Socialist Aotearoa

In cities all over the world, people are mobilising in solidarity with those massacred by the State of Israel on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. In Auckland, groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, Global Peace and Justice Auckland, Unite on Campus and Socialist Aotearoa will be going hard over the next few days- postering, leafletting and signing people up to the Palestinian solidarity movement on stalls all over the city- outside mosques, on campus, on the main streets and in the workplaces. We need a huge march on Saturday. This is one massacre too many. Enough, Israel, enough. You have absolutely no fucking shame. Emergency meeting to organise- 7pm Tuesday 1st June at Unite Union, 6a Western Springs Road. Socialist Aotearoa will be doing stalls on Auckland campus and Queen Street theroughout the week- contact Joe for more info at 021 186 1450. Big protest this Saturday- meet at Aotea Square at 1pm. International outlaw – close the Israeli embassy! Global Peace and

Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the country's siege on Gaza. Up to 16 people were killed and dozens injured when troops stormed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, the Israeli Army Radio said. The flotilla was attacked in international waters, 65km off the Gaza coast. Source: Al Jazzera The responses by people around the world on Facebook pages shows some of the outrage that the world is feeling as Israel continues to regularly commit war crimes and crimes against humanity to maintain its bloody occupation on the West Bank and siege of Gaza. “The Israeli 'Defence Forces' have been bombing, shooting and torturing poor Palestinian people for decades so I guess we shouldn't be too suprised that they are now gunning down foreign aid workers and European MPs.” “Can they do that? I mean, they clearly just did. But surely it shouldn't be allowed? Someone should do something. But I bet they'll just get away with it as usua

On Thursday 27 March activists took to the windy streets of Wellington to tell TradeMe to stop allowing sales of Kwila. Here's a report from the NZPA and some images from frogblog . With the message 'Trade Me, not trade trees,' 15 activists today challenged auction website Trade Me to stop the sale of illegally-logged kwila on its site. The Indonesia Human Rights Committee, rainforest activists, and Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty met chief executive Jon McDonald outside his office with a letter -- the third since April. The committee has been lobbying to stop the trade of kwila, which it says comes illegally from dwindling forests in Papua New Guinea and West Papua for years. Spokeswoman Maire Leadbeater said progress had been made with The Warehouse, the BBQ Factory, and Harvey Norman boycotting kwila, but about 200 products, including decking timber and furniture, continued to be sold on Trade Me every day. "When kwila products are listed for sale on the internet

Download the brand new issue of Anti-Capitalist by Socialist Aotearoa. 250 copies were snapped up last night by a packed house at the "Is capitalism working?" debate at Auckland University. Kicks off with an article by John Pilger on the issues behind the economic crisis. Then your straight into a no-nonsense piece from the deep south on Operation Lime. A review of Young Sid's new album for a bit of culture and then onto the back page for a new take on tax reform and UK anarchist group Class War's infamous headline; "We have found new homes for the rich". Download the PDF here .

IS CAPITALISM WORKING? Unite on Campus and the AUSA International Affairs Officers host this debate, an ideological boxing match between New Zealand activists and personalities fighting over the question: “Is capitalism working?” Over the last few years the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has decimated housing markets, toppled international finance companies and seen Governments in the USA and across Europe try and rescue banks at the cost of trillions of dollars. American Vice President Joe Biden describes the bank bailouts as “socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor” and with general strikes and riots in Greece, the legitimacy of the free market system is in crisis. The attack on the bastions of wealth and privilege will be fronted by a red team consisting of Matt McCarten - left-wing Herald on Sunday columnist and National Secretary of Unite union. Mike Treen - Global Peace and Justice Auckland organiser. Maxine Gay - from the National Dis

Last month the police force carried out one of the largest drug raids in recent memory. It was dubbed ‘Operation Lime’. Over 250 people were arrested and around 750 charges have been laid for cannabis related offences. What was both unique and highly disturbing about this raid was its scale and timing. Homes and businesses were raided in every police district in the country. This shows that our militarized police force has the funding and manpower to carry out extensive operations, just to stop some people growing pot. The fact that the raids were carried out just days before this years ‘J Day’ protests (a yearly protest/celebration aiming at ending the prohibition of cannabis) shows that the police are acting in a highly politically motivated – and intimidating – manner. It is a danger for any so called ‘democracy’ to have a politicized police force… This takes the policy and debate out of the ballot box and parliament and gives it to armed thugs in the police force. The war on drugs

Bangkok is bathed in blood, yet again Giles Ji Ungpakorn, Thai Socialist Unconfirmed reports indicate that Abhisit's soldiers have shot dead at least 50 people do far. Hundreds are injured. They say there are 500 "terrorists" in the protest site. Earlier they said that they would use snipers to shoot "terrorists". The only terrorists are in the Government, the Army and the Palace. The tyrants say that the Red Shirts are all determined to overthrow the Monarchy and therefore it is justifiable to kill them. So having a Monarchy is an excuse to kill anyone who fights for Democracy and Social Justice. Various Government spokespeople, including Abhisit's academic-for-hire Panitan Wattanayagorn and Censorship Boss Satit Wongnongtuay, continue to lie and lie again, claiming that troops only fire in self defence. Yet all press reports show indiscriminate shooting of unarmed civilians including a 10 year old boy, a paramedic and foreign news reporters. Fa

The paper on which the Socialist Aotearoa forum at Victoria University, "Where is John Key taking New Zealand?" was based. John Key told us he was ambitious for New Zealand. He promised the country on the campaign trail in 2008 a lot. National, he said, would deliver tax cuts, higher wages, better economic performance, faster broadband and more roads, frugal public spending but good quality public services, cuts to the bureaucracy and education reform. He also said he’d get tough on crime in the wake of high profile killings of children and a growing feeling that youth gang violence was out of control. Key asked the questions that Labour could never answer. “Why, after eight years of Labour, are we paying the second-highest interest rates in the developed world? Why, under Labour, is the gap between our wages, and wages in Australia and other parts of the world, getting bigger and bigger? Why, under Labour, do we only get a tax cut in election year, when we really need

Richard Euchtritz, CEO of JB Hi Fi, gets paid $4 million per year. His company, JB HiFi, is set to make $150 million profit this year alone. Profits up 29%. New store opening in Palmerston North. But he hasn't given his workers a pay rise in three years, and has dismissed their demand for a pay rise as "Absurd". This Saturday, saddle up and join the Posse for a how down outside JB Hi Fi store. Yer all Deputies of the UNite Union now, neighbours ;) Expose this Corporate Cowboy! Date: Saturday, 15 May 2010 Time: 13:00 - 15:00 Location: Jb Hi Fi Store, Queen Street

South Auckland rapper Young Sid has just released his second album What Doesn’t Kill Me. The songs provide a gritty sequel to Smashproof’s The Weekend and provide the listener with new maps of the south Auckland underworld. In this review Omar Hamed argues that Young Sid’s songs should serve as a wakeup call to a New Zealand gradually growing used to pov erty, racism, crime and abuse. Young Sid’s new album, What Doesn’t Kill Me , is a view from ground zero of the post-industrial city. It’s the extended story of a young Polynesian male making his way as a hip-hop artist in South Auckland. Over the eleven tracks and five bonus tracks Young Sid, aka Sidney Diamond, meditates on life, death and human worth in South Auckland. What Doesn’t Kill Me is Sid’s second album, after his 2007 debut, The Truth , and comes a year after his band Smashproof released their album The Weekend and their hit single Brother spent a record eleven weeks at number one on the New Zealand RIAN

Noisy picket of JB Hi Fi in support of the low paid workers there who haven't had a pay rise in 3 years, whilst their CEO gets A$3 million, the company makes A$120 million profits, their April share dividend paid out 120% and they are expanding and opening new stores all over Australia and NZ. JB, come off it, with your greedy profits. Protests are due to spread to other stores across New Zealand and Australia next week. Workers in the Wellington branch have taken strike action three times. Intimidation in the Auckland stores of union members is rife, but numbers are holding strong. We need to give physical solidarity to these low paid workers in their fight for better pay against a colonial style management who calls a Living Wage "absurd".

Hundreds of thousands of Greek workers take to the streets of Athens as the country shuts down completely in a massive General Strike. This is how we can fight the crisis!

"Capitalism will never fall on its own. It will have to be pushed. The accumulation of capital will never cease. It will have to be stopped . The capitalist class will never willingly surrender its power. It will have to be dispossessed . ” - David Harvey. Watch the interview: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3