Socialist Aotearoa

At his most partisan, documentary maker Bryan Bruce congratulates Sweden on its treatment of children. The recent media circus over whether NZ On Air should scold problem child TV3 for their so-called political bias was a smokescreen, which largely missed the point, and was over as quickly as it started. Of course TV3 is politically biased, it is a privately owned television network, but in this case they showed uncommon objectivity. It's amazing the documentary Inside Child Poverty by Bryan Bruce on New Zealand's child poverty problem was aired at all. He must have been very persistent. So, some emails were leaked, and suddenly journalists (for want of a better word) start debating whether we need legislation to ban programming that criticises the government at election time. Yes, you heard right. Having gone through the motions of seeking legal advice after the fact, TV3 has been absolved. As if anyone expected anything else. So many things are wrong with this picture; firs

In Auckland around 300 people marched against the eviction of the Occupy Auckland camp on Saturday pulling down fences surrounding Aotea Square while in Oakland , California thousands of militants fought running street battles with riot police sustaining over 400 arrests. Socialist Aotearoa called the march on Saturday in solidarity with the nearly 30 arrested comrades. We also marched to draw attention to the continuing problem of homelessness in Auckland. For 104 days homeless people had an urban Ohu in Auckland but Len Brown destroyed that community. His centre-left council has forced them back under the bridges and into the parks. Len Brown is a Mayor for the rich. The police are the army of the 1%. The muddled politics, infighting and hardship of sustaining a canvas Ohu in Auckland were every bit as draining as the Jerusalem experience must have been for James K. Baxter up the Whanganui river. Yet his words are like a premonition of the idealism driving so many of the young Occu

“Everyone is driving eighty in a fifty zone, there is fucking rubbish in the street, fucking tagging, and that’s all because everything is slowly going to shit. People are pissed off, the young people don’t have jobs, they don’t know what they’re going to do in the future. They’re dropping out of school, they have no enthusiasm you know. So what do they do? They fucking trash shit, they’re tagging, they’re going wild. That is all indication that it’s not that great”. Ziva Radlovacki, singer of four piece Auckland punk band Nemamo Ime is however, not referring to Croatia or Serbia, countries mending from the immense social and economic cost of the war two decades ago, and where the four members immigrated from in the early to mid 1990s, but to New Zealand in the present day. “This is the thing, is that we actually came from that fucked up country because of the government and whatever the fuck happened then to here. And then, the same shit started coming. Really slowly, happ

Neither Tehran nor Washington, bring all the regimes down. Anyone who has been paying even the slightest attention to international relations recently will be aware that tensions between the US and Iran are increasing at an alarming rate. Those of us who wish to live in a safer and more humane world should be asking ourselves: “How can I help to prevent yet another bloody conflict in the Middle East?” Ironically the answer to this seemingly difficult question is surprisingly simple. However, in order for us to understand the solution, it is essential that we analyse the situation. I think we would all agree that the US and Iran are part of human civilisation. So what are the situations of the humans in these countries? Let us look at the faces behind the flags. Life is an uphill struggle against poverty, unemployment and low wages for the majority of people in Iran. In March 2010 the Iranian regime’s Supreme Labour Council set the monthly minimum wage for workers at 300,000 tomans (NZ$

Invasion day marchers in Canberra. Four years too long—time to scrap Intervention laws May, 2011 In July 2012, NT Intervention powers, such as compulsory 5-year leases and management powers over all assets and organisations within Aboriginal communities, will reach their sunset clause. Federal funding for smaller dispersed settlements known as Homelands, currently capped at $20 million, is also set to run out next year. The question, “What comes next?” has again thrown debate about the future of the NT Intervention into the national spotlight. Tony Abbott visited Alice Springs in May to call for a “second Intervention”. Julia Gillard is set to visit the Territory in June. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made Darwin her first stop on her recent Australian visit. The government had wanted to keep her away from the NT. Pillay’s NT visit was planned only after Dr Djiniyini Gondara, a senior Yolngu leader, lobbied her in Geneva to specifically pay attention on the In

Mass arrests at Occupy Auckland today as the police moved in to squash the protest camp. The second raid in four days, over 60 police and dozens of security guards have arrested 20 protesters. Many comrades are still in the cells as the state cracks down on the protest camp. They join the ranks of those arrested around the world from Wall Street to Barcelona and from Cairo to Santiago. Len Brown and the Auckland City Council show their true colours by smashing the protest of the 99%. As Egypt celebrates one year of their revolution, the tents of protest in Auckland are carted away by the army of the 1%. Occupy Auckland didn't have a permit to camp. Bouazizi didn't have a permit to sell fruit. Victory to the global revolution. You can't evict an idea. You can't kill a rebellion. we needed inspiration, to be awakened in our bodies, our lives made present here we are the world is not right, just or fair the most have the least the least have the most -Socialist Aotearoa

Revolution 2.0: Sunset for the military dictatorship. Millions return to Tahrir on the anniversary of the #Jan25 revolution against Mubarak. In Alexandria the revolution continues. A monument inscribed with the names of the martyrs. The bridges of Cairo are lined with people. Tahrir square at dusk. Kevin Coval - All the pharoahs must fall by Hossam El-Hamalawy A year on from the Egyptian Revolution: Socialist Worker editor reports from Tahrir Square Socialist Worker editor Judith Orr reports from Tahrir Square in Cairo on a day of protest and celebration, a year after the fall of Hosni Mubarak 11.20pm Today has seen a massive mobilisation in Cairo. And the news from Suez and Alexandria and other Egyptian cities is of huge demonstrations there too. This has been another historic day in a year of historic moments in Egypt. Scaf wanted a day that would be about the achievements of the revolution, which they think they can take credit for. They wanted everything to settle down and

Join the Connolly Club of Auckland as we look at the background events leading up to the Bloody Sunday massacre- the Orange State, the Civil Rights Movement, the autonomous zone of Free Derry, and the revolutionary wave that spread across the world in 1968 that led to a mass movement in the North of Ireland. 1pm till 5pm, Sunday 29 January @ Unite, 6a Western Springs Road, Kingsland - Discussion forum will be followed by a screening of the movie Bloody Sunday , starring James Nesbitt. Facebook event here .

Occupy Auckland on day 101 - still camping, still protesting. On day 101 they came in the morning. Dozens of police officers and private security guards. The identification numbers were the same on up to four of the officers. They cops were ready for a day of massive violence against the peaceful Occupy protesters. Since the election the Occupy protesters have been vilified by the right-wing, unloved by much of the vacillating left yet still scores of young (and old) activists have spent night after night holding the ground in Aotea Square and now Queen Street, Victoria Park and Albert Park. There are now two main types of Occupiers in Auckland City. The radical youth; many jobless, others studying, some workers whose minds were set on fire by the revolutions of 2011 and the Occupy Wall Street movement. They have consistently shown solidarity with those engaged in struggle, from the campaign against evictions in Glen Innes to attending last weeks mass meeting in support of the wharfie

All proceeds going to Auckland Action Against Poverty 's 2012 campaigns. Facebook event here .

99 days for the 99 percent : On this momentous day we will celebrate the 99th birthday of Occupy Auckland, Occupy New Zealand, Occupy Australia, and Occupy Together movements around the world. We march in solidarity with you all. Our causes should unite us, not divide us, they are many.

Sixteen year old activist Jazmine Heka from Whangarei has begun a campaign against child poverty and has launched a petition to up the pressure on the Government to implement free healthcare and free school lunches for children as well as bring in regular checks on rental homes. Inspired by the Inside Child Poverty documentary that screened just before the last election Jazmine has launched a movement, Children Against Poverty , because "Twenty-two per cent of kids in New Zealand live in poverty. I find it disgusting, it's not right. We're so rich in food, we have the resources to be able to care for our children. Every child deserves basic needs - food, a safe environment to live in, medical care." You can help the campaign by downloading Children Against Poverty's petition and collecting signatures.

120 activists pack Auckand Trades Hall to organise community solidarity with the Wharfies. Electric atmosphere on the Left, determination to fight and defeat the evils of privatization and casualisation. And as much as the bosses and right wing would love us to show the tactics and strategy discussed beforehand by the leadership of MUNZ (Gary Parsloe, Russell Mayne and Victor Billot), well, guess you'll see in the next few weeks ;)

19/01/2011 - Media release - MANA Movement “MANA supports wholeheartedly the rights of the wharfies who work for the Port of Auckland,” states MANA leader Hone Harawira. Harawira says, “Workers across the country need to wake up and smell the coffee - if the wharfies loose this fight then the casualisation of working hours will become a permanent feature of employment in this country. Everybody who earns a low to middle income job will have to wait by their phones for their boss to call to see if they are working or not, not knowing how many hours they will work and be paid for each week.” “As a country we should be doing our utmost to back our wharfies. Despite the efforts of National and the country's media to make this dispute about money, this is all about having reliable and stable employment. The workers want to know that they have a set number of hours per week. If it was about the money why would they only want to settle for a 2.5% pay rise when they are being offered 10%?&

the Jan 2012 edition of AntiCapitalist, focussing on the Wharfies fight on the Ports of Auckland, is available to read and print out HERE.

The wharfies of Aotearoa have a proud tradition of fighting for workers rights- from the heroic Jock Barnes and the Great Lockout of 1951 , to the murder of Christine Clarke on picket duty on the last day of the 20th Century. Embibed with a solid working class democratic culture, they hold monthly stop work all out meetings, monthly delegate meetings, and elect and strongly contest all positions within their union. They have a thorough internationalism, and take action in solidarity with comrades across the five continents. Their record of digging deep in solidarity with other workers in struggle in New Zealand is unsurpassed- recently they gave $6,000 to the locked out workers in the meat plant at Marton. Over the years, they have fought to maintain and strengthen their conditions, so that they can earn a decent crust to feed their families. Now they are facing the attacks of a CEO and a board who are largely the creation of Rodney Hide, and many of the directors who accuse