Turn up the heat

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Miners in Asturia, Spain block highways to protest austerity cuts.
We are being robbed: Student allowances cut. Prescription charges up. Hospitals and schools underfunded. Benefits under attack. Assets being sold under urgency. Workers' rights for sale. A secret bill of rights for multinational corporations being negotiated. Our natural resources pillaged and our environment polluted.

People are fed up: For the first time in ages National is slumping in the polls. Confidence in the Government is at its lowest level since National was elected in 2008. The tide has turned; less than half of those asked think this country is going in the right direction.

A world in struggle: 90,000 outraged students on the streets of Mexico City. 8000 angry miners fighting running battles with police in Spain. In Syria more towns are falling into the hands of the rebels. In Greece big hospital strikes have beaten further cuts and angry anti-fascist protests took the streets in a show of unity against Golden Dawn. In every country and on every continent are people resisting the rule of the bankers.

Turn up the heat: The National Government is under pressure but they will be hoping they can spin their way out of this slump. They'll be hoping to use their annual conference at SkyCity on the weekend of July 20-21 as a publicity blitz. Blame the beneficiaries and talk up the asset sales. Corrupt snouts in the trough of casino capitalism inside SkyCity's banquet halls. National's conference is a focus for the resistance. We should take the growing mood of anger there this Winter.

-Socialist Aotearoa

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