Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
I have long considered those who cry “Godwin” to be not only foolish but dangerous. Anyone who attempts to prevent people learning from one of the most terrible periods of human history is, objectively speaking, a fascist. Genuine progressives do not obey “Godwin’s Law”.
After Michael Wood’s runaway victory in Mt Roskill, anything other than a straightforward walkover in Mt Albert will be very bad news for Labour. Were Labour to lose, the party would be crucified in the news media and Andrew Little would come under renewed pressure to step aside.
Trump’s abrasive style and irreverence for established policies and protocols looks to be destabilising at global level. He has us thinking that he’ll be a real threat to the existing fragile international peace between nuclear capable superpowers. He’ll make a gaff, or a wrong statement, commit some diplomatic faux pas, and China or Russia will push the red button.
The Mt Albert by-election is a good opportunity for the Greens to get their message out. It will essentially be a two-horse race between two capable candidates, the Greens Julie Ann Genter and Labour’s Jacinda Adern. Whoever wins, both will still be in Parliament, as both are now sitting party list MPs.
Yes, imitating a disabled person is a despicable act but if Meryl Streep was truly concerned about compassion, she should have talked about the devastation of war, extrajudicial killing, torture and drone strikes that murder and disable innocent civilians including women and children.
Not content to have the poorest New Zealanders face the biggest tax burdens and corrosive social problems our lowest income communities also face a plague of what can only be described as “parasites on poverty”.
Another year, another hike in the price of cigarettes.
Activists from many campaign groups united pledging material and physical solidarity to stop the ethnic and social cleansing of working class Glen Innes, built on Maori land to provide “homes for heroes” after the suffering of two world wars and the Depression.
I learned that Rogernomics had unlocked something ugly and selfish in older and younger middle class New Zealanders alike. In the minds of those 10,000 students – the people we would come to know as “Generation X” – a free tertiary education was simply their entitlement.
What we’re actually asking people to do is get involved in movements. If you want to fight for rent control, then join the housing movement. If you’re concerned about low pay, join a union. We’ll come and show you how to organise your workplace, how to fight back, get a big pay increase. These things are possible without politicians but it IS politics. Working class politics.