Modern Life : The Best of Times and the Worst of Times
2016, modern life. It’s a ‘Tale of Two Cities’. It’s ‘the best of times, and the worst of times’, a time of plenty for some, in a post-Dickensian dystopia, a Mad Maxian eco-apocalypse.
Setting the Agenda
Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
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EXCLUSIVE: An open invitation from Professor Jane Kelsey
Now is the time to get out there and be visible in your opposition. WE NEED YOU THERE TO FILL THE TOWN HALL and show the government and corporate beneficiaries we don’t want a bar of their TPPA!
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Let’s Not Lose Our Tempers: If John Key wants a riot outside Sky City – don’t give him one
I’m suspicious. Because John Key is not prone to making tactical blunders. Which raises the worrying possibility that the readily predictable consequences of his decision – mass protest action outside Sky City, with a high probability of violence and property damage – may be exactly what he wants to happen.
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First Otara, now Ashburton
The smiling assassin was back at her best yesterday with an incentivised plan to lure Samoan and Tongan families out of Auckland to places where those communities were supposedly growing and strong.
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Davos and the Future of Work
Currently, the World Economic Forum meeting is taking place in the Swiss alps. This annual march to Davos brings together individuals across the public and private sectors where these privileged few get to discuss the issues that affect all of us.
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Inequality kills
The Oxfam report says that just 62 people own as much wealth as the poorer half of the world’s population. This number has fallen from 388 five years ago. The wealth of those 62 people increased by 44% in those five years to US$1.76 trillion. The rich are certainly getting richer.
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Dumber and dumber, scarier and scarier
If the spectre of a neo-fascist demagogue ruling the most powerful nation on Earth – bristling with an arsenal of city-smashing atomic bombs and other advanced, lethal weapons – wasn’t chilling enough, the prospect of a political moron endorsing a billionaire clown-presidential-candidate would be like a Hollywood political satire.
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Not by “Bread And Butter” Alone: Making the case for a more inclusive Left
The past successes of the Left owe almost everything to honouring the emancipatory impulse, and its failures are almost all attributable to the fear generated by emancipation’s disruptive effects.
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Let There be Blood: Why we shouldn’t ban Real Social Dynamics at the border.
We should usher Real Social Dynamics in with a warm welcoming pussy riot.
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The man who sold the world
How could it be that the most comprehensive, far-sighted economic agreement the world has ever seen pose a threat to democracy? Here’s my take and I’d be interested to hear where I’m going wrong: