sort of science. Usually, very few facts are ever advanced to support their views.
I want to look at what actually happened in New Zealand when we had a similar percentage minimum wage rise over a similar period, from 2004 to 2008.
The economist for the Council of Trade Unions Bill Rosenberg has produced some revealing data about the resumption of the declining share of labour income in the New Zealand economy in the most recent CTU economic Bulletin.
There have been some questions raised about my support for Trans rights in New Zealand that I would like to clarify.
The government commits a form of accounting fraud when it refuses to include the $41 billion in the NZ Super Fund as part of the government’s assets.
New Zealand casualty rate in that war, killed or wounded, was 58%. That is equal to one-quarter of the adult male population aged between 20 and 45 and eligible to serve. Our death rate of those who served at 16.6% was higher than that suffered by Germany!
Recently Unite Union discovered a case of migrant exploitation where the workers talked about being “treated like slaves”.
Information released to the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) by the Ministry of Business, Industry and Enterprise (MBIE) reveals a massive series of problems that could leave most workers missing out on receiving money they are owed.